Chapter 4: The First Cafeteria
“You were quite late. I’m sorry to say, but I’ve already claimed the bottom bed, so you’ll have to use the top one.”
“…Is that so.”
I managed to squeeze out a reply and looked around the room. It was a large room overall, but in the middle was a bunk bed shaped like an ‘S’ from the side, dividing the single room into two personal spaces. Her side had the bottom bed, and my side had the top. The other side of the bed was a solid wall, so even though we were roommates, it seemed we had some degree of private space. For now, I went to the left side and put my luggage on the built-in desk. There was a window at the back of the room overlooking the Genbu Dormitory’s garden. The sun had already set, and it was completely dark. I took out my smartphone and checked the time; it was almost six o’clock.
“Are we clear? Even though we are roommates, I expect you to respect the boundary. Please do not place any of your things on this side.”
The blond elf pointed her finger, drawing an imaginary line from the middle of the bed to the middle of the door. I know that, you don’t have to tell me!
“Well then, I shall be going to the cafeteria, so excuse me.”
With that, the blond elf left the room. Kaa…! Of all the people to be my roommate, it had to be that arrogant snob…! I’m so unlucky! Will I be able to get along with her? Seems impossible… I’m probably going to snap eventually. I fell into a gloomy mood. I let out a deep sigh, and at the same moment, my stomach growled loudly. I’m starving… I should go to the cafeteria too… I took out the Genbu Dormitory handbook and looked at the dorm layout. Hmm, hmm, the cafeteria is on the first floor. I left the room, handbook in hand. Whoops, gotta lock the door. I went down the stairs to the first floor and headed for the cafeteria. The cafeteria was at the very back of the first floor and seemed to be quite large. Well, that makes sense. Over two hundred people live here. Even if they don’t all eat at the same time, it still needs to be pretty spacious. Still, the upperclassmen aren’t here right now… …See? Just as I thought. When I entered the cafeteria, I saw long tables and chairs lined up in the large space, but there were surprisingly few people. Of course. Only the first-years are here, just one-fifth of the students. Let’s see… about forty people? No, even less than that. There must be people who already finished eating and left, or who haven’t arrived yet. Maybe because school hasn’t started yet, no one was wearing a uniform. It was interesting to see the different styles of clothing from everyone’s home countries. I glanced at the tables and spotted that blond elf eating. There was no one around her. Heh, a loner, huh? …Well, so am I. Hm? Some people are glancing over at me. Is it because I’m late? Oh, well. Um, I’m supposed to buy a food ticket from that vending machine over there, right? By the way, the food costs here are covered by our home countries, so it’s free. Thank goodness, thank goodness. When I got to the vending machine, there was an incredible number of dishes listed. They can make all of these…? As expected of the Duchy of Brunhild, the world’s most advanced magical nation. Their food selection is insane.
“What should I get…”
With this many options, it’s hard to decide. Since it’s free, maybe I should splurge and get the steak set?
“If you can’t decide, I recommend the ‘Daily Special Set’.”
“Huh?”
I turned at the sudden voice and saw a very handsome girl with short-cut blond hair. Should I say androgynous? She looked just like a prince. She looks mature, but she’s in my grade… right? She’s tall, too. Standing next to me, it’s like… No, let’s not. I’m just hurting my own feelings.
“The ‘Daily Special Set’ here is where the chef tries out new dishes that aren’t on the regular menu, so you can eat some pretty unique stuff.”
“Oh, really? You know a lot.”
“I have an acquaintance who’s an upperclassman.”
I see. Info from a current student. I can trust that.
“I’ll go with that, then.”
I pressed the ‘Daily Special Set’ button and took the food ticket from the machine.
“I’ll get the same thing.”
The handsome girl is getting the ‘Daily Special Set’ too. This must be good.
“I’m Carrolina Liette. Call me Carrol. I just arrived from The Regulus Empire the day before yesterday.”
“I’m Nero. Nero Silhoueska. I just got here from Elfrau. Nice to meet you.”
A new student from Regulus. The Regulus Empire is right next door to my Kingdom of Elfrau. They’re a longtime ally and one of the nations that helped found the Duchy of Brunhild.
“I’m a commoner, but are you a noble, Carrol?”
“I am. The Liette family is a Marquis house in the Empire.”
A Marquis… That’s a pretty high-ranking noble family. But she’s friendly and easy to talk to. Her attitude didn’t change even when I said I was a commoner. A world of difference from my Ducal House blond elf roommate. We took our numbered food tickets and, without really planning it, sat at the same table. Ehehe, avoided being a loner. But the Liette family? I feel like I’ve heard that name somewhere…
“The Liette family is one of the Empire’s twelve oldest noble families. We’re descended from one of the ‘Twelve Swords of the Empire,’ ‘Keel Liette of the Twin Swords’.”
“Oh! I saw that on an Ether-Vision program! The one called ‘The Founding of the Regulus Empire’.”
So that’s it. She’s really from a high-status family. Why would she come to the machinist academy…?
“To become a ‘Trooper,’ of course. And to compete in the ‘Mecha Great War: Ragnarok’ someday. You’re not?”
Well, right. That’s the main goal for most students who come to this ‘academy.’ Including me. Of course, you can’t lump everyone together, since some people come here wanting to be Frame Gear mechanics or developers.
“Besides, at this ‘academy,’ there’s a chance to compete in the ‘Mecha Great War: Ragnarok’ before becoming a ‘Trooper’…”
“Huh? Really?”
I thought you couldn’t participate in the ‘Mecha Great War: Ragnarok’ without a ‘Trooper’ license?
“Hm? You don’t know about the ‘Nine Duchesses Quota’? Here at the ‘Babylon Machinist Girls’ Academy’ and the ‘Brunhild Machinist Academy,’ the top nine students in the rankings are given special qualifications to participate in the ‘Mecha Great War: Ragnarok.’ ‘Course, it’s not the top nine per grade, it’s the top nine in the entire school, so it’s really tough.”
“Ehh…? The top nine, including the upperclassmen? That sounds incredibly difficult…”
“Yup. They say it’s impossible for a first-year. Oh, wait, no… there was one. She’s a third-year now, but she got a recommendation slot as a first-year.”
What!? Someone got a slot as a first-year!? That means she broke into the top nine strongest in the whole school as a first-year!?
“Yeah. Zeldigard Minas Lestia-senpai, a third-year. She’s currently Rank 1 at this ‘academy.’ She’s the third princess of The Knight kingdom of Lestia, and possesses overwhelming sword skills and piloting technique. Her nickname is [Sword Empress].”
“R-Rank 1…!?”
Wait, that means she’s the strongest person at this ‘academy’? Even though she’s only a third-year!? Isn’t it insane that she beat out the fourth and fifth-years to take first place…? Just how strong is she…?
“It might be too hard to aim for a recommendation slot as a first-year like Lestia-senpai, but I still want to try. I’d be happy if I could just make it into the top twenty in my first year.”
Hmm. Making it into the top twenty, including upperclassmen, still seems like a pretty high bar. But I guess it’s good to have a goal like that. Simply put, I’d need to be in the top four of my grade, maybe? I think this ‘academy’ has 900 students total. Five students per grade from 36 countries, times five grades… yeah, that checks out. To become one of the top nine out of all of them… that means I’d have to be in the top one percent… That’s a long way off…
“But why nine people? Wouldn’t ten be a cleaner number?”
“They say it’s to honor the Nine Duchesses who supported His Majesty the first Sovereign Duke.”
Ah, I see. The Nine Duchesses of Brunhild are famous. His Majesty the first Sovereign Duke’s nine wives. The stories of how they each used their unique skills to help the first Sovereign Duke are widely told. Though some of those stories sound pretty suspicious…
“Speaking of which, how are the rankings decided? Is it by exams?”
“How? By [Star Duel], of course. If you win, you get Star Points, and if you lose, you lose Star Points. That’s how the rankings are determined.”
Ooh… That’s… very direct. A [Star Duel] is apparently either a mock battle using a ‘Frame Unit,’ which is a Frame Gear simulation system, or a live-unit battle using Armed Gears. There are detailed regulations and match types, but I’ll skip those details. Simply put, it’s a star-grabbing battle where you wager some of your stars, and if you win, you take them all, and if you lose, they’re taken from you. You can also get them from school-sponsored events, apparently.
“Go to the ‘academy’s’ website on your smartphone and look at the rankings. You can see your own rank, too.”
Just as Carrol said, I looked at the ‘academy’ site. There was a ‘Rankings’ tab, and when I went in, I saw a long list of student names. Wow, Rank 1, Zeldigard Minas Lestia… She really is the strongest in this ‘academy’ as a third-year… And me… Rank 721? Wait, everyone around me has the same rank. Does this mean all first-years are here? Oh, Carrol has the same rank. So does the blond elf.
“…What if I challenged Lestia-senpai and won? What would happen to the rankings?”
“Hahaha, you can’t even challenge her in the first place. You can only challenge people one rank above your own.”
Apparently, the rankings are divided into tiers, from S-Rank at the top down to F-Rank. We new students are, obviously, at the bottom in F-Rank. So we can’t even challenge the S-Rank Lestia-senpai.
“One rank up… so that means we can challenge E-Rank upperclassmen?”
“You can, but you need a [Right to Challenge] for that, so you have to collect 10 stars first.”
“[Right to Challenge]?”
According to Carrol, to challenge a higher rank—a ‘Promotion Battle,’ so to speak—you have to pay a set number of stars for that rank to acquire the [Right to Challenge]. In other words, to challenge a higher rank, you first have to beat opponents in your own rank to collect stars… is that it? So it means nothing’s going to happen until I can pull ahead of the other first-years.
“All new students should be given five Star Points. See? That ‘☆5’ next to your name. You need ten points to challenge the next rank, so if you wager all five of your starting points and win, you can at least get the [Right to Challenge]. ‘Course, if you lose, you’ll have 0 points.”
“Um… what happens if you hit 0 points?”
“Well, if you have no stars to bet, you can’t participate in [Star Duels] at all. You get a single point as a relief measure every six months, though.”
Uwa… That’s the worst… Hitting 0 points is bad news. No all-in bets. Hitting 0 right after enrolling and not being able to do anything for six months? That’s way too rough. Besides, if I think about it, even if I use all 10 points to get a [Right to Challenge], no one will fight me if I don’t have any stars left to bet. We only start with five points, so maybe it’s better to wager 1 point at a time? But if I play it safe and just bet 1 point at a time, I’ll only gain 1 point when I win. I can’t climb the ranks unless I bet big. But if I lose, I’ll lose a lot of stars…
“These rules are pretty harsh…” “That’s why everyone takes their fights so seriously.”
I see. Makes sense.
