Xiao Ran led Cagalli and the others into the residence. Its entire layout was exactly the same as the Prime Minister's residence in the SEED World. Even a single floorboard was no different. It had Xiao Ran's private study, bedroom, and so on.
What was even more alike was that although Xiao Ran had his own reserved areas within this residence, he did not actually live here permanently.
Orb was the Orb he knew, and the people were the people he knew. Only some things were somewhat different. For example, the Orb Akatsuki Works of this world had yet to reach the level of the Akatsuki Works in the SEED World. The gap in technology, the gap in military strength, and so on—Orb's standards in this world were simply what one would expect from normal development.
Furthermore, this world did not have Bally, the strongest pilot cultivated by Orb itself, nor did it have Stella, who had regarded Xiao Ran as family. Durandal and Ray of this world likewise no longer existed. Those who were supposed to die had died, and those who should not have existed did not exist. Every arrangement had been based on the normal developmental path of Orb in this world.
Inside the residence's enormous study, within this Prime Minister's residence belonging to the Asaha family, it was almost amusing that the largest study had been left to Xiao Ran. Even Cagalli rarely entered the study that had once belonged to her father. The same was true even when Xiao Ran was not working here; she instead used another place, one half the size of this study, for her work.
After everyone had taken their seats, Meyrin Hawke, knowing that her status made it inappropriate for her to hear this, gently closed the door for them