The ancient space station hatch opened without a sound. Just as Gawain had said, every sluice gate within this section had already been unlocked. Cassandra cautiously entered a room directly connected to the hall, sweeping her gaze across the surroundings.
Bright lights illuminated this long-deserted place. Silver-white, light gray, and a small amount of blue ornamentation made up the room's primary colors. She judged it to be something like a monitoring room or operations center—many Holographic Projection devices emitting a dim glow stood along the walls, while a pillar-like machine occupied the center of the room. Its top was slanted and embedded with a crystal-like control panel, though its purpose was completely indecipherable.
On the wall directly opposite the door was an unusually enormous window. Beyond the high-strength transparent polymer "glass" lay a patch of darkness that did not appear to be outer space.
Inside this astonishingly enormous space station, Asalina always felt somewhat disoriented. She could not distinguish directions here, nor could she make sense of the rooms' layout or their relative positions within the station, making her increasingly cautious with every step.
Yet Cassandra, who was traveling with her, seemed to have no such confusion. She eagerly explored everywhere along the way, poking at anything that caught her interest—after receiving Gawain Cecil's assurance of safety, the sea demon's curiosity seemed to have been unleashed to its fullest. This time was no exception. She walked straight past Asalina, who was inspecting the machine in the center of the room, approached the enormous window at the far end, practically pressed her face against it, and let out an exaggerated cry of surprise. "Woooow—come look at this!"
Asalina walked over and curiously looked outside. At first, she saw only a dim expanse with a few faint lights scattered through the darkness,