The Straw Millionaire, the Cat, and the Princess Volume 2 Chapter 1 part 1

Chapter 1 [Plan, Princess and Presentation].
 

 
On Earth, building a spaceship. Although I had experience assembling Third Eye the combat robot with Mars, I initially took those words lightly…but the roadmap that Princess brought out before us when we returned from space to the living room of our riverside home was far grander than I had imagined, dozens of times over.
 
“With the backing of the nation, we’ll build a spaceship, bring back resources from asteroids, and then build another spaceship. We plan to do this repeatedly.”
 
“What!? You’re involving the Japanese government?”
 
The company Kawashima General Trading, operated by the actual aliens Princess – Princess and Mars, had intended to keep its true nature as secret as possible…or so I thought. But working with the nation meant that part of it would be somewhat exposed. I wondered if that would be okay as I glanced at Princess’s face, and she smiled back at me.
 
“If they don’t seem willing to understand our circumstances, it doesn’t have to be Japan. As long as we have Tonbo’s abilities and the spaceship Psychodragon, we can go anywhere.”
 
Well, that ship could probably carry our family, and if we had a junkyard, we could buy whatever we needed and live as fugitives for decades. Even if we were wanted by the entire world, there would be no one who could chase us into space.
 
“But Princess, can’t we do this secretly like before? It’ll be a hassle if it causes a commotion, and there’s also my life as a section chief.”
 
When Mars said that, Princess waved her glittery, night-sky-colored nails left and right.
 
“I know there’s a risk, but I think it’s a risk worth taking. Even if we get the blueprints, we can’t secretly assemble a main battleship-class ship…besides, you boys, how long did it take you to assemble a robot? The workload is on a different scale.”
 
When she put it that way, she was right. It took Mars and me a whole summer to assemble the Third Eye. If we had to do that much work for an entire ship, we might have turned thirty during that time.
 
“Ah, but there are assembly robots, aren’t there…?”
 
When I said that, Mars shook his head this time.
 
“Probably what Princess is saying is…that if we use those to build it, it’ll be impossible to conceal it, right?”
 
“Well, it’s not impossible, but the question is whether that’s a good idea.”
 
Princess said as she toyed with a chocolate umbrella from the snack basket on the kotatsu table.
 
“If this were my home galaxy, Princess could have asked Valak for a patrol fleet. But for the distant people of Shura, there’s nothing we can do about their yard…”
 
Muttering as if to herself, she peeled the wrapper off the chocolate and pointed the umbrella tip at me.
 
“This is Tonbo’s homeland, right? And Tonbo plans to live here for a while longer, don’t he?”
 
“…Well, yeah.”
 
“Then I think it’s better to just have the entire planet advance into space.”
 
She said, twirling the chocolate umbrella with her fingertip.
 
“To be blunt, continuing this primitive way of life is simply dangerous. If space pirates find us in this state, the entire planet could be enslaved.”
 
“Eh? Enslaved?”
 
When I asked back, Princess took a bite of the chocolate tip and continued with a serious expression.
 
“Seriously, not only would we be unable to fight the pirates…but not being able to escape would be truly dangerous, with the worst possibility being the entire planet consumed as a resource. There were plenty of stories like that in the old days.”
 
“…Ah, well, I suppose we should at least be able to travel interstellar distances.”
 
Mars nodded in agreement with Princess’s words. Eh? Is Earth that dangerous?
 
“For example…”
 
Princess said, moving the broken chocolate toward the pink cup on the desk.
 
“At this planet’s cultural level, just a single approaching asteroid could mean total annihilation, right?”
 
Indeed, asteroid impacts are a classic crisis in sci-fi stories.
 
“They can’t even adjust the axial tilt, causing all sorts of problems, and the other day, they couldn’t even defeat a single snake…”
 
“The Self-Defense Force’s robots were taken out right away…”
 
“So let’s say something like that happens again. When it comes to saving his hometown, does Tonbo have the confidence to just take his family and escape?”
 
When she said that, I became uncertain. Until just the other day, I never would have dreamed I’d ride a robot to fight for my hometown.
 
Surprisingly, humans can take action when they think they can do it. As for what I would do with a spaceship during a crisis on Earth, I don’t know myself. Thinking about it, the power I had with the combat robot Third Eye and the space pirate ship Psychodragon suddenly felt heavy on my back.
 
“So we’re involving the nation. We’ll propose a plan to bring in asteroids for resource mining, and build a spaceship as part of that. In the process, this planet will gain various capabilities. Win-win, right?”
 
“When you put it that way, that might be better.”
 
“Well, whether to do it secretly or properly is up to Tonbo to decide. Tonbo is the head, after all.”
 
When Princess said that and Mars looked at me…I didn’t hesitate long before giving my answer.
 
“Let’s go with Princess’s plan.”
 
When a crisis threatened Earth, it would be unforgivable for me to be the only one with power. No matter how I thought about it, the fate of Earth was too heavy a burden for my shoulders alone.
 


READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT GADGETIZEDPANDA.COM

 
A week had passed since I made that decision. Due to the massive damage caused by the snake of the Tama Four Dungeon in the surrounding areas, the nationalization of the state-owned land around the dungeons in the Tokyo metropolitan area, which had been shelved until now, was announced.
 
[“Regarding the government’s aggressive land acquisition, landholder groups are preparing for a class-action lawsuit…”]
 
“I can’t imagine wanting to live in a place where a huge monster like that could appear.”
 
“No, they’re just trying to jack up the compensation money.”
 
Watching TV together in the kotatsu while eating the breakfast Princess made. No matter how much the storm raged outside, our morning routine never changed.
 
“Tonbo, eat properly. It’s nutritious.”
 
“But I’m not used to this flavor…”
 
“Really? I think it’s delicious.”
 
While I hesitated over the second bite of the hash browns and persimmon omelet, Mars and Princess were gobbling it down. Well, they were from a different galaxy, not just a different country or world, so it’s only natural their tastes would differ.
 
[“In response, the Kidojima governor of Osaka Prefecture, a central figure in dungeon countermeasures in the Kinki region, offered harsh comments…”]
 
“In the rural areas, are the towns deserted around the dungeons?”
 
“I’ve never been there, but I’ve learned there are no towns near dungeons.”
 
Apparently, in rural areas, the removal of residents around dungeons had been completed long ago…or rather, cities were restructured to avoid dungeons since no one wanted to live near them.
 
Prefectural capital cities kept changing, and people rooted in the land kept fleeing. As people flowed into the urban areas, land prices in those areas continued to rise, making it even harder to acquire land around dungeons, creating a negative loop.
 
The festering sore in the metropolitan areas, which had been discussed and obstructed by various obstacles time and time again, finally had the knife put to it after hundreds of victims from this latest incident. And in the midst of this tectonic shift, our company was being tossed about by the aftershocks.
 
“Eh? A flood of applications for part-time jobs?”
 
[“Yeah, it’s crazy. Lots of amazing applicants like graduates from the University of Tokyo and Kyoto University. It’s a real headache.”]
 
“The University of Tokyo!? Why!?”
 
[“I don’t know, but a lot of foreign companies have been withdrawing rapidly after that snake incident in Saitama, you know. That might be part of it, but there are also rumors going around online. Apparently, there are rumors that the mysterious high-mobility robot that defeated the giant snake belonged to Kawashima.”]
 
“People are applying because of an unfounded rumor like that…?”

TLNOTE : My friend just started a space fantasy web novel, and it’s awesome! If you’re into space adventures with a fantasy twist, you’ll want to give it a read


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