Chapter 149

Chapter 149. Commander, have you done what you needed to do? (1)

“But Commander, isn’t it impossible to just use other people like that…?”

“…That’s exactly the problem.”

Ignis and Partia were excluded from this discussion from the start.

To put it bluntly, those two are characters specialized for ‘personal combat’ or ‘boarding battles,’ meant to be thrown at enemy ships or to defend against enemy boarding actions.

They were not the type to be used for commanding ships or fleets.

Compared to Belial, who is our trusted and reliable ally, the difference is like night and day.

To give you an idea, if I were to order an advance somewhere, Belial would judge the situation and navigate around obstacles like asteroids.

But Ignis and Partia? They’d just mobilize the fleet’s firepower to smash through the obstacles and charge straight ahead. That’s the level we’re talking about.

“What about Pashtira? She’s long-range, so wouldn’t she be of some help…?”

“…If we leave ship command to someone trigger-happy like her, wouldn’t she just waste ammunition and aircraft?”

“Ah.”

“Moreover, Pashtira is also a ‘damage dealer,’ not a commanding character.”

Pashtira was in the same boat.

At best, she has traits that slightly boost the accuracy and attack power of the ship she’s on.

But that ‘slight’ boost is really just a single-digit percentage, so it’s not much to write home about.

In the end, like Belial, she just doesn’t fit well with the Kraken.

Our worries only deepened as time went on.

But those thoughts were short-lived.

Soon, Jessica, as if she had just remembered something, slapped her palm and brought up a new idea.

“Ah, Commander! Come to think of it, there’s Marian, right?”

“Marian, you say?”

Right after Jessica said that, I noticed something.

Belial and Marian, who had been facing each other and talking just moments ago, were now both turned away from us.

And strangely, Marian’s shoulders seemed to twitch.

It was as if her thoughts were completely transparent, and I felt a bit at a loss for words…

But I decided to ignore their behavior for now and respond to Jessica’s suggestion.

“Honestly, I’d love to have Marian as our fleet commander right now.”

“Is that so?”

As soon as I said that, Belial, who had her back turned, started patting Marian on the shoulder.

And though it was hard to see clearly, Marian’s arm seemed to be making a gesture as if she was shouting ‘Yes!’

If I left them like this any longer, Marian might start fantasizing about happily commanding our fleet and living her best life.

So I quickly added why we couldn’t use Marian.

“But you see, Marian isn’t my subordinate, is she?”

“Well… that’s true? Though Marian herself seems to feel otherwise.”

“Anyway, the important thing is that Marian isn’t my ‘subordinate,’ and because of that, I can’t just arbitrarily assign her to our ship.”

“…Ah, I see.”

If this were a game, Marian would have been ‘recruited’ to our base as my subordinate.

If that had happened, she could have been freely assigned to our fleet, leveled up, and grown into one of our two ‘commander-type’ characters to support our fleet.

But unfortunately, Marian didn’t surrender to me after being defeated. Instead, she became the Pirate Empress with the premise of surrendering to me from the start.

As a result, Marian remained as a faction leader and wasn’t recruited to our base…

To put it bluntly, the ‘Marian’ currently at our base, in terms of her actual performance, doesn’t even have the ‘free fleet that doesn’t cost points and is controllable by me’ that old-timers used to describe the Pirate Empress.

Even though she’s labeled as SS-class, in reality, she’s far superior to most SSS-class characters, but we can’t use her as a character. It’s a very微妙 situation.

Of course, if someone unfamiliar with this heard me, they might ask, ‘What about Leonard and the Pirate Fleet’s constant deployment and mobilization?’

Those guys fit the ‘doesn’t cost points’ part, but they’re definitely not ‘controllable by me.’

They’re more like friendly neutral units.

In any case, the important point is, ‘Anyway, we can’t use Marian.’

“That’s how it is, got it?”

“Ah, yes.”

At this point, with no solution in sight, I tried to drill into Jessica that there was nothing we could do.

Somehow, we had to roll the snowball that had already gone to hell in the early game…

It made me feel like I had to catch up with other top-tier users even now.

But just as I was trying to put in some serious effort to scheme something grand…

– *Plop.*

– *Pat pat.*

Even while Belial was naturally patting Marian’s shoulder, I couldn’t help but notice how Marian’s shoulders had clearly slumped, and my heart ached.

‘*Sob sob.*’

==========

The next day.

Since one can’t stay gloomy forever, I was now busy with the construction of a cruiser battleship.

After finishing my daily quests, I was taking some time to ponder what to do next.

But my worries didn’t last long…

While I was deep in thought, striking a pose on the command deck…

“Commander, do you have a moment?”

“Huh? Why all of a sudden?”

“Well, Princess Luka and Marian have something they want to ask you.”

Jessica suddenly approached with a question, and I wondered what was up.

Hearing that representatives from two factions wanted to see me, I thought a new quest might be coming.

If that were the case, a message or something would’ve popped up by now, so I put on a suspicious expression but decided to meet them anyway.

But when the two actually stood before me…

I was completely caught off guard as they presented me with a rather bold goal…

“Icarus, I’ve come here with something I’m truly curious about… But first, I’ll yield the floor to the Empress here!”

“Thank you, Princess. Um, oppa?”

“Yeah?”

“Why did you build a mercenary office and then never use it?”

‘Uh.’

“And the same goes for us! You even granted us permission, yet you haven’t built breeding facilities for our troops or even production facilities for bio-ships!”

‘Ah.’

Right after hearing their words…

Two quest windows popped up in front of me as if they’d been waiting…

—————————————-

<Quest>

<The First Opening of the Mercenary Office!>

<Content>

<Despite having built the mercenary office nearly half a year ago.>

<You, the Commander, haven’t used any mercenaries, and the office is now voicing complaints.>

<Of course, it’s possible you’ve been too busy to remember the office’s existence.>

<But the mercenary groups can’t take it anymore and have reported the severity of the situation to the Pirate Empress!>

<Objective>

<Hire at least one mercenary group from the mercenary office!>

—————————————-

—————————————-

<Quest>

<Why Aren’t You Building Infrastructure?!>

<Content>

<Princess Luka, who has come as an envoy and a sort of hostage from the Space Monsters’ base.>

<She is, by nature, a high-ranking figure and also responsible for diplomacy between the monsters, pirates, and you.>

<She’s in a situation where she needs a lot of help...>

<Yet you haven’t built any infrastructure to support her, such as an evolution breeding facility for general workers,>

<Fleet production facilities for self-defense, or buildings necessary for various bio-modifications.>

<Because of this, Princess Luka is pouring out complaints.>

<Objective>

<Construct a general monster breeding facility>

<Upgrade the Biological Research Institute>

<Build a monster ship production facility>

<Note! Refer to the

—————————————-

‘Oh my god.’

These quests made it clear that I had more than just one or two goals to tackle.

And they boldly pushed aside whatever I was worrying about, as if to say, “That’s not what you should be focusing on right now.”