Thanks to Tatiana's sacrifice, the punchline landed.
Now nobody would get hurt.
Spaceport V3 doubled as a full-fledged logistics station.
Small cargo ships could unload freight here and haul it off to Persion or Chronos.
And vice versa, of course.
The massive array of warehouses would be a godsend in a war, too.
Though the maintenance costs were utterly absurd.
We had deliberately chosen to build it in an asteroid belt... or rather, right in the debris-strewn wreckage of an old battlefield.
Far from just debris, there were even antiquated battleships left abandoned out here.
Antiquated battleships that even we knew nothing about.
They were ancient relics that didn't even originate from Rosaria.
Naturally, mountains of petitions came flooding in requesting permission to survey them.
I saw that coming from a mile away.
Be my guest.
Either way, survey fees and maintenance costs just kept the economy circulating.
Money pooling up in one place was what caused problems.
Wasteful spending was justice.
However, non-productive speculative paper businesses, nepotism, and corruption—I'll kill every last one of you on sight.
That was the standard protocol of Galactic Empire economics.
Whenever corruption-riddled civil servants launched projects with half-baked calculations, bubbles formed, the facades crumbled, and the economy died.
And those civil servants were the Duke Association.
It was a world where nothing could get done unless the Duke Association had its fingers in the pie.
Chronos, Magellan, and Ozen had their fair share of bureaucratic corruption as well.
That was precisely why they fell to the locust terrorist attacks.
Taikyoku Nation became so tied down by obligations that it was paralyzed, driven right to the brink of ruin.
If Old Man Eyens hadn't been there, they would have been wiped out for sure.
As for Repsitore, which by all rights had the potential to rule the galaxy, its economic collapse led to its annexation by Chronos.
Mammonism wasn't an inherently bad thing.
It only killed you when you took it too far.
And so, we erected a statue of Old Man Eyens in the colony's central plaza to honor him as my mentor in domestic and foreign affairs.
He was, after all, a remarkable man—the Savior Hero of Taikyoku Nation who had physically hammered politics and diplomacy into Leo Kamishiro Chronos, the King of Chronos, as his master.
We reconstructed his likeness from a photograph taken in his youth.
Right around the time he had first become a eunuch.
He'd probably prefer being remembered from before he turned pirate anyway.
Old Man Eyens had handed me a total defeat and made a clean getaway, after all.
If he were fifty years younger, he would've wielded iron-fisted control as regent.
I held him in the utmost respect.
Taikyoku Nation had a massive reaction to this.
Shi-yun and high-ranking officials attended the ceremony, dropping to their knees to pray before the statue.
Incidentally, I also built a baseball stadium near the statue.
...You can guess the rest, right?
Once the statue was up, Taikyoku Nation volunteered to handle security.
Not because they wanted to play baseball, of course. Their official stance was purely to protect the statue of a prominent figure in Taikyoku Nation's history.
"Let's play ball!"
"WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Baseball... If I let it get to me, I lost.
It wasn't exactly their home turf, but...
You want to hold Taikyoku Nation's all-student tournament here?
Ah, sure, be my guest.
While I was at it, I brought up an idea to Tank-sensei about hosting the very first regional tour of Chronos Grand Sumo.
I suggested holding a rehearsal in a place filled with only our own people.
We brought in retired elderly yobidashi announcers from the Galactic Empire and a company that built amateur sumo rings.
We set up a venue and constructed a ring.
Well, taking it this far practically made it a sacred Shinto ritual.
Ah, this was just pure harassment directed at the Star God.
A roundabout provocation.
Bring it on.
We didn't have scientifically proven countermeasures, but I'd learned what pissed the Star God off!
"Sounds good, right, Zashiki-warashi?"
Yep, time to ask Zashiki-warashi, who was over here munching on snacks.
"In the old days, there weren't any rings~"
Fair point.
Guess gods didn't sweat the small stuff.
Before any pressure could mount to build a pro-wrestling venue, I threw together a gymnasium.
I dumped the whole project onto Tank-sensei and Saurus-sensei.
So, with all these events kicking off back-to-back, we ended up staying at the spaceport for a while.
There was also the doujinshi convention hosted by Rikochi.
Wifey was staying too, bringing Towa-chan along.
Claire's Ark-chan and Ren's sextuplets were with us as well.
At first, I wondered if taking them into space was safe, but we got the green light.
Apparently, their skeletal structures were sturdier than those of normal babies.
Daddy's gonna do his best!
So, I was taking a break, drinking juice with the Imperial Guard.
I was having black coffee. Completely sugar-free.
That was when a guy covered in full-body tattoos walked up.
Normally, you'd think, "Ugh, sketchy."
Not me, though.
Because I knew exactly what those tattoos meant.
They were tattoos for ESP amplification.
They weren't mystic incantations; geometric patterns were etched along his nervous system.
I'd learned the mathematical formulas for ESP amplification once, but I didn't remember them.
Basically, graphical representations of those formulas were tattooed right into his skin.
It wasn't a fashion statement, so there was nothing intimidating about it.
That said, he wasn't just some scrawny kid with a bowl cut and tattoos.
He sported a Space Marines jarhead buzzcut and had a seriously built physique.
Which meant he was an ESP Soldier of the Galactic Empire Space Marines.
In other words, one of our own.
His rank was warrant officer.
"Good work, sir."
If it weren't for the war, I'd probably be around a second lieutenant by now.
He was likely in his probationary training period right after graduating from the Officer University Division.
Thinking about it that way made him feel close in age, giving me an immediate sense of familiarity.
"Warrant Officer Jason Azumi of the Galactic Empire Space Marines, sir! By order of the Galactic Empire Space Marines, I have been assigned to serve as bodyguard and administrative officer to Grand General Leo, effective today!"
"Ah, hello there. I'm Leo Kamishiro Chronos, Grand General of the Galactic Empire. I also work as the King of Chronos."
"It has been decided that ESP Soldiers will be stationed to counter the Calamity God."
Hmm, an officer academy graduate.
His salute was textbook.
Probably my junior.
Until now, the only ESP Soldiers around were the married couple, Edge and Alissa.
Neither of them needed amplification, so they didn't have tattoos.
A regular ESP Soldier like this was actually pretty rare.
"Ah... you can just call me Paisen or whatever."
"I must insist on Grand General, sir!"
Heh, Jason-kun.
You've got it all wrong.
In our outfit, you aren't considered a full-fledged member until you start treating me like dirt.
Calling me a bastard to my face is what makes you one of the crew.
Someday, you'll understand.
And so, with the addition of a new friend—or rather, a new victim—Taikyoku Nation's student baseball tournament, the Eyens Memorial Cup, got underway.
Right. I should invite Charlotte.
Oops, before that, a chat with Jason-kun.
"Come to think of it, there was talk ages ago about developing my abilities, wasn't there? Do you know what happened with that?"
"I am told the consensus was to avoid tampering as much as possible, as botching it and rendering them unusable would be catastrophic."
"O-Oh..."
So that's why I can still only use entry-level ESP.
Sage-ization turned out to be a straight power downgrade, after all.
Well, it's a completely useless ability anyway.
The only thing practical for daily life is psychokinesis.
Even with pyrokinesis, an incendiary grenade does a better job.
A flat ten percent stat boost is overwhelmingly more cost-effective.
"Um, so what's your specialty, Jason-kun?"
He snapped his fingers.
Instantly, an Imperial Guard knight dropped to his knees.
"Pardon me. I will release it now."
With another snap of his fingers, the Imperial Guard knight sprang up and grabbed him by the collar.
"What did you just do?!"
"I merely induced intense drowsiness, Grand General. This is my ability."
"Ah, right. Mental manipulation."
"However, the target is limited to one person. Furthermore, if they brace themselves, the effect weakens."
He snapped his fingers again, but the Imperial Guard knight didn't flinch.
"I see. Let him go."
"Guh... Don't you dare try that again!"
"My apologies. Even with amplification, my ability is only at this level."
Total lie.
Jason-kun... he's Special Forces material.
I mean, that's top-tier utility for infiltration and assassination missions.
And he just laid his abilities bare to me.
Which meant he was truly on our side.
They sent a real serious operator, didn't they...?
He's a top-tier prospect.
"I hope to learn a great deal from a senior who was originally slated to join the same unit."
Yep, my past is catching up to me!
He's a member of the very Special Forces unit I was supposed to be assigned to if the Zork War hadn't happened!
Yep, I see the whole picture now!