After docking in the big shield ship, we met its owner and her assistant mechanical intelligence. She has her quirks, but after receiving supplies, we were told we could walk around the tourism ship that is Shiitake.
After sending Van a message, I get one back of an image showing the tree saying OK, along with coordinates to the planet and space station. He says if she has a ship, she can stop by any time.
“Sebastian, I contacted an otherworlder I know, and he says she can contact him if she wants. So what now? By the way, he owns a star system.”
“Ooh!? So you also know someone incredible… I would like to accept. Does he also have a mechanical intelligence?”
“She is called Sumire… Ah, I have made contact. Sebastian, make sure you establish a connection with Sumire, because I feel like Mister Van and Miss Hiiragi will not get along.”
Both have been alive for a long time, Van is close to being an extremist demon king, and I feel like Hiiragi doesn’t really listen. Yep, it might be no good.
“I know it’s weird to say this when I’m the one who told you to establish a connection, but make sure you have one between mechanical intelligence just in case.”
“Very well… Mister Genma, Sumire is requesting we send otaku related data.”
“We have to finish this quest first.”
“I have answered as such. Mister Van also wants to see you, saying it has been a while.”
Was he always that modest… It’s only been a few months, but I’ll go.
“If I feel like it. How are the supplies looking?”
“The inventory is here. Twenty normal guided missiles, two normal torpedoes, fifty kilos of food cartridges, fifty kilos of drinking water, and twenty kilos of vacuum sealed retort bags with organic food such as simmered shiitake mushrooms, authentic red shiso pickled plums, king trumpet mushroom, butter-sauteed king oyster mushrooms and bacon, soy sauce with plenty of mushroom, and homemade smoked pseudo salmon.”
How homemade is that smoked pseudo salmon, I think, but apparently they raise fish in the ship. It’s from there!?
“That’s nice… Can we see where you’re raising the fish?”
“Yes, the large aquarium is open to the public. According to my master, she replicated the Motobu Aquarium, so there are only freshwater fish.”
“That sounds more like a dating spot.”
“Dating!?”
Kori reacts as she looks at the inventory, and everyone turns this way.
“Sebastian, when does the guarding quest start?”
“We are scheduled to depart in five hours. We would appreciate it if you returned to your ship by then.”
So, do we pay the deposit? There’s six of us, so it would be three hundred thousand puni. Mechanical intelligence are exempt? Okay.
But there’s also a hundred puni entry fee for one hour per person. And when we get back, the amount taken as a deposit is returned.
Morale is twenty percent higher than usual, as we finish resupplying in the cargo bay without any issues. Meanwhile, Sebastian and the self-propelled container leave.
We use a passage for people in the dock, pay the deposit, and step into the roadway section in the interior of the ship. These would be moving walkways in a colony, but they’re the kind of two lane roads you’d see on Earth.
I wonder how we’ll be moving here, but apparently we’re supposed to go to the elevator in the center.
“I don’t think there’s a shuttle bus.”
“Maybe I should’ve brought my cart if we’re going to traverse this distance.”
“What can we say…”
People who use carts have large lower bodies, and they put them in carts in colonies so they don’t take too much space. But I don’t think they take those precautions here.
We keep going, and then I hear light music behind me. I turn around, and see two horses running, that pass by us and then stop.
“Hn? It’s Genma! Are you doing the guarding quest too?”
“Anders? You too? Are you sightseeing until it’s time to go?”
The eight-legged centaur that’s looking like a cowboy matches our pace as he walks. Next to him is a red-headed female centaur wearing an indigo blue dress.
“Thirty thousand puni is pretty good money for one person! I’m counting on you when the fighting starts, bye! We’re going to keep running! Have fun!”
The woman nods, and both run off.
“Horses should be classified as non-motor vehicles.”
“It’s not recommended to run like that in a colony. You’re bound to damage the floor.”
“They want to run as fast as they want in a place where they can~.”
They look like they’re having fun, so let’s get to our destination and have fun too.
After descending ten floors on the elevator, we see a transparent blue wall.
There are roadways, but the center of the ship is filled with water and transparent walls. The roadways here are less than ten meters tall, the same as the walls. They’re at least a hundred meters wide, but looking in the distance, there’s no break along the way or anything.
“This wall is… orichalcum and magic silver… right? It should be that sort of transparent and sturdy alloy. I’m not too familiar with alchemy or metallurgy, so I don’t really know about that stuff, but isn’t the whole wall like that? Maybe they’re using structure preserving fields too.”
Says Vasilisa. So they’re sturdy and transparent walls then.
I see what looks like jellyfish floating around. They’re all like shiitake with meaty heads and tentacles dangling limply. They are white, yellow, blue… The colors of the rainbow. There are black ones too.
As I stand and watch, a school of fish passes by. They’re a dull silver color, like common river fish. They’re not that big, around thirty centimeters.
But there are too many to count. I look down, and see shrimp of all sizes pinching around the sand.
I can also see thick seaweed and tall aquatic plants. There are places that look like grass patches, but it’s mostly sand.
I keep looking, and see round algae that are like moss balls, rolling around like tumbleweed. The shrimp pick at them too.
There are also what looks like pleco fish clinging to the transparent walls and moving their mouths, what looks like catfish catching and eating shrimp…
Looking up, I see floating weeds drifting by, and a solar lamp I can’t look at for very long.
I face forward to compose myself, and see what looks like cow sized bones, a mountain of shells, along with things like a wooden ship and a dog wood carving.
Are those there to be fish reefs? I can see light reflecting off small fish and shining.
Was this made in that large weightless shipyard, or was it done later?
“Iris, do those large weightless shipyards build this sort of place?”
“Genma, the kind of place that can build something like this is pretty limited. For starters, it has to be a place that can do maintenance on a one and a half kilometer ship.”
“It is theoretically possible… but considering the costs, and the connections needed to receive a permit, water and fish aside, it is highly likely it was built in a large weightless shipyard, interior included. Furthermore, Miss Hiiragi told Sebastian that when the Shiitake left, she scrapped the shipyard.”
“Darling and Sara, is that what you think when you look at this~?”
I guess it’s kind of boorish.
“No, I was just thinking that it’s amazing to build a place where you can spend your life and not get bored.”
“I kind of get it. I’d be tired of it after three days though.”
“I’m feelin’ like jumping in there and swimming.”
“Incredible… To think such a place existed in space…”
“You see similar environments in oceans on planets.”
“Ueh~!? Really~!? Darling! Is Iris right!?”
I’ve never been scuba diving, but I’ve been to aquariums like this one.
“I’ve only seen it on videos, but yes.”
Surprise and admiration echo around me, because there isn’t anyone else here, so our voices echo a lot.
Sometimes I remember my goal of leading a slow life, but aquariums are nice too.
Watching fresh water shrimp pinch around, jellyfish float, and schools of neon tetra swim while reading and sipping on coffee…
“How about we have an aquarium in Tortilla Double?”
“The impact from the ship tilting during combat making the water tank collapse and the crying after it breaks is part of a mercenary’s basic training.”
I didn’t have that training.
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