[Sorry for the wait. The branch manager will handle this. If it’s acceptable, he’d like to meet and talk directly. If you’re willing, please dock with the central ship.]
“Branch manager?”
Was it a translation error? A quite familiar term had come up.
There was no reason to refuse. Kaito quietly nodded and calmly conveyed his request to the communication partner.
“Understood. Please provide the route.”
Meanwhile.
About the discussion starting up behind his back—unknown to the individual in question—regarding whether Kaito Crouch, called an eternal friend by the Terapolapanecio and capable of using supernatural powers at the same output level as them, should be treated not as an Earthling but as a different type of rare life form.
Emotion would likely never relay this to Kaito
The ship the branch manager was on had a terribly long name. Since Kaito had never intended to memorize it in the first place, he let it pass, but it must have been painful for Emotion with her good memory. After instructing her to assign an appropriate abbreviation for the time being, he advanced Quenbee through the opened hatch.
“For someone who was afraid of us, that’s pretty bold.”
“You don’t intend to fight, do you?”
“Of course not. Even if it comes to fighting, I don’t intend to lose though.”
“If it weren’t for you being the Captain, I’d say to stop doing reckless things.”
Having a conversation with Emotion, who had transformed from her round body to human form since there seemed unlikely to be combat.
They parked Quenbee according to the displayed guidance and the two disembarked into the ship.
The interior was like passenger ships he’d ridden several times on Earth. It might have been built by a species with civilization similar to Earthlings.
“…Instructions have come to go this way. Not sending someone to meet us because I’m a machine intelligence is lazy, don’t you think? Kyuru kyuru.”
“No complaints, Emotion. Their culture and our common sense aren’t necessarily the same.”
“That may be so. But if they’re protecting Earthlings to some extent, they should have learned at least that much courtesy.”
Emotion’s complaints don’t stop. Perhaps Emotion is more hot-blooded than himself. Though no blood should be flowing. Is it her basic personality, or did she get some strange emotional update during modification? …Surely Ritmiele-san’s emotional patterns weren’t introduced, Kaito couldn’t hide his inner anxiety.
The two head in the indicated direction. Despite being a large ship, they don’t pass anyone. With their technology, it wouldn’t be strange if they operated the ship with few people, but…
As he felt during the first communication, he can’t help feeling like they’re being feared.
“Did I rampage around a bit too much here and there?”
“It can’t be helped. The earliest targets were all types who wouldn’t even listen to reason.”
Species that treated Earthlings as food, species that treated them as slaves—such groups were basically unreasonable, so it’s true he mostly rampaged around. While Kaito has gained quite high evaluation in the Federation from the start, what kind of rumors might be spreading outside the Federation?
“I’m a pacifist though.”
“I don’t think pacifists destroy fleets with a single ship like Quenbee.”
Emotion’s blunt criticism without beating around the bush was painful to hear.
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT GADGETIZEDPANDA.COM
“Pleased to make your acquaintance, Kaito Crouch-sama. I am Nezasruwe-Nekelesh-Azavoid-Ekerekemenū. I serve as branch manager of the corporation.”
“Hello. I’m Captain Kaito.”
Kaito raised an eyebrow at how he was being addressed.
Kaito doesn’t publicly reveal his real name in the Federation. He’s called either Kaito, Third-rank Citizen, Enek-Ragif. or Captain Kaito. Knowing the family name Crouch means, in other words…
“It seems there’s someone nearby who knows my background on Earth.”
“Indeed. I’ve also heard you were imprisoned as a thought criminal.”
Horn growing from his forehead, four legs. The facial features don’t resemble a horse, but if broadly categorized, a unicorn would be closest. From his massive frame looking down at Kaito, the branch manager speaks in a high-pitched voice.
“There’s nothing to worry about. I know the Federation well. As long as you hold the position of, Third-rank Citizen, Enek-Ragif., I don’t believe you sold Earth and the Earthlings to the Federation.”
“I see. Outside the Federation, it seems I’m thought of as that kind of person.”
“Are you offended?”
“Very much so.”
Since Kaito doesn’t represent the Federation, he doesn’t feel the need to get along with the corporation. He believes he has the freedom to say that unpleasant things are unpleasant, and at least the branch manager’s attitude is clearly looking down on him.
The branch manager snorted.
“My apologies. Then from now on I’ll call you Captain Kaito.”
“Is that so. As you wish.”
“Hmm… MacDonell, he seems quite reasonable. He doesn’t look like the bad person you described.”
The person he addressed wasn’t Kaito. When the branch manager turned his face behind him, a person who had been hidden by his massive frame emerged.
“You mustn’t believe his words, Branch Manager. …Or has your personality also mellowed after three years of exile?”
“Prosecutor Lucia MacDonell? I see, if you were here, it makes sense that the corporation knows my past.”
A woman with stern features. To the woman directing sharp gazes at him, Kaito also returns hostility.
“So you’re alive. Being sold off means you were acting together with Gilbert Jane. You should have known that man’s face.”
“…I wonder what you’re talking about. I simply came to space seeking new horizons.”
Lies. She’s averting her gaze. There’s no doubt that this woman, who served as prosecutor in the trial that sentenced Kaito to exile, knew the face of the man who sold him off to space. Gilbert Jane’s trial and Kaito’s trial were held in the same place. Both were tried as international political criminals of sorts. Of course, Kaito was tried much later than Gilbert, but at least the individuals tried there were never many. Having been involved in Kaito’s trial while claiming not to know Gilbert Jane is a poor-quality lie.
Still, he thinks, while her facial features are almost the same as in his memory, she looks much younger than she should from the time of Kaito’s trial. She should be at least fifty years old originally, but her current appearance looks like her teens to early twenties. Did she use body modification to make her physical age younger?
“Well, fine. So what’s this about me selling Earth and the Earthlings to the Federation?”
“There’s suspicion that you handed over Earth and the Earthlings to the Federation to gain position in the Federation.”
“Huh.”
A ridiculous story. But from the outside, it might appear that way.
If Kaito hadn’t been picked up by the Federation, all Earthlings would have followed the same fate as former prosecutor MacDonell. They would have believed they were luckier than others when they went to space, and in fact they seem to have achieved reasonable positions in the corporation even now. They wouldn’t think they were unlucky, and wouldn’t want to think so either.
“My gaining the position of, Third-rank Citizen, Enek-Ragif in the Federation is according to Federation internal rules, not because I sold out Earth. The Earthlings becoming Federation citizens has more of an aspect of Federation goodwill, if anything.”
“Goodwill? And that for free? Impossible. When we immigrated, we were taken in by the corporation for a fee. So we’re under contract to gradually repay those expenses while working at the corporation.”
He silently directs his gaze to the branch manager.
Understanding what Kaito wanted to say, the branch manager groaned with a “hmm.”
“I’m sorry, Captain Kaito. Some of the Earthlings we protected don’t seem to evaluate the Federation very highly. We have told them that we were originally affiliated with the Federation, but…”
“I see. So I should understand that there are no applicants for immigration from the corporation to the Federation. If everyone wishes to live in the corporation, I’ll convey that to the Federation government.”
“Are you trying to drag us to the Federation too?!”
“Branch Manager?”
“I’m sorry. I called her as someone who knows your background, but she seems to have a somewhat biased evaluation of you. She’s usually excellent.”
That would be natural. She’s a prosecutor who could handle Kaito’s trial. She has connections everywhere and skillfully achieved an almost complete victory with exile punishment.
While he doesn’t want to evaluate her personality, her ability is undeniable.
Kaito sighed and declared to MacDonell:
“The Federation is prepared to grant citizenship to accepted Earthlings. It might not be necessary for Earthlings protected by the corporation though.”
“Yes, of course! Such fishy rights—”
“Wait, MacDonell. Captain Kaito, what’s the citizenship rank?”
“Tenth-Rank Citizen Godbre-A.”
“Understood. Then in my name, I promise to convey your words to all Earthlings belonging to the corporation. Of course, after providing detailed explanations about the Federation.”
So saying, the branch manager bows his head.
“Branch Manager?!”
MacDonell turns toward him in surprise, but several staff members who appeared in a hurry drag her away without allowing any objection. She was shouting something, but it was inaudible.
“Captain Kaito. If there are Earthlings from the corporation who wish to immigrate to the Federation, the repayment of purchase funds that the corporation bore cannot be waived—is that acceptable?”
“That’s unavoidable. As an Earthling, I’m grateful that you safely protected them.”
The price of Earth’s culture sold to the Federation continues to rise even now. Since I’ve heard that Rebecca manages it as the shared property of the Earthlings, even if it would be difficult to bear the full burden of the buyback price, she could probably shoulder some of it.
Even so. Just how far has the bad reputation of Kaito that Lucia-McDonell spread reached among the corporation’s Earthlings, I wonder.
“So that’s Prosecutor Lucia-McDonell. …I knew her from the Captain’s trial records, but what a strange place to meet again.”
“Indeed.”
In any case, life is full of things that don’t go as planned.
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