Seeing the head of the Sterling faction, Catherine’s foster father laughed emptily.
“So you betrayed us and joined hands with that faction.”
At her foster father’s words, Catherine replied with an expressionless face.
“Because they’re better than parents who said it was fine for me to die.”
At her words, her foster mother burst into anger.
“What kind of talk is that! We may not have given birth to you, but you’re our daughter. How can you say such a thing!”
The corner of Catherine’s mouth rose slightly.
It was a smile mocking her foster mother—no, mocking herself.
“Ask my foster father about that.”
At Catherine’s words, she looked at her husband.
“What is the child talking about? Don’t tell me, such… did such a thing happen?”
Her eyes widened as she spoke.
“It was something the faction orchestrated. I learned of it too late.”
At her foster father’s words, Catherine laughed aloud.
This time, it was definite ridicule.
“Ha, even after finding out, you kept following their orders. You even told me to guide them into a trap.”
“That is….”
Her foster father could not continue the words that followed.
Having learned the situation, her foster mother sank to the floor.
“No, what is all this? Such nonsense….”
After taking in the sight of her listless foster mother and ashen foster father one last time, Catherine turned around.
“As you can see, the cleanup was finished long ago. Please handle the rest as you see fit.”
“It certainly seems that way.”
Vanderbilt Sterling nodded.
At his gesture, people entered.
They were vigilante members who had changed sides overnight.
Even though many powerful figures had come over from Earth, there actually weren’t many people in this city.
Even including ordinary citizens, there were barely a thousand.
With the head of the Stone faction, the vigilante captain, and the loyalists gone, the remaining vigilantes had no choice but to switch sides.
Since the Sterling faction that had reached out was no minor faction, they were able to make their decision easily.
Seeing the people who had burst in, Catherine’s foster father screamed furiously.
“Don’t you know this planet will be ruined if you do things this way! Do you know how much we’ve been handling all this time!”
The vigilante members approaching him flinched and halted.
Seeing that, he continued to pour out words.
“Relic management and artifact management, of course—but what are you going to do about the terraforming relic right now?”
Bringing up the terraforming relic, he became far more emboldened.
“Our faction revived the terraforming relic. We’re the only ones who know how to maintain it. Without us, this planet—this city—will become uninhabitable!”
He poured out words confidently, but his foster daughter refuted him with an indifferent expression.
“It’s fine. I didn’t proceed without thinking. Besides, I know the secret of the terraforming relic as well, so you needn’t worry.”
At Catherine’s words, her foster father’s eyes widened.
“What? The secret of the terraforming relic?”
“You didn’t know. You know less than I thought.”
Catherine looked at him with a pitiful expression, then went out of the living room.
“Catherine!”
“Dear…!”
The shouts of her foster parents from inside the door were no longer audible.
It seemed the vigilante members had begun their work.
Then the head of the Sterling faction came outside.
“Now that I know the situation, I’ll handle these people myself.”
“Yes. I’ll leave them to you.”
Hearing her composed reply, Sterling nodded with a satisfied expression.
He continued, looking at the quiet street.
“At this point, it seems things are almost wrapped up on this end.”
“It’s thanks to your help.”
If the Sterling faction hadn’t moved, it would have been difficult to wrap things up this quickly.
“Let’s say this place is resolved, then… Did you say Margareta went to Earth?”
“Yes. She headed to Earth immediately after the incident.”
“If the Intelligence Bureau and the Ashford family move together, the Earth side should be resolved to some extent.”
“Yes. She can be trusted.”
Though she had run away from home, she was the biological daughter of the Ashford family.
The family would move at her word.
“Then, what remains is the terraforming relic?”
“There’s no need to worry. The Captain is at the relic.”
He stared into Catherine’s eyes.
“By position, you should be above him. Is that why you call him Captain?”
“He is not someone bound by position.”
Hearing her answer, Vanderbilt Sterling rubbed his chin.
“Seeing him this time, that seems to be the case. I received word from my son, but it wasn’t to this extent. And….”
“Please speak.”
The head of the Sterling family made a request with a troubled expression.
“I’m asking you to look after my son. It’s a bit odd to worry about a grown adult, but I feel as though I’ve cast him into dangerous waters.”
Hearing his words, Catherine glanced at the living room she had just exited.
However, she didn’t look at the door for long this time.
She immediately averted her gaze.
“He has become much better since meeting the Captain. I will relay your words to him as well.”
Catherine nodded to Vanderbilt Sterling.
“Thank you.”
After expressing his thanks, he asked Catherine.
“Now, are you going to the terraforming relic?”
“Yes. I plan to check if the relic is alright and then return to Earth together.”
“Do you have no intention of staying here? Unlike the current deputy commander, you are indispensable to Paradise as well. I had heard of your skills before, but I was truly impressed with how you handled matters this time. How about working under me—no, with us? If you wish, our family can officially sponsor you.”
The sponsorship of a faction head that she had long desired.
It was a truly good opportunity.
But Catherine shook her head.
“I already have someone I follow.”
“…As expected, I’m too late. It’s a shame, but it can’t be helped.”
It was when he clicked his tongue with a regretful expression.
*Fwoooosh!*
A gigantic wall of light shot up into the sky.
It was a wall of light similar to the defensive wall of the Colosseum relic.
That wall of light surged up, encircling the distant horizon.
“What is that?”
The Sterling family head looked up at the sky with a startled face.
Others were the same.
People walking in the streets and people inside their houses all came outside and looked up at the sky.
No one knew what that wall of light was or why it had suddenly appeared.
Catherine thought she knew.
She had seen a defensive wall similar to that wall of light a few days ago.
Moreover, at the center of that gigantic wall of light enveloping the city—at the center of the city—he was there.
“If it helped, it helped; there shouldn’t be any major problems. I will go to the terraforming relic.”
Leaving the Sterling family head looking up at the sky behind her, she headed toward the relic.
The terraforming relic was at the center of this city.
***
At the center of New Eden was a large cylindrical building.
It was a building the size of a small gymnasium, a cheese-shaped stone structure among shabby buildings.
This building was Paradise’s terraforming relic.
Unlike the Trappist relic that had been buried in the ground, this relic was built to the height of a five-story building.
Of course, this relic also extended deep underground, like the Trappist relic.
The relic drew the planet’s energy from underground, terraforming the planet.
Fortunately, the control room managing the relic was above ground.
The various devices that had been visible until yesterday were no longer seen in the control room at the center of the building.
The wires plastered all over the control room’s walls, ceiling, and floor were also gone, and the mechanical devices attached to the central altar had disappeared.
The magic circles drawn throughout the control room, the central altar, and even the shelf in front of it.
The terraforming relic’s control room had regained its original form for the first time in a long while.
Inside the large control room were two people.
Me, and a man in his thirties who resembled the mage Sterling—Sterling’s older brother.
Sterling’s father had been with Catherine since yesterday, and his older brother had been following me around.
The reason given was to help me, but it seemed closer to surveillance than assistance.
“It’s both support and surveillance. Just from what I saw when you entered this relic, I could tell you needed no protection.”
When I subtly asked him about it, he answered candidly.
It seemed he remembered how I had knocked down all the energy users blocking the way when we entered the relic.
Unlike his younger brother, who was quick to sulk and show off, the older brother was very hearty.
[“It’s probably because he’s the successor. There’s an insurmountable wall between the successor and the other sons. It must have greatly influenced his personality growing up.”]
[Sop spoke as if he knew something, but I couldn’t understand his words.]
Moreover, I had no time to ponder the reasons behind their personalities right now.
It was simply easier to deal with someone who had a good personality.
My new window floated above the shelf in front of me.
Numerous holograms appeared and disappeared around the vertically floating window.
Countless characters streamed through the holograms.
They were all holograms that Sop controlled, and they were spells.
The outside scenery was reflected in the topmost holograms.
The wall of light encircling the horizon was visible within the holograms.
“What is that wall of light, again?”
He had been asking questions like this constantly since entering the terraforming relic.
“You seem much stronger than others; how did you obtain your power?”
“Is it alright to chase out all the technicians? What if it breaks?”
“Is it okay to remove all the modification devices?”
The questions had continued after we forced our way inside past the energy-user guards.
I answered as sincerely as possible, except for personal matters.
“I obtained my power while traveling around Trappist.”
“They are people who cannot handle this relic without the modification devices.”
“The modification devices are damaging the relic. If left as is, the relic will stop within a few years.”
Fortunately, before being chased out, the technicians admitted that the modifications were a mess and confessed that the relic was barely terraforming this city alone.
Thanks to that confession, Sterling’s older brother believed me.
Hearing the story, he was truly surprised.
That the planet they had fled to had only a few years of lifespan remaining.
It was natural to be surprised.
He clung to my side even more.
The questions intensified as well.
There were more useless questions too, but this question needed an answer.
“It’s a magic barrier that shields air, heat, water, and water vapor. The barrier is necessary to prevent all of those from escaping outside.”
A magic barrier encircling more than a hundred kilometers in a circle centered on New Eden.
That barrier extended from the ground to above the clouds.
“Originally, if energy was insufficient and terraforming had to be done on only part of the planet, this shield had to be erected. They couldn’t erect the barrier because they failed to properly analyze the relic.”
[“If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t have had a solution either.”]
[“I’m always grateful.”]
“Because the barrier wasn’t erected, this relic has been wasting enormous amounts of energy all this time. The raised heat, the clouds and oxygen created—all of it was scattered in every direction.”
Even if Paradise had far less energy than Trappist, it was absurd that it only had an effect on this small city.
This was a disaster caused by people who knew nothing of magic making superficial modifications to the relic.
“Now, terraforming will be maintained up to where the barrier was erected. More than ten times the current area, about the size of Gyeonggi Province—no, the area of Connecticut.”
That much could accommodate a significant number of people.
From hundreds of thousands at the least, to millions at the most.
It was nothing compared to Earth’s population, but it was an enormous number compared to this city that barely held ten thousand.
“Removing the modification devices has also increased its lifespan. It hasn’t returned to its original state, but there shouldn’t be much need for worry.”
This was a lie.
Removing the modification devices wouldn’t repair the broken parts.
It merely prevented further damage.
According to Sop, they had only bought a few more years.
At most, ten years.
It was not a long time.
[“In the worst case, we’ll have to move to Trappist.”]
Even apart from the relic’s lifespan, this planet could no longer serve as humanity’s refuge.
Now this planet was a place to buy time.
They had to find a way to move people to Trappist during that time.
It was then.
Catherine was seen entering the control room.
“Captain!”
She called out to me as she came inside.
It meant she had finished her work.
Now it was time to return to Earth.
The Beginning of Upheaval (1)