Ch.62Celestine Incident – Preliminary Skirmish (2)

Family.

What is family?

Seti had pondered this question for quite a long time.

To find the answer, he had to consider his birth first.

The reason Seti was born was really nothing special.

‘You are a bridge to connect Rheinland and our Adelbein. Remember this much without fail.’

The answer was in what his mother had told him.

Seti’s mother had ambition.

It was the ambition to devour Rheinland to overcome the sorrow of being born as a daughter of a branch family.

For that to happen, Seti had to become the head of the Rheinland family.

Perhaps he had been trying since then.

To please his mother.

To fulfill his mother’s dream.

To be loved by his blood relatives.

It didn’t mean rejecting Rheinland and siding with Adelbein.

Both were his relatives, so why would he take only one side?

He simply wanted to become great.

He wanted to be acknowledged.

He wanted to prove that he wasn’t just a chain born of a contractual marriage.

‘What kind of family head is a leftover scum without love?’

That resolve had been tested frequently.

Eidel was the son born to the first wife of the Rheinland family.

They say his mother died from postpartum complications when he was born.

Perhaps because he grew up without a mother?

His behavior was also vicious.

Hitting whenever possible, hurling insults, stealing allowance.

He hated it to death.

But even so, he could endure it.

These were superficial problems.

What he couldn’t tolerate was when his dream was dismissed.

‘Stop this nonsense and live normally. What are you even doing?’

Around the age of ten, I declared that I would someday become a wealthy businessman and take the position of the Rheinland family head—that’s when Eidel said those words.

Even after several years, Eidel’s attitude remained the same.

No, rather, his personality began to deteriorate even more.

Bullying, bullying, and more bullying.

At some point, he stopped thinking of him as an older brother.

That’s how he came to stop considering Eidel as family.

Then what about others?

Father, mother, other siblings?

‘We’re busy, Seti. If you need anything, talk to the android here.’

His parents always used work as an excuse to not show their faces.

He thought it was because both were doctors, but it was excessive.

Sometimes they wouldn’t come home for over a year.

And that wasn’t all.

The other two siblings, excluding Eidel, also subtly avoided Seti.

Later, he realized it was because they were wary of him.

The position of family head was far away.

At some point, Seti began to have the unsettling thought that he was being ostracized by the family.

The only one who assisted him was Bella, an android.

But even she was just a robot in the end.

A mechanical device that only moves as programmed.

In the end, he had no true family. Seti was absolutely, under no circumstances, a being who could be loved by his blood relatives.

‘Oh, brother. Stop! It hurts! It hurts, I tell you! Waaah…’

He spent many days with Eidel, who was born in the same year.

The memory of Eidel grabbing and pulling his hair while tormenting him.

He wanted to die. He wanted to kill him.

A torrent of negative emotions set off fireworks in his head.

No, wait.

This isn’t right.

Recently, I don’t remember feeling such negative emotions…

I don’t know.

Seti’s consciousness went dark.

***

[─ Massive Pron fluctuation detected!]

[─ The God of Wisdom and Curiosity is displeased.]

What I had feared began to happen.

In the distance, where the students were, ink-black tentacles were radiating outward. The sight resembled a growing sea urchin.

No one had time to assess the situation.

The bodies of the students closest to it were pierced through.

“Instructor Clarke!”

“I know.”

Instructor Naiere shouted while drawing her Plasma Sword.

“All troops, prepare for battle!”

***

Ship No. 4 instantly became a scene of chaos.

Actually, we had intended to warn the students about possible alien attacks right after our brief conversation.

But this disaster struck before we could even give that warning.

It was the worst situation.

But it wasn’t like we couldn’t respond at all.

“Everyone to the orbital elevator!”

Under the control of the androids, a significant number of students evacuated.

The rescue team quickly extracted injured students.

I’m not certain, but there haven’t been any fatalities yet.

The Federation’s medical technology is so advanced that even brain-dead patients can be revived, so they shouldn’t die from moderate injuries.

That’s what I have to believe.

“Everyone find the possessed body and cut it down!”

Naiere shouted.

She was skillfully slicing through tentacles flying toward the escape route while calmly directing the soldiers.

As expected of a Great Omega class swordsman.

Despite the situation just breaking out, she handled everything efficiently without panicking.

“Young master, please evacuate.”

Sonia approached and said.

“If not now, you won’t have another chance to save yourself.”

I looked around and asked.

“Where’s Seti?”

“Miss Seti is being taken care of by Bella.”

“I’ll stay here until I meet Seti.”

Sonia frowned.

“That won’t do. Young master, you need to survive first…”

“Sonia.”

I raised my hand to stop her.

“She’s my family.”

“…”

“As long as we share the Rheinland surname, we’re family.”

“…”

“Does it make sense for blood siblings to abandon each other and run away?”

“Just a year ago, you would have done exactly that.”

Even in this situation, she throws a jab. That’s so like Sonia. I smiled faintly and waited right beside Naiere.

After waiting for a few minutes, someone came rushing over.

“Bella!”

It was Bella, Seti’s personal android.

She fell prostrate before me and bowed her head.

“I have committed an unforgivable sin, young master!”

“What?”

“S-Seti, Miss Seti…!”

After hearing her story, I staggered for a moment.

My mind wasn’t flowing clearly.

Even after receiving hundreds or thousands of Pron as compensation from Cartesia, I had never felt this dizzy.

“Where is she, where is she?”

I asked.

“W-well…”

“Won’t you tell me quickly?”

“*sob* *sob*! She left the bridge here and headed for the captain’s quarters!”

“Captain’s quarters…?”

I looked ahead.

The veteran swordsmen who came with Instructor Naiere were skillfully cutting away the nest of tentacle vines, securing visibility.

At the end of that line of sight was the door to the captain’s quarters.

Just as I was about to dash off.

Naiere grabbed my wrist.

“You idiot! Where do you think you’re going!”

“To the captain’s quarters!”

“Do you want to die? Leave it to us and go down to the ground! Quickly!”

I shook my head.

“…She’s my little sister.”

I made a promise right after possessing this world.

At the very least, I would clean up the mess Eidel made.

I would restore all broken relationships to at least above average.

Seti was one of them.

I thought we had just returned to our original sibling relationship, and now she’s going to die?

No. I absolutely won’t let that happen.

“…”

I shot Naiere a determined look.

She sighed and then moved her lips.

“Don’t go without a plan.”

“I do have a plan,” I answered.

“It’s a bit extreme, but don’t be surprised.”

***

The captain’s quarters.

Through the transparent reinforced glass, a beautiful view of the Milky Way shines.

The girl lowered her hand while admiring the scenery.

Thud.

The two androids serving as captain and first officer collapsed lifelessly.

One had its head split open, and the other was cut in half.

“…Heh.”

The girl’s lips twisted grotesquely.

Her eyes were unfocused and hazy.

Drool was leaking from her mouth.

Her limbs were wobbling, and around her, sharp wire-like tentacles writhed like heat haze.

Her movements were generally sluggish, as if she had taken cocaine.

Possession.

The white-haired, golden-eyed girl, Seti von Adelbein Rheinland. The alien Populus had possessed her body.

[“Success.”]

He checks the plan.

There were two objectives.

The first was to dispose of a human who dreamed of developing gravitational bombs.

The second was to defeat the timid alien existing in this peripheral galaxy and obtain a new nest.

By doing so, he would gain the enormous energy emitted by the galaxy.

In fact, the first and second objectives were interconnected.

Because that boy and the alien were connected.

For some reason, the alien entity couldn’t properly control even one inferior creature.

Even he himself found it so easy to steal a human’s mind.

It must be a weak alien.

Populus thought while loosely manipulating the girl, Seti’s body.

He would shake the boy’s mental state through this girl, then seize his body through the mental gap that forms.

Then, riding the boy’s cerebral cortex, he would invade the black hole where the local guardian lives.

That would be the cleanest way to win.

The avatar bodies would only move if that method failed.

“…So you’ve come.”

Clatter!

The captain’s quarters door opened, revealing two people.

A Great Omega class swordsman.

And the boy targeted for elimination.

The swordsman was quite formidable. She had countless background stars.

At least tens of billions.

Honestly, while his main body might handle it, it would be difficult with just a possessed body.

Omega class swordsman Naiere asks Eidel:

“Is that girl your sister?”

“Yes, she is my sister.”

Populus, who was remotely controlling Seti, chuckled.

He had searched through the recent memories of people on the ship to consider who would deal the greatest blow to that boy when possessed.

After searching and searching, he found this girl.

They seemed to have been close for at least a few months.

Of course, memories from before that were filthy like sewage, but for both humans and aliens, what mattered was the present.

Blood relatives, was it?

She was an irresistibly delicious prey.

Populus decided to begin the performance he had planned.

Step.

“Br, brother…”

He utters a word through her lips.

“I, it’s me, I…”

He drags out the end of his words like someone dying.

Surely this would disturb him.

After all, these were the words of his precious only sister.

Even knowing she was possessed, and thus could not be restored to normal.

He would hesitate to attack, thinking that since some consciousness remained, she might be saved.

Unfortunately, there was no way to save her.

The body’s takeover was complete, and the Pron level was left just barely enough to keep the lifeline attached.

She was essentially brain-dead.

Populus saw this as an opportunity and immediately deployed his tentacles.

“What a pathetic act.”

Whoosh!

Naiere swung her sword and cut down the approaching tentacles in one stroke.

Her expression was indifferent, as if she had faced such monsters many times before.

And her skills were as excellent as her expression suggested.

“…”

Indeed, even for Populus, withstanding an assault imbued with the will of dozens of star clusters was slightly burdensome.

Moreover, having to win while moving a possessed body made it even more difficult.

So he chose the captain’s quarters, a cramped location, to take advantage of the terrain.

His steel tentacles could freely bend and slide in such a place, always able to target blind spots.

On the other hand, if Naiere deliberately used a powerful technique, the ship’s hull would be torn apart, making the situation more unfavorable for her.

He was confident of victory.

“Heh.”

Populus deployed his tentacles once more and examined the face of the inferior species called Eidel or whatever.

Soon Naiere swept away the tentacles that rushed in for a second attack—

And Eidel, who had slipped through the gap, was now at close range.

“…Brother?”

Sensing something strange, Populus hurriedly tried to create distance, but it was already too late.

A caliper was falling onto Seti’s head.