Running Headlong into Each Other

Peaceful Star System, Nostramo.

This place replicated the original Nostramo in every detail, so the newly arrived residents would not feel out of place.

But compared to old Nostramo, the new Nostramo was far better.

This was paradise.

In one of the newest residential settlements, Nostramans who had once depended on artificial light to see things saw real sunlight for the first time.

Meanwhile, in the planet's agricultural district, as the morning mist dispersed over the furrows, Martha dared to let her youngest son step barefoot into the soil for the first time.

The boy curled his toes into the damp earth and laughed with carefree delight.

On old Nostramo, direct contact with the ground was deadly.

Vast amounts of radiation and chemical waste would burrow into a person's pores like venomous snakes.

But here, the soil was cool and moist from the rain, and even the dewdrops on the blades of grass reflected the blue sky.

It was the radiance refracted from the azure sea.

She instinctively reached for the place at her waist where her old dagger had hung. On Nostramo, that dagger had been her family's mainstay.

But now the old dagger had been placed in the most conspicuous spot in their home, a memento of those dark, suffocating years.

It reminded the family not to let their comfortable life bury the experiences they had lived through.

Those who forgot the past would be punished by history.

Now, a new seed pouch hung at her waist instead.

Likewise, in new Nostramo's industrial district.

Hawk, an old blacksmith, was squatting in a daze outside a makeshift workshop. It was a simple forge of his own.

He had a full set of certificates reviewed and issued by Nostramo's Evernight Court, all in proper legal order.

In all his decades of life, this was the first time the old blacksmith had owned a business of his own.

He only needed to register it according to regulations and pay taxes once a year. Everything else was his.

He looked at the glowing red forge, then down at his callused hands.

His left hand had been broken in a gang fight on Nostramo, and its misshapen knuckles always twitched on rainy days.

But the forge fire, burning like the sun, heated the iron and cast a red glow over his wrinkled face.

His hand no longer hurt, and he even felt that sense of strength again.

It reminded him of the days when he had first gone to work in a forge.

Back then, he had been a young man, and he had still held hope for life.

He had firmly believed that with his own hands and a forging hammer, he could build a future.

Now, here in this new home, he had found that feeling again.

The feeling of grasping hope.

Light-Bathed Square, the one closest to this residential settlement, was bustling.

Vendors hawking their wares, craftspeople calling out to customers, and children playing beside a monument formed a lively scene.

At the edge of the square, Kara, formerly an unlicensed doctor for the Night Shadow Gang, was drying herbs.

Dark stains that would not wash away still lingered beneath her fingernails, traces left from handling the gang's mine slag in the past.

Now, the wind carried the fresh scent of herbs past her nose, washing away the smell of blood that had once clung to her entire body.

As she watched the scenes in the square, her once-hoarse throat, which had only ever pronounced life or death for gang members,

now wanted to hum an off-key tune.

It was a song her mother had often sung, and the only thing she still remembered from that lightless world.

Suddenly, cheers erupted from the crowd.

Everyone began converging on one spot, then parted of their own accord and quietly watched the father and son at the center of the crowd.

The Son of Night Everlasting, Nostramo's Eternal Night Justiciar.

The enforcer of the planet's order, the bravest, most fearless and most impartial judge in the world.

Beside him stood a man shorter than he was.

He was Nostramo's living totem.

The Son of Night's father, the bearer of the flame in the world of eternal night.

The man who had lit the first torch for Nostramo.

The Father of Night.

The founder of order.

The scalpel that cut into eternal night's chronic afflictions.

The savior who had restarted Nostramo's civilization.

"We salute you, great Father of Night."

People placed one hand over their chests and met the Father of Night's gaze, their eyes full of gratitude and reverence.

The Evernight Code had granted Nostramans the rights of human beings.

They were no longer ignorant, no longer blind.

All of it was because of the man before them.

"Everyone, please go about your business."

Han Mingxuan spoke, and everyone slowly dispersed.

They knew that the Father of Night disliked making a great spectacle.

He did not want to turn himself into a god. Perhaps he only wanted to be a teacher.

"Curze, how do you feel?"

"Never better. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I couldn't have imagined the world could be like this."

Perhaps this was what those ancient Terran texts had described.

A world of great harmony.

"Father, Huangpizi has come to ask for a title."

The Night Haunter's voice entered both their minds. They had not expected it to happen so soon.

"We ran headlong into them. The place Uncle Trazyn picked for us is right on their route."

"The Peaceful Star System is actually at the border between Segmentum Obscurus and Segmentum Solar now."

"At their original pace, it might have taken us another month or so to meet them. But now, a week at most."

A week?

"That's rather rushed. Trazyn could at least have warned us in advance."

A certain endless gourmet was sitting in a restaurant on a street corner.

"Boss, another bowl!"

"Sir, y-you... perhaps you should take a break? You've eaten ten large bowls since you started. The way you're eating is scaring me a little."

Who on the whole food street did not know that Curator Trazyn was famous for his bottomless stomach?

Well, his stomach was not big, but his appetite was extraordinary.

Curze and the others were discussing what to do.

After all, he was the Emperor of the Imperium of Man. They ought to do something.

"Dad, shouldn't we make some arrangements?"

"Arrangements for what?"

"To welcome that Huangpizi."

"Would it cause any problems if the current work stopped?" Han Mingxuan asked.

"If we receive him with the honors due an esteemed off-world guest, we can't afford it."

Nostramo had been moved here, not made rich.

They had resources, but wealth had to be created with their own hands.

As for Nostramo's nobles?

They were really only getting by now.

After all, the Evernight Code's tax laws for nobles were no joke.

All the taxes collected went toward building up Nostramo.

"Do you remember what I told you back then?"

"Everything as usual?"

Han Mingxuan nodded.

"That's right, everything as usual. Given Nostramo's current state, if we made a big show of a welcoming ceremony, we'd have to squeeze the people for it one way or another. There's really no need."

"But what if our welcoming ceremony isn't good enough and people criticize us for it?"

"Heh, how about this? Just prepare to receive him without disrupting the planet's daily life and production."

"No problem."