August Without a Galactic Emperor 37 [Final Episode]

12. Confrontation on the Lunar Surface


“Asato, the gravity conductors are functioning. Point the feet of the |Throngear| toward the satellite. You need to be able to make a soft landing.”

I heard Quanta’s voice, sounding just like a worried grandfather.
“Thank you!”
Asato controlled the |Throngear| as instructed.
“Thron... point your feet toward the moon. We’re going to descend like this. Make sure you balance well so we don’t fall over.”

Although she had learned how to control this bio-machine with her thoughts using the <Blue Sand>, Asato, still unaccustomed to it, gave it the name “Thron” and gave it instructions out loud one by one.

“The descent speed seems faster than expected. Please order the |Throngear| to secure our bodies firmly so we aren’t thrown out.”
Nape said.
“Thron, secure my body and Nape’s body firmly.”
How?
The moment Asato thought that, belt-like tentacles extended from the throne and pinned her body down.
“!”
Thron sometimes reacts to commands in unexpected ways, which is surprising...
Looking, Dromech also extended its own tentacles, wrapping them around the tentacles securing Nape’s legs.
“You should make sure you don’t fall off, too.”

While they were doing that, the lunar surface rapidly approached.
The location where the Star Sub had crashed was clearly visible due to the billowing clouds of sand. It hadn’t exploded, but the impact had kicked up dust, making it difficult to see the surroundings.

“I am estimating the distance to the surface. About one minute until landing.”
The falling speed was increasing even more.
The surrounding scenery began to take on concrete shapes like mountains and valleys instead of patterns of light and shadow, and the |Throngear| plunged into the sand clouds rising in the vacuum and low gravity. The minute passed in the blink of an eye.

“Is this posture okay?”
“It is fine. Ten seconds to landing... nine, eight, seven, six...”
The view was completely white, but Nape calmly continued the countdown based on the information he had seen before that happened.
“...five, four, three, two, one, landing!”
Even after the thud of the impact, Asato and the others continued to fall.
To absorb the shock, the |Throngear| had retracted and folded its legs. Eventually, the area around the throne slowly stopped descending, and the legs extended again, pushing Asato and the others back up to a height.
“What should I do! I can’t see anything!”
“I will activate the visor’s dust remover.”
As he said this, Nape operated the switch embedded in the arm of Asato’s |Meta-Armor|. The system, which allowed objects smaller than a certain size to pass through and displayed only objects captured by the scanner, made the surrounding view clearly visible.

On the lunar surface, the wreckage of the crashed Star Sub was scattered. However, they were not broken too badly, and structural materials and the like remained in a state of being disassembled while maintaining their shape to some extent. As Nape had said, this was the result of the final thrust toward the moon being carried out based on precise calculations.

Asato stood up from the throne and moved the |Throngear| into the wreckage while searching for what she was looking for.

“Frame number twelve and... the central beam... Thron, pull out that keel reinforcement shaft over there.”
While ordering, Asato moved herself in the same way she wanted the |Throngear| to move. By doing so, her thoughts conveyed the command more clearly, in a form that traced the movement.
The |Throngear| pulled a metal shaft close to its own size from the wreckage and stuck it into the ground.
“Next is... the secondary power transmission cable... found it!”
“Asato, please hurry. The gunboat is approaching.”
Looking up, she saw a red light point like Mars.
It was still just a small dot, but a will of destruction clearly aimed at them was lurking there.
“Understood, I’ll hurry!”
Asato began to work, making full use of the |Throngear| while clearly visualizing in her mind what she wanted to build using the wreckage.

She fixed the elastic power transmission cable to both ends of the U-shaped hull frame. The cable became a string stretched across a metal bone about fifty meters wide.

“Okay, next is...”
She placed the central beam, which had been a beam of the hull, on the ground directly under the string. She placed the keel reinforcement shaft she had pulled out on it, pointing straight up, and nocked it to the string...

It’s done...!

Just as she thought that, a beam of fire ran from the sky, hitting the ground behind the |Throngear| and raising a huge cloud of sand.

On the bridge of the Star Gunboat, Enza-Kou-Ra himself was holding the trigger of the red thermal cannon.

“Look at that!”
On the viewscreen, the |Throngear| standing in front of a giant bow fixed to the lunar surface was projected in large size.
“That is a weapon. It is aiming at this ship with an undeniable weapon. Do you understand? This is a confrontation. A confrontation between him and me!”
General Korugon nodded in agreement, though he was overwhelmed by Enza’s excited voice.
“General, you shall bear witness to the outcome of this confrontation. You will perform the great role of making the birth of the new Galactic Emperor known to the Senate and... the entire Empire!”
Korugon was astonished to learn his superior’s true intentions for the first time. Was such a fate in the <Galacode>...
“A little more... just a little more.”
Enza stared at the aiming gauge overlapped on the viewscreen and fired the red thermal cannon in rapid succession. However, manual operation without the assistance of a |Flucom| lacked accuracy.

Even so, the red thermal shells landing around the |Throngear| were a sufficient threat to Asato and Nape.

“A little more... aim a little higher...”
Asato took the posture of drawing the bow herself and had the |Throngear| trace that movement.
“Nape, how is the direction?”
“A little more to the right. The enemy is coming directly above us on their own. Yes, just like that...”
An impact closer than ever shook the giant body of the |Throngear|.
As the gunboat approached, its aim was becoming more accurate.
“Asato, hurry!”
Nape adjusted the shield generator fixed to his feet, trying somehow to protect his |Master|.
While letting out a groan through her clenched teeth, Asato drew the bow even further. However, if she released it as it was now, she wouldn’t get the power to destroy the enemy ship... The “eye” of the |Crown| was telling her that.
“The power... is not enough...”
Her own power, which linked to the |Throngear|, was weaker than she had thought. No... at this rate...

At that moment, Nape hugged Asato from behind and took her hands.

“!”


The two of them moved their hands against the resistance of an invisible force. The giant bow was drawn even tighter, giving great power to the long metal arrow.
“Now!”
Asato, who had closed her eyes before she knew it, opened her hands wide at Nape’s voice, and the |Throngear| released the cable and launched the shaft into the sky.

Enza-Kou-Ra slowly squeezed the trigger to fire the final blow. The target within the aiming gauge had become impossibly large. He could even see a human figure protected by a modest shield on the neck of the |Throngear|.
This is the end... In an instant, the throne will be mine... The young man muttered with a smile filled with confidence in victory and irony toward the enemy.
“Long live the Galactic Emperor...”
Just before the red thermal shell was fired, the viewscreen went dark, and something flew into the bridge with an impact.
The giant metal shaft grazed just above Enza’s head, pierced the bridge, and stopped.
The equipment went down, all displays lost their light, and only emergency lights illuminated the area. Since there was no explosion or fire, Enza was relieved for a moment, but he immediately realized the serious situation when he saw General Korugon’s vacant face.

The ship, which had been descending vertically toward the surface of the satellite, had lost all control... The Star Gunboat was now equivalent to a giant coffin where not even a single hatch could be moved.

“Your Excellency... will you escape?”
Enza responded honestly for the first time to the general’s meaningless suggestion, who was strangely calm.
“Yes... I suppose... let’s do that...”
The two of them did not move from there. Not a single soldier or officer moved.

Directly below that, Asato ran.

What was actually running was the |Throngear|, but Asato’s consciousness, which had reached the throne, was trying to escape ahead faster than those feet.
“Faster!”

Before long, the Star Gunboat, having lost control, crashed behind her, and the impact struck. She avoided a direct hit, but a vibration equivalent to a major earthquake began to collapse the ground itself under her feet.
The bio-machine, which had been trying to hold its ground, finally lost its balance and fell forward.
“!”
Asato’s body slipped through the tentacles that were securing her and danced into the air.
Nape immediately jumped in pursuit, wrapping his arms around Asato and holding her. The two of them plunged into the rising dust and eventually fell onto a collapsed sand dune. Although they fell onto soft, low-gravity sand, Asato almost lost consciousness from the impact.

“Asato!”
When she opened her eyes at the voice, blue-violet eyes were staring at her through the helmet’s visor.

“Nape...”
“Are you hurt? Is there anywhere that hurts?”
Her whole body hurt... As she started to say that, Asato swallowed her words.
Is it just my imagination... The perfect human boy looks more impatient than usual.
Worried about me?
But is that because I am the successor to the Galactic Emperor? Because I am a human whose death would be inconvenient? I wonder if he will ever worry about me just as plain Asato Endo...

Asato felt a strange sadness toward the boy in front of her more strongly than the relief of having overcome the crisis. Because of that feeling, words that were completely inappropriate for the situation spilled from her mouth.
“Nape... you don’t smile, do you...”
“...”
“Do perfect humans never smile?”
“No... we also have emotions. If we learn such emotions, we can also smile. If it is your command...”
Asato sat up and held up her hand as if to push Nape’s body away.
“No... it’s not a command, I want to see a naturally smiling face. Someday... okay?”
Contrary to Asato’s wish, the perfect human boy was looking at Asato with a sad face. He was worried about me, but I wonder if I said something a little mean...
As she stood up, Asato honestly took Nape’s offered hand.
“I’m sorry. I don’t seem to be hurt. I’m fine...”
The |Throngear| had transformed and was waiting for Asato to take the throne. Dromech, drifting above it, watched Asato and Nape, continuing to send their figures far away.

Over there, the rear hull of the crashed Star Gunboat was sticking into the lunar surface in the sand clouds that were beginning to settle, and even further beyond that...

“Oh, Earth...”

The successor to the Galactic Emperor had returned.
To the mother planet she had departed from.

To the August she had departed from...



13. The End of August


The new Galactic Emperor, enthronement complete.

That fact, sent by Dromech along with footage conveying the state of the <Enthronement Ceremony>, dealt a great shock to the Galactic Empire. Even among those who were well-versed in the matter, the prospect that the Ra family and the Imperial Army would succeed in preventing the enthronement had occupied the majority.

Now that the succession of the throne by a girl from a frontier planet had become a reality, what would that rule be like... In every layer of the Empire, great anxiety and a glimmer of expectation were boiling like a soup that wouldn’t mix.

Those with wings.
Those with |tails|.
Those clad in chitin.
Those who dwell in water.
Those who dwell in high-pressure gas.
And those who walk on the ground on two legs...
Among all of them, the battle of the new Emperor Asato had become a legendary tale.
Asato had obtained the seat of the Galactic Emperor, which could be said to have been inherited in the heights of heaven completely invisible until now, in a form visible to the citizens of the Empire for the first time.
That legend brought a premonition of “change” to many citizens of the Galactic Empire.
No one knew what it would be like, but it was clear that the galaxy had entered a time of great “change”.

Without even knowing about such a huge surge of the era that had occurred in the distance...

Asato Endo was letting the gently lapping waves wash her feet.
The sunlight at the end of summer was about to tilt greatly.

The ground zero of the school ruins looked as if time had not progressed, just as it was on the day she flew away. But when she returned on the Star Corvette, this place was full of the Japanese government, the media, and various other miscellaneous people.
By Nape’s order, the Gondrowa, led by Jubey, drove them all out beyond a five-kilometer radius. It was a big commotion, but Jubey strictly followed Asato’s instruction not to hurt anyone.
On top of that, Nape somehow negotiated with the Japanese government and set the area around ground zero as an extraterritorial zone for the <Enthronement Ceremony>. Considering what the Imperial Army had done, the government probably couldn’t have refused even if they were told to hand over the Japanese archipelago.
And the <Enthronement Ceremony> that was held was even more concise and simple than the ceremony at <Blue Sand>.
The |Crown| was placed on Asato’s head again by the hand of Elder Mi-Kuni Quanta, and Nape, who witnessed it, declared the enthronement.
That was it.
Dromech drifted slowly around it, conveying the whole story to the Galactic Empire.

I wonder if anyone is watching?

Asato had no way of knowing how much of a shock the footage Dromech sent had given to the Empire.
Despite having ascended to the throne of the monarch of the giant nation called the Galactic Empire, she had no real feeling of it at all...

On top of that, there were two setbacks immediately after the enthronement.
One was the failure of the plan to try to do something about the damage caused by the <White Storm> with the power of the Empire. According to Nape, in order to use the Empire’s resources to intervene in the civilization on the planet, Asato first needed to declare that Earth was Galactic Empire territory.
That meant that Asato would reign not only as the Galactic Emperor but also as the monarch of Earth. Even if she could become the master of a space empire she barely knew, Asato could not shake off the resistance to showing the face of a monarch on the planet that was her home. In the end, on this Earth, Asato was nothing more than an ordinary high school girl, and achieving something in that position and being the Galactic Emperor could not coexist.

As long as she was the Galactic Emperor, there was no longer a place for her on this planet...
When Asato, who realized the sad conclusion, gathered her friends under the Corvette because she wanted to consult about the future, another setback occurred.

When Kate Tiptree appeared from the direction of the half-destroyed club building for some reason, Nape pointed a shock spear at her...
“Do not come any closer.”
...and stopped her.
“Now, shall we have you bring out what you brought from |there (the club building)|?”
Tiptree smiled bitterly and took out a small automatic pistol she had tucked into the back of her slacks and threw it to Nape.
“As expected, Mr. Nape. You’re the best bodyguard.”
Nape explained to Asato, who couldn’t grasp the situation.
“She was an assassin. She is likely an agent of her country’s government.”
Asato knew from movies that there were organizations in the US that did that kind of work.
“C...IA...?”
“I’m sorry for hiding it... but the CNN thing is also true.”
Nape’s words echoed hollowly.
“She is a |sleeper agent| who has been in another job from the beginning and moves according to orders when they come. She followed us because someone probably instructed her to do so, taking advantage of the confusion just before departure. And when we returned, someone contacted her and left that weapon with instructions...”
“To... kill me...?”
Tiptree said like a teacher lecturing a student.
“I wish it were all a lie... If you really became the Galactic Emperor... that was the story of what to do. You understand, right? If a person who suddenly has the strongest power in the world appears, it is very inconvenient for important people.”
While listening, Tiptree’s figure blurred with tears.
“I won’t make excuses. Is it you who decides what to do? Mr. Nape?”
Asato looked back at Nape with pleading eyes.
“It is Asato who decides. The options I can propose are two. Execution or exile. From this extraterritorial zone... in other words, from Asato’s side...”
Asato hung her head and muttered while sobbing.
“...exile... it is...”

Nape called Jubey and ordered him to accompany Tiptree and send her outside the ground zero.
Jubey stopped his feet at the sight of the tearful Asato and asked Nape.
“Is it because of this woman?”
“Yes. But Asato has judged her. It is over. Send her off respectfully.”
“Yes...”
“Oh, that’s right, Asato...”
Tiptree, who had started walking, turned back and said.
“One piece of advice... next time you answer someone’s interview, you should stop saying ‘Well, you see’. Just with that, you will look like a wise Galactic Emperor.”

That was just a few hours ago.

She had sat down on this beach crying and had been like this without being able to think of anything, but her tears had dried.
Are they leaving her alone? No one was coming near... but finally, she heard the sound of the perfect human boy stepping on the sand.

“Asato...”
When she looked up, Nape was standing there holding some kind of tray.
“Please eat. If you don’t eat anything, it’s poison to your body.”
On the offered tray were a convenience store rice ball and a plastic bottle of tea, from where he had obtained them.
Asato stared at it for a while before taking it and unwrapping it. She asked Nape while swallowing the salty taste of salmon she hadn’t tasted in a long time.
“How did you know Kate was a killer?”
“Human movements are influenced by their will. The way she walked coming from that building had a clearly dangerous will, and it was directed toward Asato. All conclusions were derived from that.”
“Perfect humans see through everything, don’t they.”
“That is not the case...”
Unexpectedly, the usual confident coldness disappeared from Nape’s voice, and it became a low, weak murmur.
“There are things I don’t understand. Asato’s heart...”
Asato, surprised by Nape, who hesitated to speak, looked straight back into the boy’s eyes.
“...I know that Asato’s heart was deeply wounded. However, I don’t know how to heal it...”
The boy looked away and continued his words, staring toward the distant horizon.
“Nape rarely speaks of his own desires. But now I feel clearly what I desire. I want to heal the wounds of your heart. For that purpose... I want to touch your heart...”
Asato felt a strange sensation at those words, as if her heart had been wrapped in invisible hands.

“That promise... do you remember?”
“I have not forgotten it for even an instant.”
Asato stood up and brushed off the sand.
“Then, it’s okay. If you stay by my side forever, surely the time will come when you can touch my heart. I also want to find where your heart is. So...”
Nape also stood up.
Oh, he seems to have grown taller before I knew it. It’s like his eye level isn’t much different from mine...

“Hey...”
Quanta and Shenga walked toward them.
I wonder if they sent Nape first to check on the situation... Anyway, if they are concerned about me, I am honestly happy...

“Are you okay? Your Majesty the Emperor.”
Quanta asked.
“Yes, I’m sorry. I said I wanted to consult with you, but I left you alone.”
“There seems to be a consultation on this side too.”
Shenga said, pointing at Quanta.
“Indeed... that is so. You have become the Galactic Emperor without question, but in order to make that position firm, there is one thing missing. The existence of a noble family.”
“Noble family... |family|?”
“Unfortunately, you no longer have a family. But the <Galacode> stipulates that the Galactic Emperor is with a noble family. And it also recognizes the right to start one yourself. Well, I understand that it is impossible to create a family all of a sudden, but... it is a problem that should be solved as soon as possible.”
Asato, who had been listening to the elder’s words with her hand on her chin, suddenly burst out laughing.
She started running on the beach, put her hands on the sand, and showed a vigorous roll. The people left behind were dumbfounded and looked at each other.
“The <Galacode> has nothing but strange things written in it!”
Throwing herself onto the sandy beach, Asato continued to laugh.

Somewhere, a cicada is chirping.
Somewhere on the beach that has become a void.
How did it survive... No, maybe it drifted from somewhere.

That lonely voice reminded Asato of the passage of time.

Summer is also ending.
How many things have happened during this summer...

Anyway, now everything in the galactic universe is in Asato’s hands. She didn’t know yet how to use that powerful power of domination.
But she would think of it eventually.

Asato closed her eyes.

Then, for some reason, she saw the figure of the |Star Lily| beyond her eyelids. A mysterious existence deeply rooted in time and space... Without this, the Galactic Emperor and Nape would not have come, and Asato’s fate would not have changed greatly.

And the <Galacode>...

Why do the people of the Galactic Empire stubbornly follow its stipulations... And why is it that only Lady Yuriira tries to break those stipulations without concern...

In the first place, who on earth wrote it...

I feel like a terrifying fact that should not be touched is hidden beyond that question... I feel like exploring that will surely become my major job as the Galactic Emperor...
Scary... but if I have Nape’s help, I can manage.
The perfect human boy who said he wanted to touch my heart. I am sure I will be able to get closer to his heart someday.

Of this summer.
Under the sky of this August, that is felt even more strongly.

Asato Endo decided to stop.
Stopping at fear.

In the corner of Asato’s vision as she stood up, the perfect human, the Min-Gan, and the Imperial Elder were discussing the problem.
Asato decided.

“I understand. Let’s solve it. If you say a family is necessary, there is a way. I’ve already decided. Nape...”
The boy took a step toward Asato, who turned around.

“Let’s get married.”

August Without a Galactic Emperor
End