Chapter 64
Chapter 64
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 64
Chapter Title: The Standard-Bearer of the Silver Eagle (2)
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Contrary to the kids' expectations, the entrance ceremony was a modest affair, attended only by a man who introduced himself as the Vice Director.
It seemed that, as a Cradle purporting to be a squire training facility rather than a knight academy, they avoided overly extravagant and flashy events.
“This concludes the entrance ceremony.”
With the Vice Director's welcome speech—so concise it bordered on insincere—the ceremony came to an end.
“...That's it?”
“But this is the Cradle.”
The kids, who had been full of anticipation, looked at each other with dumbfounded expressions.
“Did we get on their bad side? There's no way we'd get such a shabby welcome otherwise.”
“The Cradle... is so different from what I expected.”
Apparently quite disappointed, complaints erupted from all over.
Some even began to question whether the Cradle's reputation was just empty hype.
It was an impatient thought, and a judgment made far too soon.
The kids realized this fact right after the Vice Director presented them with a scroll.
It was a kind of security pledge, a promise to strictly maintain secrecy regarding the Cradle's various facilities, structure, and location.
Below it, an endless list of terrifying clauses detailed the consequences of breaking the oath.
Just what did the Cradle have that required such measures? The kids' faces filled with anticipation once more.
This time, their expectations were not betrayed.
A tower stood not far from the vacant lot.
“Everyone, close your mouths. You'll bite your tongues.”
The Vice Director, who had shoved us all into the cramped space, gave an enigmatic warning.
“...?”
Before I could even decipher the meaning of his warning.
*VWOOOOSH!*
Suddenly, the ground began to shoot upward.
A sensation I had felt once before.
Back when I ate the Gaecheondan and was forced to the brink of ascension.
It was the exact same intense feeling of levitation I'd experienced while riding that orbital elevator, or whatever it was.
*Thud.*
The only difference was that, unlike the prolonged ascent then, this time it lasted for only a moment.
“Aaaaaah!”
“Ugh!”
After the short, violent ascent ended, the kids let out belated screams.
Watching them impassively, the Vice Director opened the tower's door and exited the tight space.
“Uhehehe…”
Shaking off Angelo and Pon, who were clinging to my trouser legs, I followed him out.
Immediately after.
“...!”
I froze on the spot.
I rubbed my eyes several times at the unbelievable sight.
The desolate, empty lot was nowhere to be seen.
Buildings I had never seen before filled the view in front of me.
“You'll fall if you're not careful.”
As I stood there blankly, the Vice Director's voice reached me.
At his words, I startled and looked down.
“Ah?”
Far, far below was the Imperial Capital.
The largest city on the continent looked no bigger than the palm of my hand.
Stunned, I scrambled away from the edge.
“Gasp!”
In the meantime, the other kids who had composed themselves and stepped out of the tower shrieked in terror.
A few were so shocked they collapsed right where they stood.
But no one mocked those who had fallen.
They didn't have the presence of mind for that.
From the moment I stepped out of the orbital elevator, it was hard to breathe.
My chest felt tight, as if a large stone were pressing down on it.
My body, too, felt unusually heavy.
The other kids were also gasping for breath, their faces pale.
Typical symptoms of altitude sickness.
“Children of the stars!”
Just then, a familiar voice reached my ears.
“The gateway connecting heaven and earth!”
The proctor from the mock battle.
“The city closest to the stars!”
The man who had asked to be called Director of the Rose Garden instead of by his name welcomed us with his arms spread wide.
“Welcome to the Empire's one and only satellite city!”
But his face was filled with an inexplicable satisfaction.
“Do we have to do this every time...?”
It was only after seeing the Vice Director's face, thick with self-loathing as he grumbled, that I understood the situation.
This was a childish welcoming ceremony.
But even if the idea was childish, the emotions I felt were not so simple.
To think the Cradle was actually a floating city in the sky.
Even for me, who prided myself on having seen everything there was to see in my past life, this was a fact I was completely unaware of.
“The Cradle down there is just an empty shell. The real one is up here.”
The Vice Director gave a long-overdue explanation.
To summarize, the building in the Imperial Capital was a form of camouflage, a temporary facility operated for a few purposes, including the entrance exam.
“Huh?”
As I stared blankly at the ground far, far below, I looked back at the tower's entrance.
For some reason, I felt as though both the Imperial Capital and the tower had grown more distant.
I tried to shake off the feeling of unease.
Either the tower was moving, or the Cradle was moving.
Either way, it was just as unbelievable.
And yet, that unbelievable thing was, in fact, happening.
“Ha.”
I no longer had the energy to be surprised; I could only let out a dry laugh.
“If any of you haven't had a good look at the Imperial Capital, take it all in now. You won't be able to see it for a while, even if you want to.”
The Vice Director said in a flat tone.
The Cradle was a satellite city moving on a fixed orbit, and it would take at least two years before it returned to the Imperial Capital.
*Flicker.*
Just then, a cluster of text appeared before my eyes.
It was information from the blessing of [Pathological Curiosity].
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【Satellite City Cradle (☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆)】
*The very embodiment of the ancient people's desire to be even a little closer to the stars.
*In ancient times, it was a celestial observatory where 17,345 astronomers worked. In the present day, however, only about 100 cadets and roughly 1,000 Cradle faculty and staff reside here.
*70% of the entire facility has ceased to function; only the remaining 30% is operational.
*Even within the operational 30%, a significant portion of the original functions has been deactivated.
*Adjusting the orbit is currently impossible.
*The main power unit is severely damaged and requires urgent attention.
*The problem has been exacerbated by several clumsy repair attempts.
*At present, a crash is unavoidable.
*Current Durability of Main Power Unit: (1385/99999)
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The blessing, which would have normally activated much sooner, was strangely late today.
But there was a reason for it.
[Curious Sloth] Yahoo~~ Success~~~
[Elegant Lefty] You're a legend for gritting your teeth and jamming the connection just to see one kid's shocked face.
[Emperor Who Abandoned His Country] The lazy oaf is only diligent at times like this. It's a sickness. A sickness.
[Curious Sloth] C'mon~~~ It's no fun if you know beforehand~~~ You all had fun, too~~ Or was it just me??
[Emperor Who Abandoned His Country] I have nothing to say.
[Elegant Lefty] *Sigh*.
It seemed the [Curious Sloth] had intentionally jammed the connection to surprise me.
No wonder it had been so quiet during the exam.
I sighed and scanned the satellite city's information again.
It had a whopping nine stars in its rating.
I counted them again just in case, but the number of stars was the same.
The Cradle itself was a massive 9-star relic.
But what caught my eye wasn't its rarely seen rating.
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*The main power unit is severely damaged and requires urgent attention.
*The problem has been exacerbated by several clumsy repair attempts.
*At present, a crash is unavoidable.
*Current Durability of Main Power Unit: (1385/99999)
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I was dumbfounded by the warning written plainly on the last line.
A flash of realization went through my mind.
Bern of House Vigete, Amelia of the Judgment Knights.
No wonder none of them had made a name for themselves in my past life. Now I knew why.
They must have all died en masse when the Cradle crashed.
That would also explain why the Cradle had remained silent even as a terrible war swept through the Empire.
“Ahaha.”
It was so absurd I could only laugh.
I had just witnessed the ancient mystery of a city floating in the sky.
I had just learned the true nature of the veiled Cradle.
I had mobilized all the experience from my past life and the luck of my current one to finally enter the Empire's number one academy, the dream of all squires.
And it turned out I had willingly stuck my own head into the lion's mouth.
It was enough to drive a man insane.
It was so ridiculous that I could only laugh hollowly.
“Children of the stars! Welcome to the Cradle!”
Unaware of my inner turmoil, the Director of the Rose Garden shouted again and again.
I covered my ears.
To my ears, his spirited greeting sounded like that of a blind captain, enthusiastically welcoming passengers aboard, oblivious to the hole in his ship's hull.
* * *
There's an old adage about planting an apple tree even if the world were to end tomorrow.
That was exactly how I felt as I transplanted the mandragora seedling into a pot.
“There, there. Good boy, good boy.”
I soothed and coaxed the mandragora, which began to struggle the moment I took it from my arms, placed it in the pot, and covered it with soil.
“That's right. That's right. Good boy.”
The soil shifted for a moment before settling down.
I couldn't tell if it was because my persuasion worked or because it liked the feel of the soil.
Not that it was important right now.
I mulled over my conversation with the Director of the Rose Garden.
While the other kids, half-dazed by the true form of the Cradle, followed the Vice Director's lead, I had discreetly approached him and asked about his earlier promise.
Given that the Cradle was floating in the sky and not on the ground, I wondered if I could actually use the promised leave pass.
He had nonchalantly assured me that the promise was still valid.
Something about there being a way to get down.
Thanks to that, I could breathe a sigh of relief.
If I could take leave at any time, then I could escape the Cradle at any time.
The durability of the Cradle's main power unit, confirmed by the blessing, still had some leeway.
I didn't know if that meant a few weeks or a few months, but it was clear the Cradle wouldn't crash immediately.
I'd never heard rumors of a giant city falling from the sky in my past life, so I had to assume there was no chance of the Cradle crashing within the Empire's territory.
In that case, there was nothing to worry about.
I would spend the remaining time trying to find a solution to the Cradle's problem, and if that didn't work, I'd at least try to warn them.
Of course, the chances of the Cradle's higher-ups believing a kid like me and abandoning a 9-star relic were slim to none, but it was still better than doing nothing.
In the worst-case scenario, I could just use my leave pass to escape by myself.
“They say even if the sky falls, there's a way out. The old sayings are never wrong.”
After reassuring myself, I immediately asked the stars for a way to solve the Cradle's problem.
[Curious Sloth] We don't really know much about ancient legacies like satellite cities~~~
[Elegant Lefty] The first-generation constellations might know, but unfortunately, there are no first-generation constellations among us. The oldest one here is His Majesty, and even he's a second-generation constellation.
[Emperor Who Abandoned His Country] Not second-generation. One-point-five-generation.
[Elegant Lefty] *Sigh*. You're either first-generation or second-generation. What kind of baseless distinction is one-point-five-generation?
[Emperor Who Abandoned His Country] I have to distinguish myself from you lot who came up comfortably on an orbital elevator.
[Elegant Lefty] Good grief, old man. You're talking about the third and fourth-generation kids. We climbed up tooth and nail, just like you.
[Curious Sloth] Hahahaha~ That's hilarious~~ He says we came up comfortably on an orbital elevator~~~
The three stars were once again lost in their own chatter.
It seemed there were distinctions among the stars based on the era of their ascension.
It was interesting, but not particularly helpful in resolving my current situation.
In the end, the conversation with the stars concluded with them saying they would ask around for any stars knowledgeable about relics.
By the time the conversation ended, night had fallen.
“Urgh.”
On the first night, which should have been filled with nothing but excitement and joy, what kind of worries were these?
“Hmm. The night view is nice, though.”
A night sky different from the one seen from the ground.
Countless stars, invisible from down below, were twinkling.
I lost myself in the alien yet mystical sight.
“Ah, I should sleep.”
Startled, I leaned my head against the headboard.
Having been captivated for some time, I startled and leaned my head against the headboard.
And so the particularly restless night passed, and the first day in the satellite city dawned.
“Haaah.”
First, I checked the status of the satellite city.
It was unlikely anything would have happened in a single day, but you never know.
“Let's see...”