Chapter 78: First Glimpse of a Sunset

The sunset on Sierra III wasn’t really all that different from the sunset on Earth. The sight of the sun slowly sinking down the sea put smiles on both my and Mimi’s lips. 

“Waa…… It looks wonderful! Huh? Did the Sierra system’s star really have that color?”

“Oh, it just turns out like that because of a phenomenon called Rayleigh scattering. It’s also the reason why the sky is blue in daytime. If I remember correctly, due to the influence of the atmosphere, there is a lot more blue light that gets filtered during the daytime. When evening comes, the distance the light coming from the sun needs to cover in order to pass through the atmosphere is gradually lengthened. The blue light gets absorbed by the atmosphere, and the result of that is reddish light being the one that reaches the eyes. It’s roughly something like that. It’s just some vague knowledge I have, so it might not actually be accurate.”

“I see! You sure are knowledgeable, Hiro-sama.”

“Hahaha, not so much, really.”

I actually took a page from those anime and LN protagonists who relay half-cocked knowledge to the heroine in order to earn some brownie points. I’m not really all that into physics anyway.  In fact, it would be more accurate if we just asked the maidroid or search using our portable terminals. 

Mimi sat down on the sandy beach and started watching the sunset. I also followed suit and sat right next to her. I haven’t watched the sunset like this apart from when I was just a kid huh.

“Since I’ve begun travelling across the galaxy with you Hiro-sama, everything’s been just like the most wonderful dream. If I told my experiences to the me from a year ago, the me from that time would probably just ask me if I was telling her a made up plot from some sort of holo novel.”

“Is that so? I guess that’s about right, huh. If I also got the opportunity to tell the me from a year ago about my current experiences…… I’m sure he’ll just say I’m totally delusional.”

And once he realizes it’s all true, I bet he’ll just strangle me in jealousy, haha. Bet he’ll say something like ‘Dammit! You get to go at it with a big breasted loli like Mimi and a slender and beautiful elf like Elma as much as you want! I’m utterly jealous here!’ 

“Every day really is like a dream. That thought scares me sometimes. I sometimes think that, in reality, I’m still in the third block, being abused, and everything I’m experiencing now is just a delusion I came up with to turn my eyes away from my situation.” 

“It’s alright. You don’t have to think about things like that anymore…… You’re really together with me and Elma right now, so don’t you worry, okay.” 

“Thank you. I really enjoy my current life and am very happy.”

“You’re welcome. I also enjoy being with you, Mimi.”

The two of us exchanged glances and smiled at each other. And before we noticed it, the sun had almost completely vanished from the horizon. There was still some brightness left, but it’ll be dark soon. 

“It’s tuned dark already. Shall we go back?”

“Yes.”

I stood up and offered my hand to Mimi. Mimi took my hand and stood up as well.

“Let’s hold hands while walking back, Hiro-sama.” 

“Ou.”

Mimi released her right hand from my grip and offered her left. I took her hand in mine again, and we started walking back to the lodge. 

“Hiro-sama’s hand sure is big!”

“It’s bigger than yours, at least. But your hand sure is small and soft, Mimi.”

“Ehehe……”

I continued walking back to the lodge with the happily smiling Mimi. The maidroid continued following after us from behind with silent footsteps. So the maid robots in this dimension can read the mood just fine huh. How impressive. 

“Welcome back. How was the sunset?”

“It was wonderful!”

Mimi kept her good mood even after we got back to the lodge. Uh, isn’t it about time to let go of my hand, young lady?

“Good for you, Mimi-san. The dinner should be arriving soon, so please wash your hands and get ready. It is recommended to wash hands that have been in contact with dirt and sand after all.”

“Understood.”

After hearing Chris’s words, Mimi let go of my hand with a little bit of reluctance. Nice assist, Chris. Mimi and I washed our hands just as Chris suggested. When the two of us got to the dining area, dinner was already served. It was seafood dishes for lunch, but it looks like meat dishes were the main entrees for dinner. 

“That reminds me, Elma and Chris looked like you both had something to say after that history lesson about the advent of today’s advanced AI. What’s up?” 

“Just like I said earlier, I have nothing to add to the subject. In the end, the empire got along with autonomous AIs, and is developing well as a result. Nothing more and nothing less.”

Elma shrugged as she used her knife to cut up her steak. Chris, on the other hand… still had that peculiar expression on her face.

“It’s not like I don’t have my own thoughts about the matter, but just as Elma-san said, the end result did bring about the current prosperity of the empire. The current emperor as well as his trusted vassals who have been granted nobility titles by him have the empire firmly within their rule. The current empire does have to deal with a number of problems at present, but can also definitely be said to be prosperous to a large extent……”

Even as Chris said that, I can’t help but notice her complicated feelings about the matter. If I had to guess, it might be something like the organic life forms ruling the entire empire at the surface, but are largely influenced by the autonomous AI from behind the scenes. It doesn’t look like the current empire turned out to be a rigid, regulated society where everybody says that happiness is a privilege or anything like that, so… I haven’t really felt anything was out of place during my stay here. But maybe I just couldn’t notice because I’m ultimately from another dimension? In any case, I can’t feel any noticeable sense of incongruity from imperial society beside the usual corruption and stuff.     

“Well, in the eyes of a complete outsider like me, I haven’t really noticed anything that’s felt out of place, but I do think this country definitely does have its fair share of problems. But, in any case, it isn’t like the AI are completely regulating society or anything like that. So the current state of affairs where both sides are trying to maintain an appropriate distance to avoid causing friction is sort of an ideal balance, don’t you think?”

Well, it’s something like being watched over by a mechanical god that can exercise its authority freely in the event of anything it feels as an emergency huh. Certainly, the thought of such a mechanical god going crazy and starting to slaughter people is quite terrifying. But they’ll be no end to worrying and paranoia if people always minded that grim possibility.

Well, I do acknowledge that the reason I can have an opinion like this is because of my skill as a mercenary and having a reassuring safety net in the form of Krishna though. In the eyes of someone like Mimi, the empire probably isn’t all that good a country. The empire didn’t do anything to help Mimi when she fell down to despair after all. A utopia where everyone is happy and content can only exist as a concept and one can only dream about such a thing. 

“You don’t really feel any apprehension toward autonomous AI, don’t you, Hiro-sama?”

“Well, I’m more curious about them than afraid. Well, it might just be in my blood due to the country I was born in.”

I’ve been raised in a place where the concept of divinity residing in all things is prevalent after all. Wouldn’t it be neat if one’s favorite items had distinct personalities of their own? What did they call it in English? Animism?

There are guys in a certain industry who not only assigned distinct personalities to animals, but even computer OS, natural phenomena, and other intangible concepts after all. Heck, they even did the same thing for foreign divinity and certain popular evil gods who shave away at people’s SAN points just by looking at them.  

“The country you were born in?”

Elma tilted her head in curiosity. 

“It’s kinda difficult to explain. Let’s see… Uh, it’s kind of widely accepted in my country that divinity resides in all things, including machines. They can reside in clothes, tableware, houses, ships, and just about anything and everything you can think of. That’s why there’s this mentality of treasuring all the things one owns.”

“Hmm… It’s sort of like a doctrine that preaches universal acceptance huh. It feels quite magnanimous.” 

“It’s a wonderful way of thinking. Yes, truly wonderful.”

Miro’s spherical terminal parked in the corner started sparkling as it suddenly made such a comment. Somehow, I felt like it’s impression of me turned more favorable for some reason. 

“Well, how should I put it? Uh, instead of being constantly wary of each other, I think it’s more constructive for both sides to try and look for ways to walk together. If they can’t bring themselves to see eye to eye and cooperate, the only outcome would be conflict after all.”

“Opponents you can’t see eye to eye with…”

“Yep. Just like pirates and Chris’s uncle.” 

“Fufu. So my uncle is just the same as those despicable pirates, is he?”

“Well, they’re both the same in my eyes.”

They will both attack us with clear murderous intent after all.  

But what should we do about the battle recordings of that fight with Chris’s uncle’s private soldiers? Well, that side used an interdictor first, so I think our actions constitute legitimate self defense. And there’s the fact that they fired first and attacked us without holding back as well.  In the first place, we wiped them all out, so there’s no one left who can heap blame on me for killing those guys. Well, I guess it’s not worth worrying about after all. You attacked us, so don’t complain about turning into space dust.  

“What’ll we do tomorrow? Since we already bought swimsuits, I was thinking of trying them out and going for a swim.”

“Sounds good. Let’s all have fun in the sea.”

“Plunging headfirst into all that water…… It’s kinda scary honestly.”

“There’s no need to be afraid, Mimi-san. That water isn’t fresh water after all. It’s sea water, so it’s salty.”

“Sea water is salty?”

Chris and Mimi began talking about the sea. Judging from their discussion, it looks like the sea here is no different from what I’m used to back on Earth. But there’s a pretty good chance that the sea creatures on this planet are completely different from the sea creatures I’m familiar with though. I wonder if there are mermaids here? Alien mermaids. But fantasy mermaids are definitely better than encountering something akin to the Deep Ones……

I mulled over silly things like that while eating dinner, and quickly went to sleep afterward in preparation for tomorrow. 

Eh? Am I just going to head straight to bed like this? Well, there’s Chris to consider, so we really can’t do anything like that right now. 

I think it’s good to abstain every once in a while. I’m gonna be treated to a wonderful sight tomorrow anyway. Hehehe.