A few days later, I was still staying at the Kamishiro Main House, having finally recovered.
Actually, since the planet was located right next to the Imperial Capital, it was convenient for the travel needs of my wifey.
Wifey had to travel to the Imperial Capital every time there was a ritual.
She claimed that being by my side was much better for her security.
Apparently, even assassins hired by hostile factions wouldn't dare set foot on this planet.
So, for the time being, I was based at the Kamishiro Main House.
At the moment, we were living a life of leisure.
As for territory management, I’d finally cleared the mountain of application forms.
All that was left was handling the immigrants to the territory and some additional soldiers.
Planet Kamishiro Main House had been left largely undeveloped because Duke Sato had done whatever he pleased with it.
Having so much vacant land only filled me with anxiety.
I suppose I just had the soul of a poor man.
When I put out the call for immigrants, the applications came flooding in.
I even received evaluations calling it the safest planet in the galaxy.
After all, I was here, and it served as the general headquarters of the Kamishiro Clan.
Zorks never showed up, and besides, the domestic administration ratings for me and Big Brother Sam were quite high.
We had no intention of exploiting anyone, after all.
Though who knows what would happen if the economy ever took a downturn.
Therefore, the plan was to accept people starting with those who didn't have a criminal record.
I finished writing those documents and submitted them.
With some time finally on my hands, I headed for the bath.
Was it a quirk of the Japanese soul to insist on adding an open-air bath even to a tropical resort?
I took a long, leisurely soak in the natural hot spring.
Huh? A lucky pervert moment? A hot spring event?
You’ll just have to satisfy yourselves with ogling the naked dudes over there.
"Whoo-hoo! Leo, how’s the work coming along!?"
"I finally finished."
My submissions were the only ones delayed, thanks to my broken hands.
Man, I worked myself to the bone to get it done!
While I was trying to relax, a group of guys proud of their physiques were busy striking poses in front of the mirror.
...How stifling.
Maybe I’d head to the sauna instead.
"O-Oh! Leo!"
A few idiots were enduring the heat with pained expressions.
"Ah, Fairy. The idiot boys in the sauna are on the verge of heatstroke."
"I’m telling Mr. Piggett! Honestly, they’re such idiots!!!"
"Don't snitch on us without even hesitating!!!"
"Shut up! Don't turn it into an endurance contest! Are you stupid? Are you seriously stupid?"
Afterward, they were caught by Piggett and the Imperial Guard and hauled away.
When I got out of the bath, I found my wifey eating tokoroten in the rest area.
"Do you want some?"
It looked like they were handing them out at the entrance.
"Yeah, I'll go grab one."
I went to get one from the entrance.
The moment I had food in my hands, the duo of Tatiana and One-oh-one came rushing over.
The two of them stared at me intently.
I felt like I’d lose if I paid them any mind, so I tried to ignore them...
Stare...
Okay, okay, it's my loss.
"...You want some?"
"Yes, sir!!!"
"Give me some!!!"
For some reason, I ended up being the one sent to get more for them.
I handed them over to the pair.
"It's delicious, sir!!! Thank you very much, Captain!!!"
She was a good girl, so I patted her head.
"Nummy! Go get me another one."
I gave the bad girl's head a rough noogie.
"Ah! No violence!!!"
"It’s one per person! You bad girl!"
"Tatiana wants the Captain to pat her head too, sir!"
"H-Hey, s-stop it! Stop saying things like that! D-Don't pat me!!"
Pat, pat.
"Good for you, Tatiana, sir!"
"One-oh-one!!!"
Since her face was bright red, I patted her some more.
"Y-You! You're in Harassment Mode, aren't you!!! Don't touch me!!!"
She swatted my hand away.
After parting ways with my wifey and the others, I was walking down the hallway when I found Claire waiting for me.
"What's up?"
"Come with me."
I thought I was being called out to the area behind the gymnasium, but she led me to the Reference Room instead.
"Look at this."
Claire opened a paper document.
"'Concept for the Annexation of Surrounding Nations'...?"
"I found it while looking through the materials here. It's a physical document only; no digital records exist. It seems it survived without weathering because of the resin coating."
Which meant it was a document from several hundred years ago.
It was in remarkably good condition.
"Fairy!"
"Yes, yes, scanning now! Open the pages."
We began scanning starting from the first page.
"Hmm, this is..."
The Fairy fell into thought before offering a summary.
"Claire-chan, can I share this with Veronica-chan too?"
"Yeah, good idea. Share it."
The two of them seemed to reach a mutual understanding.
I was the only one left in the dark about the contents.
"What was written in there?"
"Well... six hundred years ago, the governable area was much smaller than it is now."
"Oh, well, that makes sense."
Food production, construction, and terraforming technologies were all far superior today.
Even if military science had regressed.
So, I assumed there were significant limits to logistical distances back then.
"That's why the Empire was constantly facing independence movements everywhere."
"I see... Well, that's bound to happen."
If you can't govern, it's only natural for people to seek independence.
"It seems this was a plan to annex them."
Huh.
So the Republic was annexed during that time too.
"Look at the last chapter."
Hmm?
I flipped through the pages.
Oh, there it was.
"'Human Modification Project.'"
What an ominous title.
Looking inside, I saw the familiar Chlorella treatment and the plans for the beast race.
Man, this felt unpleasant.
Terms like 'Dedicated Labor Species' and 'Obedient to Humans' were written with blatant malice.
I really wanted to punch whoever wrote this.
But I suppose humans from several hundred years ago were just like that.
Even today, organizations like the Duke Association had roughly the same level of ethics.
"Look at the following page."
"Hmm?"
On the next page was the 'Outer Space Exploration Type New Humanity Artificial Experiment.'
One-oh-one's specifications were detailed there.
Information about the female-types we’d encountered so far was also recorded.
"Zorks, huh..."
"Probably."
I sent a copy of this page to my wifey.
I read further.
That said, the content was really just some 'ideal future I imagined' nonsense.
It made me sick to think that the lives of so many people had been toyed with based on the whims of some unknown individual.
As I read on, I found a page regarding modified humans on the Empire's side.
Well, I already knew about this part.
"'Peace Warrior,' huh."
The selective breeding of artificially modified Espers.
And I was the end result...
"I've received a message from Veronica-chan!"
I wondered what it said.
When I checked, I couldn't help but snort.
['The child of mine and yours shall be the future Emperor. Those developers probably never imagined they would end up being the ones ruled over.']
I guess that's how it goes!
In the end, invasive species leak out, and improved breeds of humans inevitably interbreed.
Well, this was all information I mostly knew already.
The real problem was what came after that.
"'Mother Zork Project,' huh."
There was an illustration of a woman controlling crustaceans.
What an idiot...