Ruri remembered that the company that made NieR Replicant (NIER Replicant) had also said the next NieR title was already in development.
As for the story, it would focus on androids. It would be the stage of androids.
In other words, what was happening in Ms. A2's world right now was the very theme of the next installment.
So if A2 wanted to know more detailed content about NieR Replicant, Ruri could tell her.
Because Mr. Golden Toilet's description could only cover the rough outline. It seemed he couldn't remember every detailed plot point.
Of course, even if you asked Ruri to recite every single detail about Grimoire Noir and Grimoire Weiss on the spot, she couldn't. There was no way she could remember it word-for-word.
But she could look it up immediately and relay the information.
However, right now, Kuroneko wanted to tell everyone something first.
[Fallen Angel Kuroneko: Ms. A2, could you get Mr. Golden Toilet to come online?
Kuroneko: Everyone, if you want to know something about your own world, you can ask Mr. Golden Toilet. He might know your worlds too.
Dr. Katsuki: Oh? Why do you say that?
Fallen Angel Kuroneko: When everyone was offline earlier, I chatted with him. He knows who I am, he knows my world, and he also knows Ms. Saeko Busujima's world. Now he knows Ms. A2's world too, so he might know more about everyone else as well.]
Those words made Dr. Yuuho find things genuinely interesting.
Then the group member who had been called out—A2—finally realized she still had her livestream running, and shut it off just like that.
But it looked like she really did notify Mr. Golden Toilet, because he soon came online.
[Golden Toilet: Mm. Quite a few people online. Some of these IDs are pretty interesting.]
That statement itself revealed quite a bit. Clearly, he was using people's screen names to suspect which "work" they belonged to.
So then, would her own ID—"Dr. Katsuki"—give anything away?
Probably not.
[Martian: Um, Ms. Black Cat said you seem to know a lot about different worlds. Could I trouble you to analyze my world's situation?]
Martian couldn't help being the first to ask. Yuuho wasn't surprised at all.
From the way Martian spoke earlier, Yuuho had already judged what kind of person she probably was.
She seemed to come from a privileged background and had received the education she wanted, but she also felt like an out-of-touch sheltered young lady—naive, and prone to idealizing how things worked.
Yes, a young lady. Her age was probably around fifteen or sixteen.
Someone like that was very kindhearted. In a peaceful era, she'd be a very pleasant person.
But in a truly terrible era, she'd be downright foolish. The kind of person who might even become a liability—good intentions turning into disasters.
So next, Martian would probably reveal details about her world. That would also let Yuuho observe what kind of person this new member "Golden Toilet" really was.
The only male had joined, and he just so happened to know "many people's world intel" (maybe everyone's). A coincidence like that only made it feel like there was some kind of scheme behind it.
So Yuuho wasn't going to be stupid enough to immediately expose her own world's information. She'd first extract more information from him.
If he intended to mislead people, and they carelessly believed him, who knew what kind of disaster could follow.
[Golden Toilet: Go ahead.]
So Martian began describing her world. [From ALDNOAH.ZERO]
In her world, during the Apollo Moon landing era of the 1970s, an ancient civilization relic was discovered on the Moon—a gateway connecting the Moon and Mars, a "Hypergate."
As a result, humanity achieved shuttle travel between the Moon and Mars, and began interplanetary migration. The first wave was three hundred thousand people.
Of course, to investigate conditions on Mars, they also dispatched specialists and survey teams.
Among them, the key figure was Dr. Rayregalia. On Mars, he successfully discovered the ancient civilization ruins known as Aldnoah, and Aldnoah acknowledged him as the inheritor of that civilization—allowing him to activate Aldnoah's devices and technology.
After that, Earth used every possible method to restrict Dr. Rayregalia's freedom, even threatening his life, all for one purpose: to seize ownership of Aldnoah.
In the end, Dr. Rayregalia successfully broke free of Earth's control, monopolized Aldnoah, and declared himself Emperor. On Mars, he established the Vers Empire.
By the end of the century, tensions between the two sides had reached the limit. With Dr. Rayregalia's son choosing the side of Earth, the war between Mars and Earth officially began.
That surprise war against Earth triggered the Hypergate on the Moon to go out of control, shattering the Moon. Countless fragments fell onto Earth.
That year, nearly half of Earth's population died.
In that campaign, Dr. Rayregalia's son was killed in action. Combined with supply issues, a ceasefire agreement was signed.
As for the balance of power, the Martian military—armed with Mars's Aldnoah technology—was overwhelmingly superior.
However, Mars's population was far too small. Even if Aldnoah's technology surpassed Earth's, it still couldn't turn Mars into an environment like Earth's, so resources simply couldn't support large-scale population growth and development.
That was why a ceasefire like this could happen.
Now, more than ten years had passed since the ceasefire, and relations between Earth and Mars had only grown worse.
So, in order to ease tensions, the Martian Empire's princess would soon visit Earth as a goodwill ambassador, hoping to prevent the relationship from hardening further.
[Martian: So, Mr. Golden, do you know what's going on in my world?
Golden Toilet: The counts in your family and all that, do they each have a war robot? So they're also called Martian Knights?]
That question was interesting.
[Martian: Yes. Hm? Ah!]
This idiot finally realized what she'd just done. She practically confessed without meaning to.
So Yuuho could only sneer at the idea of "Her Highness" serving as a goodwill ambassador.
As for how Yuuho saw through that Martian was the princess, it was simple: when she described the princess, there was a tell. That kind of wording only appeared when someone was introducing themselves, not when a true third party was describing someone else.
[Martian: Mr. Golden, you know who I am?]
Still that clueless.
[Golden Toilet: What do you think? All I'll say is this. If you don't have power, if you don't have political leverage, or a fully obedient armed force of your own—one with deterrence—then don't be naive enough to play goodwill ambassador.
Stay home and be a mascot. Don't go out there and become the fuse that ignites a second war. If you have the ability, become an iron-blooded queen. Otherwise, ideals without strength are just delusions.
All you'll have is empty talk, thinking love can redeem everything, moved by your own feelings. People like that usually only turn events into something even more hellish. In the end, every side will be disgusted by you. And I'll leave you with a line I really like—Truth exists only within range of the cannon.]
Truth exists only within range of the cannon—Yuuho liked that line too.
Which meant Mr. Golden Toilet really did know the concrete situation in Martian's world, including what would happen next.
And that this princess's "goodwill" would become the fuse for a second war—Yuuho didn't even need to think to guess how that would happen.
Nothing more than the classic scenario: the princess suffers an "accident," and the Martian Empire immediately uses it as justification to start a war.
Yes. It looked like the princess would meet with an accident, and that accident would most likely be engineered by the Martian Empire itself.
The princess was simply a disposable piece used to spark a war.
As for why Yuuho didn't think it would be Earth's doing—if the princess's description was true, then with such an enormous military gap between Earth and Mars, Earth would care more than anyone about the princess's safety.
They wouldn't be stupid enough to let something happen to her during an official visit.
Even if there were extremists on Earth who hated the princess and tried to attack her, that possibility was still far smaller than the possibility of a Martian internal conspiracy.
So the most likely scenario was this: Mars had spies inside Earth, who would stage an attack using "Earthlings" as cover.
Then, once something happened to the princess, the Vers Empire could openly and justifiably launch a war.
A conspiracy that was easy to imagine, and yet one that never stopped working.
But the entire premise was that Mr. Golden Toilet wasn't lying, and wasn't deliberately deceiving the child.
If he had malicious intent, then perhaps it would be precisely the opposite—perhaps the very act of the princess not going to Earth as goodwill ambassador would become the fuse of war.
In that case, Yuuho was very curious about what choice the princess would make.
Would she walk into hell?
Or would she walk into paradise?
(End of Chapter)
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