Chapter Volume 8 7: The Battleship, Decapitated

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“YOU ABSOLUTE FOOL!” I shout inside the ship's office.

The report that I received from the ground is paining me.

The one who's giving the report is Wallace, who seems to be enjoying his time on the ground.

He complained a lot in the beginning, but he's adapting quite well to the new environment.

As for the content of his report…

‘Aren't you glad you're being worshipped by everyone?’

“Have I ever said that I want to be worshipped? Also, what's with the sacrifices! When did I ever ask for sacrifices!?”

I will stay true to what I said to the Augur royalty.

I'll give them everything they need and protect their planet.

Why, you ask?

It's because things will be more convenient for me that way. That's all there is to it.

‘According to them, they're just providing offerings to the new God. I tip my hat to your charisma, Liam.’

Watching Wallace sipping tea gracefully while giving his report makes me want to beat him up.

He should learn a bit from Cleo.

“Makes me wonder if he's really connected to Cleo by blood.”

‘Did you say something?’

“Nothing. Anyway, tell them to stop with the sacrifices.”

‘They say they're just some offerings.’

“That's the same thing! I don't need them either way!”

The former lord of Augur apparently had their citizens give beautiful young men and women as offerings.

What horrible taste.

I know I'm a villain and all that, but even I don't stoop so low as to proclaim myself a god.

I'd feel bad for the Guide otherwise.

Anyway, that former lord was judged by the Empire's law and had their household crushed.

I don't know what he did to deserve that, but the Empire would be better off with a large majority of its aristocrats dead.

I'm on that list as well…

‘By the way, Liam.’

“Yeah?”

Everything's proceeding smoothly, with the only thing slowing me down being the negative influences of the former lord.

Or at least that's what I thought…

‘It's about your citizens. The migrants didn’t want to be left behind, and have sent a petition to host a Liam Festival. I approved it since it sounded interesting.’

Wallace says this without batting an eye.

This must be his payback for dragging him here.

About the migrants from my territory competing with the locals… Are they dumb?

They've been brought to such a remote place, and yet they're competing with the locals over who can worship me better? What's there to even compete over?

“Rejected! We're going to have to do something about their distorted view of religion! F*ck it with the aristocrats-are-gods bullsh*t! Absolutely repulsive.”

If we're talking about God, then someone like the Guide would fit that description.

After disconnecting communication with Wallace, I plop down on a chair and lean my head against the backrest.

“Ahh, this is the worst. Everything else is going well, so this is getting on my nerves more than it should.”

Now that the call is over; Amagi, who's been standing beside me quietly, opens her mouth.

“Master, it's necessary to invest a lot of time in developing Augur.”

“You're right, though I doubt their values will change much during my stay as Deputy. That said, I just need them to remember me as a kind and dependable Deputy while I'm here.”

Taking into account the entirety of the Empire; Augur, which is now close to the Empire's border with the Kingdom of Dominion, is quite a distance away from my territory.

If I were to draw a comparison using my previous life as an example, it would be like the distance between Tokyo and Osaka.

No, my territory's also in the countryside. So, it's more like the distance between Yamaguchi and Aomori.

Either way, there's enough distance between us that what's considered common knowledge here is different from what's considered common knowledge back in my territory.

Back there, I've rampaged enough to have my name engraved in everyone's mind. Here, it's more along the lines of; “Liam? Ahh, I think I've heard of him?”

You don't bother remembering the names of governors outside your prefecture, right? It's something like that.

My fame in the Capital is shooting up, but the farther we are from it, the less I am known.

That's why I've decided to make a name for myself here as well.

This may sound old fashioned, but it'll be like those scenes in delinquent manga where a gang from a different prefecture invades a local town.

In this case, we'd be the gang that's invading.

Of course, we'll be the ones to emerge victorious.

I hate losing after all.

“I'm feeling rather irritated right now, so let's go vent some anger. Amagi, call the army. It's time to hunt some pirates.”

“Understood.”

The pirates back home no longer approach us, but not many have heard of me here. So, they're bound to jump on us at every turn.

Pirates are the type to swarm whenever they see a small fleet wandering around. They're precious assets that bring me both wealth and fame.

I'll hunt as many of them as I can.

“I'll make them a part of the spaceport that's under construction.”

The wreckage that will be left behind in their wakes should be put to good use.

Also, my hunch is telling me that I’ll be hitting three birds with one stone this time, instead of the usual two birds.

On that day, terror descended upon the pirates that traveled near Augur.

“W-who are they!?”

It came as no surprise that the captain of the pirates was upset.

His pirate fleet was a large one, numbering in the thousands, and he was notorious enough that none of the aristocrats around here would be willing to fight him.

He and his pirates had come across a small fleet with a family crest that they had never seen before.

The designs of the battleships and the mobile knights looked foreign to them, so they treated them like second-hand goods and laughed them off.

However, after they had engaged them, their ships and mobile knights were being shot down one after another.

Though they outnumbered the enemy's fleet, they were being overpowered.

The pirates turned pale in fear.

“Captain, we can't hold on anymore!”

“L-let's surrender!”

With his crews in the bridge confused and disoriented, the captain decided to send a message of surrender to the strange fleet.

“Contact the enemy. Tell them that we surrender.”

His crew on the ship were relieved to hear that.

It was better than being killed, and they thought their opponents would forgive them if they offered up their loot.

There were many such aristocrats, and most battleships that had family crests on them were their private armies.

They thought they'd be given a way out, as long as they gave up their treasures.

However, the mysterious fleet did not stop its attacks. The communication that was sent back showed a young man sitting proudly on a chair with a brazen attitude.

‘You'll give up your treasures, you say?’

The captain thought he was talking to the descendant of some great aristocrat and thus assumed a humble attitude.

“Of course. We'll give you everything we have, my lord.”

The captain didn't know who exactly he was speaking to.

After all, there was no reason for him to remember the name of someone that he normally shouldn't have met.

***

With a smile, the young man cut off the communication. The mysterious fleet's attacks got stronger, sinking the pirate ships one after another.

“That bastard plans to kill us all!”

The captain beheld a sight that was like hell on earth.

The aristocrat's private army was ruthless as it sank the pirate ships that contained men that were begging for their lives.

“Why would an aristocrat do this?”

The aristocrats in this region would have let them go at this point.

Dealing with a pirate fleet of their size would have caused trouble on their end as well. If given an appropriate sum of money, they would have overlooked the pirates.

Yet their enemy this time was unrelenting.

Soon, the captain's ship was bombarded and blown apart.

In the midst of it all, the pirate captain murmured, “Who in the world…”

I was able to decimate a decently large pirate group.

“They latch onto whoever's traveling in small numbers. Today's catch was a big one.”

I'm really pleased that the pirates here take whatever bait is thrown at them.

I haven't been earning much as of late because the pirates back home kept fleeing.

Those pirates should grow some balls.

Hmm… Should I take the initiative to go after large pirate groups from now on? Huh? That might actually work.

Those large pirate fleets should have a lot of treasures.

I should actively hunt them down in the future.

I'll have a lot of free time when my training is over, so it should be fine even if they're a bit far away.

Klaus, who has been standing next to me, speaks while I'm grinning.

“Lord Liam, should we collect the debris from the battlefield?”

“Naturally. Collect everything and bring them to Augur. Also, contact the Seventh Weapons Factory. They probably have a lot of leftovers in their inventory.”

“The Seventh? Isn't it better to contact the other Weapons Factories?”

Klaus recommends the other Weapons Factories over the Seventh which heavily focuses on technology and performance.

“It's fine. I'm just buying some gifts.”

“I feel like that's all the more reason to contact the other factories…”

Nias comes over from time to time and nags that she won't go back until I buy some of their products. So, I've been buying them every so often, not to mention that Avid's maintenance can only be done at the Seventh Weapons Factory.

That's why I've been employing their services.

“Just trust me and contact Nias.”

“–Understood.”

Klaus relays the order to contact the Seventh Weapons Factory.

A small window appears in front of me after a little while.

A sleepy looking Nias gets projected on the screen.

She must have prepared in quite the hurry, as she hasn't fixed her bedhead.

***

I check the timezone of the Seventh Weapons Factory. It should still be around noon.

I thought it'd be fine to call.

Never did I expect that she'd be asleep.

“Did you work overnight?”

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“A hobby, you say.”

***

She talks as if I'm the bad one here, but it's clearly her fault.

To begin with, all my transactions with the factory have to go through Nias. Which means it's part of her job regardless of whether she's on vacation, or not.

That’s what she's being paid for after all…

“You should really just go to sleep.”

***

Klaus holds his face with one hand, perhaps because he's exasperated by her attitude.

Having said that, Nias must have really been preparing to go to sleep.

Her appearance right now lacks any sort of sex appeal, but the sense of daily life that's overflowing from her arouses me a little. I decide to close my eyes on her disrespectful behavior.

“All that aside, you have things left over in your inventory, right? I'll buy them, so send it over to me.”

***

Her eyes change color the moment she hears that I'll be buying their unsold weapons.

She's calculative, but I like how straightforward she is.

“But do something about their outward appearance. They'll be gifts, so don't send over any old models, send the new ones.”

The reason I went pirate hunting is because I wanted to relieve my stress and secure some materials for building the military base. It also served as a way to curry some favor with the local aristocrats.

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“I thought it would be impolite to meet them empty-handed.”

I'll be gifting the weapons to local aristocrats that are in trouble.

***

She's not hiding her true intentions at all, but that's fine.

If she was anyone else, I would have had her executed immediately.

“Make sure to send them over quickly.”

-At the front lines of the war against the Kingdom of Dominion-

Calvin, who had been dispatched to serve as the commander-in-chief, was surprised when he heard a certain report from his men.

All the military personnel were inside a large conference room and discussing strategies to employ against the Kingdom of Dominion.

“Liam-kun's at the rear?”

Calvin was surprised as he had never requested for Liam, and neither had any of the aristocrats and military personnel in his faction.

The officials that he had brought with him wern't involved in this either.

The reason being…

“How did we allow this to happen!?”

Calvin never wanted to summon Liam to the battlefield as that was where he shone the brightest.

Not only had he gained his fame through pirate hunting, he had won numerous battles in the past.

Calvin didn't want someone like him to be dispatched as logistical support as he would be stuck with the Kingdom of Dominion in front of him and Liam behind him.

It was like being pincer attacked on the battlefield.

While Calvin was thinking about what to do moving forward, a young aristocrat raised his hand and spoke with confidence and enthusiasm.

“Your Highness the Crown Prince, all we have to do is crush Liam on this battlefield. Let's have the Kingdom of Dominion go around us and attack Liam.”

The people around him would agree to his proposal… Or so he had hoped.

Both the military personnel, and the other aristocrats present on the scene, opposed this plan.

“Utter foolishness! That would mean having the Kingdom of Dominion pass through the Empire's territory!”

“This is why the young ones are no good.”

“Even if we beat Liam that way, it would all be for naught if we lose to the Kingdom of Dominion and damage His Highness's reputation.”

Faced with so much opposition, the young aristocrat looked disgruntled and unconvinced.

However, Calvin was relieved by the others' reactions.

“For now, we must do our best to deal with the Kingdom of Dominion. We'll keep an eye out, but won't make any moves yet.”

Calvin wanted to absolutely avoid fighting against Liam here.

Brian (´；ω；｀): “The sales for ‘I'm the Evil Lord of an Intergalactic Empire!' is going strong. This is all thanks to the readers who went to purchase the novel, so a big thank you to everyone that did. This Brian is crying tears of joy knowing that his postscripts helped with the sales, however little it was…What bliss.”

Wakagi-chan (;゜Д゜): (It would be insensitive of me to plug in an and ruin the mood… BUT. I'm the idol of postscripts after all! Since I've decided to take over the postscript segment, I must advertise until the end!)

Wakagi-chan (゜∀゜): “Please also check out Volume 6 of ‘The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs', which will be released tomorrow! Gorgeous limited editions will be on sale as well, and they come with [Drama CDs]!”

Brian (´；ω；｀)ノシ

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