“By the way, Mr. Diplomat.”
“What is it, Admiral?”
“Have you perhaps heard of tobacco?”
“Admiral!”
Well, would you look at this man?
“It’s something you smoke with the device I have in my mouth right now. You could call it an essential luxury good for Denebians.”
“This is my first time seeing it. Is it like a hormone stimulant?”
“You could say it’s similar. How about trying a puff?”
As if to prove he was a soldier, he was teaching an alien something very nice indeed. When I glanced at the adjutant beside him, he was breaking out in a cold sweat as he tried to dissuade the admiral.
“It doesn’t seem difficult. I’ll accept your kindness.”
“Refreshing, that’s what you are. Adjutant! Go to my office and bring me a pipe!”
Admiral Nikolai took the pipe from his adjutant and began very kindly explaining how to use it. You put this part in your mouth and light the other end—, if you mix in the tobacco leaves improved here on Deneb, it’s absolutely incredible—, the golden ratio is this and that—
As he explained, he finished preparing it with the most serious expression I had seen on him so far, then handed me the pipe.
“All you have to do is feel it as it is.”
I have no idea what he plans to do if tobacco happens to be deadly poison to our species. Maybe the Deneb United States made a poor choice in personnel. I’m seriously starting to think the admiral might actually be an idiot.
To think I’d learn how to smoke from an admiral in space, not even from a senior back on Earth.
When I put the pipe in my mouth, the admiral lit the end for me. As the tobacco began to burn, I carefully inhaled.
Sssip—
Hoo—
“How is it?”
“…”
This taste?
“Please include it among the trade goods, Admiral. We’ll import it.”
“Hahaha!”
“Perhaps it’s because of the improved leaves you mentioned, Admiral, but the fragrance that comes through here and there is excellent.”
“That’s exactly it. The pride of Deneb.”
The improved tobacco leaves the admiral mentioned. When I inhaled them, my main body’s resonance ability became more active. A drug meant for humans works on a hive consciousness too? No. The ordinary tobacco mixed into this pipe has no effect on me. Of course it wouldn’t, since our body structures are different.
But mixed in between are plants that open the mind, that give me the sensation of heightened resonance with the Legion. I need this.
Once the details of our exchange were more or less settled, it was time to return.
“Please make sure to include those improved tobacco leaves as well, Admiral.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll send some even if I have to pack my personal supply.”
As I boarded the space whale again and returned home, I looked once more over the treaty written on a substance the Legion did not use: paper.
In summary, it was as follows.
Treaty on Mutual Trade and the Promotion of Friendship between the Deneb United States and the Kingdom of Ruschaka (hereinafter “both parties”)
Article 1. Both parties shall permit public exploration vessels of the other party to pass through and navigate their borders.
Article 2. Both parties shall mutually share the current status of galactic map exploration and hyperlane route information with the other party.
Article 3. Passage of civilian merchant ships entering the Albireo star system, the border between the Kingdom of Ruschaka and the Deneb United States, shall be permitted for one day every thirty galactic standard cycles.
Article 4. In the event of disputes between them, both parties shall resolve them through peaceful dialogue and negotiation, and shall mutually respect the sovereignty and independence of the other party.
For the Deneb United States, signed by Admiral Nikolai Rubella, General Supervisor of the Prometheus Fleet and Supreme Commander of the United States Southern Command.
For the Kingdom of Ruschaka, signed by Hihirak, entity entrusted with diplomatic authority under Her Majesty the Queen.
For a treaty concluded at a first meeting, it was absurdly high-level. Opening the border could be excused by saying that borders had much less value in space, but sharing galactic information and mutually guaranteeing independence were treaties that would only be possible in the game after relations had improved to a certain extent.
Just as I wanted to maintain good relations with the Deneb United States for the sake of a peaceful monstrous life, the Deneb United States must have had some reason of their own to maintain good relations with our kingdom. Otherwise, negotiations wouldn’t have proceeded without getting stuck, would they?
In the trade scheduled for exactly thirty days later, we decided to trade several space whales. I do wonder why they need unstable biological ships when they should have vessels of their own, but we’ll find that out after the trade.
After all, we are not truly a kingdom, but a hive consciousness. Every piece of information the whales see, hear, and feel after crossing over to the Deneb United States will ultimately become known to me.
Even if relations with the Deneb United States sour, the parts of me that I can bring back under my control at any time will always be ready to obey me again.
It’s unfortunate, but it can’t be helped. My meeting with Admiral Nikolai was beneficial, but in transactions between states, it’s impossible to trust the other party one hundred percent. Consider it the price they pay for failing to recognize that I’m a hive consciousness.
A major crisis had passed far too smoothly, and now the time had truly come to shore up internal affairs. The galaxy is vast. There’s no telling when an enemy we can’t handle with our current technology will pop up.
In a game, if you work hard to develop your nation and then fall flat, get run over by a stronger truck, or your country falls into crisis, you can simply reset the game and start a new one. But I absolutely cannot think of this vivid reality as something I can redo like a game.
So I must prepare everything I can prepare. Regretting things too late has no meaning whatsoever.
For example, the tobacco Admiral Nikolai gave me this time. It had the effect of clearing my mind and letting me feel the Legion more distinctly.
This time it was only a few puffs from a pipe, but if I increase the dosage a little, it will definitely be a great help in an urgent combat situation.
If I had approached the Deneb United States as an enemy, would I have been able to obtain these tobacco leaves?
There’s a strong possibility I wouldn’t even have known they existed. For that matter, Admiral Nikolai himself didn’t seem to have noticed the effects of the tobacco leaves. It seems he only knows them as something with a slightly stronger awakening effect than ordinary tobacco.
But because I approached the Deneb United States in a friendly manner, I was able to gain this benefit as well.
Besides that, there must be all sorts of plants and animals scattered throughout the galaxy that display effects beyond common sense from Earth, just like Deneb’s tobacco leaves. If I can continue to increase national power through peaceful routes like this trade with Deneb, there would be nothing better.
This is the power of diplomacy.
For now, I should do what I can immediately do. Actions such as creating new entities require organic matter, but even if I want to, I can’t replenish any until the rice finishes growing, so there’s nothing I can do right away. I should prepare for trade with the Deneb United States.
For now, wouldn’t it be fine to bring unused minerals, menial workers, space whales, and the like to sell?
“My Queen.”
As I was pondering what would be good to trade, a thought-message came from Jarvis.
“What is it, Jarvis?”
“An alien wishes to make contact.”
Just when I thought I could finally settle down with internal affairs and plant flags on empty land, another new alien appears. This monstrous life really isn’t smooth sailing.
“Is it another faction? There haven’t been any forces detected near the border, have there?”
“No. It is not a nation. It appears to be a wanderer. It made contact with a space whale patrolling the border region. It did not reveal its identity, but I can feel a powerful thought.”
After hearing Jarvis’s words, I shifted my mind to the space whale the alien had contacted.
My field of vision changed, and I saw a dwarf riding atop a surfboard floating in space. Compared to the size of the space whale, he was so small that an ordinary human might have missed him.
The dwarf had been gazing off into the distance, but when I moved my consciousness into the space whale, he somehow noticed and lowered his head to meet my eyes.
“Mm… truly an outstanding mind.”
The dwarf let out exclamations like “hoh” and “huh,” and began observing me—not the space whale, but “me,” the mind residing within the space whale.
“To think that even from beyond twenty thousand star systems, I felt your mind touch the edge, if only for a moment. Truly, this is a blessed thing. Thus, this old body came all the way here to confirm it in person.”
It seems the cause was probably that my mental resonance ability had temporarily expanded while I was smoking the tobacco Admiral Nikolai gave me. Is he an entity who helps psionic abilities blossom? I can’t figure out his identity at all.
“So what brings you all this way? I doubt you came merely to confirm that.”
“I have seen it with my own eyes, so I desire nothing more. Continue refining yourself along that path, young mind. On the day you awaken to true faith, I shall look forward to that time.”
After saying that, he bent at the waist, rotated the direction of the surfboard with his own two hands, and then began drifting leisurely away without any lingering attachment.
I don’t know what that dwarf is, but assuming everything he said is true, it can be inferred that he traveled twenty thousand star systems in the short time between when I smoked the tobacco I received from Admiral Nikolai and now.
That means he possesses technology at least capable of warp. There’s no way he could have arrived this quickly by ordinary hyperlane travel. On top of that, he detected the movement of a mind or thought from that great a distance.
In other words, someone with overwhelming technology may be watching me. The moment I realized that, my sense of vigilance rose sharply.
I need to grow national power quickly. No matter how mighty the enemy is, if they want to kill my main body in the end, they must come to Ruschaka and strike me directly. If I pour bullets or lasers into them before that, I should be able to kill them.
If an attack comes before our national power grows that strong, well, I’ll accept it as fate. For now, let’s struggle as much as I can.