"So the New Belobog Museum is here?"
The woman in the black velvet coat looked at the original old city of Belobog before her. It had been simply repaired but its original appearance was entirely unchanged, now existing as the most primitive "town" on Jarilo-VI. She smiled lightly at the guide beside her.
As the temporary curator of the New Belobog Museum, as well as a Silvermane Guard intelligence officer who was also responsible for some diplomatic reception duties, Pela pushed up her glasses and said seriously:
"That's right. This is Old Belobog, and it is also the current New Belobog History Museum..."
"Originally, no outsiders were permitted to enter, but as you are distinguished guests from the Corporation, you meet the special entry requirements for Old Belobog."
As she spoke, she swiped her access pass on a stone that had no technological components whatsoever. Behind her, a silver-haired girl chewed bubble gum and tapped on an aetheric light screen that had appeared out of thin air. With a few casual taps, the main gate of Old Belobog slowly swung open.
Pela, strictly following the foreign dignitary reception regulations and Old Belobog access rules issued by Herta, completed the information registration on her data terminal. She led the group through familiar streets into Old Belobog and pointed to an archaic building next to Alexandra Square in the Administrative District.
"This was once the History and Culture Museum of Old Belobog. It was originally built to commemorate the first Supreme Guardian, Alisa Rand, and the martyrs who sacrificed their lives in the battle against the invaders from beyond the sky."
"Until a few years ago, Belobog underwent a great change..."
"We conquered nature, forged the land with steel, and the colossus swept away the snowstorms. We moved our residential areas out of the dilapidated Old Belobog and preserved it in the very center of New Belobog as a historical monument. This history museum was then decommissioned and became Exhibition Hall One of the new museum: 'The Great Guardian Memorial Hall'."
As Pela spoke, she once again took out her ID card, this time aiming it at the iron railing next to the museum...
The silver-haired girl behind her impatiently tapped her aetheric screen a few times, bypassing the lock to open the museum door, and complained in a low voice:
"What was Herta thinking, setting up so many tedious verification checkpoints? She used ten different verification methods for this one door, all verifying the same ID!"
"Even her treasury at the space station isn't this secure, but every gate in this old district, every vending machine door—even the lid of every single trash can is sealed tight with a password lock!"
"How about we just brute force it?" she suggested to the woman in the black coat. "The 'Sword of Salvation' is dealing with serious internal strife right now. Their own people are about to start fighting around that Aeon's sword. Herta's got her hands full, she might not have time to come after us..."
"That's not what the script says," the woman in the black coat softly rejected the silver-haired girl's idea. "Have you forgotten your seventy-six game accounts?"
"Ugh—that, that was an accident..."
The girl was instantly at a loss for words. After a few muttered rebuttals, she quickly shut her mouth and obediently followed behind Pela.
The group followed Pela forward, crossing the vast museum lobby. Pela, seemingly oblivious that anything was amiss, adjusted her round glasses and pointed to a wide wall in the empty museum, upon which hung eighteen exquisite portraits.
"On this wall are all the Great Guardians over the course of more than seven hundred years since the founding of Belobog, with the exception of the current Great Guardian, Madam Herta..."
She began to count, starting from the first portrait in the upper left corner:
"The first Great Guardian was Alisa Rand, the [Miracle-Worker]. The true founder of Belobog. Without her, the splendor of today's New Belobog would not exist."
"The second, Sveltana, the [Iron Fist]. The commander of the Silvermane Guards, and the defender and revitalizer of Belobog. She unified the scattered factions of Belobog, making its people of one mind at the time."
"The third, Alexandra, the [Wise]. She was the torchbearer of Belobog's underground world, a true trailblazer. She standardized Belobog's weights and measures and founded Belobog University. The vast Alexandra Square outside was built to commemorate her..."
Listening to Pela's detailed and rambling introductions one by one, the silver-haired girl shrugged.
"Is this in the script too? Are we really going to listen to all nineteen of these long-winded eulogies?"
She gave a serious warning: "Herta might be busy now, but that doesn't mean she'll be busy forever... We need to hurry."
"No, of course not," the woman in the black coat shook her head. "The script doesn't say what to do now... I think we have some room for improvisation."
As she spoke, she turned to the earnestly explaining Pela, her eyes curving into a smile. She gently pinched Pela's chin, looking into her eyes.
"Listen to me—you've already reached the end of your introduction. The reporters from the Interastral Peace Corporation have taken complete notes and are waiting for your final introduction..."
A deep purple light traced an intricate spiderweb in Pela's eyes. She seemed dazed for a moment, then shook her head and muttered to herself:
"Oh, did I already introduce that part? How could I have accidentally repeated myself?"
"Ugh, I shouldn't have stayed up late for band practice..."
She rubbed her chubby, round cheeks to wake herself up, then quickly pointed to the last portrait:
"The eighteenth, Cocolia, the [Reformer]. Her accomplishments are countless. It was during her tenure that Belobog successfully conquered nature and repelled the invasion of the Antimatter Legion, causing two Lord Ravagers to fall at New Belobog..."
"But that wasn't her achievement alone, was it?"
The woman in the black coat picked up where Pela left off.
"Cocolia was indeed an excellent leader, but she would have been powerless to transform Belobog into what it is today... There was someone else behind her, a person of critical importance."
"That's right," Pela nodded lightly. "And that is who I will introduce to you last, New Belobog's truest faith, the Great Guardian who was not a Great Guardian—"
"The last director of the Belobog Academy of Sciences, the Aeon of [Salvation], Ron."
As she spoke, she swiped her ID card over a hidden panel nearby. With the crisp sound of a mechanism opening, the eighteen portraits of the Great Guardians on the wall flipped and assembled, forming a single, enormous and exquisite portrait that occupied the entire wall.
The image was a dynamic portrait, shimmering with light. Within it, Ron was raising a holy sword high. A blazing white holy light swept out, and under the blade, infinite calamities were annihilated, turning completely into black smoke.
Looking at the massive dynamic portrait that now covered the wall, Pela proudly lifted her small head, her tone rising half a step as she introduced him with great solemnity:
"As the true founder of New Belobog, Ron's accomplishments are innumerable. Even if you were to tally the achievements of all eighteen Great Guardians, their sum would not be enough to compare to Ron's."
"He took the Stellaron for Belobog, eliminated the Fragmentum, and constructed the Stellaron Energy Hub. Superconducting circuits became the lifeblood of the great city, connecting every ground node on this planet."
"He designed and implemented the Ideal City project, leading the people of Belobog to completely clear the snowstorms, conquer nature, and build the cosmic miracle that is New Belobog."
"He solved countless mysteries, built an extremely rich databank for New Belobog, and developed advanced automatons that could be mass-produced, injecting enough cheap labor to keep this great city running when we had nothing."
As Pela spoke, her voice became colored with intense admiration and faith.
"Finally... when several Lord Ravagers led the Antimatter Legion to crash upon New Belobog like a tidal wave, before the flame of hope could be extinguished, Ron saw through all the darkness in this sea of stars and finally carved out the Path of [Salvation], ascending to the station of an Aeon."
"Although his time as an Aeon was as fleeting as a night-blooming cereus, his brilliant light still illuminated the entire sea of stars in that moment..."
Pela closed her eyes, immersed in her own words, as if reminiscing about the second sun that had once shone on the horizon.
The next moment, however, she opened her eyes, looked at the two people behind her, and made a sincere request:
"I've heard that the Corporation is rather... harsh... towards Aeons other than the Amber Lord. I hope that when you report on our beloved Lord Ron, you will, in light of his deeds, be less critical of him..."
"Ah... yes, we will."
The woman in the black coat responded absently, her eyes scanning the tightly sealed memorabilia within the museum.
These old artifacts were the personal belongings of past Great Guardians. Many of the mementos represented a piece of history unique to a certain Guardian, which was why they were placed in the display cases of the current museum, alongside the portraits of the Guardians.
Her gaze fell to the center of the hall. Just as the eighteen portraits on the wall had flipped and combined into Ron's dynamic image, the floor in the center of the hall had opened, and a small, exquisite display cabinet had risen from within.
She pointed to the cabinet in the center of the hall and asked Pela:
"Look, what is that?"
"Are you referring to Ron's memorabilia?"
Pela walked over and opened the cabinet door.
"Inside are all replicas of Lord Ron's important posthumous effects. There is the lantern representing his Path, the containment device for the Stellaron, the cover of the great city's design blueprints, and a keychain made in the likeness of the old databank AI's authority key..."
She casually picked up the exquisite lantern and the design plan, which was just a cover.
"Would you like a souvenir? In principle, all guests who enter the museum may only take one item as a memento before leaving. Seeing as you two are reporters from the Interastral Peace Corporation, I can take the liberty of giving you one of each of these souvenirs..."
But the woman in the black coat just smiled and said softly:
"Listen to me... I found this museum tour very interesting, but we do not require these souvenirs."
"Our supervisor from the Corporation has just requested we work overtime, so we are forced to leave early. As the museum guide, your shift is now over."
"You should rest," her voice was soft, but left no room for doubt. "Right now."
"Ah... you're right."
The deep purple, web-like light flashed in Pela's eyes. She shook her head and walked toward the museum exit, looking somewhat tired.
"I really stayed up too late with the band yesterday... Even without the sudden visit from foreign guests today, things wouldn't have been quiet because of the recent ideological disagreements within the 'Sword of Salvation'. I shouldn't have been so lazy and pulled an all-nighter..."
"I'll go home and get some proper rest..."
Watching Pela's departing figure, the silver-haired girl chewed her bubble gum, bored.
"Alright, finally got rid of her? What does Elio's script say next?"
"We were supposed to avoid her using the ID card to open the lock, but we still needed her to activate that final mechanism—Herta is probably on her way now. What do we do?"
"The script says we are to insert this key into the Stellaron containment device, then place it in the cabinet and wait for a change—"
The woman in the black coat closed the display cabinet. The cabinet suddenly began to flash with a green light, and a small hole opened in the floor next to it, revealing a staircase leading deep underground.
"One possibility is that we easily open this staircase leading to the area beneath Alexandra Square, to the 'Stellaron Energy Hub'..."
"The other possibility is that today, at seventeen forty-five and thirty-six seconds, we will immediately face the master of this planet, Madam Herta."
Kafka finished speaking, then turned her head to look at the puppet lady who had emerged from the darkness at some unknown point. She tilted her head and smiled at Silver Wolf beside her.
"You see—right now."
"You knew, and you still dared to come? What are you Stellaron Hunters thinking, daring to cross me at a time like this?"
Herta spoke, then snapped her fingers lightly.
Layers of solid ice formed at her feet, spreading according to her will. In an instant, they enveloped the entire museum hall, turning it into an airtight cage.
She looked calmly at the two Stellaron Hunters, enumerating their crimes:
"Pier Point Invasion, two counts; Pier Point Larceny; Trovys System Disappearance Case; the Jemoth, North Canadia, Xyla-39C, Ulomora, Nanakamura, Lore-51, and Delova Stellaron incidents; hacking attacks against Pier Point, four counts; hacking attack against Planet Screwllum; hacking attack against Herta Space Station; the Jepella Rebellion..."
"The wanted posters issued by the Interastral Peace Corporation are quite detailed about you... Although I don't know how you managed to stir up those guards into their current turmoil, I can't be bothered to think about it. I'll just hand you over to the Corporation. They'll give me an explanation."
Herta looked at the two before her. A blazing sword of light appeared in her hand, but her expression was as cold as ice.
"You're under arrest, Stellaron Hunters."