"Damn it! You bastards! You liars!"
In the comfortable underground room, Cagalli's hands were shackled with chains connected to the wall. She could sleep, eat, and move around, but she couldn't tear apart the sinister man sitting before her—no matter how much she wanted to.
"Miss Cagalli, we haven't deceived you. We promised to help you overthrow the tyrant and reclaim your rightful authority over Orb. This was a cooperation you agreed to yourself."
"That... that's because you tricked me! You lied about Yang Hui waging war outside! And you claimed he wanted to use Orb to dominate the world! All of that was your deception!"
"But you believed it, didn't you? That means you never truly trusted Chairman Yang Hui in the first place, right?"
"I... I... I didn't..."
Cagalli retreated step by step as the sinister man advanced, cornering her against the wall.
"No, you didn't trust him. You never accepted him. Everything in Orb should have been yours—Cagalli Yula Attha's. He took it all from you. He betrayed Orb's ideals. He betrayed Lord Uzumi! And he... defiled the purity of For the Blue and Pure World!"
"You!" Cagalli's eyes, which had been growing increasingly unfocused, suddenly sharpened with fury at his last words. Scorn burned fiercely in her chest. "You're with Blue Cosmos!?"
"Oh my, seems I slipped up." The man took two casual steps back, feigning a careless mistake. "But it doesn't matter. This secret is only known to you, Miss Cagalli, and you won't be telling anyone."
He truly wasn't afraid. Though a minor noble within Orb, he had long concealed his true identity—a sleeper agent planted among Orb's aristocracy with Blue Cosmos' support before the United Emirates of Orb was even established. Only now had he been activated, remaining undetected all this time.
Why wasn't he afraid of exposure? Because soon, with their help, Cagalli would dismantle Orb from within, inciting chaos. Then, she would step forward as acting Chairman and request aid from the Atlantic Federation. Once their forces occupied Orb, he could finally step into the light.
What if Cagalli refused?
What did it matter? Cagalli (Shadow) was still Cagalli, wasn't she?
As for the real Cagalli... Honestly, he didn't understand why his superiors had strictly forbidden him from harming her. That was why he had kept her well-fed and comfortable, suppressing certain urges all this time.
But it didn't matter. Once the plan succeeded, the real Cagalli would be useless. By then, he might even use his contributions to make a special request to his superiors. Ah, just imagining it was delightful.
Thanks to information blackouts, he remained unaware that Cagalli (Shadow) had been captured from the start. He still dreamed of her being his puppet on stage while he ruled from the shadows as the uncrowned king.
But soon, that dream would shatter.
Beep beep beep...
"What is it?"
"Sir, we've been discovered! Orb's intelligence forces have started exploring the tunnels!"
"What happened? How could we be exposed!?" The gloomy man's face darkened further. Their plan was perfect—the Carbon Humans were flawless, absolutely indistinguishable from the real ones. There was no way they could have been discovered! And their secret tunnels ran beneath the homes of high-ranking officials and nobles—the safest possible location. How could they have been found!?
"The specifics are unclear, but more and more entrances are being uncovered. Armed personnel are flooding in for exploration. What should we do?"
"Hmm... Initiate evacuation procedures, then bury them all underground!"
"Understood..."
A ruthless expression flickered across his face before he called the guards outside, smiling at Cagalli. "Let's go, Miss Cagalli. It seems the Chairman's methods are quite formidable—he actually found this place. We need to relocate."
"I'm not going! I won't let you bastards control me anymore!"
For once, Cagalli was lucid. She now understood that everything had been a conspiracy by Blue Cosmos—their goal was to use her to destabilize Orb and undermine Yang Hui's authority.
The earlier speeches had indeed swayed her. Faced with the prospect of wielding Orb's power, it was hard for a stubborn girl like her not to be tempted. A few carefully planted lies had been enough to convince her.
But now she knew—knew how foolish she had been, understood why Yang Hui had kept her under surveillance and barred her from Orb's affairs.
Yet it was too late. Her struggles were futile as two burly men restrained her. A slender needle pierced her skin, injecting an unknown substance. Her consciousness blurred, her body going limp.
"Let's move."
Seeing Cagalli subdued, the gloomy man waved his men forward, leading the retreat through the tunnels with calm confidence. The underground network was vast and intricate, and their current position was still far from the search teams. They had more than enough time to evacuate before triggering the collapse.
The underground destruction would inevitably cause the surface to cave in—right beneath the residences of high-ranking government officials. Such a massive disturbance, such significant losses—Yang Hui wouldn't be able to suppress all the intel. This mess would keep him occupied for a while. And as for him... well, he'd continue lurking in the shadows, waiting for another chance to make his dream a reality.
But reality was harsh. No matter how sweet the dream, one always woke up eventually.
"Sir, we have a problem!"
"What now?"
"All exits have been sealed."
"What!? How is that possible!?" Panic finally cracked the man's composed facade. The tunnel network had over thirty exits, widely scattered. How could they all have been blocked so quickly?
"What about the emergency route? What's its status?"
"The scouting team has gone silent..."
"Damn it!"
"Sir, what should we—"
"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!..."
Time was running out. Before they could recover from their shock and panic and plan a safe escape route, the sound of gunfire grew closer, accompanied by shouts of "Found them!", "They're up ahead!", and "We've spotted Miss Cagalli!".
"Hold them off!"
"Yes, sir!"
The armed personnel around them were all loyalists trained by Blue Cosmos—men who wouldn't hesitate to sacrifice their lives at a moment's notice.
But they hadn't gone far before gunfire erupted ahead as well. As they tried to change direction again, the sounds of battle closed in from all sides. He... had nowhere left to run!
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