Fated to Die to the Player, I'll Live Freely with My SSS-Class Ship!-Chapter 156: Confession Before the Storm

The second planetary cluster was, as expected, immensely vast.

After the military vessel earlier left us alone, we pressed onward for another 10 hours—spending the entire duration within hyperspace. Yet even with that momentum, the path ahead remained long and daunting before we could reach the next border.

"They were wiped out again..."

Nyssra muttered, staring at a drone's live feed as though she were watching a slow-motion horror film.

Her complexion turned ghostly pale at the sight of her people being gunned down under a barrage of concentrated fire.

But even so, she understood that such sacrifices were necessary.

Painful choices, made to keep us alive and under the radar.

"Yeah..." I replied absently, barely registering my own voice.

Now that I think about it, the story she used to rope me into stealing the Primula was about how the Council of Elders planned to use it to assassinate President Astoria—my father.

But if that was really the whole truth... could sacrificing this many lives truly be justified?

She didn't seem fazed enough to call off the plan, so I guess, from her perspective, it's still a cost worth paying. But...

"Nyssra," I finally voiced the nagging thought in my mind. "What's the real reason you're so desperate to get the Primula? No—rather, why do you want to take it away from the Elders' control?"

"Huh?"

Nyssra lifted her head from the screen, clearly caught off guard by the question. Her eyes blinked with confusion.

"I-I already told you, they're targeting your father—"

"Yeah, spare me that line. I want to hear the real reason we're risking our lives out here."

This entire scenario, after all, wasn't part of the original game's storyline. I had only vague guesses as to her motivations—but none of them were concrete.

Her expression shifted, eyes clouding over with hesitation. "Do you... really need to know?"

"Well, I'm pretty sure I'd like to know. Seems fair, don't you think?"

"Tell us," Eva added with calm insistence, shooting Nyssra a look as I turned toward her. "It's not like you lose anything by being honest with us."

Nyssra frowned, biting her lower lip, and turned her attention back to the screen—still displaying the ongoing conflict between the Shadowless Hawks and the Voltherian Empire's military.

She lingered in silence for nearly a minute before finally letting out a weary sigh.

"Alright, I'll tell you."

"You both already know I'm a princess of the Voltherian Empire, right?"

"Yes, I'm aware," I replied.

"First time hearing it directly from you, but yeah, I figured," Eva added.

Nyssra gave a brief nod, then pressed her lips together, visibly bracing herself.

"I'm the first in line to the throne. My mother was the first Empress, and I'm the Emperor's eldest child." She said quietly. "Because of that, my mother's been caught in the middle of the Empire's political storm ever since I can remember."

"That's like... what? Twenty-five years ago?" Eva asked, slightly puzzled.

Nyssra shook her head softly. "I'm already 28. So, my mother's been in that storm for nearly 29 years now—ever since I was born."

"I see..." I said, thoughtful. "And since you mentioned your mother, is your motivation perhaps..."

She paused, eyes drifting, before nodding tightly. The tension on her face deepened, her expression wavering between restraint and sorrow.

"It began two years ago. My mother was imprisoned in Planet A1-01's containment facility—under a false charge of leaking military intelligence to the Meyers." Her voice dropped to a whisper.

"...!"

Both Eva and I stiffened at the unexpected mention. The Meyers Royal Family was not a name we anticipated to hear here—certainly not in this context.

"A false accusation? You found proof she was innocent?" Eva asked, trying—and failing—to sound unaffected.

But Nyssra only shook her head again, this time with more frustration.

"I couldn't. Whoever orchestrated it forged the evidence so thoroughly, there wasn't a single crack. They even erased all traces that could point back to them. And what's worse—my father supported their claims. He stood with her accusers and condemned her without question."

Her gloved fist trembled, fingers clenched so tight they might've drawn blood had she not been wearing her powered suit.

Neither Eva nor I dared to speak. The fury and heartbreak in Nyssra's expression held us both in silence.

We simply waited—giving her space to collect herself.

"Sorry," she said finally, voice strained but controlled. "I lost my temper for a second there."

"It's alright, really. No need to apologize." Eva's gentle smile came as a surprise, even to me. It was... oddly soft, unlike the Eva I was used to.

"The real reason for her imprisonment... was to strip her of influence. To diminish her standing—and, by extension, to weaken mine."

"So... A fight for the throne? the culprits are your siblings?" I asked, though something about that didn't feel quite right.

"No," she replied firmly. "The ones behind it are the Elders."

Her voice grew colder with each word.

"I only discovered this later on, but it seems their true objective is to fracture the Voltherian Empire from within—by systematically undermining its foundation and allowing hostile powers to close in from the outside."

"Oh..." I groaned in realization.

"So back in the Grand Prix, that crazy pilot—whatever his name was—wasn't added just because he had a backer, but because the elders are planning to use his short fuse to stir up enemies all across the universe...?"

Nyssra grinned faintly.

"You got that right. And in case he gets shot down mid-race as a result of retaliation, the elders even arranged for me to be there too—probably hoping I'd get caught in the crossfire."

"A bunch of trash...!"

Finally, the dots connected—each thread of conspiracy leading to one rotten core.

And at the same time, I understood the real reason she's trying to gain control of the Primula—

"The elders feel invincible because they have the Primula—a weapon that can fire anywhere in the universe," I said, my voice carrying a decisive tone. "And you want to take it away to remove the wind behind their sails, right?"

"Wow..." Nyssra scratched her cheek with a sheepish smile. "You'd make a great detective, Arthur. It's exactly as you said."

Although that's what she said, I could tell it wasn't just that.

She had surely considered countless other options besides stealing the Empire's most prized weapon. But after all her calculations, all her struggles, and long nights of doubt—this was the path she settled on.

No doubt, she burned countless bridges during those two years since her mother was imprisoned. Bridges that would never be rebuilt.

'Now that I think about it...'

Nyssra played a pivotal role in TSO, but I don't recall ever encountering her mother in the main storyline. I didn't pay it much attention before, but after hearing this... then perhaps her mother died early on, before she ever had a chance to meet the Player.

So this wasn't just a quest to steal a weapon. It was a desperate mission to dismantle a twisted power play, a conspiracy—and save a mother she deeply loved.

"Not bad." I smiled. "Definitely something worth sacrificing a lot for!"

There's no way she'd stop just from seeing a few military ships turned to space debris. She's a woman with a goal—a goal she's been fighting for long before any of this started.

But just as we reached this heavy realization—

"W-Warning!" Eva shouted, eyes wide as she monitored the radar.

"Spatial Warp detected ahead of our route! Backtracking the residual space signature... It's coming from the current battlefield between the Voltherians and the Hawks!"

"What?!"

A warp drive is something that shortens distance far more dramatically than a simple hyperspace jump.

After all, it "folds" the space between two points, allowing travel over lightyears in the blink of an eye—unlike a hyperspace jump, which still travels linearly, albeit at near-light speed.

Our mothership, the Black Halberd, also has a warp drive installed—but it's a short-range type. It's not something we could use to travel back to the battlefield from here.

But that wasn't even the main concern.

'Which side is using the warp...?'

It could be the Shadowless Hawks. Or it could be the retreating Voltherian Military. If it's the latter, we'd be fine... but if it's the former—

"Stop the jump!" I shouted immediately. "All ships, prepare for battle—just in case! Shields to 100% output! Turrets primed and ready to fire on command!"

In a matter of moments, the entire fleet dropped out of hyperspace.

Everyone quickly took formation, guided by Eva's little formation handbook—she selected one of the preset formations best suited for defense. The fleet formed ranks, hunkering down.

We came to a complete stop, our eyes glued to the area about 0.25 AU ahead—where space was warping and distorting visibly.

Folds and ripples twisted around themselves, bright flashes pulsing within. Clear signs of an incoming spatial warp. And while we watched, I moved quickly to ready myself—just in case the worst happened.

"They're warping in...!" Eva called out, voice tight as the spatial sensors spiked violently.

The space ahead suddenly glowed bright, like a tear opening in the fabric of the cosmos—then cracked open entirely. Through the rift, the image of the battlefield poured through like a reflection on water. Three ships emerged—two of them marked as being part of Voltherian Military.

I barely had time to feel relief, since both military ships looked like wounded beasts—battered and fleeing.

Behind them, a massive Leviathan-class ship burst through.

Its turrets fired wildly, spewing endless streams of plasma like an enraged porcupine launching quills. The thing was reckless, spraying fire in every direction.

"Brace for impact...!"

And sure enough, due to its "random" barrage, some of those blasts hit us too.

Around twenty other ships were caught in the chaos. Thankfully, our shields held—no damage, just a slight drop in saturation.

But of course, we can't just let them be after all they did.

"Everyone... Aim at the Leviathan-class ship!" I shouted. "We're assisting the Voltherians—for now...!"