How could one accomplish a miracle that seemed impossible at first glance, using every available resource within limited technological conditions and on the foundation of what was already at hand?
The answer was not to be intimidated by that "miracle" from the very beginning—the Mother Star Barrier's technical requirements and astonishing scale, far beyond common sense, had indeed frightened many people. When they learned that they needed to erect a defensive layer covering the entire planet, even people like Rosetta and Bercetia had been stunned at first. The scholars and advisors beside them had immediately begun seeking an "alternative plan" that did not require a planetary-scale shield, and the feasibility of the Mother Star Barrier had been abandoned from the start.
But they could not be blamed for that. It was the normal reaction of normal people. Compared with them, Gawain, whose imagination had always been somewhere beyond the atmosphere, was the true oddity—and he had gathered a whole group of similarly open-minded oddities around him.
Yet it was precisely because their imaginations had always been beyond the atmosphere that he and his free-thinking followers had been able to piece together a plan for the Mother Star Barrier from that heap of scattered technologies and fragmented legacies—the star rings left behind by the Voyagers, the Rune Stones left behind by the Sentinel, the Neural Network and relay arrays built by mortals, communications systems spanning heaven and earth, adult races such as dragons, sea demons, and Iron Men who were not bound by the Mind Imprint, and the blueprints sent by the Noi people.
Now, mortals had obtained every card they could possibly hold. It was time to put the hand together.
Within the vast sea of pure white flowers, the figures around the round table fell briefly silent. In that