Gravity Fluctuation (19)
"Starting today—no, starting tomorrow, I want to share a room with Hyun-woo."
Nadia suddenly declared this in the middle of her meal.
I put down the piece of meat I was about to put in my mouth.
"Out of the blue?"
"Is that not okay?"
"It's not that it's a problem... but isn't Celestia's room better?"
I put the meat I had set down back in my mouth. We had a lot of food supplies brought from the garrison base, so Kanna decided to show us what a military meal was like and cooked with the soldiers.
Honestly, I hadn't expected much, but the portions were thick, and the taste was much better than I imagined. Having survived on emergency rations and now finally eating proper protein, my body felt like it was waking up.
"That's true, but if we move to the Albatross, we'll be assigned our cabins again anyway. I just want to live together with you then. ... Is that not okay?"
Nadia fidgeted with her fingers and anxiously watched my reaction. Her tail was nervously swishing.
"Of course I don't mind. I'd like that."
I shook my head. Nadia's face immediately brightened. Even after moving our base of operations to the Albatross, Celestia's room would probably still be bigger and more comfortable than mine.
Knowing Celestia's personality, she'd likely insist on bringing Nadia to live together, but Nadia herself didn't really want that, so there was no reason to force her. Besides, she seemed quite happy with this.
"I'm happy too!"
Nadia looked relieved, as if a big burden had been lifted from her. She dove back into her "battle" with her food.
"Just to check, you didn't have a fight with Celestia or anything, right?"
"It's nothing like that."
Nadia cocked her head, as if wondering what there would be to fight about. She blushed a little and spoke shyly.
"I just want to be with Hyun-woo. That's all."
To Nadia, a partner should be together. She wagged her tail in contentment, reassured by my clear answer.
'There's definitely something going on.'
I wasn't oblivious. There was clearly a reason why Nadia changed her mind. I just didn't know what it was yet.
'Well, it's probably nothing serious.'
I didn't worry too much. If anything major had happened, there was no way I wouldn't have heard about it—someone would've mentioned something they did yesterday, or how the two argued. Our living circle was small enough that nothing escaped us.
I let go of my puzzlement and finished my meal. After so long, a meal with real fat gave me a real sense of satisfaction.
Nadia, equally satisfied, soon left. She seemed to want to move in right away, but said she'd sort things out and start from tomorrow.
Now only Carry and I were left in the room. With chatterbox Nadia gone, the room became very quiet. After spacing out for a bit, I nudged Carry, who was in standby mode.
With a beeping sound, Carry opened its eyes, giving me a "why'd you wake me?" look.
「(ㅇࡇㅇ)?」
"Carry, you were with Nadia all day. Did something happen?"
「(ㆆ.ㆆ )」
Carry thought deeply for a moment, then shook its head—meaning nothing had happened. Deciding further questions would lead nowhere, I apologized for waking it and let it rest again.
Even robots needed downtime to rest their circuits. I was no different.
The Albatross's main engine was installed, and we decided to head to the coordinates where the rescue request had come from. Our days of rest—if you could call them that—were over, and tomorrow things would get busy again.
We'd get another break before heading to the Archive, but you never knew when things might change suddenly. After a quick shower, I closed my eyes in preparation for tomorrow.
The next day, after a good night's sleep—
"Hyun-woo! Open the door!"
Celestia came looking for me first thing in the morning. Even without hearing her out, I could easily guess it was about Nadia.
I quickly smoothed my bedhead and opened the door, facing a very urgent, disappointed expression. Her eyes drooped, looking like she was on the verge of tears.
"Why do you look so glum?"
"Nadia said she doesn't want to room with me anymore!"
"Yeah, I heard that yesterday."
"I don't know what the problem could be—... Huh?"
Celestia, who had been about to launch into a heated speech, froze at my words mixed with a yawn. Her dramatically gesturing arms faltered in the air, then dropped.
"... You knew?"
"She mentioned it over dinner yesterday. Said she wanted to live with me once we move to the Albatross."
"No way...."
Celestia made a hollow face—the face of someone whose carefully prepared speech was now meaningless. Uncharacteristically hesitant, she asked,
"Wh-what happened? Did I do something wrong? Nadia and I weren't on bad terms. Actually, things were going really well between us!"
"I have no idea."
I shrugged. When I said I'd go along with Nadia's wishes, Celestia moved her lips as if to say something, then fell silent. When I asked if that was all, she looked at me, dejected, for a moment, then nodded weakly.
A brief awkward silence passed. I couldn't just stand there idly, so I took the initiative.
"Could you wait a moment? I'll just grab my things and be right out."
"Okay...."
Leaving Celestia behind, I went back to my room. Since we'd be living on the Albatross now instead of the Griffin, there was no reason to leave anything behind. Eric had gone out early in the morning, so I just needed to pack my own things.
"Turns out there's nothing to pack."
When I tried to pack, it was just clothes. I shoved them into my bag.
"Carry, let's go."
「( • ̀ω•́ )✧」
With Carry coming out of standby, I stepped outside and was joined right away by Celestia.
"Hyun-woo, are you really going to live with Nadia?"
"Yes."
"Won't it be uncomfortable?"
"Not really? We've lived together before."
When I'd just rescued Nadia, we'd basically lived together while I nursed her, and even after that, we'd shared a place for a time. I couldn't afford rent on two places.
Once Nadia pulled herself together and started working with me as my partner, we were able to have our own rooms. Not that it made much difference—it was still the same building, same floor, just different room numbers.
Nadia never really seemed eager for her own room, but it'd been necessary for me at the time.
"Are you disappointed?"
"...."
Celestia closed her mouth. Words couldn't express how much her regret was overflowing.
"I'm not disappointed at all."
Before I could say anything, a familiar voice squeezed in between Celestia and me. A fluffy tail flicked in front of my eyes. It was Nadia.
"Why are you pestering Hyun-woo?"
"Wha—p-pestering! I wasn't—!"
"Then why are you pestering me?"
"Me?!"
"I said I want to live with Hyun-woo, but you keep trying to stop me."
"No, I just—."
Flustered, Celestia stammered. Nadia let out a low growl at her, tail bristling sharply.
Faced with Nadia's obvious rejection, Celestia staggered back in shock and then slumped to the floor.
"Nadia, we got along great... I gave you tasty snacks every night, kept you warm and cozy, adjusted the temperature for you, took care of you in every way..."
What on earth had been going on at night? No wonder Nadia's skin was getting clearer by the day.
"But in exchange, you kept touching my ears and tail. Even though I said my tail was off-limits. You did it last night too."
Nadia didn't bat an eye. For a beastkin, touching someone's tail without permission was as bad as a criminal offense. Now I understood why she wanted to move in with me.
Looking at Celestia as if asking why, she flinched and trembled.
"T-that's because... it's addictive... and last night, you said I could..."
"That was a farewell gift. Goodbye."
"No way...!"
Celestia reached out dramatically, like the tragic heroine. Nadia, batting Celestia's outstretched hand away with her tail, huddled close to me and unhesitatingly walked away from the Griffin.
"Hyun-woo, please don't take Nadia from me...! Noooo—!"
Celestia collapsed dramatically, crying out in grief. It marked the fall of the fluffy-tails gang down the wrong path.
"... Why do I feel like I'm the villain here?"
"She'll come on her own. Let's just go."
When I muttered with annoyance, Nadia insisted I not worry and tugged me along.
"Huh? W-wait, I'm coming too...!"
As we walked farther away, Celestia jumped up and hurried after us. From now on, she could only gaze longingly at Nadia's swaying soda-milk tail.
The usual morning meeting was postponed. More precisely, decisions had been made in advance, so there was no need to gather. Unless something major had happened overnight—which hadn't.
We stood before the Albatross. I had to tip my head back just to see the prow.
"It really is huge, isn't it?"
The Albatross, a giant variable-type ship. Refurbished, its bulk was even more imposing. It definitely felt military.
Point Nemo was buzzing with activity. New model security robots were dismantling the temporary base, loading all the materials onto the Albatross. Roxy's shuttle was attached to the Albatross.
It was meant as an emergency escape vehicle, but in reality, it supported the Albatross's main engine output.
The engine, which Kyle and his team had rebuilt with all their effort, had passed multiple test runs—barely. But honestly, we were still anxious. The engine could fizzle out at any moment, which was why Roxy's shuttle was there just in case.
"What's this, why is everyone coming out together?"
Spotting us, Licorice squinted her eyes, giving us a strange look. Nadia clinging to my side, Celestia trudging glumly behind. Something about us was both normal and off; Licorice tilted her head, then dropped it, not seeming to care.
She got right to the point.
"Lee Hyun-woo, the security robot modifications are finished. I split them between the Albatross and the Griffin, so use them however you want."
"Oh, already?"
"Don't you know my skills?"
"As expected of Licorice—you're amazing."
"Of course I am. ... Well, Woof-woof turned out handier than I thought."
Puffed up, Licorice still tacked on some belated praise for Nadia. Nadia looked surprised to be mentioned.
She turned away from Licorice with a prim "hmph," but her tail was wagging—something she couldn't hide. Despite seeming like rivals, it made me wonder if they were actually quite close.
"What's its name?"
"Beta."
"Beta... That's unexpected."
"What is?"
"I thought it would be Omega."
Alpha means 'the top'.
But that's not the only pinnacle. There was Omega, which was both the beginning and the end, meaning completion or perfection. I thought Licorice might choose that meaning.
Curious, Licorice asked,
"Why did you think that?"
"Well, I figured you'd want this to be the last fight, like me, and you probably made it more complete than ever."
"You're not wrong. I did consider Omega, but Beta, meaning 'next', seemed better."
Beta. It's often used to mean something lesser than alpha, but that's not the only meaning. If alpha is the first, beta is the second. It also means moving on to the next stage after the beginning.
"And Omega feels too arrogant. I can't use the word 'perfect' yet. I don't even really know what perfect means."
Licorice chuckled softly, a little sourly. I met her eyes, surprised. She turned away—intentionally evasive.
"Anyway, most tasks will be handled by the Beta series, so don't stand around in the cold. Get aboard the Albatross first. I still have things to do."
"... Okay."
I knew that early this morning, Licorice had gotten a checkup from Carrot. Carrot sent the results by message. Thankfully, everything was normal—nothing out of the ordinary.
But then, why did she cough up blood? In all my time knowing Licorice, I'd never seen anything like that. Not even a hint. What bothered me was that Licorice seemed to know the cause.
It was frustrating. I knew there was a cause, but couldn't reach it. The reason I hadn't visited Licorice was that she'd been entirely focused on modifying the security robots.
'Should I just go press her to tell me tonight?'
If I went in strong, knowing Licorice's personality, it might actually work. For now, I couldn't. Too many watching eyes, too much still to do.
We boarded the Albatross. Inside, Eric was checking cargo constraints.
Seeing this, Nadia said she'd better check the power loader again and moved off with Carry. Celestia trailed after her, hoping Nadia would change her mind.
Left alone, I went to Eric, who responded when I approached.
"Hyun-woo. May I help you?"
"I have something I'm curious about. Can I ask?"
"Of course. Feel free to ask."
Eric raised his head.
"It's been a while since we got the rescue request. Do you think the ones who sent it are still there?"
"They probably are. They said their ship crashed. Whatever the reason, if it scraped along the ground, they'd have a hard time taking off again. You know the Titan surface."
"... Inverted icicles."
The terrain unique to Titan, formed under the influence of blue crystal, which makes it stronger than ordinary ice—those "inverted icicles."
If the ship crashed there, it would have been shredded.
Of course, it was possible the landing site wasn't such terrain. But that seemed unlikely. After all, the coordinates of the message were in an undeveloped sector.
After blue crystal mining began, Titan's surface absorbed the leaking energy, resulting in bizarre landscapes cropping up everywhere.
"They might have been stranded even longer than we think."
We only picked up the transmission two days ago. But if we had expanded the comms range sooner, we might have received it faster.
"The pureblood supremacists probably picked up the signal too, right? In that case..."
"They might all be dead by now. If it was an armed ship, let's hope they held out against external attacks."
We didn't know their status. After the initial distress call, we got no further response—possibly because their comms were damaged.
Yet we still chose to go, hoping that whoever was over there might have news from outside.
One might ask, what's the point of worrying about the outside when we can't even solve our own problems? But even one scrap of information is valuable. Better a single known point than pure uncertainty.
"Our armament is no longer light, either. Even the Albatross's basic weapons can cripple a small base solo."
"So even if it's a trap, we could break free."
"If the main engine holds, we should manage."
While I talked with Eric, the base was fully cleared. Everyone had boarded safely, and the Albatross was ready for takeoff, as was the Griffin.
The Albatross taxied down a prepared runway and spread its wings. A shipwide announcement echoed from the bridge.
- Igniting main engine. Prepare for power surge.
The slumbering giant shuddered, then accelerated. The scenery out the windows stretched, giving a real sense of speed.
It was vastly different from simple gliding. There was a brief floaty sensation in my belly before the ship fully lifted from the ground.
- ... Takeoff successful. Thank you for your hard work.
Somewhere on board, a cheer went up—presumably from Kyle and his team. Just taking off made us so happy. If I felt this way, how must the team who had worked so hard feel?
The two ships, led by the Albatross, set course for the coordinates of the rescue request, to an unexplored sector of Titan.
It would take roughly four hours to get there. With nothing urgent to do, I decided to find Licorice for a chat. Now was a rare window when everyone was free—an ideal time to talk.
As I wandered the ship, maybe because she knew I was looking for her, Licorice was like a ghost—nowhere to be found. I was sure she was aboard, but anyone I asked said they hadn't seen her.
'She didn't use the active camouflage cloak to hide, did she?'
After searching the whole time, I gave up and joined Nadia, who was looking out the window. Celestia was still staring wistfully at her waving tail, while Eric and Kanna checked their personal weapons.
- Arriving at coordinates soon.
The Albatross would circle overhead to scout the area before landing. It was too risky to land blindly.
We flew below the altitude that would trigger military satellite attacks, crossing ice mountain ranges. A field that looked like it was made of spikes spread beneath us. In its center, an unknown ship slowly came into view. It must be enormous, to be visible from this distance.
Finally, at the coordinates of the distress call, Nadia bolted upright when she saw the crest on the battered hull of the ship. An instinctive reaction. Her tail fur was standing on end. Her clear fear and wariness startled everyone.
I asked Nadia what was wrong, but she didn't respond—couldn't respond, rather. Staring in shock, she murmured,
"... No way. That's—"
A Reformist insignia.
Her trembling voice scattered emptily atop the warped ship.
-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=
【(；☉_☉)】