Chapter 89

Chapter 89. Even if the world collapses, there’s still a place to live. (3)

As the leader of the faction, I couldn’t bring myself to ask for help. But then, Belial came forward and offered to help, which moved me deeply.

‘That chest must be full of kindness. She’s grown up so well.’

Of course, if I said that out loud, the maxed-out friendship level would plummet instantly. Marian’s boot heel might just end up lodged in my solar plexus.

So, I kept those thoughts to myself and simply expressed my gratitude.

“You’ll help?”

“Yes, you didn’t say anything, so I was just watching… But it’s pretty obvious that you and this fleet are under a lot of strain right now, right?”

Marian adjusted her pirate hat, placed her hands on her hips, and thrust her chest forward. I could only nod in agreement.

“True, anyone would see it that way.”

“Honestly, who was it? Except for that ‘Gryanarr’ person, everyone seems to be struggling.”

“…Sigh.”

I didn’t need to say the last part.

Anyway, if she’s offering to help, why not? At a time when even a cat’s paw would be useful, having a Pirate Empress, who’s treated as a near-SSS-class hero, step in would be a huge relief.

With an additional barracks, we’d have more room to breathe in terms of resource management.

Our Marian could turn humans into pigs, burn down resisting factions, and beat up subordinates to reign as a symbol of terror.

In her past life, on the shady site ‘THE EYES,’ she was often depicted in 3D animations being bullied by her subordinates. But here, that wouldn’t happen. Except for Gryanarr, who’s still awkward because we haven’t known each other long, she has a friendly senior-junior relationship with Jessica and Ignis, a mutual respect with Belial as teacher and student, and a strangely close yet inexplicable relationship with Pashtira.

Overall, Marian maintains a friendly relationship with the entire fleet without any major issues.

With that in mind, I welcomed our precious Belial’s offer with genuine warmth.

But that didn’t last long.

I had forgotten that Marian is the ‘Pirate Empress,’ the leader of a massive faction, comparable to the ‘Earth Federation’ or the ‘Xenobia Empire,’ who are handing out quests to countless users.

Exactly 1 hour, 17 minutes, and 24 seconds after Marian offered to help…

“C-Commander! A massive warp reaction has been detected outside the base!!”

“What?”

“There are at least… at least 100,000 ships in this grand fleet!”

‘Wait, seriously?’

“Oh, they’re here already? That’s fewer than I expected.”

“Huh?”

“Well, I told my subordinates to gather a reasonable number of people to help you, Oppa.”

“…”

A grand fleet of over 100,000 ships, summoned with just a word, and she calls it ‘few.’

Once again, I was reminded that Marian is literally the leader of an entire faction, sending chills down my spine.

But that feeling didn’t last long either.

As the 100,000-ship fleet appeared, Leonard’s fleet also rushed out from the base. Jessica, regaining her composure, came to my side and expressed her doubts.

“Um, Commander? There’s something I need to tell you.”

“Hmm?”

“While a 100,000-ship fleet is impressive, you know what we need to clear the quests given by Oxianor and the Monster Force, right?”

“Oh, right.”

Jessica’s words helped me regain my composure after being stunned by the sheer number of ships. Naturally, Marian was a bit confused by our reactions.

“Huh? Is there a problem?”

“Well… a little?”

“What? Why?”

As I emphasized the awkwardness, Marian, fluttering her pirate coat, pointed to the pirate fleet that now covered most of the vast space beyond the command center window.

“100,000 ships might be few by my standards, but the kids brought quite a lot, didn’t they?!”

“Well… that’s true, but…”

“Commander, let me explain this.”

Before I could say anything, Jessica stepped forward first, seemingly about to explain to Marian, but…

“First of all, I’m not sure how to explain this, but…”

“Please explain in detail, Jessica unnie.”

But the moment she started explaining…

Marian looked extremely curious, and when she called Jessica “unnie,” it was an unexpected blow for Jessica, who was usually treated as the youngest in the base.

With a visibly happy expression and her rabbit ears perking up excitedly, Jessica began explaining the current situation to Marian with much more enthusiasm than before.

“First of all, to handle this request, we need people like Ignis, you know?”

“Huh?”

“So, in other words, the so-called ‘superhumans’ need to participate directly for us to solve the request prepared by the opposing faction.”

“…Wait, can only superhumans do the work? Does that mean the countless pirates can’t handle even a simple task?”

But upon hearing that explanation, Marian confidently refuted it with a sharp attitude.

Hearing Marian’s words, Jessica made a face as if she was faking a seal.

“That’s right, why are they so stingy?”

“But I get what you’re saying. Actually, we handle it that way too because of trust issues with the requests.”

‘What the…’

Boldly calling out what kind of nonsense that was, only to reveal that she was doing the same thing.

Thanks to that, Jessica looked very confused, but Pirate Empress Marian, ever confident in all matters, nodded as if she roughly understood.

“Anyway, the important thing isn’t the number of personnel but the number of our executives, i.e., the responsible persons, right?”

“Executives and responsible persons… Well, in a way, yes.”

Since it wasn’t wrong, I nodded in agreement, and Marian clapped her hands together, saying there shouldn’t be a big problem then.

“Then there shouldn’t be a big problem! As long as we deploy at least division leaders, right, oppa?”

“Hmm.”

At the mention of division leaders, I briefly ran through some mental simulations.

‘Hmm, by user gacha standards, that would be about… an A-rank?’

I thought about it, but having experienced too many failures in real life by relying solely on mental simulations, I decided to ask Jessica about the matter instead of taking unnecessary risks.

And to my question, Jessica immediately responded.

“Right? To be precise, a typical pirate group’s division leader would be at least a B~S-rank, I think.”

“Jessica unnie is right, oppa. Besides, since I called them, they should all be at least A-rank.”

“Oh…”

With Marian adding more to the explanation, I decided to express my trust in whatever Marian does.

“Alright then, with Marian’s help, let’s try to live a bit more comfortably, shall we?”

“Of course, oppa! Just leave it to me!”

“With Marian helping, it’s like having a thousand troops at our disposal, Commander.”

“Hmm!”

Seeing Marian happy with my decision, I thought, if I had known it would be like this, I wouldn’t have hesitated and asked Marian for help from the start. Things might have been a bit easier.

But honestly, who would have predicted that such a pretty girl would be so happy to help me?

Anyway, thinking that, I watched Marian, with a very happy face, immediately grab the communication screen and start giving out various orders.

I thought I might be able to bring in at least a few tens of thousands more.

With that thought, I began to carefully plan for the future.

==========

But that plan of mine soon ended up in the trash.