Chapter 1: The Strongest Traitor

Beyond the heavy double doors lay a cavernous interior of seemingly bottomless depth illuminated by artificial lights, lined with rows of massive storage racks that loomed like towering walls. Late at night inside the Large Warehouse, a sterile, hushed stillness filled the vast space.

Sitting atop an empty container tucked away in a corner of the warehouse was a tall, lean boy with an unruly cowlick. At long last, a handsome blond youth who belonged to the same platoon—Lloyd Alwin, a second-year Regular Course student in the Guardian Department—tracked him down.

“I was looking all over for you thinking we could grab a meal together for a change, and here you are. What are you doing in a place like this?”

“Hm? Oh, it’s you, Lloyd. Perfect timing. Look through these for me.”

So saying, the boy perched on the container—Kanata—handed over a bundled stack of more than a dozen sheets of paper.

“What are these?”

With every page Lloyd flipped through, his expression grew visibly grimmer.

“You can tell just by looking, can’t you? It’s a comparison chart between the item list—the supply inventory recorded in this warehouse’s ledgers—and the actual quantity of items I counted during my physical stocktaking.”

“You say ‘physical stocktaking’ as if it were the simplest thing in the world…”

Lloyd’s gaze drifted toward the rows of towering shelves stretching out under the artificial lights, so vast they created the illusion of continuing into infinity.

Taking inventory of every last rack here was a job that normally took ten Logistics Department students a full day of concerted work. At the very least, it was never meant to be something a single person could handle alone, and yet…

“Lately I’d been thinking the food rations listed in the ledgers didn’t match up with the actual stock on hand. Turns out a student from the Machina Department had picked the lock and snuck into the warehouse, so I roughed him up a little. Oh, and it looks like the purity of our Mithril—our Magic-Alchemy—has been dropping lately, so I lodged a complaint with the Industrial Department while I was at it.”

Kanata spoke in a breezy, matter-of-fact tone as though it were nothing worth mentioning.

He made it sound completely routine, yet in reality, it was anything but simple.

The food rations stored in this warehouse sustained the daily lives of every single resident in the city—the daily bread for all six thousand people. Even an outsider like Lloyd could easily surmise that pilfering a small amount here or there would never ordinarily be noticed.

“I don’t see any other warehouse staff around, though. Did you really inspect this entire mountain of items all by yourself?”

“Hm? Why are you asking something that obvious? No one’s gonna offer to help out a traitor like me, are they?”

“When being a loner suits you this well, it’s honestly impressive. Disposing of a workload this massive all by yourself without batting an eye… Come to think of it, there’s a rumor going around that you’re only helping out the Logistics Department as groundwork to transfer departments. Did you know that?”

“How would I know? Besides, who the heck spends half a year doing chores just to transfer departments?”

“Your actions are hard for the people around you to fathom, Kanata. Most of what you do comes completely out of left field, so everyone else is left scratching their heads. And what makes it even worse is that you have zero intention of making yourself understood.”

“Hm? What’s so bad about that?”

“Who knows? You tell me.”

Like the fact that you still won’t say a word about that accident, Lloyd thought. He knew Yuri wanted to rebuke Kanata for that very silence, yet Lloyd vaguely sensed that Kanata had his own reasons, so he kept the thought locked inside his chest.

“In my personal opinion, there are over seven thousand items stored in this warehouse. Compiling and managing a complete supply inventory list for every last one of them single-handedly is hardly the work of a sane man.”

“Hey, I’m plenty sane, thank you very much.”

“Then your definition of sanity must be out of its mind, Kanata.”

“Are you trying to pick a fight with me…?”

“Haha, just kidding. More importantly, let’s go grab dinner. Your treat, of course.”

“Hm? Why the heck do I have to treat you?”

“Consider it a finder’s fee for one of your few remaining friends coming all the way out here to track you down. Only natural, wouldn’t you say?”

＊＊＊

Humanity’s natural enemy, which had appeared out of nowhere—the Armored Insects.

According to historical records, they had begun emerging abruptly more than four centuries ago, yet their true nature remained unknown to this day, nor was there any clear answer as to why creatures that had undergone such monstrous evolution existed in the first place.

All anyone knew for certain was that against the Armored Insects—beings harboring an aberrant power of ruin known as Curse Power—humanity stood no chance with conventional weaponry. People were slaughtered in a one-sided massacre, driven from the earth, and culled toward extinction. Worse still, victims were not merely butchered; in a phenomenon that could be seen as either unimaginably cruel or strangely merciful, the very memory of anyone killed by an Armored Insect was wiped clean and stolen away from the minds of those around them.

At the brink of being eradicated from the surface, humanity mustered the last of its strength to create cities suspended in the heavens—the Floating Cities. They became the new earth in the sky where humankind survived, cities fusing magic and science into one.

Across the upper surface sat an entire metropolis looking as though it had been carved straight out of the ground, enclosed from the outside by a gigantic protective dome. Supporting each city from beneath was a colossal, jaggedly hewn Flight Stone shaped like an inverted triangular pyramid, encircled by a massive Torus crafted from Lunar Titanite—moon-magic metal—that rotated at a slow, unceasing pace.

Alongside the surface facilities where citizens lived, extensive underground complexes housing industrial plants of every kind allowed the populace to carry on virtually every economic activity once practiced on the ground while remaining afloat in midair.

And within these cities dwelled the guardians of the sky.

While the vast majority of humanity lost all memory of those slain by the Armored Insects, these guardians belonged to the tiny fraction of humans capable of remembering the dead.

Born with innate Magic Power, they were able to fight the Armored Insects in the flesh. Soaring freely across the boundless heavens, they were the humans capable of subjugating humanity’s natural enemy—the Wizards. They defended the populace from the scourge of humankind, wove forward the memories of fallen comrades, and bore the privilege and burden of continuing to grieve for them. Among them, Wizards who specialized in defending the citizenry were called Sky Wizards and were prized across every Floating City. Yet their numbers remained critically insufficient, prompting humanity to construct a specialized Floating City built around an educational institution dedicated to raising new Sky Wizards.

That city was the Academy Floating City Mistgun.

An educational institution specialized in training Sky Wizards to wage war against the Armored Insects.

Bathed in the morning sunlight streaming over the outer Dome Wall, Kanata stifled a yawn. Pinned to his collar was a badge engraved with the designation S128 alongside an emblem modeled after a wolf—a creature that had gone extinct in the distant past.

Perhaps because he had stayed up until the dead of night helping out the Logistics Department, even the relatively short walk from the Guardian Department’s Artemia Dormitory to the schoolhouse felt like a drag.

A month had passed since the start of the new academic year. At a time when the incoming freshmen around him had largely settled into campus life, Kanata trudged listlessly down a street lined with cobblestones and conifers. Just beyond the corner ahead, a figure came sprinting full tilt toward him—

“Gah!”

“Eh?!”

By the time he noticed, the figure already filled his entire field of vision. They collided with a heavy thud, sending Kanata sprawling onto his back and scraping his cowlick against the pavement with a solid whack.

“Ow, that hurts…”

“Hey! Watch where you’re going, will you?!”

Knocked flat on his back, Kanata grimaced through the throbbing ache and craned only his neck. Directly ahead in his line of sight was a girl with long, glossy crimson hair.

“Watch where I’m going…?”

The crimson-haired girl was straddling him. Worse yet, both of Kanata’s hands happened to be planted right beneath her chest, pushing upward slightly. He raised his gaze an inch. Their eyes met.

“…Uh, where am I looking, I wonder?”

“A-A-A-Are you trying to say I’m flat as a board?!”

“Eh? No… w-well, now that you mention it, I guess that’s true too.”

“Y-You’re the worst!”

“Hey, you’re the one who asked me first!”

The two mounds beneath his palms were still so faint that it had taken him a moment to even realize what he was touching. Even so, as a guy, he couldn’t help being conscious of it. Feeling awkward, Kanata tried to discreetly pull his hands away, only for the crimson-haired girl to violently slap them aside.

“G-Get off me already!”

Just as Kanata tried to sit up, the back of his head slammed into the cobblestones a second time with a loud crack. Utterly unreasonable.

“Seriously, where were you even looking?!”

Now standing over him, the girl was shorter than Kanata, and the cut of her uniform differed from his own Regular Course attire. She had to be a younger Preparatory Course student.

Even so, this feisty spitfire glared down at an upperclassman with undisguised belligerence.

“That’s my line. Where were you looking?”

Pushing himself upright, Kanata rubbed the still-throbbing back of his skull and shot back. He felt a strange sensation somewhere around his lower half, though the pain in the back of his head was far more pressing.

“Sh-Shut up! In the first place, if you hadn’t been dawdling around the corner like a snail…”

Fixing him with a sharp glare, the crimson-haired girl stared Kanata down.

Then, all of a sudden, something strange happened. Her fierce expression abruptly slackened, draining of all its bluster in the blink of an eye as shock and dismay washed across her face.

“…W-Wait a second, m-my toast is completely ruined! Ugh, and the side with the strawberry jam landed face-down…”

Following her gaze downward, Kanata saw that, just as the girl had pointed out, a soft, fluffy slice of white bread smeared generously with strawberry jam was plastered squarely across his crotch.

“…H-How are you going to take responsibility for this?!”

“Gah! Normally in a situation like this, shouldn’t you be the one taking responsibility for plastering strawberry jam onto a guy’s delicate area?!”

“What’s that supposed to mean?! At least have the decency to sympathize with how frantic I am after oversleeping and missing my morning practice! Give me back my toast right this instant!”

“…How the heck am I supposed to sympathize with that?! And quit pointing at such a compromising spot! People are gonna look at me funny!”

“What do you mean, a compromising spot? …Uwah!”

Her long, glossy crimson hair swayed sharply as she gasped and recoiled backward.

It was a natural reaction. The slice of bread stuck to Kanata’s groin had just peeled off and dropped to the ground, drawing her eyes straight to the front of his trousers—now stained bright red right over his fly.

“~~~! W-What kind of twisted nerve do you have?! Trying to gobble up my toast with s-such an indecent place…”

Yeah, there’s zero chance this girl’s gonna listen to a word I say. She’s playing the victim hook, line, and sinker.

Dealing with her was way too much of a hassle. Too listless to bother, Kanata had no intention of earnestly pleading his case to prove his innocence. In situations like this—

“S-Somebody! There’s a pervert right here…!”

Pulling herself together, the crimson-haired girl cried out to the passersby around them for help. Yet despite her plea, not a single person stepped forward. Puzzled, she whipped her head back around—only to find the jam-smeared slice of bread lying alone on the cobblestones. The boy had already vanished without a trace.

“Aw man, it really did leave a red stain.”

At an outdoor washbasin tucked away in a corner of the Training Grounds, Kanata had stripped off his trousers and stood in his boxer briefs, scrubbing the fabric under running water.

Just then, he sensed someone approaching on the far side of the washbasin. Glancing over, Kanata couldn’t help blinking in surprise.

She had immaculately kept, lustrous black hair and obsidian eyes that gleamed with a keen intelligence. Beneath her finely sculpted features and aristocratic bridge of her nose lay a voluptuous, alluring figure unmistakable even through her school uniform. She looked like a living sculpture shaped by a master artist who had poured his entire life into his craft—a goddess of a girl who could captivate anyone who laid eyes on her.

And at this very moment, that peerless beauty was staring transfixed at her own reflection in the windowpane of the nearby Locker Building, utterly entranced by herself.

A blissful smile even spilled from her lips, as if she were intoxicated by her own appearance. Leaning in so close that she looked ready to kiss her own reflection on the glass, she sighed in rapt admiration.

Witnessing such a bizarre spectacle firsthand, Kanata thought to himself, Man, I really, really don’t ever want to be friends with a weirdo like her.

Sensing Kanata’s gaze, the girl of breathtaking perfection turned and strolled toward him—

“What is it? Have you fallen under the spell of my beauty?”

“Nah, I was looking, sure, but anyone would stare if they saw someone acting that bizarre.”

“There is no need to be bashful. It is only natural to be captivated by my beauty. After all, a goddess like myself shines brilliantly at all times.”

“I literally just told you I’m not captivated.”

“Is that so? Which means, in other words, you are…—a stalker.”

“…How the heck do you jump to that conclusion?”

Replying in exasperation, Kanata inwardly confirmed that she really was a tragic waste of a pretty face.

“You’re a real weirdo, you know that…?”

“Hmph. It is only natural that an ordinary mortal like you cannot comprehend my actions. For I am the reincarnation of a goddess.”

With that, the self-proclaimed goddess flipped her hair back with the poise of a noble lady.

A soft, sweet fragrance drifted across the breeze. Meeting Kanata’s eyes, she curved her lips into a triumphant smile.

“—Stunning, am I not? However, do not fall in love with me. The only one permitted to fall in love with this beauty is myself.”

Beauty capable of ensnaring all creation. Personality aside, on pure looks alone, even Kanata felt his heart skip a slight beat.

“Uh… listen, if you’ve got time to get drunk on your own reflection, shouldn’t you be doing some physical training? Judging by that uniform, you’re a Preparatory Course student in the Guardian Department, right?”

“Hmph. I despise tiresome activities that make one break a sweat. Effort is something meant for ordinary mortals, is it not?”

Flipping her hair back once more, she murmured:

“Hmph. A goddess like myself is radiant again today.”

Crossing her arms and closing her eyes as if basking in her own loveliness, she exuded an aura of refined intellect and nobility as she stepped closer to Kanata.

“Do not fall in love with a goddess like me………… —Y-You pervert!”

Just as she opened her eyes to deliver her signature parting line right to his face, the words caught in her throat and turned into a shrill cry of denunciation.

She had finally noticed that Kanata wasn’t wearing trousers and was standing there in nothing but a pair of boxer briefs.

Apparently, because of the angle of the washbasin’s partition, his lower half had been hidden in shadow until she walked right up to him.

“N-No matter how extraordinary my beauty may be, to strip off your trousers on the spot…”

Visibly flustered, Rico lost every shred of her carefully cultivated aristocratic composure. Kanata, however, couldn’t care less about being seen in his underwear and replied without missing a beat.

“Nah, I already had them off before you got here.”

“I-If you claim otherwise, p-put your trousers on first! You shameless pervert! …Somebody, is anyone there?! T-There is a pervert right here!”

The very next instant, as Rico began shrieking at the top of the lungs, Kanata scooped up his sopping-wet trousers and bolted from the scene in a frantic hurry.

“What the heck is with today…? It’s like the whole universe is conspiring to turn me into a criminal.”

Having fled into the Locker Building beside the Training Grounds, Kanata stared glumly at his trousers, which were not only still faintly stained red, but now thoroughly drenched.

He had ducked inside through an open ground-floor window, and it looked like he had landed in a restroom. His nimble athleticism was partly muscle memory from his active days, and partly proof that human beings can tap into bottomless reserves of strength during a crisis.

“This is the worst. Not just once, but twice in a row…”

Still, as the saying goes, what happens twice is bound to happen a third time. Rattled by running into two consecutive oddballs first thing in the morning, his attention must have been scattered. He hadn’t paused to consider what kind of restroom he had just climbed into.

“Come to think of it, this bathroom sure has an awful lot of stalls.”

Even so, slipping into the Locker Building was a stroke of luck. Inside the facility were washing machines and dryers meant for cleaning soiled Aerial Combat Protective Suits. Planning to toss his trousers into a dryer, Kanata headed toward the exit leading to the laundry room.

Walking across the spotless white tiles toward the restroom door, Kanata was about to leave when he walked straight into his third unforeseen disaster of the morning.

“Umm…”

The restroom door swung open, and Kanata came face-to-face with a fair-skinned, blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl.

“What is it this time?!”

She had probably been in the middle of morning training, as she was dressed in a form-fitting Inner Suit. Already suffering from a mild case of gynophobia after his morning ordeal, Kanata barked at her almost defensively. After two straight disasters, there was no doubt in his mind that today was a cursed day and that any girl he crossed paths with was guaranteed to be trouble.

Yet unlike the two outrageous girls he had met earlier, this blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl seemed to possess a genuinely meek and gentle temperament.

Merely locking eyes with Kanata for a split second as she stepped through the door was enough to overwhelm her; she shrank back and stared down at the floor. Looking closer, she was much shorter than Kanata, peeking up at him through damp lashes as though she were on the verge of tears.

“Hm? What’s wrong?”

People said bad things came in threes, but this girl, at least, seemed normal. Kanata relaxed his guard and spoke more gently.

“…You have the wrong place.”

Keeping her eyes glued to the floor, the girl barely moved her lips.

“Hm? Wrong what?”

“…I mean, umm, er… this place is… the wrong one.”

Her lips moved again, but her voice was so tiny that he could barely catch it.

“…I’m saying, you’re in the wrong place.”

For some reason, her shoulders trembled in fright, her voice quavering as if she might burst into tears at any moment. She mumbled a few more words, but because she was staring down at her feet, Kanata couldn’t make them out.

“Look, I’m asking you what’s wrong about it.”

A hint of impatience crept into his voice. Instantly, the girl—already as petite as a woodland fairy—curled in on herself, trying to make herself even smaller. Her tiny hands clenched tightly around the hem of her form-fitting Inner Suit.

“…Umm, I-I’m so sorry! Er… this is…………”

With an exasperated sigh, Kanata waited for the girl to pull herself together. Unfortunately, she was standing squarely in front of the restroom doorway, blocking his only exit.

A long silence stretched between them. Finally, as if summoning every ounce of courage she possessed, the girl lifted her head and opened her mouth.

“…This is the girls’ restroom… It’s a place… for girls.”

Standing inside the girls’ restroom in his underwear, Kanata froze as the reality of the situation dawned on him. Staining her cheeks bright crimson with embarrassment, the blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl peeked timidly up from his exposed lower half to his face and asked:

“Umm… c-could it be that you’re a pervert-san?”

And thus, the fateful day of Kanata Age’s second year in the Regular Course began.

The Academy Floating City Mistgun.

While Wizards—who normally accounted for only one in ten people—made up ninety percent of this Floating City’s population, its total populace stood at roughly six thousand souls. Approximately ninety percent of its citizens were students, and whereas Wizards were a one-in-ten minority in other cities, here aboard Mistgun, ninety percent of the populace consisted of Wizards.

Founded upon the principle of student self-governance, the academy city operated on a six-year system comprising a three-year Preparatory Course and a three-year Regular Course, enrolling students between the ages of twelve and eighteen.

In total, the academy was divided into nine specialized departments—including the Guardian Department, which encompassed thirty percent of the city’s Wizards and waged battle against the Armored Insects; the Alchemist Department, which pursued magical engineering; and the Machina Department, which specialized in scientific inventions. Supreme decision-making authority rested with the Committee of Ten, composed of the nine Department Heads plus the Academy Director.

Among all nine departments, the students of the Guardian Department carried immense expectations—so much so that it was no exaggeration to say they held not only the fate of this city in their hands, but the fate of the entire world.

Gathering promising fledgling Sky Wizards from Floating Cities across the globe, the academy educated and forged them into the future guardians of mankind.

To fulfill that calling, they were expected to devote themselves to rigorous training day and night, and yet…

Delayed by the trouble of drying his trousers, Kanata arrived at school noticeably late, immediately drawing the attention of two girls conversing in the linoleum-floored hallway.

Their conversation cut off abruptly as both of them turned their eyes on him, shrouding that stretch of the corridor in a strange hush and palpable tension. The instant she spotted Kanata, hostility flared in the eyes of Yuri Flostre, a first-year Regular Course student in the Guardian Department.

“…As irresponsible as ever, I see. Fourth period is about to begin.”

Her voice was deliberately flat, laced with biting sarcasm.

She had sleek dark-navy hair and translucent emerald-blue eyes. Though not particularly tall, her poised features carried the refined air of a young lady from a noble house. In fact, she was attentive to others and well-liked by those around her—yet lately, whenever it came to Kanata, her hostility was utterly undisguised.

“Gah, is it that late already?”

Scratching the back of his head, Kanata replied as if it were no big deal, completely unfazed by the malice directed at him by a junior who had once looked up to him so admiringly.

“To think you can’t even keep track of time anymore—you really are a traitor, Senpai. A Guardian Department student who does nothing but run errands for the Logistics Department has no place at this academy.”

“Come on, are you still holding a grudge over that?”

“No, I have already stopped thinking about it. Even spending time thinking about you is a waste, Senpai.”

Despite her words, not a single day went by when Yuri didn’t think about what had happened. On the day of the crucial intra-academy ranking match that would crown Mistgun’s strongest platoon, Kanata had failed to show up without a word of explanation. Worse yet, he hadn’t participated in a single platoon activity since—even though, as members of the Royal Guard, they received special privileges and bore the full weight of everyone’s trust.

“Yeah, you’re definitely still holding a grudge.”

His nonchalant remark rubbed salt straight into the wound. Yuri tried desperately to suppress her emotions, but her frustration was plain for anyone to see. Flaring up, she took a step forward as if to grab Kanata by the collar—

“Now, now, Yuri. You shouldn’t lay into Kanata so hard.”

Just before she could reach him, Chloe stepped in to soothe her.

“I am not holding a grudge, nor am I laying into him. I merely stated the facts!”

“See? Acting like that is the exact definition of holding a grudge.”

At Kanata’s reply, Yuri fixed him with a piercing glare.

“Don’t glare at me like that. Didn’t you just say you stopped thinking about me?”

“…………Excuse me!”

Clenching her trembling fists at her sides, Yuri spun on her heel and marched briskly down the hall.

Watching her go was Chloe Sevegny—captain of Special Fireteam S128, the Royal Guard, bearer of the title Nirvana, the Princess of Annihilation, and a girl whose long black hair was tied back in a ponytail with a pale purple ribbon. Once Yuri was out of earshot, Chloe turned toward Kanata with a slight pout.

“You shouldn’t talk to her like that, Kanata. You know perfectly well it’s only going to make Yuri angry.”

“Honestly, I wouldn’t mind if she got even angrier…”

“? What do you mean by that?”

Kanata murmured the remark so casually that Chloe nearly missed it. Stepping directly into his path as he tried to stroll off toward the classroom, she looked straight into his eyes without blinking.

“Yuri’s never been good at control—managing her emotions—since way back. It’s healthier for her to vent and blow off steam every now and then.”

Scratching the back of his head as if it were a bother to explain, Kanata looked away.

“There you go saying such rough things again…”

“Yuri joined our squad because she looked up to me, so the shock probably hasn’t worn off yet. After all, she turned down invitations from plenty of other promising platoons just to enlist in Fireteam 128 back when we were still stuck in D-Rank. …Hm? What’s with that look, Chloe?”

“Then say that to her face from the start! Nobody can ever tell what you’re thinking, Kanata—even I started wondering if you were just picking on Yuri to be mean…”

Pouting sulkily, Chloe puffed out her cheeks and turned her head aside. Then, her expression suddenly grew solemn; lowering her lashes slightly, she spoke in a quiet voice.

“…About that accident—are you sure we shouldn’t explain the truth to Yuri? You were only shielding me, Kanata…”

“Getting injured in the middle of a mission just means the guy who got hurt didn’t have the strength to make it through unscathed.”

Kanata’s tone showed no particular concern. Then, with his usual carefree shrug, he added:

“Whether you’re in the Guardian Department or the Logistics Department, giving everything you’ve got to protect the people of this city doesn’t change. Though sure, if I could protect them with my own two hands, I’d rather do that.”

Flashing a brief, fearless grin as if stating the most obvious thing in the world, Kanata left it at that. Faced with his stubborn code, Chloe could only offer a slightly wistful smile.

“Even so, I still feel responsible for what happened. That’s why I brought some good news for you today, Kanata.”

“…Good news?”

“Yep. Right now you’re helping out the Logistics Department, but I figured I’d entrust you with a role that suits you best.”

“That’s an awfully suspicious way of phrasing it. What’s this ‘role that suits me best’?”

“It’s still a secret for now. Just promise me you’ll come with me to the Guardian Leader’s Office during lunch break today, okay?”

At that exact moment, the bell signaling the start of fourth-period aerodynamics rang out through the corridor, sending the two of them hurrying toward their classroom.

Because classes in the Guardian Department required mandatory physical conditioning on top of general education subjects and specialized tactical coursework, students were expected to hone their skills day and night.

Not only in the Guardian Department, but across all departments, morning classes in the lower grades focused primarily on general education, with the ratio of specialized coursework increasing as students advanced in grade. Meanwhile, the afternoons were dedicated to practical field exercises.

When lunch break arrived at the academy where hundreds of students competed and trained together, most of the student body streamed toward the cafeteria on the first floor of the schoolhouse. Kanata, however, was being dragged along by the sleeve by Chloe, a sour grimace plastered across his face.

“You know I hate stiff, stuffy places like this.”

“Stop complaining and come along. You haven’t done anything to feel guilty about.”

Before long, they arrived in front of the door to the Guardian Leader’s Office, and Chloe gave two polite knocks.

“Excuse us.”

Following Chloe as she stepped inside, Kanata trailed into the room.

Inside stood a heavy desk piled high with stacks of documents concerning the administration of the Guardian Department. Seated behind it was Freon Flamel, the Guardian Leader—a girl with long black hair, a voluptuous figure evident even beneath her uniform, and a beauty mark right below her left eye.

“So you’re Kanata Age. For a traitor, you certainly have some nerve showing your face in front of me so brazenly.”

Maintaining a brisk, unsentimental expression, Freon greeted him with biting candor, but Kanata replied in his usual unbothered drawl without batting an eye.

“Hey, I only came because I was summoned… Honestly, I didn’t even wanna come here.”

“…………W-Well, I didn’t call you here today just to lecture you. Take this letter of appointment.”

Stepping forward as instructed, Kanata accepted the papers from Freon. The first sheet listed the title and details of his new post, while the second was an index for the thick binder resting atop Freon’s desk.

“Issued supplies, an attendance roster…? Plus performance evaluation sheets and all that…? Wait, my new post is Expert—Sky Wizard Instructor? …Are you seriously telling me to be an instructor?”

Furrowing his brow in distaste, Kanata couldn’t help asking.

“Precisely. Starting this afternoon, you are to devote all of your practical training hours to instruction. Your Platoon Leader has already approved this assignment. …The platoon you will be taking charge of is Fireteam E601. It’s a squad cobbled together from the leftover scraps of platoons that dissolved mid-term due to member trades or internal splits. Their record is dismal: one month into the ranking matches, they are currently on a ten-match losing streak. They’re a band of dropouts mockingly referred to as an ‘F-Rank Platoon.’ I expect it will entail considerable trouble, but you are to train these students in accordance with our academy’s founding objective: ‘To cultivate Sky Wizards possessing the absolute strength to fight the Armored Insects.’ That is all.”

As Kanata listened to the appointment order, his expression grew visibly darker by the second.

“…Me, an instructor? Even back when I was on active duty, everyone called me a one-man army and a solo glory hound, remember? There’s no way I’m cut out for teaching.”

Then, letting out a long, exaggerated sigh brimming with reluctance, he asked:

“Can I pass on this offer?”

“…That’s what he says, Chloe.”

Ignoring Kanata’s disgruntled face, Freon turned straight to Chloe. Wearing a poised, earnest expression, Chloe immediately moved to persuade him.

“It’s true that people used to say you only cared about solo plays and one-man charges, Kanata, but I know how well you always looked after your teammates.”

As she spoke, she beamed with an angelic smile. Completely disarmed, Kanata asked flatly:

“Yeah? Like when?”

“Like how you used to call out to Yuri—our fellow vanguard—after regular practice ended to spar with her one-on-one, or how you always helped Lloyd with the platoon’s administrative paperwork.”

“Even so, it doesn’t have to be me, does it? There are plenty of other capable instructors in the Guardian Department, right?”

“A full month has already passed since this year’s intra-academy ranking match season started, so all the top instructors have their hands full. That’s why the request came to us—last year’s champion platoon—since we’re exempt from competing in the regular league this year. They asked if one of us could step in as a coach.”

“Then it still doesn’t need to be me. Have Chloe do it as Platoon Leader, or put Vice-Captain Yuri on it.”

“No can do. As captain of the Special Fireteam, I’m swamped with duties, and like you pointed out earlier, Yuri’s emotional control is still uneven. And more than anything—personally, I really wanted you to be the one to do this, Kanata.”

“What do you mean, ‘more than anything’?”

“Because even now, you’re still working desperately behind the scenes for the sake of the Guardian Department, aren’t you? Lloyd mentioned spotting you the other night, and I’ve seen you helping out the Logistics Department too. And your real reason for doing all that is—”

“Alright, alright, I get it! Man, what a pain. I’m only gonna look through the file for now, got it?”

Freon felt somewhat left out of the loop as the two exchanged words only they seemed to understand, though whatever Chloe said had clearly hit home. Kanata reached over and flipped open the thick binder on Freon’s desk to inspect the squad roster.

Instantly, Kanata’s face twisted into an Ugh.

“What’s wrong, Kanata? Is there some sort of problem?”

“Nah, just… call it a personal complication.”

Reeling slightly from the shock, Kanata tore his eyes away from the member roster and silently paged through the rest of the thick dossier.

Fireteam E601 wasn’t merely weak. They were catastrophically weak.

Despite a full month having passed since the start of the new term, they had suffered ten straight defeats in the E-Rank league of the intra-academy ranking matches.

Ranking matches were mock platoon battles conducted under the assumption of live combat against Armored Insects. Losing ten times in a row at the very bottom of E-Rank meant that if, by some chance, these girls were ever thrown into actual combat against Armored Insects, their odds of making it back alive were—vanishingly slim.

Tucking the thick binder crammed with records under his arm, Kanata abruptly turned toward the office door.

“—Where are you going all of a sudden, Kanata Age?”

“Where else? To the Fireteam E601 Platoon Room, obviously. I’m still not thrilled about this, but technically I’m their instructor now. …Well, whether I stick with it after today depends on how they look when I check ’em out.”

Tossing that remark over his shoulder without looking back, Kanata strolled out of the office. Once the door clicked shut behind him, Freon couldn’t help turning to Chloe.

“What an elusive, slippery guy. Kanata made his name as our former ace through sheer solo heroics—are you truly sure it’s wise to make someone that self-centered an instructor?”

“He’ll be fine. Kanata may act carefree, but he has strong convictions where it counts, and he’s never been the kind of person who can turn his back on someone in trouble.”

Then, as his childhood friend, Chloe shared a small glimpse into Kanata’s past.

“Long ago, back when we lived in Ryun—we were only seven at the time—I was a hopeless dropout who couldn’t get the hang of Flight Magecraft no matter how hard I tried. Kanata was the one who stayed by my side and practiced with me until the very end. When it comes to aerial combat, he would never cut corners.”

“Well, if you vouch for him that strongly, I have nothing more to say. Still, as the Guardian Leader, the responsibility for appointing him ultimately falls on me.”

Leaving aside Chloe’s curious confidence in him, Freon couldn’t help feeling a lingering twinge of unease at placing an unreadable, freewheeling wildcard like Kanata in charge of those girls.

＊＊＊

“W-Why the heck are you here?!”

Lunch break had ended, giving way to afternoon classes—practical combat training.

While the other departments poured their energy into municipal administration and productive industries, the Guardian Department alone received their full backing so its students could devote themselves entirely to combat training.

Whether it was the Alchemist Department inscribing magical formulas through arrays of the twenty-five Rune characters to manufacture Mithril armaments, or the Industrial Department developing more nutritious, high-efficiency food rations, every effort existed to support the Guardian Department.

That was just how vital the Guardian Department was—and how heavily the city’s hopes rested upon its shoulders.

As Kanata walked over to the Platoon Building erected separately from the main schoolhouse, he passed numerous Guardian students clad in their Protectors—Aerial Combat Protective Suits. Laughing and chatting like ordinary teenagers, they gave off none of the grim tension of a battlefield, yet what the world demanded of them was the ruthless skill to slaughter humanity’s natural enemy.

To train such promising young talents, Kanata pushed open the door to the Fireteam E601 Platoon Room—only to be greeted right off the bat as a pervert. Still, since he had already grimaced and braced himself for that exact reality back in Freon’s office, he didn’t bat an eye.

“My name’s Kanata Age. Starting today, I’ve been assigned here as your instructor. Second-year Regular Course in the Guardian Department, seventeen years old. Nice to meet you.”

“W-Why the heck is a pervert who smears strawberry jam all over his crotch our instructor?!”

“Hmph, you are mistaken. This man did not smear strawberry jam upon his groin. He stripped off his trousers at the drinking fountain in order to assault me and was on the verge of assuming his Beast Mode—his Pervert Beast Form.”

“U-Umm… w-when I met him earlier, he was in the girls’ restroom, er…”

His first impression couldn’t have been worse. After all, the three girls standing before him were the very same three girls he had run into in the worst possible ways that morning.

Yet Kanata, who had already seen their names on the roster, remained completely unperturbed and spoke nonchalantly.

“Well, don’t sweat the small stuff. More importantly, let’s get introductions out of the way and move things along.”

“Move what along?! Do you seriously have any intention of instructing us?! You probably didn’t even bother reading our files and only volunteered to be our instructor out of pure lechery!”

Snapping at him was the girl with long, glossy crimson hair. Without so much as glancing at the binder in his hand, Kanata looked her straight in the eye and replied:

“Pipe down, Strawberry Jam. Your name’s… Misora Whitale, right? Guardian Department, second-year Preparatory Course, age fourteen. I only skimmed your file, but on last year’s final evaluation sheet, your classroom grade was a D and your practical exam grade was an E. Under the remarks for your vanguard swordsmanship exam, it literally says ‘Voluntary withdrawal recommended’… Hey, do you even train properly? How are you serving as Platoon Leader with grades like this… seriously?”

“Ugh… Sh-Shut up! My true strength can’t be measured by some stupid practical exam! I-It’s true… I’m telling you it’s true! …Hey, quit looking at me with those skeptical eyes! —Ugh, I-I told you to stop staring at me!”

Fixed under Kanata’s unblinking gaze, Misora flushed crimson—equal parts indignant and mortified—and tried to glare back up at him through lowered lashes… before her nerve gave out completely.

Scoring an E on the practical exam meant that, at best, she could barely hold her own against a single small-class Armored Insect.

Just as Kanata was about to probe a little deeper into why her performance was so abysmal, the girl of captivating, peerless beauty cut into the conversation.

“Hmph. Misora is small fry, so that level of ability is only to be expected of her. She lives in an entirely different world from a goddess like myself. Though being silenced by an outdoor-exhibitionist pervert is beyond pathetic. Ah, just to be thorough, allow me to state my name: I am—”

“Yeah, I know. Once somebody meets a Rico Flamel, there’s zero chance they’re ever forgetting that name. Like Misora, you’re a second-year Preparatory Course student in the Guardian Department, fourteen years old. Straight A’s in all your classroom subjects—no, wait… docked special penalty points for refusing to turn in homework, bringing you down to A-minuses across the board. And your practical exam grade is an F-minus, right? Come to think of it, what the heck does an F-minus even mean? Even a hundred and thirty-four straight losses still gets you an E…”

“An F-minus? …Ah, you mean the practical exam.”

Giving an airy snort, Rico flipped her hair back like a highborn lady.

“My hair refused to cooperate that morning, so I simply did not attend. Though of course, it would be impossible for a practical exam graded by mere mortals to measure the true power of a goddess like myself anyway.”

Even when Kanata stared hard at her, unlike Misora, Rico showed not the slightest hint of embarrassment. She genuinely seemed to believe deep in her bones that for mere humans to evaluate a goddess like her was the height of audacity.

“…Wait a second, Rico, do you know this guy too?”

“After a fashion. However, just like you, I have no close acquaintance with him—nor any desire to form one. This man exposes his lower half in public first thing in the morning.”

Keeping her eyes closed and her arms folded across her chest, Rico answered bluntly without sparing Misora a glance.

Because Fireteam E601 had been cobbled together from the leftovers of disbanded squads, it seemed that, true to Rico’s words, the girls barely had any rapport with one another.

Finally, Kanata shifted his gaze to the petite blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl who had been waiting nervously on pins and needles for her turn.

“And last up, Lecty Eisenach. Also a second-year Preparatory Course student in the Guardian Department, age fourteen. …Your grades are a real mess too, huh? Your academic scores are right around Misora’s level, and from a quick glance at your practical exam records, you keep alternating between wins and losses against the exact same opponents with zero consistency. The only normal document in your entire file was your admission statement of purpose. Hey, are you slacking off during practical exams or something?”

“N-No, I just couldn’t get into my rhythm… umm, I-I’m so sorry!”

Unable to meet Kanata’s eyes, Lecty bowed her head in a frantic, jerky motion like a lamb trembling before a wolf. Worse yet, she bowed with so much force that she slammed her forehead straight into the desk with a loud whack, clutching the bruised spot with both hands as tears welled up in the corners of her eyes.

Three girls, three completely different flavors of hopeless. Until he actually took them outside and put them through their paces, he wouldn’t know their true capabilities—but on paper, at least, he could already see why everyone mocked them as an F-Rank Platoon.

Even so, determined to measure their actual skills rather than judging them solely by their files, Kanata moved briskly to take them out to the field.

“Alright, now that introductions are out of the way, let’s head up into the sky and start practical training—”

“—Hold it right there!”

Misora cut him off sharply, her voice bristling with indignation.

“There’s no way I’m acknowledging a pervert like you as our instructor!”

“Hey, I properly read through your files and memorized every word, didn’t I?”

“Y-Y-You only memorized them so desperately because you were lusting after our bodies, didn’t you?!”

“I’ve got zero interest in a brat’s body. Besides, quit calling me ‘you’—call me Instructor, or at least use my name. I’ve got a proper name, Kanata Age.”

“~~~~~~~!”

Pouting fiercely, Misora fumed and tried to think of a comeback to drive him out, but the right words wouldn’t come. Just as she opened her mouth to snap back, a sudden realization snagged in the back of her mind.

“…Wait a minute. Kanata Age… I’ve heard that name somewhere before.”

Muttering his name under her breath a few times, Misora gasped in realization and shoved her chair back with a loud clatter.

“—Wait, could you be that traitor, Kanata Age?!”

“Umm… d-do you know him, Misora-san?”

Rico’s eyes widened slightly in recognition as well, while Lecty alone tilted her head in bewildered confusion.

“‘Know him’ doesn’t even begin to cover it! He’s the former ace of Special Fireteam S128, the Royal Guard! Despite being given the title Chronos, the Black Master Swordsman, he’s been completely ditching all his special missions!”

“Hmm. Now that you mention it, I too have heard the rumors of the man who skipped out on the ranking match that decided his squad’s promotion to S-Rank, and who refuses to participate in missions or training despite belonging to the Royal Guard. Word has it that ever since he suffered an accident during a mission, he turned into a spineless coward.”

“That’s right! So why the heck would a traitor like you show up out of nowhere to be our instructor now?!”

Misora thrust an accusing finger straight at his nose. Under normal circumstances, such insubordination would never be tolerated—an instructor would put his foot down firmly and establish the chain of command right then and there. Instead:

“Take your complaints to the Guardian Leader. I was only asked to come coach you guys.”

At his breezy reply, Misora ground her teeth and glared at Kanata fiercely enough to bore holes through him.

“Besides, I’m actually pretty interested in you guys myself.”

“See?! You really are looking at us with dirty ulterior motives!”

“Wrong. How many times do I have to tell you I’m not interested in brats?”

“Then who the heck was the one pulling perverted stunts on us brats all morning?!”

Letting Misora’s tirade roll right off his back, Kanata faced his three students with a suddenly serious expression.

“You guys haven’t won a single match in the E-Rank platoon ranking league, right? Ten matches played, ten losses. That’s a pretty dismal record—doesn’t losing like that frustrate you?”

“D-Don’t make fun of us!”

At his blatant provocation, Misora’s face twitched in anger. Unfortunately, none of the three girls possessed the composure to see through such an obvious taunt…

“I’m not making fun of you. I’m just asking if it frustrates you. Are you guys actually putting in the effort?”

“Of course it’s frustrating! I’m chomping at the bit to become a full-fledged Sky Wizard as fast as I can… What’s with that tone of voice?! You’re making it sound like we’ve been slacking off!”

“Indeed, your remark is wholly inappropriate. I have been hailed since early childhood as the reincarnation of a goddess. My ability is hardly so lacking that I require the sort of effort practiced by ordinary mortals.”

“I-I haven’t… I haven’t been slacking off in my effort either!”

Huh. It might be rude to call it surprising, but it looks like they actually do have some fire in them.

Looking across his three students—Misora, Rico, and Lecty—Kanata spoke up.

“Listen. None of you are satisfied with where you are right now, and you want to get stronger and stronger, right? Are you prepared to go through whatever hardship it takes to get there?”

“Of course I am! What I’m aiming to become is a Sky Wizard—a guardian of the Floating City! Protecting people’s lives is our duty, so doing everything in our power to gain the strength to protect them is only natural!”

“I see. Well, that works out great, then.”

Suddenly, the corners of Kanata’s mouth curved upward into a fearless grin. Misora, who had been glaring daggers at him, flinched despite herself.

“W-What works out great?!”

“It means since you’ve got the drive, I’m gonna train you starting right now. Come on, just picture it—you guys crushing platoons stronger than yours and stealing the spotlight against the Armored Insects. Once you reach that point, nobody’s ever gonna call you an ‘F-Rank Platoon’ again.”

He kept his tone light and conversational, yet his eyes weren’t smiling.

To see whether they truly had the resolve and the room to grow, he first needed to put Misora and the others to the test.

“Even so, taking instruction from a traitor like you…”

“Who cares if I’m a traitor? Or what—are you trying to set up an excuse in advance so that if you fail to get stronger, you can blame it on having a traitor for a coach?”

“As if! No matter who the instructor is, what matters most for getting stronger is a person’s own willpower to improve! I don’t expect a single thing from your coaching!”

“Still, Misora, you know how I used to move back when I was on active duty, right?”

“Well, sure, I’ve watched you fight plenty of times… What about it?”

“Then wouldn’t you want to take my training if it meant gaining the exact same strength I had back then? You know firsthand what I could do, don’t you?”

“N-No way! Me, gaining power equal to Chronos, the Black Master Swordsman, even if he is a traitor?! …Wait, no, no, no! I’m not falling for sweet talk like that! You’re just gonna turn around and say ‘individual results may vary’ anyway, aren’t you?!”

“Huh?! You seriously don’t want it? This might be the only chance you’ll ever get in your entire life to become strong, you know. Sure, it’s training, so individual results vary, but giving up without even trying when a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity is sitting right in front of you… isn’t that a massive waste?”

“B-But gaining the same strength as y-you…”

Honestly—she wanted it so badly she could taste it. Yet the guy offering it was a notorious traitor; could she really trust him that easily…? Misora wavered. Reading her hesitation like an open book, Kanata pressed on:

“Aw man, what a waste. If I were in your shoes, I’d jump at the chance in a heartbeat. Think about it: by swallowing your pride for a little while, you might actually become strong. As a student of the Guardian Department—and above all, as a future Sky Wizard—which choice you ought to make seems pretty darn obvious to me.”

Presented with such a blatant ultimatum when she was already desperate to grow stronger, Misora caved.

“…I-If it’s just once, I-I suppose I can let you coach me!”

Without thinking, she agreed to accept the traitor’s instruction. At that exact moment, however—

“Misora may consent, but I object.”

“H-Hey! Why are you objecting to my decision when I’m the Platoon Leader?!”

“Hm, Rico, right? Why are you against it?”

Flipping her hair back with her signature aristocratic poise, Rico replied:

“Hmph, just imagine it. Leaving aside an ordinary mortal like Misora, why must a born goddess like myself engage in sweaty, grueling effort? There is no reason on earth I would subject myself to something as tiresome as physical training. Fatigue is terrible for the complexion.”

“R-Ricoooo~! Y-You… cut the crap already! It’s because you always take that attitude that our squad never produces any results!”

“Hmph. The only ones failing to produce results are you and Lecty. You are well aware of the caliber of my sniping skill. Frankly, as a long-range support specialist, I perform my role to perfection.”

“F-Firing a couple of halfhearted covering shots whenever the mood strikes you is your idea of perfection?! Don’t talk big until you actually shoot down an enemy instead of just potshotting from the back!”

“Good grief. When the vanguard is an utter shambles, how could a rearguard possibly be expected to land decisive sniping shots from afar?”

“Grrrrr—! Step out into the hallway right now!”

“There. I have stepped out a little.”

Rising gracefully from her chair, Rico extended a single foot half a step across the threshold into the corridor, openly mocking Misora. Enraged, Misora started hollering at the top of her lungs, while Rico remained cool and unruffled.

The air crackled with volatile tension, a full-blown brawl ready to erupt at any second. Alright then, what’s our third member, Lecty, gonna do in a situation like this? Observing her out of the corner of his eye, Kanata saw Lecty fidgeting timidly, looking back and forth between the two in a fluster… and doing nothing else. She looked frantic, yet she fatally lacked the nerve to step in. Left with no choice, Kanata intervened in the quarrel himself.

“Hey, Rico. Your practical exam grade was an F-minus, right?”

“And what of it? Practical exams are wholly unnecessary for me, so that grade is only the natural outcome.”

Having already picked up on Rico’s absolute pride—goddess or whatever she called herself, the girl genuinely equated herself with a deity—Kanata put on a show of exaggerated surprise.

“Wait, seriously? Thing is, since I’ve never actually seen you do anything impressive, at this rate I’m gonna have to spend the rest of my life assuming you’re even more hopeless than Misora. You cool with that?”

“You would rank me below this creature…?”

Unable to let that slide, Rico pointed straight at Misora. Inside her head, the words below Misora reverberated like a haunting echo.

“H-Hey! Don’t point at your own teammate and call her ‘this creature’!”

“How utterly offensive. I possess true ability fully worthy of my peerless beauty.”

“Yeah, well, goddess or whatever you claim to be, if you can’t even get graded once on a human-level exam, your ability registers as ‘unmeasurable.’ You can dress that up by calling yourself an ‘unknown quantity,’ sure, but can you actually prove you’ve got skill? Anyone can talk a big game.”

“I am no mere braggart. I simply choose not to display my full power. Working up a sweat is tiresome, after all.”

“Gotcha. —Then prove your skill to me in training right now.”

Pinned beneath the sudden sharpness in Kanata’s eyes, Rico faltered for a brief moment before lifting her chin.

“Hmph. Though it goes against my wishes… just this once, I shall grant you a demonstration of my peerless talent.”

And with that, she reluctantly agreed to participate in the traitor’s training session.

Finally, Kanata shifted his gaze to Lecty, who had been watching the entire exchange in anxious suspense.

“Alright, last up is Lecty. What about you?”

“Umm… w-we’re talking about whether or not I’ll participate in training, right?”

Blushing furiously all of a sudden, Lecty stared down at her shoes and fidgeted with her fingers.

“Come on, Lecty! Haven’t I always told you to speak up in a clear voice and look the other person in the eye when you talk?!”

“…Umm, I-I’m so sorry! (Whack!)”

Scolded by Misora, Lecty bobbed into a panicked bow and once again slammed her forehead straight into the desk. Rubbing the red bump swelling on her brow, Lecty had tears glistening in her eyes.

“Hm? Do you not want to join my training either, Lecty?”

“N-No, that’s not it! U-Umm, the ‘I’m sorry’ I just said was meant for Misora-san, not you, Kanata-san…”

Still unable to meet Kanata’s eyes, Lecty immediately ducked her head and squirmed in place.

“Come on, if you have something to say, say it clearly! Are you doing it or not—which is it?”

Misora followed up with earnest strictness. Just as in her exchange with Rico earlier, Misora seemed to be a stickler for rules and discipline.

“…I-I’ll do it! P-Please let me participate in your training, Kanata-san!”

Keeping her head lowered, Lecty squeaked out her answer in a voice slightly louder and higher-pitched than before.

And so, Misora and her two squadmates came to receive instruction under Kanata.

The Academy Floating City Mistgun cruised at an altitude of roughly 3,000 meters. Flying any higher than the city’s permitted ceiling inside city airspace was strictly prohibited, as doing so would severely disrupt the main power reactor.

Yet a thousand meters above Mistgun—at an altitude of 4,000 meters in the Third Training Airspace—hovered Misora and her squadmates. Their feet rested on neither solid ground nor any mechanical platform. Clad in their Protectors, all three girls were suspended in midair through Flight Magecraft, the mandatory continuous-deployment spell required of every student in the Guardian Department.

Stretching out around them was an endless expanse of azure sky dotted with banks of white clouds at the horizon, neighboring training sectors where other students practiced formation flight, and, far below their feet, the city of Mistgun they had just departed. Though not quite as tiny as grains of rice, the buildings below looked miniature from this height.

“Come to think of it… why are you using a Broom?”

Clad in her Protector, Misora tilted her head and asked. Among the four figures hovering in midair, Kanata alone was riding a jet-black, surfboard-like board crafted from processed Floating Stone.

Known as a Broom, the flight auxiliary device was ordinarily used by incoming freshmen for basic flight practice or by couriers conserving Magic Power on long-distance flights.

“Hm? Oh, I’m just used to riding this thing.”

“Deliberately refusing to use Flight Magecraft and riding a clunky flight aid with inferior maneuverability… Hah! …Don’t tell me Mr. Former Ace thinks dealing with the likes of us isn’t even worth casting Flight Magecraft?!”

Misora’s voice had a sharp, prickly edge. Kanata, however, paid her hostility no mind whatsoever.

“There’s no deep meaning behind it. Though honestly, with the gap in skill between me and you guys, I can beat you just fine without using Flight Magecraft.”

“~~~~~~!”

Anger boiled up inside Misora’s chest, but she forced it down and cut to the heart of the matter.

“…S-So what kind of training are we doing today, anyway?! It had better be real training that’ll actually make us stronger!”

“Oh, right, come to think of it, I haven’t told you what we’re doing yet…”

Scratching his head sheepishly, Kanata announced without missing a beat:

“Today’s training is—a game of tag.”

“““T-Tag…?!”””

All three girls blurted out the word in unison.

Wait, is a game of tag really okay?! How is playing tag supposed to make us stronger?!

Doubt was written all over their faces, yet Kanata remained as breezy as ever.

“? What are you guys acting so shocked for? You must’ve played aerial tag a hundred times during Flight Magecraft drills in your first year of the Preparatory Course.”

“Th-That’s not what I mean! Why would you—a former ace—come all the way out here just to put us through such a low-level beginner’s drill?!”

“Indeed. To subject me to such a vulgar, elementary exercise in order to test my ability… Are you mocking me?”

“Umm… p-please train us properly!”

“I am training you properly… Hmm………… Oh, right, I forgot to mention one little detail.”

Looking at the three girls, Kanata nodded to himself and added nonchalantly:

“You’re free to attack me mercilessly with live Mithril armaments, and the moment you manage to shoot me down, training’s over. …Alright, with that settled, training starts now.”

Dropping that bombshell as casually as commenting on the weather, Kanata kicked off at once, maneuvering his Broom to put distance between himself and the three girls.

Misora and the others had no way of knowing that Kanata’s personal Broom—affectionately christened Black Hawk—had been heavily customized to put out three times the speed of a standard Broom… Completely oblivious to that fact, the girls stood dumbfounded for a moment before snapping out of their daze.

“H-Hey, wait! You didn’t listen to a word we said! …Ugh, seriously! Aerial tag is an ultra-beginner drill—does he have zero intention of making us stronger?! What on earth is that guy thinking?!”

As Misora fumed aloud, Rico, who had been floating beside her with her arms crossed, let out a soft murmur of admiration as though she had deduced his hidden intent.

“Hmm… Perhaps he is not a complete fool after all. That man may actually know what he is doing.”

“What do you mean by that? Anyone in the Guardian Department already knows how to fly!”

“U-Umm… could it be that this drill is meant to build up our fundamental physical abilities…?”

Just as Misora opened her mouth to object, Lecty timidly ventured her own theory.

“…I ran into the Instructor this morning. And when I did, he sprinted away with truly incredible leg strength. Couldn’t he be trying to teach us… um, the importance of basic conditioning?”

“…………….”

Saying nothing, Rico wore a knowing look as if she had reached a similar conclusion.

Remembering how Kanata had vanished into thin air that morning, Misora couldn’t deny that Lecty had a point.

“…Okay, I’ll admit his footwork when he ran away was pretty fast.”

Reluctantly conceding that much, Misora shook her head and flared up again.

“Even so, telling us we can use live weapons against him is proof that he’s looking down on us! Listen up—all three of us are going to gang up on him and catch him right now!”

Incensed at being underestimated, Misora adjusted the Magic Power beneath her feet in preparation for rapid acceleration. Lecty moved to follow Misora’s lead, but Rico alone remained silent and didn’t budge an inch.

“? Why aren’t you moving, Rico?”

When Misora rounded on her suspiciously, Rico flipped her hair back with aristocratic grace.

“Hmph. Unlike an ordinary mortal such as you, Misora, a goddess like myself has no need to engage in exhausting, tiresome practical drills. In the first place, I detest the act of sweating in general.”

“…Listen, could you try valuing teamwork even a little bit?!”

“Hmm. If what you call ‘teamwork’ refuses to respect the will of the individual, then we have no need of it. Misora, do you truly understand the meaning of the word ‘teamwork’?”

“~~~~~ ! F-Fine, I get it! Then I’ll go shoot him down all by myself right now!”

Losing her temper, Misora rocketed straight toward the sector where Kanata was hovering. Realizing she had been left behind, Lecty gasped in a panic.

“Ah! W-Wait for me, please, Misora-san!”

She scrambled to fly after Misora in a hurry.

Gazing down her nose at Misora streaking into the distance and Lecty flailing after her, Rico gave a scornful snort.

“How foolish. Chasing after a fleeing opponent without a single strategy in mind—”

“Man, this platoon really has zero teamwork.”

Hovering in midair with a wry grimace, Kanata watched Misora and the others from afar.

Announcing the start of training out of nowhere was also a test to see whether the Platoon Leader could properly rally and coordinate her squadmates on the fly. Moments later, Misora came streaking toward him at cruising speed on her own, closing the relative distance between them until she halted directly in front of him.

“What’s this? Do you seriously think you can catch me all by yourself?”

“Obviously! Why else would I fly out here?! You’re the one who told us to come at you with live weapons outside the Sorcerer Field, so don’t blame me if you get hurt!”

“Then we’ve got nothing to worry about. I never planned on getting hit by your attacks from the start.”

It was a brazenly cocky declaration, yet Kanata genuinely had no intention of letting a single strike graze him.

Traitor or not, there was no way the former ace of an S-Rank platoon would ever let himself be tagged by girls mocked as an F-Rank squad.

“~~~! Y-You haven’t changed a bit since your active days! Always acting so arrogant like you can handle everything by yourself—that’s the exact reason you were only ever known for flashy solo plays!”

“Huh, you sure know a lot about me.”

“P-Prepare yourself! I have no intention of holding back or losing to a selfish traitor who betrayed everyone’s expectations and ditched the match that decided S-Rank promotion!”

It was only natural for her to resent an instructor who had been parachuted in with such a tarnished reputation. Even with raw hostility blazing in her eyes, Kanata didn’t flinch. Being treated like a traitor—this sort of thing—was something he had long since grown used to.

“Here I come!”

Before the words had even left her mouth, Misora channeled Magic Power into the rune-engraved ring on her index finger—her Magisphere, the Mage’s Jewel Box. Responding to her unique magic wavelength, a massive greatsword materialized out of thin air in a flash of light.

“A silver-white… Magic Cannon Sword, huh.”

The instant he laid eyes on it, Kanata narrowed his eyes in keen interest. Despite being a magic greatsword, its hilt housed a revolving cylinder mechanism, while a cannon muzzle opened at the tip of the blade.

It was a heavy greatsword equipped with artillery capabilities—the very same class of weapon Kanata himself had once wielded. Yet because of its atrocious weight balance, it was now considered an obsolete, forgotten relic with virtually no active users left.

“Take this!”

Closing the gap in the blink of an eye, Misora lunged right in front of Kanata atop his Broom and swung the silver-white greatsword down with all her might.

Cleaving the air with the roaring wind pressure of a swung tree trunk, the heavy blade grazed past Kanata’s cheek. Having already read the trajectory of her slash well in advance, however, he simply tilted his neck a fraction of an inch and dodged it effortlessly.

“Too close! I almost had you!”

Misora unleashed a flurry of follow-up slashes. Fierce sword pressure raged like a tempest all around Kanata. Yet right in the middle of that storm of steel, Kanata wore a puzzled frown, as if something about her movements was nagging at him.

“Argh, quit darting around like a fly! Just get shot down already!”

Pouring every ounce of strength she had into her arms, Misora swung the greatsword around like a hurricane. Looking almost preoccupied, Kanata worked his feet across his Broom with deft footwork, weaving through her swings as nimbly as an acrobat.

Across a distance so close they could have reached out and touched each other, an overwhelming gulf in true strength as Sky Wizards separated the two of them like an unbridgeable wall.

“Instead of swinging it around wildly like a club, can’t you slash with a little more sharpness?”

Misora’s swordplay was closer to “Bludgeoning” than “Slashing.” Because her windup was telegraphed and her blade speed sluggish, her style was poorly suited to aerial combat—where fighters soared freely through the three-dimensional sky using Flight Magecraft—and worse still, her petite frame was being dragged around by the sheer weight of the Magic Cannon Sword’s long blade.

“Shut up! Just fall already, you traitor!”

Frankly, Misora’s swordsmanship was so abysmal it was painful to watch.

Yet for the past several exchanges, a completely different talent of hers had captured Kanata’s full attention. To test whether his hunch was right, Kanata caught Misora off guard by kicking his Broom into top gear, opening a wide gap between them in an instant.

“Hey! Don’t tell me you’re running away! You’re not chickening out, are you?!”

What Kanata had just executed was the aerial tactical maneuver commonly known as Cross Prevent—Approach Denial. By accelerating along the exact same vector as his opponent, he reduced their relative velocity to zero and prevented her from closing the distance. In short—Misora should no longer have been able to get within striking range of Kanata.

No matter how skilled a fighter might be, so long as they wielded a close-quarters weapon, Cross Prevent rendered them helpless. For Misora, who carried a Magic Cannon Sword, it should have been a fatal checkmate… in theory.

Yet the very next instant, the corner of Kanata’s mouth twisted upward in a fearless grin.

Filling his entire field of vision was Misora—close enough to touch at arm’s length. Like a swift warhorse cleaving the wind, she had erased the gap between them in the blink of an eye.

“I told you to get shot down already!”

Weaving past her relentless barrage of slashes, Kanata rapidly analyzed her flight mechanics.

Speed so explosive it created the illusion of instantaneous movement. At the very least, it was a feat no ordinary member of an E-Rank—let alone F-Rank—platoon could ever pull off.

Speed in Flight Magecraft was said to depend heavily on three innate qualities: generating buoyancy via Thought Magecraft, converting Magic Power into propulsion through magic control, and shifting one’s center of gravity while reading the wind with an instinctive sense of balance. A larger physique did not simply equate to faster flight.

In Misora’s case, the time it took her Flight Magecraft to accelerate from initial velocity to top speed was overwhelmingly short. That explosive burst of acceleration was so abrupt that it tricked her opponent into misjudging their relative distance.

Alright, then what about her stamina?

She was breathing heavily from the shoulders, yet she still had plenty of stamina in reserve, and her airspeed showed no sign of flagging.

“Then let’s see if you can keep up with this.”

As Misora surged after him, Kanata feigned a gradual climb toward higher altitude—then, at the decisive split second, stomped hard on the tail of his Broom.

Instantly, massive air resistance caught the underside of the Broom. Its nose reared sharply skyward, flipping through a tight midair somersault as Kanata twisted his torso to reverse his flight vector a full hundred and eighty degrees in a heartbeat.

Hurtling forward in a straight line with excessive momentum, Misora couldn’t brake in time and shot right past him in the opposite direction, unable to give chase.

So she falls for a simple feint right away, huh…

Looks like she’s got speed and stamina to spare, but zero technical skill.

Now then, where did the other two go? Kanata glanced back toward the airspace where Rico and Lecty had been hovering earlier, but naturally, neither girl was still sitting there.

Suddenly, he sensed a presence right beside him. Whipping his head around, Kanata spotted Lecty holding her twin Magic Dual Swords in the classical Hassō Stance—the Eight-Direction Guard—peeking timidly up at him through upturned eyes.

Despite her nervous fidgeting and stiff posture, the stance she held radiated no openings whatsoever to Kanata’s practiced eye. It felt as though an impenetrable zone of absolute air superiority had been erected around her…

“Umm, Kanata-san…”

“What’s wrong? Come at me.”

“…H-Here I come, Kanata-san!”

Materializing a magic dagger out of thin air from his Magisphere, Kanata braced himself to cross blades directly with Lecty.

What convinced him to draw a weapon was a single detail: Lecty’s Hassō Stance. Nothing more.

The fact that her foundational form gleamed with such polish meant there was a high probability she was a genuinely accomplished swordswoman. Yet after trading a few blows, Kanata frowned in puzzlement.

“What’s the matter with you? …Are you holding back on me?”

“I-I’m doing nothing of the sort!”

As Lecty unleashed a flurry of dual-sword combinations, something about her movements felt off. The gears weren’t meshing properly.

Every few beats, she would unleash a thrust so razor-sharp it made Kanata’s eyes widen—only for her rhythm to hitch with a creaky, jerky stiffness, like an old wind-up doll grinding its gears: whirrr, creak-creak, clack-clack… clang.

Were it not for that unnatural stiffness, her swordplay would have flowed with breathtaking grace, floating like a butterfly and stinging like a bee. It was Magic Dual-Swordsmanship refined to the realm of fine art, like a dancer performing a classical choreography down to the last step.

Catching glimpses of that brilliance between clashes of steel, Kanata couldn’t help muttering aloud in the middle of their exchange:

“Hey, Lecty. Could that Magic Dual-Swordsmanship style of yours be—”

As he spoke, he looked straight into Lecty’s face, and their eyes locked squarely.

Instantly, Lecty—whose cheeks had already been tinged pink with embarrassment—turned bright crimson from ear to ear. Ducking her head toward her chest, her movements turned painfully sluggish.

“Hm? What happened?”

“U-Umm… I-I’m so sorry!”

While Kanata tilted his head wondering why on earth she was apologizing, Lecty’s strikes grew weaker and more erratic as she swung her twin blades while staring down at her own feet.

All luster vanished from her technique; her form deteriorated so badly that it could no longer even be called Magic Dual-Swordsmanship.

All of a sudden, a needle-sharp prickle of hostility lanced toward Kanata’s back. Reacting on pure instinct, Kanata glanced over his shoulder and spotted Rico hovering in the distant sky, aiming a sniper-rifle-shaped Magic Gun straight at him.

Narrowing her aim through the scope, Rico squeezed the trigger.

A pale blue magic bullet erupted from the muzzle, streaking ruthlessly toward Kanata.

Having registered the incoming shot with a hair’s breadth to spare, Kanata started to slip out of the line of fire—only to deliberately shift himself right back into the bullet’s path a split second later.

Directly behind him floated Lecty, who had just noticed the incoming magic bullet and frozen solid in wide-eyed terror.

“Tch!”

Clicking his tongue, Kanata sharpened his focus. Timing the impact to the millisecond, he swung his dagger and sliced the pale blue magic bullet cleanly in two. Severing a projectile hurtling through the air at three hundred meters per second was no easy feat, yet Kanata pulled it off without breaking a sweat.

Reinforcing his dynamic visual acuity and reaction speed with Internal Magic Power, he had gauged the velocity of the lightning-fast magic bullet and unleashed a magic-infused slash that neutralized it on contact.

“Gah… So I missed.”

Gliding closer with a displeased frown, Rico murmured to herself. The reason she hadn’t fired a second shot was likely because a single exchange had been enough for her to grasp the gulf in ability between them.

“Your aim wasn’t bad at all. Your killing intent just pricked my skin a split second before you fired.”

Then Kanata added a pointed question:

“That sniping shot just now—you didn’t coordinate it with Lecty beforehand, did you?”

“…Y-Yes! I-It was… terrifying!”

Kanata fixed Rico with an exasperated stare, while Lecty trembled behind him. Rico, however, feigned complete nonchalance.

“Unlike Misora, who flies around haphazardly without rhyme or reason, Lecty’s movements follow a refined pattern. Therefore, when sniping, I simply needed to time my shot around her trajectory. Pull off a feat of that level is child’s play for a goddess like myself.”

“Listen, you should really care a little more about the safety of your own squadmates.”

Kanata let out a heavy sigh. Still, with that brief skirmish, he had finished getting a solid grasp on all three girls’ respective strengths and weaknesses. Just then, Misora finally caught back up to them, huffing and puffing.

“Whoa, Misora, you’ve still got stamina left? I’m already worn out from dealing with you three.”

“W-Why do you sound so disappointed?! I-I’ve still got plenty of energy left, so we’re keeping this drill going until I catch you! I’m gonna prove right here and now that I’m stronger than you!”

And so, the game of aerial tag with Kanata carried on for quite a while longer.

After training ended, the three girls headed to the locker room. Having showered off their sweat, Misora and her squadmates stood in their underwear getting dressed.

“Argh, I’m so ticked off! How could the three of us fail to catch one guy by himself?!”

So irritated that her fingers were clumsy, Misora struggled to fasten the back hook of her bra. Picking up on her frustration right away, Lecty—who had just finished putting on her own undergarments beside her—turned timidly toward Misora.

“Umm… M-Misora-san! I-I’m so sorry that my strength fell short!”

She bobbed her head in an apologetic bow. As Misora blinked at her, Lecty added hesitantly:

“And umm… would you like me to fasten the hook on your back for you?”

“Th-Thanks. And about earlier—it wasn’t your fault, Lecty! Thinking back on it now, I got tunnel vision out there too, and I think I completely forgot to give you guys any orders…”

Humbly owning up to her mistake, Misora apologized. That’s right. This is the kind of composure a Platoon Leader ought to show, Misora told herself, starting to regain her calm—until a cool voice poured ice water right over her head.

“Hmm. Indeed, just as Misora says, her situational awareness as Platoon Leader was thoroughly inadequate.”

Bristling instantly, Misora shot a glare at Rico. Rico was still only half-dressed—or rather, she had been so captivated by her own beauty for the past several minutes that she was standing in nothing but her lingerie in front of the full-length mirror, admiring her own reflection in a dreamy trance.

“Hmph. The word ‘beautiful’—exists solely for my sake.”

She murmured the declaration with deep, heartfelt emotion. She was nothing short of a textbook narcissist, yet when it came to her figure, even Misora couldn’t help feeling a pang of envy. Compared to Misora’s own chest, Rico’s breasts were unmistakably full, perfectly proportioned from top to underbust, and looked soft and springy to boot…

“Hmm? Is something the matter?”

“N-Nothing at all…!”

“Hmph. It is only natural that I am both fuller of bust and taller in stature than you. After all, the word ‘beautiful’ exists for my sake.”

“~~~! N-Nobody asked you! W-Whether someone has big boobs or not isn’t a big deal anyway! R-Right, Lecty?!”

“Eh? Umm… i-is that so?”

Seeking backup, Misora turned her eyes toward Lecty. And then she froze. Despite her petite, childlike frame, Lecty possessed an astonishingly voluptuous bust—the very embodiment of a petite bombshell…

“N-No way! W-W-W-Why are your boobs bigger than mine too, Lecty?!”

Betrayed from the most unexpected quarter, Misora sank into despair. To think that even Lecty, who was shorter than she was, had a chest that huge… And right at that moment, Rico spoke up:

“T-There is no need to take it so hard, I think. Isn’t that right, Lecty?”

“Th-That’s right, Rico-san! Bust size doesn’t determine everything about a girl, does it?!”

“Y-You guys…!”

Touched that Rico had actually offered a comforting hand for once, Misora felt her opinion of her teammate rise a notch. Maybe for all her haughty talk, she actually knows how to be considerate when it counts.

However, Rico wasn’t finished speaking.

“Indeed. Bust size is not everything. Even if one is not blessed with an ample bosom like the two of us—even if Misora’s figure happens to be squeak-squeak-squeak-flat-as-a-tin-board. Wouldn’t you agree, Lecty?”

“Y-Yes, exactly! Even if Misora-san’s chest happens to be squeak-squeak-squeak-flat-as-a-tin—”

Realizing mid-sentence what she had just parroted, Lecty clapped both hands over her mouth in horror.

“W-W-W-What are you tricking me into saying, Rico-san?! …M-Misora-san, that’s not what I meant! I-I don’t think that at all, I swear!”

Her frantic denials stood no chance of reaching Misora, whose fury had already blown past the boiling point.

“U-Ughhh! R-Rico! D-Do you have some kind of personal grudge against me?! Even during the tag drill earlier, you refused to cooperate with me at all!”

“Hmph. I have never once acknowledged you as my Platoon Leader, Misora. In the first place, why should a goddess like myself serve beneath you?”

“Because I’m the one who founded this platoon! Compared to someone like you who got assigned here after the fact, it’s only natural that the founder becomes the Platoon Leader!”

“Merely arriving somewhere first does not automatically earn one respect. Just as I refuse to use polite speech toward academy upperclassmen who are unworthy of my respect.”

“By that logic, don’t you refuse to use polite speech with literally everyone…?!”

“How perceptive of you. There is not a single human being in this world worthy of receiving polite speech from a goddess like myself.”

“Listen here, why don’t you try learning a little thing called common sense for once?!”

“Hmm, Misora. Has no one ever told you that you are a rigid blockhead trapped behind the spectacles of common sense?”

Sparks crackled in the air as an ominous tension settled between Misora and Rico. Fidgeting nervously, Lecty tried to step between them.

“M-Misora-san! Rico-san! P-Please calm down!”

“Stay out of this for a second, Lecty! I’m about to shut Rico’s loud mouth once and for all!”

“Indeed, Lecty. Do not interfere with this golden opportunity to annihilate a fool who defies a goddess.”

“E-Eek! Umm… I’m sorry…”

The explosive tension ratcheted up another notch—and then half-naked Misora lunged headfirst at Rico in a flying tackle, Rico sidestepped with an effortless sway, Misora’s momentum carried her headlong into a metal locker with a resounding clang, and clutching her throbbing forehead, Misora gave in completely to blind rage as the locker room descended into utter chaos…

It seemed this three-girl platoon was still light-years away from anything resembling teamwork.