DE: Chapter 1 Part 18 – Pray to God when you’re in trouble

“It’s been a while~. I was really worried about you.”

“Sorry, sorry, Mama. After that, I joined a mercenary company called Smile Dog. That’s why I had to part ways with Alligator.”

I explained the situation while being hugged by Mama. By the way, Alligator is a space station located near the border between the United Earth Federation and the Guardia Empire. Perhaps because it’s close to the border, it’s a place where various species, led by soldiers of the United Earth Federation of Unified Forces, come and go. Of course, since it’s a place where so many different species pass through, there were also plenty of all sorts of shitty people. In such a place, the only salvation was this M & M.

“Honestly, I couldn’t believe my own eyes. Why did you come here in a place like this, so far and remote?”

“Actually, there have been a lot of suspicious activities happening near the border. That’s why the security situation has worsened. So I decided to get away from Alligator for a little while.”

“Really? But doesn’t Mama know? This area is dangerous too.”

“That’s right~. I was finally starting to get used to it, but now I have to move again. I really have no luck.”

Mama twisted her body, as if trying to show she felt troubled.

“So, how much do you know about it? If you don’t mind, I’d like you to tell me. Of course, it won’t be for free. I’ll make sure to pay you through expenses.”

“You’re not paying from your pocket, are you?”

“Of course. That’s how the relationship should be with an employer.”

I took out a glass, added ice, and poured the liquor. I might be one of Mama’s favorites, as I never get scolded for doing whatever I want. Or maybe it’s just that Mama has an unnecessarily big heart.

“Yeah, that’s right. Hey, Shu-chan, do you know about the disappearances around here?”

“Of course. That incident happened quite a while ago, but it’s still a popular case in the mystery world.”

Thanks to that, TV programs still feature it from time to time. It’s an easy job because they just have to edit similar stories over and over again.

“This area used to be a much better place. There were a lot of decent soldiers here, you know? Many of them took pride in themselves. But after that large-scale disappearance incident, everything changed and vanished.”

The victims from that time still haven’t all been accounted for. The reason is that the data used for identification also disappeared. Well, since the entire planet itself vanished, there’s no way to investigate. As a result, most of them are considered missing.

“When will those missing be officially declared dead, I wonder?”

“Yeah, probably in about a hundred years, over half of them will be declared dead.”

“So half still remaining?”

In the end, this disappearance incident caused a lot of chaos and tragedy. After all, about five habitable planets disappeared, and the number of victims is in the billions. Naturally, it could also spread to other places, whether they liked it or not.

“So? What’s the connection between the disappearance incident and the current situation… Ah, I guess there is a connection after all.”

“Do you know anything, Shu-chan?”

“Actually, not long ago, I went to raid the Sectorial space base. There were some really tough guys in the reinforcements at that time.”

After that battle, there was a post-operation report on the terminal. I read it casually, and apparently, there was a military force from planet Damraka involved.

“To be honest, I don’t understand why they’re cooperating with Sectorial. Normally, they’d be incorporated into the United Earth Federation of Unified Forces, right?”

“But Shu-chan, they’re a rebel organization, right? There’s no risk of intentionally letting in troublesome elements.”

“That’s true. But if they ended up turning into a powerful space pirate group, that’d be a real problem.”

“Sectorial itself isn’t that big of a deal. The real problem is that some of them have military-level combat power. And military personnel who are being educated are slowly becoming the higher-ups in Sectorial.”

“That’s ridiculous. They should be the one to have disappeared. Billions of people, military and civilian, have disappeared. Even thousands of ships have disappeared.”

“Not all armies gather in one place and act together. Look, there are even armies like Alligator.”

“…The border guards. And those who were coincidentally dispatched far away, like the public security forces?”

When I said that, Mama nodded silently. But now I understand why they were so powerful. A public security force would likely have an appropriate level of strength. But the border guards, on the other hand, have more than enough battleships and cruisers. There’s a good chance they even have super-class battleships. The worst case is that there might even be space station bases being used under the guise of border security.

“Just thinking about all of this is giving me a headache. Do the Sectorial forces have more strength than we expected?”

It was not too late to act now. It would be better to request reinforcements. Or, we might need to retreat. There’s no way we can match them with our current strength.

“It feels like information I don’t even want to know is about to come out at this rate.”

“Is there anything else you want to know?”

“…Please don’t tell anyone.”

“Of course.”

Seeing Mama’s wink of approval, I opened my mouth. I told her my purpose for being in this space station. After I finished speaking, Mama quietly opened her eyes and said.

“You can’t be the person at the center of this whole thing.”

“I expected to get the short end of the stick. Honestly.”

Hearing Mama’s words, I drank a glass of sake in desperation.

After that, I was able to get a lot of information from Mama. As a result, I found out that the Third Princess, Liliana Calvarta, is quite an extraordinary person in many ways.

“I never thought the Third Princess was such a genius.”

“She seems to be famous in the academic world. New energy theories and innovative chemical substances. For example, her energy theory in particular made a big splash in the academic world at the time.”

“And then, that technology was stolen by someone, and as a result, it drove the people living in the Zador star system to the depths of despair.”

“We don’t know how the upper echelons of Damraka managed to obtain the initial theory of the【Gravity Conversion Device】, something only Liliana Calvarta knew. But there’s no doubt it’s an extremely difficult thing to use.”

“Even something difficult to use can give you overwhelming power. Humans are creatures that are weak to greed, after all.”

I looked up everything I could about Liliana Calverta on my terminal. She was certainly a big shot in the academic world, but she suddenly disappeared about fifty years ago.

The official reason was that it was due to a chronic illness.

However, at that time, the forces centered around the planet Damraka were trying to gain independence. And then they disappeared, along with billions of people and various planets.

At this stage, there is not enough information to believe there is a connection. However, if we force a connection, something can be seen. Even if it is wrong.

“Even if you try to avoid unpleasant things, they will come to you. It’s like a bullet coming out of a gun.”

The ice in the glass made a clinking sound.

“I don’t know what Shu-chan is going to do right now. But remember this. If you force yourself and die, there will be people who will be sad.”

“If I die, will you come to visit my grave?”

Mama then showed a sad expression.

“I will only give an empty sake bottle to people who say such mean things.”

“That’s worse than dying. If possible, I’d like to share a drink with Mama again.”

Finally, I took out a thousand credits from my pocket and handed them to Mama.

“I’ll do the usual thing at the end. Is that alright?”

“Hehe, of course. Try your best.”

The menu at M & M has a game where if you can guess Mama’s name, you can win 1,000 credits in cash or credit. If you guess correctly, you will get all the credits you’ve collected so far. By the way, the hint is in the shop’s name. It seems that names that start with M are sure to be the right choice.

“I’ll show you the power of the Lucky Boy.”

However, if the name is manly, you will receive Mama’s signature Iron Claw attack without fail. It doesn’t matter if it’s a childish or old name.

“Mama’s name is… Marilyn.”

“Ufu♡ Too bad♡”

Mama denied it with her usual smile. I had no choice but to stand up and pay.

“I’ll send the receipt to the Battleship Albireo later. Then, I’ll come again.”

“Yes, I’ll be waiting.”

After taking goodbye from Mama, I walked around Vermouth once again. This time, the request was not just a simple rescue. There was likely some connection between Liliana Calvarta and the large-scale disappearance incident. Although it was just a hypothesis, I was half convinced of it.

Because the worst hypothesis has a high probability of coming true most of the time.

It had been three days since I met Mama. And now, we had received a summons and gathered once again in the briefing room. The mercenaries were already there, so I decided to tell them about Mama.

“By the way, I completely forgot to tell you, but Mama is at Vermouth. You should go and have a drink with her next time.”

“No way! She’s at Vermouth. Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”

“Mama from M & M?”

“Yeah, she was as lively as ever.”

“That’s great. I’ll have some free time later, so I’d like to stop by and at least see her.”

Captain Aaron and Lieutenant Churi seemed to know about Mama, and they were quite interested. It seemed that these two have a certain amount of contact with Mama.

Lieutenant Mikuni and Lieutenant Burgess tilted their heads, not understanding who we were talking about.

“Mama is the owner of the bar named M & M. She’s quite an impactful person.”

“Is that so? By the way, what kind of person is she?”

“She’s a transvestite.”

“Transvestite… huh?”

“But she’s quite kind and has a lot of information. She’s quite popular with guys like us.”

“I’d really like to meet her sometime.”

“Oh? In that case, I’ll take you there, treat from me. Hey, Kisaragi, show us the way.”

“If you’re treating, then sure.”

“Heh, leave it to me. I’ll treat you all.”

“Yay! I love Mama’s signature drinks.”

As we casually chatted about Mama, Colonel Cecilia and Captain Christina, along with her subordinates and members of Fang Squad, appeared. However, something felt off—Captain Christina’s face seemed unusually prettier than usual.

“Why is she wearing makeup?”

“Makeup? Oh, I see. So that’s why she looks even more beautiful than usual.”

“What. So you like strong-willed women like her?”

“I like all beautiful women. Of course, Lieutenant Chury is my type too.”

“I see, it’s clear now that you’re completely without standards.”

Lieutenant Chury lightly brushed off my words. As expected, a woman who’s been through the battlefield is different.

Then, Colonel Cecilia stood on the podium and began to speak.

“Thank you for your hard work in the recent battle. Thanks to your efforts, we were able to successfully capture several key officers. Additionally, the fleet’s defense was a success, preventing any significant loss of strength. I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude.”

No one reacted to Colonel Cecilia’s praise. That was to be expected. For us, hearing about the information that follows was far more important than any compliments. Perhaps Colonel Cecilia understood this, as she continued speaking without any noticeable reaction.

“Thanks to the honest information provided by the Sectorial executives and the data left behind at the base, it has been confirmed that Princess Liliana was once imprisoned at their space base.”

“Good thing she was not there. The fleet’s gunfire would have hit her really hard.”

It was truly a close call. If things had gone differently, we might have ended up vaporizing the princess with our own hands. We came to rescue her, not to kill her, that would’ve been a joke we’d never live down.

“Based on the information above, it has been confirmed that Princess Liliana is on the resource-rich planet Ulysses. Therefore, we will immediately take action to rescue her.”

“Immediately? You mean with this force?”

“That’s right. But don’t worry. Reinforcements are scheduled to arrive in three hours.”

Colonel Cecilia continued speaking, ignoring Lieutenant Burgess’s concern. It was no coincidence that their eyes met briefly at that moment. It was at that moment when the information I had gotten from Mama by paying a high amount of credits and later collecting them with a receipt was put to good use. Thank you, Mama.

“The reinforcements were urgently assembled, so the composition consists only of destroyers and frigates. However, I pushed to have the numbers increased. Additionally, a mobile task force will also be reinforced as planned.”

That seemed reasonable. If battleships and cruisers were sent again, the United Earth Federation of Unified Forces would take even more notice of us than they already have. We were already on their radar to some extent. Given the situation, it made more sense for the reinforcements to be limited to this level.

“We’ve received reliable information that a large number of space pirates are currently gathered near Ulysses. Among them are forces centered around Sectorial. And…”

Colonel Cecilia took a breath before continuing.

“We have also confirmed that there is a border patrol centered on the planet Damraka. Battleships and cruisers have been confirmed among their forces. There are probably some AWs equipped with regular military equipment.”

The mention of the border patrol forces caused a slight stir in the room, but that was to be expected. Sectorial was a religious organization that could barely afford a few dozen cruisers. Suddenly, they have battleships and cruisers on par with regular military forces, and on top of that, AWs were being deployed. If we look into it more closely, it’s likely that there was equipment involved that was comparable to that of the regular army.

“We had overlooked the existence of the border guards. After investigating, we found that there were almost no records of the surviving units centered around Damraka being incorporated into the United Earth Federation of Unified Forces. This is probably the result of the upper echelons refusing to allow rebel elements in. Therefore, even more fierce fighting should be waiting for us in Ulysses, the next battlefield.”

The displayed power disparity on the screen showed that it was an even match, one-on-one. Moreover, looking at the details of the strength, most of the space pirates are, after all, mostly civilian aircrafts with weapons attached or old Sectorial aircrafts. Of course, the strength of Damraka shouldn’t be underestimated, but we can still fight on equal terms or even better. Finally, we were in a position to back the winning side.

“Princess Liliana is being held captive in the resource processing facility on Ulysses. Officially, it’s referred to as a resource processing facility, but in reality, it’s a weapons testing facility.”

Then the outline of the facility was explained. There were anti-aircraft guns, beam turrets, tanks, fighter jets, and even multiple AWs and MWs were deployed. The strength of the facility was excessive for what was supposed to be just a resource processing center. They seemed to be advertising that there is treasure hidden there.

“Minimize the destruction of the facility as much as possible. We cannot afford to let anything happen to Princess Liliana, but given that it’s a testing facility, the risks are significant.”

“If it’s a testing facility, what kind of weapons are they experimenting with? Surely it can’t be bio weapons.”

“No, it’s not a bio-weapon. It’s not confirmed, but most likely… it’s something related to the disappearance incidents.”

Everyone knows about that incident. And now, it’s gradually starting to show connections. And unpleasant predictions tend to be correct.

“This is the time to pray to God.”

It’s not bad to rely on a god who you don’t believe in even a little bit. Besides, I need him to grant my wishes at a time like this, since I don’t usually rely on him.

Amidst the noise in the briefing room, I muttered to myself.