The nobles who had infiltrated Earth were once again betrayed. This time, it was the Second Princess. She gave a public statement, declaring she was a puppet forced into her role. In her heart, she only supported her elder sister as queen. She claimed she was just a princess and went on to declare the Orbital Knight families as traitors to Vers—wanted criminals of the empire.
The tide had turned. The nobles, once again sold out by the royal family, completely lost faith in the monarchy. It was the final curtain call. Some Martians erupted in violence, piloting mechas to attack several Earth cities. Fortunately, they were swiftly wiped out by the United Government Army. Some Martians even took their own lives. The Martian resistance forces hidden on Earth were basically all cleared out.
From now on, there wasn't much Liu A'dou needed to do. He could finally enjoy time with his family. Since he was now in a universe where Mars had colonies, of course he had to visit Mars.
Using his hero status, Liu A'dou pulled some strings and got authorization for the Deucalion. Classic bureaucratic maneuver—but not only did the soldiers not complain, they were honored. That's how heroes got treated.
To get to Mars, they first had to pass through a hyperspace gate.
Liu A'dou didn't fully understand Martian relic tech. He guessed the energy source behind their technology could be one of two things. One, a super high-efficiency battery—something that remained powerful even after countless ages until activated. Two, the Aldnoah engine had been slowly absorbing and storing energy over millennia, absorbing more than it released.
Whichever it was, the tech's advancement wasn't in doubt. At least so far, Liu A'dou hadn't found anything like that in Pandora's Magic Box. If he could master it, it'd be huge.
First was the teleportation gate from the Moon to Mars. Liu A'dou stayed on the Moon for a few days to study it closely. The whole gate was massive and entirely made of metal, embedded into the Moon's surface like it had grown out of the rock. It had once broken from overload, and Mars spent 3 years repairing it. It looked like the main parts hadn't been damaged—just the power system had been swapped out.
"This level of durability reminds me of vibranium. So the harder the metal, the more advanced the tech, huh?" Liu A'dou stood atop the towering gate, murmuring to himself.
Right now, humans didn't have metals this tough, so they developed shields to protect themselves. If they had something this strong, they wouldn't need shields at all. So the more advanced the tech, the less you need shields.
Then there was the energy issue. Aldnoah—the name humans gave it—wasn't its real name. Its effects went far beyond just powering mechas. It could grant mechas all kinds of strange abilities—absorbing matter, absorbing entropy, emitting particles, even predicting the future. Some abilities worked on physical matter; others worked on the mind. It clearly surpassed all known human tech.
All of it came from a universal energy source. That meant the ancient Martians had mastered Aldnoah tech to an incredible degree. And yet, the Martians vanished. Maybe they migrated out of the solar system. Maybe they went extinct. This time, Liu A'dou planned to search Mars for any treasures the ancient Martians might've left behind.
He wanted to go to places even the Vers Empire had never reached, to find the most hidden relics of ancient Mars. Humans had lived on Earth for tens of thousands of years and still hadn't explored every inch of it. The Vers people hadn't even come close on Mars. Their activity zones stuck close to water sources. Mars's climate was brutal and hard to survive in. Even for Martians, many zones were no-go areas.
But before heading off on an expedition, Liu A'dou wanted to get a feel for Martian culture. Taste some local specialties. Though, he didn't have high hopes. According to the soldiers stationed at the base, Mars's specialties were potatoes and corn. Not exactly thrilling. Then again, with water so scarce, it made sense they couldn't grow rice or fruit.
"Poor Martians."
Ada laughed at Liu A'dou's comment.
The pure water and pure oxygen brought from Earth could be sold for a high price on Mars. The United Government's stationed troops quickly caught on to this. So every time they traveled, they wouldn't even bring extra clothes—just mineral water and oxygen tanks. Earth's mineral water was sweeter than Mars's, priced at 3 times higher. And while Earth's oxygen was cheaper than Mars's, Earth had way more of it to spare.
Earth's plants and meat were also hot sellers. What Liu A'dou saw on Mars was just that kind of scene. The Martian commoners still hated Earthlings, but Martian nobles—big and small—loved to buy stuff from Earth.
"Poor Martians." Seeing all this, Liu A'dou couldn't help but sigh again. He'd come before because of the war, but now that he was wandering freely, he realized just how many problems Mars had. Feudalism really was backward. Times like this, Liu A'dou loved to bash the feudal system with the smug air of a civilized man.
Once on Mars, of course he had to visit the Queen and Slaine. They were doing fine. Slaine was now a noble, knighted by the Queen herself. He'd promoted a lot of underdog Martians and had gradually begun building up the Queen's power circle on Mars. But compared to the other nobles, their influence was still thin. Still, with righteousness on her side and backing from the United Government, the Queen's faction was actively rooting out nobles hostile to Earth—and they were seeing good results. At this rate, soon only the pro-Earth nobles would remain on Mars.
All in all, poor Martians.
From the Queen, Liu A'dou learned a lot of secrets her grandfather had discovered while studying Martian tech. He also learned there might be more than one teleportation gate on Mars. But the colony zone was limited to just the Vers Empire's area. Other regions were explored each year, but with the massive sandstorms outside, the results were minimal. They'd only found a few small Martian ruins so far—no major tech. And the search range wasn't even that broad. They hadn't even reached the other half of Mars. Plus, they were only skimming near the surface. So even the areas they had searched likely still held undiscovered things.
Liu A'dou thought to himself, 'Finding anything will take a lot of time.' But that was fine. It was like panning for gold. The unknown could be pretty fun.
A treasure hunt with his wife and daughter—what could be better?
They made sure to protect their daughter carefully, then marched straight into the endless Martian desert. The two of them used Ripple transmission by stepping on the ground. Even though sand made it hard for Ripple to transfer, their skill levels were far beyond ordinary now. Their Ripple detection radius was massive. They casually strolled through a sandstorm like it was a park. If Martians saw them, they'd probably piss their pants. Even Earthlings would be scared stiff.
"I think... we look kinda ridiculous," Ada said. She was going to say "stupid," but changed it at the last second. "Are we really just going to wander around the entire planet like this with no plan?"
Liu A'dou thought, 'Maybe.' He said, "Ada-jie, don't you think this is kinda romantic? Walking across a mysterious new planet, searching for ancient Martian treasure—we're seriously cool right now."
"…" If they actually found something, yeah, cool. If not, then they were just two idiots playing in the sand. But Ada figured, since the whole family was together, and their daughter's wide-eyed curiosity was adorable, this wasn't so bad. Might as well treat it like a vacation. Once they went back to Earth One, chances were they wouldn't get much more time like this as a family.