Chapter 175: The Loneliness of Each
Queen Marina had been driving around Dakar all day, thinking about what she would say when she met Quattro tomorrow. She was very self-aware and had no confidence in convincing him, only determination.
About the meteor fell before, the official did not give a statement, so she didn't know exactly what happened. The only thing she knew was that a lot of police officers came to maintain order all of a sudden.
When the sun was going down, Marina decided to return to the embassy. Halfway, a teenager in a cloak brushed against her car, and the light wind from the car lifted the corner of the hood, revealing the iconic Middle Eastern face inside.
"Fellow countryman?!" Unexpectedly met a fellow countryman in a foreign country, Marina was astonished, and immediately said to the driver, "Return! Find that young man just now!"
When Marina got out of the car, she saw the cloaked compatriot being stopped by several officers, and a young blond man was questioning him, "Boy, please show your identification."
The teenager being questioned kept his head down and didn't say a word.
"Mr. Officer, please wait a moment!" Marina rushed up to him, "This man is with us."
"This beautiful lady, A-Laws is on official duty, I am Captain Graham Aker of the Londo Bell Special Operations Unit." The young blond man slightly inclined his head to indicate his shoulder patch and turned his sharp eyes to her, "And you are, may I ask?"
Marina's attendant immediately presented the embassy's paperwork to Captain Aker to identify themselves, and the Queen then had a chance to take a good look at the cloaked teenager. The teenager's hood had been forcibly removed, and his face and skin color were too recognizable to be her people without a doubt. However, for some reason, the teenager's face and hair were covered with dust and sand, and it was impossible to really see exactly what he looked like.
"As you can see, this boy is a follower I brought with me, just got separated in the middle." Marina blurted out, "Mr. Captain, can we go now?"
"Sorry, official business is official business." Captain Aker didn't even look at the beauty in front of him, and turned to look at the cloaked guy again, "Boy, ultimatum, please show your ID."
Now Marina was helpless. The other party's rank is not low and is from a special force, she really can not force him to follow her order.
"Unfortunately, boy, now I have to suspect that you are involved in a terrorist attack and need you to go back with us to assist in the investigation." Aker waved his hand at the man behind him, "Take him to—"
"Captain!" One of the soldiers interrupted him awkwardly with his cell phone, "A call from Mr. Quattro, says it's urgent."
"That guy …" Aker spat, taking the phone with an irritated look on his face, "Yes, it's me … Well, yes … What? Why? That doesn't make sense! … yes, obey orders, I know … okay, I get it … goodbye."
Aker hung up the phone, returned the phone to his subordinate, looked at Marina helplessly, and left after leaving a word, "You can take him away."
"Did he just say Mr. Quattro?" Marina's heart beat missed a beat, "Is it a sign of goodwill? Is there hope for this time?"
But no matter what, the most important thing right now is to take the teenager away.
The cloaked teenager for some reason showed a soulful look and followed her back to the embassy in a daze. With the help of the embassy staff, the teenager changed into clean clothes, cleaned his head and face, revealing his young and handsome face, and was then invited by Marina to the meeting room for a chat.
"You are also an Azadistani, right?" The Queen said cheerfully, "I didn't expect to meet a compatriot in Dakar, can you tell me your name?"
"I don't know." The teenager replied indifferently, "Setsuna·F·Seiei."
Marina thought for a moment before she responded that the boy's two sentences were used to answer two separate questions, "How can you not know? You look like an Azadistani at first glance, huh?"
"Not necessarily, like …" A word popped into Setsuna's head out of nowhere, "… Kurgis?"
"But Kurgis already perished in the One Year War." Marina immediately retorted, "You only look sixteen or seventeen, you were less than ten years old at that time, right?"
"It was exterminated by Azadistan, right?" Setsuna roared out in uncontrollable rage, and after the words were spoken, he suddenly covered his forehead with one hand. His eyebrows tangled together in pain, while passing out a large ragged breath.
"What's wrong with you?" Marina asked worriedly, "Do you need to call a doctor?"
"No need." Setsuna took a few deep breaths to calm down, "Can you tell me how Kurgis perished?"
The worried look on Marina's face didn't dissipate, but she nodded and slowly said, "During the One Year War, the Federation always opened up the battlefield with P.L.A.N.T. as much as possible in countries that didn't join the Federation, and that's how Kurgis was caught in the crossfire. Although the Federation won by the heroic performance of Captain Amuro Ray, but—"
"Amuro Ray?" The image of MS at sunset flashed back in Setsuna's mind again, "Is that, Gun…dam?"
"Yes, it's Gundam, what's wrong?" Marina gave Setsuna a somewhat surprised look, and without an answer, she continued, "But Kurgis had become crippled in the war, and was finally merged by Azadistan. But Azadistan couldn't support that much population either, and part of the war refugees were absorbed by other countries, such as Britannia."
"Sophistry." Setsuna said through gritted teeth, "War of aggression, population trading, exchange of interests between countries, everything you say is sophistry."
"I know it's sophistry, but the past has happened and there's nothing we can do about it." Marina looked squarely at Setsuna, "All I can do is to try to make a better life for all the nationals, so that the original Kurgis people can also have a sense of identity with the country. The reason I am here now is to apply for aid from the Federation. With the aid, we can develop science and technology and popularize education."
"Develop science and technology?" Setsuna couldn't help but question, "Azadistan's MSs are still using batteries, right?"
"That's because a part of the royal family is prejudiced against Dr. Minovsky, thinking that he is the one who ruined our good life …" Marina said and felt that this reason was too humiliating, and sped up her speech in embarrassment. "But it will be corrected! I will convince them that there is no future for the country without technology!"
"Will convince, that is, not yet." Setsuna grunted coldly, "What you say is all empty thoughts, meaningless and simply impossible to do."
"I know it's difficult, there's a lot of domestic resistance, but so what?" Marina said firmly, "Even if I can't do it, I have to try, and if I fail, I have to start over until I succeed, and even if I don't succeed, I have to keep working toward success. If we try hard, the Federation and Azadistan will understand each other in the end!"
"You are the standard idealist, right? Miss Lacus said …" Setsuna suddenly frowned again, and his wrist twitched slightly because of the spasm," … Miss Lacus?"
"You know Lacus personally?" Marina saw a blank look on Setsuna's face, "She's a big star, ah, who married Dr. Lingus after she retired. Dr. Lingus? Dr. Lingus is the one who invented Gundam, and Gundam is the MS that Captain Amuro Ray piloted in the One Year War and made a big show at the Kurgis offensive and defensive battle, as I just said."
"Miss Lacus? Dr. Lingus? Amuro Ray? Gundam?" Countless threads stirred in Setsuna's mind, a thousand fragments flashed back uninterruptedly, and after a long time, finally settled on such a familiar image of a young boy less than ten years old looking up at Gundam under the sunset, "I am … Soran Ibrahim?"
After saying that, he passed out.
