Rebirth: The Universe's Hidden Heiress-Chapter 125: Her Choice

Nori compressed the agreement into just a few sentences. However, the actual agreement was lengthy and complex, full of restrictions. They couldn’t reveal anything about the Gate, the Queen, or the Alliance Army to Yuka unless she asked.

After Nori finished, he put his hands in his pockets, closed his mouth, and looked at the expressionless Yuka.

Seeing no response from Yuka, both parties of the agreement held their breath, waiting for her final judgment.

The virtual lab fell into an oppressive silence again.

Under the tense atmosphere, the hot-tempered commander of the Seventh Legion of the Alliance Army couldn’t hold back.

He banged the table to draw everyone’s attention and accused Nori and Hideki, "You say we manipulated her into joining the UUA, but we never met this child before she turned eighteen! Instead, you quietly instilled in her the idea of being a lady, suppressing her personality, and didn’t let her go out for education. You were the ones who broke the rules first!"

"Skipping school was Yuko’s own choice," Hideki retorted. "Asking her to be a lady was the butler’s idea, who is not bound by the agreement."

The butler, in Yuka’s mind, chimed in, "Exactly!"

General Fleet Admiral listened to their mutual accusations and sighed lightly.

He felt guilty towards Yuka, but that was all he could afford. He couldn’t back down on the agreement. He knew when he signed the agreement, he harbored a despicable thought, wanting to put this girl in front of everyone to kill the Queen again. If Yuka could kill the Queen once, she could do it again, minimizing the losses for the Alliance Army and the whole Alliance. For their sake, he had to do it.

Sacrificing one person could bring lasting peace to the Alliance—even if he didn’t propose it, someone else would. As long as he was the General Fleet Admiral, he had to bear the pressure from other legion commanders of the Alliance Army.

Meanwhile, Yuka was pondering.

She acknowledged that these people had helped her and given her a second chance at life. The Alliance Army held her identity card, and she couldn’t survive in the Alliance without completing four years of college. Also, her becoming a candidate for General Fleet Admiral was likely their doing.

She guessed what the Alliance Army was thinking. It was the same as those people in her last life. They believed sacrificing her could bring peace to others, wanting her to take the bullet alone.

Although the situation seemed chaotic, and it appeared she had no choice but to join the Alliance Army, Yuka still held control. She could...

The others continued to argue.

Nori turned to Kenji, laughing coldly at General Fleet Admiral, "You begged me to give Kenji to you. You said he would have a place in the military and told me not to waste his talent and gift. Is your way of valuing talent to use him for a honey trap? I saw Kenji boldly hugging Yuka in front of all the Alliance. He must have whispered sweet nothings in her ear, coaxing her to join the Alliance Army."

"I didn’t."

"He didn’t."

Kenji and Yuka spoke simultaneously.

General Fleet Admiral turned, fixing Kenji with a sharp, eagle-like gaze.

Kenji stood straight, unflinchingly meeting the Admiral’s eyes. In a voice the Admiral knew well, one that never defied his orders, Kenji responded, "I failed to execute the orders, please punish me, Fleet Admiral."

The arguing ceased. The commanders of legions of the Alliance Army looked at each other in shock. They never expected a traitor in their ranks, especially Kenji, who was so obedient to the General Fleet Admiral and loyal to the Alliance Army.

Nori, hands in his pockets, prepared to enjoy the spectacle.

Unexpectedly, the General Fleet Admiral didn’t react in anger or punish Kenji. Instead, he turned to Yuka, who had just spoken, and asked in a weary tone, "So, what is your final decision?"

The tension escalated again, all eyes on Yuka, waiting for her response.

"I will help you kill the Queen," Yuka answered.

It wasn’t a compromise to the Alliance Army, but for the protection of the Alliance people, the people who loved her, who she loved, those who silently supported her, and those who had fought alongside her.

Kenji, Nori, and Hideki frowned, while the rest of the Alliance Army seemed pleased with Yuka’s sensible answer.

But before they could fully relax, Yuka added, "But I will not join the Alliance Army. I will form my own army, with those willing to fight beside me."

Yuka looked at General Fleet Admiral on the screen, smiling challengingly, "Of course, if there are those in the Alliance Army who wish to help me, they are welcome to join my army."

Everyone was stunned into silence by her audacity, followed by an outburst of emotional shouts from the Alliance Army.

"You want to form your own army?!" one of the commanders exclaimed in disbelief, "Are you trying to establish an army opposed to the Alliance Army? Stop joking!"

The reactions of the legion commanders were similar at first, suspecting Yuka of trying to seize military power to force their hand. However, they quickly realized that Yuka was just a newly adult, and despite her online acclaim, it didn’t guarantee her the ability to recruit people into her own army.

They reasoned that even with Hideki’s financial support, it was uncertain whether others would trust their lives with her. After all, they were facing the Queen, a formidable foe who had only been defeated a century ago by a General Fleet Admiral with several divisions at a great cost.

Realizing she might at best recruit a handful of people, and that forming a real army with hundreds or thousands was a far-fetched, unrealistic dream, the commanders relaxed again. They leaned back in their chairs, silent, as if the earlier outburst hadn’t come from them.

Nori and Hideki, observing their reactions, muttered under their breath, knowing what the commanders had been thinking. Although they too felt Yuka’s plan to form an army was unrealistic, they considered it a better option than her joining the Alliance Army and decided to support her.

The General Fleet Admiral also deemed Yuka’s idea unfeasible and was about to reject it when Yuka continued, "If I can’t form my own army, I will face the Queen alone."

"Yuka!" ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom

Yuka waved her hand to calm Hideki, Nori, and Kenji, who called out in concern. She spoke calmly, "If I succeed in killing the Queen, I want a new agreement signed. The Alliance Army must not interfere in my life again, like blocking my change of major or forcing me into the Alliance Army."

General Fleet Admiral looked conflicted. "Are you sure?"

"I’m sure." Yuka ignored the anxious looks from Hideki and Kenji and nodded firmly. "Let’s sign this agreement in person. Words alone aren’t enough."

After a moment’s thought, the General Fleet Admiral nodded slowly, "Alright. I will send someone to fetch you tomorrow for a face-to-face discussion."

The other Alliance Army commanders had varied expressions, but none voiced objections.

Nori, unapologetically, said, "If you’re done, get out. This is my virtual lab. I don’t want uninvited guests lingering and being an eyesore."

After he said this, he didn’t care about others’ reactions and pressed the button on his wristwatch. The other half of the lab returned to its original state. More than a dozen screens disappeared, leaving only Yuka and Nori in the virtual lab.

"You are still too impulsive," Nori turned to Yuka and said. "You asked for far less than what they could offer. You could have continued to make demands, maximizing benefits. Sometimes I really wonder, it seems like you inherited nothing from Hideki except for the looks. Negotiation is a part of doing business, so shouldn’t this be what the Taira family, the richest business dynasty of your generation, is best at?"

Yuka remained silent. If she didn’t have some questions that needed Nori’s answers, she would have liked to walk away right then.

Risking another attack on her intelligence from Nori, Yuka asked, "I have a question. If the Queen really was sent by the future Alliance to the Martial World, and accidentally returned to the Alliance a hundred years before now, then in the future of the Alliance, will the Queen appear again? If she does, wouldn’t that create a paradox, a never-ending cycle?"

"Two guesses," Nori surprisingly didn’t demean Yuka’s intelligence but answered seriously. "The first guess, time and space are parallel. Although they occasionally overlap, they don’t affect their different developmental paths. For instance, you want to drink a cup of coffee now, so you have two choices: to drink or not to drink. Based on your choice, two different results emerge, forming two parallel worlds: in one, you drank the coffee; in the other, you didn’t."

"Continuing on, in the world where you drank coffee, you have two choices: throw the empty paper cup in the trash, or just toss it on the ground. Based on your choice, different parallel timespaces form..."

Yuka seemed to understand a bit and ventured, "So, you mean, the timespace we’re in now and the future Alliance that transferred the Queen aren’t the same but parallel timespaces? So in the future of this timespace, that event with the Alliance won’t happen."

"Right," Nori nodded approvingly, continuing, "The second guess is that it’s a never-ending cycle."

"And you," Nori said, "are the one to break this cycle."

Yuka blinked and shifted the topic, asking Nori, "Another question, about Pneyon... is it your invention?"

"It’s my research achievement," Nori admitted generously, "I sent it along with the manufacturing method to Dean Tanaka of the Alliance Science Academy, but I didn’t expect that by the time it was delivered, the dean had been replaced by Humphrey."

Nori glanced at Yuka, "As I’ve said, I don’t care about these empty titles. I’ve recently found some flaws in Pneyon and am working on improving it."

"By the way, although you chose Hideki’s genes, making Hideki your biological father," Nori coughed, "but since I helped you gain a second life, I am like a father to you in a social sense. Technically, you should also call me ’Dad.’"

"Since you complained to Hideki about me bullying you when you were little, Hideki recently cut off my funding." Nori shamelessly extended his hand to Yuka, "So Yuka, lend your dad some money."

Yuka remained silent, with just a smile, "Huh, you wish."

She quickly severed the mental connection, stepped out of the holographic pod, opened the door, and walked away.