The advances made within the Researd Developmement of the Bights have made a massive leap ever since Silver joihe Bights.

  His shogly impressive skill with programming had made all the software that run every single mae belonging to the Bights 200% more effit, including all the knightmare frames. The dey between the input given by the pilot and the output done by the burais have decreased signifitly, allowing much smoother movements and quick rea towards any input given by the pilot.

  He had also made ges and improvements to the maery within the knightmare frames themselves and its ons, making them more effective in battle and allowing even previously mediocre pilots to gain bat prowess equivalent to the knights of the Britannian Army.

  And now, another surge of rapid improvements and advances occurred once more when Rakshata aeam became a part of the Bights after India made the decision to bee a supporter of the Bights.

  With more helping hands, resources, and the brilliant minds of a renowned genius and a genius with knowledge of teologies far more advahan anything that had ever existed in this world, the teological adva of the Bights have increased signifitly by leaps and bounds.

  And Karen was currently learning aing used to the new features and upgrades Silver and Rakshata added turen.

  As one of the two most powerful knightmare frames within their ranks, the Guren had received plenty of upgrades, including an update on its software mainframe to increase its processing speed, upgrades on its physical parts to increase its strength, durability, speed, aion time, and st but not least, a signifit upgrade to its main on.

  The Right-Arm in-built Radiant Wave Unit was the first ever oed that employed the Radiant Wave teology. It was aremely powerful on that dealt massive damage onto a knightmare frame upon tact by causing its parts to bulge, expand, aually, explode with the violent vibration it caused onto the liquid and minerals within its victims.

  But of course, it was not without its fws. For one, due to the dangerous rea in the Radiant Wave Teology, the Radiant Wave Surger requires ammo to be used in an offensive manner. Without it, further usage of the on would potentially cause severe damage of the total destru of the knightmare itself.

  Sedly, and the most gring weakness of the right arm in-built Radiant Wave Unit, and Guren as a whole, was its she.

  With range only slightly further than an arm’s length, the Guren struggled with handling e range. Although this weakness hadn’t bee a problem yet due to Guren’s speed and the battles being mostly short distance frontations, the fact was that it still existed and o be remedied before it became a life-threatening weakness.

  Thus, using Excalibur’s chest mounted beam on and the Luminous Shield teology as inspiration, Silver and Rakshata made a signifit upgrade to the Guren’s Right-Arm in-built Radiant Wave Unit.

  It was noable of shooting the Radiant Wave Surger in the form of a straight beam or a widespread beam, allowing the Guren to deal with e range and in rge numbers.

  It was now also capable of creating a shield known as the Radiant Wave Shielding, which was capable of naturally dissolving bullets and even stopping heavy onries such as the VARIS, giving the Guren defensive capabilities against led attacks. After all, although Karen had been doing her best to learn Mordred’s skill to cut ranged heavy projectiles such as the VARIS in half, she was still uo do it reliably. Thus, having this would greatly improve her defenses and survivability itlefield.

  Kare her time making sure she learned every single facet of Guren’s new features. And with the help of Mordred, she mao get used to it very quickly while also enjoying every single sed of it.

  Though, towards the end of it, she finally realized how close they’ve been all this time, squeezed into the cockpit of the Guren which was meant for 1 person.

  “H-Hey, you’re being too close…!”

  Her face turned red upon realizing the distance, or the ck thereof, between herself and Mordred and gred at him “threateningly” to move away.

  After all, she was sweating from head to toe after spending all these hours in the hangar with the Guren. And, she was also only wearing a tank top and short pants, si was very hot!

  What if she smelled bad? What if he smelled her sweat?! Although she tried to act like she didn’t care about appearances, she was, at heart, a young maiden who’s still bothered by such things, especially when she’s in front of her crush.

  Mordred turo her with an incredulous look. Or at least, that’s what Karen assumed his expression was since he was wearing a mask. She herself knew how ridiculous she was for telling him to get away from her.

  “How am I supposed to move away…? This cockpit is meant for one person…”

  “Kuh… J-Just hold your breath! Don’t breathe!”

  “Are you askio die?!”

  Mordred shook his head tiredly a out a sigh.

  “Alright, let’s call it here for the day… We’ve gohrough most of the stuff anyway. Do you want to go get a drink?”

  “...Sure.”

  The two exited the cockpit of the Guren and stepped down the dder to dismount from the knightmare. Then, they made their way to the aer vehicle, which was the only pce withiemporary base with air ditioning.

  The two entered and found it empty, surprisingly enough. Normally, Zero would’ve been here for a meeting with several higher up members of the bights oing through his pns alone. And he was, or at least, Karen knew Zero was here the st time she saw him. But now, there was no one around, despite all the air ditions and maes still running. It was as if someone had just left the aer right before they entered.

  “Hm? Where is Zero?”

  She asked, turnitention towards Mordred, who was sidered the Bight’s sed-in-and by all the members of the Bights.

  “He’s currently with Ainz, sing some new recruits. I don’t know when he’ll be back, but I guess that mea this pce to ourselves for now.”

  “I-Is that so…”

  Mordred ehe and vehicle, and Karen followed suit a bit behind him.

  He opened up the fridge and pulled out a rge bottle of barley tea, and then picked up two gsses from the shelves befoing to the living area where Karen was.

  “Here you go.”

  “Ah, thank you.”

  He poured her a gss of ice cold barley tea and then one for himself as well, before sitting down on the couch along with her.

  A fortable silence fell betweewo as they leaned bato the coud rested.

  Karen was especially exhausted mentally after trating on learning as much as she could about the new features of the Guren for so long.

  So much so that she fot the state of her outfit right now.

  A mere thin crop top, hot pants, and underwear she wore underh those thin, minimal clothes were far from enough to hide her curvaceous, womanly body, dripping with sweat. And although she was merely stretg her arms and body, releasing the tension and rexing her muscles after the long hours of work, the mere act of doing so was akin to a devilish temptress’ sedug dao Yuuji.

  Just a simple gnce of her exposed, smooth, slightly sweating, skin was enough to make his heart skip a beat. And even if he were to avert his gaze, the prevalent st of her pheromone and fragrance, which had been enhanced by her sweat, would still fill his nose, which was made worse by his keen senses.

  If not for his stone will and trol over his libido that he had practiced vigorously just by living with his beloved mother, sisters, aunt, Aika, and C.C, just a whiff of her sweet st and sweat was enough to cause his dragon rod to rampage and burst through the syic fiber material of his suit.

  Even now, his dragon rod was already making a massive bulge on his crotch area. It was a sight that would’ve caused an i, young maiden like Karen to yelp in shod stare at it in both wonder and amazement at the same time if not for Yuuji using his space manipution magic to the space around his crotch to bend the light, creating an illusion that nothing was amiss.

  Hah…

  He let out a tired sigh inwardly. Sometimes, he wondered why these girls would smell srant and sexy… Was it because they were “characters” in an anime? Was it the effect of his [Divine Physique] the keen se came with?

  Hah… I o distract myself… I don’t want my horo ruin my retionship with them.

  Yuuji quickly shook away his horny thoughts and remembered why he fell in love with Karen in the first pbsp;

  He didn’t fall in love with her solely due to her beauty. He fell in love with her determination first, and the bravery she showed by fighting in the front lines against the oppressive Britannian empire despite only being a highschool girl.

  Then, he fell in love with the kindness and innoce she showed underh her tough exterior.

  He opened his eyes, go his side, and looked at the gently smiling girl enjoying the refreshing barely tea deliciously. A smile appeared on his fabsp;

  “Hey, by the way…”

  “Hm?”

  Yuuji snapped out of his daze and saw Karen now wearing a slight guilt on her expression.

  “I’m thankful that you’re helping me, but didn’t Excalibur also receive some upgrades? Is it alright for you to help me instead of getting used to your own knightmare?”

  Yuuji titled his head in fusion for a moment.

  He had spent some time in the m before his meeting with Karen to get used to the new additions Tatsuya and Rakshata made to the Excalibur. It didn’t take that long sisuya had told him most of the things they'd added to the Excalibur in private as the development progressed. He knew full well the extent of the features and upgrades, so all he had to do was experie in real life to get used to it. And, with his accelerated learning speed, he was able to grasp every single new feature quickly a used to the trols in minutes.

  But then, a thought struck him which made him realize why Karen had a guilty look on her face.

  “Oh? So you know this, but still asked me to help you~?”

  His words struck her right in the heart with guilt perfectly. S-She didn’t really sider at the time that Mordred would also ime to get used to his own knightmare sihe Excalibur also received quite a lot of upgrades. She just wanted his help and his presehere to boost her fidend do her best to get used to her new Guren as quickly as possible.

  Only after they were done did she remember, and guilt began to creep up in her heart.

  Yuuji saw her guilt-ridden expression and decided to stop teasing her.

  “I was kidding. You don’t o feel guilty.”

  “Eh?”

  Karen looked at him in shobsp;

  “I’ve already gotteo it since I’ve also been w closely with Silver during its development. So, I’ll just need a bit of time, maybe an hour or two, and I’ll be fine.”

  “...Really?”

  Yuuji nodded and patted her on the shoulders.

  “Really. Also, I ehe time we spent together. It’s more fun doing that kind of thing with someone else instead of being on your own.”

  “Nn…”

  Karen fell silent for a moment, before a look of determination, and a blush, appeared on her face.

  “T-Then, I’ll return the favor and apany you too!”

  Her heart beated rapidly as she looked at the man before her nervously. She was extremely embarrassed for even saying those words… After all, she was essentially asking him to spend some time together again! And for a moment, she regretted saying it since she was afraid he’d reject her offer.

  But before suegative thoughts took root in her heart, she heard his answer.

  “Sure. I’d love to. Thank you. ”

  Her expression immediately brightened up, and no matter how much she was trying to hide her smile, subtlety was never her strong suit. Her beautiful, bright smile of happihat rarely appeared even before the people closest to her, was on full dispy for the man that had stolen her heart.

  “Y-You’re wele.”

  Yuuji felt his heart melt when he saw Karen, the usually tsundere and fierce girl, being so cute.

  He just wao pull her into his embrace. But just then, Karen’s haransceiver bred with a familiar voibsp;

  “Karen! e to the sed warehouse now! And bring Mordred if he’s with you! There’s something big happening!”

  The voice beloo Ohgi, and Karen and Yuuji immediately went into high alert.

  She picked up the transceiver hurriedly and pressed a button to respond.

  “Alright! We’ll be right there!”

  She pced the transceiver into her pocket, and the both of them stood up immediately.

  “Let’s go!”

  “Yes!”

  Yuuji quickly made his way to the sed warehouse. And he couldn't help but get the feeling that the arc would be starting soon.

  VergsX