"Tsk, New Tokyo. They really had the nerve to call it that."
When he stepped off the train and entered the city, he felt a warmth entirely different from the snowfields outside.
Of course, it was not summer inside. Outside the city, it was probably twenty or thirty degrees below zero, while it was clearly only a few degrees above freezing here. Even so, the occasional cold wind blowing in from outside still cut to the bone.
Looking up, he saw a towering spire rising from the city center. Flecks of firelight radiated from it, bringing warmth and precious sunlight to this snowy land.
Underfloor heating? Geothermal energy? Some technology he had never seen before? Or had they simply caught a transcendent Firebird?
"Welcome, welcome! Your Highness Lu. Mr. Lu, you must have had a tiring journey!"
Lu PingAn smiled at the ingratiating middle-aged man before him. They had brought out an honor guard, a red carpet, and flowers, so he had to give them some face.
He accepted the flowers from the JK girl whose smile had frozen stiff, without making things difficult for the people who had come to receive him.
Lu PingAn stroked his chin. This girl seemed to have been a somewhat famous idol before. Here she was in an ultra-short skirt, holding flowers with her face frozen numb.
This greeter also seemed to be a fairly famous entertainer. Was this reemployment based on their résumés? Were those people beating drums professional drummers too? Forget it. The more he thought about it, the stranger it felt.
Lu PingAn got straight into the car. He could not be bothered to understand what these twisted, pitiful refugees were thinking.
This time, his destination was the Municipal Government conference hall in New Tokyo.
".Have the others arrived?"
"More or