Ch.108Pioneer’s Saint

# Chapter 108: Saint of the Precursors

Instead of my clothes that had been completely crumpled under the pressure of Artraia’s large, abundant maternal pouch.

“Minister! Over here!”

“Huh?!”

I equipped the special ceremonial attire brought by Riel, almost like putting on armor.

Then I headed toward the Imperial Palace’s reception room at a quick pace, though not quite running.

Though annoyingly complicated to wear, this ceremonial attire was mandatory specifically when visiting the Precursor Empire.

Having to wear such a thing, I couldn’t hide my irritation and bewilderment.

‘Seriously, why would those people choose now of all times to visit in person?’

———————————

As before, in the original game, the Precursor Empires basically “never” interacted with other alien nations.

To be precise, the types of Precursor Empires that could appear varied from game to game.

And accordingly, their reasons for not interacting also differed each time.

Sometimes they wouldn’t interfere due to their religious beliefs.

Other times, like Star Trek’s Prime Directive, they were legally prohibited from interfering with “lesser species.”

In some cases, they simply didn’t associate with lesser species because they found it “distasteful.”

In yet other instances, they did interfere… but acted however they pleased.

And sometimes they just “didn’t bother” interfering for no particular reason. The “Precursor” Empires were truly diverse in their approaches.

For reference, the “Precursor” Empires I was aware of in this galaxy were mainly two types…

One of them was the Precursor Empire that had “suddenly” appeared in our palace’s reception room right now.

The same one whose special forces I had crushed not long ago when I declared I would take their ancient ship.

And among the cases I mentioned earlier, they fell into the first category.

While claiming they don’t interfere for “religious” reasons, they somehow frequently engaged in “meddling”—the pointy-eared empire.

Also one of the entities that reigned as the most powerful nation in the current galaxy according to my UI.

[Ethernia Holy Empire]

[Current Overall Ranking: 1st]

[Population: ???]

[Political System: ???, Theocracy]

[Constituent Species: ???]

[Current Ruler: ???]

The Ethernia Holy Empire was the protagonist of this situation.

———————————

Anyway, we decided to respond with the utmost courtesy to the “envoy” from the Ethernia Holy Empire who had “unexpectedly” appeared in the reception room.

So after putting on the formal ceremonial attire—which I never wear normally and which is disgustingly complex, difficult to put on, and annoying to move in—I had the surrounding attendants help me wipe away all my sweat.

Following the guidance of the attendants who opened the well-oiled and perfectly maintained wooden doors of the reception room, I entered and offered a respectful greeting.

“I sincerely welcome you to our Holy Seveli Empire, envoy of the Ethernia Holy Empire.”

Although during this process, the damned ornaments of the ceremonial attire mercilessly poked into my bowed abdomen, nearly causing me to groan involuntarily…

With superhuman patience, I endured and managed my expression as best I could while waiting for the other party to acknowledge my greeting.

Of course, in some ways, the current situation could be considered extremely artificial.

Previously, I had teabagged their special forces, cut off their necks.

I had even provoked them by saying things like “The ship you’re trying to eat is ours! Good luck!”

But such actions were, fundamentally, within the acceptable range of behavior for Ethernia.

To put it nicely… it was like a child throwing a tantrum with toys.

It’s a bit difficult to explain precisely, but that was the strong impression.

Killing their special forces?

Those people could have their consciousness resurrected in their mothership even if they died.

Since they fundamentally thought seriously about and distinguished between body, mind, and soul.

Their basic attitude was along the lines of, “Well, if the physical body gets damaged, it’s not a big deal as long as the mind is intact.”

So that level of offense wasn’t a major issue.

The warning about taking their ship?

Looking at just that aspect, it was more like scolding children who didn’t want their toys taken away, and then letting them play until they got tired when they wouldn’t listen.

But as mentioned above, this was strictly within the permissible range set by the Ethernia Empire.

If we were to act like that now when their “envoy” had come in person?

It would be considered crossing the “line” drawn by Ethernia, and their proud truly “invincible fleet” would burn everything in our empire to the ground.

Given that our goodwill had already been reduced due to the previous “pranks,” there was no need to do anything that might upset the envoy.

So I was sacrificing myself to do my best to preserve the empire.

…Still, I wished they would at least acknowledge my greeting soon.

‘This is killing me.’

That was because the decorations unique to the ceremonial attire were pressing against my entire body, including my abdomen, at a level comparable to pressure point massage.

As it was becoming increasingly difficult to endure, and cold sweat was beginning to form on my face that had just been wiped clean, at that moment:

“…That is sufficient, you may rise.”

At the envoy’s words, I inwardly sighed with relief as I straightened my bent waist, enjoying a degree of freedom from the pressure of the ornaments.

And having regained my freedom, I could now observe with my own eyes what kind of person the envoy was.

Snow-white hair that reached below the buttocks in flowing length.

The face looking at me had crimson snake-like eyes reminiscent of Artraia, conveying some firm resolve as they gazed at me.

The attire was similar to the ceremonial clothes I was wearing, yet somehow neater and… how should I put it?

It looked more comfortable, which made me want to express my frustration toward whoever created this ceremony.

But…

“So, child, you are the little one who has been making a name for yourself in this galaxy recently.”

“Respected bloodline of Ethernia, I am not that remarkable.”

Finding it strange that they were evaluating me rather than discussing the situation, I inwardly wondered while taking a step back and showing humility.

“Unfortunately, despite inheriting that bloodline, you have not awakened your abilities.”

‘…???’

This statement hit me like a punch to the solar plexus, and my suspicion about what these people had come to discuss intensified.

But seeing my reaction, the Ethernia envoy before me…

-Swoosh, swish.

“?!”

They must have been a psionic ability user, as they stroked my head with telekinesis.

“Do not doubt, child.”

“…”

I’m in my late 30s by this world’s standards, you know.

My mental age might be a bit immature, but aren’t men allowed to be a bit childish in their mental age?

Anyway, while I was thinking that, the Ethernia envoy before me opened their mouth with a more serious attitude.

“Listen, the Saint of the Ethernia Holy Empire has come to warn you.”

Hearing those words, I momentarily considered activating a pause to escape from reality.

But before I could pause, the self-proclaimed Saint continued:

“The warp gate you have sealed—the place connected to it is an ancient nightmare that ‘we’ sealed in the past.”

“…”

“Masir-Rak-Tar, the Gray Nightmare—it seemed that its release into this universe was prevented by the sacrifice of the nightmare’s host that you brought, but…”

I had to do my best to hide my shock at the fact that they knew all the details of our national affairs.

“However, your secret offspring… yes, the Riksi, as you call them? Some of them have unearthed a secret that has been hidden for a long time on one of their planets.”

Personally, I wished they would refrain from such circumlocution…

And right after hearing those words:

[Event: Discovery of the Hidden Gate!]

[Separatists from the Riksi Commonwealth, while digging to build a secret base on a planet, accidentally discovered an alien structure buried beneath the surface.]

[Excited by the structure estimated to be hundreds of thousands of years old, they began researching the facility to acquire its technology and use it for their own power.]

[…However, for some reason, the structure began to activate during this process.]

[And it was revealed that this structure was actually a gate created in ancient times.]

[But it wasn’t long before it was discovered that the place the gate connected to was the nano-machine universe linked to the gate that Seveli had sealed.]

[The separatist Riksi military forces on that planet were all assimilated by the nano-machines and incorporated into part of their forces.]

[Major Event…#@$^, ^%@#^%@@^, %!#%!#!%,]

[System Error]

[System Error]

[Event progression impos…]

[System Error, Forced Event Progression]

-Beep, beep, beep.

[Event: Return of the Gray Nightmare]

The moment I saw the event message that appeared before my eyes.

I almost cursed out loud, forgetting that the Ethernia envoy was right in front of me.