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We then made our way to a reserve storage room in the depths of the ship. It was a low-priority and low-population area, so the crew wouldn’t come to search here until much later. Iris informed us it would be the perfect place to have a discussion, and we agreed.
“We’ll leave the invisibility up just in case anyone walks in on us, but I think it’s safe to talk normally for now.”
“That’s fine.”
We were hiding in the back of the storage room, so I doubted anyone would see us even if they did walk in. Keeping Harissa’s spell going was just a precaution.
“So... what did you want to talk about?” Iris asked, a little unhappily.
I guess she was in a pretty sour mood after hearing all that... And by “all that,” I mean about how I wasn’t really her Rekka, but my past self from a different time line. We’d already been through the established ritual where a heroine hugs me, thinking she’s been reunited with future Rekka. Iris for one had embraced me so tightly that I had difficulty breathing, but that made it all the more important for me to explain that I wasn’t really who she thought I was. This was the result... which was perfectly fair, really. I’d been lucky the other heroines had accepted me so readily thus far.
“Well, you see, Iris...”
“Don’t talk to me like you know me.”
“Okay then, um... Miss Cyphercall?”
I’d only ever called her Iris, so I had to think for a moment to remember her last name. But when I said it out loud...
“Never mind. Just call me Iris after all... Hearing your voice address me like that is just too sad,” Iris said with a sulky face, averting her eyes.
Seeing her melancholy like this made her seem so mature. Her calm demeanor and her untied hair only enhanced that impression... Wait, no. Now’s not the time to be thinking about that. I scolded myself and refocused.
Honestly, I knew that I hadn’t made a good first impression on Iris, but I still needed to explain to her what was going on. At the very least, I needed to persuade her to call off the attack on the agency. That seemed within reach now. All I had to do was tell her the truth.
“Iris, the Rekka Namidare that the Galactic Federation heard was hiding at the agency is actually me. In other words... not the real Rekka Namidare that you’re looking for.”
It felt weird to be talking about myself like I was a fake, but phrasing it that way made things crystal clear. Iris was a member of the militant hawk faction, meaning she probably didn’t care what the agency was up to. Her goal in coming here was only to find the Rekka Namidare that was the linchpin of the War of All. Once she found out he wasn’t really around, I was hoping she’d simply retreat. I was really hoping, but...
“Well, I figured that was the case the moment I saw Satsuki with you.”
“Then—”
“But I can’t pull my fleet back so disgracefully at this point.”
Iris predicted what I was about to ask her and cut me off with her answer—a decisive “no.” Hearing it, I sat there agape for a long moment.
“...B-But why not?!”
“After mobilizing a fleet of this size, I can’t simply call off the operation and say it was just a misunderstanding,” Iris responded sulkily.
Dang it... I should be the one who’s pouting!
“But it is just a misunderstanding! Why won’t you stop your fleet?!”
“The simple answer is politics. With a group as large as the Greater Galactic Federation, there’s... a lot going on that a high school boy wouldn’t understand.”
“Erk...”
Those words stabbed at me like a knife, leaving me at an absolute loss for how to respond. Ugh... But I couldn’t just back down here. At this rate, the fleet was really going to attack the agency’s headquarters. I had to stop that no matter what!
“Yeah, sure, maybe I don’t get politics! But what’s more important than people’s lives?! That’s what’s at stake here, so please...! Please just stop!”
“If people’s lives are what’s important, then I can’t show any weakness to the people trying to drag me down either.”
“What...?”
“Satsuki and the doctor know what I’m talking about... Don’t you?”
Iris suddenly turned to the two of them, and I instinctively followed suit. When my gaze fell on the doctor, she was nodding with a rather bitter expression.
“I suppose... Retreating now would be seen as a failure, which would affect Iris’s position with the Greater Galactic Federation. That would indeed be troubling.”
“Why?”
“Let me explain it as simply as I can...”
According to the doctor, the Galactic Federation was part of the militant hawk faction. But when you broke it down, there were two camps inside the federation. The first was Iris’s, which was intent on seeing the war through to victory—in other words, taking back Rekka Namidare. But there was another camp with a much more troubling goal.
“They’re intent on seeing the war through to make a profit.”
“What? But that has nothing to do with the War of All...”
The War of All was an out-of-control fight between the heroines over me. I’d already heard about the various factions involved, but trying to make a quick buck off of people’s suffering? This was new.
“We fought for too long, you know...”
When Iris said that, I turned back to her.
“When the scale of the war grew, so too did the scale of people involved. Several third parties were brought on board, and somewhere along the line the goals changed.”
“But...”
Come to think of it, during the first explanation I got about the War of All, there was talk of how some people with no knowledge of the origins of the war had gotten involved. I had assumed we were just talking about soldiers fighting for a cause they didn’t understand and other people who’d been dragged into things, but apparently it wasn’t limited to that.
“If you saved me in your world too, then maybe you know him. The head of the guys who want to make a business out of the war is called King Satamonia. He’s a real nasty piece of work.”
“Old toadface, huh?”
She meant the king of planet Satamonia, who she’d once been engaged to before I put a stop to it. Apparently he was causing even more trouble here in the future.
“But what about the blackmail material you had on him? Something about how he had been committing evil all throughout outer space... Can’t you use that to put him in his place?”
“Ah, that?” Iris sighed, pointing at herself. “You’re talking to the woman who’s technically the cause of the War of the All, you know? What leg do I have left to stand on in terms of accusing others of atrocity?”
“...!”
Seeing Iris’s expression made a chill run down my spine. I’d heard how she was deeply involved in the series of events that triggered the War of All, but I didn’t believe any of the responsibility should fall on her. I didn’t believe it... I didn’t believe it, but what did that matter? Iris had such a cold, tortured look on her face right now. It was a symbol of all the anguish she’d been through for this. What comfort would the opinion of a stranger like me even be to her?
“...”
Unable to say anything, I chewed on my lip.
“Well, that’s how it is,” Iris eventually said with a wave of her hand. “With me out of the picture, there would be no one left to oppose King Satamonia. The federation would then start selling weapons and soldiers all over the universe at cutthroat prices. And once that arms racing starts, we’ll have a whole new war on our hands.”
“...Then how can we stop the attack on the agency?”
“Well,” Iris said, stopping to think for a moment. “The main condition would be the complete and total surrender of the agency. Failing that, there are two options. The first is to bring you back to the Greater Galactic Federation as Rekka Namidare.”
The doctor and I had already agreed that would be our last resort. By giving the federation what they wanted—me—we could at least avoid a fight.
“But to be honest, that would require a lot of acting to make it work after the fact. I’m not really interested in all that. And besides, even if things go well, it would only be a matter of time before word got out that we had you, which would inevitably mean other nations and powers would try and come for you.”
“Yeah, the doctor warned me of that...”
In the end, just me being here was a problem. Even if we got through today... The instant my presence became public, there was going to be a fight.
“That leaves us with the second option, which is essentially the agency handing over all its proprietary technological assets... In other words, the doctor would have to be taken into custody.”
“So it’s come to that, has it?” the doctor asked, an eyebrow raised in disgust.
“Well, yeah. With your brains, you’re a weapon in and of yourself. I suspect the only reason King Satamonia and his goons agreed to this mission was because of you. Otherwise we would’ve spent longer debating it and ultimately ended up sending a smaller fleet.”
“But you know I only make defensive tools, don’t you?”
“I do, but even those can be used as weapons.”
“...”
The doctor fell silent. If she were taken in by the Galactic Federation, she would most likely be forced to use her exceptional intelligence to develop weapons for them. That wasn’t easy to swallow... But what were we supposed to do?
“In short, after engaging an operation of this size, you need to return home with something to offset the cost, right?” I asked.
“Essentially, yes,” Iris replied.