Chapter 26

Chapter 26 is the twenty-sixth chapter of the Astra Lost in Space manga. It is the eighth chapter of the Arispade arc and, in the compiled volumes, the eighth chapter of the third volume.

Synopsis
A brief silence hangs over the lounge in the wake of Aries' revealing that Charce never attended biology with her. When Kanata asks Aries to reaffirm her statement, Charce insists that she is wrong, and that no one can remember everyone in their classes. Aries admits that, while she is not the smartest person in the room, her memory is absolutely infallible, and she has absolute confidence in that knowledge. The focus then turns to Charce; Kanata demands that he explain himself.

Charce plays dumb for only a brief moment more before relenting: he admits he is a transfer student, one who transferred to Caird High School three days before the trip began, giving him no chance to attend biology with Aries. He says he failed to mention this information because he believed it to be unimportant, as almost none of them knew each other before the trip anyway. The revelation is met with a general sense of shock nonetheless; Aries mentions that Charce has not really opened up to them, despite his popularity within the group. Zack opines that whether or not someone wishes to open up to the others in the group is entirely their choice, but cuts to the heart of the matter by reminding Charce that admitting his late transference into the group is essentially proof that he is the assassin. Kanata demands to know why Charce hid the information from them, threatening to lock him up if he refuses to tell.

What follows is a detailed exposition of Charce's life, which he has hid because he is reluctant to mention his origins to the others and had no intention of lying to them. He tells them he is from the Imperial District of Vixia, the world capital, a somewhat mystical and mysterious place where the world's noble and ruling class live. He also gives a short history lesson: Following a two-month war in 1963 AD that destroyed human civilization, the people who survived formed a unitary, worldwide government and reorganized the world's land into districts, one of which, Vixia, was designated for the government's king. Tourists flocked to the district for its rural, quasi-medieval environment and lifestyle, but were not allowed into the walled-off center of the district, the Royal Quarter, which was reserved strictly for the nobles and royals.

This is where Charce's story fits into the setting. The son of a noble family, he befriended a commoner girl named Seira, who lived outside the wall; he could leave the inner district to meet her, but she could never come to see him. Finding a crack in the wall, he wore the crack wide enough for her to fit through, and one day, he brought her into the inner city through the crack so she could visit the Royal Zoo. On the way there, however, they were discovered by the district's police force, whose technological device alerted them to the presence of an outsider. Refusing to listen to Charce's justification for her presence, the officers attempted to restrain Seira, leading her to bite one of the officers. The angry officer then threw her off him and over the edge of a rampart, where she fell to the cobblestone street below.

Rather than take her to a hospital in the Royal Quarter, the officers called for an ambulance from the outside and refused to accept responsibility for her injury; the delay in treatment left Seira in a coma. Guilt-ridden over her injury and condition, Charce took to visiting her regularly to read to her, a behavior that created a rift between him and his family and fostered in him a dissonance with the concept of nobility.

Several years later, Seira's family moved away and took her, still comatose, with them; Charce had no idea where they had gone or why. He left Vixia and was adopted by an acquaintance of an old friend of his who lived in Mousanish, enabling him to enroll in Caird High School and live in its dormitories. He finishes his story by clarifying that Lacroix is the last name of his adoptive mother, not his own.

Looking up, he is shocked to see most of the crew in tears. Charce is deeply confused by their response to his story, having been convinced none of them would really care about either him or Seira, who none of them have ever known. Stunned by their declarations that they have misunderstood him and have every reason to care about someone who matters deeply to him, Charce laughs, seemingly overwhelmed by his own emotions. He remarks to himself that he has cut all ties with his family and home, and yet has somehow ended up with another, new family despite it all.

As Charce stands up and goes with Aries to make some mushroom tea, she writes in her diary that she has seen a new glint in Charce's eyes, and has realized that every person has their own unique set of personal problems, thoughts, and situations. She asks Charce what Seira was like, and he responds that she was very much like Aries herself. Charce's behaviors toward her over the course of the journey flood through her mind all at once, now taking on a new significance with this new knowledge to color them. Her diary entry breaks down into stuttering as she tries to process her emotions, quickly abandoning the effort and simply writing that they will soon be arriving at the next planet on their journey as Quitterie, watching from the table, twitters excitedly to Funicia about the apparent love triangle forming between Aries, Charce, and Kanata.

That night, alone in his room, Charce stares at an image of Seira he has pulled up on his tablet, his downcast face evidence of his sadness. He closes his eyes, quietly apologizing to her.