When I stood before the president, everyone stared at me with startled expressions.
The president of the United States looked up at me, his face a complete mess.
“Y-You endured it all for a reason after all.”
The old man stammered through his split lips.
I placed my hand on the old man’s face.
Several people flinched at my action.
They appeared to be bodyguards.
Still, perhaps they understood the situation, because they did not move any further.
In that position, I cast a healing spell.
“It will hurt a little.”
The president nodded at my words, but soon let out a groan and began to tremble.
“Gnnnnngh.”
It seemed the pain was worse than he had expected.
But this was hardly unbearable pain.
I did not stop the treatment.
Sssrrrk.
His wounds gradually disappeared.
The bruises faded, and the cuts vanished.
His split lips returned to normal.
His clothes were still stained with blood, but the president himself had returned to his original appearance.
Once he was healed to a certain degree, I removed my hand from his face.
“I haven’t healed you completely, but you should have no trouble moving around now.”
“Urgh. It hurts more than I expected. Still, I’m grateful for this.”
The president grimaced and slowly moved his body.
As the pain gradually faded, his expression relaxed.
While I was treating the president, the people who had been held hostage collected the weapons and bound those who had fallen asleep.
The president also rose from his seat and approached the Director of the Intelligence Agency, who had been reduced to charcoal.
President Stewart gazed at the burned corpse with a grim expression.
I asked the president,
“Was he, perhaps, someone who shouldn’t have been killed?”
In truth, I could have spared him.
I had simply used more force than necessary because I thought I needed to clean things up quickly.
“No. He cooperated with the rebels, threatened the president of the United States, and even stole the nuclear codes. No matter what inferiority complex he had toward his subordinates or what other reason he gives, there can be no forgiveness for that.”
“Then…”
“It’s merely regrettable that matters came to this. The reason so many rebels appeared within the military was ultimately because they were trying to save themselves and their families.”
As the president lamented, a four-star general manipulated the rebels’ communications device and spoke.
“It will not be easy to urge the rebels to surrender. They have no way out either, so if things go wrong, an intense battle may break out here.”
Judging by the way he was operating the communications device, they intended to use it to urge the rebels to surrender.
The president nodded at the general’s words.
“I suppose not. This may be our last evacuation as well. I was wrong. I should have remained in the homeland.”
At his words, which were laced with a sigh, the officials leaped to their feet and protested as one.
“That’s absurd!”
“Exactly! The United States government must continue to exist. For that very reason, Mr. President, you must go to Paradise.”
In the movies, the president of the United States always remained in the White House until the very end…
Reality was different from the movies.
There was something I did not understand, so I asked an official nearby.
“What do you mean, the last evacuation?”
It seemed I had chosen the right person to ask.
A middle-aged official properly answered my question.
“The temperature is rising far too quickly. The Earth will become uninhabitable before summer arrives. There isn’t enough time to transport the next group of evacuees.”
Only now did I understand why the rebels and these people had been making such a commotion.
“Then it was a lie when they said they could bring the rebels’ families here.”
“That’s right. Even the rebel leaders knew it.”
So they had lied despite knowing the truth.
I asked him another question.
“The rising temperatures are because of the carbon dioxide and methane erupting from Antarctica, aren’t they?”
“The seasons are also a factor, but that is the primary cause.”
“Then there’s no need to worry.”
“What?”
The man’s expression grew strange.
I told him the truth.
“I stopped the eruptions in Antarctica.”
“What did you say?”
The retort had not come from him.
The president had rushed over and pressed his face close to mine as he asked.
He was not the only one. Everyone in the room stared at me with startled expressions.
“You know that there are terraforming ruins in Antarctica.”
More than half of the people nodded at my words.
“I activated those ruins using the Blackstone I obtained recently. Since I used Blackstone, it probably won’t last more than a few years, but there will be no further gas eruptions from Antarctica during that time.”
The astonished people rushed toward me.
“Is that true?”
“Are you saying the Earth’s temperature will return to normal?”
Some shouted loudly, while others even interpreted my words with excessive optimism.
The official beside me informed them of the reality.
“That probably won’t happen. Even if we stop the eruptions in Antarctica, so much gas has already been released that the temperature will not fall. As the seasons change, the Northern Hemisphere will grow even hotter. Food will also be a problem, and in any case, it will be difficult to live on Earth.”
At his words, the president asked me again,
“But we’ve bought ourselves time, haven’t we?”
“Yes. At least a few years. We won’t have to act as hastily as we are now.”
The president looked at the official who had spoken again, and the official nodded.
I also thanked him.
“Thank you for explaining it so well.”
Learning magic seemed to have made me smarter than before, but explaining things to people who came rushing at me without even Sopeu was still difficult.
“Think nothing of it. It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m Alan Fitzgerald, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.”
He held out his hand to me, and the president introduced him as well.
“He’s my science advisor.”
Once again, it seemed I had chosen the right person to ask.
I spoke to the delighted president.
“That’s a relief. Thank you for believing me.”
They had believed my claim that I had stopped the Antarctic eruptions more easily than I had expected.
“You’ve done plenty already, and you rescued us like this. We had no choice but to believe you.”
I nodded at the president’s words.
I had thought of several ways to make them believe me, so it was fortunate that I had not needed to use them.
After hearing my words, the president walked toward the radio with a bright expression.
“Good. We’re connected, right? Let’s begin at once.”
At the president’s question, the general operating the radio stepped aside.
“Fortunately, the communications encryption remains unchanged. You can begin immediately.”
The president sat down before the radio and took a deep breath.
Then he began his speech.
“I am David Stewart, president of the United States of America.
“I am free now. The rebel leaders who held me hostage have already been subdued.
“The promise you received—the ‘ticket to Paradise’—was a lie from the very beginning. Their claim that they would bring your families here was nothing more than an empty deception.
“The rebels never had the power to protect your families in the first place.
“But hope still remains.
“Our comrade has stopped the eruptions in Antarctica. The time remaining before the destruction of Earth has been extended.
“It may be difficult to believe, but we have proof. That is also why the rebel leaders were subdued.
“We have bought several more years. We now have time to devise measures for our families and for humanity.
“I hereby order you to lay down your weapons and surrender.
“I will take responsibility for those who surrender and for their families.
“There is no future for those who resist until the end.
“Now choose.
“Will you follow false promises, lose even your honor, and march toward the grave? Or will you believe in the truth and survive?”
The president delivered his speech in a calm yet forceful tone.
The rebel communications network grew noisy.
—What are they talking about?
—The general was taken down?
—That’s the president they said they were holding hostage!
—What do they mean, it was a lie?
“Is it really true that the end has been delayed?”
—Everyone, wait!
—Wait for what? They said everyone’s been captured!
Just as the communications network grew loud, the conference room door opened.
Click.
Several people pointed their guns at the door.
Fortunately, the people who opened it were not rebels.
They were two women wrapped in translucent shields.
“Magreta!”
“That’s Commander Catherine, isn’t it?”
Some of those pointing their guns recognized Magreta and rushed toward her, while the others who recognized Catherine lowered their weapons.
After greeting those who approached them, the two women came to me.
“You two did well.”
While I searched for the president of the United States, the two women and Sopeu had been drawing the attention of the others.
After discovering where the president was, I had sent the two women a telepathic message telling them to come here.
Even so, I had expected it to take some time, but they arrived sooner than I thought.
Magreta shook her head at my greeting and handed me my spear.
“The rebels stopped blocking us once President Stewart’s speech began. Thanks to that, we were able to get here quickly.”
As I took back my spear, I asked her,
“Did they surrender?”
[It wasn’t a surrender, but it felt similar.]
“They just didn’t seem to have any intention of fighting.”
Indeed, they had joined the rebels only to ensure the survival of their families and themselves.
Now that they knew it was impossible, they had no choice but to lose the will to fight.
Good news also came from the generals clutching the communications devices.
“The rebel units within the base are surrendering one after another.”
“We’re also receiving messages from the rebels confronting our forces. They say they intend to surrender.”
Reports of surrender continued to come in.
At this rate, the rebellion seemed likely to end without a major battle.
But then another voice came through the communications device.
—We cannot believe those words. Neither that the end has been delayed nor that the government will take responsibility for us.
As expected, it would not end so easily this time either.
—Our escort fleet still demands the relocation of our families and troops to Paradise, as originally promised.
Those refusing to surrender were neither the soldiers at the base nor the army.
They were the navy—the escort fleet accompanying the transport convoy.
—There is a transport convoy carrying hundreds of thousands of evacuees in the port beside us. Do not forget that even now, our missiles and torpedoes are aimed at those transport ships.
With those words, the communications signal from the escort fleet’s admiral was cut off.
The communications channel grew noisy once again.
Amid the chaotic transmissions, the generals frantically gathered information.
A short while later, we learned what was happening.
“Not the entire escort fleet has refused to surrender. The ones refusing are part of the Sixth Fleet. A squadron consisting of several destroyers and submarines has taken the transport convoy hostage and is refusing to surrender.”
At the general’s words, the president clutched his head.
“The hostages are a problem, but aren’t there Ohio-class submarines among those submarines?”
Listening from behind, I raised my head at the president’s words.
‘Ohio-class submarines? Those are nuclear submarines.’
The general nodded grimly at the president’s question.
“Yes. They cannot use the nuclear missiles because they do not have the nuclear codes, but they are near the port. If even one of them detonates, it will cause a catastrophe.”
Another general added,
“There are nearly a hundred passenger ships, cruise ships, and transport vessels docked at the port. In the worst-case scenario, they may use force against at least one of them.”
The officials frowned, but the generals paid them no mind.
The agonized president raised his head.
He looked at me.
“We cannot fight with hostages involved… What should we do?”
There was no way I could misunderstand why he was looking at me.
Once the president turned his eyes toward me, the other officials and generals did the same.
They all wore the same expression.
I shook my head and rose from my seat.
“We have to rescue the hostages.”
“Can you do that?”
It was more than possible. I had already neutralized missiles in flight before.
“I can. However, I will not be able to hold back against the enemies who attack me.”
In any case, I would be fighting destroyers and submarines.
I could not simply put the enemies to sleep as I had at the base.
“It cannot be helped. Go and save those people.”
With the president’s permission, I left the conference room.
I was going to save those people.
This time, I had no intention of asking for a separate reward.
The fact that a submarine might sink along the way, or that the nuclear missiles it carried might disappear, was merely incidental.
The Escort Fleet (1)