A Core Ship From The Start-Chapter 1547 - 1042 Shock

Midnight.

The howling cold wind swept past the window outside. Everyone lay in bed, their bodies exhausted, yet unable to fall asleep. Despite having gone through a turbulent, stormy day, their minds were still exceedingly exhilarated, making it impossible to drift into slumber.

"...Mio, are you still awake?"

"Liliath-senpai, you’re not asleep either?"

Upon hearing Liliath’s voice, Naruse Mio replied.

"I can’t sleep..."

"Neither can I... To be honest, I really have this feeling of ’What exactly are we doing?’ right now..."

Naruse Mio muttered as she gazed at the ceiling above her, unsure of what to say for a moment. In truth, ever since they were taken to the Antarctic by Duanmu Huai, everything they experienced was more surreal than a dream to Naruse Mio. It felt like spending a wild day in an amusement park, only to finally calm down and return to reality upon lying in bed at night.

"We battled with monsters, didn’t we?"

"That’s right, alien monsters."

"And we even went to an alien planet?"

"That’s correct."

"And my uncle even blew up that planet?"

"It seems so."

"......"

The two went back and forth, then fell into silence.

"Is this reality?"

"I don’t think we’re dreaming."

Liliath let out a silent sigh. Although she had imagined the strength of the Tribunal multiple times, no matter how hard she thought, she never expected the Tribunal to possess such power. To be honest, this level of capability is beyond what angels or demons can handle.

The other party could effortlessly destroy a planet with a flick of the wrist—although Liliath didn’t know how Duanmu Huai did it, she had indeed witnessed it firsthand.

Destroying a planet?

Angels couldn’t do that, and neither could the Demon King... Why do such people exist among humans?

No, not even humans in this world possess such power, right? Of course, Liliath wasn’t well-versed with the human society, but she didn’t think the current level of human technological civilization was capable of such feats. So, is the Tribunal similar to those Superior Demon Aristocrats, using remnants from some ancient civilization excavated from ruins... No, no, the more she thought about it, the more absurd it seemed.

Liliath shook her head desperately, trying to expel these wild thoughts from her mind. Not only Liliath, but everyone else also felt the same mixed emotions. They were aware of Duanmu Huai’s immense strength, but... once it reached a cosmic scale, it put them in an entirely different league altogether.

Who exactly is Teacher Duanmu? What kind of organization is the Tribunal?

Liliath felt she had never been this curious. Or, to say, she had always been curious about the existence of Duanmu Huai and the Tribunal, but before now, she assumed it might be some ancient, hidden human organization, or a mysterious religious group that didn’t openly show themselves.

But clearly, the Tribunal was different. Recalling the alien creatures she had seen, Liliath immediately understood the Tribunal’s code on a deeper level.

"I see, ’non-human cranial species’ refers to alien beings..."

Muttering to herself, Liliath recalled Duanmu Huai’s demeanor when issuing the extinction order—no malice, no rage, no hatred. It was calm, like a janitor spotting a nest of cockroaches and instinctively dealing with them using insecticide. The entire process exuded a sense of skill and calmness, as if it were just a routine task.

Yes, because they discovered alien creatures that posed a threat to humans, they eradicated them completely.

It’s that simple.

"........."

As she thought about it, Liliath suddenly felt an inexplicable sense of fear and tremble. She was truly grateful that the Tribunal appeared after the end of the three-party war. Imagine if it had been a few hundred years ago, during the battles between angels, fallen angels, and demons, that would be another story.

Though Liliath had not experienced that war, she had read historical records of it. At that time, angels, fallen angels, and demons fought against each other, dragging other races into the conflict. Humans, in particular, had groups supporting each of the three major powers, engaging in mutual slaughter.

If the Tribunal had known back then...

"Yeah, just purify them."

Liliath could easily imagine Duanmu Huai calmly issuing an order and then thoroughly eradicating all three forces.

However, this raises a question.

That is... when exactly did the Tribunal appear? Are they an organization of this world?

Liliath is very doubtful now. After all, judging from the Tribunal’s approach, if they existed during the three-way war, they would definitely eliminate angels, fallen angels, and demons without hesitation. But the fact is that the three-way war ended without them appearing, which means the Tribunal emerged after the war concluded.

Although it’s not impossible that the Tribunal was established afterwards, Liliath’s intuition suggests that the Tribunal might not be an organization of this world.

After all, they can even operate in the universe. Liliath clearly remembers that when she set up an isolation barrier to deal with a giant monster, she overheard a conversation between Duanmu Huai and Mary. At that time, Mary mentioned, "If the warship were here, dealing with such a monster wouldn’t be a problem..."

Thinking back now, she must not have been talking about a water-based warship.

"Mio."

"What is it, Senior Liliath?"

"Has Teacher Duanmu ever mentioned anything about the Tribunal to you?"

"He did mention some things... To be honest, before today, I thought those were just fairy tales or legends..."

Naruse Mio replied blankly. Of course, she had received basic education on the Tribunal, but at that time, Naruse Mio felt like she was just listening to stories. Alien creatures, heretics worshiping evil gods, and demon races in subspace—she thought these were just like myths from the Bible.

But now, having witnessed everything firsthand, those stories that once felt so unreal suddenly transformed into cold reality, hitting her right in the face.

"I feel a bit scared."

At this moment, the usually silent Xiao Mao suddenly chimed in.

"So many... people, wiped out without a word... It’s scary how calm Teacher was."

"Hmm, but Uncle isn’t a bad person... at least he really fought to protect humans."

Naruse Mio defended Duanmu Huai with a comment. She could understand why Tower City Kitten suddenly said that. After all, they all saw Duanmu Huai issue the extinction order. Whether it was because of pity or anger, at least it showed emotion. But Duanmu Huai’s calmness made it seem like a routine task; he truly didn’t see the countless alien creatures as lives.

Yes, in the Tribunal’s words, they are just lowly alien hybrids.

"But... I still feel scared. Even if those alien creatures were really here to invade humans, wiping them out entirely seems a bit..."

Xiao Mao hesitated for a bit, as if thinking about how to describe it.

"Too extreme?"

"This isn’t something we can interfere with."

Liliath decisively interrupted the discussion.

"The Tribunal has its own policies. We might have questions about it, but at least for now, we don’t have any conflicts or grounds for conflict with the Tribunal, don’t you think so, Mio?"

"Ah, that’s right. At least at this point... According to the Tribunal’s criteria, Uncle doesn’t particularly mind demons transforming humans."

Naruse Mio once asked Duanmu Huai if acts like demons using demon chess pieces to transform humans into demons violated the Tribunal’s guidelines. After thinking for a moment, Duanmu Huai told her that, so far, the demons’ actions haven’t harmed humans. The number of demon chess pieces is limited, and the transformed humans haven’t caused any large-scale harm to humans. Also, dissident demons can be dealt with as long as they are addressed.

Moreover, importantly, even if transformed into demons, if a human’s skull doesn’t mutate, there’s no issue.

If growing wings means becoming an alien, then you’d have to first make Saint Giles into braised chicken wings.

So, from this perspective, Duanmu Huai is considerably tolerant toward this world’s angels, fallen angels, and demons.

After all, you can’t just go dig up Saint Giles’ grave, not even the Tribunal would go that far.

"Alright, let’s sleep."

Liliath ended the discussion.

"After all, everyone is tired after a long day."

"I hope I won’t have nightmares tonight."

Even now, when Naruse Mio closes her eyes, she sketches the scene of that cute penguin waddling up to her, followed by its head suddenly splitting open with tentacles reaching out toward her. At that moment, Naruse Mio was completely shocked. Fortunately, Frieren’s repeated basic training allowed Naruse Mio’s body to reflexively release a magic barrier before her mind could react. Otherwise, she couldn’t imagine what might have happened to her.

To be honest, she feels this might just become her psychological shadow.

Before, Naruse Mio really liked penguins, but now—she thinks she might never be able to like such cute creatures again.