The Star System's Automatic Development, Happening Without Her

***

Meanwhile, at that very moment, our own Benya Tomiri—the one whose motto was "I'll unleash my crazy-science girl-power moves all day long, but I will NEVER fall to the female side!"—was enjoying a perfectly ordinary stretch of leisure time.

Which is to say, to be perfectly precise, she wasn't merely admiring Ggomuli in the mini-aquarium while browsing the gallery‧‧‧‧‧‧.

She was, for instance, continuously running modification work on Ggomuli—evolving it into a collective intelligence for the Black Scourge Legion spread across the entire star system, in other words, a true hive mind.

"Sa—save me, please, I'm begging you!!!"

"So let me get this straight. Along with murder charges, you used the victim's personal information to steal company data and tried to sell it off to another star system?"

"That's correct."

"Well then, there's hardly any point in putting you through a legal trial. Off to my laboratory with you~"

"Yes, Doctor."

"No! No!!!"

"It'd be a waste to just kill them, so I should gather these guys up and make Ulongi Mk2 out of them~"

She was also diligently squishing and kneading away at death-row inmates, complete with the 'flawless evidence' package Ilena kept bringing in—working hard (n-o-t) on turning them into Ulongi Mk2.

It was at that very moment of supremely ordinary (not) and peaceful time-passing that the question arose: what was happening in the star system's administration, which Benya never saw with her own eyes and cared nothing about because she didn't even know it existed?‧‧‧‧‧‧Broadly speaking, it was proceeding along the following lines.

First, cutting straight to the point: the current planetary government, the Heisenberg Administration, and the Demonia Milano Branch had each started as entirely separate organizations.

So on the surface, they gave the appearance of not paying the slightest attention to one another, each simply going about its own business‧‧‧‧‧‧.

"A protest has broken out at a mining base on one of Milano-IV's moons, ma'am."

"Not an outright violent demonstration, and the company that owns the site is already negotiating with them—so let's just hold and monitor for now."

"A resistance group has been spotted in the newly developed satellite zone of Milano-VI. Fewer than a hundred of them, but‧‧‧‧‧‧what are your orders?"

"Deploy the Black Scourge. Erase their very existence."

"Understood."

"And what about the biomass import clearance? It still hasn't been approved?"

"Government approval just came through—they say they'll be sending the containers over to us."

"Excellent. Once those containers arrive, pack up the drug smugglers we caught this time all nice and neat, and send them off inside."

"Yes, ma'am!"

In reality, the two organizations were so closely intertwined that calling them a single government would have been entirely fair.

From the outside, however, to anyone who knew nothing, the combined strength and resources of the planetary government appeared to have dwindled—and so the outside criminal organizations that waltzed in without a second thought were all unceremoniously ground to paste.

Situations that should have descended into chaos were instead being resolved in the smoothest, most deadpan fashion imaginable.

What's more, as mentioned before, the current Milano System had sold off an astronomical volume of space military assets—more than it could realistically maintain—securing a massive amount of capital in the process.

But instead of doing the braindead thing and dumping all that money blindly into the civilian economy, they hired up the various confused corporations, mercenary companies, and private security firms to handle public order instead.

They even expanded the pioneer cities on Milano-V further, launching new satellite development projects on top of that.

By absorbing the attention of potentially restless civilians like a sponge, they succeeded in cutting off the very possibility of trouble at the source.

Naturally, from an outside perspective, observers could only marvel: 'How on earth did those people stabilize this fast?'

And of course, on top of all this, there was one more factor: the constant, close-quarters surveillance net maintained by the Black Scourge Legion.

Everyone from the so-called 'resistance fighters' to internal factional elements like Jacomo's People's Party was being ground down before they could ever grow.

Because the Black Scourge, with their sheer alien nature, were incapable of being infiltrated from within—unlike ordinary police forces or civilian companies—they ended up functioning as the system's counterintelligence apparatus.

External infiltration and internal discord alike became impossible to an extent that exceeded anyone's wildest projections.

And even if someone did somehow manage to stir up trouble, the moment they did, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of Black Scourge would come swarming from who-knows-where, while mercenaries and private security guards—grown fat and happy on generous pay for easy work—snapped into rapid response‧‧‧‧‧‧.

On top of that, since the planetary government's fleet was short on ships, the Demonia Branch's fleet patrolled 'separately from' the government's regular patrol routes, roaming the system on its own circuits.

For any punk amateurs to run wild had become, realistically speaking, a completely impossible state of affairs.

And with external interference and internal discord both thoroughly locked out like this, the civilian population naturally came to regard the earlier coup attempt as just one more passing incident.

Prices stabilized as the situation settled, and perhaps because our ignorant scientist Benya's incomprehensible domain—interest rates and economic policy—had been resolved 'somehow or other,' the public mood kept climbing.

There had been one slightly awkward moment in the middle, but public favorability toward the current administration shot uuuuup across the board.

Approval ratings surged explosively along with it, the very reason for causing trouble evaporated, and an era in which everyone could be happy arrived at last.

Of course, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠as is always the way ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of the world, it isn't truly possible for everyone to be happy—and sure enough, complaints inevitably bubbled up from somewhere‧‧‧‧‧‧.

"As of today, the anti-Demonia, anti-Heisenberg factions have gathered together and given birth to our organization. In celebration of our founding, I propose a toast!"

"Hah-yah!"

"To us!"

"Grrrkk?!"

"What the—?!"

"M-my body won't move‧‧‧‧‧‧?!"

"You idiots. Use some common sense—a government whose Black Scourge roam freely and who successfully crushed every last one of those Red Commie bastards... and you thought it wouldn't know you existed?"

"Ch-Chief?!"

"Relax. From this moment on, we'll be putting your bodies and identities to very, very good use."

"A wonderful arrangement, I'd say. Petty little rabble-rousers are far better managed gathered up in one place like this than left scattered all over the place, after all."

"‧‧‧‧‧‧!!!"

"Th-this is insane‧‧‧‧‧‧!"

"We've been played!"

For the Demonia side had caught wind of such gatherings early, using the technology and equipment Benya had created to round up the leadership in one swoop and crush them before things could even begin.

Then, using those very leaders' identities and 'appearances,' they had pre-built a puppet organization to keep the rabble-rousers corralled and managed.

In other words, inside and out alike, a security apparatus and normalization effort that wasn't quite 'perfect'—but was 'the best'—had been completed.

And on top of all that, there were the criminal organizations that had been crushed so swiftly this way—drug smuggling cartels in particular.

Given their habit of cruising the stars, nine out of ten of them had connections or back channels in other star systems.

"If we play this right... we could actually use this to take over other star systems, don't you think?"

"Oh?"

"Employee of the Month. That's you."

"Clever young man."

So they adopted a strategy of leveraging exactly that: locking this system down flawlessly while letting unknown spies, already embedded in the enemy's ranks, devour rival star systems bite by bite without anyone realizing it.

Through a flawless display of do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do hypocrisy, backed by a proud philosophy of 'if it happened to me, it should happen to you too,' they had quietly begun extending their influence into other star systems before anyone was the wiser.

***

And it was while all of this was going on—while I'd gotten bored of making Ulongi Mk2 and paused for a break, fiddling with Ggomuli like a jelly slime stress ball and browsing the gallery—that Ilena came to find me and delivered it all as an official report.

"‧‧‧‧‧‧O-ohh‧‧‧‧‧‧ that's incredible. Yep."

"Naturally."

So this is why powerful people want ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠competent subordinates, I thought, feeling its importance sink deep into my bones all over again.