Ch.248The Great Invasion (1)

Sonia confessed to me.

I don’t know how to take this.

I already had two wives. And Sonia was an android.

We were in a relationship where we looked after each other, but to develop into lovers, we would have to overcome two barriers.

“It will be a difficult process. But, young master. Please know this one thing.”

Sonia whispered while stroking my head.

“The person who took your first time was me, Sonia.”

“What?”

Sonia smiled slyly.

“What are you talking about? Are you joking?”

“Well. You’ll find out when the time comes.”

I repeatedly asked Sonia and even questioned Cartesia, but no satisfactory answer came back.

I was confused.

It seems like something happened to me while I was asleep or unconscious. But I can’t figure out what it might be.

Surely not what I’m thinking.

“Anyway, I’ve told you all the facts I can share now. Next would be convincing the two ladies.”

“I’m too scared to help.”

If I bring this up, I’ll literally die.

There was only one method with any possibility.

To wait and see until my two wives voluntarily say, “How about making her a bride too?”

It’s not the action of a real man, but what can I do? I am the head of the Rheinland family. I need to care about my social reputation.

If I get the image of a playboy, people will look down on me, and then my research funds might be cut… Oh, damn. That really can’t happen. I’d rather live as a bachelor.

“Don’t worry. I will try to earn the favor of your two wives.”

“Will that work?”

“It would be easier than me becoming human.”

I fell silent.

Is she really trying to become human? Or something close to it. If it really happens, it would be the greatest discovery and invention in human history.

“…When I married both Rustila and Zernya, I told them something. Rather than seeing one rejected and sad, I would embrace them both. You’re exactly in that position now.”

“Come to think of it, you did say that. You also said you wouldn’t accept any other woman besides those two. But since you already think of me as family…”

It was frustrating but logical.

After all the years we’ve spent together, how could I push her away now? I couldn’t be that heartless.

“You are… to use an analogy. A restaurant accepted two customers and closed. Both ordered steaks and they were made? But then the serving robot suddenly came to the table and said, ‘I’d like a steak too.’ That’s what this is like.”

“I see. So did you make the steak?”

“We’re out of ingredients, so I’d have to go to the market to make it.”

Sonia nodded.

She stretched out both hands wide.

“What does this mean?”

“Please give me money to go to the market.”

“Are you serious?”

“Good cooking requires good ingredients.”

Sonia’s gaze turned toward the screen. Two modules in the shopping cart. Being high-end products, they were insanely expensive.

Research to turn an android into a human or something similar.

Separate from Sonia, I’m interested.

“Alright, I’ll upload it.”

“Really?”

“You said about ten times would be enough, right? It’s payment for guarding me 24 hours.”

Honestly, she was worth that much.

From now on, I’ll be targeted by foreign gods more and more frequently. If money can preserve my life, I should use it.

“Thank you.”

After enjoying Sonia’s happy dance, we returned to the laboratory. Anyway, now was not the time to spend energy on love quarrels.

That night, major movements from the Darwin system were reported.

***

“My Queen, please have mercy!”

Thwack!

The split piece of flesh fell down the stairs. The lump of flesh wriggled. It was alive yet dead, as the black hole forming the core of that foreign god had burst.

“Next.”

“My Queen!”

The purge continued.

Some for being weak. Some for plotting treason. Others for failing to properly do what they were told.

The queen descended from her throne and trampled on the tendons. Blood spurted out like pulp. Thus, another absolute being met its demise with a scream.

No one dared to object.

The current purge was for the greater cause.

“Next.”

The last one dragged out was Swan, a foreign god of the Cygnus constellation.

He was thrown down before the throne. The queen’s henchman had struck him. Swan vomited black mud.

“Urgh, uuuurgh!”

“You did your job very sloppily. Failing to kill a mere mortal and making the Queen come in person.”

“I am, hurk, so ashamed…!”

Swan trembled violently.

Before him was a monster feared even by other foreign gods.

The Emperor of Elegant Finale, Aurore.

She was the highest-level foreign god who brought hierarchy and order to the Darwin system, which was so violent they even attacked their own kind.

Her essence was a bizarre form with black petals covered in densely packed teeth, but currently she was disguised as a human. It was her long-standing habit to transform into the appearance of the species she was about to invade.

Red eyes and dark blue hair. A uniform adorned with lace decorations.

Though she wore no tiara, she exuded an undeniable charisma befitting one called a queen.

Her mouth opened.

“I kept you alive because you had the talent to mimic the voice of the constellation, but now even that has become meaningless. Because the humans have noticed.”

“My Queen, this is unjust! Please give me a chance to explain…!”

Swan’s words were never completed.

Thwack!

He fell forward helplessly.

In that moment.

Just for a moment.

Through blurry vision, he saw his own body staggering.

Swan let out a quiet sigh. But from his deflated lungs came only a hissing sound.

Shortly after, a massive maw descended from the ceiling.

The being with thousands of fanged teeth devoured Swan greedily. The sound of bones crushing and flesh pulverizing echoed through the hall. Some cackled, while others trembled in fear.

“Next.”

“My Queen, that was the last one.”

The queen snapped her fingers. An image of a human appeared in midair.

With black hair and golden eyes, he was resting his chin on his hand while scribbling with a pen.

Eidel von Rheinland.

Aurore pointed at him on the screen and said:

“Next.”

“…My Queen, is it alright to go in now?”

“What, are you afraid?”

“No. I just have concerns. Weren’t some of our comrades captured by that trap research or whatever? And they’ve planted so many of them that the area around the Aether Belt is like a minefield. If we proceed like this, the losses will be severe…”

The queen stomped on the foreign god’s head with her foot. She looked around and growled in a fierce voice.

“Are you all afraid?”

“No!”

“Do you not trust your queen?”

“No!”

The queen looked down at the foreign god she had trampled and murmured.

“Who said we didn’t know about that? We know. But so what? A mere mortal’s formation, we can simply overwhelm with numbers. Isn’t our species’ greatest advantage achieving victory by stepping over the corpses of our comrades?”

“Y-yes, that’s right.”

“As long as you are in my forces, you must not fear the enemy. Remember that defeating them is not the end.”

“Under…stood…!”

The queen lifted her foot that had been grinding down.

“Bring me Eidel von Rheinland. I don’t care if he’s alive or dead. Whoever captures him first will have the right to do whatever they want with him and that galaxy.”

Woooooah!

The foreign gods roared.

“Can we devour him?”

“Do as you please.”

“Can we impregnate him?”

“Do as you please.”

The queen closed her eyes and raised her hand. The avatars’ gazes turned to that hand.

Then, as she brought her hand down.

“By the Queen’s command, march forward!”

The great invasion began.

***

[— I sense a chilling madness.]

The dreaded event had finally happened.

There was no time to delay.

I hurriedly met with Deputy Minister Alos Padremont.

First, I received a report on the military situation.

“The rate of corrosion is alarming. The southern Aether Belt has evaporated, and spawning plants have appeared in the three planetary systems of Pardon, Lunos, and Kmute. Monsters have also emerged, and Fragments have already been created.”

Worried, I asked the engineer:

“Were the traps ineffective at the frontline?”

“No. That’s not it.”

The engineer turned on a tablet to show me the data.

“Shall I explain?”

“I understand. If the trap is empty, it’s white, and if a foreign god is caught, it’s black, right? It’s all… black.”

“This photo was taken at dawn today. If this observation is correct, all of them…”

I couldn’t help but laugh hollowly.

It was absurd.

After we had planted numerous mines, the queen’s chosen method was sheer numbers.

She exchanged her foreign gods one-for-one with our traps and antennas, depleting all our traps, and then attacked with her remaining forces.

I had been anticipating special attacks focused on foreign gods like Swan who had wavelengths similar to the constellations.

It was catastrophic.

I could feel the queen’s grinding determination.

Despite our thorough preparations, we were half helpless from the start.

Then I heard a woman’s voice.

“This is fine. They’re sufficiently weakened.”

It was Ireh.

She placed her hand on my shoulder and read the data with me.