Grit, grind—
I could hear the sound of Diallo grinding his teeth from where I stood.
But the conversation wasn't over yet.
So far, Diallo had been speaking as if he were the representative of the remnants of Kronos, but strictly speaking, he was just one council member.
"What about the others?"
The first to raise her hand was, unsurprisingly, Lania.
"I agree."
Following Lania's lead, one by one, the Kronos council members seated in the assembly began to raise their hands.
"…I agree as well."
"I agree."
As more and more people sided with my proposal, only one person remained still, his gaze fixed firmly on me without raising his hand.
It was the young council member who had spoken to me earlier—aside from Diallo—the one whose name I didn't know.
"…I object."
Lania scoffed.
"What's this guy on about? We already have the majority, so it doesn't matter what you think."
"I know. But I feel that I must say this."
The young council member looked directly at me.
I met his gaze as well.
Though I was certain I had never seen his face before, there was something strangely familiar about his eyes.
"What's your name?"
For some reason, I suddenly found myself curious about who this young council member was.
Though he wasn't in my memory, I felt like it wouldn't hurt to remember his name.
"Julius."
"…Julius?"
I knew that name.
No, there was no way I wouldn't know it.
'…Is this just a coincidence?'
There was always the possibility that he simply had the same name.
After all, the Julius standing before me was vastly different from the one I knew.
"Is something wrong?"
"No, nothing. What is it you wanted to say?"
"I oppose your proposal."
"And why is that?"
"If we follow your plan, not only Kronos but also the future union that will be formed will become subjugated by Ark. I cannot accept that."
A predictable answer, if nothing else.
And yet, for some reason, I found his response rather unexpected.
Because it was too righteous.
The Julius I knew wouldn't hesitate to sell out Kronos, let alone stand up against this proposal.
"You're misunderstanding something."
"What misunderstanding? Are you talking about your so-called carrot-and-stick approach?"
"That's not what I meant. Why do you assume that Ark wants to subjugate Kronos?"
"…What?"
Julius looked dumbfounded.
Ignoring his reaction, I continued.
"I'm not speaking on behalf of Ark's leadership. But if I were Ark, I wouldn't even see the need to subjugate Kronos."
"Are you insulting Kronos?"
"Did you not understand me?"
I added quietly,
"What I'm saying is that Kronos, in its current state, has no value to be worth subjugating, young council member."
It wasn't a lie.
Ark wasn't interested in milking Kronos for resources.
What Ark wanted was simple: to ensure that Kronos wouldn't become an enemy.
Some might argue, If Kronos is strong enough to be a threat, then surely it has something of value.
And they wouldn't be entirely wrong.
But that argument ignores one crucial point—value is always relative.
'To Ark, no matter how much Kronos has, it's not even worth the shipping costs.'
In other words, Kronos wasn't a desirable prize.
It was merely one of countless factions that Ark preferred to keep neutral rather than hostile.
"That's…"
Julius looked at me, clearly shaken.
"Was that answer sufficient?"
"… …"
"What Ark wants isn't a vassal state—it's a friend."
Of course, if I were being blunt, I'd say Ark just didn't want to make enemies.
But given the situation, it seemed better to phrase it more diplomatically.
"Friend…"
Julius murmured the word as if he were genuinely moved by it.
I found that reaction puzzling.
'Is he not the Julius I know?'
If he were the Julius, I was familiar with, there was no way he'd react like this to such simple words.
'Then again, I can't be certain…'
The reason I was struggling to determine whether or not this was the Julius I knew was simple.
Not only was his personality different, but the Julius I remembered had horrific burns all over his body.
He was always wrapped in bandages from head to toe.
Which meant that recognizing him by appearance alone was impossible.
'Well, I'll find out sooner or later.'
Right now, that wasn't the priority…
"I'd like to conclude today's session here. What do you all think?"
"That sounds fine."
With Diallo's formal announcement of the meeting's conclusion, the gathered council members began to stand up one by one.
Diallo and Julius followed suit.
"Oraboni."
Once the room had emptied, leaving only Lania, she approached me.
"Lania."
"Yeah?"
"I'd like to meet with the other leaders of the Union soon."
"Hmm, you know as well as I do that gathering them all in one place won't be easy. It'll take quite a bit of time. But before that, don't you have to return to Ark?"
She was right.
Though I was here now, I had to return to Ark for various reasons.
What surprised me was how easily Lania accepted that fact.
"You're really okay with this?"
"You have to go, don't you? Besides, if you've made up your mind, it's not like I can stop you. Oh, but you'll still visit sometimes, right?"
That told me everything I needed to know.
I'd been worrying for no reason.
Lania was strong—so strong that I actually felt proud to call her my sister.
"I'll visit so often you'll get sick of it."
"Good."
Lania smiled.
"And don't worry too much about the Union leaders."
She grinned.
"Who would dare oppose Kronos's decision?"
In other words, the stance of the Kronos Union had already been decided in today's meeting.
"Well, that makes things easier for me… but will everything be, okay?"
"Hey, what do you take us for? We're Kronos. Kronos. Even if we're in ruins, we're still formidable."
"Alright, I get it."
Though she was speaking playfully, she wasn't entirely wrong.
The fact that the group was called the Kronos Union and not something like the Eastern Coalition spoke volumes.
'And this is nothing like the small group that escaped from the Ant Nest.'
At a glance, there had to be several thousand people gathered here.
This was likely the real remnants of Kronos.
'Now then…'
I turned to look at the investigation team, who had sat there looking clueless throughout the entire meeting.
"It's time to head back."
"Back where?"
At Hildegard's question, I smiled.
"Where else? Home."
The long mission had finally come to an end.
Now, it was time to return.
*
"Departing in eight hours. Get plenty of rest until then."
Since the return journey was just as demanding, the investigation team needed to reorganize themselves to some extent.
More than anything, it had only been a few hours since they had fought against the Legion of Beasts, and the accumulated fatigue was far from ordinary.
The reason I knew this was simple.
The moment I told them to rest, the investigation team members, including Kalakin, practically collapsed on the spot and fell asleep.
'They were barely holding on.'
It wasn't exactly a luxurious amount of time.
Considering they had to travel the same distance back; They had to sleep while they had the chance.
At least one fortunate thing was that the Wave was still ongoing, meaning there was plenty of time before the next one arrived.
'Well, better get as much rest as possible.'
This journey had made something abundantly clear.
The level of the investigation team, including Kalakin, was far below what I had expected.
'I'll make sure they get properly trained on the way back.'
If Kalakin and the others knew what I was thinking, they would be horrified—but that wasn't my problem.
'Speaking of which, there's still no word from Esther.'
It had been quite some time since I sent her and Horus to hunt the flying species.
It should be about time for them to return…
["Were you looking for me?"]
Speak of the devil.
I had no idea when she got here, but Esther suddenly appeared before me, grinning from ear to ear.
'...Could you at least give a warning before showing up?'
["Come on, do we even need warnings between us? I just break all the signals and crash in."]
'…'
In any case, Esther's return also meant that the Wave was nearly over.
And sure enough—
As if it had been waiting for this moment, new notifications appeared before me.
+
[You have cleared Red-07 Stage!]
[Contribution points is being tallied.]
[+104,551 Contribution Points]
[You displayed exceptional performance! Additional contribution points awarded.]
[+50,000 Contribution Points]
[You employed a brilliant strategy! Additional contribution points awarded.]
[+50,000 Contribution Points]
[Current Contribution Points: 271,542]
+
The contribution points were steadily piling up.
It seemed that Ark had successfully defended against this Wave.
'I mean, if they failed after all the help I gave them, they wouldn't even be human.'
At this point, it wasn't just spoon-feeding them victory—I practically chewed the food and swallowed it for them.
Even though I had been a major contributor in previous Waves, with this much support, Ark should have been able to handle it to some degree on their own.
'Still, the contribution points are lower compared to when I stopped the multi-wave attack.'
This was inevitable.
Back then, I had risked my life to face the Wave head-on.
More importantly, the amount of time I had personally engaged in battle was vastly different.
'Even so, considering how little time I actually fought, the fact that I earned this many contribution points mean my firepower has increased significantly.'
Although the outcome this time wasn't bad, I didn't want to be absent during a Wave like this ever again.
Right now, it was still the early stages, and thanks to my active movements, things turned out well—but in later stages, the cost of leaving Ark unattended would surely come back to bite me.
While the investigation team was resting, I prepared for the return journey.
I packed my basic gear and replenished the food and water supply.
That way, as soon as the investigation team recovered, we could depart immediately without wasting time.
"Orah-buh-nee."
"Oh, you're here?"
As I was focused on preparations, Lania quietly approached me.
Then, carefully, she took something out from her coat.
"Take this."
"This is…"
"It's nothing special… I just have too many things to thank you for, but I don't have anything proper to give you."
What Lania handed me was a somewhat large glass syringe.
It was something I was very familiar with.
──────────────
[HSB-PSI700 Reinforcement Serum] [★★★★★★★(7-Star)]
— Heshbon-type Reinforcement Serum.
— Psi-Type.
"View Details"
──────────────