Day had broken.
The venue for PLANT's princess was completely packed.
It was not only Naturals in attendance. A large number of Coordinators had gathered here as well, making up roughly one-third of the audience.
Most Coordinators had not actually emigrated to PLANT's colonies. There were still nearly five hundred million Coordinators living on Earth.
For various reasons, so were attached to their holand, while others could not bear to leave behind their Natural parents, among other reasons, so they remained on Earth.
They mainly lived in countries that did not show hostility toward Coordinators the way the Atlantic Federation did. That was why they were, in a sense, its wasted dead.
In other words, there were around five hundred million Coordinators on Earth, far more than the tens of millions living in PLANT.
If the people of Earth had simply treated those five hundred million Coordinators a little better, and if the Atlantic Federation had used them properly, they would have beco an incredibly powerful force. Things would never have reached the point where PLANT could push the war down to the Earth itself.
Before coming to Lacus's world, Kain had never quite understood why the Atlantic Federation was so stupid.
Now, it seed they really were just that stupid.
They had abused public opinion, using propaganda to brainwash their own citizens about the dangers of Coordinators. But they had overdone it. The result was too many religiously fanatical believers and extremists, making the situation impossible to reverse.
Once things reached that point, they could only keep walking down that road, because turning back would require paying a huge price, and those rchants were unwilling to pay it.
In their eyes, it only ant a few more people would die. It would not affect them.
"Haro, Haro, Big Haro!"
That was Lacus's Haro addressing him that way, because right now, he looked like a giant Haro. He was wearing an oversized Haro mascot costu.
He would appear onstage beside Lacus in this form, as a mascot for people to hit or play with however they liked.
Kain looked toward the audience, trying to see whether anyone seed suspicious.
At the sa ti, in the VIP seats:
"Kisaka, how does it look?"
As Orb's chief representative, Uzumi Nara Athha was asking a trusted subordinate over his communicator.
"We can confirm it's the Seiran family. They have also secretly dispatched a team to the venue. Lord Uzumi, are you certain this will be all right?"
From atop a building five kiloters away from the venue, the man replied with clear concern.
If they still did not act now, and did not arrange for their own security forces to enter, then once the Seiran family made its move, the Athha faction and the others hated by the Seirans would almost certainly be caught in one sweep.
In addition, Miss Lacus would also fall into danger. According to the intelligence, mbers of the Earth Alliance had also slipped in, along with extremists.
In truth, even acting now was already sowhat late, but they could at least save so people.
"It will be fine."
"I understand."
The call ended.
"Father."
"What is it, Cagalli?"
Uzumi looked gently at his hesitant daughter beside him.
"It's just..."
Cagalli was still hesitating over whether to confirm whether that boy nad Kira was really her younger brother, and whether she was truly her father's adopted daughter.
"You're very concerned about what relationship that child nad Kira has with you, aren't you?"
Uzumi Nara Athha directly saw through his daughter's thoughts.
Cagalli had used the national system to investigate that child's family circumstances, which told him she had learned sothing of the truth.
After exposing what was on his daughter's mind, he took a photograph from his pocket and handed it over.
"This is..."
Cagalli's pupils widened. The back of the photo was facing her, and there were two nas written on it. One was hers. The other was the na of the person she was trying to confirm.
With slightly trembling hands, she turned the photo over. It showed a gentle-looking woman holding two babies, one blond and one brown-haired.
"As for the rest, once the performance is over, we'll talk about it properly at ho."
"Okay."
Cagalli nodded, then pulled back her sowhat unseemly expression and turned her gaze toward the stage.
At the sa ti, in one corner of the audience:
"I really didn't expect our princess to be this popular on Earth too."
Andrew Waltfeld pressed down the brim of his straw hat and spoke in astonishnt.
"Isn't that obvious? How many people can resist Lacus's charm?"
Dearka said those words with a hint of pride. This was PLANT's princess, unlike those princesses on Earth.
Lacus gave people the impression of a princess from a fairy tale.
That was why he really did envy Athrun, because he was Lacus's fiancé.
"Nicol?"
Yzak suddenly called out from beside them. He had apparently spotted Nicol through his binoculars.
The others imdiately lifted their own binoculars and followed the direction Yzak was looking. Sure enough, they really saw Nicol.
"He wasn't locked up?"
Dearka was rather stunned. They were just letting that kid move around freely?
It was probably for Lacus's sake.
The kid was following the team beside Lacus, finally stopping at the edge of the stage.
"Athrun, did you notice? Those two silver-haired won beside Lacus."
Yzak suddenly said that.
"Yes. Their movents are too standardized and too synchronized."
Athrun answered with a faintly grave expression.
Movents that precise could only belong to people who had undergone extrely harsh training, making them look almost like machines.
Those two were very likely mbers of the force that owned that abnormal fighter craft. What was their purpose in staying beside Lacus like this?
Still, what they most wanted to know was the identity of the pilot who had flown that fighter.
The pilot was male and about 1.8 ters tall.
Because he had also been wearing a combat suit, there had been no way to see his face. Trying to determine which person he was would be almost impossible.
"...Looks like this is another brand-new CG sequence. I'm looking forward to it."
Dearka could not help whistling. The princess's performance was about to begin.
The next second, an image appeared on the stage. It was a star system, but it did not seem to be the solar system.
After all, the solar system had no planet like that: a planet with a scorched, glassed-over surface and shocking fissures running across it.
It looked as though the slightest touch would cause that inconspicuous world to shatter like a glass bead or a marble.
At the sa ti, a faintly sorrowful song began to play, and the princess's figure gradually appeared, as though erging from the starry sky.
As the lody of her song flowed onward, the background changed along with it, revealing even more devastating sights.
There were planets that had truly been shattered, planets missing huge chunks, and planets split cleanly in half.
The entire star system was filled with death. Everywhere was ruin.
When the cara turned toward the stars themselves, the scene beca especially shocking. There were three stars that looked as though they might die at any mont.
They were like malfunctioning light bulbs, their radiance flickering between bright and dim.
When what seed like a vast amount of celestial debris was drawn in, the stars briefly burned brighter, as though using it to prolong their lives.
As the song approached its end, the cara seed to be falling toward a Jupiter-like planet. Then, as if it had suddenly detected sothing, the view turned.
"Ohhh, now that is an incredible effect."
Countless warships had warped into this dead star system. They began releasing innurable celestial bodies, striking down interstellar warships.
The image froze there, locked on the magnificent scene of what seed to be the opening mont of a war against sothing unknown.
At that mont, a faint crackle of electricity sounded.
Yzak's expression changed slightly. He imdiately pulled out the communicator on his person.
It was smoking.
And it was not just him. The devices carried by Athrun and the others beside him were the sa.
More precisely, every electronic device in the entire venue had begun to malfunction.
(End of Chapter)
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