So he really does know what Martian's world is like?
And Martian is probably the princess of the Martian Empire?
Which means she should be a main character, possibly the heroine?
[Fallen Angel Kuroneko: Hurry up and tell us. What "work" is this Martian Princess from, what's the plot like, and she's the heroine, right?]
After sending that, Kuroneko realized she was being a bit rude. Wasn't this basically digging into someone's privacy right in front of them?
But her curiosity had already pushed the message out. She couldn't retract it. Regret was useless now.
[Golden Toilet: What I saw was an original animated TV series. It's called Aldnoah.Zero. It's sci-fi war, mainly mecha duels. The short version is that the male lead on the "Earth side" and the male lead on the "Mars side" fight like hell over the princess.
The Earth-side lead uses a brain like a supercomputer to pilot a mecha that looks like it should get instantly deleted by Martian tech, and yet he keeps analyzing the enemy's weaknesses bit by bit and, unbelievably, defeats one Martian knight after another. And with plots like that, what kind of ending do you think it usually comes to? Kuroneko, what do you think?]
Ah. He suddenly threw the question back at her.
[Fallen Angel Kuroneko: If it's a happy ending, then obviously the male lead ends up with the princess. The two become representatives for their respective sides and push peace forward together. If it's a bad ending, there are a lot of options. The male lead dies, or the princess dies, or they don't end up together. The worst is the "villain" male lead survives while the male lead dies, and the princess gets taken by force... Uh. It's not that kind of ending, right?]
If it was that kind of ending, what were the writers thinking? Investors would tear them apart. Nobody would ever make their money back.
But in recent years, Kuroneko had seen plenty of anime with endings that were outright deranged.
So would Aldnoah.Zero be an especially awful bad ending?
[Golden Toilet: It's neither. Everyone lives. Too bad the princess chooses nobody. Even though she likes the Earth-side lead, in the final episode she marries, lightning-fast, some random blond guy whose total screen time is under five minutes and whose total lines are under twenty. So a series that could've made it into the "masterpiece" tier, Aldnoah.Zero, instantly got crowned a steaming pile of sh-.
Fallen Angel Kuroneko: Uh...]
Ruri was genuinely speechless at a conclusion that bizarre.
No wonder Mr. Golden Toilet sounded like he was mocking the princess a little. He'd clearly been traumatized by it.
She could understand that. Kuroneko had watched more than one series with huge promise that then detonated its own ending so hard you wanted to go "check on" the author in person, just to ask whether their brain was broken.
...
Mars, the princess's room.
A blond girl, beautiful and delicate like a porcelain doll, suddenly froze.
She had felt something was off. Mr. Golden's tone toward her sounded like he was irritated, like he didn't like her.
So that was why.
If she watched an animated series where the heroine suddenly married some character who barely existed, she would feel miserable too.
But why would she do that?
She shouldn't do something like that.
[Martian: Um, maybe she was threatened?
Golden Toilet: Nobody threatened her. The princess chose it herself.]
Uh. How was that possible? Why would she choose that?
There had to be a reason.
That so-called random blond guy had to be special in some way. Maybe marrying him was necessary to achieve something her future self wanted to do.
So just as she was about to ask again, the other side logged off directly.
As for the livestream, when he came online, Ms. A2 had already turned it off.
[Whisperer: It does sound depressing, but Mr. Golden didn't explain the details. So I think the Martian princess marrying that so-called random blond is very likely political. It's realistic, too.]
Whisperer posted that in the group.
[Dr. Kouzuki: That "random blond" is probably one of the powerful nobles of the Vers Empire. Marrying him is a normal political marriage. The princess likely wanted to leverage his power, or the royal family wanted to pull in support. But to go that far, it ultimately means the princess herself lacks the strength to control her own fate.]
That was openly sarcastic.
[Dr. Kouzuki: Also, don't misunderstand. What I just said didn't have any special meaning. It was sarcasm.]
Ugh!
The blond girl's mouth twitched.
[Dr. Kouzuki: Of course, I'm also a woman without strength. Maybe one day, if I'm truly cornered, I'll also end up selling off my life and walking into that kind of fate.]
After tossing out that self-mocking line, Dr. Kouzuki went offline.
So what was she supposed to do?
The princess, only fifteen years old, felt lost.
She had been about to go to Earth as a goodwill ambassador, to ease relations between the two sides. The mission made her nervous, but she had also been looking forward to it.
She truly wanted to do her part.
But she never could have imagined that her actions would become the fuse that ignited the second war between Mars and Earth.
To truly change something, did she need real power?
Did she need an armed force of her own?
Did she have to become an iron-blooded queen?
But that went against her ideals. The peace she wanted was not peace built on the threat of force. She wanted people to understand each other, to work together in friendship.
Yet according to Mr. Golden, without force she was just a mascot, a doll to be manipulated at will.
In Mr. Golden's eyes, she must look childish and ridiculous.
[Martian: Does peace need to be built under the deterrence of force?]
In her confusion, she couldn't help asking the question in the group chat.
[Whisperer: It does. Martian, if you stay this naive, then it'll be exactly like Mr. Golden said. You should just live as a mascot. Don't volunteer yourself to "help." If you're kind but you don't have the power to deter the wicked, then your kindness may cause consequences even worse than pure evil.]
Whisperer warned her with solemn seriousness.
The blond girl's expression turned even more bitter. So was she supposed to do nothing, and just watch?
Suddenly, she thought of something—
[Martian: Ms. Whisperer, can you teach me? Be my teacher.]
She had almost forgotten. Whisperer seemed to be a soldier, and she had even joked before that she was the captain of a warship.
...
On Kain's side, now offline, he lifted his head and looked at the aircraft descending from the sky.
That Bunker Commander was finally about to meet him.
He hoped it would be a smooth conversation.
(End of Chapter)
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