The Royal Progress for Public Awareness
While it’s certainly beautifully constructed, I honestly can’t help but wonder what the dukes and nobles would say if they knew this was a hangar. It’s a cause for concern for us commoners.
The event has been set up as an elegant standing buffet party.
I’m also greeting various nobles here and there, trying to fulfill Her Highness’s wishes.
During this time, I’ve noticed something interesting: there seems to be a difference in how the nobles and their attendants look at Her Highness.
Most of them have an expression that suggests they’re just humoring Her Highness’s hobby, bordering on disrespect.
However, a small number give off a distinctly odd vibe.
I’m not sure how to describe it, but at the risk of being misunderstood, I’d say some of them seem to have emotions similar to the pirate bosses we’ve faced before.
I wasn’t sure if I should report this to Her Highness, so for now, I only mentioned it to James, the head of the Information Department.
“As expected, Captain. You noticed it too. I share your thoughts, so we’ll keep an eye on them. Her Highness is probably using this opportunity to smoke them out as well.”
Things took a rather ominous turn, but at least no incidents occurred during this party.
While all the nobles praised the luxurious interior when shown around the ship, it seems none of them saw it as a warship.
During the demonstration, we fired the main laser cannon at reduced power, like a salute, but they seemed to view it as if it were a toy.
I definitely felt they were underestimating us, but since Her Highness had asked us to do it this way beforehand, we left it at that, even though it didn’t feel like much of a demonstration.
The four-hour shipboard party hosted by Her Highness ended safely.
After all the dukes disembarked, I collapsed right there on the spot.
I was exhausted.
Her Highness was worried, but I asked Meyrica and the others to handle the cleanup while I rested in my quarters.
In any case, the Preparatory Office for the Establishment of the Interstellar Criminal Police Organization, as envisioned by Her Highness, has begun its work.
To start with, for domestic awareness, we’ll be visiting each star system to introduce ourselves.
This was just the first stop.
Although this wasn’t in Her Highness’s original plan, it seems to have worked out well.
Above all, we’ve identified several potential issues in advance.
Her Highness had thought that since this was the royal home territory, simply announcing it in the official gazette would be sufficient. But precisely because of that, no one here openly showed hostility towards Her Highness.
It was the perfect environment for a practice run.
This is the capital star system, Her Highness’s home turf.
Even though it wasn’t an away game, I honestly think no one truly agreed with Her Highness’s ideas, but she seemed to be aware of this and wasn’t bothered by it.
Instead, she warned us to be careful in other star systems we’ll visit, as some people might openly show hostility towards us.
Especially in regions bordering enemy nations, we’ll be completely on foreign ground.
Yet even here, in Her Highness’s home territory, there were a few who opposed her.
Once we leave the capital star system, as Her Highness warned, we might face open hostility. Naturally, this extends to us under her command, especially to a novice like me.
Even at the recent party, I felt the hostility directed at me was bordering on lèse-majesté.
Although the start was full of uncertainties, the royal progress continued, and after a month, Her Highness finally completed her visits to each star system.
During this time, the office, or rather each department, wasn’t idle.
Work had begun at the office side since the first shipboard party.
Even while we were traveling, the heads of the Investigation and Information Departments were constantly in communication with the main office from a room aboard the [Shunmin], starting their work.
They were marking suspicious individuals based on impressions from the parties in each star system and on board, and the Information Department was narrowing down their focus.
The Investigation Department, for its part, was looking into unsolved cases within each star system, focusing on suspicious ones.
Amidst all this, based on information gathered from our first visit to Nihonium, Her Highness’s cruiser was dispatched there last week to conduct investigations.
Information is constantly being sent to the room where the head of the Investigation Department is holed up on our ship.
I heard that Mr. Ferman, who had parted ways with us, is commanding the investigation team aboard Her Highness’s cruiser sent to Nihonium.
Currently, the investigators are using the cruiser docked at Nihonium as their base of operations.
Well, they can’t keep using Her Highness’s cruiser as their investigation headquarters indefinitely, so I hear Her Highness plans to visit Nihonium again soon to formally request cooperation.
Given that the royal progress lasted a month, Her Highness apparently needs to report to the royal palace. I heard that as soon as the report is finished, we’ll head to Nihonium.
After dropping off Her Highness, I started inspecting the ship.
While I was checking around the captain’s seat on the bridge, Kasumi called out to me.
“Captain, may I make a request?”
“A request? What is it?”
“Yes, we’ll be having investigators and intelligence officers on board again, right?”
“Ah, yes, that’s the plan. I hear we’ll soon have some rough-looking folks called the task force on board too. What about it?”
“Well, Kaori from communications mentioned it too, but this ship’s communication usage is off the charts. I’m having trouble using it when I need to. Could we upgrade our communication equipment?”
“For things like that, you need to submit a proper request form. I’ll review it and pass it on to Her Highness.”
“Wow, Captain, you really know your stuff! I’ll prepare the request form right away.”
With that, Kasumi dashed off to her room.
Is this check done already?
Will it be okay?
Well, Kasumi doesn’t cut corners, and we haven’t been in any combat, so it should be fine.
I guess I’ll wrap things up here too.
I quickly finished checking the various parameters from the captain’s seat and returned to my room to rest.
However, I never feel at ease in this room, no matter how many times I come here.
Maybe I should move to one of the empty second-class guest rooms.
Even there I wouldn’t feel comfortable. It’s really troublesome.
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The next day, thanks to Maki’s arrangements, we completed resupplying and were ready to depart at any time.
Kasumi’s request form arrived promptly, so I passed it on to Maki, but it’s currently on hold due to unclear budget figures.
Maki immediately sent a request for an estimate to the company president, which is truly impressive.
In the evening, we received a call from Her Highness asking, “When can we depart?” I replied that we could leave anytime, and Her Highness arrived an hour later.
Although I thought it might be problematic, we departed immediately as per Her Highness’s request.
Six hours after departure, we entered Nihonium’s control zone.
“Your Highness, we’ll be entering the spaceport soon,”
I reported to Her Highness, who was seated behind me.
“Oh, is that so? But the offices will be closed at this hour, won’t they?”
The time was just past 10 PM.
We had departed just before 4 PM, so by normal standards, we had arrived quite early.
It would have made sense to start moving first thing in the morning, but for some reason, Her Highness had us depart in a hurry.
“We’ll rest at the spaceport tonight. This ship is comfortable, so there’s nothing to worry about.”
“In that case, we could have adjusted our timing en route…”
“Everyone can’t rest while we’re flying, right? So please proceed to dock as planned. Our security staff should be sufficient while we’re parked at the dock.”
“Well, that’s not quite… Even when docked, we need a minimal crew on duty. Especially in places like the bridge and engine room, we’ll have watch officers. However, I’m grateful for Your Highness’s consideration. There’s a world of difference between the number of watch officers needed during docking and during operation, so it’s a great help for us who are not used to this.”
“I’m glad to hear that, Captain. From tomorrow, I’ll be disembarking from this ship for a while, so please use it as you see fit.”
“Yes, I understand. We have requests from the Information and Investigation Departments, so we’ll conduct surveys in the surrounding area for a few days starting the day after tomorrow. I’ll submit an application to the relevant authorities in Nihonium stating it’s for training purposes.”
“The ship’s capabilities will be put to the test right away, won’t they? I’ll be on the cruiser docked here from tomorrow. Please contact me if anything comes up.”
“Understood.”
“Well then, I’ll retire for the night. Good night, Captain.”
“Good night, Your Highness.”
Her Highness bid me farewell and returned to her room.
As I was wondering what all this was about, Virginia, the head of security, explained:
“We had to leave the capital today, or we might not have been able to leave for a while. We’re grateful to the Captain for departing in such a hurry. It was really for our convenience, and we appreciate it.”
“Ms. Stanley, thank you for explaining the situation. I would have followed Her Highness’s instructions anyway, but I was honestly puzzled. Now I can sleep soundly tonight. I’ll return to my room as well. Good night, Ms. Stanley.”
With that, I entered the captain’s quarters.
The next day, there’s nothing scheduled on the ship except for a simple inspection.
I headed to the dock, taking Kasumi with me.
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Her Highness finally completed his visits to each star system -> Her Highness finally completed her visits to each star system
Thanks.
fixed, thanks