Chapter 10 - The Thing Lurking in the Asteroid Belt and the Creation of a Mithril Ring
~En route to the space zone of the sixteenth planet of the Betasia Star System (Just before arriving at the asteroid belt)~
Sangou was charging toward the asteroid belt located in the space zone of the sixteenth planet of the Betasia Star System.
In that situation, Jin was merely staring at the footage displayed on the monitor on the bridge of the biological spaceship.
The Hero did not feel particularly tense even as the destination drew near.
However, Sangou was different.
Sangou had already begun peripheral detection in maximum early warning mode and was continuing it.
And this was Sangou, who would have no problems whatsoever even if it collided with an asteroid or with debris flying through space.
Well, in the first place, with Sangou's performance, even if the incoming object were an asteroid, debris, or anything else, even if it approached at a speed close to the speed of light, Sangou would easily evade it.
Therefore, a collision itself would be a miracle-level event.
Of course, it would be a different story if Sangou itself recognized them as supplies and intentionally made contact for ingestion.
Other than that, the phenomenon of 'collision' itself was an impossible concept for Sangou.
It was a place where even if Beta One was hidden, others could not easily find it, and even if a fabrication like 'pretending to have hidden it there' was made, it would hardly be discovered.
That was the asteroid belt located in the space zone of the sixteenth planet of the Betasia Star System.
There, many asteroids of various sizes existed at high density within a certain range of space.
In other words, it was a place where it was difficult for ordinary spaceships to even navigate nearby.
What meaning did such an asteroid belt have for a civilization capable of moving through the Gialpha Galaxy by spaceship?
The answer to that question was that it was 'a place highly likely to be a den of those with shady circumstances who want to hide themselves.'
If one could answer the aforementioned question in this way, the answerer would probably receive a gold star.
However, Jin was unaware of such things.
That was why he was spending time on the bridge in a relaxed and mellow mode.
If one were to explain to this Jin in an easy-to-understand manner the reason for Sangou's alert mode, how would it be put?
"If there were an ordinary person walking around carelessly with a considerable amount of money in their pocket in the slums of the Louvre Empire, how would that look to Jin?"
If asked like this, he would understand in seconds, I guarantee it.
"You'd think they were an idiot for willingly stepping into a super-dangerous zone without any caution, wouldn't you?"
In short, that was the gist of it.
However, the current Jin was so strong that comparing him to an ordinary person would be ridiculous, and his defenses were perfect, so he could walk through slums or anywhere else without issue.
In his current state, Jin seldom felt any danger to himself even alone, and on top of that, he was protected by Sangou, the strongest biological spaceship.
Therefore, even if he was about to step into a danger zone in the general sense, even if he was in a state of zero sense of crisis, there was no problem.
In truth, even Sangou did not actually judge the destination asteroid belt as 'dangerous' in the true sense.
Sangou's basic performance was so high that even if surrounded and attacked by, say, a hundred spaceships manufactured in the Gialpha Galaxy, it could achieve a flawless overwhelming victory.
Incidentally, the 'hundred ships' mentioned earlier was not a particularly meaningful number.
Even if it were changed from a hundred to a thousand, the result would likely be the same.
However, it was also true that with passengers onboard as now, full-scale combat maneuvers were impossible for Sangou.
In the end, Sangou's alert mode was merely an insurance action taken out of an abundance of caution.
That was precisely why it did not request the same level of alertness from its Captain, Jin.
In that state, Sangou finally arrived at the asteroid belt in the space zone of the sixteenth planet of the Betasia Star System.
The arrival was skillfully adjusted to be during a time when everyone except Jin was fast asleep.
So from there, Sangou quickly had Captain Jin take out Beta One from his Storage Space and transitioned to a state of towing it.
It swiftly completed a situation where it could head toward the main planet of the Betasia Star System like this without issue.
However, the place was what it was, and with the combination of the Hero and the biological spaceship there, something was bound to happen.
Perhaps some fateful something was drawing incidents toward them.
In short, at the timing of 'preparations complete. Now, let's depart,' an incident occurred.
As if it were a given, the approach of those with shady pasts and guilty consciences was detected by the vigilant Sangou.
Needless to say again here, Sangou was an excellent biological spaceship, and its performance was extremely high.
However, with passengers other than Jin onboard and additionally towing Beta One, it could not possibly exhibit one hundred percent of its performance.
No matter how exceptional Sangou was, even it was incapable of that.
When the ships currently approaching were cross-referenced with Sangou's data, the result was 'a group of super-old-generation modified armed spaceships far beyond antique level.'
Even if such people attacked in a swarm, Sangou itself would have no problems.
However, if the 'constraint' of 'not damaging Beta One any further'—a so-called 'shackle'—was imposed, the story changed.
Even with Sangou's unparalleled performance, the situation deteriorated to the point where it naturally thought, 'This is a bit troublesome.'
Ordinarily, that would be the correct state of affairs.
But, however.
In the current Sangou, if conditions were limited to two—'regarding movement' and 'regarding attacks using the Energy Convergence Cannon that utilizes only energy'—what situation was it placed in terms of energy consumption management?
"By having Captain Jin supply magical energy, doing whatever it wants at nearly no cost is possible."
The answer to that question turned out like this.
And since the other day when the fact that 'unlimited energy supply from the Captain was possible' was discovered, Sangou had lost all restraint toward the Captain regarding energy matters.
As long as Jin was onboard, it was receiving a constant energy supply.
What would happen in a case like this, where various such conditions overlapped?
"That's not 'battlefield' or 'combat.' What Sangou did is called 'one-sided massacre.'"
If someone who could objectively overlook the entire battlefield existed, they would only utter such words.
Sangou's Energy Convergence Cannon's range changed depending on the amount of energy input per shot and the convergence rate.
In normal combat, Sangou would deploy a defensive field, consuming energy there, and had to secure a sufficient amount of energy separately for maneuvering.
Therefore, the amount of energy that could be allocated for attacks using the Energy Convergence Cannon was considerably limited.
But when the Hero's inexhaustible energy supply was added, the story changed completely.
In its current state, it was no exaggeration to say Sangou could 'use energy without limit' as long as its Captain was aboard.
Then, it became possible to make the range of the Energy Convergence Cannon longer than the limit of detection range.
"Even if it's theoretically possible, that's not happening in actual combat!"
A situation that could drive the engineer from the manufacturer that built Sangou to scream and go mad was easily established.
And Sangou's detection range was so wide that one almost felt sorry for the approaching space zone bandits.
In short, those planning to raid for plunder would be attacked by Sangou from a distance from which they absolutely could not attack.
The pitiful bandits were annihilated without even being able to approach Sangou properly.
Indeed, perhaps it was not 'combat' but merely 'massacre.'
Incidentally, the reason they could approach Sangou was that it picked up signals transmitted by sensor devices they had placed throughout the asteroid belt.
"A delicious-looking prey has wandered in."
The attacking side must have judged so.
The asteroid belt was an environment suited for the small ships mainly operated by bandits, and Sangou, at five hundred meters in size, should objectively be forced into ultra-slow, sluggish navigation according to common sense.
Well, reality was different, so from the attackers' perspective, there was nothing to say but 'they picked the wrong opponent.'
Sangou, as a matter of course, checked ship registration codes and sent warning communications before identifying the approaching small ships without communication as enemies and attacking.
By properly following such procedures, at least in this case, Sangou and Jin would not be held guilty.
Even during the annihilation battle against the bandits by the biological spaceship, the seven passengers onboard remained asleep.
The battle situation ended swiftly without even letting the passengers realize combat had occurred.
Taking advantage that nothing would be discovered as long as they were careful about unnatural lights, sounds, vibrations, etc., since the passengers were asleep, Jin and Sangou did as they pleased.
The two of the strongest pair united and diligently worked on throwing all the property of the attacking bandits into Jin's Storage Space as spoils of war.
During that work, Jin recalled that 'common trope in light novel works.'
That was the trope.
"Bandits have no human rights!"
"Bandits are my wallet!"
"Bandits are resources!"
The three words mentioned above were playing in Jin's head.
That being the case, another kind of motivation welled up in Jin.
"Hey, Sangou."
"Yes. What is it, Captain?"
"About those bandit ships we just captured. Take out as many as we can in the hangar, have Sangou analyze them. Is it possible to 'extract their base location information'?"
"It is possible. Shall we do it, Captain?"
"Yeah. Let's do it. There's still plenty of time until the deadline for handing over Beta One. So, don't you think 'it's fine to take a slight detour and earn some pocket money'? In fact, what we're trying to do will 'improve public safety in this space zone,' and I think it even amounts to 'contributing to the Betasia Count Household.'"
Jin's statement was an extremely arrogant idea.
No matter how hard the Betasia Count's military or freelance bounty hunters tried, they 'could never completely hunt down all the bandits lurking in this space zone.'
But that, however.
What Jin said was a statement of 'let's do it easily and casually.'
However, with Sangou's performance and Jin's ability, it was not arrogance but merely an easy task.
That was an indisputable certainty.
And so Jin and Sangou, using the location information obtained from analysis results and their detection abilities to the fullest, stayed an extra half day in the asteroid belt.
During this time, Sangou also deployed multiple survey sub-units toward the towed Beta One.
At the point of extracting as much data remaining on Beta One as it pleased, Sangou was quite shrewd.
Through this act, the biological spaceship obtained a large amount of welcome information such as 'the star systems of the Gialpha Galaxy, major routes, etc.'
Sangou, attacking bandit bases, completed detection and attacked from distances unthinkable under normal circumstances.
Therefore, it performed no so-called 'combat maneuvers' at all.
Additionally, the Energy Convergence Cannons Sangou used extensively this time were silent regardless of how many shots were fired, and they caused no vibrations from recoil on the hull side.
Thus, Rouj and the other six could not sense 'Oh, it just fired' at all.
In other words, as long as they did not carefully watch the monitor constantly showing the outside, they could not realize the ship they were on was in combat.
Well, even if they did watch the monitor showing the exterior video, if it was dangerous, Sangou would probably secretly replace the footage.
Regarding the retrieval of materials, Jin simply sneaked them into his Storage Space.
Thus, the impacts from physical contact, unavoidable in normal salvage operations, did not occur.
In short, even in that regard, Rouj and the others were never made aware of 'what Sangou is doing now.'
The upper limit of storable volume isn't visible at all, but I wonder just how much can actually fit?
The fact that Sangou was thinking like that due to the invisible capacity limit of Jin's Storage Space was probably trivial.
Then, as Jin and Sangou mechanically continued such work endlessly, they suddenly both noticed the same thing.
Huh? Could it be that for the Beta One matter, we didn't even need to be here? Would it have been fine even if we hadn't targeted Rouj and the others' sleeping time? They wouldn't have found out anyway, right?
They noticed it now, belatedly.
In truth, that was correct.
But, that aside, as a result, their wallet was fattened with bandit resources, so the current situation was not bad.
All's well that ends well.
Perhaps it was best to just think of it that way for this case.
The reason they hadn't noticed beforehand was due to the fact that the abilities of the Hero Jin were so ridiculously beyond the common sense of Sangou.
No matter how 'excellent,' even Sangou was not a perfect being.
"Captain. Converted from the purchase price list for mineral ingots obtained on Greta, it looks like it'll be worth about three trillion yen in minerals alone. I'll sequentially process them into ingots that are easy to trade, so please put them in and out of the hangar as needed. I'll keep the hangar entrance closed during processing. You also stored the other spoils including cash, right? It seems the Captain won't have to worry about living expenses from now on."
The duo of Jin and Sangou had, for this case, temporarily but completely wiped out the bread and butter of the bounty hunters in the Betasia Star System.
Their lack of awareness regarding this was actually a bit problematic from a broader perspective.
It truly was problematic, but since they didn't do anything wrong, it was probably fine.
Incidentally, the reason it was 'a bit problematic' was that if the bandits disappeared and the bounty hunters lost their income, they would move to other star systems, but since the asteroid belt itself wasn't gone, bandits would eventually spring up again.
The actions of Jin and Sangou, if the point that 'the enemy were bandits' was ignored, would look from any angle as 'Jin and the others are the ones attacking.'
From the bandits' perspective, Jin and Sangou were the ones who came to steal their goods, making Jin the bandit.
However, of course, those shady individuals had not a shred of right to claim that.
This will be a digression, but let me mention a point that Jin found questionable about the planets of the Betasia Star System.
The question Jin had.
It was 'about the names of planets.'
"What happened to proper names like Earth or Mars? Don't planets have individual names?"
From the perspective of Jin, formerly a Japanese person and Earthling, that was the case, and he felt extremely uncomfortable with the current situation.
Also, the numbering-only naming system for planets in the Gialpha Galaxy Empire felt bland.
However, the inhabitants of this world had a different perception of it.
Specifically, it was like this.
First, in the Gialpha Galaxy Empire, only star systems were given individual names, with the star as the reference.
After that, the planets orbiting that star were simply called by numbers like First, Second, etc., in order of planets with smaller average orbital radii, and it was normal that planets had no proper names.
Incidentally, the reason for using the average orbital radius was that planets orbit in elliptical paths, and depending on the time axis, the order of planets relative to distance from the star could change.
That aside, if individual planet names existed and it became common to recognize them that way, the Gialpha Galaxy Empire would have to manage a huge number of proper names for planets.
Moreover, even if one knew the planet names, without knowing accompanying information like 'which star system and what position?' it was useless.
In that respect, the current common method of planet naming management in this world was different.
The format 'XX Star System, Planet X' was a clear management method with certain benefits.
Let's end the digression and return to the main topic.
In terms of timeline, this goes back a little, but after spending her first night with Jin, Rouj quickly finished a light bath.
Next, to deal with the hunger she felt, she headed to the space used for dining to eat breakfast.
Though he was a clumsy Hero, Jin could use continuous recovery magic.
Therefore, when Rouj showed signs of the physical pain specific to women that accompanies first-time acts, Jin had semi-consciously used it on her.
And now, Rouj was completely free from the 'physical discomfort' or 'pain' she would normally feel; there was not a trace of them.
Thus, there was no objective change in that regard, such as 'an awkward way of walking.'
Well, since there was no pain, the hunger resulting from being too intense from the start was probably a minor detail.
That aside, Rouj's current state had her happiness aura leaking everywhere, so for others, it was 'obvious' that something had happened to her.
At the dining area, Ranju unfortunately happened to run into Rouj in that state.
Seeing her happy eldest sister, Ranju felt a surge of envy.
Thus, she couldn't help saying it.
"Big sister. Is it okay? Father will be angry, you know?"
Her younger sister's overly valid point flew out.
Even so, Rouj was not fazed at all.
"That's true. He'll probably be really angry. But I'm sure it'll be fine."
Rouj had some means to dodge her father's inevitable fury and rebuke.
Originally, what Rouj was planning—'the eldest daughter of a Count household marrying someone without even a peerage'—was unthinkable.
Moreover, regardless of the partner's status, doing anything before marriage was even more out of the question for a Count's daughter.
Additionally, since the Betasia Count Household had no male heir, the situation was even more unfavorable.
But.
However.
The complete extermination of space beasts in the Betasia Star System that Jin had accomplished this time.
This was a feat that the Betasia Count Household could not achieve no matter how hard they tried, unless they used a method with too many negative effects like 'destroying the planet together.'
Though it was an absolutely impossible hypothetical, suppose a common soldier belonging to the Gialpha Galaxy Imperial Military managed to do the same as Jin this time with a solo charge. What would happen?
It would be 'an achievement at a level where a direct peerage conferment from the Gialpha Galaxy Emperor is certain.'
Additionally, the space beasts Jin exterminated were a new species never before confirmed within the Gialpha Galaxy Empire.
Therefore, even the Imperial Military found it difficult to estimate the forces needed for annihilation.
Difficult, but under the condition that 'attacks with enough force to blow away planets or space zones are not allowed,' the enemy was actually at a level that required at least a single corps by Imperial Military standards.
Incidentally, a single corps in the Imperial Military referred to a large fleet composed of ten fleets.
Since one fleet comprised twenty thousand ships, the scale of a single corps was a massive force of two hundred thousand ships.
In the Imperial Military, a Rear Admiral was assigned to command one fleet.
The rule for fleet operations was that a Vice Admiral commanded a half-corps composed of five fleets, and an Admiral commanded a single corps.
Therefore, if one corps was mobilized, it meant 'by fleet command standards, one Admiral, two Vice Admirals, and ten Rear Admirals are deployed.'
From this alone, it was easy to understand the enormous war expenses required.
Also, 'Admiral of the Gialpha Galaxy Imperial Military' was considered equivalent to a Count in the legal nobility, and their pension after retirement was paid accordingly.
From all the above, if Jin's achievements were properly evaluated, it would not be at all strange for him to jump from the position of a common mercenary directly to about a Viscount in the Gialpha Galaxy Empire.
Furthermore, multiple medals each with a separate pension would likely be awarded simultaneously.
Naturally, the Count of Betasia, not being the Emperor, had no authority to confer the rank of Viscount of the Empire on Jin.
The honors the Count could bestow were only medals within the territory's military and the small pensions accompanying them.
Other than that, there was the option of 'granting a planet with autonomy within the territory as a reward, or an equivalent amount of money.'
Incidentally, 'granting a planet' in this case would require the rank of Baron for official appointment.
As mentioned earlier, the Count had no authority to confer peerage, only the right to recommend to the Empire (the limit of a Count's recommendation rights was Baron), so Jin could only be treated as a steward until the recommendation went through.
If the recommendation was not approved by the Emperor, Jin would remain a steward.
Rouj's thinking, considering the various situations described above and also the Count household's current financial circumstances, was that first, the optimal solution was to elevate Jin as a hero and submit a recommendation for peerage.
On top of that, the Betasia Count Household would loudly raise the justification of 'strengthening ties' with the person who personally owned the exceptionally powerful spaceship 'Sangou'—and operated it alone—namely Jin, and marry off their eldest daughter to him.
For Rouj, it should go without saying that 'the final point of the Betasia Count Household marrying off its eldest daughter' was the absolutely crucial part.
"Is it 'valid' or 'invalid'?"
If one frankly asked about Rouj's scheme like that.
This was more than sufficiently 'valid.'
Rouj, with such a scheme, had to assert what needed to be asserted to her biological father, the head of the Betasia Count Household, as a basic premise.
As a procedure, she would first assert that 'her own desires and the interests of the Count household align.'
Next, she would press her father with 'please arrange for the Betasia Count Household's eldest daughter to marry Jin.'
From there, she intended to persuade her father with a behavior called 'Please!' that was essentially a threat with no real options.
Of course, with the bonus of 'established fact' as her strongest trump card.
It goes without saying that this bonus part was 'extremely dangerous for Jin,' but.
That aside, though not as unrestrained as Rouj, there was also the fact that 'Rinju and Ranju maintained a high level of affection for Jin.'
Rouj's two younger sisters had enough affection for Jin that if their father designated Jin as a political marriage partner, they would happily marry him.
Rouj had intuitively sensed that.
Therefore, after somehow managing to persuade the two, she had arranged a talk in a one-on-one meeting with Jin.
If one were to deliberately describe Rouj's actions negatively, it could be said that 'she used her authority as an older sister to suppress her younger sisters and made a preemptive move.'
However, originally the three sisters had a good relationship, and the fact that Rouj's affection for Jin was overwhelmingly greater and stood out greatly influenced the final conclusion reached among the three sisters.
Those were the reasons the younger sisters reluctantly accepted Rouj's persuasion this time, and that was the truth of this matter.
If the three had charged into the lounge where Jin was waiting, the development would likely not have turned out as Rouj had wished.
The 'pocket money earning' in the asteroid belt, which was a complete purge of bandits and looting from them, ended.
Sangou set course for the third planet, the main planet of the Betasia Star System.
Then, Jin, who had nothing urgent to do and was bored, came up with the idea of processing mithril—a metal from a fantasy world that did not exist in this world—to make a wedding ring-like item himself and give it to Rouj as a gift.
That itself was fine, but he fell into a state of great struggle during the metalworking stage.
There was no way a complete amateur with no experience in metal engraving could do such advanced work.
Moreover, the exquisite and three-dimensional design Jin had envisioned was actually something absolutely impossible to achieve by human hands.
In the first place, even attempting it was reckless.
Even if one simply sought an object of the same shape without regard to material, it couldn't be made without using something like a 3D printer, so it was completely doomed from the start.
No matter how mighty a Hero, there were things he was bad at or couldn't do on his first try, and making something physically impossible to achieve by human hands was, after all, too difficult.
In the end, he ended up completely dumping the task on his partner Sangou by conveying the design image.
On the other hand, for Sangou, on the receiving end of such a dumped task, mithril was an unknown metal.
So, naturally demanding a sample for itself from Jin, the biological spaceship began processing the mithril.
Incidentally, Sangou conducted compulsory health checkups on all passengers during quarantine.
Therefore, it had detailed physical data on each person aboard.
Thus, it naturally knew the size of Rouj's finger, so there was a chance for Jin to create a surprise for her.
However, since Jin was also a disappointingly clumsy Hero, whether that would come to fruition was uncertain.
And so, the Hero Jin finished the camouflage work related to Beta One with Sangou, and additionally succeeded in completely and thoroughly clearing out the bandits who had been using the asteroid belt as a base, leaving not a single one alive.
He was completely unaware of Rouj's schemes toward her father, and a certain not-insignificant danger was approaching Jin.
Sangou, vaguely sensing this from the sister's conversation, judged it as 'a trial the Captain must overcome' and ignored it.
That attitude of Sangou's was based on the trust that 'because the Captain is a Hero, he will absolutely not end up dying even in the worst case'—a minor detail.
Will Rouj's scheme succeed?
Can Jin successfully give the ring he prepared on a whim to Rouj?
No one knows the future, but.
Using mithril, a metal unique to fantasy worlds that did not exist in this world, and after dumping the processing of a wedding ring with a design so intricate it would be absolutely impossible to achieve with normal metalworking methods onto Sangou, the Hero effortlessly obtained it.
Full of intent to give it to Rouj as is, without any wrapping, he quickly tossed it into his Storage Space. The fact that he didn't even reach the idea of 'for such a nice ring, put it in a special case and wrap it nicely before presenting it' showed how thoroughly the disappointing clumsy Hero Jin was.