3 bar menu

Last Embryo Volume 7 Interlude Part 4

Canaria may have committed sins. She may have resorted to questionable methods. But those kinds of sentiments were largely irrelevant to me at that moment.

To me at that time, there was nothing more embarrassing than twisting your own ideology with sentimentality whenever it suited you.

If she is going to be dissatisfied with the result of the dice she has rolled, then I will destroy those dice, and if I am going to find the result of the roll interesting, then I will help her to balance the scales of good and evil.

「Canaria, I think that I have finally come to understand what is it that is troubling you. I hate to say this, but you need to put the good and evil inside you aside for now. No matter how much you might worry, you are the only woman who can make a decision, no matter if you decide to pick out the victims, cutting them all down or choosing to use them for your own ends.」

*Gunu*, she made a face as if she had just chewed on an incredibly bitter bug. It seems that she still possessed a little bit of self-awareness, at the very least.

「I already know that despite occasionally acting like a real-bastard, you are good-natured at heart. Also, the reason why I continue to travel with you is because your every move is so cool that it makes me angry.」

「……」

「Canaria, that is why you should do this: whenever you are in doubt about what to do, just go and choose the option that seems the coolest to you. If I end up not liking your choice, then I will go and stop you, and if I will find it interesting, I will tag along with you to play this stupidly big game that makes the world go around.」

I said that half-jokingly, but also half-seriously.

However, Canaria’s eyes were looking straight at me without a hint of waver in them.

「…. Yes, you are absolutely right. In that case, let me change the direction of our discussion by asking you a more specific question. In order for us to save the entire world, it is going to be necessary to overcome the limitations of the current humanity and go beyond 「The Ends of the World」 that I mentioned earlier. In order to achieve that, we would need to cause a Paradigm Shift so powerful that it would end up steering not just a single individual, but the entirety of the humankind towards it….. Izayoi-kun, let me ask you this: how are you going to steer the ship that keeps the fate of the whole world and both spiritual and material boundaries on its deck and overcome the obstacles that have been placed before it?」

She asked that question with a more of a mechanical voice than before. However, this time I needed to give her an answer that was not going to be deliberately vague. Because if I do give her a vague one and fail to come up with anything concrete, then I am sure that she’s going to overturn her bat that she placed on me.

As I said earlier, the woman named Canaria is a woman who has to make decisions.

The moment she realizes that she is fighting in a losing battle, this woman would abandon everything that she managed to build up until that point without a second of hesitation.

She is just that kind of person who has a way of switching her emotions, ignoring her efforts, gains and losses that she has accumulated up to the given point. And since I have already decided that my answer cannot be a half-baked one, I folded my arms on my chest and fell silent for a while.

At that moment, I suddenly saw a certain scene outside the window.

「….Yeah. Old Humanity, New Humanity, differences in religion, differences in values, differences in ethnicity. I also believe that such insurmountable walls exist in human society. But hey, can you look out the window for a moment.」

Curious, Canaria looked at the center of the plaza I pointed to.

There, a group of young boys with different skin colors was running around the plaza chasing after the soccer ball and kicking it with all their might. They all had different facial features and eye colors, and some of them even had small cross necklaces hanging from their necks.

Even though they were all speaking different languages, they continued to desperately gesture to one another to convey their feelings and responded with a happy 「YES!」with smiles on their faces.

These boys unconsciously accepted their diversity to chase after a soccer ball together.

「25% of the people living in this city are British, 25% Spanish, 19% Italian, and 11% Portuguese. It’s made up of various human beings, and it’s also a mixture of religions, so you could say it’s a crucible of civilizations where Christianity, Judaism, and Islam manage to coexist peacefully.」

「……」

「Look at the guys playing in the square. Different races, different skin colors, different languages, different nationalities, even different gods. But aren’t they getting along well without quarrels, even in this 「Ends of the world」?」

Canaria’s eyes opened widely without her being able to squeeze a single word from her throat.

Gibraltar is known as the last European colony. With a total population of 30,000 people, it is by no means a large city, but it is a crucible of various races and ideals.

The boys and girls who grew up in such a remote place are born in this environment that they see as their norm. The reason for this is probably because the different civilizations and bloodlines of their parents blended well together.

「Gibraltar is a nice city. It’s a nice mix of cultures, the people are kind enough, it doesn’t seem to be dangerous… so I don’t know the reason for your dejected face. Your ideal is a town where you can see this kind of scenery, isn’t it?」

An individual who can cross boundaries probably does not exist. Because what this woman is talking about is about the collective will of mankind.

Civilizations and values are things that repeat throughout generations and history, and various individual thoughts are blended and harmonized together in the process. Sometimes they clash and sometimes they break up, crossing each other’s boundaries to create the next generation, until they all eventually become friends who see the same scenery.

「Canaria, there is only one way to solve your troubles. Only the vast passage of time and history will break down the boundaries. The future of mankind is decidedly brighter than you think.」

…. The future of mankind is decidedly brighter than you think.

Canaria caught onto those words and gently closed her eyes. Back then, I didn’t even know how much those words meant to that woman. But this must have been a very important answer, at least for Canaria at that time.

Canaria remained silent for a while, but she regained her smile with the wind blowing in from the window, and she turned to me with a more fearless gaze than ever before.

「…fufu. The future of mankind is bright, huh? If you say so, then I guess it might just be true.」

… Well, I hope it can be the same around the entire world.

「Yes. I say so, so it is definitely true. However, I have no doubt that achieving this bright future will take some time.」

I laughed with my usual *Yahaha!!* and leaned back.

Canaria put her hand on her cheek with a wry smile on her face, and replied:

「I suppose so. Time is always the biggest obstacle, isn’t it?」

「Huh?」

「No, it’s nothing. I guess it’s Izayoi-kun’s win this time… although I have to say that this is really frustrating. Shall I ask you one more question then?」

She asked me with a voice more fitting for a yakuza than a young woman, but that kind of thing can’t be helped at this point. This was a part of her attitude that was difficult to treat seriously, especially when it got mixed with her usual sense of competitiveness.

Canaria, who completely ignored my voices of protest, showed me a mean smile as usual. Somehow, it felt like she seemed to be back on the right track.

Even though she is usually so calculating, it would be pretty annoying if she was losing her mind like that all the time. But now that I have decided to listen to her with a generous heart, I sat back in my seat and waited for Canaria to start talking.

Canaria’s golden hair fluttered softly on the wind as she put her index finger to her lips.

「Tell me, Izayoi-kun. Do you know about this word? The one that describes a concept that goes even beyond 「The Ends of the World」… Cosmo.」