Chapter 295
Chapter 295
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 295
Chapter Title: Chapter 295
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 295
Chapter Title: S5. Stellararia's Fury ~Budding Dawn~ -1
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I had a brief daydream.
Meteor successfully defeated the Great Kaiju, pilot Mr. Kim returned home alive with an awkward grin, and Stellararia halted its frantic evacuation preparations to ready a festival.
They stacked massive logs to build a huge campfire and lit it, kindling the flames that symbolized the dawn of human civilization to celebrate their victory. People danced before it.
Gordius and Woo Chaerin sat side by side on a hill some distance away, watching the scene—the jubilant festival hinting at humanity's civilization flourishing and leaping forward once more.
The isekai mage gazed at the hard-won victory he had achieved and finally resolved to claim his rightful reward. He broached the subject obliquely to Woo Chaerin beside him.
"Chaerin, it feels like I've done quite a bit for you. How do you plan to pay up?"
"…………"
"There are plenty of ways to settle the bill. Cash works, goods work, or... a contract. If you're willing to accept a long-term partnership lasting until the contractor's death, I'll waive the whole thing."
"…………"
"…Was that weird?"
Woo Chaerin's eerily prolonged silence left Gordius feeling awkward, and he fidgeted with his sleeve for no reason. Maybe he should've just confessed honestly… Did he twist his words too much? Was it really that bad?
He dreaded turning to check her expression. It was downright terrifying. He knew experiments improved through observation and feedback, so why…
Why was he so inexplicably afraid to look at her?
"…Chaerin?"
After hesitating for ages, Gordius finally turned his head—and realized why she hadn't answered, and why he'd been so afraid.
"…………"
Because she was dead.
Woo Chaerin was dead.
In the dream, she had no head.
His frozen eyelids cracked open, and as Gordius drew his first breath in ten years, the first sight that greeted him was a one-armed girl silhouetted against the setting sun, reaching out to him.
"I know it's a bit much to ask right after being rescued, but… we need your help. Will you join Stellararia once more?"
Stellararia.
His foggy mind began to sharpen, neurons firing one by one at the edges. Great Kaiju. Meteor. Mana engine. Defeat. Cryo capsule. Woo Chaerin. Death.
Goddamn death.
A dizzying vertigo hit him. Memories flashed by like a panorama, clawing at Gordius's heart. To him, it had all just happened.
The one-armed girl winced as she watched him clutch his forehead. People fresh out of cryo probably needed time to think, huh.
Or maybe he hadn't heard her?
"…Um. Let me try again. Sorry for the late greeting, mage. Thank you for—"
"I heard you."
"Oh, good. I thought I'd spoken too fast."
Gordius pieced together the information. He was in some ruins. Familiar ruins. Judging by the terrain and debris, this was definitely Stellararia's underground bunker.
Though it had collapsed pretty badly.
And there was that 7-meter mecha in standby position. Sleek design. A world apart from the crude bulk of Meteor—like a truck versus a sports car.
Then the one-armed girl right in front of him.
From the circumstances, she must be the girl he'd saved. He'd remembered her as a kid under ten, though they'd been some distance apart back then. Now she looked about high school age.
Malnourished, maybe, but possibly even of age.
All of it hinted at the merciless passage of time.
"…Give me a sitrep."
"Ah, sure. It's 2037 now, and the Great Kaiju—well, it went dormant again, but—"
Gordius's flailing to shake off the confusion struck the one-armed girl as the cool demeanor of a veteran sizing up the situation the moment he thawed. How does 'report the situation' just come out like that?
The guy who invented the mana engine, alright. Next-level stuff.
The one-armed girl's eyes sparkled with admiration as she launched into a clumsy explanation, hopping between past and present in an exhilarating ramble. Once she finished,
Gordius neatly summarized her scattered tale.
"Ten years have passed. The Great Kaiju has gone dormant again, using hypnotic waves to brainwash Awakeners, and the brainwashed Awakeners… the 'Followers'… are the biggest threat right now."
"Yes!"
"Stellararia took in the survivors who fled, birthing a new Stellararia… and New Stellararia is led by a man named Joseph."
"He used to be a mega-rich guy. Built a theme park named after himself and all. Kinda cocky, but not a bad person. Alright… I'll take you to HQ! Hop on!"
Whoosh. Whee.
With bouncy movements, the one-armed girl scampered up the mecha's surface and settled naturally into the cockpit. She maneuvered the robot to extend a hand.
Gordius climbed onto the robot-hand, and she carefully lifted him close to the cockpit. But he hesitated, not boarding.
"Come on, hop in!"
"…Looks like a one-seater."
A tight one-seater at that. Once the pilot sat and closed the hatch, there'd be barely any room. To ride this, they'd have to… press right up against each other.
With her in that skintight pilot suit that showed every curve.
"We'll make it work somehow. Here."
The one-armed girl patted her thigh invitingly.
Gordius sighed once and climbed atop her. He hugged close, but a problem arose. Their height difference blocked her view.
"Can't see a thing. Could you, um, shift to the side a bit?"
"…………"
"Still can't seeee…"
They switched. Gordius boarded first, then she climbed on top, and they tried closing the hatch. This time, her cheek squished against the canopy. No way to turn her head, obviously.
"Urk."
"…We'll go separately."
"But you're our VIP, we gotta protec—"
"Open the hatch. Rock Formation."
In the end, Gordius conjured a stone chair on the mecha's shoulder and rode there. He regretted not doing this sooner.
Regret…?
"Alright then, off to New Stellararia!"
"Hold on. Something to grab."
"Huh?"
Among his many regrets, Gordius recalled the decisive one from the Great Kaiju subjugation op. The mass weapon Meteor Strike—powered by the rocket engine Woo Chaerin had procured. Incomplete.
It hadn't finished due to just one week short on time. The decisive blow that could've pierced dragonscale hide. Maybe it was still buried here.
"Just to check… have you—or anyone—searched Stellararia's underground bunker?"
"No, probably first time. Too close to the Great Kaiju, so even raiders and Followers steer clear."
"Then it's probably still here. A weapon to take down the Great Kaiju."
"…!!"
The one-armed girl jolted in the cockpit and bonked her head on the hatch.
But not even pain could stem her wave of excitement. The mysterious group Old Stellararia—one of the only ones to meaningfully fight the Great Kaiju—had prepared a trump card weapon!
The mana engine's creator plus a weapon? Her heart raced at the thought.
"Something like that?! Down here? I'll find it right now! Hold on. Gotta radio first. Uh, this is Hummingbird. Nest, come in."
"We can take it down! The Great Kaiju!"
"I'll bring back a weapon, so prep and wait!"
Click.
The one-armed girl's eyes sparkled as she turned to Gordius.
"Mage, where do we dig?"
"…No need to dig. But once we grab Meteor Strike, we haul ass out. It'll get noisy."
"O-oh… Meteor, Strike. Noisy how…?"
Grind. Rumble rumble grind.
Mana was being drawn in. The talented pilot sensed the intangible flow. Soon, the mana engine console lit up.
Type II engine output could power mid-sized robots from 7 to 10 meters—New Stellararia's strongest engine.
That much power—emanating not from a machine, but a single human.
The ground cratered as a complex magic circle etched itself in, and at the mana vortex's center, the isekai mage completed his chant.
The girl beheld the mage's true power.
Kaboom—!!
Debris in the area roared upward, floating into the air one by one. Bunker rubble dotted the sky like balloons. The collapsed facility revealed its innards after a decade.
On-duty quarters, cafeteria, storage, Woo Chaerin's room, and… the control room.
Memories soaked the ruins below. He remembered it all. Every moment of that month lived inside. Gordius clenched his fist.
"…That one. The 20-meter container."
"R-right, grabbing it! But… can it lift that…?"
"I'll keep gravity reversed on that container, so you can."
"O-oh…!!"
Whirr—thud. Thud.
The robot scooped up the container three times its size in both arms. The mana engine groaned like it was dying, but it held.
The one-armed girl and Gordius beat a quick exit. Soon, the floating debris crashed back to earth amid roars and dust clouds.
"Yeehaw—!!"
The one-armed girl whooped.
Gordius, perched on the sprinting robot's shoulder, quietly glanced back at the bunker site. The memories were buried underground again. Woo Chaerin was gone now.
The era had changed. And in that brief exchange between girl and middle-aged man… there'd been loaded words. Why take down the sleeping bastard?
Worn out from fighting the Great Kaiju? Accepting it as a force of nature, shifting goals to mere survival? Even while calling themselves New Stellararia?
They had to know that led to a slow death.
So what should he do?
A foolish question.
"…Heh, it's obvious."
Her voice rang clear in his ear.
-The future's in your hands, Goldie!
He'd been entrusted, so no choice. Someone had to carry on for Woo Chaerin—and that someone would be him. He'd succeed in subjugating the Great Kaiju this time. In a world without her.
Across ten years, he answered.
"Yes, Chaerin. But this debt… I'll collect it at a very high price."
Gordius was a miser; he never took a loss.
New Stellararia HQ.
Another underground bunker, but far superior in facilities and scale to the old Stellararia. Clearly built with more investment.
The middle-aged man who appeared before the returning one-armed girl and Gordius was decked out in gaudy luxuries, his goatee giving him a sleazy look.
The one-armed girl saluted him with a grin.
"Hummingbird returning! Commander!"
"Don't cut comms on your own, Kim Yunseo! Anyway… what's with the container? You're the mage? The mana engine guy?"
Gordius cut straight to it with the middle-aged man—Commander Joseph—ruffling Kim Yunseo's head.
"Straight to the point: have you given up on subjugating the Great Kaiju?"
"Diving right in, huh? I like it. But… I get where you're coming from. From your view, your group's gone in a flash, so revenge makes sense. But."
Commander Joseph stated flatly.
"People are tired now. Ten years, and we haven't even scratched it. Even if we built another giant like old Stellararia, we couldn't move it. Mana engine output can't handle it. Our scientists all say 'impossible.'"
"Stellararia did it."
"Yeah. But it failed in the end. Look, honestly? Yunseo begged with songs, mana engine dev or whatever, but I'm not expecting much. Ten years passed. That's generations for graphics cards."
The commander was skeptical.
New Stellararia had absorbed the core tech Woo Chaerin scattered everywhere, developing their own capabilities.
With that, they built and operated multiple small-to-mid mecha, forming Korea's largest faction.
How they'd moved an 80-meter scrap heap remained a mystery… but even restoring it, wasn't Meteor a relic of defeat?
Doubt.
Commander Joseph crossed his arms and cocked his head skeptically.
"Not sure investing in you is worth it."
"Hah… reverse. I'm not here for investment. I'm here to collect royalties."
"What?"
"Patent on mana engine core tech, plus trademark on 'Stellararia.' Ten years of use? By my math… this whole facility covers it."
"Whoa… pure thug, huh? Try it, see what happens!"
Gordius strode into the bunker without waiting for more.
He could seize it by force. Kill the commander, take his place. Magic made it easy. But that'd be cutting off his nose to spite his face.
He knew a more effective, faster way.
Gordius had observed Woo Chaerin from behind for a very, very long time. He knew how she bent people to her will.
Step. Step. Step.
Gordius entered the facility, footsteps echoing, and shouted to the New Stellararia workers who'd been listening to the commander's spat.
"World Salvation—going cheap!"
"…!!"
"I built giant robot Meteor in one month and nearly took down the Great Kaiju. Why do you think it went into that long hibernation? Got clubbed by a massive iron bat!"
Murmurs rippled. Among those crushed by ten years of defeat, crushed by reality, a new wind blew. People are led by the pull of conviction.
He shouted.
"Your time—I'll take three generous months. For that short span, you'll grasp world peace! An era where survival was a joke without the Great Kaiju!"
He bellowed soulfully. And with his back, he spoke volumes.
Gordius didn't kindle hope's flame… he committed arson. He sowed unshakeable conviction that enchanted the masses and set their hopes ablaze.
Three days later.
"…Tallying the general will, New Stellararia will build a giant robot for Great Kaiju subjugation over the next three months. No, when I suggested it, it was all 'impossible,' fuck, talk about a rolling stone—"
"The mage is so cool—!"
Gordius had conquered New Stellararia.
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