TN: And we're back! sorry for the week long hiatus, it was not intentional since I had to get my right leg in a cast after tripping 3 floors down a stairwell (like an idiot ://) and be unable to use my PC setup upstairs BUT I should be OK now.
Anyways, Thanks for Arcanic Madness, WeissAkumu and WolfWTF for becoming as Supporters!,
===BREAK===
"Kakavasha." The mother froze for a moment, blinking blankly.
That was the name she had prepared for her unborn child. Was it just a coincidence?
"Ha." She laughed at herself softly, mocking her own foolishness today.
How could it be deliberate? What kind of wealthy young lord would rush to give advantages to a poor family? That kind of habit was far too strange.
"Mm… if you give the child the same name, I would be very happy."
Aventurine silently scolded himself for telling the truth. This was a massive flaw.
But faced with his mother's question, he truly couldn't bring himself to lie.
This kind of patch-up should be enough.
Or should I trouble the Aeon of Equilibrium?
Hearing her words, Aventurine's sister's small face was filled with confusion.
Was this guy reliable at all? Could he be some reckless fool?
Who talks like that? She had seen plenty of scoundrels trying to take advantage of others, but someone who actively delivered benefits to their doorstep—this was a first.
But then again, he was willing to bestow wealth over a single bowl of water, so maybe it made sense after all.
Perhaps he lacked maternal love since childhood—there was no other explanation.
The girl thought with great certainty.
Strangely enough, Aventurine's mother did not entertain such wild thoughts.
On the contrary, everything felt especially natural to her.
"I'll remember it, sir. I thank you for your kindness, but no matter what you may bring us, as a traveler far from home, you must take good care of yourself."
At parting, seeing his mother's gentle smile, Aventurine quickly turned his head away.
His eyes were slightly moist. Perhaps his mother was only saying a polite farewell, but to him, every word sounded like heavenly music.
He did his best not to let his voice choke. "I will. I definitely will."
With that, he rushed out the door without looking back. Power from the cornerstone brought from the future surged forth in full force, propelling him toward the place etched in his memories.
That was an IPC branch contact station. Before Sigonia-IV had fallen into complete desolation, the IPC had once attempted to develop this place—and now, it was the best target.
HooH watched all of this in silence. Human emotions were something THEY could not fully comprehend.
Fortunately, it didn't matter. THEY withdrew the power influencing Aventurine's mother.
Although Aventurine's life would inevitably change if things continued like this, the less it changed, the better.
After that, THEIR perception spread across the entirety of Sigonia-IV, checking whether a single bird in flight or a scrawny mouse had overheard even a fragment of the conversation.
Then, following the broadcast from the IPC contact station, it reached the IPC's headquarters—Pier Point.
…
Inside a resplendent conference room, three members of the P46 sat around a circular table.
A secretary standing straight read out the documents to the executives present, "The Silverchain Galaxy continues to refuse full trade access to the IPC and has further raised tariff barriers. If nothing unexpected happens, construction material acquisition next quarter will be reduced by 0.6%."
"Hmph! We should just deploy the IPC's entire interstellar fleet. Simple. Clean." As he spoke, the man kept his gaze fixed on the view outside the window. Pier Point's dusk was purple-red, and rows of towering skyscrapers reflected opalescent, multicolored light.
On the other side of the round table, a woman gently swirled the wineglass in her hand, the liquid inside a deep crimson.
"That's impossible," she said. "The Silverchain Galaxy may not rival the IPC, but it's no lawless wasteland either. With gemstone mines no bigger than a dragon's eye that can buy an entire planet, if they mobilize their whole galaxy and hire some interstellar mercenaries, the IPC wouldn't gain much from a costly expedition."
"Besides, the Marketing Development Department already caused trouble using such crude methods."
Jade fiddled with the holographic star map with slight irritation, circling several major powers with her lipstick.
She sighed. "A tariff alliance targeting the IPC is already taking shape. It's not just our department—performance across the entire IPC will drop sharply. The board of directors is furious. Acting recklessly against the wind at a time like this would only make us enemies on all sides."
"Hmph!" Opal snorted angrily and fell silent.
Reluctant as he was to admit it, Jade was right.
Using force at a time like this would only make more factions believe the IPC had gone hysterical, leading to even worse consequences.
Absolute strength allowed one to ignore rules—but unfortunately, the IPC was not strong enough for that.
After a long silence, Obsidian spoke coldly, "So you're saying there's truly no solution at all?"
"Re-reporting—reporting."
Jade's special assistant pushed open the conference room door. She gestured to the interstellar communicator in her hand and said hesitantly to Jade, "Director, could you come over for a moment?"
"This isn't personal time." Before Jade could respond, Opal glanced at the clock and spoke first.
He waved his hand impatiently, signaling the assistant to leave. "The meeting will be over in ten minutes. Come back later."
"But…" The assistant looked toward her direct superior.
Jade immediately saw the deep difficulty in her eyes.
She motioned for the assistant to approach. "What happened?"
"Well…" The assistant showed no relief at all, growing even more hesitant.
Finally, she steeled herself. "The IPC's contact station on Sigonia-IV has been taken over. The person who seized it said that if the IPC doesn't do as he says, it will never be able to enter the Silverchain Galaxy."
The hot-tempered Opal almost laughed in anger. "What? Sigonia-IV? That rundown little planet full of yellow sand—how could there be someone that arrogant?"
"Do the people there even know what a galaxy or a nebula is? Hah. Shameless bluffing."
Opal sounded reckless, but his judgment was based on sufficient intelligence—it was just phrased harshly.
The IPC had already assessed Sigonia-IV's value: it had none whatsoever.
Well, not entirely none. At least there was manpower—but that was all.
For this reason, the only exploration ship had already prepared to return, and the contact station was to be abandoned as well.
If that person truly had great capability, how could they choose such an inconspicuous planet to contact the IPC?
Someone capable of bringing the Silverchain Galaxy under their control—would they really be unable to knock on the doors of Pier Point?
What's more, if they had that ability, why not act themselves instead of instructing the IPC? Were they tired of having too much money?
Ridiculous.
This could only mean that the person's vision and perspective were extremely shallow, utterly incapable of imagining how much power was required to subjugate an entire galaxy.
Most likely, someone from the exploration ship had been talking nonsense locally, and after hearing it, the locals came to scam the IPC.
This also aligned with the IPC's assessment of Sigonia-IV. According to reports, that harsh environment produced an abundance of swindlers.
Just as he was about to dismiss the assistant, a slightly frivolous male voice came through the communicator, "Heh, Opal—you're still as confident as ever."
Jade and Obsidian suddenly realized something, and Opal's heart lurched violently.
How did he identify him just by voice?
At least it was certain that this was someone he knew.
Damn it—he'd been played.
Who was so bored as to run to such a desolate place just to toy with him?
Grinding his teeth, he demanded, "Who are you?!"
===BREAK===
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