To the Dragon's Nest (1)
'The Noble Capital of Mega Corp is looking for me?'
This was the farthest edge of the star system that held the planet Cyguil 08. A no-man's-land, untouched even by the influence of the Cult Empire, and still light-years removed from Mega Corp's domain.
Nern swept his gaze quickly around the hangar. Not only Cult escape vessels but ships and fighters of every conceivable make were berthed inside this massive vessel.
There were stark white warships built by Mars's Prime Capital, rectangular patrol craft crafted by a Noble Capital family famous for its orbital city architecture, and even carriers favored by the Star Union.
From what he knew, the Noble Capitals of Mega Corp were fiercely exclusive. Even when they operated ships of the same class, they would alter the fine details of their armament or rework their internal structures entirely.
If the woman truly belonged to the Yujin Family, no Family of that blood would ever operate such a wildly diverse fleet—one that transcended both lineage and species.
"For a member of the Yujin Family, you carry a remarkably varied fleet. Suspiciously so."
"You seem to know a great deal about my Family."
"Mega Corp is a potential enemy of the Empire. Naturally, I must know."
Whatever the answer satisfied her, the corner of Sihyeon Yujin's mouth curled slightly. She withdrew the blade she had held to Nern's throat; her arm, which had taken the form of a razor-sharp edge, reverted to its original shape in an instant.
Strangely suited and standing beside him, the being holding his subordinate released its grip as well.
"...What is this?"
"There is something I wish to discuss. Come with me."
He had no choice, so Nern quietly followed behind Sihyeon Yujin. The strange suited being handed the crewman over to other members of the crew and fell in behind him.
"He will be treated as a guest. Pay him no mind."
To Nern, who kept glancing back, Sihyeon Yujin assured him there was nothing to worry about.
Through pristine white corridors she led him to a reception room steeped in an old-world elegance.
She seated herself naturally at the chair before the mahogany table. The strange suited being leaned against one wall with an air of studied indifference.
'I thought that one was her subordinate?'
Clad in a peculiar suit that concealed not only its body but its face entirely, there was no telling what species it belonged to—whether it was even male or female at all.
"Have a seat, Captain Nern."
He had no idea what the relationship between the two was, but that hardly mattered now.
He sat down across the table. Sihyeon Yujin slid a plate of cake toward him.
"You must be starving. Eat this first."
"...What is it you want? You didn't drag me all the way here for nothing."
She did not answer his question. She merely nodded at the slice of cake.
With the unmistakable air of someone who would not speak until he ate, Nern had no alternative; he cut into the cake with his fork and took a bite.
And then he froze in astonishment.
"A high-calorie chocolate cake developed to capture both flavor and energy supply. Someone who shares my cause was a great help in making it."
Sihyeon Yujin's gaze flicked briefly toward the strange suited being, but Nern never noticed. The moment he swallowed the soft crumb down his throat, a surge of vitality coursed through his entire body.
"I sought you out for one reason. To buy information that only you possess."
As he ate the cake in a daze, she began to lay out her business.
"Information?"
"Captain Nern. You once led a warship to repel the invasion war of the Outspacers. For that achievement, you were appointed captain of the Imperial Mothership 'Damos 08's Arbiter.'"
"You've done your research on me. I hardly owe you any answers, do I?"
"As I dug, something odd caught my eye. How could a mere handful of warships defeat an Outspacer swarm of unprecedented scale?"
"......"
"Even a brilliant strategist could not manage such a feat easily. So I dug deeper."
At those words, Nern's eyebrows twitched.
"There is a record that the Cult aboard your warship at the time used a relic of unknown origin. The one who annihilated the Outspacer swarm vanished immediately afterward, and only an energy-drained relic was left behind."
"How did you...?"
"How I came to know that is irrelevant. Captain Nern. The crew of that warship judged the relic too dangerous and decided to store it at a specific point on an exceedingly hazardous planet. Am I correct?"
Hearing her words, Nern finally understood why she had come looking for him.
"You're after that relic."
"Yes. All you need to do is tell us where it is."
"And you think I'll simply tell you?"
"I do. Because I can give you what you want."
"Ha. And what makes a human like you think you know what I want?"
Nern scoffed.
But at Sihyeon Yujin's next words, his expression hardened at once.
"The Council will not send another Imperial Mothership to Cyguil 08. Not with the prophecy's side effects to consider."
"What?"
"No ship, no connections within the Council—you will retire as you are. And you will spend the rest of your life nursing your hatred of the monster in silence."
"......"
Nern did not deny a word of it.
"You have seen the relic's power firsthand. You know as well as I do that with that relic, that monster 'thing' could be reduced to dust."
"I could refuse to help you and go find the relic myself."
"Could you? The place where it's stored is extremely dangerous. Perhaps a former Imperial Mothership captain could have managed it—your current self could never get there."
"...Damn it all. You really did come knowing everything."
Nern spat out a quiet curse.
"And if I tell you where the relic is hidden—you'll kill him for me?"
"Yes. I will have my revenge upon the 'Three-Headed Demon.'"
"Hmph. In return, I will be there when he dies. I will guide you to the relic's location myself."
Looking into his hate-filled eyes, Sihyeon Yujin smiled faintly.
'What is this?'
It was the first time since linking my senses with the mass of metal that my ear area had felt an odd tickling sensation.
'Come to think of it, Amorph doesn't have ears.'
Amorphs have no ears or nose; instead, beneath their jaws dangle slender tentacles known as auxiliary organs.
Two of them until the sub-adult stage, four from the young adult stage onward—these organs detect the flow of air and perceive sound and scent simultaneously. On top of that, they can even sense formless energy currents like electromagnetic waves or psychic power, making them as close to an all-purpose sensory apparatus as one could ask for.
Perhaps thanks to those auxiliary organs.
Even while fused as one with the Cult frigate through the Nightmare Horizon trait, I could monitor every last detail of this elongated, diamond-shaped hull as though it were my own body.
And it didn't stop there. Those auxiliary organs, far more precise than any detection sensor mounted inside a warship, missed not a single obstacle drifting through the void of space.
Even now, the erosion tentacles clinging to the outer hull were relentlessly deflecting incoming space debris and rogue rocks.
We were not flying over a planetary surface but through an endless expanse of darkness.
Several hours ago, the Nightmare Horizon's cooldown had ended. Having finished every preparation before it did, we at last departed from the Cults' holy land—PH-101.
Leaving behind, for some, kin of their own kind, and for others, the lingering traces of family who had died in agony.
Yet not one of them mourned.
Mother of the Sky had wanted to be laid to rest on that planet only after finishing her vengeance.
'She knows what my plan is, though.'
As a ranker herself, Mother of the Sky had a rough understanding of the conditions for Amorph's Ascension. She knew her own life might well become the fodder for my evolution.
And even so, her craving for revenge outweighed her will to live, so she chose to stay with me.
'Of course, the future may turn out differently...'
Should it ever come to pass that she was to be used as material for my evolution, I intended to ask her once more.
Whether she truly wished to die for her vengeance.
I had never planned on asking at all, but that was no longer the case. I owed her a debt.
'I expected her reaction, but Number 26's attitude surprised me more.'
I knew the little one had chosen me over her own kind.
Still, I'd expected at least a trace of melancholy when we left the planet—but if anything, she seemed positively thrilled.
After seizing the ship, I sent out a wavelength to ask her about it, and this was her answer.
She would eat new prey and grow stronger, and then tell her kin all about it. She hoped her kin would flourish in the planet's seas.
'She's found a new dream of her own.'
A dream is the privilege of an intelligent being—an abstract, long-term blueprint for the future.
Not long after meeting Number 26, I had hoped that one day she might get to see her own kind again.
That goal had been realized only in part. Number 26 had inherited the power of the dead Sea Demon, and she had communed with the other Bubble Amoebas.
But this time, Number 26 had been the one to declare her ambitions to me. She had set a new goal entirely on her own.
'She's growing not just in strength, but in spirit.'
Is this what a parent raising a child feels like?
In my human days, I didn't have many fond memories of family or parental love. My childhood had been saturated with hospitals, the smell of antiseptic, and pain.
And yet here I was, feeling something tighten in my chest every time I watched Number 26 grow. Perhaps this really was what parents felt as they raised their children.
｢Big Adult?｣
A single thought-wave snapped me out of whatever wistful, bittersweet reverie I'd drifted into.
Adhai, floating before me, tilted her head.
｢What?｣｢Me｣｢Explaining｣
[Zzz zzz zzzzz zzz (Sorry. I was lost in thought)]
｢Big Adult｣｢Tired｣｢Me｣｢Afterward｣｢Explain｣｢Possible｣
[Zzzzz (It's fine)]
Even after leaving the planet, we had not yet entered faster-than-light travel, because we first had to chart our course to the next destination.
Where we were headed now appeared on no standard starship route. It was remote enough to be called the abyss of space—and dangerous enough to match.
'The Galagon Nest.'
Back at the T&C Special Trade Hub, when I spared Adhai's life, I made a deal with her. She promised that if I protected her, she would show me the way to the Dragon's Nest.
And now it was her turn to keep her word.
'Galagons have a homing instinct, according to the lore.'
No matter how far a Galagon strayed from its nest, it always knew which direction home lay. Whether it knew through its prodigious psychic power or through some beastly instinct, no one could say.
'It'll take some time, though.'
We had stocked the ship with plenty of food. Failing that, we could always hunt another vessel mid-voyage for a fresh supply. With so many ways to procure a meal, a long journey posed no real problem.
While I was mulling this over, Adhai fired off another thought-wave.
｢Me｣｢Need｣｢Map｣
[Zzz (Map?)]
｢Shiny｣｢Shiny｣｢Light｣｢Map｣
She raised her forepaw and traced a circle in the empty air.
'Does she mean a holographic map?'
Before we took over this ship, Adhai had searched the interior alongside me.
I'd been looking for survivors or anything useful, but apparently she had caught sight of the remnants of a hologram in the situation room back then.
'Might as well bring one up.'
This ship was my body in all but name. Beside the atoms fused with me, a hologram composed of psychic power flickered into being.
｢There｣｢Zoom in｣｣Request｣
Studying the map, she pointed to a spot with the tip of her wing. When I magnified it, she peered at the area with sharp, bright eyes and jabbed her wingtip at a specific point.
'No way?'
Every time I zoomed or panned the map, she used her wings and forepaws to indicate new points.
After several dozen repetitions, a certain sector emerged. She gestured toward the planet sitting at the sector's outer edge.
｢Here｣｢Dragon Nest｣
'Whoa.'
I'm not the type to startle easily, but this time was an exception.
I had planned to use Adhai's Galagon homing instinct as a living navigation system, but she had gone and charted the route to the Dragon's Nest right then and there.
Even watching it happen in real time, I couldn't quite believe it, so I asked her.
[Zzzzz zzz zzz (How did you make that?)]
｢?｣｢Me｣｢Star patterns｣｢Remembered｣
[Zzzzz (Star patterns?)]
｢Stars｣｢Positions｣｢Map｣｢Compare｣｢Easy｣
She answered as if it were nothing.
'...I thought she was a dwarfism mutant, but is her real mutation in intelligence?'
If we reached the Dragon's Nest and the other Galagons possessed even a fraction of this intelligence, I would not be confident of beating them.
As I sat there in silence, she added an explanation.
｢Kin｣｢Star patterns｣｢Don't know｣｢Interest｣｢None｣
[Zzz (Is that so?)]
｢Kin｣｢Strength｣｢Strong｣｢Remember｣｢Need｣｢None｣｢Brain｣｢Need｣｢None｣
From the sound of it, the Galagons in the Dragon's Nest weren't nearly as clever as she was.
In other words, Adhai was living proof of the old saying: when the body suffers, the brain must work overtime.
'Well, that's a relief, I suppose.'
｢Big Adult｣｢Question｣
Just as I was relaxing, Adhai called to me with a thought-wave.
｢Me｣｢Dragon Nest｣｢Explained｣｢Big Adult｣｢Contract｣｢Finished｣
[Zzz (Hm?)]
｢Big Adult｣｢Me｣｢Abandon?｣
She was still half-reclined in the same posture as before, but her body had gone rigid and stiff. Even her wings were trembling faintly—nervousness was written all over her.
'Right—the deal was I'd spare her in exchange for the nest's location.'
It seemed Adhai had been worrying that I might cast her aside now that she'd held up her end.
'The old me might have done exactly that.'
But not anymore.
Since I was fused with the ship and couldn't pet her directly, I extended an erosion tentacle and stroked her head, ever so gently.
[Zzzzz zzzzz zzz zzzzz zzzzz (You are the most precious things in the world to me)]
｢True?｣
[Zzzzz zzzzz zzz zzzzz zzz (I will never abandon you. Not now, not ever)]
｢Relief!｣｢Joy!｣｢Joy!｣｢Joy!｣
Sensing my sincerity, Adhai flapped her wings in delight. Wagging her tail this way and that, she circled around the reactor where my core resided.
As she flitted about in her happiness, I glimpsed a flash of white scales along the back of her neck. Wondering if my eyes had deceived me, I looked again—but the white scales were gone.
'Thanks to Adhai, we'll arrive in no time.'
The distance was considerable—even at FTL speeds it would take a few months—but that was no problem.
'Then let's get moving.'
I fed the coordinates and route Adhai had shown me into the computer of the eroded warship.
Our next target was the Dragon's Nest.