Terraforming (4)
What happens when someone fails to return within the deadline set by an emperor’s furious ultimatum?
The usual result is a visit from the Emperor’s personal guard—men who have undergone the finest genetic enhancements, the most brutal combat training, and who are wrapped head to toe in the Empire’s absolute best equipment.
After those terrifying uncles drop by, the offender is typically dragged straight to the Imperial Palace by force. That was the everyday pattern…
—Whoooosh… KRA-BOOM!
“Your Excellency, are you all right?!”
“…”
Even those terrifying uncles of the Imperial Guard, it seemed, had never imagined that a Minister and Duke might end up stranded on a planet by a terraforming-induced natural disaster.
They had clearly come under Artraia’s orders to seize me, yet the moment their assault pods—which had slammed down straight through the atmosphere—cracked open and the guardsmen emerged, the sight that greeted them was…
A shuttle packed with every kind of medical gear and a full VIP operating theater.
And from inside it, a flock of pitiful civil servants bursting out with armloads of bandages and emergency supplies, faces twisted in pure panic.
Wanting to put those startled men at ease, I tried to project the most relaxed posture and voice I could manage. Gaia was right beside me, after all, collapsed from sheer exhaustion, so hopping up immediately felt a little awkward.
Apparently that backfired spectacularly.
“I’m fi—”
“His Excellency is critical!”
“Get him into the medical box at once!”
I had only been lying down to look casual. The Imperial Guard uncles took one look at me and immediately tried to stuff me into the medical box they had brought along with their operating theater.
These bastards… are they trying to turn me into the Crown Prince the natural way?
Knowing the lore on the Imperial Guard the way I did, that ultra-advanced medical box suddenly felt exactly like the wooden rice chest from my previous life.
The instant that sensation hit, I shot upright.
“Hyeet?!”
Leaving the startled Gaia behind, I raised both hands toward the charging guardsmen and shouted.
“No, I’m really fine—stop worrying!”
At the sight of me, the charging guardsmen dropped into sliding kneels and skidded to a halt right in front of me. I ended up coated in the cloud of dirt and grass they kicked up, but…
“Your Excellency! Thank the stars you’re unharmed!”
From their bowed-head perspective, the poor fellows never even got the chance to see how ridiculous I looked.
“Well… I never expected something like this either, so I can’t really complain.”
Faced with the utterly bizarre scene, all I could do was shrug.
“Anyway, everyone on your feet. We’ve got work to do right now.”
“Understood, Your Excellency!”
At my order the guardsmen finally broke their rigid postures and stood—only to freeze again.
“…!!!”
“Y-Your Excellency!”
“Uh, yeah, it’s me.”
“We are so sorry!!”
They had just noticed the dirt and grass they themselves had sprayed all over me. And when their eyes landed on the tattered rags that were all that remained of my clothes after a few days of wilderness living, they let out actual screams of horror.
“We are truly, deeply sorry, Your Excellency! I will take full responsibility for—”
“I’m seriously fine. The clothes just got torn while we were living out here, that’s all—”
“There are no words to express our shame!!!”
“No, wait…”
Once the chaotic reunion finally settled down…
“Listen carefully. The only reason I looked like that was because I got dumped into the wilderness with zero warning.”
“Your Excellency’s words shall be carved into our very bones.”
“You really don’t have to go that far.”
“The Imperial Guard will never forget Your Excellency’s boundless mercy!”
Only after changing into the fresh clothes they had brought could I finally start a halfway normal conversation.
“By the way, if you lot are here, what happened to the research vessel that was in orbit?”
“Yes, Your Excellency. The research crew kept insisting on coming down with us even though atmospheric entry was impossible for them, so we forcibly transferred them to the Quesada space station for the time being.”
“Mm. Good call.”
As I fastened the last button, the highest-ranking officer among the guardsmen present—a colonel—spoke up again.
“Your Excellency, what about the others?”
“Ah, them.”
I nodded.
“Everyone’s safe. They’re just out gathering food or collecting data on the new flora and fauna, so I was the only one left here.”
“Is that so?”
More accurately, I had been treated like the useless spare piece because I was completely useless at wilderness survival… but I still had some pride left, so I kept that part locked firmly inside my head.
“As expected of Your Excellency—remaining alone to hold the base while everyone else goes out. Such courage…”
“Ooooh.”
Leave it to the Imperial Guard. The colonel instantly spun my words into the perfect piece of flattery, and the other guardsmen even provided the chorus. In that moment I finally understood why every emperor in history had doted on these men so much.
Talent and skill that natural at sucking up? You don’t find that just anywhere.
While I was thinking that, more guardsmen approached.
“For the glory of the great Empire! Your Excellency, how shall we proceed with the search for the survivors?”
They clearly intended to form search parties and hunt down the research team.
I waved them off.
“No need. Just wait here a bit and they’ll come back on their own.”
“Understood. All units, hold position here!”
“Yes, sir!”
We waited only a few minutes.
“…!”
“…! …!”
Voices drifted through the now-dense trees. The guardsmen’s weapons snapped toward the sound in an instant—
“Oh, they’re he—”
“Who goes there?! Show yourselves at once!!!”
A thunderous bellow completely buried my words. From beyond the trees came a frantic scramble of noise, then—
“I-I’m coming out! Coming out right now!”
With a clatter of gear, a ragged band of beggars—no, the research team—emerged, their lab coats reduced to absolute rags.
—Clank, clank.
—Creeeak…
—Thud!
“…”
Even the Imperial Guard seemed thoroughly shocked by the sight.
Every kind of plant, animal, soil, water, and air sample they had collected, each carefully sorted into storage containers hanging from belts. On top of that, every piece of experimental equipment they had brought was strapped to someone’s back as they trudged forward.
“Your Excellency, look out!”
“A Techno Cult appearing in a place like this?! All units, prepare to fire!”
“Eeeek?!”
“W-wait! We’re not those people!”
In the blink of an eye the researchers had been mistaken for members of that bizarre techno-cult, and a full-scale massacre nearly broke out—until my utterly dumbfounded voice cut through.
“Colonel, those really are the research team…”
“All units, cease fire! They are not hostiles!”
Thankfully the slaughter was averted.
“Uwaaah, Minister…!”
“I-I thought we were dead.”
Apparently the murderous glares of the human weapons known as the Imperial Guard had been a bit much. The researchers, who had been hauling massive equipment and samples just fine a moment ago, now collapsed where they stood, legs completely gone.
“Hmm. Well now…”
The colonel scratched his closely cropped hair as he watched them.
“When civilized people who aren’t prepared get dumped into the wild all of a sudden, this is what happens, isn’t it?”
“Mmm…”
“Especially me and those researchers—none of us ever trained for isolation scenarios.”
Realizing what the colonel was thinking, I threw a little protective cover over the research team.
“Your Excellency is correct. Still… seeing it with my own eyes leaves me with rather complicated feelings.”
Knowing something in your head and actually seeing it are two very different things, after all—especially when the visual impact is this strong.
“You’re right about that. Honestly, even I never expected them to turn out this… eccentric.”
“Haha…”
The colonel could only manage a dry laugh at my quiet admission.
A moment later his expression shifted; he had noticed something. He leaned in and whispered carefully.
“…Come to think of it, Your Excellency—where is that humanoid who always follows you around and assists you?”
I casually averted my eyes and answered with equal care.
“I already told you, didn’t I? Some of us went out to procure food.”
“…Surely not.”
Disbelief flooded the colonel’s eyes—
—Whirrrrr!
“Minister! I caught some fish here… What the heck is this, huh?!”
“…”
“…Hmm.”
She had discarded every scrap of her elegant suit somewhere and was now dressed entirely in natural materials. Riel came swinging down from the trees on a vine, a stone-and-wood spear in one hand with fish still skewered on it.
The instant the colonel saw her, I could read exactly one emotion in his eyes. I nodded.
“You feel it too, I see.”
“Is that… really a humanoid?”
“I wonder about that myself sometimes.”
And that reaction only grew stronger as Riel casually offered a fish on the tip of her spear to the still-stunned guardsman.