I headed to Aoi-san’s hospital room.
I was alone this time—or so I thought, but Raven-kun was already there.
‐I have returned. I apologize for failing to guard my Lord during your stay here...‐
Stop. Stop looking at me with those puppy-dog eyes.
‐It’s fine, really. Consider it a wound of honor. Hahaha!‐
In reality, Raven-kun’s stay had been prolonged because his broken ribs had actually pierced his internal organs.
Wifey had shared the expert team’s analysis with me: ‐Because his recognition as an ally was still shallow, the buff only applied half-heartedly.‐
Man, that was no joke.
It was honestly a bit terrifying that the buffs were determined by my own subjectivity.
Apparently, the effects weakened whenever I was feeling ‐down‐ and my motivation dropped.
Thinking about it that way, hadn't that bastard Amada been taking quite a big risk?
When I asked Wifey about it, she just said, ‐You’ve treated him like a friend since the moment you met, haven't you?‐
Is that so? Really?
I had zero conscious awareness of it.
My abilities were definitely unstable.
Anyway, after checking in with the guards, I entered Aoi-san’s room.
She was in the middle of packing clothes into a military bag.
‐Major. You came for me.‐
‐Are you being discharged?‐
‐Yes, I’m moving to the guest quarters.‐
As we were exchanging updates, Kevin arrived.
He was wearing a nurse uniform.
At this point, Kevin had absolutely no resistance left to dressing as a woman.
It was amusing, so I decided not to say anything.
‐Here, Aoi-san. These are your discharge papers. Please sign them.‐
‐Thank you very much.‐
Come to think of it, even though the Republic was a civilization that had branched off ages ago, we could still communicate in Japanese normally.
On planets where the management of the populace was lax, the language often drifted so much that standard Japanese wouldn't even register.
There were even some terrifying lords out there who thought things like, ‐It’s fine if only the village chief knows how to read and write.‐
...I decided not to dwell on it.
Once she signed the documents, Aoi-san looked at me.
‐Major, I debated whether or not to disclose this information, but I have judged that you are worthy of trust. Please, look at this file.‐
I looked at the contents.
It appeared to be a report on chemistry.
Yep! I didn't understand a thing!!!
As a vocational school student, my knowledge of foundation subjects was inevitably lacking compared to those in the regular course.
Specifically, because I’d taken the electrical engineering corps course, I knew next to nothing about chemistry. (To become a pilot, you needed four credits of electricity.)
I should have brought someone along who’d taken a chemical warfare course...
‐What is this? Some kind of poison?‐
Oh, wait, there he was.
Kevin, who had taken chemical warfare classes, was right here. (I believe those credits were also required if you wanted to be a medic.)
‐It’s an anti-Zork nerve toxin.‐
...Oh.
Something even more dangerous than I expected had appeared.
‐Uhh, I can't make a call on this alone. Can I pass this along to Wifey and Fairy?‐
‐The fact that you seek proper permission like that is exactly why I decided to trust you. Please, proceed with your deliberations.‐
With that, I sent the file to Wifey and Fairy.
Fairy appeared instantly.
Wifey came running in at full speed.
‐Wheeze... huff... puff... just what kind of thing... have you sent us...?‐
Wifey was gasping for air.
‐That's right! What on earth is this?! Honestly, Leo-kun! This is so typical of you!‐
Even Fairy was lecturing me.
I didn't think I was the one to blame here.
‐Aoi, are you sure? Handing something like this over to us...‐
‐Yes, you are trustworthy. If we were to go extinct because of this judgment... then that is simply fate.‐
Even if she called it fate, we really had no choice but to push them toward extinction.
They were just impossible to reason with.
If it had been something like, ‐Cede the territory of so-and-so to the Zork,‐ or ‐Pay reparations,‐ or ‐Apologize,‐ then we could have negotiated.
The objectives would have been clear.
But in reality, they were coming to kill us without a word.
Sariel could barely be communicated with, and even then, it wasn't at a level where negotiation was an option.
That was why we had no choice but to fight.
However, if we possessed overwhelming power... maybe there would be room for negotiation.
...Though I suspected it would be a Maso-game of an effort to persuade public opinion, given how much hatred Zork-chan had incurred.
Oh, but I had no intention of doing anything to the female-types or One-oh-one.
When I thought about it that way, even if the Zork as a race appeared to go extinct, some would survive.
Regardless, weapons that didn't exist in the original work were starting to show up.
This kind of thing was the ultimate power.
‐...However, I do not know if it will be effective against the current Zork. Furthermore, it won't work as a gas. It must be made into bullets and injected directly into their interior.‐
‐Ah, I see. So that’s the catch.‐
It wasn't a magic-bullet weapon, then.
Hmm, this was complicated.
‐I'll send the data to the research lab!‐
‐Yes, please do. I shall order Raymond to convene a meeting of legal officials.‐
The question of whether Zork counted as humans was ambiguous.
That was likely why they needed to hammer out the legal details.
If we discussed it properly and reached a formal conclusion, we wouldn't have to worry even if it became a problem later.
Well, it probably wouldn't even be an issue.
This confirmed that Raymond-san was headed for a death march.
He was frighteningly capable, though...
By now, he was already being recognized as the general manager of military back-end operations.
I suspected that once the war was over, he would probably end up as the number two in the entire military.
Good luck, man!
‐We've... come quite a long way, haven't we?‐
‐Seriously!‐
I agreed with Kevin from the bottom of my heart.
And so, the preparations for total war were steadily put in place.
We prepared our base of operations on Planet Shinagawa.
We deployed countless AI-controlled mobile mines.
They were mines that could automatically identify friend from foe and detonate near the enemy.
They used artificial intelligence to calculate the optimal routes for their automatic patrol.
They were quite the troublesome weapons.
The only problem was that the area was going to end up littered with debris.
Old Man Ohno arrived, leading the viscounts and barons.
Nina-san’s older sister, Lily, joined us as well.
The incredibly competent non-commissioned officer, Huma-san, was there too.
Once the non-commissioned officers were actually deployed, I really understood just how brilliant Huma-san was.
In any case...
Having many allies was fundamentally a good thing.
Would the war with the Zork finally end with this? (Flag)
Yeah, once this war is over... I’m going to live out a super-steamy youth... (Flag)