KSGU:Volume 1 Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Part 1

In the starry universe, there was a biplane that’s flying with a propeller. It was a middle-century classical plane that operates on gasoline.

As he stared at the plane blankly, Riddhe Marcenas imagined himself to be sitting on it. He was wearing a flying visor, a white muffler around his neck, and using fighting flying skills that were like acrobatics to tease the enemy’s destroyer. A pilot had to be like this. Even if the propeller planes were all replaced by jet planes or even evolved into space fighter jets with g, pilots were all proud riders. A pilot shouldn’t be part of minor things like being called out by an older non-commission officer or pointed at by a senior pilot. That’s the bad customs that passed down from the navy. And the pilots after the mid-century occupy a unique atmosphere called the air force, and they’re an unique existence that had to be separated from ordinary soldiers. At least they shouldn’t forget about this…that’s what he thought.

However, reality was cruel.

“Ensign Riddhe, the captain’s calling you over to his room.”

A window opened in the space, and the Mechanical Officer Jona Gibney’s mustached face chuckled as he said that. He was the oldest and the most experienced of the maintenance staff, and he was one of those senior soldiers who would not hesitate to scold an officer. Riddhe was sitting on the linear seat and pouted, “Why always me?”

“You have to bring stuff to the captain’s room. This job is more or less suited for a rich boy!”

“I’m an officer too, you know! This has nothing to do with lineage, right?”

“Only those who shot down an enemy’s plane has the right to say that. Now go!”

Mechanical Officer Gibney’s face disappeared from the screen, and only angry roars echoed throughout the cockpit. Riddhe unhappily turned off the all-view monitor and grabbed the biplane model that was floating above his head.

Once the space simulated image disappeared, the screens that were connected on the inside walls of the ball, and the cockpit suddenly became a cramped and unpleasant cockpit. Riddhe used a plastic bag to wrap the plastic body of the biplane and put it behind the display guard before opening the door. The door that could only be passed through by bending down was right in front of him. The sound of welding, cranes and metals rubbing against each other entered the cockpit.

Also, there was a chatter behind him, and Gibney, who was in that jumpsuit that the mechanical staff would wear was showing blank white eyes. Riddhe kicked the linear seat and easily let his body float out of the cockpit. Gibney’s body didn’t move as he floated in the air, and he said with a heinous tone, “Were you meditating inside that cockpit again?”

“I’m embracing the time when I can be one with my beloved plane. Are you touched?”

“And you even dare to say that you brought a toy in!”

“Please don’t randomly touch and spoil it. That’s a limited edition. It was hard to get it!”

One has to strike the fine balance between being orderly and doing things one’s own way. One shouldn’t remember the grudges when there’s vexing words said, but to forget it after hearing it. Having grasped the secret to ship service, Riddhe took the documents he was to deliver and left. “Who cares about you, Mr Mania?” after leaving these words behind, Gibney looked like he exchanged places with Riddhe as he slipped into the cockpit. His underlings, 4 new technicians in spacesuits followed him from behind and looked into the cockpit from all directions.

Their job was to pay attention to all of Gibney’s actions and quickly hand the important tools to him. This deck was often filled with air, so there was no need to wear the bulky work spacesuit. However, Gibney wanted the rookies to wear them at all time. “What’ll happen if we’re attacked and there’s a hole in the wall? Once you’re sucked outside, the blood in your body will immediately freeze and you’ll immediately die.” That was Gibney’s saying, and he did see this personally on the ship he was on. Those who experienced the One Year War, the ones who fought in war, had the most weight in their words.

When Riddhe was first assigned to this ship, he would also show respect to this, and would wear a pilot’s spacesuit when he entered the deck. However, he would now be lightly dressed in a jumpsuit and a jetpack. Since he’s riding on a spaceship, he will die anyway if they were attacked, no matter where they were, and even Gibney himself wouldn’t wear a spacesuit before the siren rang. After seeing the tense profiles of the rookies, Riddhe thought that they were really pitiful…but this made Riddhe remember his own sadness, and he suddenly had an urge to drop the documents that he was told to deliver onto the floor. He took a deep breath, held back this urge, grabbed and messed up his blond hair that was a little longer, and used the steel cable to move alongside the floor.

As he was being dragged by the cable, he could see his personal suit fully as he went near the passage that’s located at the wall. It was a blue humanoid body that showed the artistry of straight and curved contours. This was the RGZ-95 <<ReZEL>> that had a variable booster unit behind. As the front part of the booster was extended out from the back of the head, it looked a lot larger than an ordinary mobile suit. Gibney and his subordinates who were gathered at the cockpit right at the abdomen looked like they were the size of the <<ReZEL>>'s fist.

On the large mobile suit deck that was more than 7 levels high, there were 7 similar-typed <<ReZEL>> and the main forces of the Earth Federation RGM-89 <<Jegan>> were also at their fixed positions and undergoing maintenance. The <<Jegan>> was a mass-produced frame, and though the <<ReZEL>> was classified as the latest transformable mobile suit, both mobile suits inherited the basic design from the Federation Army’s mobile suit, the RGM-79 <<GM>>, which wasn’t changed too much. Most notably, the visor protector on the head that blocks the optical sensor was of the exact same design. Riddhe’s personal suit, the <<ReZEL>> had the identification number NA-R008 on the chest, and the visor that was basically its eyes was being washed.

There was no sign of any streamlined winged mobile suits, only the humanoid mobile suits that looked like they will pop out in old cartoons. This scene just looked like the rows of Buddha statues Riddhe saw with he was young and went on a trip to Asia, which irritated him again. The beauty of aircraft was created from the coordination of air resistance. Thus, it would be natural for machines that’s to be used in vacuum to display other characteristics. Also, the reason why space fighter units that resembled planes and replaced by mobile suits called ‘robots’ was because of the One Year War that happened when Riddhe was 6.

If one hadn’t found the new particles that would bring about the revolution to physics, the Minovsky Particles that would jam all electronic devices, there wouldn’t be humanoid machines that formed the basis of recent wars. If it wasn’t for the creation of mobile suits and the Principality of Zeon’s creation <<Zaku>> being such a huge success that caused the Earth Federation which had overwhelming advantages to be on the brink of defeat, this hangar would still have signs of the descendant of the biplane, the space fighter jets.

Of course, the fighter jets didn’t disappear completely. The main machine of the Federation’s air force, the <<TIN Cod II>> was a fighter plane that resembled an aircraft. The space army still had the fighter planes that were used for long distance support, but they were already out, and the budget for new machines was already interrupted for so long. Also, once the air force finished clearing the remnants of Zeon Forces on Earth, they were treated like they fulfilled their purpose and were abandoned. No matter how much one liked planes, to this person who graduated from the Officer Cadet School with outstanding grades, it wasn’t an attractive path.

In the end, Riddhe came here. He was affliated to a top-notch large ship under the Federation, and became a pilot of a mobile suit. He managed to fulfill his dream since childhood…and he even used his links with his ‘family’. What he got was completely different from what he expected though. He was living in the world whether that brave pilot was gone and began living his life while being called a ‘young lord’ by experienced pilots and soldiers as he was told off every day.

Considering that he couldn’t get away from the pressure of his ‘family’ whenever he goes, this was still a surrounding he could compromise with. He continued to hold back the unhappiness within him and reached his hand out to the handle on the deck. Suddenly, he heard voices from under his feet going ‘what’s with that ugly and fake tank?’. A pilot who was being pulled by the cable was glaring at the two vehicles parked in the corner of the deck.

The dark brown machines that were over 10m in length were large crawlers. They did look like armored cars or tanks. While leaving <<Lunar Two>>, about 30 transport carrier personnel suddenly came in with the vehicles. As Riddhe watched these vehicles, other voices could be heard, ‘Did the special forces bring these people in?’.

“They had been using cover to cover it, and they didn’t allow us technicians to touch.”

“The killer squad of the hunters. Such annoying visitors.”

On hearing these bad words that were deliberately said for others to hear, the ‘visitors’ who were maintaining the vehicle—the special Federation space forces ECOAS glared over, but the pilots themselves didn’t seem to reflect on this as they went above while holding the cable. Instead of merely being crude, it was more like small fries acting childish, and Riddhe really felt like sighing.

The ECOAS, also known as the hunter squad, had quite the bad reputation. They would often have a clear divide from the ship crew, and they would cover their equipment with cloth and not allow others to get near. Riddhe really didn’t like such secrecy at all. However, it would be immature for him to return nail for nail. Basically, the training and regimentation of the space army were all like the navy, and the group mentality for each ship was too strong. An experienced soldier like Gibney could be so cool was because of the bad habit of experience triumphing over rank. The concept of the term ‘ship’ in space and bringing the seaman’s mentality into space was the cause of all this.

If the spaceship could be described as a large plane, learning the elements of the air force may be like becoming an independent organization that had open communication channels. While repeating the meaningless grumbles, Riddhe looked over at the armored car-like thing the ECOAS had. The squad members were getting ready as they started to pull the covers off the vehicles, most likely because they were getting close to their destination, and they gave a tense feeling from their backs, making that place look like a completely different world. They were dressed in impromptu T-shirts and army pants, but they were highly skilled in moving under zero gravity, and they wouldn’t shout randomly. They weren’t extremely muscular, but the abnormally thick upper body and the thick chest muscles made them look like they trained.

Riddhe’s eyes met one of them. It was the man who shot a glare at his crewmate for saying harsh words. Riddhe gave a smile as he tried to compensate for his crewmate’s unreasonable action. But the man didn’t smile as he looked at Riddhe like he was looking at a ‘thing’ and then looked away before continuing his work.

He didn’t look like he was looking at other people. The cold inorganic-like eyes was definitely of someone nicknamed a ‘hunter’. Riddhe felt like he was being held at knifepoint on the throat as he hurriedly left.

Part 2

The ship’s name was called <<Nahel Argama>>. It was an assault landing ship that belonged to the independent unit of the Earth Federation, Londo Bell. Right now, it was in between Earth and the moon, right before the dark wasteland space of L1. In three hours, they would be entering the space debris field, and they will deploy all forces to monitor the region.

The ship that was almost 400m in length had a mobile suit catapult launcher at the deck of the ship. The bridge was right in the middle like a bow, and there were 2 giant wings with hidden solar panels extending out from the back of the bridge and reaching out to both sides. If one were to designate the two engines that are equipped on the rear left and right sides of the ship as the hind legs and the catapult decks on both sides as the fore legs, it would look like a sphinx with wings or a large wooden horse. Based on this point, this ship could be said to have inherited the Pegasus-class mobile assault landing ship that was active during the One Year War—the Federation’s first mobile suit carrier <<White Base>>.

However, the <<Nahel Argama>> didn’t belong to any class, and neither did it have a similar ship. If there’s a need to classify it, it should be classified as <<Nahel Argama>>, a one and only ship. That’s because it was a ship that wasn’t designed through standard National Security planning during the time after the war, in the internal tussle that divided the Federation Army into half—what one would call the Gryps War. However, it didn’t have interchangeability and was hard to deal with, so it was removed from the army’s reorganization plans. Though there was a large scale reconstruction after the Gryps War, Londo Bell, which took it, didn’t know what to do with it, and it wasn’t set as a cornerstone of a fleet. It was hard to mobilize, so there was no accompanying fleet, causing it to be mobilized as a single ship.

This ship of the external group of the space army Londo Bell was an isolated one…and the isolation caused a twisted group mentality. It couldn’t be helped that the old habits of rejecting others happened. Riddhe used this thinking to scatter the anger that he couldn’t purge and left the mobile suit deck to move towards the center of the ship.

These weren’t all bad things, and Riddhe could even say that it’s better for him to be isolated. Also, he didn’t really dislike this atmosphere completely. He was the one who volunteered to be assigned to Londo Bell, and he considered his position and suitability before being assigned to the ‘Nahel Argama’. If he was sent to a main fleet, that wouldn’t be all the pressure. He would probably end up with his superiors fearing him, his peers hating him, and he couldn’t fulfill his duty in such an environment.

The weight of his ‘family’ was this great. He was the eldest son of the important senator in the Federation Central Council Ronan Marcenas. It was a political family that once gave birth to a Prime Minister, and he was the heir to the Marcenas’ glory. This guy’s here to pilot a mobile suit? Impossible. He’ll most likely be decommissioned after a while. It’s not rare for a political heir to enter an officer cadet school as one would say that being outstanding in the Federation army would be a shortcut to being a politician. Most of the time, he would be intending to get along with future generals to creating camaraderie with the army…

No! But no matter how many times he emphasized this, such words continued to be echoed. I didn’t want to be a politician. My dream is a pilot, so I entered the Officer Cadet School even with my family against it. However, having entered officer cadet school for 4 years and the mobile suit learning squad for a year, Riddhe really felt that it was meaningless to argue back, and didn’t want to face these words already. In contrast, he started to search his way from the center. It was a place where high ranking officers wouldn’t try to latch on to him so that they would be outstanding in the future. Even if they teased him as ‘young lord’, this was a place where they wouldn’t have any ill intention, but treat him as a pilot—

However, it was unexpected that they would call him to be a runner. Grimacing inside, Riddhe let go of the moveable handle and used the momentum to float through the path and stop in front of the lift that would lead to the gravity area. Mihiro Oiwakken, who was his junior that graduated in the next batch, was coincidentally in the lift.

“Oh my, are you delivering these documents?” “Yeah.” Both of them continued to talk as the lift carried them. The inside of the <<Nahel Argama>> had a cylindrical gravity area that was like a space colony. It uses centrifugal force to create gravity on the inside of the cylinder. Of course, as the diameter was smaller, it could only create a weak amount, but even if the object’s not fastened to the floor, it could keep it to the floor. When flying for a long time, especially while eating and undergoing military medical treatment, this design would be extremely important.

The lift went through the axis on the side of the gravity area and arrived at the rotary axis of the cylinder. Both of them were exchanging information this time about the emergency departure and the uncertain battle plan before the door opened again. The destination was the Construction Space Colony <<Industrial 7>> that’s in the Dark Wasteland space. The main operation would be carried out by ECOAS, and the <<Nahel Argama>> was in charge of sending them.

“<<Industrial 7>>’s Anaheim Electronics’ Space Colony, right? The Dark Wasteland Region is a place where a new Side will be built on in the space colony redevelopment project…I don’t think that it’s a place where the ‘Sleeves’ will show up.”

“I don’t know about the details, but the atmosphere in the bridge is really bad. We’re already unhappy that the hunters are using us as a transport, and we may even end up in a real battle. First Mate Liam was forcing the captain to make the hunters tell the truth…”

“Captain Otto can’t hold on for long if that old hag’s going to continue pressuring him like that, right? Even I can’t handle it.”

“Yeah. It’s really hard to imagine him when he’s commanding.”

Even though she would say this, Mihiro herself looked like she was far from the active battle. Her dark brown eyes and hair showed a heavy Eastern heritage. She was wearing a grey officer uniform and was shorter than Riddhe. Perhaps it was because of her inferiority complex in her height that she was so hardworking, and she was giving the nickname ‘mini-tank’ in Officer Cadet School. However, she wouldn’t give a vexing feeling, and was a nice female officer who wouldn’t lose her cool. The way she rolls her eyes would give people the impression of a small animal like a chipmunk instead of a mini tank.

22 year old Mihiro was only deployed to Londo Bell for half a year, and Riddhe, who graduated a year earlier, went to the mobile suit learning squad, so he was assigned here at the same time as her, and for the two of them, it was their first duty in their first ship. It’s been three years since the war with the remnants of Zeon in what people called ‘Char’s Counterattack’, and right now, even Londo Bell, which was meant to be an immediate response team, had not fought for a long time. Thus, there were quite a lot of people who didn’t have actual combat experience. Recently, the renegade organization called ‘Sleeves’ were starting to move, and had fought against several squads under Londo Bell. However, the <<Nahel Argama>>, which was on the outside, didn’t take part in the assault, thus, new cadres like Riddhe weren’t the only ones who couldn’t imagine the actual scenario.

“Real battle…since we have the hunters on board, it won’t be an exercise, I guess.”

“It’s troubling to have to fight secretly in a civilian space colony. <<Industrial 7>> has the school Anaheim Electronics runs, right?”

Mihiro said this as that student-like face of hers became gloomy. As he saw that delicate Eastern skin of hers, Riddhe’s thoughts became a little uncouth, and the lift reached the gravity area before opening. After saying goodbye to Mihiro who was heading to the bridge, Riddhe let his body float through the passage that looked like the axis of the rotating gravity area.

Once he landed on the gravity, the body that was captured by gravity creaked, and Riddhe felt like he was struck by dizziness. He grabbed the handle on the wall. Riddhe frowned as the blood in his body was being pulled down as he didn’t feel well about that. He moved past the weapons personnel who came over from the cafeteria and entered another lift. The captain’s room was at the lowest level in the inside wall, where the gravity was the strongest. After descending down the axis for another 50m, his body started to become heavier because of the zero gravity during the journey, which caused his body to expand.

In fact, the atmosphere in the captain’s room was rather heavy too. After reporting and calling out ‘excuse me’, Riddhe walked into the captain’s room, and immediately knew the reason.

The captain’s room of the <<Nahel Argama>> had the operation room and the reception room. The reception room itself was a wide space that was more than 60 sq meters large. The ship was being expanded continuously to match the current mobile suit capacity needed. However, the basic amount of facilities needed wouldn’t require that much space, which ended up allowing them to use as much space as they wanted to. Inside the reception room right now was captain Otto Midas leading the people in charge of the weapons and the navigation were here. However, they weren’t the ones who made the presence in the room heavy. In contrast to the tired looking captain, there was a commander sitting on the opposite sofa, and there was an organization where everyone was dressed in suits—the dangerous ‘guests’ who were riding on this ship. They were the ones who made the reception area feel so heavy.

Such a heavy feeling made him remember about his ‘family’. Once Riddhe entered the room, he immediately saw the mobile suit squadron leader, Norman Basilicok. He avoided the looks of the rest as he handed the documents over to the colonel. He wanted to immediately turn around and leave the room, but Commander Norm said, “I need to sign this. Please wait for a moment.” Causing him to remain where he was.

Sitting at a corner of the L-shaped sofa and signing the nominal roll, Norm’s face looked rather unhappy, and Captain Otto took off his cap, a rare feat for him. As they had to put on spacesuits in battle, the space army wouldn’t use military caps when riding in ships, but Otto would definitely wear the normal cap. This was to hide his reclining hairline, and it’s an open secret in the ship. Some vicious mechanics would even say, “Does he even need to worry about being bald when he looks like that?”

“We’re fine with ECOAS leading this battle.”

Otto touched that head of his that was lacking in hair and broke the silence. The voice of a middle-ranked officer bemoaning matched his face that looked like an old uncle in a civilian factory.

“But Londo Bell also has what Londo Bell needs to do. At least tell us your objective…”

“That’s classified. I personally have no rights to reveal this.”

Sitting opposite Otto was the fierce commander, who answered without an expression. He was the leader of the ECOAS squad, Daguza Mackle. His straightened back and those sturdy thighs of his would make one wonder whether he could still maintain the same position even when someone takes the sofa away. No matter whether it’s the stone-like expression or the sharp expression that would make anyone freeze, he does look like a man who could lead the hunters.

Commander Norm stopped his hand from flipping through the documents and stared at Daguza. Riddhe found that he was in a situation where he didn’t want to face at all, as his straight body froze harder. As the leader of the counter-terrorist Special Forces, Daguza had handled much more covert missions. Compared to his expression, Otto, who was forced onto the Nahel Argama which no one wanted, lost out a lot. Norman and all the crew on the ship saw that the captain was losing out a lot, and were obviously looking outraged. However, Daguza didn’t really pay much attention to these stares. Riddhe was right in the middle of the epitome of a messy situation.

“But this is to be held in a civilian space colony. At least make some explanation to reduce the causalities to the minimum…”

“That’s why I’m allowed to come along.”

Otto manned up his pride as a captain and spoke, and the one who interrupted him was one of the men dressed in suits beside Daguza. Amongst the men dressed in traditional suits, there was a man who was wearing a collared Nehru Jacket. He placed the Nahel Argama model he was playing in his hand back onto the table and looked around at everyone.

“I’ll reveal this then. There’s a deal that’s about to take place in <<Industrial 7>>. The parties involved are the ‘Sleeves’ and the leader of the Vist Foundation.”

The man said as he smiled and relaxed his plump face. He was a ‘visitor’ that came along with Daguza and the ECOAS members, and the one with the largest profile. They only knew that he was an important member of Anaheim Electronics, and his name was Alberto. This man had an arrogant smile, and he seemed to be telling everyone that the authority over this entire battle is in him. Otto asked back, “Did you say Vist Foundation…” and at this moment, Norman and Daguza narrowed their eyes in unison as they gave unhappy looks.

“That’s right. On the surface, it’s a philanthropic foundation that transports art pieces into space colonies, but in fact, we control practically all of the Vist Foundation’s wealth and power. Though there’s a difference in the authority wielder, it’s the major stakeholder of our company here.”

With his back facing the Earth Celestial Sphere map on the wall, Alberto ignored the unhappy looks everyone gave.

“Of course, <<Industrial 7>> is our company’s asset. However, even if there’s some damage, we have to prevent the deal between the ‘Sleeves’ and the “Vist Foundation’. This isn’t Anaheim’s decision only, but also the conclusion the highest authorities of the Federation Army came to.”

His eyes with double eyelids made him look like he got a doll like face, but his demeanor and bulky frame really made it hard to tell his age. Though Anaheim Electronics was the largest military enterprise in the world, but for a civilian like Alberto to take part just because he was a crucial figure in this, for what reason did the highest authorities make such a decision? “What’s this…deal that we needed to prevent at all cost?” Captain Otto asked with a somewhat trembling voice.

“It’s the <<Laplace Box>>. The Vist Foundation intend to hand that thing over to the ‘Sleeves’.”

Immediately, the heavy damp air scattered all over, and Riddhe felt cold air blow through the reception room. “<<Laplace Box>>…?” Otto frowned.

“No one knows what that thing is, or even what’s inside. But one thing’s certain. Once the <<Laplace Box>> is opened, it would bring about the end of the Earth Federation government.”

Alberto leaned his back on the sofa as he gave a serious look. Captain Otto tried to force a smile, but wasn’t successful as his stiff expression started to ache in numbness. Daguza’s sharp expression remained on Alberto.

“The Vist Foundation hid the <<Laplace Box>> and used that to preserve its wealth. Anaheim shares the same fate with it too. No matter what the aim is, we must stop the leader who lost his mind, if the thing that can topple the Federation government lands in the ‘Sleeves’ hands…things will become serious, captain.”

Alberto said as he gave a self-mocking smile. Facing the doubts and fears everyone showed as they remained silent, Riddhe could only curse himself for meeting such an unlucky and unfortunate situation.

Part 3

No matter how one walked on the side of the corridor, there was the sound of a fist slamming into flesh. Marida Cruz let go of the moving handle and saw the back of Flaste Schole.

“IT’S BECAUSE YOU DIDN’T CHECK PROPERLY THAT WE DIDN’T EVEN KNOW THAT WE WERE USED AS TRANSPORT!”

Right in front of Flaste, who was roaring away, was a young deck crewman whose face was beaten till it was red and swollen. Under zero gravity, both of them had their feet stuck to the ground by magnets, so anyone who’s hit would be hurting. Even if Flaste held back, that hard metal-like punch that can’t be dodged landed straight on his face. The crewman swayed about and stood still, saying, “I won’t give any excuses for this.” While blood was dripping from his mouth.

“THAT’S JUST YOU TRYING TO ACT COOL! WHY DON’T YOU JUST GET ON YOUR KNEES AND APOLOGIZE!?”

Flaste grabbed the front of the crewman’s hair and looked like he intended to deliver a few more punches. However, he was stopped by a voice “Stop fighting.” Marida watched the human wall that was gathered on the passageway scatter, and Captain Zinnerman’s bearded face appeared.

He sounded calm, but the expression hidden under the captain’s hat showed utter distress. It’s been an hour since they got a signal from the headquarters <<Palau>> that ‘she’ went missing. In the large Earth Celestial Sphere, the <<Palau>> itself would be a lone island in the large ocean. If she disappeared, it’s likely that she would be hiding inside the ships that come in and goes out. After having checked the entire ship thoroughly, they found that one of the storerooms that was used as a storeroom had signs of a stowaway inside, which caused a huge commotion in the ‘Garencieres’.

Marida herself joined in the search, but ‘her’ presence wasn’t inside the ship. It seemed that she slipped out during the mess when they docked. It was the crewman’s mistake for not noticing that she left, and he should be punched by Flaste, but everyone knew that they couldn’t solve the problem by getting angry. Marida ignored the men who were staring at each other and went into the cabin ‘she’ looked like ‘she’ was in.

She looked through the window on the wall and out to the central dock, closed her eyes and concentrated. She couldn’t grasp the presence of people moving about, and the messy thoughts that was like heat from a crowd caused her head to spin. Though she felt a little hot on the forehead, she couldn’t detect ‘her’ presence. There were too many people. Marida could only be amazed about how the human presences she could focus on in the battlefield could move about messily at will. As expected, an artificial being couldn’t detect a specific presence—

“She’s inside this space colony…but it’s not good if we take action and get held at ransom by our trade partner.”

Zinnerman said outside the entrance. Marida wiped away the sweat on her hands that came out unknowingly and returned back to the corridor.

“Is it likely that the ‘girl’ made contact with the other party already?”

“It’s likely that ‘she’ was opposed to this right from the beginning. Most likely, she made contact with Vist Foundation…”

Once Flaste pushed the crewman aside and finished saying that, Gilboa Sant continued on. Zinnerman watched his two henchmen, said “Not really” and put on his captain’s hat.

“It’s impossible to make contact with the outside world from Palau. She most likely intends to make direct contact!”

Most likely, she wanted to prevent the deal of the <<Laplace Box>>. Zinnerman let air flow through his hair that’s linked to his beard and put on the old captain’s hat. His eyes showed bitterness and pride. During these past years, he put in his heart and soul to protect ‘her’, and to this man who viewed himself as her substitute guardian, he may be able to judge that ‘she’ would do this, and this was somewhat of a self-defeat feeling. Marida was thinking as such, but decided firmly that she didn’t understand this, and looked away from her master who looked somewhat old now.

She only knows one thing, and that is, this is a huge crisis that would bring about danger to the entire organization. If they lose her, the ‘Sleeves’ will lose their focal point, and the organization they were finally able to build will develop cracks. If she even ends up in the Federation’s hands, the problem wouldn’t be only about the organization called the ‘Sleeves’. It may even bring everything to an immediate halt, the 16 years of war—or even the struggle that originate about half a century ago. All the sacrifice, blood, sweat that were shed for this would lose all meaning. The ‘Sleeves’ and the members of the <<Garencieres>> will lose their support.

‘She’, who was really smart, couldn’t possibly not understand this. This was foolish…but as she thought this, Marida felt that doing this would fit ‘her’ nature, and thus she stopped thinking. No matter whether it was about ‘her’ or the ‘Sleeves’, all the necessary decisions were to be made by her master, and she only needed to obey. The more she thinks, the more she would hesitate when carrying out the order. It’s something an ordinary person would normally do. After using this logical thinking process of hers, Marida gave Zinnerman a look that showed that she was waiting for instructions.

“Please, Marida. That child doesn’t know about normal life, so she wouldn’t be too far off. She’ll probably leave clues behind.”

Perhaps sensing the stare over at him, Zinnerman looked over at her and said this. This was the minimum transmission of talking and breathing, the familiar voice of her master. After answering ‘understood’ simply, Marida left the scene. After hearing Flaste’s voice “Don’t create any commotion” from behind, Marida took the lift and head towards the bridge area.

The <<Garencieres>>, which had a vertical landing function, has the end of the ship as the floor when it lands; which made it look like a building, and the bridge at the front of the ship was at the highest level. While they’re docked with the port now, the floor inside the ship that’s parallel to the port is lying horizontally. The lift itself is moving horizontally, but under zero gravity, the scenery around would decide how it looked. Marida ‘ascended’ by about the equivalent of 10 levels and entered the bridge. She then entered the bottom of the bridge—or rather—the back—where the server room was. In this small room that’s filled with communication equipment and screens, the crewman continued to stare at the screen all this while, and the sound of the keyboard being typed on never stopped.

Besides the colony news network that anyone could read, they could see the construction progress of <<Industrial 7>>, the blueprint and even the movement of the industrial workers. As they could use the network provided by the port while they were docked and connect to the colony’s network, a highly skilled hacker could check out a large amount of information. After plucking away the coffee tube from the air, Marida asked “How is it?” and the crewman didn’t look back as he tossed a printed paper over. What’s printed on it was the hottest selling news at the moment.

“A mini mobile suit was forced to land in the park. The student who used it insisted that he used it to save someone…is it?”

The sound of things piecing together rang in her mind. Marida looked at the time the news was broadcasted, and confirmed that the time was already past 9. She held onto the printed paper and left the server room.

Part 4

“…As described above, the One Year War ended at the large scale battle at A Baoa Qu. After that, the Principality of Zeon transferred control over to the new republic and signed a peace treaty, and where is the lunar city where the peace treaty was signed? Banagher Links?”

Fidgeting around and passing through the back of the classroom, Banagher was about to sit down at his seat, but was called out by his teacher, Mr Bancroft, and was immediately stunned.

“Yes. Um, that…‘Von Braun’?”

“It’s ‘Granada’.” *BAM*. After slamming the desk and correcting it, Mr Bancroft adjusted his glasses in an unhappy manner. “I heard about everything. Sit down.”

What’s going on? Banagher muttered inside his heart as he sat at a corner of the fan-shaped table. Takuya and the other students gave him looks as he plugged his laptop into the power port at the table. He opened out the retractable keyboard, entered his log in ID, and the world history definition that he missed out was shown on the screen.

It’s said that the advance in technology in the old century and the wireless network system weren’t rare at all—an age where even handphones could be carried along—right now, the network and phones were all wired. That’s because as humans are living in human colonies, such ‘intricate technology’, there’s a strict limit on the electric waves used. However, as there’s Minovsky particles floating everywhere, the limit became meaningless. These Minovsky particles that were of unknown origin causes electric short circuits of all types to happen often. Although there were many protective measures for life support systems, it’s a habit after the One Year War to print a copy of data out.

In other worlds, this Earth Celestial Sphere still had Minovsky particles floating about after the war. To put it plainly, there’s still a need for it—war continues to happen. Banagher suddenly thought about this and felt that his neck was aching a little like it was twisted. Of course, it need not be a real battle. Particles were also scattered for battle training. Recently, it’s said that even trading ships would scatter the particles to deal with pirates. Some of them would definitely float over from a real battlefield, right? Maybe at this moment, someone’s betting his life and gets burned by a laser. Just like how he saw a mobile suit this morning amongst them remains.

"A war. There’ll be a large-scale war again."

The jade-colored eyes flashed through his mind as those words rang beside his ears. Banagher shook his head that was still swirling and gathered his concentration on the history lecture.

“The Principality of Zeon was a military country that was controlled by the Zabi family. The Zeonism that Zeon Deikum promoted described that humans in space shall bring a brand new ‘Newtype thinking’, and garnered lots of supporters like Gihren Zabi. It wasn’t Deikum’s own intent, but after he died, his name was used by the Zabi family as an excuse for a war of independence. In a certain sense, it was still a dangerous thought.”

Someone could actually say such words even though it’s not knowledge derived from their own experience. How does it feel? Seeing Mr Bancroft continue to talk away, he wondered as a chat window appeared in the corner of his laptop.

This was to be expected. He was the one who caused an uproar in the entire colony by uprooting a cable on the road. How would the other students who weren’t motivated let this off? Banagher impatiently pressed the button and let the chat window appear on his monitor.

“Master Icarus. How does it feel to be investigated by the police?”

Most likely, Takuya was asking on behalf of the entire class. “Icarus?” Banagher asked back, and then, there was a link to a webpage. Banagher clicked on the link to check.

It was the front page of the ‘Daily 7’ news that Anaheim Electronics run. Banagher saw the photo of the Torohachi in the lawn and the headline ‘The Icarus that challenged the Artificial sun sadly fell onto the park’, and immediately turned off the webpage.

He felt the students around him all holding back their laughter as they looked at him. “Am I wrong to save someone?” Banagher answered.

“I heard that the person you saved disappeared like smoke.” “What did the police say about you using a mini-mobile suit on your own and wrecking property?” “What about the college?” The students asked, and Banagher used one hand to support his face and he typed with one hand.

“The surveillance camera of the maintenance system captured the image of the girl, so it was deemed that I did save someone. I was given a severe verbal warning and acquitted of charges. From the way the counseling teacher came to get me from the police, it seems that I don’t have too much problems with the school, but I have to head to the principal’s office after school.”

The male students, who made up about 70% of the class, started to get excited and tap away at their keyboard “A girl!?” “Age, looks?” “What did you talk about?” “Where did she come about?”…On seeing the screen seemingly come to life, Banagher entered, “I don’t know. The police are still looking for her.” At this moment, the sound of the lecture desk rang throughout the classroom.

“You people. Don’t think that you can slack around just because it seems that history isn’t so useful to your work. Anaheim won’t hire idiots who can’t even pass a high school standard. Don’t just stupidly believe that they will hire all you people!”

Mr Bancroft used his ultimate technique, and the students immediately closed their chat windows and looked back at the podium. The reason why vocations were quickly switched was because the vocational students know that their future jobs will lie in the teachers’ hands. Banagher sighed and focused on the lecture screen. The One Year War, the Gryps War, the two Neo Zeon wars. As he looked at the boring timeline, Banagher couldn’t get rid of those jade green eyes spinning in his dizzy mind.

The bright eyes he saw several hours ago; the soft touch when he hugged her together with both hands; everything just felt so distant, so vague that it feels like he was seeing another person’s memory. Even Banagher himself couldn’t dare to believe that he stole a mini mobile suit to save her. He didn’t think that he would have such a reckless impulse. Why did he do this? Who was she?

As it was close to noon, there was a bright sunlight outside the classroom window. At the field in front of the vocation building, there were mini mobile suits that were used for training lined up over there, moving equipment that’s to be used for training. Opposite there was a stack of trapezoid layers of the school campus that was designed with the Coriolis’ Effect of the colony’s self-rotation in mind. And far over on the other side, there’s a large wall that showed the end of a space colony—the materials were still exposed to the airtight wall facing the moon. As it was blocked by the light of the artificial sun, it’s import to see the entire mortar-like war, but there’s a hatch in the center that’s connected to the colony builder, and right now, there should be equipment that’s to be used for building colonies that’s being moved in and out.

The colony builder collects the debris that’s floating around in the Dark Wasteland region and start to purify, refine and build <<Industrial 7>>. That’s the redevelopment plan of the Dark Wasteland region, often called the experimental phase of the ‘Frontier Project’. In other words, this colony was built from the debris of past wars, and the colony builder was a magic funnel that uses this junk to build a ‘world’—and because of the shape, this large facility was given the nickname <<Snail>>. Banagher couldn’t help but concentrate on this seemingly blurry airtight wall.

That was the thing that built the space colony, this ‘world’. She said that she had to go there, that there’s someone she had to meet. For what? To prevent a war?

“After the war, organizations that called themselves the remnants of Zeon created lots of conflict. They called for space migrants to be self-independent, pushed for Ere-ism, and viewed Earthnoids as enemies. However, don’t forget the Newtype thinking in the republic that maybe people saw. That’s why colonies and meteors were thrown down to Earth. It’s unknown how many people sacrificed their lives because of this, and as citizens of the Federation who follow the idea of democracy, we…”

Another voice rang through his ears, covering the voice of Mr Bancroft who sounded more and more agitated. “How spineless…!” Who cares about you, Banagher argued back at the girl in his mind.

It has nothing to do with me. No, I can’t possibly be involved in this. Whether it’s this One Year War or the second Neo Zeon War 3 years ago—the so-called ‘Char’s Counterattack’, all these has nothing to do with me. That’s just something I only saw through the television screen, what happened in a far away world. It’s the same for all the students here and Mr Bancroft here too!

If there were countless billions of people who were sacrificed in the war, then including those that survived, it’s our job to rebuild Earth and develop. The commotion during the One Year War brought about the unification, and babies who were born after the war like Banagher grew up listening to these adults. Thus, even if there’s people trying to start a space migrant independence or even start a large scale war because of this, it basically has nothing to do with them. It’s only that they would feel uneasy about hearing that some colony got wrecked because of war, but one could think that the chances of it was like being hit by a huge meteor. They were too unlucky, and could just treat it as other people’s business and forget about this. Movements of independence were just what people who to vent their depression as they weren’t able to get used to society. The stand that ‘lucky children who don’t know about war’ will never change, and it’s undoubted that tomorrow would be the same as today.

That girl was about the same age as he was, but the way she said ‘war’ had a different force from what the teacher said. It’s like a membrane covering a greenhouse breaking apart, and a strong gust of wind blew in. It’s also like a black spot that appears in an overly bright space, and then the shadow of the entire world appeared—

“Our company allows every factory to be independent financially. Thus, a group of uncouth people accepted the orders from Neo Zeon, causing both ally and enemy to have machines made from Anaheim. Thus, people would view Anaheim as death merchants. However, do not forget that the people in charge will be punished too…”

Then, I, who’s attending Anaheim Electronics Industrial College, am already part of war. Thinking about this thing that he had never thought about before, Banagher’s brain suddenly remembered the pure white color of the mobile suit he saw this morning outside the subway train window, and felt bothered by his far-fetched thinking.

The unicorn that cut through the vacuum dragged its white afterimage of its mobile suit like it was soaring in space. It flew towards the <<Snail>>, the creator of this world, the place where the colony builder was at, where normal people were forbidden from entering. If that girl was correct, that place would be the most critical place where the ‘war’ will be associated with.

Something was about to happen. No, maybe it had already happened, it’s just that he only saw part of it. It’s like a curtain was drawn right in front of his eyes. Banagher again looked outside the window, saw the airtight wall that was filled with an unknown thing, and felt something in his heart throbbing. Mr Bancroft’s voice that was becoming more excited moved the air.

“4 years from now, in Universal Century year 100, the Republic of Zeon shall give up on its self-independence and will be drafted back into the Federation as Side 3. When the country in the name of Zeon is destroyed, Zeonism shall fall, and humanity will be united again. Just like how our grandfathers or fathers continued to exist for Earth and humanity to create this united government called this Earth Federation after so many tribulations. To inherit such a great legacy and let the Earth Celestial Sphere continue to develop, you young ones…”

Part 5

“Idiot, treating such words as well. That girl must be someone who’s enthusiastic about activity, thinking that the capitalist Earth is all evil and sort. That’s why she must be going over to Chairman Cardeas Vist.”

Puffing her slightly brown face, Micott Bartsch simply said this. Banagher kicked aside Haro lightly while it was shouting ‘idiot, idiot’, and uneasily drank up his remaining coffee.

Studying in the private high school beside Anaheim Electronics, Micott’s dress code and verbal mannerisms were all a lot more free than the vocational school, and she wouldn’t even hesitate about entering other people’s schools. She came over to the vocational school to discuss about the night’s party during lunch break, and when Banagher tried to explain what happened in the morning, that was the answer she gave.

The reality the girl said was the best weapon to deal with a boy who wanted to do something and was being all pumped up. Dressed in a hooded coat and shorts, Micott raised her leg as she sat on the bench, and Banagher avoided her gaze and said, “The chairman, as in, of our vocational school?” He tried to avoid the thought that this may be true, and anyway, even if there was nothing he could say, he had to find something to say.

“That’s right. There’s a photo when you entered the school, right? Cardeas Vist, the largest stakeholder of Anaheim Electronics, also known as the second generation leader of the Vist Foundation that was the secret owner.”

“That person lives inside the <<Snail>>?”

That girl said that there was ‘someone she had to meet no matter what’. On hearing the term ‘secret owner’, Banagher’s heart started to pulsate. However…

“Idiot, how could such a big hotshot stay in such a rural space colony? The chairman’s just a title to him. He never even appeared in the graduation ceremonies before.”

Sitting beside Micott, Takuya put down the magazine he read halfway through and interrupted. That was the robot related monthly magazine he would regularly buy, and there was a photo of a mini mobile suit tournament on the cross-pages picture.

“But it seemed that he really has a house here! It’s said that the house was directly moved over from Earth. Even the <<Snail>> was said to be Vist Foundation’s property.”

Micott’s father was the factory owner of the 3rd Industrial area, so she would often hear about such underground news. The factory owner over here in <<Industrial 7>> could be said to be like a mayor in the States, and even though Micott was a rich princess who’s studying in a private school, she would continue to come over to this vocational school where the smell of grease was thick. Maybe its because this space colony was supported by the industry. She herself even said that ‘the boys in our school are boring, all spineless princes’.

“But isn’t the colony builder managed by the colony builder management? Why is it that there’s rumors of it being the Foundation’s personal property?” / “That’s because the colony builder management had some members of the Vist Foundation, right?”

“The rich ones are really different. Launching an entire house into space, that’s crazy.”

Takuya looked like he didn’t have any other thoughts as he said what he wanted and continued to read his magazine. An open secret’s really scary, so scary that it can numb a person’s sense for the strange, Banagher thought. However, he himself never heard of the name of Vist Foundation. Was it because he was transferred in midway through, or was it that he was too dazed for a long time? Banagher really couldn’t tell which was the reason, and he looked through the trees in the school as he wondered what happened to the girl.

Anaheim Electronics wasn’t just the largest military producer in the Earth Celestial sphere, but there’s a house for the sponsor in the <<Snail>>. It’s no wonder that the crazy radicals will rush in to kill just to oppose war. In fact, there’s a lot of terror attacks on Anaheim every way, and it’s said that there’s a lot of expenses on safety. Even if the chairman of the Institute was just an open title, even Micott knew about the relationship between the Vist Foundation and Anaheim. It’s likely that this leader may be attacked.

However, the girl’s eyes made Banagher feel that things weren’t that simple. She had a strong will, but those eyes weren’t the eyes of a fanatic. It’s different from all the people he met till now. Those jade-green eyes had a strong allure to them—

“The police is looking for her? You better not get involved with this. If the army gets hold on this, you might not even have a job.”

Perhaps reading through his own thoughts, Micott said the absolute truth and ended the current conversation before looking over at Takuya. “Speaking of which, tonight’s party…” Banagher wasn’t interested in this topic and took Haro away before leaving.

Do you think I don’t know about all of this? On one hand, he felt really angry, but on the other hand, his rationale side had to admit that Micott was right. His emotions that were being built up inside was forming a vortex inside him. It’s better not to get involved with her, and I know that. At the police’s side, he may be questioned hard by the police, and also by those executives in suits. Most likely, they would be public security personnel. If they’re eyeing me, my path to Anaheim will always be closed, and I may even be expelled from school and return back to the old colony of Side 1.

The old city Banagher grew up in was the first of the space colonies that were built, and was at a corner where it was past its durability use. Other than old residents, there were refugees from war, people with unemployment and frustrated activists who were practically useless and had to rely on others. It was a small town where the circumstances were really bad, where the public drainage were often so bad that stench would always come out from it. Both mother and son seemed like they were fleeing from the sights of the world as they moved to his hometown, and it was the best place to live in for someone with no place to go. He also had the money his mother left behind, and he should be able to continue living on. However, there’s no future in that town.

Then, what about here? He intended to continue relying on this father of his who he had never met before and join the bottom rungs of the enterprise, but there wasn’t anything really different, nothing that he hasn’t seen. He didn’t have a goal, had no interests, and just felt ‘disjointed’ as the days pass. Does this mean that he had no future—he continued to be pressured by the swirling thoughts, and just when he quickly moved past the door, he heard a clear and refreshing voice “Are you Banagher Links?”. Banagher stopped.

There was an electric car parked on the road in front of the school gate, and a woman was standing right in front of it. The woman was wearing a fitting coat and tight skirt, and her long hair was tied behind her. She lifted her head and straightened her back, and one could tell from afar that she had a good figure that resembled a secretary of a large company. However, her face didn’t have any make up to make her look younger. Even though one could feel that she would fit into the school with just her appearance, the impression would change when they look into her eyes.

The emotionless blue eyes made it hard to tell whether she was focusing on him. The dark blue eyes that would remind one of the deep seas on earth made it look like there were two holes in front of her eyes. Banagher started to have goosebumps and picked Haro up from beside his feet. At this moment, the woman passed through the gate and said “That’s good. I have a question I want to ask you,” as she approached. She was wearing a business suit, but Banagher realized that she was wearing sports shoes underneath.

“Can you please tell me what did the person you saved this morning say?”

The woman merely showed a smile, and behind her, two men got off the electric car. Both of them were dressed really casually, but their expressions and looks didn’t look friendly at all. Banagher felt that his hands which were holding onto Haro were sweating and asked back, “Are you the police?” The media didn’t reveal his name, and these people didn’t look like reporters. That robotic smile the woman gave didn’t change as she answered with silence.

Banagher felt that the air around him went cold as his knees were trembling. Something’s not right with these people. They had the same stench as of those frustrated activists in his hometown—those who were already used to violence. He looked away and backed off, “I told all I should say to the police.” He quickly said that and wanted to get back into the school. Immediately, his shoulder was grabbed from behind, and the foot that was about to step out missed the ground.

“Just say the same thing you said to them. We won’t do anything else then.”

The hand that was grabbing onto the shoulder didn’t let go as her blue eyes closed in while she continued on. The force wasn’t great, but his body still couldn’t move. It felt like he would be taken down if he tried to struggle. Banagher just felt that this action was of someone who was extremely skilled and forced out a hoarse voice, “What do you mean by that…” and the woman whispered to him, “You don’t want to be involved in trouble, right?” and exerted even more strength in her grip.

There was a sharp pain in his neck, and he let out a cry before he could endure it. His upper body couldn’t help but twist, and Haro dropped off his numbed fingertips. Banagher couldn’t breathe normally as he moved the only free eye. There weren’t any students nearby, and there weren’t any signs of the old guard beside the gate. These two men were standing behind the woman and creating a blind spot. He wanted to cry out, but his abdomen couldn’t exert force, and he could only let his sights move about before seeing those blue eyes again.

It was killing intent. The term that matched her blue hole-like eyes accompanied this chilling fact as it went down Banagher’s body. Unlike those activists who lost their way, these men were professional. They knew how to wreck a human body, they were soldiers—people who would use violence without hesitation if necessary. Just when he thought about this, he heard the woman say “Where did ‘she’ go?” Banagher inadvertently said out carelessly “The <<Snail>>…”

“The <<Snail>>?” the woman asked back as she exerted even more force. The pain that was added on struck Banagher as he answered, “The, the colony builder!”

“She said that she had someone she wanted to meet and talk with…”

He spoke too much. Just when Banagher felt that despair the moment he let out his voice, the pain suddenly vanished, and his body that regained its freedom took a few steps back. Banagher finally managed to support his knees and turned over to look at the woman who had already turned around. The two men who followed her from behind quickly left the school gate as if they weren’t looking at Banagher at all.

“You can’t possibly get over to the <<Snail>>…! It’s forbidden there. There’s also construction areas all around. You can’t even get over there!”

Banagher held his aching shoulder and shouted out unhappily. The woman stopped, and the beige hair that had a bit of orange was moved by the wind as she used those emotionless blue eyes to stare at Banagher.

“I’ll remember that. Thank you, Banagher-kun.”

It was a tone that was without compassion nor arrogance, which made Banagher feel all the more humiliated. The woman just took the electric car and left with the men. Banagher used his last ounce of courage to run out of the school gate and glared at the electric car that was gradually moving away. The electric car took a turn at the road beside the school and immediately went missing. Obviously, they were headed towards the Industrial area.

That girl was chased by people, and they weren’t the people—but more like guerillas who were like soldiers. “A war will happen.” “There’s still time to stop it.” Voices like this accompanied the weight of the current situation as they echoed in his head. However, Banagher didn’t think of what to do at this moment. He felt even more guilty that he succumbed to violence and let out those words.

Having stayed in the old city that was like a slum, Banagher developed a resistance to violence. He had a belief that if he had to fight or hide, he would be stronger than an ordinary boy. But the fact was that right now, he was no different from a child. He just said everything out loud just to avoid pain. He knew that this would bring about danger to the girl, but he couldn’t even muster a lie in his mind—no, he was just that spineless.

“I’m really…weak.”

He remembered those jade green eyes that had some anxiety in them. ‘How spineless’. The words echoed in his heart. Banagher gripped his fists hard and couldn’t help but run out.

At this moment, he didn’t even have the rationale mindset to think about his future as his body went hot from the impulse of trying to make up for his own mistake. Banagher and Haro, which caught up, went to the nearest electric car park.

Part 6

Having come all the way here, one would really feel that Industrial 7 was really a space colony that was being built.

The block that was completed was only 20km long, and right in front of it was the colony builder unit <<Wheels>>, and the inside was 3.2km long and 1.6km wide. The construction area was divided into 4 parts. One of the land cabled structures has 4 territorial blocks that’s being built, and these were lined together without much any bumps. There’re 6 of these land cable structures that surround all 360 degrees on the inside of the wall of the space colony. This scene itself wasn’t just a congruent sight itself, but one would realize that if they peel off this foil of artificial earth, they would just be living in a cylinder. It’s a barren and lonely sight.

For the past 10 years, she had been to many places, including Earth, but she had never seen a space colony that was being built on the inside. As she stood in front of wire mesh that separated her from inside, the girl didn’t look bored as she looked at the large builder unit. The large unit builder was a large metal frame that was about the same as the area block. The lines that run on the rail were moving about, fastening the area block that was under construction, and the fully automatic machines will finish off the area blocks that they were supposed to construct. Simply put, these were extremely large industrial machines, the basis of the land making process.

Based on the information on the mesh wire, a construction would take about a week. The first construction will move onto the second one, and the second one will move onto the third one. It will move all the lines on the area blocks to be completed systematically as it progresses, and it will move back once the fourth construction was complete to the first construction. This was the day when the final construction will be completed, and the other side of the wire mesh look busy. Work vehicles and cars with supervising civil servants would move about to and fro. Once the construction group back off, a new ‘land’ will be completed, so the district office itself would be busy. They had to check the name of the area according to the city’s plan, and also check the electric cables and the underground sewage. There were a whole lot of things they had to do.

The land builder units would back away in all 6 lines and return back to the start. The wheel itself would back away too. In other words, the colony will increase in length by 1.6km. At that time, the colony itself would let a siren and get ready for a slight tremor that would coming with the growth. However, what would be the scene of 6 builder units rolling at the same time when they’re more than 3km long and about the height of 25 levels? Just thinking about it alone made it exciting, but right now, the current situation wouldn’t allow for her to sightsee leisurely. She looked away from the high builder unit and looked at the construction gate that’s between the wire mesh fence.

Though there were guards, the security wasn’t strict. Maybe vehicles could sneak in here. However, there was a problem. She didn’t know what the builder unit looked like, and even if she passed through it, there were still 3 blocks of area blocks that were under construction. She didn’t feel that she could walk 6km into this construction area without being discovered, and especially when there was the commotion this morning, it’s likely that the police may be watching them.

The girl looked up at the artificial sun that was shining through the clouds. She wondered if she could walk over through there. It’s impossible to see from here when the land builder was blocking, but the artificial sun that passes through the space colony would extend out to the airtight wall on the other side where the moon was, and it would form part of the basis of the gantry linking to the colony builder. The gantry would often let out construction materials and dust as cranes would then move these materials to the construction site. Thus, it should be easy to sneak in through the artificial sun.

And since this path is inaccessible, she could only move through the construction area if she wanted to get near the colony builder. The girl again looked at the gate of the construction site. As she noticed the cars and the guards who were busy dealing with them, *kyururu*…her stomach rumbled.

She immediately looked around. Luckily, there wasn’t anyone nearby. Even if there were though, the sounds of cars moving through would overpower it so much that it couldn’t be heard. However, she still felt herself blushing unknowingly. The girl hasn’t ate for more than half a day, and wondered how she was actually able to be hungry at this moment. But on the other hand, she could understand the importance of eating. The girl sighed. She should have taken some dry food when she left the Garancieres, but it was now too late to regret about this.

She was thirsty too, and in this situation, her concentration will drop. Also, it’ll be easy for someone to spot her if she remained in the same place for a long time. The girl left the scene and headed towards the Industrial area in the street construction block. On the way, she went by a large trailer that had lots of mini mobile suits on, which caused her face to be covered with dust that flew off the road. At this moment, she suddenly remembered about that boy she met in the morning, his presence.

The boy who desperately reached his hand out of the mobile suit cockpit to save her life while she was floating in the air seemed to be an ordinary citizen. How was he able to do that? What happened to him after that? I should have at least thanked him…

Part 7

To ease the stress of being hidden in a sealed space, the space colony had routes that were designed to be part of the city’s plan. One of them was the commercial area that was right beside the construction area. The thin and long path had shops littered on both sides of the road, and each of the shops were set up to their ideal image, causing the street to look like those remaining shopping streets in those old cities on Earth. The back of the short roofs had builder units that were like hills, and clouds that covered the airtight wall facing the moon. The area just felt like a rural town.

It was 1pm, and all the eateries were no longer packed with workers. The shopping streets entered a time of relaxation. She snuck in between some old people and some housewives with children and continued walking down the street. There were bakeries, bookstores, customer service shops and eateries. At times, there would be the smell of hot dogs or oily Chinese food coming out from the messy row of streets. Though she could drink from the water cooler in the park when she’s thirsty, her empty stomach couldn’t be filled, and if she let her guard down, it would rumble again, which would make it embarrassing.

However, she was more worried about the housewives who were walking by and glancing at her. She had firm belief that she wasn’t caught on camera by the port’s surveillance camera, so nobody would suspect that she was the one involved in the incident this morning. Or maybe her clothing was rather strange for the people here? She checked on the internet for the latest fashion trend before she left for Palau and tried her best not to choose the most outstanding one. As she looked at herself through a glass window on a cupboard in a shop, the girl wondered whether it was because she buttoned up her collar. However, she didn’t want to open her collar so randomly, so she started working again.

She made preparations before, but there would be lots of trouble when it came to reality. To her, who never carried money or credit cards before, she didn’t know that she couldn’t buy bread without having money as it was not part of her knowledge. Thus, she made the mistake of running out without taking the money. I really don’t understand social rules—the girl thought as she felt even more depressed. She had no experience of going out alone. Speaking of which, she did watch a romantic movie about a princess in a small country who slipped out onto the streets for a day of happiness. It was an old century film. The story was ordinary, but the actress who acted as a princess who did not know anything was really charismatic, and it was a movie she really liked. What was the name of that actress?

Thinking about it hard, the girl suddenly realized that she was seriously thinking of the actress’ name. She abandoned the useless dream behind her. The princess in the movie was just leaving a boring duty, but she had something she had to do. Ever since they knew that she was opposed to this deal, Zinnerman didn’t reveal anything more about this deal to her. Thus, she wasn’t certain when the interaction with Vist Foundation would be held, and where. However, some of the other crew members said that it would begin at evening, and it’ll be too late for her if she continued to laze around. Palau should have found out that she was missing. She had to be faster—the girl left the shopping street, entered a complicated alley, and found a van parked in a dead end.

She looked at the van that was filled with metal filings, and thought that it would be impossible to get on. She then looked over at the driver’s seat. She didn’t want to use this method, but would it be possible to talk to the driver and let him help transport her into the construction area? She could say that she wanted to get closer to see the colony being built. If she’s successful, she could even get inside the area builder. If she could get in and understand the rough situation…

Suddenly, she felt a stare from behind. It’s like someone who had been prone suddenly lifting its face, a stare that was full of intent. Her body unknowingly tensed up, but she didn’t make the mistake of turning around carelessly. The girl quickly turned around a corner, but there was a man who blocked his way on the alley, causing her to stop.

The man was dressed in a short coat, and his cap was kept low. The girl recognized his face. He was a member of the Garencieres. The girl intended to leave the alley before the man walked over, but two people were standing at the exit of the alley, blocking her escape.

The exhaust fan from the restaurant pumped out greasy smoke, and the alley only had dirty trash bins fallen about as there was no one else around. Knowing that she had nowhere to go, the girl hid her uneasy feeling as she faced the two people who blocked her getaway. She didn’t think of why she was discovered. She knew that the crew of the Garancieres could do this.

And if Marida joined in the search—the girl pulled about 3m away as she stared at Marida. Marida was wearing an office suit as a disguise, yet it couldn’t hide her ominous presence. The girl knew that she would be immediately caught at such a distance, and used her eyes to tell Marida not to be rude. Marida’s expression showed a shift, and one could tell that she was wavering,

“Let’s head back, princess.”

Feeling that little wavering in herself, Marida said, “The captain’s worried about you.”

“I don’t want to.”

“Please consider your position. If you’re discovered by the Federation at such a place, who knows what would happen…”

She stepped forward while wearing the sports shoes. Even if the disguise wasn’t perfect, it’s really Marida’s style not to wear high heels. “It’s because I thought of this that I did it.” The girl used a tone that fit her ‘position’ and prevented Marida from moving forward.

“Right now, we can’t use the ‘Laplace Box’. No matter what kind of thing it is, Full Frontal will only use it as a tool and start a meaningless conflict. You should know that, right?”

“I don’t understand. I just listen to orders.”

“You’re lying. You’re just escaping. The ‘power’ that was given to you normally shouldn't be used in such a way.”

The girl didn’t just say this randomly. Marida, who would blindly listen to Zinnerman’s orders and never faced her own life—showed wavering in her blue eyes again and looked away from the girl, but the ominous presence on her body didn’t subside. Marida recollected her expressionless look as she looked over, “Princess…pardon me for my rudeness.”

With such a signal, the crew member standing behind put his hand on the girl’s shoulder. He did control his strength, but the skilled move wasn’t something that could be shaken off whenever anyone wanted to. The girl saw Marida and the other crew member close in and shouted, “How rude! Let go of me!” as she continued to struggle. At this moment, a loud alarm suddenly rang throughout the entire alley.

The sound was so loud that it probably didn’t just ring through the alley, but also possibly through the road. Even Marida was stunned as she looked around. The girl saw the crew member beside her reach for a gun in his chest, and the force on her shoulder was weakened. She used this chance to struggle hard and escaped from his grasp.

The girl dodged past the hand Marida reached out with for the first time and went around the corner. Amidst the siren, she could hear Marida call out “Princess…!”. However, the girl continued to run. She turned around several corners, went through a narrow alley, and was aiming for a main street with people on it. However, the girl soon lost her way, and as she looked around at a crossroad, someone suddenly grabbed her on the wrist from beside her.

The soft hand was different from Marida and the rest. The familiar feeling appeared through the girl’s mind as she even forgot to struggle and looked at the owner of the hand. That was the face of the person who saved her from impasse.

The head that was full of sweat and the dark brown eyes were staring at the girl’s eyes. Why…? The girl thought, and then heard the boy’s shout, “Over here!” The girl was pulled away by the hand. She ran from behind, and the ball-shaped robot beside the foot started to roll. The noisy alarm suddenly stopped. It seemed that this mascot-like robot was the one that made the sound.

The boy pulled the girl along in this narrow alley and continued to run through complicated alleys without hesitation. The girl was certain that he was that boy through the robot and the deep blue jacket on him, and continued to follow him and run. It may be careless for her to follow a stranger, but right now, she couldn’t allow herself to be caught by Marida. The boy who seems familiar with this place is leading, so let’s have him lead. The girl continued to run between the gaps of the packed houses.

Also, the hands of this boy were easing themselves to prevent hurting her and yet grabbing tightly so and not letting go. She was helped by a lot of hands before, but the girl never grabbed such a hand that grabbed onto hers firmly and without hesitation. It was unexpectedly soft too; it had the weakness of young age as it was tightly sticking to her skin.

I was saved by these hands twice. Who is this boy? At this moment, the girl forgot that she was being pursued and seriously looked at the back of the boy.

Part 8

The self-defense alarm system inside Haro actually worked in such an unexpected manner. While sweating and holding onto the girl’s hand, Banagher moved through the alleys of the shopping area.

Banagher hadn't come to the construction site only one or twice, so he had roughly remembered the entire place. He just needed to head over to the distribution center to verify the vehicle license plate that terrifying woman and the rest used and confirm their location. It wouldn’t be too difficult for him to take the initiative. Banagher intended to use the complicated alleys to shake off their pursuers, that is, if they weren’t caught in the process.

He first heard the breath of the girl behind her. Then, it was Haro, who was bouncing like a ball as its body was of strengthened plastic with an enhanced layer of rubber. Haro used the spring inside its frame to jump, and as the center maintains the movement, it couldn’t turn right immediately. After turning around a few times, Banagher picked up Haro, put it in a gap that’s 50cm wide between two houses, and used his expression to call the girl over. He thought that she would hesitate for a while, but the girl actually followed Banagher and entered the gap.

The gap was so small that he had to tilt himself sideways just to walk through. After walking through it, they used the piled up garbage for footing to climb up the walls. Then, they continued to move down through a corridor in the air near the roofs. A granny who was watching television inside a window turned around in surprise. A stray cat was scared away by this sudden intruder, and someone angrily shouted, “WHO’S THAT BRAT!” While stepping on the cheap plastic roofs, Banagher continued leap off them, and the girl nimbly followed him as her purple shawl fluttered with the wind.

After moving for about 20m, the rows of roofs vanished, and a large space appeared in front of them. They arrived at the boundary of the commercial area and the industrial area. Normally speaking, the area was a road, but the houses here were built towards the wired fence. This was a screen that couldn’t be seen unless one deliberately looked from the ‘wide space’ where there’s deliberately no set up. Banagher checked that he reached the end of the cable like as planned, looked at the colony builder units that’s several hundred meters in front of him, and again turned to look at the landscape from a height of about 3 levels.

There’s a small pile of dirt beside the fence, and there’s no construction worker. Thinking about this, Banagher thought that this would be faster than climbing down the fence and turned to look at the girl. But before he could ask whether they should jump, the girl’s determined look was facing him as she jumped onto the pile of dirt. I lost to her…Banagher thought and carried Haro before jumping.

Banagher’s feet landed into the soft dirt and beside the girl. He climbed out from the pile of dirt that was at his chest level, spit out the dirt that entered his mouth, and saw that the girl who had already climbed out from here and slid down. They ran for a long distance, and those who don’t know the landscape wouldn’t know such a path. Banagher wanted to take a short breath and called the girl “Oi…”, but the girl stared sharply back and him and shouted, “HURRY UP!”

“MARIDA WILL CATCH UP TO US LIKE THIS!”

The girl’s jade-green eyes showed anxiety. It was really the expression of that girl. “Marida, as in that scary big sister?” The girl angrily growled back without answering Banagher’s question, “Hurry up!” and started to run off. Banagher climbed out from the pile of dirt and hurriedly followed behind.

He grabbed the hand of the girl who was intending to run to the outside of the builder area, said “Over here” and was about to pull her back, but immediately felt the girl gasp. He looked over at where she was looking at, and found that it was the woman who went through the residential area and was standing on the layers of overlapping roofs. The pretty-looking woman called Marida was looking over. Her blue eyes narrowed to a fine line. The next moment, the feet with sports shoes on them stamped onto the ground, and the hair that was tied into a ponytail fluttered. Her body had easily leaped past the metal wire and the pile of dirt as she landed on the ground.

She was as nimble as a cat. “No way…” Banagher couldn’t believe it, and the girl grabbed his hand, shouting, “HURRY UP AND RUN!” Banagher pulled her hand and ran towards the builder unit. The pyramid-like large monorail track and the structure was like a hill. On seeing this structure that was so large that it occupied their line of sight, they ran to a workyard with construction materials and mini mobile suits.

“What should we do?”

“YOU WANT TO GET OVER TO THE ‘SNAIL’, RIGHT?”

Banagher roared as he answered the girl and saw the crowd that was scattering in front of the builder unit like ants. It’s about time for the colony to expand and the creation of new land. They were already moving through the workers that were moving back, and one of them who looked like the worker head shouted, “Oi! Who are you!” Banagher went by the man and got near to a slope near the monorail stop. Looking back, he saw Marida easily pushing aside the workers who were coming over, and they were less than 20m away. Banagher’s idea to stand up and adjust his breathing was gone as he desperately ran up the slope.

The mobile rail of the builder units—the monorail was located at a place 1.5 times the height of the units away, but 170m high. The construct that looked like a triangle from the front was set in front of both sides of the builder. And at the start, or the end, there’s a builder unit linked to the slope used for transportation. Banagher was climbing up this slope. In other words, if he continued to run up this slope to the top, he would reach the ceiling of the builder unit.

The ceiling was 25 levels high from the builder, and there’re another few levels to the link point of the monorail. It’s a slope where a cart could move, but it would be really tiring to run up about several hundred meters at one go. He panted quite a few times, but on the way there, his feet started to feel lighter, and it felt like the muscles on his waist seemed to be floating from his bones. That’s because the further he was from the ground—the further off from the inside of the colony made the centrifuge force weaker.

There’s no high-rise buildings inside the space colony, and one could tell that the centrifuge force could only be used for a height of about 5 or 6 levels. The higher he climbed, the more his body felt the weakening of gravity. Banagher felt that such physics laws was really useful for the first time as his running motion was like long jumping continuously. However, it would be the same for the pursuer as well. Marida kicked the slope with much more leg power and suddenly accelerated. Her hand reached the back of the girl, and only missed her shoulder by inches. However, she didn’t mess up her rhythm as she continued to pull her distance close. She was just like a machine that didn’t know fatigue. We can’t run away, we’ll be caught in the next second. Getting ready for this, Banagher suddenly heard a deep-sounding alarm.

At the same time, the warning lights on both sides of the slope rang, and a slow tremor went through their legs. Banagher used all his strength to move his legs and pulled the girl over to him. Because of the tremor, Marida’s feet became slower, and the link to the slope was being dragged up, turning a straight lane to a 2m tall wall. Banagher shouted: “Jump!” and leaped at the wall that’s rising.

Shaking off the gravity that was less than half of usual, both of them jumped with Haro, and their fingertips reached the edge of the wall. Banagher grabbed the rising wall, and the girl did the same too, but her fingers nearly slipped. Banagher grabbed the girl’s hand and climbed the wall. They didn’t stop rising, but they saw Marida, who couldn’t jump in time, slowly becoming smaller.

The builder unit was starting to move. The builder unit that was stuck on the new block of land rose up the monorail by 170m. It moved into the moving circuit before starting to move horizontally. The unit just moved though the builder circuit and retreated back to the airtight wall facing the moon before starting to work from the first construction area.

Banagher checked that the girl and Haro were both fine, and for a short while, didn’t have the strength to move a he looked at the landscape that was getting further and further away. Marida continued to remain on the broken slope as she looked over. There was no anger or disappointment in her eyes, just eyes that were as empty as a cave.

Part 9

All the gates would be closed when they’re moving. Thus, nobody could enter the inside of the builder unit. Both of them dragged their tired legs and continued moving up the remaining part of the slope before reaching the top part of the builder unit. Right in front of their eyes was a hilly region that was composed of metal frames that was tilted towards the inside, creating a gradual gradient of materials that extend far beyond. This size wasn’t to be described with a number of football fields, but one that could accommodate the entire city.

Banagher spread his limbs out wide on the floor of the passage linking both frames. He felt like he was lying on the clouds, most likely because he felt that gravity was weakened. The girl sat beside him, and both of them spent a little time regaining their breaths. The builder unit was already starting to move, and the breeze that gently blew by felt refreshing on the sweaty body.

“We can ride on this to the airtight wall near the moon. We can get close to the ‘Snail’…the hatch of the space colony builder, but I don’t know whether we can get in.”

Having finally adjusted his breathing, Banagher said this, and the girl merely answered softly, “Is that so…” without even looking back. Her voice sounded drastically different like she couldn’t even keep up with the sudden changes around her, and she had already used up all her strength just looking around.

“My name’s Banagher, Banagher Links. What’s yours?”

Banagher sat up, wanting to catch the girl’s attention. The girl let out an “eh?” and exchanged looks with Banagher, but immediately averted her eyes and said softly, “Erm, I’m called Audrey Burne…”

Audrey. Banagher felt that this was a nice name, but he didn’t have the courage to say it out, and looked away unnaturally. Haro instead came in between them and shouted, “Haro Haro” as it fawned around. The girl’s tense expression became relaxed somewhat as she reached her hands out to grab Haro.

The first time he saw her smile, Banagher had a strange feeling that the artificial sun got brighter, and then told her, “It’s Haro.” But Audrey gave him a puzzled look.

“Don’t you know? This is a souvenir robot made by the ace pilot of the war. It was rather popular when you were young too, right?”

“No idea, I’ve been living in the countryside.”

Which countryside? Banagher looked at her face that was becoming more earnest and wanted to ask more, but Audrey’s smile suddenly vanished as she asked, “Why did you save me?” Having been asked this, Banagher was at a loss of words.

“That’s because…I don’t want people to call me spineless.”

Actually, it’s because I was unhappy that I was threatened by that big sister…he didn’t want to say this, and he felt that it wasn’t just that too. However, Audrey frowned and looked aside. Right now, her confused mental state was full of doubts. Seeing her without any response at all, Banagher said, “That, that’s what you said!”

“Me?”

“Yeah. I was then caught by the police. And I met that scary big sister when I went back to school…”

“Then, you followed Marida and the others?”

Interrupting the misunderstood explanation, Audrey stared at his eyes and said this. Just when Banagher was left speechless by her fast understanding, her clear jade-colored eyes shook, and her expression became gentle after understanding what happened. She suddenly blurted out a ‘sorry’, which stunned Banagher.

“If I told you off for being spineless, I’ll take that back. It seems that I misunderstood you.”

“Misunderstood?”

“Misunderstood you for being a person trapped in your own little world.”

Such unrestrained words caused Banagher to be stunned. He stared at Audrey’s face, who in turn looked like she didn’t say anything wrong, and again felt unhappy for being hit on the sore point before shouting, shrilling, “EVERYONE’S LIKE THAT!”

“Everyone’s been living in such an exaggerated cylinder. Can’t that do?”

“That’s not it. I apologize if my words do sound scathing…because I have never experienced such a life before.”

That somewhat shocked look on her face looked like she had never expected her words to hurt other people, and she looked like a strange creature who lived in a completely different habitat. Banagher asked in disappointment, “Are you some rich princess or something?” Audrey herself smiled as she answered,

“A duckweed floating about. That’s what I was born like.”

Her gaze turned to the builder unit that was moving on the lane beside them and she said in a self-mocking manner. Banagher secretly glanced at her somewhat lonely looking face, and felt that she was someone who he could get along with, and said, “Is that so…then I’m the same too.” Audrey didn’t answer as the artificial sun that seemed to have gone brighter shone on the duo’s head.

The builder would spend about 30 minutes to retreat completely from the builder cable that’s more than 6km long and would dock at the airtight wall facing the moon. During this time, both of them cautiously moved through the wide roof and moved to the other side of the builder unit. It was on both sides of the roof, but the distance was about 1.6km. Once they finished walking, the builder unit had finished moving.

They were only moving about 20km per hour on the builder cable, but the wind that blew by was exceptionally strong too. Banagher let Audrey move in front and carried Haro as he followed from behind silently. This is in case Audrey was about to fall off in the wind, but even in low gravity, her body wasn’t blown away by the wind. The cabled rail didn’t let out any sounds of tremor as only the wind surrounded both of them.

“Who were your pursuers?”

After going through half of the roof, Banagher asked. This was the one question that appeared in his heart amongst the pile of questions.

“My allies. I escaped from them.”

The wind blew Audrey’s brown short hair as she casually said this. Banagher remembered what Micott said and tentatively said, “Are you an activist or something?”

“Activist?”

“Those that oppose the Federation or want the independence of spacenoids or something…”

“…Yeah. That’s sort of correct, but it may be scarier than what you think.”

Looking up at the airtight room that blocked her path, Audrey gave a wry smile. It’s unknown whether that expression was either to mock Banagher’s foolishness or herself. Banagher felt that a war that far exceeded his expectations was about to start and swallowed his saliva. He felt that he could be involved in it and lifted his head, and felt that his sweat and body went cold.

He looked up at the artificial sun that was gradually becoming yellow, and then looked at the watch which showed 2:15pm. He skipped all his lessons, and since it’s vocational classes where everyone’s split up, he couldn’t print notes from Takuya. What should I do? And I think I have to go to the principal’s office after school…Most likely, his mind subconsciously forgot about his fear, and right now, he’s thinking about all these things. Banagher looked back and saw a street behind it. That was a familiar street that included Anaheim Electronics Industrial College, and the road just looked like it really faded.

“You said that there won’t be any war, right?”

He turned to look at the girl’s back in front of him and said cautiously. Audrey immediately stopped.

“You said that you have to meet someone to prevent a war from happening. That’s…”

Suddenly, noise and tremors interrupted Banagher’s words. Banagher was shocked and ran beside Audrey before looking in front.

With the builder unit moving back, the colony started to extend. The ‘Wheel’ that covered the outer wall moved, and ‘Industrial 7’ slowly became longer. Inside it, Banagher and Audrey saw the airtight wall facing the moon backing off as the inner wall that’s sliced into a ring moved.

The cylinder that was 6.4km in diameter rumbled, and the airtight room and the gap between the inner wall of the ring gradually expanded. From between the expanding, through the first construction area that was under way and an area block that was only composed of frames, they could see the insider wall of the ‘Wheel’, and the ‘landscape’ of the colony that wasn’t completed was shown outside. The 6 colony units that were moving back through the cabled rails will enter the gap together to builder the outer wall of the colony, and then continue to move forward. It would continue to build the remaining area blocks in each construction area in order, creating new earth in the colony.

The earth rolled together with the ground, and the builder unit was trapped inside like a hill—this ‘creation of the earth’ seen was already a common sight to Banagher, but the majestic scene of this large movement would make anyone amazed no matter how many times he saw it. Audrey seemed to have the same feeling as she muttered, “Amazing…” she looked completely moved. The glow let out by the jade colored eyes seemed to show an expression a person of her age should have.

“Is this the first time you’re seeing this?”

Audrey nodded as she answered Banagher’s question, but her eyes couldn’t leave the scene in front of her. The clouds that were moving, the airtight wall that was moving further, the base of the artificial sun that got expanded, and the temporary storeroom that was floating beside like a spaceship—

“The world’s gradually becoming bigger…”

Audrey suddenly said that. Her expression and thoughts weren’t like a girl who’s living in a path of Shura far beyond anyone’s imagination. It was a voice filled with similar thoughts and values. The anxiety and terror immediately disappeared as Banagher smiled. He stood beside Audrey, who wasn’t even aware of herself, and looked in front.

Unlike the faded streets behind, the brightness of the world in front of them obviously increased. Breathing the air of the ‘world’ that was just born, Banagher lifted his head and looked at the airtight wall with a metal bowl-shaped depression. At the base of it, the gate leading to the colony builder—the ‘Snail’ was covered in clouds, and they couldn’t see it.

Part 10

The expansion work on the space colony resonated with a side of the colony builder. It was 2:30pm, and the <<Wheel>> finished moving. The ‘Magallanica’s retractable deck buzzed silently like how it was supposed to. However, this retractable deck of the <<Magallanica>> could hold a battleship. As according to the nickname <<Snail>>, there’s a snail shell riding on its back. It’s more than 300m in diameter and 1km deep. This place was linked to the airtight wall facing the moon on Industrial 7, and was also the exit where building materials were moved. In that sense, it’s more accurate to describe it as a small scale port.

In one of the areas, Cardeas Vist was watching the silent buzzing—the packaging of the RX-0 <<Unicorn>>. The white machine had more than ten personnel preparing it, sealing the hatch or sticking warning labels all over it. That’s a common scene when exchanging goods, but the personnel realized that they weren’t doing an orthodox handing-over and kept silent. They weren’t using a normal mobile suit fixation unit but a special containment that’s highly confined, which is another reason why they were silent. The <<Unicorn>>, which was being packaged inside the box with spare parts and equipment, looked like a toy robot in a model shop. Or rather…a top secret machine in a box.

If there’s a need to mention something different, it’s that the manufacturer wouldn’t accept refunds or repairs, which was why they put in a large number of repair parts and waste materials. The limbs were tied together to prevent the person using it from spoiling it immediately. However, Cardeas himself suspected whether this would be effective or not. If the ‘Unicorn’ were to go full power, such a level of restrain could be destroyed. The unique frame, capabilities and limits of this machine weren't completely grasped yet too…

He thought about all these as he lifted his head to watch the beam rifle being dragged by a mini mobile suit. Gael wordlessly floated over to stand beside him. Seeing Gael move so fluidly under zero gravity and land on both feet, Cardeas wordlessly prompted him to state his intent.

“The second lift camera captured this footage just now.”

Gael handed over some photos of a girl’s face that was entering the cargo lift. Cardeas stared at the face that’s slightly above, and gasped.

“…Why is ‘she’…?”

“Not sure, but she’s coming here. There’s a report that said that there was an intruder that came in through the maintenance path of the artificial sun, but the identity and whereabouts were unknown. Maybe it’s ‘her’.”

She had brown short hair and a taunting expression as it looked like she was deliberately exposing her face and looking up at the camera. If it was a disguise, it would be too brilliantly done. For 10 years, she had never shown a photo of herself. However, 3 years ago, Cardeas saw a photo of hers that the Federation intelligence managed to capture successfully. He could only admit that she was here.

But why was she here? After shuffling through several photos, Cardeas saw the other person who rode the elevator with ‘her’, and couldn’t help but widen his eyes. A shock that was different from seeing ‘her’ face pierced through his heart, and he felt his own hand that’s holding the photo shaking.

“What about this boy?”

“Seemed like her companion. A little too young to be an escort…”

At this moment, Gael stopped, having definitely sensed his shock. Cardeas used his utmost will to control the trembling in his hand and finished looking through the remaining photos.

The dark brown eyes inherited from his mother, and the slightly round face. It couldn’t be a mistake. The ‘tumor’ in his life he kept till now actually appeared at such a moment, and with ‘her’—

“Do we have contact with the ‘Sleeves’?”

Cardeas spent 10 seconds just to let out a voice that didn’t tremble as he asked while ignoring Gael’s concerned look.

“No. But there’s a little commotion in the construction area. There may be a mutiny too.”

“So ‘she’s working on her own too…”

Considering the current situation with the sleeves, this isn’t impossible, but the reason as to why ‘she’ came over wouldn’t be enough to explain why the boy came with ‘her’. His life had no involvement with the ‘Sleeves’ in the first place. What happened? What caused him to come here? Cardeas didn’t want to talk about such ‘private affairs’ to the ‘corporate’ professional Gael as he continued to stare at the people in the photos.

“This may cause an obstruction to the transport of the ‘Box’. Must I send her back?”

Gael said. Cardeas looked at his upright stare, and then lowered his head as he looked back at the photos. At this point, the word dilemma came to his mind.

Part 11

Once they took the lift down and went through the defenseless gantry gate, they entered the closest elevator. Another 1,500m down to their destination and it was the residential area of the colony builder.

This was the inner area that was on the inside of the 'Snail'. This residential area that had only half the diameter of the space colony had only half the gravity. Banagher and Audrey floated out from the elevator and entered the plains with very little gravity. The outside was a complete green, and there weren't any people around, and neither were there the sounds of vehicle or mini mobile suits moving. The relaxed voices of the birds was the only thing accompanying the air. This shrill and peaceful silence that would hurt the ears made it feel like a completely different world from the noisy industrial space colony.

Under the flat artificial sun that was illuminating the ceiling, the green pasture looked like it filled the entire inner wall. To the people who would only think that there was only the sight of industrial resource facilities and worker dormitories, this scene would be too unexpected. As the gravity was weaker, the grasses and trees were taller than those in the space colonies, but looked like they were properly trimmed, which made them look odd. This place had tectonic plates that were of an even smaller scale, and if one didn't look around, it would appear to be flat ground. This place also had a luxurious looking villa, and the fountain in the garden was still flowing with water. One would feel that the name 'colony builder' was a lie as what anyone would see was similar to a garden commonly seen in old-century houses of the nobility and the fabled tycoon's private land.

“Just like what Micott said...”

The structure of the Vist Foundation villa itself was moved directly from Earth. Banagher stared at the villa in an engrossed manner that could only be described as 'luxurious'. This should be called a Tudor dynasty mansion, a stone structure that almost couldn't be seen at all in the space colonies. It was 100m wide and the corridor at the front had become all grey because of the erosion. The overwhelming feeling of a fortress would make any viewer feel fear. The wide blue sky and the clouds as a backdrop made it no different from Earth.

What should be an old-styled donut-shaped space colony was shown in the sky. The axis seemed to be like Industrial 7 itself, and the afternoon lighted the mansion tiredly. Banagher hid behind the shrub and looked at the situation at the villa. However, he was stunned by Audrey, who stood up all of a sudden. Even though they were able to walk in unguarded up till now, there wasn't any guarantee that they could pass through safely.

“Are you going?” On hearing these words, Audrey stopped and turned around with a look that seemed to say “What are you doing here?”

“I can go alone. You can head back.”

At this moment, she gave a tone that seemed to emphasize the end of the line. “Bu...” Banagher's voice was filled with doubt, and Audrey turned around.

“They found out that I'm here. They're ready to invite me in.”

“Does the Vist Foundation know you?”

Her eyebrows twitched, showing that she was wavering somewhat “So you really needed to meet someone of the Foundation...” Without waiting for him to finish, Audrey turned around and walked off. Banagher snorted and moved off in larger strides than Audrey.

“Banagher-san...”

“There may be a terrifying big sister out there waiting for me. It's safer for me to go ahead.”

How could he turn around at this now that he came all the way here? “Also, call me Banagher.” After he said that, Banagher carried Haro, who couldn't move really well on the grass, and asked: “Right?” Haro energetically answered back “Haro!” as the voice echoed in his chest.

Banagher took this as a yes and started to walk to the villa. Forget about being served. If we're going to be captured, there's no need to lead us all the way here. He was thinking that since there was no danger, he might as well come to the inside of the 'Snail' since it was a rare chance itself. The colony builder was a mothership that was meant to develop the Jupiter Celestial area. Since he was a technical student who volunteered to go to Jupiter, he was interested in this technology.

In fact, through this viewpoint, moving the green pastures of the Earth to this residential areas was meaningful. To extract the radioactive fuel Helium-3, there was regular transport to Jupiter. However, the total journey of 1.6 billion km would take several years, and it's said that it's not uncommon to see cases where the crew members collapse mentally. Even the Earth would be buried amidst the deep outer space with countless stars in them—maybe it's because the colony builder was supposed to head to a place that's too far for the human soul to work at alone that such a haven was needed. More than half the human population were in space colonies, and became space residents that didn't understand real nature. However, it need not be just a visual thing, as a 'nature' that could be touched, stepped on and sniggered at could save the human soul.

“If we can't leave the ground, what Newtypes can we even talk about...”

She unwittingly muttered that. While Banagher answered back “Eh?”, Audrey gave a vague smile and moved her feet that stopped before. He didn't even know why he felt this way. He didn't have any interest in Zeon Deikun's Newtype theory. Was it because he just heard of the history lesson before?

After a short walk, the grassland that was as high as the knees became a flat green. They were already close enough to see the fine details of the villa. It seemed that there wasn't anyone around, and there wasn't any perimeter wall or gate surrounding the house. Maybe this entire land was private property, and that they entered the garden already.

In that case, they didn't need to think about intruding illegally. Banagher climbed up the stairs leading to the atrium and faced the two large doors. The doors were made of wood, and they were decorated with metal rings and lion heads. Banagher and Audrey nodded at each other and used the metal ring to knock on the door like how it was done in movies. They didn't know whether this could be used as a doorbell, but the sound of the metal knocking was deeper than what they imagined it to be as it seemed to ring through the entire silent area of the residential area. After seeing that the door didn't show any signs of opening, Banagher shrugged his shoulders, and Audrey went forward to grab the door handle. The unlocked door let out a creaking sound as it opened.

The ceiling that was at the second storey had a posh-looking chandelier on it. There was a wide set of stairs linking to the second level, and once they went up, it was a corridor in mid-air that felt like a deck was being repaired. The corridor looked like those in the movies when a posh-looking woman would be dressed up nicely and smiling as she invite them in. there was complete silence inside the dim place, and there wasn't any presence of any butlers coming out to serve them. There wasn't anyone else who questioned the duo who trespassed randomly other than the stares from the paintings on the wall, and the empty domestic presence surrounded Banagher.

It wasn't the emptiness of a house full of charms or the loneliness of an abandoned house. The number of furniture and house decorations made it feel like people once lived in here. However, the cold air didn't have any tinge of warmth—feeling that his body was trembling, Banagher shouted: “Anybody home?” and didn't get any answer. He exchanged glances with Audrey and walked deeper into the first level.

It seemed that there was some regular maintenance as there wasn't any odour in the empty rooms or corridors. The sofas in the living room were covered with dustproof-cloth, and the glass windows with curtains drawn were wiped clean too. Unwilling to open the windows on his own, Banagher looked through the gap that showed a ray light looked around, and walked towards the balcony where he could look down into the atrium. The atrium was a Colosseum that was surrounded on all sides by the building itself, and amidst the different sizes, there were many sculptures beside the restroom area at the middle.

Each of these were things that Banagher saw in arts textbooks, so these shouldn't be the real thing themselves, but delicately crated duplicates. The sculptures remained inside the empty garden, and there was an empty and chilly sense of presence, making one feel that they may be moving before he was here.

A bird flew by and stopped on the face of a man's status that was deep in thought before flying off again. Banagher looked at the statue and felt that the statue was looking back at him. He swallowed his saliva, took a few steps back from the balcony and recollected his thoughts, saying 'there doesn't seem to be anyone around' and went back to the corridor.

“There should be a command area somewhere. Once there...”

Speaking halfway through, he stopped as Audrey wasn't around. Haro was rolling around on the floor. He looked around and couldn't find anyone. He frantically walked to the neighboring block, and found that there was a door opened downstairs. Banagher hurriedly ran to the exit, saw Audrey standing in the dim room and heaved a sigh of relief.

The side of her face was lit by the light that shone in through the curtains of the windows as she looked up at the wall. Banagher was about to say 'don't scare me like that', but he was stunned when he entered the room.

The ceiling was abnormally high, and on the wall of this room that was the largest he ever saw, there were six really large paintings on it. They were arranged together without leaving any space, and it seemed that the paintings themselves were the wall. No, those were paintings. They look like they were woven onto a piece of cloth. A large embroidery...it's called a tapestry, correct?

The six tapestries were all of different sizes, but the smallest one was 3m wide, and the height was about 5m. They should be related works as the base colors and structures of all these works were the same. They had a woman standing at the middle of a garden with flowers and animals woven in them. The imaginary world the woman was in would remind one of a small outer space. There were two beasts on both sides, and the completely different parties created 6 scenes. Amongst the two beasts, one of them was a lion, and the other one was one with the body of a horse and a long thin horn on its head—

“Unicorn...”

Audrey muttered to herself. Banagher heard his heart pulsate for a moment.

The memory of the white mobile suit he saw this morning in the subway train awoke in him, and the blood that moved inside his body started to rumble. He didn't know the reason, and he didn't have the strength to even think about it. The woman who was taking fruits from the tray the maidservant was holding; the woman playing the harp at the table; the woman making a crown of flowers...Banagher felt that something inside his mind was rumbling and about to break out from his skull as his eyes were enchanted by the tapestry.

The woman who let the unicorn rest on her knees and looked at the mirror; the woman holding a flag with a moon on it; and last of all, a woman standing in front of a small tent, putting her jewellery into a box a maidservant's holding. The unicorn and the lion were on both sides of the tent, and the woman who looked like she was putting her jewelery away was entering a tent. The tent had the words 'A Mon de Désir' written on it, and this was an ancient language that would only be understood by only a few researchers. The meaning was...

“...My only wish.”

He subconsciously said it out, and immediately felt a chill. I couldn't possibly read it. I couldn't possibly understand it. Banagher shook off Audrey's anxious expression and asked, “Is this a famous painting?”

“I don't know...but since it was Vist Foundation who shifted this piece of art over to outer space, I think it's something valuable.”

Audrey frowned in surprise as she noted. I know, Banagher told himself this in his mind. It doesn't matter whether it was famous or not. I know this piece of art, and it's not that I saw this before on TV or textbooks. No, I never even touched it before. A long time ago, I couldn't even get to the bottom of this tapestry. Someone carried me up and told me the meaning. At that time, that room also had the sound of a piano playing—

He slowly turned around. The piano that was beside the window as basked under the sunlight that came in. Banagher walked over to it and touched the piano that was covered in cloth.

“Seems like nobody's staying here. I'll go find the control room. You...”

“I remember.”

Muttering unknowingly, Banagher turned to look at Audrey: “I remember. I saw these before.”

“These tapestries?”

Looking at the tapestries that were hung on the wall, Audrey gave a look of disbelief back at him. Banagher was forced to move by this irritation he couldn't explain and said: “No, it's not like this...” At this moment, a third person's voice could be heard: “Do you like it?” causing him to gasp.

He looked around. A man was standing at the door. He looked at Audrey, who was frozen, and again looked back at Banagher. The man slowly entered the oroom. The somewhat dim light lit his silver hair and sharp eyes, and Banagher felt that the pressure in this room got even more intense. He subconsciously took two steps back, knocked into the piano, and the photo frame on the piano dropped down.

He instinctively turned back to look, and saw the face of a ten-year-old, slightly plump and giving a poker face. The boy seemed to have a man and a woman on both sides, most probably his parents. The woman, who seemed to be the mother, had her hand on the boy's shoulders as she smiled. The energetic man standing on the other side was also like the boy, showing a poker face. Looking at the man's face as he had that Chinese-styled collared shirt on, Banagher again turned around to stare at those sharp eyes in the dim place.

His cheeks were slightly skinner, and his hair had faded in color, but the man in front of him was completely identical to the man in the photo. Most likely, he's the owner of this villa. The stakeholder of Anaheim Electronics, and the one rumored to be the actual owner of the 'Snail', the leader of Vist Foundation—

““The Lady and the Unicorn”, author unknown. Most people thought that it was a tapestry made during the Middle Ages in France. This wasn't a copy. It's said that the ex-leader spent a lot of effort trying to get it during the One Year War.”

As he casually looked at the two intruders, the man—Cardeas Vist continued to talk. “The New Moon's Flag this woman's holding was the crest of someone who represented an advisor to the French King in the past, Vist Foundation, my family. Most likely, an ancestor requested someone to make it, and it ended up in his hands.”

The voice sounded steady, but had impeccable strength in it. Banagher put the photo frame that fell down back to its position and looked at the faces of the people in the family.

There was Cardeas, who was about 20 years younger than before, a woman who seemed to be his wife, and the boy. These were all faces he could not recognize, faces of strangers. After seeing that, the sense of 'recognition' became ambiguous, and the tapestry and the piano suddenly became unknown foreign things.

“Right now, the common idea was that this series of tapestries represented the 5 senses of humanity. The woman holding the fruit represented taste; the woman holding the harp represented hearing; the woman creating the crown of flowers represented smell; the woman holding the mirror represented sight; and the woman touching the horn of the unicorn represented touch...” Explaining in order, Cardeas looked at the last picture, and his eyes narrowed. “And the last one was called the 'tent'. As for what this meant, there wasn't any decisive conclusion to this. The woman takes off the bracelet she was wearing and puts it into the box in the maidservant's hands. There was a tent behind it with the words 'My one desire' on it. The unicorn and the lion are leading her in. What does that tent mean? What does the 'box' represent?”

Audrey's eyes widened, and Banagher could feel her tension. Cardeas turned to look at her.

“Some said that the tent had her husband in it, and some said that the tent led to a mental world where one gives up everything. Right now, the commonly accepted explanation would be the latter. While giving up the bracelet, the lady wanted to give up the delight her five senses brought, and the desire that they bring before releasing herself to a zone only the sixth sense could feel...the free will ancient scholars talked about was 'release'. In other words, the 'my own desire' was a realm of realization, and the tent was a symbolization of it. The bracelet represented personal desire, and the 'box' was a symbol of an earthly seal. Of it could also be interpreted that as the 'box' was opened, the lady was able to give up on her personal desire and face the next world.”

“This unicorn's existence is also symbolic. This is a legendary beast that had many meanings to it, but our family interprets it as the beast of possibilities. It was a beast that was born out of everyone's belief and love. Humans use this possibility of existence to raise this beast, causing a situation where it didn't matter whether it existed or not...like what Riike's poem said. On one hand, it could be interpreted as the sign of the Virgin, but we shall use it as a more ordinary term. We symbolize it as the power of belief...the symbol of hope.”

Once Cardeas finished, Banagher saw that there was a crest sewn on his chest pocket, one that looked like a unicorn. Just when he was about to ask whether it was the crest of the Vist Foundation or something, Cardeas looked at Audrey and said: “Pardon me for my late introductions.”

“I'm the owner of this house. My name is Cardeas Vist.”

Though Audrey looked rather mild at the moment, her expression wasn't showing any smile at all. She inadvertently looked away and started to stammer. “I...” But she clenched her fists tight and again faced Cardeas' tall body.

“Sorry to intrude on you. I'm...”

Cardeas raised his hand gently to prevent her from continuing. “I know you. Please don't declare your name first.”

“But...”

“You don't want to get this boy involved, right?”

Saying this, Cardeas looked over at Banagher, but as their eyes met, his eyes looked back at Audrey.

“If there's anything important, please hold on for a while. However, if you're the sort of person I think you are, I hope that you understand that we're meeting under dangerous circumstances. Your presence here would make your comrades feel betrayed.”

“Zinnerman's a cautious man, so he won't create any unnecessary trouble...”

“Unnecessary? Is the need to ensure your safety unnecessary?”

The fists that were tightly clenched trembled slightly as Audrey went silent. Unable to understand what they were saying, Banagher could only stare at them in a flabbergasted manner, and his eyes met Cardeas, who suddenly looked over at him.

“You risked yourself too much. She'll be under our protection. Head back now.”

No matter whether it was some bigshot in the monetary world or not, one shouldn't be giving such a condescending look at someone they just met for the first time. Banager stepped forward, but got taken aback by Cardeas' sharp expression as he continued to remain there. Cardeas' entire body gave a heavy presence as he closed the distance between himself and Banagher.

Cardeas' eyes scanned Banagher from head to toe and stopped at the Haro at his feet. “Such an old toy.” There was a mysterious mocking-like tone in the voice. On hearing these unexpected words, Banagher looked straight at Cardeas' cold expression.

“Do you know why she's being pursued, and what kind of people were pursuing her?”

“Well...I don't know, but they're really scary people.”

“Scary?”

“I just had this feeling.”

Gripping his trembling fingers hard, Banagher answered without wavering, and Cardeas' eyes suddenly became kiner: “Saying such things that a Newtype would say...” The somewhat wry voice entered Banagher's ears. Of course, one didn't need to look at the expression to see that he was laughing at Banagher for arrogantly saying that in a childish manner.

“I was born in a place where such people kept going in and out, so I could tell.”

That was the last straw. Banagher was already expecting to be laughed at, but the wryness in Cardeas' eyes vanished. “...I see. So you say that you can recognize people?” Banagher could tell that this voice again sounded like laughing.

“Then, let's not waste what you know. Head back. If you continue to stay here, your future will be wrecked. This is not what the person who sent you to Anaheim Electronics wanted.”

The unexpected words caused him to be shocked. Was his cover blown? No, Banagher suddenly thought. This Cardeas may be a friend of his father who he never met and requested him to transfer into the College.

From the few words his mother spoke and the history up till now, he knew that his father should be someone of status. Though it was a vague memory, the feel of the room and the tapestries didn't seem to be just a false impression...so strong that if he never saw the family photo, he would have thought that this was his family.

“You...knew?”

Immediately afterwards, Banagher forgot about all of these and started asking. Cardeas moved his eyes away slightly.

“I'm the chairman after all, and I can check any student's particulars and expel them accordingly.”

The last words went through Banagher with a straight gaze. Since he was being watched the moment he and Audrey, who was being 'hosted', entered the 'Snail', it's easy to investigate their history. The cold reality of understanding this caused Banagher to lower his head dejectedly. The passion shown just now cooled off as he felt his knees lose strength.

“I'll give recognition to a young man's impulse. It's alright to believe in instincts. However, if your knowledge and ability isn't enough, your response will be the wrong one. Go back. Don't get involved in this.”

After this one-sided aggression, Cardeas left Banagher. Banagher couldn't say anything, didn't even have the strength to stare at his back, and lowered his head. He succumbed again. This time, he succumbed under the violence called authority, and was about to collapse again. But even though he had this feeling, his wilted nerves didn't feel like getting back up in a motivated manner. Banagher turned to look at Audrey.

Audrey looked back at him too. After their eyes met, she immediately looked away, which made Banagher feel despair as he already knew what Audrey was about to say next.

“That's enough, Banagher. Go back.”

Her eyes were looking at him again, and the words were what he imagined it to be as they pierced through his heart. “But...!” Banagher's tone was full of panic.

“It's enough that you brought me here. I'll handle the rest.”

After giving a stiff smile, Audrey looked over at Cardeas. On seeing those eyes that were filled with intense will, Cardeas wordlessly walked away. Banagher felt that Audrey was about to follow Cardeas, and before he could think, his feet stepped on the floor first.

Though his posture was tilting somewhat because of the lower gravity, Banagher blocked Audrey as she was about to walk to the door. “Audrey.” Banagher called her name, and her jade-green eyes were looking back at him.

“Before I met you this morning, I saw a white mobile suit in the subway train.”

After blinking a bit, Audrey lifted her head slightly. Banagher ignored Cardeas, who was eavesdropping on them, and continued to look at her face.

“After that, I wanted to go to work, but there was no work for the day. I went to the cafeteria with Takuya, and saw you floating near the sun. I don't know much after that, but I was really excited. It's like another world appeared right in front of me, or that something I couldn't see in the past appeared right in front of me...this was the first time I felt that. It's like I felt my comfort zone for the first time.”

Banagher himself knew how foolish these words were, but his mouth just couldn't stop. On hearing that Audrey was looking a little moody and becoming more so, Baangher himself continued.

“I don't care who you are. Just say that you need me, say that it's better for me to be here. Then I...”

“No.”

Audrey answered before he could finish. Shocked by the stiff expression and the impact of the voice, Banagher felt his body waver.

“The world you saw today was nothing. It's just a dark and cold world. You shouldn't be here.”

“Audrey...”

“Forget about it. Don't get involved with me. It's better for you.”

This time, it was really a tone to clear the divide. Audrey turned around, and Banagher was rooted there. All around the delicate yet obstinate profile, the dark red base of the tapestries appeared in the dim place.

Perhaps seeing that the little drama between both of them was over, Cardeas nodded his head slightly, and men in suits appeared at the door of the room, ushering Audrey in with a courteous demeanor. Audrey lifted her head and followed them out. Banagher instinctively tried to catch up, but he was stopped by the presence that suddenly appeared behind him. Unknowingly, two men appeared from a room and were standing behind Banagher.

“We'll send you back to your hostel.”

One of the men. The man who would remind one of the ferocity and viciousness of a hunter had the crest of a unicorn on the chest. Knowing that he would be suppressed if he tried to resist, Banagher looked at Cardeas, who turned around and said just when he was about to lead Audrey out of the room: “This would be better.”

“The people chasing her may view you as a target.”

It was logical. Though Banagher himself felt that this was just an excuse, he couldn't say anything. Banagher clenched his fists and lowered his head. The embarrassment and regret left a stinging feeling in his nose, and the unicorn on the tapestries became blurred.

Audrey went through the door of the room without turning back, and Cardeas followed her from behind. As he left, he looked back, and seemed to stop for a moment as he probably looked at Banagher. However, once Banagher lifted his head, the profile vanished, and the light that came in through the door remained in the room, causing Banagher to see remains of the world he lost.

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