Operation Alcohol was a simple mission.
The techniques involved weren't just well-established; the blueprints for the necessary equipment were being distributed for individual use.
"Don't forget to wear your protective suits!" I shouted, issuing a final warning.
Unlike the veterans of the Imperial Guard, the students were still green when it came to these protocols. I had to keep a sharp eye on them.
Still, a thought occurred to me, as it often did lately. Aren't these students… more capable than the Lord Groom makes them out to be? I wouldn't go so far as to call them veterans, but they were certainly proving their worth. Was it possible that the Lord Groom's standards were just completely skewed?
After all, he was the kind of man who spent his long vacations attending qualification seminars on his own dime. I had ordered the Imperial Guard to resort to iron-fisted discipline before any of the students got themselves hurt, but so far, only a few had actually been struck. Even then, it was usually a case of a student skipping a step in a procedure because they weren't used to the workflow. The Guardsmen understood this, so their "punishments" were usually limited to a sharp rap on the head with a knuckle.
The Imperial Guard was even considering recruiting some of them permanently. If they were accepted, it would put them on a super-elite career path as part of a unit directly under the Imperial Family.
In that regard, the Lord Groom was truly an anomaly. I wasn't sure if it was his Jester ability or something else, but his high-probability danger prediction combined with ace-pilot-level maneuvering skills made him terrifying. His reflexes had already surpassed those of the Imperial Guard. It was unprecedented for a custom machine to be unable to withstand its pilot's operations.
We were currently designing a Groom-exclusive Machine from the ground up, but the specifications were so absurd that the engineers said it would take considerable time. Even for my own husband, he is unfathomable… All I could do was pray for his safety.
I turned my attention to the monitors showing the city.
Because the planet's environment was oversaturated with oxygen, the city was encased in a shield with a dedicated air circulation system. I could see a vast number of women roaming the streets. Originally, the population ratio had supposedly leaned heavily toward males due to the influence of local microorganisms, but now, there was nothing but women.
Many of them were wearing work clothes. They were likely the former men of the planet. For some reason, every single one of them was remarkably voluptuous. I glanced down at my own chest and felt a sudden, inexplicable surge of irritation.
One of the women tripped over her own feet.
"Ah, she wiped out," Ren said with a laugh.
Perhaps their body shapes had changed so drastically that they hadn't adjusted their center of gravity yet. Looking closely, I noticed people slipping and stumbling all over the place.
I turned to Kevin. "What is it, Your Highness?" he asked.
"Do you people become clumsy when your gender changes?"
"I wouldn't know! Besides, I'm not that clumsy, am I!?"
He seemed to lack any self-awareness, despite the fact that he tripped constantly.
"First Squad, arrived at Alpha," a voice crackled over the comms.
The student unit, led by an Imperial Guard escort, had reached their objective. We had decided to rescue the hostages before commencing Operation Alcohol; it would be a disaster if they were caught in the crossfire or harmed by a mistake. They hadn't been detected yet—that alone would normally qualify them as combat-ready assets.
Almost immediately, the next report came in. "Hostages released. Two targets captured."
…Isn't that a bit too fast?
I double-checked the roster to see if I’d accidentally sent the Imperial Guard. There was only one actual Guardsman leading the squad; the rest were all Officer Academy students.
"Did they use optical camouflage?" I asked. It wasn't that versatile, but it was a possibility.
"No, it seems they performed a standard infiltration on foot."
I realized then that my sense of scale had been warped by the Lord Groom. The students themselves didn't seem to realize how impressive they were, likely because they had survived so many brushes with death that this felt routine. They were already at a level where they could be immediate assets to the Imperial Guard.
"Withdrawing now." They vanished from the area without a sound.
"Ren… what do you think?" I asked.
"I stopped trying to make sense of them a long time ago," Ren replied.
"Kevin?"
"Well, Officer Academy students have high specs to begin with," Kevin explained. "People just forget that because they're so foul-mouthed."
"And why is that?"
"Because so many of them come from backgrounds where their futures are uncertain. Younger children of noble houses who won't inherit anything, or colony citizens like me. Even Ren and Melissa weren't high enough in the line of succession to take over their families. That's why everyone studies like their lives depend on it."
"So they are serious students… then what about the Lord Groom?"
He was certainly serious, but his goals seemed to be heading in a very strange direction.
"Him? He’s just a weirdo who builds his entire life plan around the premise of dropping out," Kevin deadpanned.
I had no rebuttal for that. The Lord Groom truly was a strange man.
"Commencing Operation Alpha."
The speed was relentless.
"Target point reached. Merging with Beta."
The city’s life support relied on an air circulation device.
"Air purifier offline."
"Release the gas."
Apparently, the feminized Humanoid Zorks were extremely vulnerable to alcohol. Even Kevin had passed out after a single taste. We flooded the ventilation system with the gas, and the effect was instantaneous.
The operation was a success.
We began transporting the hostages while keeping the prisoners locked up on-site. First, I needed to speak with the representative of the local residents. I brought Kevin along for the meeting.
"Your Highness. On this occasion, we truly cannot thank you enough…" The representative was a man who appeared to be in his sixties, though he might have been younger and simply aged by hardship.
"Don't worry about it," I said, waving off his thanks. "More importantly, what happened to Baron Caron?"
Baron Caron was the lord of this planet. According to Baron Ohno, he was supposed to have died in battle, but the details were murky.
"T-that… the Baron suddenly grew massive."
"Massive? Are you talking about his chest?"
"No, it was different from the men who turned into women and lost their minds. We thought the Baron was turning into a woman too, but then he suddenly transformed into a giant monster…"
I looked at Kevin. "Have you heard of such a thing?"
"No. I think it’s a new model. Tell me, what kind of feelings did Baron Caron harbor toward the Empire?"
"W-well… he always said… that he wanted to strike back at least once… he said it constantly…"
I had heard that many lower-ranking lords felt that way, especially those who had been forced to govern "dud" planets.
"B-but even so! To turn into a monster! What are we supposed to do about that!?" The representative was visibly flustered.
I had no intention of holding him accountable for the Baron's actions, but I suspected he was still holding something back.
"Tell me everything," I commanded. "If you do, then even if there was intent to rebel, I shall keep it between us."
Besides, even if they had wanted to rebel, they couldn't possibly have allied with the Zorks. Communication was impossible.
"Several years ago… we began preparing for an uprising."
A rebellion. How interesting. They certainly had some nerve to prepare for a war they couldn't possibly win.
"Oh? Surely the Baron couldn't have managed that alone." Had he involved Baron Ohno? No, Ohno was the type to cause trouble within the bounds of reality. He wouldn't prepare for a hopeless suicide mission.
"There was a merchant who supported us. An unnervingly beautiful woman. She distributed drugs that she claimed could turn people into Espers… everyone who drank them turned into women one after another… but only the Baron became a monster."
"Perform a DNA testing immediately!" I ordered.
Under my command, the graduate students began the process. Several hours later, the results were in. It was confirmed: the Ogre the Lord Groom had defeated was indeed Baron Caron.
There was an agent at work here, someone entirely different from Kevin or the locals.