KWAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGANG!
The image of the gigantic greatsword crashing down upon the earth was nothing less than a judgment.
The very ground trembled.
The earth split apart, the surrounding air churned violently from the shockwave, and debris scattered in every direction.
“Urgh!”
“Get down!”
The instant the deafening explosion subsided, thick clouds of dirt and dust engulfed the entire area.
Jin Crow crushed the Queen beneath him and immediately lost consciousness.
Naturally.
No matter how much he had taken on the role of the hammer, the existence of the Queen had been beyond anyone's expectations.
“Recover the Instructor immediately!”
“Y-Yes, ma'am!”
Biting down hard on her lip, Ideale shouted at the Military Police.
Even so, her body was already heading back toward the front line.
The battle was not over yet.
She wanted nothing more than to run over personally, but she had to contain the Creatures surging in from behind.
However, when they reached the center of the impact site, what greeted their eyes was not merely the corpses of Jin Crow and the Queen.
“...A-a child?”
“It's a little girl?”
The Queen's body was utterly mangled.
Its body had burst apart, and Jin Crow lay collapsed on top of it with half his face submerged in a pool of blood.
Yet standing right beside him was an unfamiliar young girl.
Struggling with all her might, she dragged Jin Crow's head out of the blood-filled puddle.
“Who are you?”
“...Stay back.”
At first, the Military Police had simply been bewildered by the girl's appearance.
But as they gradually realized that she somehow resembled Stero Mer, their expressions filled with vigilance.
‘We can't let our guard down.’
Just moments ago, Stero Mer had been soaring through the sky, spreading despair, and yet his size had only been that of a child.
If, by any chance, this was the real Queen that had emerged after breaking through its shell and somehow assimilated Jin Crow—
It would become a catastrophe.
‘Jin Crow becoming the enemy?’
Considering the overwhelming power he had displayed moments earlier, it was something they didn't even want to imagine.
Perhaps that was why.
The Military Police surrounded both the girl and Jin Crow with tense expressions.
Baek Hwi-young and Dokgo Ran, who had arrived shortly afterward, also realized that something was terribly wrong and frowned deeply.
‘That child...’
Only Baek Hwi-young stared at the girl with her flowing golden hair, his gray eyes flashing as though he had realized something.
Right then—
“Heave-ho.”
Despite clearly sensing the hostility and caution directed at her, the girl pulled Jin Crow completely out of the filthy mud.
After briefly glancing around, she lightly scratched her cheek before speaking to the unconscious Jin Crow.
“Papa, wake up. Does it hurt a lot?”
“...Papa?”
It was the day yet another misunderstanding arose without Jin Crow ever knowing.
「The Tragic News of the Free Planet Alliance.
Or rather, a Catastrophe.」
The news spread across the entire galaxy with astonishing speed, making the vastness of the galaxy itself seem meaningless.
Every news outlet focused on it as the hottest topic.
Aurum Planet, Rermal Planet, Atla Colony...
If people weren't interested in current affairs, most wouldn't even know whether those places belonged to the Empire or the Human Composite State.
But Mercato was different.
It was famous enough to appear proudly in both Imperial and Composite State textbooks as the capital star of the galaxy's only existing neutral nation.
Naturally, tragic news from Mercato carried an entirely different level of impact.
‘Some may wonder.’
This wasn't the first time Creatures had caused devastation on such a massive scale.
So why was this incident receiving so much attention?
The officially confirmed death toll alone had already surpassed six billion.
Including the injured, the number easily exceeded ten billion.
Estimated property damage?
No one even wanted to calculate it.
And yet, why had the ruling classes of every nation continuously delayed responding to the Creature threat, while civilians and soldiers alike viewed it with cynicism—or at times dismissed it as overblown hysteria?
‘The answer was simple.’
Because for most people, it had nothing to do with them.
And because, in this galaxy, ten billion lives were simply too commonplace.
During the Third Galactic War, a governor seeking favor from the central government had indulged in corruption and tyranny.
His brutal rule continued unabated.
As a result, a coup backed overwhelmingly by the native population erupted, massacring them all before launching a rebellion against the Human Composite State.
It was an enormous uprising.
Other colonial planets joined in.
Four Composite State governors lost their lives.
And the casualties suffered by both the Human Composite State and its colonies at that time easily reached ten billion.
Perhaps even more.
‘This was a nation with a population of 1.5 trillion to begin with.’
That figure only counted officially registered citizens.
If illegal immigrants, colonial inhabitants, and undocumented residents were included, the total population would probably approach two trillion.
To the overwhelming majority of people, tragic news from a handful of planets simply couldn't feel personal.
Unless it happened within their own star system or nearby.
Had faster-than-light jump technology never been invented, the distance between civilizations was so overwhelming that they might never have known of each other's existence—not even after countless future generations.
It was never easy to sympathize with misfortune occurring so impossibly far away.
‘Think of it simply.’
There was no need to look far.
If someone living an ordinary life in South Korea heard that dozens of people had been mauled to death by lions somewhere on the opposite side of Earth in Africa, would they start trembling in fear and demand military expansion?
If they did, people would call them insane.
It was exactly the same.
Unfortunately, Creatures were like lions.
Everyone knew they were savage and brutal.
But they remained the cause of some distant tragedy that few would ever personally witness.
「[Breaking News] Mercato on the Verge of Falling... Will the Paradise of Plutocrats Collapse?」
「Imperial Parliament Spokesperson... “We will never abandon our citizens.” Concerns over military conflict!」
「Federal Government Spokesperson of the Human Composite State... “We will devote ourselves to humanitarian rescue efforts.”」
But this incident changed everything.
Objectively speaking, the planets that had fallen to Creatures until now simply lacked impact.
The photos and videos were horrifying enough to inspire fear, instinctive disgust, and revulsion in those who saw them.
But that was all.
They were little more than gossip.
Mercato was different.
It wasn't something people could simply brush aside.
The Free Planet Alliance served as both the bridge and the buffer zone connecting the Empire and the Human Composite State.
Its economic influence dwarfed that of all previously lost planets combined.
Yet Mercato had fallen.
Nearly half of its districts had been destroyed.
Mer Corporation Headquarters, practically the city's landmark, had become a grotesque mass of flesh.
Nor was that all.
Although the Void Rift had closed following the deaths of the King and Queen, the surviving Creatures had scattered across the planet.
It was obvious they would remain a problem for a long time to come.
「[Breaking News] Estimated Casualties in Mercato Reach 2.9 Billion! Where Were the Empire and the Human Composite State?」
Even citizens of both the Empire and the Human Composite State had been caught up in the disaster.
Analyses began appearing one after another claiming that Mercato had effectively become a lawless state.
Naturally, both the Empire and the Human Composite State had no choice but to scream internally as they poured every available resource into containing the aftermath.
Though enemies, the two nations had acknowledged each other's existence for so long that their economies had already become deeply interconnected.
Mercato had served as the neutral bridge facilitating that exchange.
Now all of it had come to a complete stop.
The stock markets of both the Human Composite State and the Empire plunged into freefall the very moment trading opened.
“W-WAAAAAH!”
“No! Heave! Heave!”
“To hell with heaving—I think my life's completely fucked.”
Telephone lines at securities firms across every nation were flooded.
Dozens of small and medium-sized brokerage firms collapsed into bankruptcy.
For most ordinary citizens, the economic consequences became even more terrifying than the Creature attack itself.
The shockwave of this disaster was anything but minor.
Yet the people in power understood one thing with absolute clarity.
‘Creatures.’
‘They were never a threat that could simply be ignored.’
‘...As if fighting those insane feudalists wasn't exhausting enough. Now we have to deal with beasts too. What a spectacle.’
Every previous theory regarding Creatures was thrown straight into the trash.
Support for Professor Risu-jong increased even further.
And after reviewing the classified footage from Mercato provided by the Ministry of Defense, Risu-jong watched in silence with a cigarette between his lips, a deep frown etched across his face.
Eventually, he stood up and spoke to the woman busily recording something nearby.
“I need to make a business trip.”
“Where to?”
At her question—her android body so flawlessly constructed that none of its joints were visible—Risu-jong crushed the half-smoked cigarette into the ashtray before pulling a brown coat and a fedora over himself.
“The Central Special Service Academy.”
Even then, his eyes never left the footage.
They remained fixed upon one particular man.
‘Instructor Jin Crow. I should meet him at least once.’
The man on the screen was none other than Jin Crow, his face deathly pale as he delivered the final blow to the Queen.
「Holy Galactic Empire」
A feudal nation ruled under an absolute monarchy by its Emperor.
Some mocked it by saying, “Neither holy, nor does it rule the galaxy, nor is it truly an empire.”
Yet despite the ridicule, it remained one of the two colossal powers dividing the galaxy alongside the Human Composite State.
Its estimated population stood at around two trillion.
If the populations of its protectorates were included, scholars estimated the number easily surpassed three trillion.
What more needed to be said?
One question naturally arose.
With such an overwhelming population, why hadn't it crushed the Human Composite State?
The answer was simple.
—The Empire was divided.
The Capital Star, Essentia.
Walking briskly through the Imperial Palace with an anxious expression, she pondered the matter.
People she occasionally passed recognized her and respectfully paid their respects.
Yet she had no time to acknowledge them, continuing forward without slowing.
There wasn't much time left before the Imperial Parliament convened.
If she wished to seek an audience with the Emperor, this was her only opportunity.
After walking through the palace corridors lined with marble floors and golden pillars, she soon arrived near her destination—the Emperor's office.
Recognizing her, the Holy Imperial Guard Knights silently saluted before opening the doors.
No one else could have imagined receiving such treatment.
But she was different.
She was both the sword protecting the Empire and a member of the Imperial bloodline.
To doubt her loyalty would itself be an act of disloyalty.
Click, click.
As she stepped into the office, the crisp sound of papers being turned echoed through the room.
She lowered herself onto one knee, bowed her head, and spoke in a voice that was not loud, yet carried undeniable weight.
“The Fourth Commander of the Holy Imperial Guard Knights humbly greets His August Majesty, the Emperor.”
“...What is it?”
The Emperor's voice lacked all vitality.
Feeling a pang of sorrow at that, she nevertheless delivered the grim news she had just received.
“A report from Mercato. The operation has failed. It is believed that Rosen intervened.”
“Rosen. Rosen, you say.”
At her words, the Emperor set down the document he had been reading.
Placing a thick cigar wrapped in blue leaves between his lips, he spoke thoughtfully.
“And the basis for that conclusion?”
“...The information sent by the 13th Bureau was concise.”
Looking at the Emperor through the slowly drifting cigar smoke, she repeated the report exactly as it had come from the Empire's greatest shadow—the 13th Bureau.
“The evidence of Rosen's involvement is conclusive. They deployed the ‘Hound.’”
Hound.
The moment the Emperor heard that name—
Tap.
The cigar slipped unconsciously from his hand.
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