Chapter 44 - Foul Play to Calm the Empire's Turmoil and the Start of the Investigation into the Terror Incident
～Above the Sea of the Fourth Planet of the Gialpha Star System (Gialpha Galaxy Empire, Capital Planet)～
Sangou remained stationed above the sea of the Gialpha Galaxy Empire's capital planet and, as always, devoted itself to gathering information on its own.
At the same time, it continued to devise countermeasures one after another for the diverse range of matters thrown at it by Silk, and feed them to Silk via sensory waves through its sub-unit.
Why had Sangou ended up in such a situation?
Let us trace the flow up to that point, starting from when Laura requested Shin to have Silk—who should have been an impossibility—appear at the court.
The Gialpha Galaxy Empire, which had suddenly lost the Emperor and many high-ranking heirs to the succession simultaneously due to a suicide bombing.
That massive galactic empire operates as a male-dominated society.
Therefore, with the Emperor and the influential men including the Crown Prince who should have been next in line now absent, the Empress Laura in fact had no legal authority to move the nation's system.
That was indeed the case, but two points greatly influenced Laura's actions and the surrounding acceptance: the fact that she had a track record of having been entrusted with a certain amount of work by the Emperor based on past circumstances, and the fact that the layer of people who should have recognized that as a problem and raised their voices—namely, the senior ministers led by the Prime Minister—had all been wiped out.
In addition to that, high-ranking and above civil officials, who had a strong tendency to follow rules rigidly, had also all died and disappeared.
The human damage inflicted on the Gialpha Galaxy Empire by the terrorist explosives could only be described as "immense."
In short, due to a combination of circumstances that were convenient for Laura—who should have had no authority—the Empress's approvals were not obstructed.
"The surviving male blood relatives of the late His Majesty are Duke Zamaltoria and Duke Radaburg. But there's also Nobunaga-kun, whom the former Princess Pianka married into. Who should we have ascend the throne? It really gives me a headache. And separately, the perpetrator is already dead, but we also need an investigation including the background."
All holders of high imperial succession rights had been simultaneously eliminated by the terror attack, and those remaining were either former imperial family members who had been demoted to subject status or those who had been subjects from the start.
When it came to strong candidates among them, it was effectively narrowed down to the three Laura had listed.
However, when considering the influence of their relatives, those three lacked a decisive factor.
No, to be precise, there was one person who possessed an overwhelming instrument of violence.
If one normally considered the military influence of the pair of Shin and Sangou, that is.
What Laura would recommend for Emperor became "Nobunaga, the only choice."
However, Shin would not exert political power that could actually influence reality from behind Nobunaga.
The fact that it was known to be "absent" became the problem in this case.
And, that aside.
Upon receiving a request that was almost like a plea from Laura, Shin decided to contact Silk and have her appear at the court.
At that time, the sub-unit of Sangou that Silk had with her was brought into the court by Silk herself.
In truth, that independent action of Silk's could be called "a terrifyingly sharp judgment."
Silk, who had been hastily appointed as Laura's assistant, was also a beloved disciple who had been treated as more than equal to Laura's own child in the past.
A woman who had her planned position as the legitimate wife of the now-deceased disinherited Crown Prince annulled, and who had once even lost her noble status due to exile caused by a false accusation.
Silk, with such a tumultuous history, dumped all the cases requiring approval that Laura had handed over to her, one after another, onto Sangou via the sub-unit she had brought herself.
And then, she used a "super" foul play without any hesitation: having all of it—the content of the approvals and Sangou's reasons for judgment—fed into her via sensory waves.
This method should have placed a considerable burden on Silk as well, when processing the information fed via sensory waves in her own brain.
Nevertheless, she carried it out without hesitation.
However, Silk was accustomed to this kind of load and burden.
Because she had been an operator in the past, she had the most opportunities among the women related to Shin to interact with Sangou, and that part worked effectively.
In short, Silk had grasped Sangou's abilities, including the effects on herself.
Well, even so, what she did was a fairly problematic method, though.
"Is that even allowed!"
This was an outrage that would undoubtedly cause civil officials and Laura to shout that if they learned the details.
What Silk did, under normal circumstances, could hardly be called "not a problem" in terms of "information leakage."
From the perspective of the Gialpha Galaxy Empire as a nation, it became that great an outrage.
But from Silk's perspective, there was no problem because "there could not be any information leakage unintended by Sangou in the parts where Sangou was involved."
Moreover, that crucial Sangou was an absolutely trustworthy partner when it came to handling important information.
And that would also be proven by the verification results of future historians.
Information leakage in this series of Empress approval cases did not occur at all, no matter how closely scrutinized later.
"Even if I borrowed Silk's help and we pushed ourselves to the limit, working at full capacity on the approval processing, it would take at least about three days."
That was the paperwork Laura had estimated internally.
That was completed in just about four hours thanks to Silk's action.
At this time, Laura was simply amazed by Silk's paperwork processing speed and the accuracy of her judgments, which were beyond imagination.
The Empress, who currently bore the most responsibility for the future of the Gialpha Galaxy Empire, became from midway a mere presence that only confirmed and approved Silk's processed contents.
And thus, the method of having that serve as the Empress's approval was settled upon.
However, in reality, it was the organic artificial intelligence, Sangou, that had judged the handling methods for all the cases.
As was only natural, this became one of the secrets Silk would take to her grave.
"The cases requiring immediate instructions are done with this. And what remains is 'Who will succeed the position of Emperor?' Well, former Marquis Asada. I am about to confirm this as a formality. No, Shin. Do you still have no intention of becoming Emperor 'now'?"
Laura asked with a straight face Shin, who should have been merely standing by her side as a guard.
"There's no way I'd have something like that."
"Well, I thought so, coming from you."
"Yes. I handed over the headship to Nobunaga a little while ago, and I am already retired."
Shin emphasized that he was "already without rank or office."
In fact, Shin had transferred the headship of the Marquis Asada household about five months ago and had retired from military service as a reservist.
By the way, at that time, Sangou was treated as "taken out of military service as a worn-out ship, and became the personal vessel of the mercenary Shin."
This is an irrelevant story here, but of course Sangou would not stay silent about that.
"'Worn-out ship' for Sangou? Hehehe."
Shin and Kichou, who ended up hearing very scary lines because of that decision, passing over them without being able to retort was probably a trivial matter.
"I am aware of that, so I expected that would be the case. Then, do you approve of having your son, the current Marquis Asada, Nobunaga, ascend the throne? This naturally includes the meaning that 'Shin will back him up.'"
"If he agrees to it. I basically do not interfere in politics. I think I would probably help if Nobunaga requests it, but that would be on a case-by-case basis."
When the previous abdication proposal came up, Laura had received tacit approval from both Duke Zamaltoria and Duke Radaburg stating that they would 'recognize it' if Shin or Nobunaga desired the imperial position.
She thought that 'it would probably still be valid.' However, given the current situation, reconfirming that point via communication was impossible considering the danger.
For that reason.
Laura took action to ask Shin to teleport and bring both dukes to the imperial capital.
Shin brought Nobunaga in addition to those two.
Thus, a discussion was held with everyone.
What was decided as a result was as follows.
・Nobunaga will succeed the position of Emperor of the Gialpha Galaxy Empire.
・As a state funeral, Nobunaga will preside over the funeral for the Emperor who died in this incident.
・Both Duke Zamaltoria and Duke Radaburg will each issue statements recognizing Nobunaga's accession.
・Normally, Laura would be given a detached palace, but instead, she will live in the Marquis Asada residence from now on, becoming Nobunaga's backer.
・Laura will commute to the court and, for an appropriate period, guide and assist Pianka—who had previously married into Nobunaga as a member of the imperial family—in her work as Empress.
・With Nobunaga becoming Emperor, Shin will return as the interim Marquis again (because the holder of the first succession right to the Marquis Asada household, which would become without a head, is still young).
Furthermore, Nobunaga's sons, who were the succession right holders of the Marquis Asada household, would become the Crown Prince and Princes directly due to their father taking the imperial throne.
Therefore, it was planned that one of them would later descend to subject status and, when inheriting the headship from the interim Marquis Shin, would become 'Duke Asada.'
"Five months. Returning to active duty in just five months, no way."
Shin thought such things, but even so, he felt reluctant to push his own way under the current circumstances.
No matter how much he lamented and grieved, Shin's carefree retired life would end.
That was the reality.
Through such circumstances, what was decided behind closed doors proceeded quietly, and both the state funeral and the Emperor's coronation ceremony ended safely.
Thus, Demon Lord Nobunaga was born, and "Tenka Fubu" was completed.
Correction, that wasn't the case, and Emperor Nobunaga was born normally.
Then, the only remaining problem was the investigation into the suicide bombing.
Under these circumstances, Shin, who had returned to Marquis Asada, had no particular position, so he was essentially a free man.
For Shin, as long as he took proper final responsibility, he could dump most of the practical work of the marquis household onto Rouj and the others, just as he had done in the past.
With Laura's proposal, who had anticipated that, Shin ended up receiving the investigation into this suicide bombing in the form of an "imperial decree" from his son.
No, he was forced to receive it.
The Hero was given personnel and budget for the incident investigation under the pretense of supporting Nobunaga, and ended up in a position that could be called a "temporary investigation supervisor."
At any rate, now that he had accepted it as a job, Shin quietly and calmly investigated the perpetrators' witness accounts and daily activities using investigators.
Needless to say, Sangou's assistance was involved there.
Well, Kichou was indulging in idle sleep though.
Thanks to the efforts of the investigators, various information was gathered.
Shin and Sangou were organizing the information from those investigation results.
"Hmm. The social relationships starting with 'what kind of person was he?' And on top of that, we've come to understand the acquisition route for the explosives. But still, I can't quite grasp it."
"The raw materials for the explosives themselves are things that can be bought normally in the marketplace. However, purchasing them in large quantities would feel suspicious, so if we investigate carefully, the acquisition route will come to light. Equipment that seems to have been used to mix and react them to make explosives has also been confirmed from the perpetrator's room."
"That part is fine. The problem is the motive."
"What do you mean?"
"These two. They aren't originally from the Free Democratic Alliance star system. But at some point, they came into contact with some remnants of an organization there. No matter how much I investigate, things like 'why did they end up being used to suicide bomb?' or 'what is the current state of the remnant organization?' I have no idea about those circumstances."
"They gained an audience with the Emperor by the achievement of 'preventing a large-scale terror attack planned by the remnant organization,' right? As far as the investigation results show, all personnel of this remnant organization are recorded as dead, and there is evidence like bodies, so I cannot think there is any deception there."
Shin and Sangou were seriously discussing while looking at the information, but Kichou was just sleeping, thinking "Humans sure have it rough."
It seemed that the pet slot was not required to do the work of "investigating the perpetrator."
However, its intelligence itself was high, so if it tried, Kichou could demonstrate considerable reasoning ability and species-specific intuition.
Even with Shin's skills as a Hero and Sangou's exceptional abilities, they were just that—they did not possess special abilities that would be directly useful for this kind of investigation.
Therefore, the reality was that it was difficult to achieve outstanding results in a short period.
Heroes and bio-ships are not omnipotent.
Well, that aside.
Under such circumstances, cases that at first glance seemed like unrelated matters would easily come to Shin.
That part was probably also a gift of the power of fate that a Hero possessed.
"Shin, help~"
A sudden and overly concise video recording contact came in from Mechamille.
Of course, because the information on the space region from which it was transmitted was attached, it was easy to figure out "where the useless goddess was now."
That was, to put it simply, "a corner of an unexplored space region at a level of distance that was no joke."
"What did she screw up this time?"
While thinking that, Shin carried out an ultra-long-distance teleportation magic to the place that seemed to be Mechamille's current position, putting Sangou into the shadow.
This was the most effective countermeasure that only Shin could take under circumstances where real-time communication was impossible.
Conversely,
Mechamille knew that was possible for Shin.
Given that premise, this kind of contact from the useless goddess actually had an extremely high possibility that she had fallen into a situation that could only be handled by the pair of Shin and Sangou.
That point was one of the reasons Shin chose to immediately use ultra-long-distance teleportation magic.
The Hero, who rushed to Mechamille's location in that flow, first heard the situation from her.
Was this whole flow because Mechamille was a goddess?
For some reason, Shin could not choose to "rebuff her and not help," which was perhaps strange.
"The supply unit messed up, and my fleet can't move. It's not my fault!"
Listening to the situation in detail, it was indeed the result of the dispatch destinations being mistaken multiple times by the supply unit.
When Mechamille first gave the supply instructions, the dispatch destination was not wrong.
To add, at the stage when Mechamille decided to contact Shin, if she had chosen rescue through formal procedures with the Imperial Military, it would have been unavoidable that her unit would suffer great losses due to material shortages.
In other words, there were no mistakes in the respective choices of Mechamille and Shin after the situation was discovered.
"Wait, you. The dispatch destination on the final permit is wrong, but you signed it properly, didn't you!"
"I misread it because they look similar! I gave the initial instructions properly, so this is the logistics department's fault!"
"No, wait. That reasoning doesn't make sense. Sure, the logistics department probably made a mistake. But still, since you did the final confirmation, the responsibility is yours!"
"I'm in trouble, Shin. Put the small details aside and just help me~"
"Even after ten years, the useless goddess remains a useless goddess without growing up. And I've hit a dead end in the investigation I'm handling."
Shin, who wanted to sigh inwardly, still helped Mechamille, pretending to transport fuel and other supplies with Sangou.
Well, it was true that there was a saying "Kindness is never wasted," and the fact that that help would not be completely wasted was perhaps typical of Shin, who possessed a Hero's power of fate.
A certain unexplored space region near the outer edge of the Gialpha Galaxy.
In such a space region far from the capital planet, Sangou was supplying provisions to Imperial Military warships.
Then why was Sangou doing such a thing?
The reason was that it was engaged in replenishment activities together with Shin to cover for Mechamille's blunder.
At this time, Shin's Storage Space ability was being fully utilized secretly on Sangou's ship, but it was not recognized by outside humans.
No matter how abnormal the amount of supplies Sangou brought, the Imperial Military recognized it as "a bio-ship with abnormal performance from the start," and the full extent of its capabilities was shrouded in mystery.
Therefore, they had no choice but to accept it as it was.
In the first place, what would happen if they pointed out Sangou's abnormality and complained?
Then, it was clear that they would be the ones troubled if the supply of provisions was stopped.
Even though they were soldiers, people are creatures that can conveniently not see or not notice things, albeit under the condition of 'if the situation permits.'
That aside, Sangou had leeway even during such work.
Therefore, it was also making small talk with the captain on the bridge.
"She is a 'goddess' in name, right? Mechamille. But for that, don't you think she has too many 'failures' or 'screw-ups'?"
"I think that's true. But you know, in the first place. If she weren't that kind of crappy useless goddess, she wouldn't have been exiled from another world to the Gialpha Galaxy."
The evaluation of Mechamille by Shin and Sangou was harsh.
Going to aid the goddess's screw-ups was obvious to anyone from Sangou's earlier "too many" remark, but this was not the first time.
Therefore, that was also to be expected, though.
However, the problem was that this small talk was taking place on Sangou's bridge, where Mechamille had come.
"Um, about that. My wish is, 'Could you at least talk about that when I'm not around?'"
"Denied! I'll consider it when your 'help~' calls to me drop to three times a year or less."
"That's harsh! I am a real Goddess-sama, you know! You could show a little more respect!"
Adding '-sama' to herself, she really was a pitiful useless goddess.
However, that might not be something the pitiful Hero Shin could say.
"Yeah, yeah. Say that after you can do things befitting a goddess."
"I'm still not there, but my power is increasing. The power flowing in from Delly-san's star is no joke. That kind of good-case scenario. I wonder if there are any others somewhere?"
"As if there could be such things all the time! More importantly, you're a soldier now, not a student on long vacation. Even if there were such cases, you couldn't participate!"
"That's where you come in, see. Shin, you negotiate and work hard!"
As usual, an unreasonable demand came from Mechamille.
Well, since his son had become Emperor, with Shin as he was now, it might not be completely impossible, which might be a bit troubling.
"Despite having high abilities in various ways, why is she so pitiful? I don't know what world she'll go to next, but wouldn't it be bad to return this kind of person to the role of 'world administrator'?"
As Shin who knew the reality of Mechamille deep in his bones, he couldn't help but think that.
It was easy to imagine her causing failures and trouble in the world she went to.
"By the way, how are things going on your end? Seems like there's a lot going on."
"Listen. If you think it's 'tough,' don't come relying on me! I'm busy with the suicide bombing investigation over here. But well, honestly, I'm frustrated because there's no progress."
"Heeh~ A suicide bombing. What kind of incident investigation? Can you tell me?"
At this time, Mechamille thought that 'what Shin was doing was not the terror incident that killed His Majesty the Emperor, but that there was a different terror incident, and he was investigating that.'
Because Shin had not received specialized training in incident investigation, she did not think he would be entrusted with investigating a national-level important case.
Of course, Mechamille's assumption was not entirely unreasonable, but in conclusion, it was merely a misunderstanding.
"Hmm? It's an investigation of the perpetrator of the Emperor's assassination. Do you want to know the details?"
"I've suddenly strongly come to want to refrain from knowing the contents~"
With that remark from Mechamille, Shin's evaluation of her changed.
"Her crisis detection is as sensitive as ever, it seems. I guess it's 'even a rotten goddess is a goddess.' Of course, she's not actually rotten, though."
At such a moment, 'the evaluation of Mechamille' was revised upward.
Well, since she was a useless goddess, the story didn't end just there.
"You must be having a tough time, Shin. For something like that, if I used past sight, most incidents would have their outline easily--"
"Hey, wait. I want to know more about that 'past sight' ability. Come on, confess about that part."
Even though she should have retreated having sensed danger sensitively, she made a slip of the tongue that jumped into the danger zone herself, which was just like a useless goddess.
Shin did not miss the 'important power word' included in Mechamille's remark.
The man who had been assigned the incident investigation as a job by Laura did not let her finish her jesting remark, and grabbed Mechamille's shoulder firmly and shook her violently.
"Um. Peeping into the various things of criminals and investigative agencies. That's the entertainment of world administrators. But it's hard to detect and keep watching before an incident occurs, and if you chase it in real time, the time needed to watch becomes long, right? So after an incident occurs, I look back at past situations. With this, I can skip unnecessary parts like fast-forward, and I can watch only what I want. This is an ability called 'past sight' that all of us can use."
The excellent thing about this ability is that it can track the past by fixing on people or things, not places.
The viewpoint can also be switched arbitrarily, such as overhead view or the person's own perspective.
In short, it could be called a 'meticulously detailed ability.'
"So what? Does that mean 'you can peep into the past of a specific person arbitrarily if you want'? Can you peep into mine, for example?"
"Ah, yours is impossible. Sangou-san's and Kichou-san's seem impossible too. At least for me."
"Hoh. Is that true? What logic makes it so?"
"Yes, it's true. Because it's an ability that cannot be used on beings with a high rank of existence. And also, in this world, it's an ability that can't be used casually in the first place. Because when you're here, it consumes a considerable amount of power that can't be easily recovered."
"I see, I see. And, just to confirm. That 'consumed power'—if I transfer magical power, that would cover it, right?"
Due to various things that had happened between him and Mechamille so far, Shin was convinced that the source of her power was something close to magical power.
Hence, such a remark came out.
However, strictly speaking, the two are 'different things,' but that assumption cannot be simply called 'wrong.'
Because magical power and divine power can be converted into each other if one has the ability to convert.
However, there is loss during conversion, so it's not efficient.
Especially converting from magical power to divine power would disregard efficiency.
Therefore, doing that is not very realistic in principle.
In things, there is no causal relationship between 'can do' and 'is it practical?'
Well, that aside, Shin clearly directed a gaze at Mechamille that said 'I'll never let my prey escape again.'
"Ahaha. It can cover it, technically. But there's no way a human has that much magical power. Huh? Considering the distance you can teleport. Huh? Wait. No matter how high the rank of existence becomes, a human shouldn't be able to have that much magical power or handle it!"
The conversion ratio when trying to supplement with magical power to divine power is that using 100 million magical power gets only 1 divine power.
Including the loss from conversion, the conversion efficiency is ridiculously bad.
By the way, to give an easy-to-understand example of the state of magical power reserves, Markarin, who was the chief mage of the Orze Kingdom in that world with the Louvre Kingdom, had about 800 magical power.
Even if a Hero summoned to that world grew normally with a magic specialization, the limit would fall within the range of about 100 times Markarin's, so the specific magical power amount would become around 80,000.
"Get replenished from human magical power, convert it, and wield divine power? That's downright ridiculous."
Even if Mechamille thought so, it was at a reasonable level.
Even if she were to continuously drain all of the magical power that recovers over time to accumulate divine power,
just how much time would that take?
In other words, based on common sense assumptions, it could not be called 'wrong' at all.
However, if this became 'a story limited to Shin as the provider of magical power,' the answer would naturally differ.
Shin had the Origin of Dragon Vein fused with his soul, so he possessed the skill of instant magical power recovery, i.e., inexhaustible magical power.
As long as he had that, he could even supply magical power infinitely if he took the time.
And for Mechamille to use the past sight ability, she would consume divine power for activation and maintenance.
However, from Shin's supply capability, it became a level of no problem at all.
Shin was not aware, but at least regarding his magical power amount, he had already deviated completely from the framework of 'Hero.'
"After this supply work is done, I'll have you 'help out' with my investigation. Think of it as repaying even a little of the debt you owe me and the others so far. That should only be 'happy,' right? Right?"
At this time, Shin was in a completely locked-on state, having evolved into a 'man who would never let Mechamille escape.'
And separately, though not directly related here, it wasn't just Shin or Kichou that evolved.
"Captain. Sangou's performance is increasing. Maneuverability, travel speed, and others, but the basic performance has improved compared to the time of manufacture. Due to some influence other than improvement through experience, a performance increase of unknown cause has occurred."
The day when Shin received such a report from Sangou.
That time was not far off, and was in fact quite close.
Thus, the Hero Shin responded to Laura's request and asked Silk for cooperation in appearing at court, and Silk successfully overcame the crisis of the Gialpha Galaxy Empire by relying on Sangou's abilities.
Separately, Shin, who was asked to investigate to uncover the full picture of the terror incident that succeeded in killing the Emperor, showed a willingness to cooperate even though it was not his strong suit, partly because his son had ascended the throne.
However, the investigation, which was not suited to the abilities of either Shin or Sangou, ran into difficulties.
Then, with the occurrence of cleaning up after Mechamille's screw-up, a glimmer of hope appeared for the seemingly unrelated difficult investigation—the power of fate held by a Hero was terrifying.
However, it also became clear that would require an enormous amount of magical power.
Would Mechamille's 'past sight' ability truly reveal the full picture of the suicide bombing that assassinated the Emperor?
In the first place, could that 'past sight' be used without any problems?
Also, what was the cause of Sangou's performance improvement in the near future?
No one knew the future.
The Hero was very surprised that Sangou easily responded to Silk's request and showed a willingness to cooperate without a captain's order.
When he later confirmed that point with Sangou, he was asked along with a long explanation: "Captain, there is no way you would refuse a request from your wives, led by Rouj-san, for something within Sangou's capability and not order Sangou to do it. Also, Silk-san is still registered as an operator. She has not been deleted. In addition, the content of the request itself could have been, under the circumstances, part of the information gathering that Sangou was ordered to do by the captain at that time. For these reasons, I have granted Silk-san's request without needing to confirm with the captain. This case was within Sangou's current discretion, but would you like to change the basic settings to strengthen the captain's authority?" Thus, Shin, convinced, chose to maintain the current status.