Year 4667 of the Unified Imperial Calendar:
Fourth Month, Day 9. (4:29 PM)
◇ Astra's POV ◇
Okay. What the actual fuck?
Am I really in a secret laboratory or something? Or maybe this was just a big lame prank? I mean, what kind of person would use the code '12345678' for a passcode?
Well, at the very least, I only know one thing: It's either the one who made this is an incomprehensible genius, or an absolute idiot.
And I'm also sure that I'm not meeting the genius-cum-idiot, so let's just leave things at this. Yeah.
Why? It's because I have much more urgent things to worry about.
Right now, even without turning my head, I could feel two pair of eyes trying to poke into my head, as if wanting to see what is inside. Yeah.
Now then, what should I do?
As I thought my options over, a voice from behind spoke in a pointed tone. "Astra," it called out.
"How did you open it?" Lady Reyshia asked with a bit of hostility in her tone. "I may not be familiar with whatever interface this place has, but at the very least I sure the hatch earlier was locked."
"And we're not idiots, Astra" she added.
I turned my head as my neck creaked with a rusty noise—or at least it would have if this was an anime. At the very least, I think so. In any case, I turned around, and gave the explanation I could ever think of.
"U-Um... Would you believe me if I said this was coincidence?..." I said in a meek tone.
However, contrary to my expectations, Lady Reyshia didn't lash out nor get angry. Instead, she raised a brow, stared at my nervous face for a good while, and finally she sighed. "Alright."
She massaged her forehead with her fingers, and accepted my explanation.
"I have a quite a number of questions for you, but that is for later." She said with a resigned voice. "For now, we focus on finding whatever we can find."
It seems that Goddess Reyshia is willing to forgive the suspicious me. Even though I still haven't confessed that I was the one who crashed her Ark, and is probably gonna weight on their family coffers again.
However, as expected resistance came...
"But Lady Reyshia—"
"It's alright, Lillia. My guts tell me to believe him."
...only to be thwarted easily.
Hah! I don't know whoever this 'guts' is, nor do I care if he's a massive guys wielding a black sword. However, I love you 'guts'!
GoddessSSSS Reyshia— whoops, I added to much 'S'. Anyway, Lady Reyshia turned to my direction as she saw my grateful face.
"Astra, what's with that look?" she asked with a frown. "Stop it. It is disgusting."
What?! How could my grateful face be disgusting?!
Ahem... In any case, it seems that I now have been pardoned for now. I cleared my throat, and then asked. "Um... What do we do next?"
Lady Reyshia smiled at me. "What else? We go inside, of course."
And so, we went inside.
◇◇◇ Third Person POV ◇◇◇
Led by Astra, Reyshia and Lillia followed suit as they watched their surroundings with obvious wariness on their expressions. The place was wide; about 5 meters wide and 6 meters tall. It wasn't as lit as the passages from the rooms earlier, as the lights that lit up the passage weren't bright. It was only glowing at best.
They continued on, as occasional metallic dings resounded from somewhere. It seems that the place was still functional, and it also seemed to be operating.
As they were walking on, however. Lillia suddenly stopped. Reyshia looked at her curiously, but then noticed why.
She grabbed Astra, who let out muffled groans in surprise as she covered his mouth too, as she took out her wand and used an invisibility magic spell. Lillia too, vanished soon after her.
Astra, who had finally gone silent, took Reyshia's hand from his mouth. "L-Lady Reyshia?..."
He spoke in a hushed voice as he seemed to get what was happening. However, Reyshia only gave him a 'hush' gesture, and squinted her eyes forward.
Not long after, something appeared from ahead. It didn't seem to be tall as it was about half a meter overall, but it had a familiar shape. Another moment, they finally saw that it was indeed a mechanical bot. The same type as Reyshia had hugged in her sleep.
It approached them, and then green lines had suddenly appeared around them as it scanned the space around them, in a full three-dimensional scan.
'Not good! Are we found?...' Reyshia though as she prepared her wand.
However, the expected assault didn't come. It only made a few beeping sounds, and then it spoke.
Reyshia didn't understand what the bot said, and turned to Lillia. However, it seems like it wasn't one of the languages of the mainland as even she didn't recognize it.
And when they were considering on attacking it...
"Huh? Follow?"
Astra's mutter sent them in a daze. They were able to quickly recompose themselves, but Reyshia couldn't help but ask.
"Astra, can you understand it?"
"Huh? Isn't it speaking normally? In English, I mean."
"En...glish?"
"Huh?"
It looked like her war slave was also ignorant about his own oddities. However, she couldn't help but ask of him.
"Astra, I do not know what the English that you are speaking of, but can I trust you to translate for us?"
She didn't want to back down now. This was a clue, and she absolutely don't want to miss it. For the sake of her desired future. For the sake of her dream...
Astra pat his chest as he raised it a bit. "Don't you worry, madam! I will do my best to serve you as your war slave!" he said in an enthusiastic tone of voice.
Reyshia couldn't help but make a wry smile for his usual bootlicks. It was Astra after all. He was nothing less incomprehensible.
She nodded in relief. "Then, we shall rely on you."
Astra smiled a wide smile as he turned and followed the mechanical bot from earlier. It wasn't actually fast, so Reyshia and Lillia cancelled their stealth and followed after Astra.
They walked for about half an hour, and finally, they reached a massive hatch that spanned 10 meters wide and 10 meters tall. It soon opened, but Reyshia saw that its thickness had reached about 2 meters of pure steel. Her eyes widened in shock.
'W-What is this place?! And how did they manage to build such place?...'
As far as she knew, it was impossible to forge a steel wall that was 2 meters thick. Even with the aid of magic, the limitations as a human would still hinder the plans for construction, much less create such pure steel without impurities.
'This might be a far bigger deal that I had initially thought.'
She was now starting to understand why the Emperor was searching for such laboratories around the empire. It seems several of these laboratories are located within the confines of the empire, but no one knew where they were.
It looks like Reyshia had poked her head into something she shouldn't have. At least her guts told her so.
When the hatch finally opened completely, she was greeted by a bright white-lit place. And from inside, were a series of Arks that stood side by side. And they were models that she hadn't seen before.
Her eyes widened again, but a certain person had muttered out loud:
"Holy shit!... Are those Gundams?!"
It seemed she had more questions for her war slave.