576 「That’d Be Nice, Yeah」
Once we cleared the Wellick System, the next stop was the Comat System.
This is the system Chris currently governs—one habitable planet that has just finished terraforming, one planet still in the middle of it, plus an asteroid belt rich in resources, gas giants, and the usual assortment. The colonization boom is still going strong, which means Chris—acting as the system’s lord-governor—is busy as hell.
And even though she is heading to the Dexer System for the wedding reception…
Yeah. That doesn’t mean she is getting a day off.
「I need to get through everything I can while we’re still in the Comatt System…!」
「Go, go—」
「Hiro, you could help too, you know?」
「When you two—who’ve got boosted brain processing speeds—are still drowning in work, me, an unenhanced, average guy who doesn’t even know how your job works, would just drag the efficiency down.」
Watching Chris and Serena’s fingers fly across their hologram keyboards like a storm, I said that and looked away.
Mei wasn’t here, but she was helping process work from the Black Lotus cockpit, too.
「Even with our wedding reception coming up, they’re ruthless.」
「There hasn’t been a major technological breakthrough in communications for a while. Within a system, faster-than-light comms work in real time, but once you cross a hyperlane, information delay is unavoidable.」
「A communications breakthrough, huh…」
The Holy Vuelzarus Empire has tech that makes use of the Second Spiritual Form as a form of communication tech that applies mental resonance abilities like telepathy. It sounds like you need a respectable amount of psionic power to use it, but with that, they apparently can communicate in real time even across the massive distance between their territory and their bases in the Grakkan Empire.
…Well, getting that technology running in the Grakkan Empire would be tough. The underlying technological framework is just too different.
「Hiro-sama, do you have something in mind?」
「Not nothing, but psionic technology’s a nonstarter.」
「Yeah, that’s impossible…… Is that Holy Empire tech?」
「Pretty much. If you want anything solid on that front, you’ll get better answers from Tina, Wiska, or Dr. Shoko than from me.」
Those three traded all sorts of technical knowledge with researchers in the Holy Vuelzarus Empire, after all.
「Either way, it doesn’t seem like something we can deploy immediately…… Hmm. Mei-san really is incredible. Work is so much easier with her around. And with Serena-san helping, it feels like I’m getting through tasks with about one-fifth the usual effort.」
「I totally get why the old Imperials became so dependent on machine intelligences……」
The two born-and-raised nobles wore complicated expressions.
The Grakkan Empire has apparently gone to war with machine intelligences in the past. They claim they have reconciled since then, but that sounds fishy. My personal theory is that the Empire effectively lost, and the machine intelligences publicly took the ‘we serve the Empire’ posture while quietly becoming the true secret final boss.
…If society is running smoothly like this, I guess that’s still a win. Probably.
☆★☆
While Chris, Serena, and Mei kept grinding through Chris’s planetary governance workload, the Black Lotus and the Donner continued across the Comatt System—and at last, we successfully entered the hyperlane leading to our destination: the Dexer System.
At this point, there is no way more trouble could happen. We’re deep in safe territory.
I mean, the Comatt System was safe too—Chris runs it tight, and we received proper escort by the system’s military —but with my luck…
「Been a while, Captain. Or should I call you my son-in-law now?」
「It’s been a while, Earl.」
So where am I right now?
Dexer III—home of the Dareinwald main family.
We descended straight to the planet with no real screening or fuss, then headed directly to the Dareinwald estate, where I’m now meeting Earl Dareinwald.
One-on-one.
「Hmm……」
The Earl raked his gaze over me from my toes to the top of my head.
I’m not good with this guy. He doesn’t talk much, his eyes are sharp, and he has that overwhelming ‘strict and uncompromising’ aura.
…Which, to be fair, seems accurate.
「When we first met, I never expected things to end up like this… Though perhaps I sensed a premonition.」
He let out a short breath and rubbed between his brows.
Yeah. He definitely has some thoughts about this situation.
His son’s only keepsake—caught by a rootless drifter like me, and it somehow ended in marriage.
「Until today… I couldn’t decide how I ought to treat you—my son-in-law. You aren’t the sort of man who fits neatly into the mold of a landed noble’s husband. Nor the sort who can be forced into it.」
「If I’m being honest, yeah.」
I nodded without hesitation.
By logic, if I’m entering the Dareinwald family as Chris’s husband, the ‘proper’ thing would be to settle into the household as its son-in-law and live as a noble.
But can I adapt to that life?
Honestly, I doubt it.
And if someone tries to force it on me… I’m not confident I wouldn’t land on the conclusion of: ‘Alright, I’m taking Chris and running away’.
It isn’t like I’d struggle for money or a place to live as an Earl’s son-in-law. Part of me even thinks, Why not enjoy the cushy, easygoing life?
But I don’t trust myself to pull that off.
The first month or two might be fun. After that… I can already picture myself getting bored and launching myself back into space like an overgrown kid.
Maybe my mindset will change once we have children, but who knows?
「In any case, take good care of Christina. My inadequacy stole everything from her. All I can do now is educate her as the next Countess—and push through unreasonable demands regarding you. Pathetic, really.」
His voice sounded worn out as he spoke, and he placed a hand on my shoulder.
‘Push through unreasonable demands,’ huh.
Yeah. I believe it.
After all, I’m just an honorary viscount—non-hereditary, one generation only. Among real nobles, I’m the sort who’d get called a ‘fake noble’ behind my back.
Officially, though, the appointment carries His Majesty the Emperor’s authority, so saying that kind of thing out loud tends to get the speaker shredded instead.
「Within what I can do… I’ll put my life on the line to protect her. More than ever.」
「…I see.」
「Though, to be honest, the one thing I’m truly good at is using violence.」
When I shrugged, the Earl’s mouth twisted—just slightly.
…That might’ve been the first time I’d ever seen this old man smile.
「Hmph. Don’t sell yourself short. Even if nobles put on airs and pretend to be refined, in the end, what speaks is power. And in that regard, you’re more than sufficient. You’ll manage better than you think.」
「That’d be nice, yeah.」
If everything could be solved with brute force, life would be a whole lot easier.
Seriously.
Authority without power (violent power I mean) is worthless. Peace without power is not peace, it’s vulnerability. Hiro might lose out in plotting capacity, but power to unleash destruction on galactic scale tends to calm down the greed of others.
Thanks for the chapter! Awesome translation as always! May God bless you!
Good news we are getting another book soon, bad new WN on break.
Hopefully the new book has a picture of the Krishna after it’s upgrade.
Sounds good,got all LN thats been out so far.LN 1 to 13 is a blast.love the LN changes too with Tinia story,Serena obvious feelings,Konoha short joining hiro crew(tanuki pet pup lmao).LN 13 illustration of doc shouko after bath scene(uwu)and the unfortunate bunny elf elma(bun XD)mimi bunnysuit and piss off granny celest(seeing mimi in a bunnysuit).also find the meeting with kugi better on LN.Worth every penny buying the LN.
AGREED, I recommend the audiobook available from Google play books. Waiting on 14 due March.
Thanks for the treat.
The Japanese author will be going on break again after his Sunday update to work on his next manuscript.
Thanks for the chapter
Oh dear, Serena got recruited by Chris to handle paperwork. I wonder if Hiro could extend time for them… Though even his own paperwork has been mostly dumped on Mimi and Mei