I discovered that some of my precious loot from Luxion base went missing.

"Hey! Where are you taking this curved 70'' plasma TV? I need this for ... cultural research purposes."

"Of course, Master. We all know that you are a girl of culture. But we are taking this for the Armour simulator we are building."

"I don't ca... Did you say Armour simulator?"

That sounded interesting. On average, Armour endured about hundred hours of action before needing a major overhaul. And that was almost as expensive as getting a new Armour ... or a spacious and well-located house. Usually, a new Armour was used for about 50 hours by some experienced pilot, then it was given away to a rookie. He would be given 20-30 hours of training, and then he would use near-worn-out equipment for actual fighting. More than half of newbies would die or get retired in their first Armour...

Most Armour pilots had only some tens of hours of piloting experience under their belt. The most valuable aces, like the Black Knight, would be allotted hundreds of hours per year.

With simulators, the pilots of the White Order could easily have a thousand hours of piloting experience per year!

Obviously, just lots of training hours would not be enough to make experts out of them. Take your typical men's bathroom aiming skills, for example. They spend thousands of hours in training, yet all of them are pathetically bad at it.

"Good thinking, Creare. Now that I consider it, do some of the electronics we looted have accelerators and gyroscopes inside? Can we improvise some kind of fire-control system for our cannons?"

Aiming cannons while your flying ship rolled about and the target moved in three dimensions was notoriously hard. Unless both parties were willing to go into close quarters, then you would get 2 or 3 hits out of a hundred shots.

"Hmm, I will do my best, Master. But those muzzleloaders are not very accurate anyway."

"Actually, I think we can do something about it. All we need is a bucket of mercury."

"A bucket of mercury to improve the accuracy of our cannons? Have you finally gone mad?"

I was quite pleased that an obscure piece of trivia that I learned years... actually, thousands years ago suddenly became useful.

"The problem with round-shot is that it rotates unpredictably, and Magnus force makes it miss its target. But suppose we were to place a cannonball in mercury and mark the lighter upper pole with paint. Then we would turn it 180 degrees and shoot it. What would happen?

"The heavy part of the ball would be pointed upwards, so the kick from the shot would make the front part rotate upwards..."

"Exactly! And then Magnus force would always act in the same direction — against gravity, making the trajectory flatter."

Even Creare could not find a way to insult me over something so useful, so it just nodded in acknowledgment.

Yeah, victory feels so good! I am gonna be touching myself tonight!

-

The time has come for me to leave my loving family and my private army and enter a place filled with pointless drama generated by hormonal teenagers — the school.

I had little desire to socialise with kids or their underpaid and incompetent overseers.

But I had to build a spaceship to get to Luxion, and the capital had the best personnel and facilities. I had to blend into the crowd if I wanted to fly under the radar of the Secret Service or whatever they call it in Holfort.

I always heard that a girl has to find a marriage partner in the Academy, or some scary fate awaited her. My mother finally decided to unveil this dark and vicious secret.

"Leonie, you have to marry or you may ..."

"... !?"

"Or you will become a spinster!"

"?"

"You will not have a husband and family of your own. Your only company would be a dozen of cats that will eat you after you die!"

"I see, Mother. Of course, I will do my best to avoid this terrible fate."

-

Some of the students were benevolent enough to give me some free advice.

"You are out of your element in this noble establishment, 'Lady' Leonie. Tread carefully."

I readily expressed my gratitude. "Have you ever heard about the mythical rhinoceros, Lady What's-your-name? They say it was nearly blind, often unable to see the obstacles. But it was so strong that it was not a problem. Well, not for him."

"You are not going to make a good impression with this attitude."

This place certainly needed some explosive collars. I channeled my inner edgelady.

"A lioness doesn't concern herself with the opinions of the sheep."

-

Yet there were some people who were interested in me.

"Lady Leonie, can you please tell us about your adventures?"

I decided to reuse my favorite scene from Pirates of the Caribbean.

"Very well. One time I was stranded on an uninhabited island with nothing but some flimsy clothes on my back. I sat on the edge of the island and waited there for three days and three nights until all manner of monsters became acclimated to my presence. And on the fourth morning, I roped myself a couple of monsters, lashed them together, and made a flying raft!"

"You roped a couple of monsters, Lady Leonie?"

"Aye. Big monsters!"

"B-but... What did you use for rope?"

"Human hair. From my..."

I started to point at my torso but suddenly realised all the potential problems. Silence stretched for several seconds.

"From your head?"

"Yes, the head. Of course, the head. My long, silky, and beautiful head hair."

-

It was time for princess slapping scene. I sat comfortably in my room in front of a screen while Creare turned on stealth mode and started monitoring the passage.

I munched on a bag of popcorn and checked out passing students.

Here comes Angel, the fiancé of the princess. Such an arrogant face. I would like to sit on h... OK, no idea where it came from. Focus, Leonie, focus.

Angel passed by, and the princess appeared. She met some scrawny fellow who was definitely not a commoner student. After an exchange of words, she got slapped.

There were some outraged exclamations from several witnesses, but they did not have time to react before the red-faced princess got slapped a couple more times.

Hmm, I wonder what it was about?