Rebirth: The Universe's Hidden Heiress-Chapter 124: The Truth

"It seems you’ve only lost your memories from before you were one year old," Nori said. "In that case, I won’t go over your memories, but I’ll just talk about what I saw in the Queen’s memories. Due to equipment limitations, I only saw a fraction of the Queen’s memories, and not in full detail, only the deepest, most accessible parts."

"The first memory I saw was of the Queen in a laboratory."

From the Queen’s perspective, she seemed to be submerged in a culture dish. People conducted experiments on her, injecting her with substances that gave her incredible asexual reproductive abilities and an unmatched lifespan.

She was intelligent. Through her daily interactions with humans, she gradually understood their language and realized they wanted something from it. But she was dissatisfied with the humans’ plans for her and deeply resented the scientists who operated on her at will.

Finally, one day, she seized an opportunity. During chaos in the laboratory, she escaped from the broken culture dish. But before she could flee the lab, she was crushed under heavy rocks in a sunless underground.

Previously, the Queen had survived on the nutrient solution injected by the scientists. Now, without it, she had to find its own food.

So, she turned her gaze to human corpses.

The first time she tasted human flesh and blood, she became uncontrollable. Her palm-sized body grew larger with each human she consumed, eventually becoming so big that she broke through the ruins crushing her and returned to the surface. She began to use different insects she produced to hunt humans for it.

"I carefully observed the lab where the Queen was," Nori said. "Although she had the style of a science academy, it contained many advanced instruments that the Alliance has not yet created or possessed. Even the buildings the Queen saw after breaking through the ground don’t match the current architectural style of the Alliance."

Nori’s voice was heavy but firm, "So, I speculate that the Queen was created by a future version of the Alliance’s science academy."

"The Queen caused great harm to the future of the Alliance, so the scientists at that time sent it to your world through another means," Nori turned to Yuka and said. "From your memories, I learned that your world is called the Martial Realm, a magical world beyond scientific explanation."

Yuka was speechless, staring blankly at Nori. The information about Nori, the Queen, and the Cultivation Realm swirled in her mind. She didn’t notice her hands trembling. Her only thought was: The Queen wasn’t originally from my homeland. It was a disaster transferred there by others. If it hadn’t been for the Queen...

"These are just your speculations!" barked the old and authoritative voice of General Fleet Admiral in the virtual lab. He glared at Nori, "Your guesses are invalid until the facts are confirmed!"

"Speculate boldly, verify carefully," Nori snorted disdainfully at General Fleet Admiral.

Yuka looked up slightly to see the other half of the lab. It was previously shrouded in darkness, but now lit with several split screens. In them were people in military uniforms and a worried Hideki looking at her.

Kenji, standing behind General Fleet Admiral, had heard Nori and Yuka’s conversation before the screens connected. His hands were clenched tightly, his thoughts as chaotic as Yuka’s. ’What about the past life, the Martial World, the origin of the Queen, and the roles of General Fleet Admiral and Nori in this agreement? Is Yuka okay?’

He looked at Yuka, suppressing his inner doubts, trying to comfort her with his gaze. But Yuka only briefly lifted her head, and then quickly lowered it again. Most of the time she just stared at the ground, lost in silence and thought.

"Do you intend to break the agreement?" General Fleet Admiral continued to press Nori.

Nori, with hands in his pockets, stepped in front of Yuka, blocking the view of the several military commanders who were part of the agreement years ago.

He replied to General Fleet Admiral with a cold laugh, "It’s Yuka’s own will to seek answers. Me answering her questions is allowed by the rules of the underground arena and doesn’t breach any part of our agreement. What right do you have to stop me?"

"You’re the one violating the agreement by invading the underground arena’s system to prevent me from answering her questions," Nori countered.

General Fleet Admiral fell silent.

Nori, no longer looking at him, gently placed his hand on Yuka’s shoulder, his gesture tender but his words cruel with the harshness of truth. "Let’s continue discussing the reason for your journey here. This is still speculation, but I think when the Queen was sent through a wormhole by future scientists, her body absorbed some unstable time-space factors."

"In the Queen’s second memory, I saw your Martial World and you driving the chained hammer into the Queen’s brain," Nori continued. "In the moment before the Queen’s death, the unstable time-space factors in her body were triggered, bringing both you and her back to The Alliance’s time-space."

"There are two speculations as to why the Queen appeared over a hundred years before you. The first is that the unstable time-space factors were inherently unstable, resulting in you and the Queen arriving in different time periods. The second is that you were already dead when you were sent into the wormhole, but somehow the people of the Martial World revived you in this time-space, though a hundred years later. That’s why you only appeared twenty years ago."

What Nori didn’t say was that he leaned more towards the second speculation. From the Queen’s memories, he saw that Yuka was badly injured, covered in blood and partially consumed by insects, unlikely to survive, not even able to deliver the final blow to the Queen, who then escaped.

"When you first arrived here as a ball of light, I couldn’t obtain your cells and communication was difficult, so I had no way of knowing your identity," Nori said. "What confirmed you were the person from the Queen’s memories were Oniyon and the butler."

"Do you know what Oniyon is?" Nori asked, not expecting an answer from Yuka but instead answering himself, "Oniyon is a symbiont of insectoids, wherever there are insectoids, there is Oniyon. Its original form is the chained hammer you drove into the Queen’s brain. It merged with the Queen’s cells during the time-space transition. Just as where there are poisonous snakes, there are herbs to counteract the poison, Oniyon naturally counters insectoids."

Nori continued, "And the butler, according to your Martial World’s terminology, is the ’spirit’ of the hammer. It must have been born at the moment you fought the Queen."

Nori seemed lost in memories, "Shortly after you appeared, the butler automatically came to me. It was in the form of Oniyon then, with no memory but its own consciousness. It could form a mental connection with you and called you master. You didn’t have a physical body then and couldn’t touch the opticomputer, so you used the spirit to communicate with me through the opticomputer."

"After you became Hideki’s daughter, I taught it many things, though it didn’t learn much... Considering you lost your memories before the age of one, I simply shaped the spirit into its current form, making it your butler, to stay by your side."

In Yuka’s mental realm, the butler said softly, "Master, I will always be with you."

Yuka instinctively reached into her pocket, only to remember she was in a virtual lab and the butler wasn’t there. She withdrew her hand and murmured a low "Thank you" in her mental realm.

Nori fell silent after explaining, and the virtual lab was enveloped in silence.

After a while, Yuka finally spoke. Her voice was a bit hoarse and weary, but exceptionally firm, "So, what about the content of the agreement? What is it?"

Nori glanced at General Fleet Admiral, who was frowning deeply, and at Hideki, who looked very worried, but said nothing.

"I have the right to know about that, right?" Yuka raised her head, glanced at Kenji, and stared at General Fleet Admiral, "I can guess your purpose. You want me to kill the Queen again, don’t you?"

Standing in the lab, facing the people on the screens, she straightened her back, chin slightly lifted, her presence commanding as if she wasn’t the one being scrutinized but the one scrutinizing them.

Yuka demanded, "Now, tell me the content of the agreement."

General Fleet Admiral met Yuka’s gaze and, after several seconds, slightly lowered his head in a conceding gesture.

Nori, surprised by General Fleet Admiral’s quick surrender, paused and then turned to Yuka, "I’ll tell you."

"When The Gate opened for the second time, we were all nervous, fearing something as dangerous as the Queen would come out. At that time, I hadn’t successfully extracted the memories from the Queen’s cells. Even though the butler had come to you, we still didn’t know what you were, thinking you were just a special, conscious light form in the universe. But when I discovered the second memory of the Queen and connected it with existing clues, I realized that you might have been human before."

Nori continued, "I asked if you wanted to become human, and you agreed."

"I could only extract the deepest memories. The first memory of the insectoid was thrilling, as she experienced rebirth; the second was terrifying, because you could kill her," Nori explained. "I shared this research with the head of The Alliance Army. Upon learning this, those involved in The Gate research proposed a preliminary agreement."

Nori’s tone revealed his disdain, "The gist of it was that, once you became an adult, you were obliged to join The Alliance Army to fight against the Queen. However, this proposal was quickly contested and temporarily shelved. After a few months of research, I selected hundreds of genomes and introduced their origins to you for choosing."

"Eventually, you chose to become Taira Hideki’s daughter."

"During the nine months of your growth, the content of the agreement was altered multiple times. Hideki and I disagreed with forcing you into the Alliance Army, but the group led by General Fleet Admiral thought that since we gave you a second life, you owed something in return," Nori snorted, unapologetically blunt. "They repeatedly interfered with your embryonic development, and some brazen fools even used the excuse that you might also harm the Alliance to prevent your birth, forcing us to agree to the agreement."

"In the end, both sides compromised. We agreed to let Hideki raise you until adulthood, during which no one was to instill any thoughts in you that might influence your future choices," Nori briefly outlined the agreement. "It required us to fully respect your personal will and choices, to let nature take its course."

"But after you reached adulthood, when your thoughts were more mature and less easily influenced, both sides could use certain ’methods’ to influence your decision, like your enrollment in UUA, which was orchestrated by the Alliance Army. And only after you made your final choice would the content of the agreement be disclosed to you."