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Last Embryo Volume 1 Chapter 9 Part 5

Translator: DarkHeartedAlchemist

Editor: Weasalopes

As the two of them were absorbed into such bitter conversation, Queen’s voice interrupted them from the other side of the table.

「Homura. Izayoi. If you don’t mind, then I would like to get to this audience’s main point. What I am about to tell you is going to be fairly important, so if there is anyone else with you there, make sure they can hear my voice as well, okay?」

「Ah, oh…. Okay.」

Homura nodded and promptly stitched the phone in his hand into loudspeaker mode.

「Now, can you all hear me, Izayoi?」

「Yeah, I can hear you just fine, Queen. Even though we are stuck in another world, we managed to secure ourselves a spot where the reception is decent enough.」

「I see, that is good to hear indeed. I will explain everything from the beginning now, so make sure to listen carefully, every last one of you.」

She announced that in a monotone voice void of any particular emotions. And then, for the first time since Homura began talking with her, she changed her posture by leaning back in her chair and crossing her legs.

「First thing’s first, allow me to clarify one major misunderstanding that all of you seemed to be taking for a fundamental truth: ever since it began, the matter you got yourselves involved in was not related to Little Garden.」

「「What do you mean by that?」」

Both Homura and Izayoi asked at the same time. Queen must have been greatly disappointed by that reaction, because she looked like she was genuinely annoyed by their inability to figure that out for themselves. Looks like the people who couldn’t use their brains properly at all times weren’t her cup of tea at all.

「I meant exactly what I said. Nothing more, nothing less, so let me reiterate: from beginning to the end, the matter you got yourselves involved in has nothing to do with Little Garden. Everything that has happened up until now: the typhoon arriving in your world and crossing the Equator even though it shouldn’t have been possible, the viral outbreak, resulting famine… all of those things were expected to happen as was dictated by the laws of history in your world.」

「Huh?」

「Say what now?」

Homura became straight-up dumbfounded, while Izayoi could only ask that one thing, still unable to properly grasp the meaning of what Queen had said. Even though he wasn’t right in front of her, she still glared daggers at the towards Homura’s phone with her eyebrows knitted into one in displeasure.

「Keep those unrefined squeals of yours down a couple notches, why don’t you? I don’t want my ears to bleed because of you.」

「Look, how can I stay calm when what you’re saying is simply not possible?! Disease and famine aside, that typhoon crossed the fucking Equator, doing something that should be completely impossible given the laws of the natural world!」

「That much is true, but I believe you have already figured out an answer to that, right, Mr. Homura? Try to recall what you talked about with Mikado Tokuteru not all that long ago.」

「Talked about with Tokuteru?」

Homura looked at Queen with question marks floating all around his head, but she simply flashed him an all-knowing smile. He had no idea what she was going on about, but he decided to trust her words and recalled the contents of his conversation with Tokuteru from a few days back.

「Putting it in layman’s terms, every typhoon is moved by a natural rotational power known as Coriolis force, which can be explained in the easiest way as typhoons always having a fixed direction of rotation, different for each hemisphere. But the Equator is the only place on earth where there is no Coriolis force, meaning that typhoons cannot form there, and it is impossible for the already existing ones to pass through there.」

「…. So, what you’re trying to say is that the typhoon the world is dealing with right now is being powered by something other than the forces of Mother Nature herself?」

「I realize it sounds like something unimaginable, but since it happened I guess we cannot call it completely impossible anymore. Ever since its initial appearance, that typhoons has been filled to the brim with mysteries. For you see, the typhoons forming on the southern hemisphere always, and let me reiterate, always rotate to the right, but this Typhoon Nr.24, this 「Taurus」, it rotates to the left, so there are speculations that it really was created by something other than the forces of nature.」

「… Surely it cannot be a weapon created through Weather Warfare, since experiments on these have been banned internationally. Unless someone broke the ban and worked on creating one in the shadows…」

「It certainly is a possibility. People on the internet say that certain countries have been experimenting with such weapons for a long time without the rest of the world knowing. Personally, I find the idea itself to be quite appealing. Just think about it: something that looks like a creation of nature, but its durability and destructive potential go way beyond the boundaries of the man-made creations constrained by the rules of the natural world, almost as if it had a will of its own… almost as if some kind of supernatural power was involved with it.」

「What are you trying to say here, Queen?」

「Exactly what I said. The only saving grace here is that the Avatar of Taurus was the only Celestial Beast that wound up in the outer world after leaving Little Garden. Also, the day it was summoned doesn’t match with the time of the summoning itself, but you should knw that better than anyone else, right, Sakamaki Izayoi?」

Queen Halloween addressed him with a condescending voice. Izayoi didn’t reply, but Homura’s eyes widened in surprise.

「What’s the matter, Big Bro Iza? Why are you not saying anything?」

「Because I honestly don’t know what to say. I was summoned only 3 days ago, and I was sure that there will be a time difference between Earth and Little Garden… but it looks like that’s no longer the case, isn’t it?」

「That’s right. Ever since 2 years ago, the flow of time between Earth and Little Garden has been synchronized to be exactly the same at the request of the 『Twelve Devas』.」

「I see. That’s good to know, at the very least.」

Izayoi breathed a long sigh, which felt like it was especially heavy and filled with difficult emotions for someone like him, who was usually carefree and indifferent to all the thing he didn’t deem interesting.

「So that’s how it is, huh? I completely forgot about that, but the 『Bull of Heaven』 was a part of the Middle Eastern mythos indeed. How careless of me.」

「What are you…?」

「Nothing at all. Homura. Moreover, I think I finally understand what the root of the problem is here. The things you’ve been researching for the Everything Company… is related to the third perpetual motion, correct?」

The instant he mentioned that Homura felt as if his heart exploded in his chest. That was a top-secret information hidden from the general public, and definitely something that Izayoi, who disappeared five years ago, shouldn’t have known. He knew it was mostly meaningless, but he still lowered his voice and covered his mouth with his other hand.

「How the hell do you even know about that?! This project should only be known as the research on the nanomachine technology, 『Star Particle Body Type 3』, and I most definitely didn’t tell anyone about the breakthroughs in development by using the Maxwell Drive!」

「Ugh, as I thought, so Maxwell was the source after all. You know, while here in Little Garden, I once fought against 『Maxwell’s Demon』, a being that was subjected to the thing you’re working on.」

「WHA….?!」

「I will spare you the details, but just know that its boss was a guy who could manipulate heat and coldness at will, much like Queen over there at your side can do the same with the boundaries between worlds. Now, If that Star Particle Body you’re working on has the same power as 『Maxwell’s Demon』, then they might possess enough power to control the changes in temperature and atmospheric pressure.」

Based on what Homura knew, no one beside him should be researching Star Particle Bodies, because they were not just your regular product, but a fruit of countless hours of research conducted by Homura’s father that he left behind. He was the one who made it possible to create the 3 copies of true Star Particle Bodies – the ones that were dubbed 『Origin』 ­­– . If those did not exist, Homura wouldn’t even be able to do any progress on his own research at all.

Even when he finally disassembled them with his Gift, he had no idea how he could create them from scratch. He only managed to understand their technology in 10%, so there was no way for him to reproduce such a monstrosity on a mass scale by only knowing so little about them, or at least he won’t be able to do so without getting his hands on a blueprint… first…

「Thesis.」

「Thesis? What thesis? Whose thesis?」

「My father’s thesis. If only I had access to it, I could finally start making more progress on the research, but…」

Homura’s father was dead. It was an undeniable, unchanging fact, and the thesis upon which his work was based was supposed to have been lost together with him…. Or at least that’s what he though was the case since no one in the scientific world announced picking up the torch after him… but if someone was indeed continuing his work, but in secret, hidden from any prying eyes…

「It is exactly as you think, Saigo Homura. Someone on Earth obtained your father’s research thesis and used it in order to create the modern 『Bull of Heaven』 and unleash it upon your world. That someone is the main reason for this Gift Game being held in the first place, and the one responsible for dragging both worlds into it. Now then, tell me… knowing all this, what are you going to do?」