"When you told me that the White Line didn't have the Sail anymore, I couldn't believe it at first. I thought, no way. Back then… I believed that if I could just seize control of The White Line, I could finally fulfill my wish."
Her voice was thick with bitterness.
Isabel continued speaking.
"But then I finally realized—The White Line doesn't have the Sail anymore. And what's worse… it's been shattered and scattered somewhere out there."
So that's what she was up to—disappearing for stretches, investigating the Sail and The White Line on her own.
'Hmm…'
To think Isabel was the one bringing up the Sail and The White Line.
That never even happened when I took the Shadow Order route.
Which meant… I had now entered a path unlike any I'd walked before—one that might lead to a different ending altogether.
["…Commander, what are you even talking about?"]
"Esther, you should hear this too. You're one of us now."
["What do you mean… 'one of us'?"]
"I'm sorry… for only telling you now. But I didn't want to burden you, not even you."
Isabel gently ran her hand along the shard of the Sail.
"I've been looking for this all along—for my wish. I finally found it. Just a fragment, for now."
"I see."
"…Yeah. You've always been like that, Carl Marcus. Acting like you know everything already. Maybe this conversation doesn't mean much to you. But I still need to say it."
Isabel nodded slowly.
"You probably already know this, but the Sail isn't just some ordinary object. It might be humanity's last hope… of returning to our true home."
"Our home, huh…"
Even though I'd known this for a while, the word "home" still stirred something strange within me.
Naturally, I'd think of Earth.
But… is the "home" of this world truly the Earth I knew?
'Probably not.'
Still, there was no reason to feel disappointed.
No matter the circumstances that brought me here, if I could someday reach a proper conclusion, then whatever the truth was—I would find it.
"Do you know why Ark is called the 'Ark'?"
"Not exactly. I have a few theories, but nothing solid."
"It's exactly as the name suggests. The original settlers came here aboard a colony ship—and that ship is what became the Ark."
["…W-What?"]
Esther was stunned, mouth agape.
For me, though, this was just one of many possibilities I had already suspected.
The Defense community was filled with theory-crafters, and the "Ark-as-a-colony-ship" theory was one that had gained traction before.
"…I figured."
Why is Ark called the Ark?
It's actually quite simple.
The last fortress of humanity—was itself the ark.
["No way… Ark itself is a giant spaceship? That's… is that even possible?"]
"With our current tech? No. We don't have that kind of power or capacity anymore."
Isabel stated the earth-shattering truth with unsettling calm, leaving Esther speechless.
I too felt awe at the magnitude of it all.
"A colony ship the size of a city… Unreal."
Or maybe that scale was necessary—to support a self-sustaining ecosystem during a journey that might take years.
Ark's sheer size may have been an essential feature of that vessel.
"Of course, the current Ark probably looks very different from the original. We've had to change a lot just to survive on this planet."
"No doubt."
For example, Ark's exterior walls are tall and thick—but lack proper air defenses.
That likely wasn't always the case.
But after countless Waves that collapsed and rebuilt those walls, Ark evolved into its current form—not just passively defensive, but actively deployable.
"So, the Sail… is effectively the key to moving the Ark itself. No wonder The White Line's gone to such lengths to bury it."
"Not just a key. Just by looking at this shard, I'm sure of it—it's not just a switch. I think it's a propulsion system. Or maybe an energy source. Something powerful enough to allow for interstellar travel."
"Yeah… without that kind of tech, you'd never even consider leaving orbit."
Even in this world, space was still the final frontier.
No matter how advanced Ark's technology had become, locating humanity's home—light-years away—was a near-impossible task.
Impossible, even.
Which made the Sail a relic of unimaginable technological sophistication—far beyond anything Ark could replicate today.
'Or maybe it holds a navigation route. But if that were true, they'd call it a map, not a sail.'
Besides, comparing this shard to the one I already carried… calling it a "map" felt off.
'Hmm…'
So many questions.
But one thing was clear: as more of the Sail came together, so too did the truth.
And one more thing still bothered me.
"Why are you so desperate to return to humanity's home? It's not like you were born there."
If Isabel had been born on humanity's home planet, I would understand.
The instinct to return home is a powerful one.
But she wasn't.
Like every other survivor in Ark, Isabel had been born here—on this planet.
And she was of high birth at that.
What reason did someone like her have to obsess over Earth?
"…Because this world is fake."
I flinched.
A word I didn't expect—fake.
And yet… it cut to the very soul of this world.
'Though… calling it fake now feels almost meaningless.'
Even if it once was a game, this world was real to me now.
Calling it fake at this point was just empty protest.
"What do you mean by that?"
I had to ask.
Why did she use the word fake?
"This place… isn't where we're meant to be. We were never supposed to stay."
"Never supposed to stay…? Where were we supposed to go?"
"That's not important. What matters is that crashing on this planet was the beginning of all our misfortune."
"Crash landing? So, this wasn't our intended destination?"
"…Correct."
Crash landing.
A crucial clue I hadn't even considered.
"Then why didn't we leave again? If it was just a crash, we could've taken off again, right?"
"…We tried. Until the Sail disappeared."
And once again… the story returned to the Sail.
"What happened to it?"
"No idea. Accident? Sabotage? The records were erased long ago. But it doesn't really matter now."
Isabel added with a grim look:
"The ones who gained the most from that incident… were The White Line."
"I see."
For her, the cause didn't matter anymore.
What mattered was who benefited most.
Which led naturally to one conclusion—
"So, The White Line is the one who erased the truth… to prevent anyone from reclaiming the Sail."
"…Most likely. They'd never want that secret exposed."
"Then… is that why a shard of the Sail was hidden in the Bone Lord's heart?"
Every place the shards had turned up so far—had been inaccessible to most of Ark.
One in a Church of Morte branch destroyed by Kronos Union.
Another in the Bone Lord's heart.
And the remaining shards… still missing.
Calling it coincidence was becoming harder and harder.
"I don't know. Maybe The White Line took advantage of those circumstances—or maybe… they created them."
Chicken or egg.
In the end, we couldn't know.
"But what exactly did The White Line gain when the Sail vanished?"
"The White Line didn't always wield this much power. In fact, they used to be the opposite."
"So, things changed after the Sail vanished?"
"More accurately… they gained the time and freedom to make those changes."
"…Freedom?"
Strange.
That almost made it sound like The White Line was oppressed at first.
"What do you mean, freedom?"
"Those in the tail car… the prisoners. That's what they used to call The White Line."
"Prisoners?"
"The Ark—being as massive as it is—could house the population of a whole city. Naturally, crimes happened. And not every criminal could be executed. So, they were locked up… in the tail car."
A shocking truth.
The all-powerful The White Line… had once been the prison block of the Ark?
"…Hard to believe."
Even in The Defense's info-heavy community, I'd never seen this theory suggested.
"Hard to believe or not—it's true. After the Sail disappeared, the Ark was understaffed. They had no choice but to release the prisoners for labor. No means to keep them locked up anymore. And so… those who never should've been freed, were."
"They staged a rebellion?"
"No. If they had, The White Line wouldn't have been able to erase all the other Line records. But… they did conduct a secret project. And they succeeded."
"A project?"
"Project Noah. That's the only name I've uncovered."
She added, solemnly.
"All the secrets are buried in there. If we can uncover the truth of that project… we can change everything."
===BREAK===
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