“If you have something to say, you should always say it confidently.”
“ . . . Then, I think it would be better to go on the defensive.”
“Defensively.”
“Yeah.”
Kreion quickly synthesizes the opinions and makes a decision.
“I will give a large amount of radioactive material to Nazar. With that, he will increase the number of Lemegetons and strengthen our power base in this red dwarf star system.”
It was a very quick decision.
“And I will personally design the anti-air defense structure equipped with the Organic Accelerator Cannon, taking into account Phlegeth and Berne’s opinions. So Ludwig, you should stick to your original role with Anima. Grow the colony and keep increasing the number of swarms.”
Then Ludwig asks.
“If we take a defensive stance. . . When will New Ark be destroyed. . .?”
“What do you mean?”
“Master just said. . . We can’t be sure of anything about New Ark’s movements. . . Then isn’t it possible that New Ark will never invade us. . .? I don’t think it’s like the chimeraz to just keep defending against an enemy that won’t come. . .”
It is the most chimeraz-like question.
“Don’t you think it’s dangerous for us to attack?”
“Of course it would be dangerous right now. . . But I think it would be advantageous for the species to eliminate New Ark as quickly as possible if it is for the sake of exterminating humanity someday. . .”
At that moment, Anima’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Wait a minute. What just. . . Exterminate humanity?”
“Didn’t you know, Anima-nim . . .?”
“Humans are our enemies, right?”
“ . . . Yes, but. . .?”
“So you’re saying we’re going to exterminate humanity? Humanity. . .?”
She looked back at Kreion as she asked that.
“There’s no other way. If we fight and defeat New Ark, which controls dimensional passages all over the world, humanity will be waiting for us after that. It will inevitably become an all-out war someday.”
“Kreion. Are you really serious?”
“Why are you reacting like you can’t believe it? No matter how strong humans are, we will one day exterminate them and become the species that reigns freely in the universe.”
She asks again,
Once again, she asks firmly.
“There are 74 billion of them. If you include the population that does not belong to any country, there are even more. And you’re going to kill every single one of those people. . . in this universe?”
“I don’t really want to. But that’s what will happen as our species lives and breathes. We have no choice but to fight humans.”
“No, you don’t.”
All countries, cultures, young and old, good and bad, civilians and soldiers, the ruling class and the ruled class.
Are you going to kill them all?
Are you going to wipe out humanity itself?
“That can’t be true. If you had even a little experience with people, you would never make such a decision so easily.”
At that moment, Kreion unconsciously recalled a past memory.
Even Kreion himself did not know why that memory came to mind.
—𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐢𝐝𝐧’𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐚 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫. . .
Why.
— . . . 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭’𝐬 𝐚 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐟. . .
Why.
Why did you say that with such a face?
No, he knew.
He knew in his head why Haber had said that and what it meant, but he had ignored it for some reason.
Anima forcibly dragged up that buried memory and thought. As she dragged it up, impurities called emotions were mixed in, interfering with his normal thinking.
One died and one was met in that garden.
Haber, who was always visible when he opened his eyes, died.
Now, she, who is always visible when he opens his eyes, has replaced Haber.
She is the only one who has a human body here. Just like Haber.
Why.
Why do you think you replaced Haber with her? Even so, she keeps digging into his heart with questions he doesn’t want to face. The children are watching. With that alone, he has become stronger, kept his will, and walked forward, but the answer that denies that keeps popping up.
“Isn’t something wrong? Kreion.”
“Humans are all evil and untrustworthy. They are a race that deserves to die.”
“We’re not monsters.”
In the end, Kreion clearly recalled it.
Memories that he had considered false and buried flashed through his mind.
Haber.
The people on the street that he saw in the bustling city at that time.
The teammates he saw at the Coelacanth company at that time.
—𝐈 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐡𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐫𝐲, 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐧𝐨 𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐡𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐦𝐞.
—𝐈 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐚 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐞 𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐈 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭.
No intelligent being feels nothing about killing an intelligent being of another species, destroying Apoptology, massacring familiar people, and then killing Haber.
After that, all that was left in his heart was pus.
When pus bursts, it hurts,
“Were there really only monster-like people? The people you’ve killed so far, were they all monsters who deserved to die? No, you say. You killed them because you had to.”
Pus must burst to heal.
“You know for sure. In fact, you weren’t hostile to ‘humans’ as a whole, you were only hostile to ‘humans’ who tried to harm you.”
“Yes. I won’t deny it forcibly. I made that declaration out of revenge at the time.”
In the end, Kreion faced his own mistakes.
“But what do you want me to do with all these things that have happened like this? War is not something that can be controlled so easily. Do you think we can survive by winning without being hostile to humans?”
“We haven’t really started yet.”
“What?”
“The war. The war against all of humanity.”
“Not yet.”
New Ark and Darwin Foundation are just a small part of humanity.
“Then when we face ‘real humanity’ someday, at least we should speak up, right?”
“ . . . ”
“If we keep going like this, we’re just extraterrestrial invaders. The chimeraz will become monsters that are impossible to communicate or negotiate with. If we go to war without giving any explanation from our side, many races, including humans, will consider us monsters. And if we become enemies with more and more races. . . That’s when we won’t be able to survive.”
Considering diplomacy with other races and the reputation of the chimeraz in the future, this is an even more reasonable argument.
“I understand. So you want us to speak up first, whether it’s a conversation or a negotiation, and bring our story to this side? Not to New Ark or Darwin Foundation, but to humanity.”
“I hate Darwin Foundation and New Ark, their backers. I’ve seen what they’ve done on this planet. I’d like to get rid of them as they are.”
“Fine.”
“On the other hand, I think we should try it at least once with humanity as our target. I understand that you had no choice but to do that at the time. However, now we have the strength to face the human army and to afford to create more swarms.”
“What if humans refuse even then? What if they close their ears and call us monsters even if I cry out that I want peace and coexistence, and human guns are pointed at us?”
At that moment, Anima gave a pure answer to Kreion’s question.
“If it turns out that way, the real monsters aren’t us, but the humans.”
Thanks to that, the direction of the chimeraz was set.
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