Latarnia was in a total uproar.
How did I know? Because the Empire had started subscribing to Latarnia’s pay-per-view broadcasts.
They had made it viewable on the Proone home world and across the fleet. Along the way, I had even managed to pick up a decent amount of the Latarnia Language I’d been studying.
I still struggled with the nasal “Ngo” and “Nga” pronunciations, but it was probably like struggling with an F or F-minor chord on the guitar. I could manage as long as the speaker went slowly.
I was still a bit weak on the listening side, too. If people spoke loudly, I could tell the difference between an “Ngo” and an “Nga.”
In short, I had reached intermediate level.
That said, I still ended up using a translation app and watching with subtitles.
Man, it was wild. Protesters were surrounding the Latarnia Army Integrated Operations Headquarters.
Latarnia’s governance was a sort of pseudo-democratic corporate rule—essentially Development Dictatorship Level 99. It was a dictatorship, yet their “honor promises even if it kills you” code miraculously kept the government from running wild. The responsibilities of officials, politicians, and judges were pursued relentlessly, no matter where they tried to hide. Consequently, those in power couldn't just do whatever they wanted.
It looked like the kind of country that would collapse in an instant if the balance shifted even slightly, but since they remained a major power, there were likely factors at play that we didn't fully grasp. Things like the level of public civility or the general atmosphere of public opinion.
And that balance was currently on the verge of shattering.
It wasn't our fault, and I honestly didn't think Latarnia had known. To them, the Ghouls were little more than trash; they likely hadn't even realized the extent of the damage.
This commotion... it was like finding out a mushroom everyone had been eating for years was actually poisonous.
Until now, the Ghouls had been so heavily modified that it was impossible to tell what race they had originally been. No one had ever imagined that even Latarnians were being subjected to such experiments.
The Latarnia military was swift. They declared war and launched retaliatory strikes that very same day. Come to think of it, I suppose Latarnia did technically recognize the Ghouls as a nation... or maybe they just hadn't cared enough to check. Well, of course they wouldn't be interested.
Latarnians have absolutely no interest in anyone who can't keep a promise. That was why they had wiped out the Proone along with their entire planet when they tried to default on their debt. Conversely, they were kind to those like the Empire who made an effort to learn the rules—laws, customs, and the like—and sought to formalize contracts in writing. They would explain things to you more kindly than the tax consultation desk at an Imperial government office.
There was no way a people that fastidious—that obsessed—with contracts wouldn't be furious.
They attacked so relentlessly that we didn't even need to lift a finger. The Ghoul Hideouts were being decimated. Latarnia was burning down colonies and planets one after another. The Ghouls had angered the wrong people.
Meanwhile, we were investigating the Parasite Body Theory.
The head of the team dissecting the parasites was a Graduate Student from the academy. He had already performed dissections on Zork and the Proone, and the number of citations for his reports was the highest in the entire biological field. He was effectively the leading expert in alien research.
Naturally, he was the first to start the dissection. At first, he and his Academic Advisor had been in tears, wailing that they wouldn’t make their paper deadlines, but now he was a seasoned pro. Actually, every paper he published was hailed as cutting-edge research, so I suspected the dopamine hit was keeping his motivation high. He had handed the Proone research over to shellfish specialists and was now pouring all his energy into the Ghoul parasites.
“I can’t possibly keep my hand in every field,” he had said, passing the research to specialists once he’d established a rough classification.
That was how the mysteries of the Proone’s diet and teeth had been solved. In a way, it was a home run, but I couldn't help but wonder if that was the best path for him personally. He did the initial work, but someone else got the scholarly credit... it felt a bit frustrating. The military was being considerate, though, and added a bonus to his salary every time he published a dissection paper. He wouldn't be hurting for money, especially given his income as a Count.
His actual specialty was parasites.
Throughout the long voyage that had begun with the Zork War, he had become famous for everything else, but now he finally got to work in his chosen field. He was dissecting at a furious pace. Perhaps because he had spent so long working outside his specialty, his cross-disciplinary knowledge was monstrous. Wait, that wasn't it? He'd studied everything else because he couldn't write his papers without that context? Ah, right. Good work, then.
We watched as he dissected the parasite. Claire was there, and unusually, Aoi-san had joined us as well.
My other wives, Melissa and Ren, had refused, saying it was too gross. According to Claire, however, “You see things like land planarians all the time when you’re gardening.” For her, it was all about snakes, bugs, snails, and slugs. The chicken coops were usually crawling with roaches, and scarab beetles were the eternal enemy. The Farmer Group remained perfectly cool-headed.
The Fishery Group felt the same way; the fishing industry and parasites were inseparable. Fish almost always had them. Thus, the Primary Industry Group watched the procedure with total clinical detachment.
Everyone participating in the dissection was wearing a Protective Suit. Ghouls were known to carry strange diseases.
“Starting scan. Detecting unknown bacteria and viruses. Taking samples...”
Ugh, no thank you. As expected, they were riddled with pathogens. There were bound to be unknown illnesses in the mix.
I’d actually been considering the prion issue with the Ghouls as well. Latarnians and the people of the Ogre God Nation were humanoid. I had wondered what would happen if they ate other humanoids. It was just a passing thought, of course! But in reality, that was exactly what the Ghouls were doing, and they were on the verge of extinction because of it—at least on the surface. They died almost immediately after being captured, and dissections revealed their organs were in tatters.
So, was this parasite the actual host? The parasites could reach 30 cm in length, though the average was about 15 cm. That was roughly the size of a twenty-week-old fetus. They weighed about 200 grams on average, with large ones reaching 500 grams.
That was huge. It was so large that it seemed like it would be difficult to actually parasitize a brain.
“It’s extending threads into the nerves.”
...I take it back. The 'brain hijacking' theory was still very much on the table. Because we had preserved the specimen in a fresh state this time, we were able to find the threads. However, the parasite’s own brain was quite small.
“The threads appear to reach from the nerves into the brain.”
A sudden urge to urinate hit my bladder. I realized then that while I could handle violence, I had a weak stomach for gore. My heart was far too delicate to be a soldier.
“It’s almost like Mycorrhizal Fungi,” Claire remarked.
“Uh, you mean those bacteria that grow roots?”
“Bacteria that transport nutrients like roots, yes.”
The Galactic Empire’s agriculture placed heavy emphasis on fungi and bacteria. The sheer variety of Microbial Materials was staggering. They had everything: stuff for environmental purification, soil recycling, disease suppression, killing caterpillars, alleviating physiological disorders... There were powders you mixed into the soil, liquids you sprayed, and powders you sprinkled on food waste before mixing it with dirt. There was even Terraforming Natto Bacteria. As a farmer's son, there were plenty of things even I didn't understand.
What this meant was that the Empire was extremely proficient in this field. We immediately broadcast the feed to our microbiology experts.
“The brain is hollowed out. These are the same terminal symptoms seen in Proone Disease.”
So the cause of the disease really was cannibalism... I thought as much while sharing the results with Latarnia. To them, Ghouls were just targets for extermination, but knowing your enemy was always vital.
Regardless, I’d been hearing a noise in my head for a while now. What was it? It wasn't the usual communication from One-oh-one or Aoi-san.
『Did you call for me, de-arimasu-ka?』
『Jester, were you calling?』
Huh?