Becoming a cool daddy was a dream within a dream.
I had been given the unreasonable demand to just stay a fool.
In the end, the exact cause of the communication interference remained a mystery. Tatiana’s squad arrived as reinforcements to help secure the area.
"For now, let's start with Himorogi-chan," Tatiana said.
A member of the nursery staff brought forward a sapling of Himorogi-chan, which had been propagated from a pruned branch.
"This is a blizzard planet, though. Will it be alright?" I asked.
"We’ll just have to warm the whole town with heaters," she replied.
It was a bit economically irrational, but it couldn't be helped. We would cover the area with a dome-shaped shield and keep the interior warm. It was a standard procedure for villages on completely frozen planets. We would manage the energy costs through solar power, geothermal heat, or energy ores.
In this world, energy sources were abundant. Some systems utilized the flares of a fixed star directly, while others used ores that constantly emitted radiation. Finer electronic components were still powered by electricity converted from those sources because we had thousands of years of accumulated know-how.
Battleships didn't actually run on electricity, but the mechanics were too complex to explain. I could only really describe the units as energy packs. I mean, most people couldn't explain the detailed inner workings of a nuclear power plant either, could they? It was the same thing.
I sent some of the crew back to the battleship and requested a unit composed primarily of combat engineers and researchers. For communication, we used a beam-type system. Its directivity was so strong that it was difficult to use, but it had the best range. If that failed, we would likely build an orbital elevator and place the transmission equipment there. On the ground, we would use analog communication, which traveled more easily, and have the facility outside the atmosphere convert those signals for external transmission. For the internet, we had to rely on cables and old-fashioned radio waves. It would be a bit slow, but it wouldn't be a problem.
Next, we set up a base camp in the village. They had brought assembly-style kits, so I helped out using my Humanoid Heavy Machinery. I noticed a single-story building being erected.
Apparently, those were private rooms for me, Eddy, and Melissa. Well, alright then.
Once the housing was finished, I had Tatiana establish a barrier. Then we set up a water purification facility—another kit, but we got it installed. That meant we could use the river water. For sewage, we installed an assembly-type system designed for battleships. For a village and garrison of this size, it was more than enough.
Once the shield was up, we activated the heaters. We weren't turning it into a summer resort; we just kept the temperature high enough to prevent anyone from freezing to death. We planted Himorogi-chan in the center of the village and built a shrine for Zashiki-warashi-chan nearby.
We provided food to the villagers and intended to expand the shield's range so they could eventually start farming. I also planned to build a hydroponics factory. This would reduce the incidence of diseases caused by malnutrition during the winter months. Ultimately, properly setting up the infrastructure was cheaper in the long run. The only issue was when a nation couldn't maintain it, as was the case with Lepsitol.
We also built land-based aquaculture facilities. Fish raised here could even be eaten raw. For livestock, we provided the latest facilities. Since the villagers no longer had to rush to make preserved foods for the winter, their situation would surely improve.
In addition to the barrier, I made sure the residents took the Anti-Ghoul Insecticide Medicine. Once those preparations were complete, we started focusing on the search for remains, recovering those that were on the surface. As for the ones buried deep... well, there wasn't much we could do. They would probably turn up eventually. It seemed a significant number of people had fallen into crevices and perished. I was just relieved to find out that my Pomeranian’s digging wasn't the cause.
While we were busy with all that, Berger-san and Kyoko-chan arrived.
It was time to recover the machine. I still didn't know if the Human Final Decisive Weapon "Hope" referred to us Jesters or this specific machine. Regardless, it was worth researching.
There was something else, though—a thought so wild that I hadn't told anyone yet. The route to Rosaria was incredibly long, with absolutely nothing in between. That wasn't necessarily strange on its own, but... what if this village had been the final defense line for the human alliance?
In this theory, the human side had been driven into this region after being defeated by the Zen God Race. Rosaria was the faction that succeeded in cultivating Jesters and continued the fight. The Latarnians were enslaved for some reason, and the Galactic Empire was exiled to a distant galaxy. After that, they completely forgot their origins and indulged in peace and corruption.
Meanwhile, the Zen God Race used Ghouls, Proone, and Zork to dominate the alliance territory, leading it into a warring states period. Looking at it from a grand strategic level, the Zen God Race was incredibly competent. They hadn't made any major mistakes.
However, the Zen God Race itself was an old organization that could only function through bureaucracy. Lepsitol, Parcion, Ozen, Magellan, and even Chronos... there should have been a better way to handle them. Yet, for some reason, they never stepped into the light, preferring to repeat shadow conspiracies. If Parcion had been contaminated that badly, they should have just turned it into a nation of Ghouls. They could have expanded their territory instantly.
But they did nothing. Or rather, they were unable to do anything.
My guess was that, much like humans, their organization became bloated with individual-dependent tasks. Factions formed, and the top-down structure collapsed under the weight of useless meetings, backroom deals, and a middle-man-heavy industrial structure. That might be survivable in a capitalist society, but I could easily imagine them suffering under that within their beehive-like structure. They probably couldn't strip the intelligence from the lower ranks the way they did with Zork.
This planet, with its wild Ghouls, was the ultimate result. They could have conquered this world at any time, yet they failed. Now, there was only a group on this planet that had forgotten even what they were.
The Ghoul sensors were still pointing toward this world. They were still here. Now that Tatiana’s barrier was active, they would surely come to kill me, betting their very existence on the gamble.
Berger-san and Kyoko-chan finally reached us. Kyoko-chan was visibly trembling with excitement.
"Your Majesty! Can I take that apart? Can I fix it? Please give me the Specification Document, the Three-view Drawing, and the Circuit Diagram!" Her eyes were sparkling. I suppose I couldn't blame her; it was unknown technology.
"Once communication with Fairy is restored and we can get a backup, sure," I said.
"Yay!"
Then Berger-san spoke up. "Regarding the 'Hope' base, we have discovered that there are even deeper underground facilities."
"Even deeper?"
"Yes. This is the literature we found. In the language of the Galactic Empire, it appears to be called the 'Pandora Project'."
Greek mythology? Really?
Pandora was the extinction weapon sent to Earth by Zeus as a calamity for mankind, a punishment for Prometheus stealing fire from the gods. He gave her a box she was never supposed to open, while repeatedly telling her not to open it. Epimetheus-kun, the fool, ignored Prometheus's warning and essentially became Pandora's ATM. He became the world's first member of the Monthly 30,000 Credit Allowance Clan.
And Pandora, being an even bigger fool, opened the box. The paradise that was the world turned into a "high-tension" wasteland where violence and death reigned. But because humans were the ultimate fools, they didn't despair in that doomed world and managed to survive until the present day.
Furthermore, as a distant descendant of those fools, I currently had a pregnant wife. A man's foolishness isn't cured until he's dead; there isn't even a hint of a patch being released to fix the bug. That’s just how humans are.
With those bittersweet thoughts, I flipped through the documents.
"An ancient battleship?"
"Yes," Berger-san replied. "It is believed to be a vessel that concentrated the collective wisdom of the Ancient People."
Something truly massive had just landed in our laps. Kyoko-chan was hopping up and down, unable to contain her thrill.