Original Text: [scans]

Yeah, another pro/epilogue–they’re short and don’t require reading other parts of the novel to figure out what’s going on, so basically they require less efforts than other sections. Also Innovators. Anyway, ITC Ribbons is an fabulously arrogant motherfucker:

When he deftly swirled the wine glass in his right hand, light reflected off the liquid in the glass and gave off a ruby-colored radiance.
Ribbons sat on the living room sofa, calmly enjoying the color and fragrance [of the wine]. From time to time, he would savor it in his mouth while listening to the news program on the television monitor before him.
Later, a follow up report connected to “Break Pillar,” the Africa Tower collapse incident, came on. Today they were reporting on the reconstruction progress. After the segment with the reporter at the construction site ended, it cut to interviews with citizens.
They were all saying the same thing. That because the anti-government forces were responsible for such a huge accident, they should have to make up for it. And that so that something like this couldn’t happen again, maybe military spending needs to be increased….
Ribbons rested the wine glass on his knee, and suddenly smiled.
“Humans” don’t understand anything.*
Though I guess they were led to that point by strict information control after all.
But, I can’t help but laugh at how predictably public opinion changed.
Originally, the Memento Mori’s angle of fire was shifted to attack the lower-orbital station. When I found out that it had only grazed the surface of the orbital elevator, I couldn’t shake the unpleasant feeling that it was missing the finishing touch.

But, just looking at the results like this, public will was manipulated according to plan and the reconstruction of the orbital elevator is moving along smoothly.
Thanks to that the A-LAWS’ popularity has swelled, they’ve become the world’s heroes. If you think about it that way, I wonder if I should be thankful to Celestial Being, he thought.**
…Thankful?
…ME?
Impossible.
Ribbons leisurely crossed his legs.
The plan is continuing well.
Before long the Federation Citizens’ wishes will be united and the world will be unified.
In order to pull the final trigger, I must bring ruin to Celestial Being and sweep away the anti-government forces.
I’ll leave that to Revive and Hiling, [since] they’re deployed to the A-LAWS.
Because the precise location of Ptolemaios 2 is being leaked.
I’d like to get my hands on the technology Aeolia left behind––the Twin Drive System which was implemented in the 00 Gundam, I’m not asking for too much.***

If only obstacles to the plan wouldn’t appear.
But if I looks like won’t get my hands on it, I’ll just destroy it.
Regene seems to be stealthily working on something with Wang Liu Ming, but I’ll let him do as he pleases for the moment.
After all, there’s nothing they can do.
Watching them run around like chickens with their heads cut off is amusing too.
Brushing his light green bangs [out of his face] with his fingers, he widened his smile. His eyes were glowing gold.
….The revolution is beginning.
Holding up his wine glass, Ribbons gazed at the world through the deep crimson liquid with his glowing eyes.
The four months after “Pillar Break” were passing quickly––

Notes:
Thoughts in italics again because Japanese doesn’t like differentiating 3rd person narration and 1st person internal monologue again.
*- ニンゲン: ‘human’ written in katakana instead of kanji, I put it in quotes for lack of a better idea of what to do with it. He does this with 人 too more often than not. Given that this is Ribbons we’re talking about, I tend to read it as contemptuous/insulting tone.
**- Could be “I think” at the end (or however that would fit into the sentence better), it’s separated out by a comma from the rest of the line so I thought it might have been a “lol that was a 3rd person quotation the whole time but I didn’t bother to tell you until the end because Japanese :D”
***- あまり無理は言うまい:  Really not all that sure of this phrase. あまり keeps throwing me off and this is my first time seeing that -まい ending.