After being mercilessly kicked back by that heartless woman, Kain headed straight for another world—the world of Gundam SEED.
It had been almost a month since he left this world.
No, it probably hadn't been a full month. Lacus had invited A2 and the other androids to visit Black Cat's world, and because time in Lacus's world had effectively stopped while she was away, the ten or so days Kain had spent with Kouzuki Yuuko could be excluded from the count.
After that, he had returned to the Warhammer universe for roughly three days, then spent nearly five days in Tifa's world. He subsequently made several trips back and forth between the Warhammer universe and Tifa's world over the course of another dozen or so hours, transporting materia between them.
Next came the hundred hours he had spent with Asuna, which amounted to a little over four days. Afterward, he had spent more than a day on a planet in the Warhammer universe acquiring an STC.
Finally, he had been invited to the world of the Fleet of Fog, though that visit had lasted less than ten minutes and could be ignored.
Altogether, he had been away from the Gundam SEED world for more than twenty days—just under a month.
Round that up a little further, and calling it "almost a month" wasn't entirely wrong.
During those twenty-odd days, the war visible to the public—the conflict between the Earth Alliance and P.L.A.N.T.—had almost completely fallen silent.
The calm on the surface felt like the quiet before a storm.
Over that same period, the number of people visiting Orb had skyrocketed, creating no shortage of headaches for the nation.
Some had genuinely come because they believed Orb was safe, but there was no telling how many spies from various factions were mixed in among them.
Lacus's ability allowed her to identify most of them, but she was still only one person. There was no way she could personally screen everyone entering Orb.
As a result, some spies had successfully slipped through.
One group had ventured suspiciously close to an Orb restricted zone, however. Lacus came to investigate and promptly exposed them.
Now, only one day remained before the group of supposed mediators arrived. They were scheduled to reach Orb at noon tomorrow.
"If they really possess the abilities they had in the movie, won't that put us in a very dangerous position?" Cagalli asked, unable to hide her unease.
The "movie" she was referring to was the story of their world as portrayed in a work of fiction from another universe.
Lacus had shared the animated film she and Captain Murrue had watched with the others. More precisely, the man sitting across from her had given it to them.
By now, they had gained a much clearer understanding of where he came from. Lacus had revealed more of the truth because she trusted them more than before.
The claim that he came from the future had been half right and half wrong.
The correct part was that he really did come from an Earth more than forty thousand years in the future. The incorrect part was that his Earth was not the future of their Earth, but one from a parallel universe.
Nor were there merely two parallel worlds. There were many of them, and most were facing apocalyptic crises of one form or another.
One of those worlds had taken the lead in establishing an interdimensional organization—the Parallel-World Human Salvation Agency.
The world spearheading the organization was the first one confirmed to have already suffered humanity's extinction. Only the androids created by humanity remained, continuing to guard their makers' homeland.
However, although that world had established the organization, the man sitting opposite them was the one who had truly brought everyone together.
Lacus was already a member. Cagalli and several others had also successfully completed their observation periods, becoming the agency's native representatives in this world.
"If they're really hostile, we can just kill them," Stella said in an utterly casual tone.
Hearing such a terrifying suggestion delivered so naturally left Cagalli speechless. This girl always seemed ready to solve everything with violence and bloodshed.
After speaking, however, Stella suddenly glanced cautiously at Kain. She seemed worried that he would look at her differently—or that he might dislike a girl like her.
Seeing that side of the girl left Cagalli with mixed feelings.
"Stella has a point, but we still need to confirm whether they're actually coming with malicious intentions," Murrue said, agreeing with Stella in principle. "If they are, we can't dispose of them too openly."
They couldn't simply kill the visitors without a second thought. At the very least, their deaths couldn't be allowed to appear directly connected to Orb.
After all, the people coming to visit were quite famous. They had performed many widely recognized good deeds in the name of world peace and maintained an almost perfect public image. It was practically impossible to find a stain on their reputations.
Ding!
The sound came from a microwave not far away.
Lacus, who had been standing beside it, opened the door and removed the pastries she had baked. She brought them over on a tray.
"Everyone, please try some."
She invited them all to sample her cooking, though her gaze lingered noticeably longer on one particular person. Her eyes were filled with anticipation.
When Kain picked up a pastry and took a bite, Lacus watched him even more intently—until he finally said,
"Mm. It's very good."
And it genuinely was. This princess was practically an all-round prodigy, and her cooking skills were excellent as well.
Kain had originally intended to eat in silence, but he couldn't withstand her unwavering stare. She clearly had no intention of looking away until he offered his opinion.
"Mr. Kain, could you tell us more about Miss Kongou's world?" Lacus asked curiously after taking a seat.
He hadn't revealed much in the chat channel. Kain wanted to keep the information as leverage for future negotiations rather than allow Kongou to obtain everything for free.
Based on what he had disclosed so far, the humans in that world were already facing a worsening environmental crisis. Rising sea levels had reduced the available landmass, further deteriorating humanity's living conditions.
The inevitable consequence had been war.
Their situation was already terrible, but then the Fleet of Fog appeared and seized control of the oceans. Humanity lost the ability to travel across the seas or trade resources between continents, causing the global economy to collapse even further.
Even aerial transportation had to pass over the oceans, where aircraft would be shot down.
The only remaining alternative was transportation through space, but the cost made it completely impractical. At most, it could be used to trade small quantities of rare materials.
Transporting ordinary necessities that way was out of the question.
The appearance of the Fleet of Fog was clearly pushing humanity deeper into the abyss, little by little.
Still, that didn't necessarily mean the Fleet of Fog was evil. Before creating their Mental Models, they had possessed no independent minds. They had simply obeyed the orders issued by their superiors.
Now that they had acquired Mental Models, self-awareness, and emotions, many new possibilities had emerged.
Some members of the Fleet might develop benevolent personalities. They might sympathize with humanity and even attempt to side with them.
From what Kain had seen of the related series, Arpeggio of Blue Steel, he suspected its story was probably about humanity and the Fleet of Fog eventually learning to stand together.
His warning that Kongou was dangerous had been based on his understanding of her personality in that story.
If this Kongou truly possessed the same personality, then she was indeed dangerous. They couldn't recklessly invite her here or casually travel to her world.
"So she's an AI who controls a warship?" Cagalli asked, growing curious as well. "Something similar to Miss A2?"
Before Kain's arrival, Lacus had told them that he had traveled to a newly discovered world where warships built with advanced technology had developed self-awareness and acquired physical bodies.
"You could say that she and A2 are similar kinds of beings."
Kain no longer had any reason to conceal what he knew, so he told them everything he understood about Arpeggio of Blue Steel.
As for the compensation Kongou had offered—giving Takao to him—it was indeed possible for her to fulfill that promise.
The Cross-World Support function included an abandonment option. Instead of returning a target after transporting them across worlds, the system could simply relinquish them.
In other words, they could trick Takao into entering the dimensional passage, bring her to this world, and then abandon the retrieval process.
The only reason Kongou hadn't fulfilled her promise yet was that Kain still couldn't initiate Cross-World Support in her world.
He had assumed that visiting her world once would unlock the function, but it turned out that Cross-World Support would only become available after a hundred hours had passed.
All that remained was to wait and see whether Kongou would honor their agreement once those hundred hours were up and send Takao to him.
(End of Chapter)
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