The people waiting outside were four men and two women, all of them energy users.
Some of them were people I had seen in the ruins when I first came to this planet, and the man standing before me now was the one who had explained this planet and city to us from the ruins onward.
He had led the others elsewhere back then, but now he had appeared here.
[That man is a mage.]
As Soph said, among those waiting, he was the only mage.
A man with skill comparable to Sterling, who had remained on Trappist.
He offered me a handshake.
“We’ve been waiting. I’m Frank Stone. I’m in charge of public order in New Eden.”
He bore the surname of the Stone faction.
He was probably a member of that family.
I took his hand.
“I hear you’re the one leading the exploration team. I look forward to seeing your ability here as well.”
I could not sense it as clearly as I could with ordinary people, but I knew at once that what he had just said was a lie.
He was not looking forward to it in the slightest.
I answered immediately.
“You flatter me.”
After shaking my hand, he turned straight to Margreta.
“This is a place where exploration has not yet proceeded, so it would be dangerous for you to accompany us, Miss Margreta. How about waiting here?”
Margreta, who had been preparing to go with us, frowned at his words.
“I’m also a member of his exploration team.”
At Margreta’s reply, the man clicked his tongue.
“That puts us in a difficult position. This is being carried out in secrecy, so it will be hard to bring too many people along.”
That was not a lie.
Then again, the trap was being carried out in secrecy too, and it would indeed be troublesome for someone else to come along.
I lowered the hand I had been holding and said to him,
“Then I’ll wait. Since we came together, I think it would be better to move together as well.”
I was curious what answer he would give.
He wanted to leave Margreta here and take only me with him.
If it was a trap, that was only natural.
Margreta’s family also possessed considerable power on Earth.
If she were caught up in the trap and died, that would be troublesome for them.
The man frowned, then nodded after a moment.
“Then come with us. But we cannot take responsibility for your safety.”
“That’s fine. It’s not as if I’ve only been to dangerous places once or twice.”
The fact that he could make such a decision here meant Frank’s position was higher than I had thought.
[Or perhaps there’s someone at the destination who can make the decision.]
Either way, if I wanted to avoid doing the job twice, it was better for there to be someone in charge.
In the end, only a few hours after arriving, we had to move again.
The six energy users and we set out for the newly discovered(?) ruins.
As we walked, I asked Frank,
“Is it all right to move without any preparations? I’d think we need to prepare to camp.”
Since they said the ruins had just been found, it was certain to take at least a few days.
But once again, the answer I received was unexpected.
“It’s fine. The ruins are not far from the city. We should be able to arrive there before it gets late. There is a camp at the ruins as well, so anything we need can be procured there.”
Of course, if one were lucky, it was possible.
They say it is darkest under the lamp, so it was possible they had failed to find ruins near the city until now.
But the fact that they had discovered those ruins just in time before I arrived, and that the ruins they found were right beside the city, was difficult to explain with luck alone.
Perhaps my expression looked strange, because the man glanced subtly at Catherine.
“It’s fortunate that it’s close. Let’s finish quickly and return. Father said he would bring more relics, so it would have been troublesome if the distance were far.”
Catherine spoke in a calm voice.
Words that seemed to go along with the man’s statement.
If I had not known Catherine, I would certainly have thought so.
But I knew that she was feeling awkward right now.
Just like calling her adoptive father “Father,” she was saying things unlike herself.
They called it a city, but New Eden was not that large.
We soon left the city.
Once we were outside, the group increased its speed.
Since everyone was an energy user, we could run swiftly along the path.
After running like that for an hour or two, the scenery around us began to change little by little.
The farms and forests around the city were no longer visible, and the grassy plains gradually dwindled as well.
A landscape growing desolate by degrees.
The streams that had flowed along the roadside also slowly diminished.
The temperature seemed to grow colder, and the earth looked parched.
[I wondered how they did it, and it turns out they modified it this way.]
[What do you mean?]
[Didn’t they say they modified a terraforming ruin? I think I understand how they modified it.]
Before Soph could explain, Frank’s voice reached me.
Ever since we had set out, he had been busily talking to Catherine and Margreta.
“The reason this place is still desolate is because there were not enough plants brought from Earth. But if we continue scattering seeds and planting vegetation from now on, the entire planet will turn green.”
At Frank’s words, Soph snorted.
[That is not it. It is because the terraforming of the ruin only affects the area around the city. Since there is not enough dark energy, instead of terraforming the entire planet, they modified it so that it only influences the vicinity of the city.]
At Soph’s words, I stopped in my tracks.
[In the end, does that mean it’s impossible for all the people of Earth to come over to this planet?]
[That is correct. Forget all of humanity; they will only be able to accept enough people to fill that small city. So this was the reason they wanted to eliminate you. No matter how many black stones you brought, it would have been useless. There was no room to begin with.]
They had tried to bring down the transport ship to keep that from being discovered, and even now they were trying to kill me by laying a trap.
However, this was a bigger problem than their attempt to kill me.
To think there was a fixed number of people who could come to this planet.
And on top of that, that number was far too small.
[How many people do you think know?]
Anyone who knew could be considered part of the same group.
As I was thinking that, Soph’s voice came to me.
[Do you think they are villains?]
At Soph’s words, I shook my head.
[No. I have no intention of judging this ethically. We, who are hiding Earth’s destruction from most of humanity, and they, who are hiding the number of people who can survive, are no different.]
To the ordinary people on Earth, they and I would surely feel the same.
But I had no intention of simply standing by and watching either.
The reason one killed an enemy in war was because the other stood on the opposite side, and because he was trying to kill me and my family.
To a soldier like me, grand causes still did not mean much.
It was the same now.
They were people trying to kill me, and they were people trying to reduce the number of survivors, including my family.
I could not leave such enemies alone.
Just then, Margreta’s face suddenly appeared in front of me.
“Are you all right?”
Looking around, I saw that everyone else had stopped and was staring at me.
It was because I had suddenly come to a halt.
“I just thought of something for a moment... I’m fine.”
I apologized to the others and began walking again.
Frank, who had been looking at me as if I were pathetic, said to Catherine and Margreta,
“We’ll arrive at the ruins soon.”
At Frank’s words, I looked around.
Before I knew it, we were entering a desolate canyon.
It was a canyon with a similar feeling to the collapsed canyon where I had met Soph.
As I recalled my memories and looked around, I heard Margreta speak beside me.
She frowned as she looked around.
“Isn’t this a restricted area?”
“Yes. It’s dangerous terrain, so access has been blocked until now. When we investigated again recently, we found ruins here.”
By now, Frank’s words were amusing to hear.
Had access been blocked because, as he said, it was dangerous terrain?
Or had it been blocked because there were ruins?
I would soon find out.
As we entered the desolate canyon, Frank looked me over once again.
He pointed at the spear I was carrying.
“You use a spear.”
It was an abrupt question.
“Yes. Is that a problem?”
At my answer, he shook his head.
“No. It just looked like an ordinary spear. As you know, here in Paradise, we’ve even managed to produce guns.”
He tapped the pistol at his waist.
He said it as if boasting, but I thought I understood why he had brought it up.
He was trying to check my weapon.
Soon the others lost interest in my spear, but conversely, there was someone who looked at it closely.
“I don’t think I saw a spear on Earth.”
It was Catherine.
She came up beside me and whispered softly.
“Yes. It has a technique that hides its form.”
There was no longer any reason to hide it from Catherine.
I also told her quietly.
At my words, she let out a sigh.
“Then again... you stopped incoming missiles and scattered attacking troops, so I suppose hiding a spear and bringing it along is no great matter.”
Having said that much, her expression became relieved.
“I’ve made my choice anyway, so there’s no need to worry anymore. If there’s anything you need, tell me. I’ll support you from behind.”
At her words, I asked again,
“Anything at all?”
Catherine answered with a stiff face.
“Yes. Anything at all.”
I did not ask further.
There was no need to ask. I felt I knew where the limits of those words lay.
After walking on like that, we reached the end of the canyon a short while later.
At the end of the canyon, surrounded by cliffs, there were ruins just as Frank had said.
However, the appearance of the ruins was different from what I had expected.
Unlike the Trappist ruins that had been hidden underground, the ruins on this planet stood aboveground.
The ruins were a huge circular dome.
A half-destroyed circular dome built at the end of the canyon.
The roof had collapsed, but the dome still maintained its circular shape.
Frank guided us through a gap in the dome.
I had sensed it even from outside, but the ruins resembled a Roman-era Colosseum, or perhaps a modern stadium.
A circular arena and seats encircling it.
Even the half-collapsed ceiling.
No matter how I looked at it, these were not unexplored ruins.
[It did not collapse because of time. It seems there was a battle. These are the first traces of combat I have seen on this planet.]
On top of that, Soph’s unexpected words came as well.
These ruins were not an ordinary trap either, just as I had thought.
[This is impressive too. The earthlings revived more than just the terraforming ruin on this planet.]
It was as Soph said. These ruins were still alive.
No, should I say they had been revived?
As I was surprised by the energy I felt from the ruins, magic unfolded.
Shwaaaak!
A translucent wall surged up around the arena.
A magical barrier.
A barrier had formed over the entire circular arena.
[This would suit the saying, “You cook the porridge only to feed it to the dog.” I never thought the black stones you went to such trouble to bring would be used in a place like this.]
I had wondered how they created such a magical barrier on a planet lacking dark energy, but it was all thanks to the black stones I had brought.
“I suppose I should thank you. Thanks to you, I was able to complete my research.”
Then, from far off in the spectator seats beyond the barrier, an old voice rang out.
When I looked toward where the voice came from, an old man was entering the stands with people in tow.
Catherine spoke beside me.
“That’s Harrison Stone. The head himself has come out.”
The head of her adoptive parents’ faction.
The man who had tried to kill me had revealed himself.
Unlike his aged face, his body was upright and firm.
That old man, unlike his face, was a proper energy user.
That was why he was the head of the foremost faction in Paradise, and why he was even called the ruler of Paradise.
With a delighted expression, he spread both hands wide.
“It is not only these ruins I should be grateful for. What I should truly be grateful for is inside that door. My test subjects, completed thanks to you.”
Along with his words, the enormous door on the opposite side slowly began to open.
I had wondered if it could be, and it turned out these ruins really were a Colosseum.
[Did the bastards who lived on this planet have nothing better to do?]
Listening to Soph click his tongue, I stared at the opening door.
Thud. Thud. Clank.
The door opened, and something began to emerge from inside.
A huge bulk, the clattering sound of metal, and the noise of many footsteps.
The test subject the old man spoke of revealed itself.
Kuuuuung!
Strange machinery was wrapped around its body, but the test subject was a monster I knew.
A gigantic black monster moving long tentacles.
The test subject he had spoken of was an Akzar scout.
Trap (3)