Arrangements were made for Belfegan Clouseau and Nanai Miguel.
In the end, after being entertained alongside Tekkadan, Belfegan Clouseau was handed over to Noin the next day, while Nanai Miguel was taken away by Ange.
It couldn't be helped. Belfegan Clouseau was one thing, but Nanai Miguel was the type to set off Reid's instinctual alarms just by standing near him, because the woman genuinely wanted to dissect him. It was a similar situation to Elvira Hill before she understood the characteristics of Newtypes (wanting to crack open his skull for research).
However, in the system's judgment, merely having such thoughts didn't seem to constitute betrayal, so Reid couldn't do anything about them.
Of course, Noin also took all of Tekkadan's core members with her. Reid didn't plan on letting them participate in any missions until their military training was complete.
After all, he wasn't Bright Noa, who excelled at leading a group of people prone to acting on their own initiative onto the battlefield.
Fortunately, he didn't have to worry about Tekkadan's training taking too long. Their physical fitness and combat skills were not a major issue; the key was their adherence to orders.
Reid could not accept a situation where, without Orga, the rest of Tekkadan became difficult to command.
As for Nanai Miguel, she showed immense interest after seeing the Coordinators' gene-adjustment technology. She even submitted a feasibility report on artificially engineering Newtypes, wanting to conduct research in that area.
Unfortunately for her, someone had already beaten her to it. Although Dr. Orla Maha Haibel, Lacus's creator, didn't know the concept of a Newtype, the Coordinators she created were in fact adjusted in that direction.
However, Coordinators were incapable of the fine control of Psychic Power, and their mind-reading was exceptionally crude, to the point where they could be distracted by stray thoughts. At the same time, their Psychic Power was not as stable as that of a true Newtype.
In Reid's view, Coordinators could only be described as a degraded version of Newtypes, though they were superior to the various Enhanced Persons of the Universal Century in terms of mental stability.
Of course, Lacus was special. Dr. Orla Maha Haibel must have known that she could never again create someone capable of mass enthrallment.
Therefore, Reid decisively rejected the proposal, telling Nanai Miguel to meet with Lacus, who had just recently returned from Africa, before deciding on her research direction.
Setting aside Lacus's subsequent interactions with Nanai Miguel, Tekkadan had already been training for several days. It was time to begin the process of completely clearing their names.
Since he already knew the location of the biological laboratory fabricated by the system, Reid secretly prepared some documents to shift the blame. After sending some natives to quietly rearrange the base, he called a small meeting with a diplomat from the East Asian Republic.
During the meeting, Reid proactively revealed a bit of intelligence on the Alaya-Vijnana System, claiming that based on information from Eurasian refugees, he had rescued some test subjects who had undergone inhumane experiments from a transport ship. Now, he wanted to destroy that experimental base and hoped both sides would dispatch troops together to serve as witnesses.
The East Asian Republic expressed its shock upon seeing the preliminary data on the Alaya-Vijnana System and the spinal X-ray images taken of Akihiro.
Of course, given the Eurasian Federation and the Atlantic Federation's various shenanigans throughout history, Reid felt that the East Asian Republic's so-called shock was merely verbal.
However, the East Asian Republic readily agreed to the invitation to jointly dispatch troops to destroy the laboratory.
In truth, the East Asian Republic knew that the New Misurugi Kingdom was inviting them mainly to prevent the Eurasian Federation from claiming it was a one-sided story. All they had to do was show up to bolster the numbers, and they could even get some research data for free later. It was a win-win situation.
Moreover, the laboratory coordinates Reid had found were in the international waters of the Atlantic, so it wouldn't cause any diplomatic disputes. And for destroying such an illegal human experimentation lab, the Eurasian Federation wouldn't dare stand up and condemn them.
Thus, over the next few days, the New Misurugi Kingdom and the East Asian Republic suddenly began to assemble forces at Ascension Island Base, which the Atlantic Federation had handed over to the New Misurugi Kingdom.
This unusual activity baffled the Atlantic Federation, which frantically called both nations to inquire about the reason.
Before the operation began, neither Reid nor the East Asian Republic would tell the truth, so they both fobbed off the Atlantic Federation with the excuse of a military exercise.
Upon hearing this, the Atlantic Federation furiously protested that the New Misurugi Kingdom and the East Asian Republic had so many places in the West Pacific to conduct exercises, yet they had to come all the way to the Atlantic. Who were they trying to scare? They had to protest! A solemn protest!
Yes, the Atlantic Federation only dared to protest now, as the two nations' forces had not approached its territorial waters. Besides, if they dared to strike first, it would give the two a pretext to beat them down.
However, what was once a small kitten (in terms of combat power) by its bedside had now become a lynx. What if it turned around and took a vicious swipe at them? The Atlantic Federation had to be on guard.
Fortunately, the Atlantic Federation was just scaring itself. After spending more than a day gathering over a dozen surface vessels (from the East Asian Republic) and five Constellation-class Battleships, the fleet headed menacingly straight for Europe.
Now the Atlantic Federation was a bit confused. It wondered, if the New Misurugi Kingdom and the East Asian Republic's target was Europe, why didn't they just assemble their forces at the Suez Canal and the cities of the former Miserly Kingdom, instead of coming all this way to scare them?
But while the Atlantic Federation was merely confused, the Eurasian Federation felt like its heart was about to leap out of its chest.
Weren't we just watching the conflict between the big boss, number two, and number five? How did number two and number five suddenly turn around to come after us?
PLANT had a similar feeling. The Gibraltar Base was also in the path of the New Misurugi Kingdom and East Asian Republic's advance. Although they knew this force was most likely not coming for them, it was still a bit frightening.
So, it was now the Eurasian Federation and PLANT's turn to frantically ask for the reason. This time, however, both sides remained silent, which nearly drove the Eurasian Federation to prepare for war.
Fortunately, a day later, the forces of the New Misurugi Kingdom and the East Asian Republic arrived at the designated coordinates. As expected, they found the laboratory on the island had been abandoned. But perhaps due to a hasty departure, a lot of data was left behind.
From the data, it could be basically confirmed that the laboratory was funded by Europe, but whether it was the Eurasian Federation or one of its member states could not be confirmed.
Only then did the New Misurugi Kingdom and the East Asian Republic formally announce the objective and findings of their operation, putting the other nations at ease.
Reid then immediately convened an online meeting of the five nations, publicly displaying a large amount of data (surgery footage that wouldn't give them away, selected from Chryse Guard Security's archival video, then converted into CE Universe data format. The entire process was handled by Hoshino Ruri and Nein; without a strong Artificial Intelligence, no one could spot the flaws), along with authentic-looking forged shipping manifests (they simply picked a long-established, medium-sized European shipping company, altered its database, and forged the manifests). He then pointedly addressed the Eurasian Federation's Minister of Foreign Affairs.
"Sir, you've seen the documents. Shouldn't you give everyone an explanation? Experiments to control machinery via spinal nerves... a fine idea. As long as you can guarantee the success rate, you can mass-produce pilots skilled in operating MS. However, with this failure rate, don't you think your country is being a bit too cruel?"
The Eurasian Foreign Minister's heart was pounding. He couldn't tell if these documents were real or not. As a foreign minister, how could he possibly know about all of the Eurasian Federation's secret laboratories? He couldn't even tell if this lab belonged to the Eurasian Federation at all.
But in diplomacy, facts weren't important. Even if the New Misurugi Kingdom and the East Asian Republic could produce solid evidence that this lab belonged to the Eurasian Federation, he would have to claim the evidence was forged.
After all, the nature of this incident was different from the previous cloning incident, where Mu, a capitalist's scion, had presented 100% irrefutable proof against the Atlantic Federation.
So, the Eurasian Foreign Minister flatly denied it.
"Chairman Reid, please watch your words. This laboratory has absolutely no connection to the Eurasian Federation. You must remember, it's in international waters. You can't just claim it's our laboratory because its location is a bit close.
"As for the shipping manifests you provided, they only prove that some materials were sent from Europe to the island.
"You see, this laboratory is relatively close to Europe, so of course, any shipments would pass through Europe. That doesn't mean the laboratory is ours. We had no idea there was a laboratory on that island."
Reid knew he was wrongfully accusing the Eurasian Federation, but seeing the foreign minister's reaction on video, he could guess that the man himself didn't know whether Reid was framing them or not.
One could only say that when you've done too many shady things, you sometimes assume you're guilty even of things you haven't done.
Therefore, Reid had no intention of letting the Eurasian Federation off the hook and immediately retorted,
"Is that so? The East Asian Republic and I have carefully inspected the buildings on the island. Some of these labs have been under construction for decades. If you don't believe it, you can go investigate for yourselves later.
"Over such a long period, an isolated island far offshore was frequently resupplied, and you didn't notice a thing? And don't you dare say later that the historical shipping records can't be found, given the evidence my country and the East Asian Republic have found."
In reality, the Eurasian Federation wouldn't be able to find any historical records even if they tried. This was a setup by Reid from the start.
Besides, even if they did try to look into it, for a normal European shipping company, especially one with a certain volume of traffic, finding detailed shipping records for an individual or small client from a year ago would require the police to show up and supervise the search.
After all, capitalists wouldn't spend a fortune on servers to retain data for non-major clients; they basically just kept triplicate forms. Over time, even if they weren't damaged, the words on them would fade and become illegible.
However, the Eurasian Foreign Minister stuck to his denial and, out of habit, bit back.
"Heh, Chairman Reid, you were also born in the Eurasian Federation. You should know that shipping records below a certain scale don't all need to be recorded. For a secret laboratory like this, as long as they ship materials in batches, how are we, as a country the materials merely pass through, supposed to connect the dots?
"Also, Chairman Reid, you are far away in Australia. How exactly did you find out about this laboratory? You say it was reported by refugees scattered by the rebels? Then why didn't they report it within the country, instead of fleeing Europe to do so?"
Reid had a prepared answer for this question. He sneered, looked at everyone, and said,
"How did I know? That's because I've been paying very close attention to intelligence on human experimentation recently. Any reports are immediately sent to my desk, and I dispatch people to verify them.
"You know I was born in the Eurasian Federation. You and I are both well aware of how slow the government is. Besides, a report from a single refugee would probably never reach the higher-ups.
"As for why I'm paying so much attention to intelligence on human experimentation, it's because after the Atlantic Federation's cloning incident, I suspect someone is cloning me. Therefore, I must find the people who are trying to clone me.
"Also, the Eurasian Federation has my genetic samples. When I receive intelligence about a human experimentation lab near Europe, don't you think I should investigate it thoroughly?"
The moment Reid gave this reason, the Eurasian Foreign Minister's face turned pale with shock, and he immediately explained,
"Chairman Reid, please rest assured. No one has touched your genetic records from your time in the Eurasian military. The Eurasian Federation has never conducted the same kind of cloning experiments as the Atlantic Federation."
It was no wonder the Eurasian Foreign Minister was so anxious. Being accused of cloning Reid Isaac was a charge he couldn't afford. The New Misurugi Kingdom would genuinely fly into a rage and start a war.
Moreover, the Atlantic Federation would be unlikely to help, given the huge negative public opinion back home. And regardless of whether a war broke out or not, his batch of government officials would definitely be held accountable.
Most critically, the Eurasian Foreign Minister knew that cloning experiments on Reid Isaac were indeed being conducted. After all, who wouldn't want to have their own Reid Isaac, even if the accelerated growth meant he could only live for seven or eight years at most?
Reid stared intently at the Eurasian Foreign Minister. His words just now were also a test, but the minister's expression was well-controlled at the moment. Reid couldn't read his mind from thousands of miles away, so he couldn't find any flaws. He simply said,
"Don't let me find evidence that I'm being cloned. Otherwise, I won't be taking my complaint to the International Court of Justice."
Reid's words were a threat. Not going to court meant Reid wasn't planning to follow legal procedures; he was prepared to "settle it privately."
But this "private settlement" certainly wouldn't be resolved by simply producing a dozen scapegoats. It would surely leave a profound lesson for the world.
However, the others present couldn't say much to Reid. They could only continuously urge him to calm down and steer the conversation back to the current incident, completely avoiding the topic of clones.
Thus, what followed was just garbage time. The Eurasian Federation would certainly deny it to the death.
The New Misurugi Kingdom and the East Asian Republic couldn't produce any more specific evidence either (Reid never intended to dig too deep into this matter, as digging too deep could expose the setup), so in the end, it could only be left unresolved.
However, the members of Tekkadan were now cleared. All nations agreed to let the New Misurugi Kingdom be responsible for the future well-being of these test subjects.
No one here mentioned that these test subjects couldn't join the military, which was a tacit approval for the New Misurugi Kingdom to convert them into a combat force.
But the other four nations didn't have good intentions. They were all prepared to launch a series of public opinion attacks against the New Misurugi Kingdom if it actually used these test subjects on the battlefield, depending on the actual relationship between their countries at the time.
In any case, using rescued test subjects in battle, even if it couldn't truly affect the New Misurugi Kingdom's military strategy, could still disgust them on the public opinion front.
(End of Chapter)