March smiled at Clara and said, "Aliens are people from other planets. To put it plainly, the four of us came from other planets!"
"Other… planets?"
A trace of confusion flashed through Clara's eyes. Then a look like she was staring at a fool flickered across March's face for just an instant. In the end, she spoke very seriously to the Trailblazing Squad,
"P-please don't treat Clara like a child! Those stories are all things adults made up. Clara knows that..."
"But you are a child, aren't you?" Nero said, looking completely serious, with a hint of confusion.
Then Clara lowered her head in disappointment.
This kind of behavior from Nero is generally what we call being a straight man.
But it wasn't a big problem, after all, Little Fish was good-looking.
Bronya also spoke up from the side. "They aren't lying, Clara. I believe them. After all… ordinary people don't just fly."
"Even Sister Bronya..."
Clara froze for a moment. Then, instead of wavering, her gaze grew firm.
"I understand how you feel, Clara," Bronya continued, her voice very gentle. She was always especially good at comforting children.
"You also hope things in the Underworld can take a turn for the better, but at the same time you don't want anyone to get hurt, right?"
"I still have doubts in my mind, but my intuition tells me that March, Dan Heng, Stelle, and Nero, the four of them, are this world's turning point."
After thinking some things through, Bronya's trust in the Trailblazing Squad was skyrocketing, especially after witnessing their strength. She was now even more convinced of these Trailblazers' kindness.
"Let them meet Svarog and see whether the results of his calculations change. For you and for him, there's no real loss in doing that, isn't there?"
"..." Clara began thinking again.
"You've already seen my abilities, haven't you?" Nero said. "My companions are the same as me."
In the end, Clara nodded. She lifted her face and looked at everyone. "I… understand. I'll take everyone to see Mr. Svarog."
"Really? That's great!" March said happily.
"Yes." Clara nodded. "Clara has thought it through."
"Relying on Clara alone to change Mr. Svarog's mind would take a very, very long time. Even if Clara waited until she became an adult, there might still be no result."
"During that waiting time, people would get sick, lose their homes, and conflicts would keep breaking out… just like what happened before in the mining area."
"I don't want things to become like that. If everyone is confident they can persuade Mr. Svarog… then Clara should be brave too."
"B-but… before we go see Mr. Svarog, Clara needs to fix the base's energy hub first. Everyone, p-please follow me!"
After persuading Clara, the group left Rivet Town and returned to the mechanical settlement.
On the way, Seele teased her. "Bronya! I really didn't expect you to step in and support us just now. That was way too well said!"
"It wasn't that exaggerated. I just… said what I was honestly thinking," Bronya replied.
Meanwhile, Nero received a message while they were walking.
He opened it and checked the sender. Good grief, it was Aha.
[Aha: Bro, look what I found?]
Aha sent over an image.
It was a very strange picture. In it, space itself seemed to be twisted, and at the same time it felt like you could see distances that were infinitely near and infinitely far.
When Nero saw the image, a scene naturally unfolded in his mind.
In the depths of the boundless sea of stars, within darkness that even the shining constellations could not reach, a dazzling light burned brighter than a blue giant star.
It felt as though simply looking at it directly would cause one's eyes to melt in an instant, followed immediately by the body and the soul.
Behind that brilliant light, a massive form could be seen…
From the outline behind it, Nero could only vaguely make out a shape that was neither quite human nor quite horse.
In the next moment, his vision was suddenly swallowed by light. Flying rainbows fell away, stars dropped, and the heavens tilted.
That impossible-to-distinguish light arrow pierced the universe and flashed past the far side of Jarilo-VI, opposite the train.
A tiny black shadow trembled twice within that dreamlike light arrow, then finally fell toward Jarilo-VI.
In the next instant, Nero's consciousness returned, and he heard the system's voice ring out in his mind.
[Ding! Lan has provided the host with a portion of power.]
Having already had Aha as a precedent, this did not surprise Nero too much. That subtle feeling of being watched earlier probably came from this.
'Come to think of it, Stelle and Teacher Dan Heng had also reacted. Had they been seen as well?'
'Or was it because of their identities or physiques that the two of them sensed traces of Lan?'
A few questions surfaced in Nero's mind, but he quickly set them aside and looked at the rest of Aha's messages.
[Aha: You're really lucky, bro!]
[Aha: That guy who's busy hunting all day with zero sense of humor actually managed to squeeze in time to look at you!]
[Aha: So I don't need to blow power into you anymore, right?]
[Aha: By the way, are you planning to head straight back to the Xianzhou?]
[Aha: You're really not coming to the tavern to hang out with Aha first?]
[Aha: I swear I'm not lying, if you go, I'll definitely be there!]
[Aha: Damn it, is Aha really that unpopular? Aha has no face left...]
[Aha: Aha damn it all, how could the Hunt get there first? How could it?!]
[Aha: Come to the tavern, really! Come on!]
[Aha: Come find me! Come find me! Come find me! Come find me! Come find me!]
"Hiss..."
Looking at the abstract, almost unhinged messages Aha had sent, Nero sucked in a cold breath and fell silent.
But then again, it was Aha. Being that abstract and that unhinged was perfectly normal.
Who knew whether He was doing it on purpose?
Nero chose not to reply and instead quietly forwarded all of the messages to Herta.
On Herta's side, a surprisingly instant reply came back.
[Herta: New chat logs, huh? Not bad.]
[Herta: Hm? So besides Aha constantly watching you, you've even been glanced at by another Aeon?]
[Herta: Why don't you come to the space station? I'm very interested in you now.]
Nero didn't reply to Herta either, because he knew that once this message was sent, he wouldn't get another response anyway. That was just how Herta was.
Getting an instant reply from her was already a pleasant surprise. Stelle had complained to him before that whenever Herta discussed the Simulated Universe with her, once Stelle sent a message, it would always take a while, or even a very long time, before Herta replied...
And at the same time Nero and the others returned to the mechanical settlement, a spaceship crashed onto a snowy peak somewhere on Jarilo-IV.
The ship was lodged at an angle in a snowdrift. Then, a beautiful man wearing silver armor and sporting long, smooth red hair climbed out.
After Argenti climbed out of the One and Only (his ship), he reached back inside and pulled out a man in a black suit, as well as a black box roughly his own height.
One of them was Martin, an Interastral Peace Corporation employee whom he had casually rescued on the way to Jarilo-IV. The other was an item he had obtained through an act of chivalry before arriving at Herta Space Station.
Argenti had once saved a planet deep in the universe that was home to a great number of master blacksmiths. On that planet, the weapons the people forged had mysteriously come to life.
After defeating those living weapons, Argenti took away the object that had caused the disaster on that planet, the very thing now stored inside the black box.
As for Martin, the ship he had been traveling on had been caught in a region of colliding asteroids. By the time Argenti found him, all of his colleagues had already passed on, and Martin himself was not in good shape either.
The ship was heavily damaged, the communications equipment was destroyed, his physical condition was poor, and he had no food, water, or medicine.
The Knight of Pure Beauty, of course, could not stand by and do nothing...
It was worth mentioning that Martin had already loudly praised the Goddess of Pure Beauty, Idrila, as possessing beauty beyond compare.
In truth, Argenti had briefly considered having Martin shout that Nero's beauty was also beyond compare, but given that he himself had never seen Nero up close and was relying solely on a fleeting intuition from the space station, it really didn't seem appropriate.
Besides, praising Idrila had already rolled off the tongue too easily…