Secret Garrison of the Operations Division, Nerima Ward, Tokyo.
Kirika Tachibana, in a deep-purple office-lady outfit, stared at the projection in midair, her expression complicated.
"So, that brat went to space and came back with another troublesome mess?"
In the projection, Lacus, now wearing a white sleeveless dress, smiled gently.
Seeing her cheerful demeanour, Kirika gritted her teeth in frustration and snapped:
"Annexing Chiba Prefecture—who does he think he is?!"
"What's next? Declaring himself king of an independent state? Or maybe even crowning himself emperor?"
"Emperor? That does sound rather amusing." Lacus's tone was soft, laced with faint amusement.
Kirika rolled her eyes in response and retorted irritably:
"Just keep spoiling him, why don't you?"
"He hasn't even been back in Japan for two days, and he's already escalated the SDS's conflict with the Union into the open. Give him another week, and it'll be all-out war!"
Lacus merely smiled at this. "I would never allow such a development."
"Right, right, of course. Her Highness the Princess is all-powerful—a mere Luo Shu is surely no match for your guidance."
Kirika teased Lacus before sighing.
"Honestly, I do wish you could rein him in—at least keep him from causing more chaos."
"This time, we were this close to war with the Union!"
Recalling the peril Luo Shu had stirred up earlier, Kirika couldn't help feeling exasperated.
Dealing with such a troublemaking master was truly exhausting!
"But hasn't everything been resolved properly?" Lacus replied with a smile, sidestepping Kirika's concerns. She trusted Luo Shu to know his limits.
Kirika raised an eyebrow at Lacus's protective attitude.
"Resolved?"
"You actually pulled the gamma ray cannon out and still have the nerve to say it's resolved."
"Though, I must say, I'm surprised you dared to showcase Copernicus to the Union."
"A prototype without a single proper test and unresolved energy issues, yet you still had the audacity to bluff with it. It's a miracle the Union fell for it—otherwise, how would you have handled the fallout?"
The Genesis I-Type, a long-range gamma ray cannon built upon Copernicus, was the culmination of decades of effort by the SDS—nearly thirty years of dedication spanning two generations, from Siegel Clyne to Lacus Clyne.
Kirika Tachibana knew full well the terrifying power of that weapon—enough to annihilate Earth's entire biosphere.
But matching its destructive potential was its colossal energy consumption.
Frankly, the energy demands of the gamma ray cannon could only be met by the two strongest of the Five Great Powers.
So, while the SDS had built the cannon, it was practically unusable—after all, they didn't have access to enough nuclear power plants.
"It wasn't a bluff."
Kirika blinked, looking up to see Lacus' smiling face.
"Actually, we've already found a solution to the energy problem."
Before Kirika could process it, Lacus continued cheerfully:
"Before the operation, Honjo-san gave us a suggestion."
"By using a Demigod Spirit's Spiritual Power as a base and combining it with a special tool, we can forcibly extract life force to meet the minimum firing requirements."
Of course, firing it would cost the Spirit half its life.
"And the cost of consumption can be circumvented through Luo Shu's Calamity Absorption."
That much was true—though Luo Shu would likely need to ascend to Demigod status first, or he'd suffer terribly.
"So, in essence, the Genesis I-Type has now become a weapon ready for actual combat." Lacus declared with a bright smile.
At this, Kirika couldn't help but suck in a sharp breath:
"Does that mean we've even fulfilled the preliminary conditions for the Genesis Project?"
—The Genesis Project.
A mad scheme once proposed by a lunatic, revolving around the SDS's two trump cards: the Genesis I-Type and the Star Contract.
In short, it was a deranged plan to use the Genesis I-Type to wipe out Earth's biosphere, then reshape the devastated nature with the Star Contract, claiming the reborn planet as their own.
Put bluntly, some madman had once suggested that Lacus destroy the world and become the new Nuwa of a reborn Earth.
Thinking of this, Kirika's expression turned oddly complicated:
"If Rau Le Creuset were still alive, he'd probably die of joy. Even he couldn't have imagined his insane plan would ever meet its conditions."
Hearing that name—one that should have vanished forever—Lacus' face instantly hardened:
"Kirika!!"
"Le Creuset is dead. The Genesis Project should have disappeared with him, never to be mentioned again. That was our agreement—have you forgotten?"
She shot Kirika a reproachful glare:
"Neither of us should ever bring up the Genesis Project again."
"I know."
Kirika chuckled awkwardly:
"It just... suddenly came to mind!"
Rau Le Creuset.
An Adjuster from the same world as Siegel and his daughter, he was once Siegel Clyne's right-hand man and Lacus Clyne's former assistant.
The Genesis Project was conceived by that very man, who secretly guided Siegel Clyne step by step to its completion.
Now just past 40, Siegel abruptly retired and handed full authority to Lacus—largely due to the guilt this matter had instilled in him.
Otherwise, Siegel, still in his prime, might not have stepped down so completely.
So Kirika Tachibana understood the reason behind Lacus's attitude. After all, she had been the one to misspeak first:
"Speaking of which, Rau Le Creuset's death at Hao Asakura's hands caused us quite a bit of trouble."
At this point, Kirika's expression darkened slightly.
Rau Le Creuset's deranged plan couldn't have been exposed so easily.
In fact, that cunning man never once mentioned the plan—neither verbally nor in written records—keeping everything hidden in his heart as he gradually steered Siegel Clyne onto the path he desired.
According to the normal script, the big villain Rau Le Creuset should have gradually achieved his goals, only to be thwarted by the protagonists at the last moment.
But the peculiar thing was that midway through his plans, he encountered Hao Asakura – that freak with passive mind-reading abilities.
Three years ago, during a chance encounter, Hao met Rau and passively read his plans through Mind Reading. He immediately took action and killed Rau, who was then Siegel's deputy.
This incident sparked a conflict between the SDS and Hao that lasted over two years.
The resolution only came when the Patch Tribe invited Anna Kyōyama, the shrine maiden of Mount Osore, who also possessed mind-reading abilities. By reading the information from Rau's remains, the truth was finally uncovered.
It was only after this that the Patch Tribe informed Lacus about some of Hao's circumstances, clarifying his relationship with Lacus's stepmother.
Of course, these were all resolved issues now.
The real trouble lay with Rau's subordinates developed within the SDS.
Recently, Lacus had been asking Utaha Kasumigaoka to conduct psychological screenings internally to weed out these individuals.
Even within the Commerce Department, many had actually been in contact with Rau.
How many people he had influenced and how much SDS confidential information had been leaked – these were all matters requiring investigation.
These lingering aftereffects were the truly troublesome issues.
Compared to the harm Rau caused, Luo Shu was practically child's play.
"Speaking of which, Lacus, is your tolerance for Luo Shu taking over Chiba Prefecture because of Rau's precedent of wanting to exterminate humanity? Does that make even declaring himself emperor and founding a nation somewhat acceptable to you?"
Lacus froze at these words, then responded with a mix of amusement and exasperation:
"How could you think that..."
Tachibana Kirika teased with a smirk: "Just a sudden thought~"
"After all, someone just told me to hurry up with the imperial consort selection~"
"If we're already selecting consorts, how far can declaring emperorship be?"
Lacus could only sigh at Kirika's antics. "When I urged you earlier, it was just to expedite the approval process for those candidates. Not to select consorts for Luo Shu."
"It's practically the same thing."
Kirika continued teasing before changing the subject with a smile:
"By the way, is Luo Shu still at Copernicus now?"
"He is."
"Then where is he?" Kirika looked puzzled. If he was at Copernicus, why wasn't he with Lacus? Where had the boy run off to?
At this, Lacus calmly replied: "He hasn't woken up yet."
Kirika blinked, then gave Lacus an extremely meaningful look.
Watching the girl's completely unruffled expression, Kirika's smile gradually turned devious.
It was 5 PM in Japan now, right? And Luo Shu still hadn't woken up?
That must have been quite the long afternoon nap~~
Kirika gave Lacus a look that said, "I know what you mean", before cheerfully announcing:
"In that case, I'll schedule a visit to disturb him at 8 PM then. I'll finish up some work first and bring people over."
"I'll notify him."
With that, the two ended the call.
After disconnecting, Kirika stretched her neck – she'd been looking up at the projection for so long that it had gotten rather stiff.
She stretched slightly before picking up the phone on her desk and issuing a direct order to the person on the other end:
"Notify Chisato and Takina to come see me."
With that, Kirika Tachibana hung up and leaned back in her chair, her tone laced with amusement as she muttered to herself:
"I wonder how many of this batch of candidates will agree~"