~ICHIKA POV~
“What the heck is wrong with her? I swear Chifuyu-nee can be a prick sometimes”
“…I never though Orimura-sensei can be so cold…”
And the sniper due sighed, meanwhile, I stay silent from the beginning. Finally, Rin was out of the Teacher’s lounge, Bodewig waste no time and left without words.
“Oi, what is this adventurer gallery?”
“We’re waiting for you, you know” I told her.
“Meh, it’s not like I’m suspended or anything. Seriously you two, that’s kind of overboard”
“But-“
“Lingyin-san, what do you mean?”
Madoka and Cecilia are fumbled at her indifference, of course. I suppose the new Rin is like that… a little too mature?
Anyway, I was angry for a good reason, not because Chifuyu reprimanded Lingyin and Laura. No, she also heard the story from their point of view, which meant Chifuyu-nee distrust the senior. On that point, I actually had to apologize not to make it clear.
“Rin…are you granted access to NEUCOM?”
She tilted her head “No, Chifuyu-san didn’t say anything about it, why?”
“WHAAAT?! You’re not allowed to use NEUCOM?” both Madoka and Cecilia cried.
NEUCOM is a fancy name for a central I.S. repair station, located near Development branch. Its technical name is Brain World Computer, but everyone thinks the name too cheesy, so Neural Computer is used in response.
Due to I.S. nature being self-developing. Its repair process is not done physically; rather, we dive deep into the system and boost up the existing AI system in repairing the I.S.
I don’t know how exactly, but apparently RIn is a good friend of Cecilia now, thus the British lady muttered clear concern “But that means you can’t participate with the tournament!”
“Eh, my fault there, can’t protest”
Normally, a major damage on the frame will take more than 24 hour to be repaired without support due to firmware programming inside the core. However, using NEUCOM, I.S. processing power can be rerouted solely for the repair process, cut the time to roughly 8 hours or more.
I laughed, hard.
“…I knew it… I guess she really had to fumble it, I should just apologize”
As swift as wind, Madoka’s hands grabbed my blazer. “Wait, Ichika-nii, why?”
“Told you the truth, Chifuyu-nee did the right thing in this matter” I told my sister and ruffled her head “But the way she did it and anything she say tend to incite misunderstanding. And she’s too prideful to admit it and too hesitant to clear it up”
“How?”
“Rin’s machine is damaged, yet Chifuyu-nee didn’t tell her to use NEUCOM so she can participate. This might seems unfair, but remember first and foremost, Rin and Bodewig had wrecked Academy machines”
Rin chuckled. “As for the seniors, they’re punished by doing that repair, which might take entire night considering the expansion of NEUCOM had not yet implemented. The reason is that majority of participant in the subsequent tournament use rental machines, if those machines don’t get prepared by the morning, then the tournament might be delayed. If that happens, then I would be the one responsible, right?”
Madoka’s mouth left agape, and Cecilia too, she seems understand. I’m glad Rin seems to know the reason too.
“To Chifuyu-nee, it might bother her somewhat. But if she did, she will never tell us. And that’s what made me angry, if she really saw us as a family, shouldn’t she be more honest?” As I walked slowly, I continue to talk “It’s not like we’re a couple of innocent kids anymore, we have gone through a lot… Madoka, Cecilia, Rin, Houki… Charles and Bodewig too… we’re not ordinary kids, not anymore, although I wish we are. But it that’s the case, we might never met at all”
“O, ho… so the emperor had returned?”
“Maybe yes, maybe no… but I wish Chifuyu-nee could open herself like she is ten years ago”