LIGHTNOVELONLINE 3-04: Garesto Modern History Lesson 1
Hi guys I’m back! Sorry for the long absence, stuff happened IRL. Anyway, I have some bad news and good news.
The bad news is Command will be on hold because the raw is in hiatus for unknown reasons. I considered translating the remaining 8 chapters, but rejected the idea because it ends with a very very high cliffhanger which will make you rage so bad. I mean cmon author why did you stop when the MC after being beaten badly finally decides to unleash the full potential of his power in a game of strip old maid ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) life and death battle!
The good news is I’m working together with Jiggly in translating this webnovel Kaettekite mo Fantsy!? (I Came Back but the World is still Fantsy!?). If you like smart MC and heroines, deep world building, and unexpected twists and turns, then you should definitely read this.
Please go to Jiggly’s site for the TOC and earlier chapters since I still haven’t made one in my site. As for release time, each chapter is long compared to Command and the sentence structures are more complicated, so around 1 month for me. But since this is a collaboration hopefully we’ll be able to release chapters faster (well Jiggly is faster in translating than me so props to him.
Enjoy~
P.S. Please don’t post spoilers on untranslated chapters. But speculating is fine.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. In what order should I read this?
Read it from the upper most chapter in the TOC going down. This story is NOT written in CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER, and is meant to be read according to the RELEASE ORDER.
2. What do the numbers AA-BB mean in the titles?
They mean Time Axis-Act.
E.g., 03-01 happens after all the 02-BB, but before 03-02.
02-02 means that there’s a 02-01 chapter.
This also means that 05-00 happens in the far later.
“45 years ago, the Garesto government announced a shocking truth.”
A monitor used as a blackboard showed a photograph of the president at that time.
In that photo was an aged man who looked like he was vigorously speaking about something.
“40th President Frank Cheplin announced to the whole of Garesto regarding the truth that if things continue as they are various resources in the world will be exhausted in less than 100 years.”
The image then changed completely, and it now displayed a map of Earth and Garesto arranged in a line.
Various continents and seas were sketched to the map of Earth while the map of Garesto only had one continent.
“It’s because Garesto is by nature a world with scarce resources.
At any rate, a world that is around the same size as a place in Earth called African Continent with a population of 1 billion was able to survive in roughly more than 2000 years.”
The scaling of the maps of both worlds were adjusted to be the same, and although their shapes were different, the size of Garesto continent wasn’t that much different as that of African continent.
The waters, buried minerals, and forests in that limited plot of land were from the beginning not plentiful.
Compared to Earth, since Garesto didn’t have any oceans things such as ocean resources didn’t exist.
Nevertheless Garesto had outstanding technology development thanks to a certain material.
“To be specific it is the energy crystal 『Photon』 which continues to support the world of Garesto. With the consumption speed of 『Photon』 at that time there’s no mistake that a 100 years worth of progress was established.”
For supplementing materials an image of crystals was displayed from each of the student’s table.
A video of various sizes of golden amber brilliance that were being processed ran and those things were used by everybody in Garesto in their daily lives.
Then a simple explanation about Photon crystal was added.
“Photon crystals are materials which store energy like the electric energy in Earth.
Naturally they are very important necessity in the everyday life of everyone. With that significance, electricity and Photon energy have a big difference in their property and output. For more details it’s fine to ask a Garesto Physics teacher.”
In Earth the word photon 【photon】1 means light but in Garesto it means blessing.
The reason for this was when Photon was discovered Garesto was in a declining condition.
The discovery of this energy crystal was the driving force to the current development of the world.
Therefore the word was given the meaning of 『blessing』.
Thereunder a note was written regarding photon and the misleading english word 【foton】2.
“Thus because Photon had become the only energy source of Garesto in those days, the fact that it could be clearly seen that resources will dry up in the future became a worldwide problem.”
They were able to somehow produce other resources with their technological strength which gave them hope but as expected Photon crystal was the only thing that they weren’t able to reproduce and refine.
They weren’t able to discover anymore Photon expect for the amount which they have.
“……Well then, here’s a review question. Chaos, rebellion, and buying of goods didn’t occur even with the announcement of that major problem.
Why was that so……Nakamura, answer this.”
“Yes.”
While he answered in an expressionless tone the truth was he laughed in his mind.
“Isn’t that a review only for me” was what he thought.
A transfer student had come so the start of today’s lesson was a review of a month’s worth of lesson.
Right now, it was simple to answer that he still hadn’t been taught anything so he doesn’t know.
The one who probably understood that the best was the teacher who threw the question.
From a rough course of historical events he was asked to answer the things behind the scenes.
With the plan of slowly making available to the public the detailed chronology and context of historical events, at present, with the exception of the students of this school, no other Earthling have a way of knowing about it.
“Isn’t that because at that time the technology for crossing parallel worlds was already finished?”
And yet Teacher Salando had asked him who had just transferred that question.
Thus the intention of his question was, to ask Shinichi “What are your thoughts on this”.
Teacher Salando wanted Shinichi to answer the question with the idea that he thought by himself.
“………Why do you think so?”
“In order for chaos to not happen when the government announces in public a problem of that much scale, then it’s normal to think that they’ve already finished the countermeasures.
Also if we take into consideration Garesto giving up on finding a securable method of getting resources on their own then I could only think that it was 38 years ago when the governments of both worlds made their historical contact.”
The teacher groaned to his well-reasoned opinion.
Was it because it was different to the answer he was expecting or was it because Shinichi’s “guess” was on point.
“………You’re mostly correct.
At that time President Frank had transmitted the completion of the safety of crossing parallel worlds, and had assured that they can bring back resources from that unknown world to Garesto.
Subsequently his speech took after the name of the city where he delivered it and was called 『Karagal Oath』.
This will definitely come out in the test, so make sure to bear it in mind.”
Contrary to Shinichi’s lethargic answer from within the classroom,
without minding that as if it was the usual Teacher Salando continued the lesson.
“To digress I usually hear from Earthlings the question why they crossed worlds.
This is because there is a big difference in the form of the world of Earth and of Garesto.
It’s only a simple talk. Though it’s already famous that Garesto doesn’t have oceans, actually its universe doesn’t have anything else. There aren’t stars in the sky and the continent isn’t round. Garesto isn’t a planet.”
“………Seriously?”
The maps of both worlds earlier turned into displayed in three-dimensional.
The Earth became the familiar globular shape but Garesto was a flat floating continent.
And then the whole continent was wrapped with a spherical membrane, outside that was a different airspace called threshold of dimension.
“I’m not the one in-charge of giving the scientific explanation to this difference so I’ll omit that part, but this is the reason Garestonians aimed for a parallel world. Just as you Earthlings aimed for outer space.”
If the world was different then the culture was also different.
Shinichi bitterly understood that. He who didn’t expect the form of their world to be that different obediently nodded in admiration towards Teacher Salando’s words.
Although inside his mind he thought that “I won’t believe his words until I’ve actually seen it with my eyes.
“Well then let’s return to our lesson. It became possible to cross towards only one world.
In other words towards Earth only. Naturally at that time there were already a lot of natives there.
On the side of Garesto government there were people who had radical views, but the essential Photon crystal didn’t exist in that place.
After investigations reached around 7 years the Garesto government chose to negotiate.”
Even though the teacher spoke fact after fact Shinichi’s thoughts became rather cold.
What if Photon existed on Earth. Then the radical party would’ve become the majority.
Perhaps 38 years ago this world might’ve been one-sidedly dominated by Garesto.
There was already a huge difference in the technological capability so even if Earthlings win in numbers, with their weapons they wouldn’t be able to win against Garesto-made equipments.
Just by looking at the things generally circulated in the market it was easy to understand their specs.
Though there was no meaning to talk about the countless what-ifs of history, even children completely understood that a war must not happen.
“………？”
They should’ve understood, but it appeared that surrounding pupils didn’t comprehend that.
They were listening to the lesson with a serious face, and yet they didn’t notice that truth.
Towards that scene for an instant Shinichi wanted to say something but instead he only looked at the recording machine.
“They simultaneously started negotiations towards America, China, Russia, Australia, and France and United Kingdom who are members of the current European Union, and other various countries. ‘On our side we’ll offer technology so we want resources’.”
The teacher interpreted that bizarre event as normal and continued his speech.
It was easy to listen to his manner of speaking which was as if he had witnessed the events that time.
“They who at first obviously didn’t believe the existence of humans from parallel words couldn’t help but believe when they verified the height of the technology of the tools offered by Garesto.
As for the conclusion, the governments of various nations of the world examined those tools and tied treaties behind the scenes. Well then, at this time the Garesto government had simultaneously started negotiations with each country right?
When considering the amount of resources they wanted to cooperate with numerous countries.
And yet there should not have been any problems with cooperating with only the major countries.
Why do you think that is so Nakamura?”
“Is it me again?”
“Yes. It’s you again.”
Usually it wasn’t rare for a person to be selected consecutively in the same class.
It was difficult to think that he who had only just transferred to day was being hated by this teacher.
He supposed the teacher probably wanted to hear his own answer similar to a while ago.
It was probably to evaluate the pupil 『Nakamura Shinichi』.
Were those the thoughts of a teacher who wanted to know about the new student.
Or was it none other than a scheme to unravel the peculiarity which he held.
“…Perhaps, even for a quarter of a second they wanted to bind the treaties faster.”
“Hou……and the reason is?”
Shinichi considered it troubling to be eyed on because of doing an unnecessary thing, however, he thought that anyone understood this much so he continued speaking.
“To declare that negotiations would also be the same with other countries, is just in theory.
‘I want to avoid the situation where only we have this kind of technology’, was what they should’ve had thought.
That was just how attractive the technology of Garesto is so a lot of countries boarded on……or should have.”
Despite speaking in a way which lacked confidence, somehow he sounded like he had a basis.
Nevertheless everybody desperately wanted their technology.
As long as one was a politician of a country, all the more that they’re aware that other countries were the same.
His speech had the optimism that anybody would’ve hit upon that idea.
“…………You did well to be correct despite being unfamiliar about it.
That’s right, it’s fine to say that this was a scheme in the early stages in order to bind treaties.
At any rate the opinion of the radical party carried a fairly powerful voice at that time.
The moderate party wanted to avoid the prolongment of negotiations.”
Even though he felt relieved inside in his mind towards the teacher’s cold attitude he shifted his focus to the blackboard.
Needless to say the outcome was being projected in the monitor.
Thought the names of the countries weren’t written, within the messengers sent by the countries 92% of them made a treaty.
“Henceforth Earth’s technology was raised little by little by receiving the assistance of Garesto behind the scenes.
The Garesto side understood the danger from suddenly improving it so they paid considerable attention regarding it and there’s even an engineer’s memo left behind. You can read it in the reference room if you’re interested.”
Shinichi obediently thought of going there later if he had time.
It was fine to read the said memo for the sake of reading granted there wasn’t a catch about it.
There wasn’t any disadvantage on knowing the contents of that public document.
Anyway when he sees the content he would notice if there was a hidden side of it.
“In this way were the treaties made but Garesto government had concealed their existence for 30 years since then. Cultural exchanges happened privately since they couldn’t do that directly in outer space, and nobody would probably be able to understand if you mention parallel worlds.
The world would just be thrown into confusion. And thus the governments waited. For Earthlings to become aware of the place called parallel worlds they”
“Eh, huh, don’t tell me you mean it’s that?”
To the teacher’s explanation Shinichi thought of an unexpected possibility.
That possibility simply struck his mind which made him murmur but Teacher Salando had sharp ears.
“What’s the matter Nakamura. I don’t mind questions in the middle of the class, speak.”
As if lying in wait for him the teacher turned towards him with a scary look.
He didn’t feel afraid of that but instead felt that the teacher had some kind of expectation from him.
He felt pressured to that strange expectation, although in the first place whatever he did he wouldn’t lose anything.
“Well umm……4 years right, no, I’m certain that around 10 years ago there was a boom on games and stories about being sent to a parallel world right?”
“………Very impressive.”
“Eh?”
While thinking about an unexpected possibility he spoke about this idea,
and then his teacher who wore a scary look opened his sharp eyes wide, and laughed delightfully.
It was like he was the only one who dared to say the thing which caused the 30% increase of a company’s earnings.
The reaction from his classmates were oddly slow but Teacher Salando didn’t mind that.
In fact, they didn’t even enter his vision.
“What an excellent attention to details Nakamura!
Moreover in line with that, though there are various opinions, even now conspiracy theories on the Garesto side is firmly rooted.
Though from the start there have been already those kinds of stories in Japan, at that time they were oddly numerous.
When you think about the fact that the cultural exchange from Japan started 2 years after that boom then it’s normal to believe that they have some sort of connection right!
It definitely appears that it was a preliminary arrangement to make Japanese deeply interested on parallel words.
That country has few religious restrictions, so in the subculture’s domain 『Parallel Worlds』 were often depicted as popular existences.
As a beginning for cultural exchange there was probably no other good choice except for that country.
In addition there was the view that the Japanese government considered the situation and made that smart move.
It’s difficult to declare that the rumor’s altogether wrong when you look at Japan’s entertainment culture.
In the cultural exchange with Earth even the critical Garestonians were deeply impressed by that country’s entertainment culture.
In that case to be able to do this much hidden maneuverings there should be opinions.
As a genuine Japanese what do you think about this!?”
And thus the teacher spoke of those things in one breath.
Shinichi who couldn’t miss hearing every single word and phrase was pitiful.
More than the teacher’s scary appearance he completely drew back to that vigorous talking mouth.
Even so the teacher’s scary face’s eyes strangely glittered with expectation.
To that kind of simple gaze Shinichi wanted to respond.
“Eh, no umm……that was just how much the government took things into consideration I guess?”
He didn’t have an interest in politics at his age so he only new information as talked about in the news, but the government at that time couldn’t solve its problem of having a considerably low approval rating and was ridiculed as incompetent.
Shinichi at least had memory up to that degree.
“That’s completely correct! The Japanese government at that time was in shambles.
I believe the fact that mayhem and rebellion didn’t occur inspite of that situation gives a significance to that country’s incredibleness.
That’s why as expected people shouldn’t decide that conspiracy theories on the Garesto side are more plausible!”
Yup yup, greatly and enjoyably nodded Teacher Salando.
Shinichi didn’t have the slightest idea what the teacher was pleased about but it appeared that his answer gave the teacher some sort of large stimulus.
“So Shinichi, why do you think the cultural exchange started from Japan?
I want to hear your own conjecture similar to earlier!!”
He was gazed at in point-blank range by the glittering eyes which had offensively approached from the teacher’s deck until his desk in one go.
His classmates’ strange gaze towards him was as expected not of any help.
The vice-adviser who might’ve stopped the teacher had a long time ago left to prepare for the next lesson.
“U,umm……this is just a guess.
Although we could agree that there should be a foundation to easily accept parallel worlds, other countries would’ve simply showed their disapproval in private, so the role was forced onto Japan as an experimental case. Or something like that?”
With a light tone he spoke about his opinion that was half in jest──but the other half in seriousness.
Inside him he thought that Japan at that time was a country that couldn’t say no.
Perhaps it was the impression manipulation of the mass media but children only had that as their source of information.
It was a country that had no choice but to obey what had been ordered by a major power from somewhere. Period.
Naturally, it became the foundation for a parallel world.
He who claimed that was replied with an excited voice.
“EXACTLY!!
Aah, I’ll just leave this kind of lesson alone since I want to have a discussion with you!
You’re completely right! Garestonians at least generally believe that!”
“………You serious?”
“I’ve waited for a student like you who has brains to come!
Come let’s together expose the conspiracies of the world until the next lesson!!”
Teacher Calisto Salando.
Teacher in-charge of social studies in the Garesto Academy.
He was firmly grasping Shinichi’s hand and was obviously breathing wildly.
He had a scary appearance but he was a famous teacher because the contents of his lessons were easy to learn.
His real nature, which was a matter of fact unexpectedly a conspiracy theorist, leaked out until this moment, or should’ve been.
But after that Salando proudly talked about various conspiracy theories with him as the partner until the actual sound of the ending chyme.
Throughout that period he was receiving angry looks from his classmates───
───Are this academy’s teachers, alright?
Though he experienced strange things which made him uneasy this was his first lesson in this academy.
1. The first photon is written in Japanese while the one in brackets is in English.
2. Foton is written in English.
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