18 I Set Out
Author: Bishamon Mine
Raw: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n0664js/21/
Translator: Lilia v4
Editor: Yuriko AYA
◆◇◆◇◆
Anyway, planet Highlane after a while.
Blue sky, white clouds, white buildings.
Even though it’s daytime, stars are floating white.
Incidentally, the closer you get to the galactic center the more stars there are, apparently.
Then even stars you can see in daytime start showing up, they say.
Alice in a pilot suit stretches.
“Ahh, the ground really does settle me.”
“Eh?”
“Eh——?”
No, Swallow-san’s one-room settles me more…… though.
While I’m mumbling, unsure whether to say it, Alice’s face becomes like she sensed something.
“As expected of a shut-in———”
Alice looked up at the stars with distant eyes.
“So, sa——Alice.”
“What is it?”
“My pilot suit is like a swimsuit so it’s embarrassing.”
“It’s fine. It’s a year-round summer seaside town, so there are plenty of people in swimsuits.”
“No…… besides me, there isn’t a single one?”
Players have been looking this way any number of times since a while ago?
The NPPs don’t care. Maybe because a lot of players wear weird outfits.
And even though it’s a suit tight to the body, it isn’t hot at all. How does that work.
“But we’re going somewhere that’s hard to move in in a skirt, you know?”
“I am requesting to change into a normal pilot suit.”
I become period speech before I know it.
“No, you know?”
It’s no?
Since my will seems to be ignored, I decided to cry myself to sleep.
After walking a while, Alice points at something like a stall.
“Look, they’re selling something that looks delicious!”
“True, something round——”
“Alien Kraken takoyaki”
Alice and I rolled our eyes, and I felt like I hallucinated thick vertical lines running down our faces.
No, the legendary kraken is originally octopus not squid, apparently. But kraken takoyaki……
Or rather octopus-or-squid on kraken doesn’t matter. The “Alien” part has a pretty big problem.
Looking at the sign, an octopus spaceman like from an ancient novel is going “it’s delicious♪.”
You’re being eaten, sir? Is this the time to be saying that?
And the ingredients visible behind the stall are ridiculously huge.
A giant octopus spaceman, a kraken……?
Do people on this planet seriously eat that?
Alice, eyes white and a vertical line on her face, speaks to me in a dry voice.
“Shall we leave it.”
“I have no choice.”
❝Try eating it lmao❞
❝Content! Content!❞
❝Everything’s a challenge, zo❞
Don’t “zo” me. My spine is going “zo.”
“Content, is it——”
Alice, expression back, puts a hand to her chin and gets serious.
“Alice, you don’t have to show pro spirit in a weird place.”
“Let’s try eating, Suu-san.”
“……Hey, stop!”
At the outrageous situation, my true nature slipped into my tone.
And yet Alice trots to the stall and takes the product from a takoyaki-like skinhead old man.
Is that girl falling into indefinite madness.
Then she came back carrying two packs of something like ineffable takoyaki on a white tray.
“I bought them.”
“This is the scene where we share one serving. You don’t have to properly buy two……”
Like, a giant space octopus, that’s definitely a mythological creature.
“But protein that isn’t synthetic meat is precious, they say?”
“Right now I don’t want precious, I want self-restraint.”
While I’m rolling my eyes, Alice lifted one of the “self-proclaimed takoyaki” on a toothpick.
Then she placed it in front of her eyes, hesitated one breath——and tossed it in her mouth.
Looking up-right, she’s tasting it with her left cheek, squish squish.
“——”
❝She goes in with barely any hesitation lmao❞
❝As expected of Crimson Flash Alice, ikemen lmao❞
“——It’s good.”
“Eh……”
“It’s good, this. More elastic than Earth octopus, but the seasoning has umami working, and the sauce is well aged.”
You’re only praising the dashi and the sauce.
“Come on, Suu-san, try it too!”
“But I refuse.”
“It’s fine.”
It is not fine!
Alice puts an arm around my back and grips me, and brings the round thing on the toothpick toward my face.
I chant the option “No.”
“No, no, no!”
But like a Dra○e choice when you have no right to choose, Alice forces the option “Yes.”
I shake my head tearfully “nya! nya!”, and pom, a buddy of the fish-people (Innsmouth) is tossed into my mouth.
(Aaa a a a a)
While gagging I chew——
(It’s good, this is)
“Ith good.”
With tears, I stated my impression.
❝Suu-tan, good reaction lmao❞
❝This is what I wanted to see!❞
I’m honored it pleased you.
And so the quest we took at the Stratos Association was “Extermination of Alien Kraken.”
“We’re exterminating ‘that.’”
“Yes.”
“We’re going to meet a living ‘that’ now?”
“Yes.”
“Alice, you knew, didn’t you.”
“Yes.”
“I might not have confidence I can get along with Alice.”
“What are you saying. Right now it’s going this well, isn’t it.”
Sun-types are scary.
We left Highlane and were flying through space toward the destination planet Elias.
Today Swallow-san, because we’ll fly in atmosphere, increased the main wings into a biplane.
So right now it’s a rare look, a forward-swept-wing biplane.
Stability goes up, and with twice the wings the power of 〈Excitation Wings〉 is also twice.
When I cleared 〈Insanity〉 Death Road I also cleared in biplane form to raise 〈Excitation Wings〉 power.
Incidentally the wings can be purged if they’re in the way (you can go wingless too).
Alice explains Alien Kraken.
“Alien Kraken are creatures that live on Floor 2.——Pests on the water resort planet Elias. They’re hated like cockroaches.”
“You made me eat a cockroach.”
Incidentally the divisions called floors were established by the Galactic Union, splitting the 10,000 light-years to the galactic center every 100 light-years, the max distance of one warp, apparently.
Also today Alice is in her own robot.
Just——it isn’t the Alice frame I know.
Alice’s frame should originally be the red Divine Combiner Fragment, Fragtop.
“Hey hey, why isn’t it Fragtop today?”
“I returned Fragtop to the clan. Originally that was clan property.”
“Eh? What do you mean?”
“I said we’d make a clan with Suu-san. I left Knights of the Stars (Stellar Ritter).”
“Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!?”
❝❝❝Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!?❞❞❞
My voice and the comments overlapped.
“The other day the United States Space Force came to recruit Suu-san, right.”
Comments go noisy all at once at Alice’s words.
❝Eh, the US Space Force came to recruit Suu-tan!?❞
❝Even though they have two players in the cumulative merit-point top ten!?❞
When the comments rustled, some English comments appeared with tremendous force.
❝They recruited her!? They——Theyyy! betrayed the States! Damn sneaky USSF bastards!!❞
“S-someone overseas onii is angry with amazing force…… Suu-san.”
“Y……yeah, scary.”
Incidentally Alice is British so her English is perfect, and I can read reasonably thanks to studying with Ill-san in the training simulator.
While we’re scared, that overseas onii suddenly started posting calmly in fluent Japanese.
❝Oops, I cursed the ones who jumped the gun so filthy from too much anger.——Sorry, this is United States Marine Corps, Colonel James Smith.❞
“‘Them’…… he hasn’t settled down that much, has he……?”
“Marines……”
When I mutter trembling, a question flows in the comments.
❝Marines? Suu-tan, why are you that scared?❞
To convey how terrifying Marines are, I explain slowly.
“Th-the United States Marine Corps——commonly Marines, you should think of as a combined force, a unit that flexibly handles every kind of combat. Land, sea, air——now probably space too.——So they’re trained as America’s strongest military. And the terror of their recruit boot camp is trauma-class——that demon sergeant is a Marine instructor too———!!”
I emphasize that a certain demon sergeant is Marines.
❝That’s scary❞
❝Marines, that’s Welcome to the Silence?❞
❝Hey I don’t want to be welcomed in silence❞
❝‘I will not stop being human’❞
❝That’s Silent Fleet, wrong one❞
❝DI○-sama teary-eyed❞
❝The army the strongest man in humanity Se○l belonged to…… that’s bad❞
❝Suu-tan is detailed in weird knowledge you wouldn’t think a girl would know❞
❝Or rather why is the US military watching Suu-tan’s stream……❞
From too much terror I salute trembling and shout.
“Sir James Smith! I understand I am a fidgety maggot, so I do not need training!”
❝Hahaha, training is done to graduate from being a maggot❞
“Sir, no, sir! I do not need trainiiiiing!!”
James-san continues without seeming to care that I’m shouting hard enough to show my gums, teary-eyed, eyes peeled.
❝Suu-san, how about it. Won’t you come to the Marines clan? We pride ourselves on being the most advanced in Fate Link: Legendia. If you want to stand at the cutting edge of this world and also want better treatment than the USSF, you should take our offer❞
Someone put a “wait” on that James-san offer.
❝Could you wait a moment, United States Marine Corps-san. This is JASDF Colonel Kashiwagi Soichiro❞
“——E-even the Self-Defense Forces came out……”
“……”
❝Suu-san is a Japanese national no matter how you look. The first right to recruit her is ours❞
❝What are you saying, JSDF. The States is ready to offer her US permanent residency at once. She is a treasure of the world❞
❝Before she’s a treasure of the world, she’s a treasure of Japan❞
❝Japan intends to monopolize a world treasure?❞
❝Of course❞
❝You talk big, JSDF. You intend to pick a fight with the States’ strongest military?❞
“Suu-san, somehow an international incident is about to happen here.”
“……What do we do if the Japan–US alliance collapses.”
❝Please wait. This is Polish Special Forces, Colonel Ryszard Kalish. Suu-san, we need you too!❞
❝This is the German Air Force——❞
Scary scary scary, the military is absolutely scary.
I have to end this talk already!
“Um.”
❝❝❝❝What is it❞❞❞❞
“I———will join Alice’s clan……!”
“So please refrain. In the first place it’s a clan to protect Suu-san from scary people.”
“In the first place, don’t you think I could never serve as a soldier!”
❝Well, from this look the USSF got the cold shoulder too❞
❝Can’t be helped❞
❝Knew it❞
❝As I thought❞
Cold shoulder——I don’t remember treating them coldly.
Well, if that convinces them I’ll stop denying it……
Incidentally I shipped the Yachimat-juice to Vic yesterday. Convenience stores are convenient.