My cousin—well, my clone—had officially started going by the name Leonidas.
"Leo 2-dasu," right?
Wait, what? That wasn't it?
King Leonidas?
As in, the King of Sparta?
Who even came up with that?
Oh, right. It was Big Sister-in-Law Uta.
As expected of the elite...
Regardless, my dear cousin was now a celebrity in the army as "Leonidas the Corpse Eater Slayer."
Up until now, the propaganda had focused almost entirely on my own exploits, which had caused a bit of resentment to simmer within the military. But then, an officer who had tagged along with the Space Raiders performed spectacularly.
The Galactic Empire Army finally felt like they could hold their heads high.
They could now claim, "He's one of ours; we're the ones who trained him."
Of course, the high-ranking brass knew he was my clone. However, even if he was "me," he wasn't "me," and that specific detail was a secret that would never be spoken of for all eternity.
And if it isn't spoken of, it's the same as if it doesn't exist!
The military didn't care as long as the credit didn't go to me—the "half-foreigner"—or my rowdy associates. If the achievement belonged to a pure-blooded Galactic Empire Army officer, their pride remained intact, and everyone from the top brass to the low-level grunts could walk away happy.
Besides, I had a feeling the public was starting to get bored of me as "content."
His Highness is so sad...
Leonidas-kun was the new hero of the Galactic Empire Army. Personally, I welcomed the change.
While a construction company was the one that actually built the Palace in Chronos, my name would be the one written in the history books. Indeed, the people's achievements were mine, and my achievements were mine.
I wasn't exactly stealing their thunder. It was just that, hundreds of years from now, only my name and Wifey's name would likely remain. Unfortunately, that was just how history worked. Unless you were a total history nerd, you wouldn't have a clue what the nth-generation head of the Tokugawa family actually did.
Even with the Galactic Empire Emperor, nobody really knew what happened during the era of Maro and the Fairy, other than the fact that they were both idiots.
Even if Chronos were to collapse in the next generation, the name of the First King would endure. Wifey's name would survive as the victor of the Zork War. As for everyone else? Who knows. That was just the reality of it.
And even that was just my optimistic projection. In truth, there was a chance that not even our names as a couple would survive the passage of time.
If we lost to the Zen Divine Race, that would almost certainly be the case. If we triumphed or managed to secure peace, we had a fighting chance. Or a descendant could turn out to be a total moron and burn all the archives, ending our legacy right there.
The number of ruins destroyed by construction companies was as vast as the stars. Politicians had demolished historical sites on plenty of occasions, too. There were countless politicians who left no mark on history whatsoever. The political landscape of Rome was filled with absolute monsters, but nobody knows who they are unless they're a specialist.
The future is an unknown.
If there were still people making a living off of Local Kaiju Kawagon twenty years after my death, I'd consider that a grand success. All I had to do was make sure I didn't become a "King of Folly" or an "Ultra Idiot" whose name went down in history for all the wrong reasons.
Getting jealous of the common folk was a fool's errand. Honestly, after the first generation, anyone who left their name in the records was probably a dangerous person. The ones whose actual deeds were vague were likely the "capable workers" who knew how to delegate everything to their subordinates.
That was the conclusion I'd reached after becoming a King.
So, the military was happy with their new hero. I was happy being treated as the King who defeated the Corpse Eaters. As long as neither the military nor I got too cocky, everything was fine.
Meanwhile, with the success of Unit 28, the Development Department had claimed a total victory. They had already begun working on a more practical, next-generation model.
And—it was the thing I had been harping on about forever.
The anti-ship rifle.
My cousin had even mentioned that he thought he was going to die when the thing shattered in the middle of the fight. That piece of crap weapon that broke the second you used it? It was officially being redesigned for disposable use.
Four disposable shots. After four rounds, the rifle would lock up and become unusable.
The problem before was providing it under the assumption it could be fired indefinitely. Whether it was a missile or a self-destruct drone, you only got one use out of it, so you just carried several. This was the same logic. Once people accepted it was disposable, they would adjust their tactics accordingly.
As long as the strategy was established, it was fine! It was certainly better than a Bolt Thrower. Now that was a true piece of crap weapon. The only reason it stayed in service was because it was effective against the Zork, but its accuracy was so abysmal it was practically worthless.
And so, a depressing turn of events was avoided, and a brief moment of peace returned.
In short, by burying the truth about the clone, everyone involved walked away happy.
Big Sister-in-Law Uta's situation had already been reported to House Tachibana. Actually, it was Melissa—who had a wicked glint in her eyes regarding her sister's love life—who had made the report.
On paper, he was my cousin and a Marquis of the Kamishiro Clan Members. Granted, he wasn't a Marquis who owned a Marquis-class planet, but rather one who owned several Count-rank planets, which put him on the lower end of the Marquis hierarchy. But he was still a Marquis. He was a relative of the Galactic Empire Emperor, and he didn't have any troublesome parents to deal with.
On top of that, he had established his own merit and rose through the ranks of the military. He was an incredibly prime catch.
Whether my sister-in-law would marry into his house or my cousin would join hers as a groom was a topic for future discussion, but either way, the "outer moat" leading to their marriage was being filled at breakneck speed.
As long as they were happy, it was fine by me.
Wifey was currently busy organizing a group of Vassals of the Duchy for my cousin and handling the negotiations. At this point, no matter how much we shook the tree, we could only find talent from within the military faction.
The other day, I participated remotely in the Outer Moat Determination Meeting as the "brother figure," but the whole thing looked less like a meeting and more like a Yakuza gathering. Everyone was wearing their respective organizational uniforms instead of suits, which was the only thing that let you know they were technically law-abiding citizens.
Amidst that group of men with such overwhelming "facial pressure," there was Kawagon, trembling like a newborn fawn...
I'm calling it: stop Kaiju abuse!
The stress was so intense that I could only sleep at night.
So, naturally, I was sleeping.
That was when Zashiki-warashi appeared in my dream. We had a conversation while playing catch.
"What brings you to my dream?"
"Give them the World Tree."
Come to think of it, we had been cultivating quite a few Himorogi-chan lately. We had them in abundance.
"Understood. Saplings, right?"
"Mhm."
I didn't quite get the reason, but I agreed. I would send saplings of Himorogi-chan to my cousin's territory and give some to the man himself. While I was at it, I'd arrange for a Zashiki-warashi Shrine to be built on his land.
I had no idea how that would play out. But if Zashiki-warashi suggested it, it would probably be fine. Hah-hah-hah!
As it turned out, while most priests weren't necessarily successors to existing shrines, there were a ton of people who had graduated from Shinto schools and were just sitting on their qualifications with nothing to do. I had a group of them dispatched to the new territory.
I sent an Arborist along as well. For some reason, there was an abnormal spike in demand for them lately, making the agriculture department a very popular choice for students...
Anyway, that concluded the Incident Report.
"When do you think Big Sister-in-Law Uta's wedding will actually happen?" I asked the Fairy.
"According to Ai-chan's report, it looks like they're still just friends~"
"Oh boy. How frustrating."
"Isn't it fine? Though the military already seems to be starting the wedding preparations."
"That is way too premature!"
"Not really. Since it's a wedding for a Kamishiro Clan Executive, if they don't start the groundwork now, it could take years to coordinate everything."
"Ah... right. My bad."
"On this particular matter, it is entirely Leo-kun's fault."
"Honestly, my bad!"
And so, the truth of the clone incident was buried in the darkness. I didn't really care how future historians would judge it.