Number Seven did not believe Number One's explanation.
She truly felt that Big Sister had lost her mind and become a creature of pure politics.
Number Seven seriously doubted whether Number One still had any love for her family left in her heart.
Then Number One said:
"I was once as naive as you, and loved this family just as much. But after I visited the Glacier Laboratory, I knew this family was nothing but a lie."
"The Glacier Laboratory?" Number Seven's eyes widened. "You found it?"
Father's Glacier Laboratory was the most mysterious place in the Alliance.
Father had awakened there, and his children had been brought out of there too.
Everyone in the family had spent their infancy in the Glacier Laboratory, but none of them remembered anything about it.
Legend had it that the technology sealed away in the Glacier Laboratory could propel this world's civilization forward by leaps and bounds.
But after Father's death, no one knew where the Glacier Laboratory was.
Yet Number One's words now revealed that she had visited the Glacier Laboratory-and before Father had died!
Then why had the Alliance's technology seen no changes during all the years Number One had been in power?
Seeing the confusion on Number Seven's face, Number One seemed to guess what she was thinking and said:
"There is no technology in the Glacier Laboratory. What it holds is the truth about this planet."
With that, she took a few steps forward and said:
"Number Seven, look. We've reached the laboratory's entrance."
Number Seven stepped forward and saw the giant tree's roots plunging into a bottomless pit.
Or rather, the giant tree had grown out of that hole.
The roots stretched endlessly before her eyes, as though they pierced right through the planet.
A thought rose unbidden