Resolve
Well, now we’re in a completely close relationship with the dock’s parent company, and if the dock president’s close friend is in the company’s core, it’s not such a bad deal.
Maki-nee-chan’s ability to make such a judgment instantly is amazing.
Also, her immediate agreement on the spot shows she’s worthy of being appointed to a department head position at headquarters.
The discussion should have ended there, but it turned into talk about orphanage construction, and we ended up staying there for quite a while longer.
Since both the president and I had nothing else to do, we killed time by discussing new ship designs, the current state of [Shunmin], and various problems.
In the end, it was decided that Mark’s father would serve as the contact point for the orphanage construction, and it would be built with the full cooperation of Casbell Shipyard.
Naturally, from this point on, I would be completely useless baggage, so I parted ways with Maki-nee-chan and returned to the dock. Meanwhile, Maki-nee-chan was taken by Mark’s father to one of Casbell Shipyard’s affiliated companies—a construction company.
She was apparently going to handle the preliminary contract for the orphanage construction.
She’s fast at work no matter what.
Since Maki-nee-chan’s been given complete authority over orphanage operations by Her Highness, everything from land acquisition to building construction and staff hiring can be decided by Maki-nee-chan’s judgment. Moreover, apparently quite a substantial amount has already come to Her Highness from the seized war spoils, so there’s plenty of budget allocated.
Maki-nee-chan happily told me that she had received instructions from Her Highness during the spaceship journey here.
Regarding this business trip—well, it’s probably not just limited to this trip—but when it comes to contracts and such matters, I’m completely useless.
I’m starting to worry that I wasn’t needed at all.
So I decided to at least do what I could. After returning to the dock and inspecting that accommodation facility, I decided to modify it to accept over a hundred orphans.
There are quite a few private rooms, but even so, it’s not enough to accommodate a hundred orphans, and more importantly, putting each orphan in a private room would be problematic.
Especially young children tend to dislike being alone.
It was the same at Bruce Orphanage where I grew up, but the children we’re about to care for had experienced very frightening things until recently, such as violence from pirates.
They definitely wouldn’t want to stay in single rooms, so I decided to be as considerate as possible and borrowed some young workers from the president’s place to carry out simple modifications.
Fortunately, from that luxury passenger ship that’s now completely unrecognizable, we could salvage several crew facilities, so I brought crew beds for the lowest-ranking personnel—enough for all the orphans.
Although they’re for adults, they’re good quality items, and more importantly, since the lowest-ranking crew members weren’t given private rooms, they used furniture designed for multiple people to fit in one room, which was perfect for use in the orphanage.
Actually, they could have been used for [Shunmin]’s soldiers, but those guys… grumble grumble.
From then on, I spent time doing renovation work until Maki-nee-chan had something to tell me.
In the end, this business trip involved spending a week on Nihonium, and I ended up having to welcome the orphans being transported by Shunmin at the dock’s temporary orphanage.
As for staff, we managed to hire several people through Maki-nee-chan’s connections, and as promised, we were able to borrow several people from Bruce Orphanage, but we were still short on personnel.
We’re supplementing the shortage with Shunmin’s crew members.
Maki-nee-chan is busy running around to establish a permanent orphanage.
This morning, Maki-nee-chan told me that land has been secured just a few minutes’ walk from here.
Once next week’s completion ceremony is over, Maki-nee-chan will be able to get involved in orphanage operations, so she’s asked me to take care of the orphans until then.
But is this really okay?
Well, since there’s no work for me until the investigation room guys return, I guess it’s fine. Our people—the ones who came with us from the Coast Guard—many of them are from orphanages, so they’re used to handling orphans.
From what I can see, there’s no problem leaving it to them.
That includes Kate and Maria too.
Well, these peaceful times won’t last forever.
Once we’re out in space, it’s either boring to death or we might actually face death.
So there’s no harm in enjoying the current peace.
Now, I’m also enjoying myself mixed in with the orphans.
That is, until I catch sight of those girls.
Even though Her Highness has forgiven me, it’s still something I can’t forgive myself for.
I just can’t bring myself to look directly at those girls’ faces.
The younger girl seems to be spending time completely like the other orphans, so she might be recovering, but I was surprised when that girl approached me and thanked me again.
Previously, when we parted, I was thanked by the older sister, but I think this was the first time I was thanked by the younger sister.
Along with the thanks, I also heard about her resolve from the older sister who was with her.
“So you were the captain. Thank you for saving us. After listening to the stories of the onee-san who take care of us, I swear this: I will do the work that Her Highness has begun in order to avenge Maa-kun. I will also study hard,” she declared, looking at me with strength.
Honestly, I was conflicted.
No, that’s not right.
I’m afraid.
I’m afraid of them learning the truth.
I’m afraid of a future where they condemn my actions from that time.
After thinking for a while, I steeled my resolve.
When she officially becomes a crew member, I’ll tell her honestly.
I’ll accept all of her hatred and resentment.
It would be fine if she killed me.
In that case, I’d need to arrange things so that no blame falls on her, but friendly fire isn’t uncommon on the battlefield.
There would be no problem if I were accidentally shot by an ally.
Of course, that’s assuming I’m still alive by then.
By thinking of it this way, I managed to reconcile things in my heart.
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT GADGETIZEDPANDA.COM
Two more weeks have passed since [Shunmin] brought the orphans to Nihonium.
Children’s adaptability is amazing.
Now they’re completely used to life here and are spending their days energetically.
Tomorrow, Her Highness will arrive here for the completion ceremony, so I’m gathering the officers to help with preparations.
After all, it’s a completion ceremony with Her Highness as the guest.
Local dignitaries will gather too.
Naturally, nobles have also come after hearing about it somehow.
We officers have been assigned to handle their reception.
Of course, we officers alone would find it very difficult to deal with nobles, so most of the staff from the preparation room have come to help.
Yes, this is the first time Her Highness will be seen in public since His Majesty’s announcement.
Her Highness also intends to use this opportunity, though I’m not sure who’s the craftier one.
You probably can’t survive as a noble without being like that.
We’ve been assigned to handle the local dignitaries who aren’t nobles.
I’m standing beside the officers who are working at the reception. When I tried to enter the reception area to work, Maki-nee-chan’s subordinates came and stopped me.
They’re saying, “Please, just don’t do it.”
I wondered if I’m really that untrustworthy, but apparently what they’re saying is different.
It seems that in the organization Her Highness is establishing, I’m in an important position, and they can’t have someone like that doing reception work.
Something about Her Highness’s fitness to govern is being called into question.
I accepted the desperate pleas of the staff who came to help and just stood there looking important beside the reception.
Gian, who spotted me like that, came over and said he wanted to take me somewhere.
There’s no gymnasium here, you know.
I don’t want to be taken to the back and beaten up.
No wait, that’s not it.
It seems he wanted me to meet his parents.
When I said, “Hey, I’m not planning to marry you,” he seriously punched me.
However, the person who punched me was desperate.
I had met him before at a party venue, but he wasn’t this desperate then.
But today is different somehow.
Well, since I’m also from an orphanage that was taken care of by his family, I listened to his request and followed him.
Originally, the completion ceremony was supposed to end in an instant.
Important-looking strangers would greet Her Highness and say various things, then Her Highness would speak, and the ceremony itself would be over.
After that, the plan was to serve light refreshments there—not quite a garden party, but a casual meal, and then it would end.
I was brought before Gian’s father during such a meal.
This was my first time meeting Gian’s father.
However, since I’ve been educated from childhood to respect those who took care of me at the orphanage, I thought I should at least greet him and bowed my head. But he bowed even lower and deeper in greeting.
Why??
As I mentioned before, the organization Her Highness is creating has become a matter of greatest interest everywhere.
Leading a conglomerate on this planet, he had been somewhat outmaneuvered by Casbell Shipyard in orphanage-related matters.
Moreover, he was particularly concerned that Bruce Orphanage had declined Maki-nee-chan’s request.
He seemed quite afraid that he had incurred Her Highness’s displeasure, so I took Gian’s father with me to where Maki-nee-chan was.
It seemed the greetings had just settled down, and Maki-nee-chan came to me right away.
“Maki-nee-chan—I mean, Director. This person is Gian-dono’s father and the head of the Strong-Arm family, who has been providing various support to Bruce Orphanage. He apparently wants to apologize about the previous matter, so I brought him here.”
“Director Maki-Bruce, is it? I am…”
After a brief conversation there, it seems their misunderstanding was cleared up.
We understood from the beginning that it was a sudden request and seemed impossible.
We already considered the fact that they lent us several staff members to be sufficient results.
Gian’s father had been lamenting the missed opportunity to make contact with Her Highness, but he seemed relieved to learn that he hadn’t actually incurred Her Highness’s displeasure.
Since we’ll be operating an orphanage on Nihonium from now on, we received a promise of cooperation and ended that day.
In the end, it took nearly a month from when we received the business trip order from Her Highness, but we managed to prepare a place to accept the children, which was one of our concerns.
After the orphanage completion ceremony, I received orders from Her Highness to return to regular duties for pirate subjugation, and once again headed out to space.
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