Chapter 77
Chapter 77
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 77
Chapter Title: Clotho of Moirai
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"Ah, that was a private conversation just between the two of us..."
"What? So you're refusing to tell me? You're not blowing off your supervising officer's request on day one, are you?"
She scowled fiercely.
But she couldn't hide the impatience flickering in her eyes.
"...Haha. Well, all I'll say is it sounded like he had high hopes for you."
It was a lie, but not entirely untrue.
Around this time, Darmosa had started taking strong notice of Tana Silva's existence.
'Even if he didn't know then, it would've happened soon enough.'
But they never ended up as lovers.
For all her outward demeanor, Tana would act like a sharp, no-nonsense secretary in front of Darmosa.
The indecisive Darmosa wouldn't have made the first move to connect with her.
The age gap was a major hurdle to begin with.
Even in an era with more open attitudes toward relationships, a 60-year difference wasn't something easily bridged.
"Hmph."
Tana looked pleased for a brief moment.
She issued orders to the transport ship's pilot and crew with icy precision, but the moment no one was looking, her face softened like a ghost.
'If Tana Silva were my supervising officer...'
The Central Superhuman Unit didn't always operate as a full group.
But Tana Silva was essentially Darmosa's secretary.
She moved with him constantly, handling external affairs in his stead, and spent most of their time together unless separated by necessity.
I had no idea why someone as high-ranking as Tana Silva had come to pick me up personally—it didn't seem like she was just here to hand me off.
'And speaking of which... we might reunite sooner than I thought...?'
Another key point was that Darmosa was currently in the Triple Link region.
The same area as the commissioning sites for Roje and the other four.
I'd figured I wouldn't see him for a year, but this changed things—I now had a high chance of crossing paths again.
"Why was I assigned to the Central Superhuman Unit? Normally, the Central Superhuman Unit..."
I asked as I took a seat.
There was some downtime while they ran diagnostics on the AD Drive frame.
"Darmosa ordered it personally."
"But I'm not even an Academy graduate yet. I still need to gain experience, learn more..."
"Think of it as provisional. You'll be official after a year anyway."
It was almost unheard of for a cadet to be attached directly to the Central Superhuman Unit.
The only precedents were from the Unit's early days, when they were desperately short-staffed.
Normally, the Central Superhuman Unit only recruited superhumans with at least three years of frontline experience.
And even then, only the elite—no mediocrity allowed.
Me? I had nothing.
Top grades at the Academy?
Plenty of existing members had that.
Plus, my measured combat power was surely below the threshold. I had no clue what made them pick me.
'Would things change if I revealed it?'
My left arm hadn't been measured yet, of course.
But even if it had been and the results leaked, it still wouldn't explain why they'd chosen me.
"Ah, don't worry about that. He just said bring you in and put you to work."
"...Ah, yes."
"Don't sweat the lack of precedent. I'll make sure you pull your weight in no time."
She said it with a bright smile, utterly terrifying words.
'Guess an easy ride's off the table.'
Darmosa clearly thought highly of me.
But this level of attention was overkill.
'Is that it?'
Deep down, Darmosa always had a retirement plan.
One option: groom a successor.
If I played it right, I might even aim for command of the Central Superhuman Unit.
Not that the position appealed to me—I dreamed of being the power behind the throne, after all. That seat was a landmine.
"Heading straight to base?"
"Nah, since I'm here picking you up, I've got some business to handle first. Gotta chew out some shit-for-brains idiots."
"Idiots?"
"Yeah. You're tagging along, so watch and learn. It'll be your job someday too."
"...Yes."
The transport ship's engines hummed to life.
Power built steadily, sending faint periodic vibrations through my body.
For a ship this size to handle AD Drive on its own output alone, it had to be Central Superhuman Unit-grade gear.
Conversation cut off again.
Tana seemed swamped with work.
Since buckling into her seat, she'd been buried in documents nonstop, even while talking to me.
I shelved my other questions.
'Well, it's just the beginning.'
I'd figure things out gradually.
I fastened my safety harness.
The transport ship slipped into astral space, heading for New Eden at the heart of the 3rd Defense Line.
*
A straight shot from Terra to New Eden via AD Drive took about 30 hours.
I spent the trip pacing the outer deck.
My supposed supervisor Tana was too busy with her own duties to check on me, and the other crew ignored me entirely.
It was like I wasn't even there.
'Not all of them seem military.'
Superhuman Units weren't made up solely of superhumans.
They always had support staff to create optimal conditions for superhuman operations, organized as direct sub-units under the main Unit.
These support personnel were mostly military, but they followed the Superhuman Unit's chain of command, not the Union Army's.
Such a separated structure wasn't unusual.
Superhuman Units existed apart from the Union Army to begin with.
They exercised independent operational authority based on their own judgment.
Well, real ops didn't always play out that cleanly.
The key takeaway: my affiliation was the Central Superhuman Unit.
Among all Superhuman Units, it wielded the strongest influence.
Darmosa's presence alone attested to that, as did the Unit's focus beyond just smashing aliens.
One of their most critical roles was executing [Enforcers] against those obstructing humanity's defense.
"Landing. Newbie, follow me. Everyone else, stand by. Jump when called."
"Yes, ma'am!"
Tana issued the order in a steely voice.
Her demeanor flipped so drastically during work it was disorienting.
'Told to fend for myself?'
She hadn't said a word about what I should do.
Just "follow me," then strode off ahead.
'Where's this...?'
I'd peeked out the transport's window earlier: sprawling estates that screamed old money, private lands stretching beyond the horizon.
The main gate bristled with heavily armed guards, but Tana approached without a care.
They reacted instantly to the sudden approach, weapons trained, demanding ID.
"This is private property. State your identity."
"Out of the way. We told you two days ago we were coming."
Tana swept her gaze over the guards blocking her path.
The ones aiming guns at her flinched involuntarily, bodies trembling.
'Doing it on purpose?'
The Central Superhuman Unit uniform Tana wore was iconic to the public.
No way the guards didn't recognize her.
Even unarmed, could they keep threatening force?
"Last warning. Don't make me use force. Move."
"...Gate open. Two intruders."
Tana ignored the guard's feeble defiance, striding through the opened gate without a glance.
As she passed, she muttered just loud enough for me to hear.
"Wasting my time when I'm already swamped."
"...Is it okay to be this aggressive?"
"This? If I was going by my mood, I'd have bombed the place already."
Compared to her first impression, she was shockingly ruthless on the job.
Now I truly grasped why she could back Darmosa during his rampages—with her own brand of ferocity.
"And these guys are small fry anyway."
"Yes...?"
I started to ask, but no answer came.
Tana's face hardened back to steel as she marched toward the opulent mansion ahead.
Her brisk pace had attendants scrambling to open the doors.
We soon reached what looked like a first-floor reception room.
"No one's here?"
"...Y-Yes?"
"The owner of the house isn't here. Where is he?"
"He has important business and asks you to wait just a moment..."
Thud!
The table Tana had placed her hand on collapsed.
The shock rippled across the floor, cracking the stone tiles.
The startled servant stifled a scream, clamping a hand over her mouth.
"...Ugh!"
"Ask him if that 'important business' is really so damn important."
Crack! Craaack!
The cracks spread relentlessly.
The floor was already sagging slightly— one wrong move, and it might all cave in.
But thankfully, it held.
"...You're wrecking my home."
A broad-faced middle-aged man with a chin beard appeared, flanked by a horde in armor suits.
He tsked at the reception room's wreckage as he entered.
"Even for a superhuman, this is too much, isn't it?"
"You would've gotten the nice treatment if you'd cooperated. Moirai Governor—or should I say ex-Governor?"
Hearing the name from Tana's lips, I vaguely pieced together the situation.
Moirai was another name for the Triple Link region.
It also referred to the three sisters who wove the fates of gods, a metaphor for the three star systems intertwined like destiny.
Governor meant planetary leader, so before the aliens trashed Moirai, he'd been a planetary ruler.
One important caveat, though.
"Governor" didn't cover all of Moirai.
The Triple region had ten habitable planets total.
He'd governed one of them.
"Governor? Just call me head of the Clotho family. Anyway, I already turned down that request. I've washed my hands of that mess."
"Did you really need to hoard every last evacuation ship too?"
"Those ships are all my private property. Leave 'em behind, and they'd be scrap for sure. You expect me to just hand them over?"
Every word dripped with resentment.
"I've done what I could. I loaded up as many as I could evac and dropped them where they wanted. Handed over all my meds and food too. What more do you want?!"
Tana didn't blink through his nonstop griping.
She just snorted.
"Funny. Talking like it's charity, but you gouged them on every last one, right? Stuff you were gonna trash anyway. And charging full resettlement fees for the ride?"
"Hmph! Lives don't come cheap. They should be grateful I took 'em at all."
The Triple Link region was in absolute chaos right now.
With the 4th Defense Line collapsed, refugees were in a frenzy, fleeing the aliens' onslaught for safer zones.
The problem? A dire shortage of transport to move them safely.
'The ruling families hold too much sway here.'
I sized up the issue.
The Triple Link region had boomed rapidly thanks to heavy investments turning it into a new trade hub, but that also entrenched the ruling families' massive influence.
As a result, most AD Drive-capable ships—essential for interstellar travel—were under family control.
Fearing further losses, those families had scooped up all their transports during the pullout, stranding the planetary populations.
It played out the same in the original story.
It was a key factor in why the new defense line in Triple Link fell so quickly.
Multiple issues intertwined, sure—but the families' selfish exodus had undoubtedly made a huge mess of things.