Ch.408[Episode 408] First Employment

“Space war?”

Sir Dominic asked Captain Elang again.

“By space, do you mean those things up there?”

“Yes.”

Sir Dominic didn’t know exactly what space was, but he understood the concept.

He had seen it once through a random search on the wiki.

“A war in such a place, I cannot even begin to imagine what it would feel like.”

“Well, it feels like fighting underwater. Ah, of course that’s when fighting outside. Inside the battleship, there are gravity devices, so it’s not much different from here.”

Captain Elang explained space warfare to Sir Dominic.

“It seems it would be easier to understand through direct experience…”

“Unfortunately, I don’t have enough employment cards to spare.”

Captain Elang apologetically explained his situation to Sir Dominic.

Gacha Land’s employment cards had quite strict usage rules, requiring at least one card to be used even for practice sessions.

While Captain Elang had recently come into some money, 4-star cards like Sir Dominic were extremely rare in circulation, commanding premium prices.

Using such a rare 4-star card for mere practice seemed excessive.

“But there is a place where we can do similar training.”

“?”

“Follow me.”

With those words, Captain Elang led Sir Dominic somewhere.

…

After walking for quite some time, Sir Dominic and Captain Elang arrived at a location.

“This is the place.”

“Where is this…?”

A futuristic building located at the entrance to the wasteland on the outskirts of Gacha Land.

Sir Dominic looked up at these massive structures that appeared clean yet somehow cluttered with connections.

A complex of three buildings connected as one.

The middle building was the largest of the three, with massive transceiver arrays rotating on its roof, dozens of cylinders the size of ordinary buildings moving up and down while emitting hot steam, and a giant globe made of iron bars in the plaza in front of the building.

On the left stood a tower of towering gears, a structure so large it had a level where maglev trains passed through.

At the top of this structure was what looked like the world’s largest telescope gazing somewhere, and whenever its axis moved slightly, thousands or tens of thousands of gears below moved in unison, transmitting calculated values to the building in the middle.

The building on the right was the most distinctive of the three, with the world’s largest book-shaped sculpture opened on its roof, and on its open pages was inscribed an eye symbol with X-marked pupils.

Below were floating staircases, each rotating in orbits that never collided with each other, changing levels each time.

“Where on earth is this place?”

Sir Dominic tilted his head.

“I had no idea such an impressive structure existed in Gacha Land.”

“That’s strange. I thought Sir Dominic would know this place.”

Captain Elang replied with a puzzled look.

“This is the Federation’s clan headquarters.”

“Federation?”

Sir Dominic tilted his head at the clan name “Federation,” but soon remembered where he had heard it before.

It was the organization that Dick Tracy, whom he had met in Gacha Land’s Story Mode Region 3, belonged to.

As Sir Dominic recalled, the Federation was a clan with a militaristic feel and a strong science fiction vibe.

He wasn’t sure if it was still like that, but that’s how it appeared just looking at the clan headquarters before him.

“Now I understand. But why have we come here?”

“Well, to help Sir Dominic become familiar with space warfare.”

Captain Elang spoke as if stating the obvious.

“The Federation is the most excellent clan when it comes to space warfare.”

“I see.”

Sir Dominic nodded in understanding at Captain Elang’s words.

Most Federation members Sir Dominic had met were from the commander class.

“So, how will you help me become accustomed to space warfare?”

“I’ve found people who can help Sir Dominic become familiar with space warfare.”

Captain Elang recalled a character he had met and hit it off with at a bar last week.

“Today we’ll receive a simple simulation from those people, and then properly attempt Region 12 tomorrow or the day after.”

“I see.”

Sir Dominic thought Captain Elang’s plan was quite reasonable.

Even with abbreviated training for Sir Dominic, it would take a full day to bring him from knowing nothing to being somewhat competent.

“I understand everything. Wait, who are these people who will teach me?”

“Just a moment. They said they’d be here soon… Ah. Here they come.”

Sir Dominic turned his head at Captain Elang’s words.

There stood two people Sir Dominic knew: Ivan Strelch and Yekaterina.

“My goodness, it’s been a long time.”

Sir Dominic looked at the two with surprised eyes.

He hadn’t expected these two to be the ones volunteering to help him.

“Indeed it has.”

Ivan Strelch scratched his head, seemingly awkward about meeting after so long.

Yekaterina, not being as close to Sir Dominic as Strelch was, simply remained quiet.

“Have you been well?”

When Sir Dominic addressed Ivan Strelch, he answered sincerely.

“Well, I’ve been doing fine. I’m planning to get married soon.”

“Married? To whom?”

“Well…”

Strelch glanced at Yekaterina in response to Sir Dominic’s question.

Yekaterina, conscious of Strelch’s gaze, blushed and turned her head away.

Sir Dominic understood everything from Strelch’s sidelong glance.

“My goodness, you two are getting married?”

“That’s right.”

Strelch scratched his cheek in embarrassment.

“By the way, weren’t you two adversaries? How did this happen?”

“Well, you see…”

Strelch began to tell the story of what had happened.

From how the Stars Giant of Hundread Hands and The Tentacle Explorer made peace after a long struggle, to how the two clans merged and were reborn as the Federation.

Strelch wasn’t eloquent, so his explanation was long and disorganized, but the summary of his lengthy speech was as above.

“Now I understand everything.”

Sir Dominic nodded as he spoke.

“Anyway, congratulations on your marriage. If you let me know when the wedding is, I’ll try my best to attend.”

“I-I’ll let you know later. Today we’re here to learn, not to catch up.”

“Ah.”

Hearing Sir Dominic’s words, Strelch seemed to realize they might never finish at this rate and changed the direction of the conversation back to the original topic.

“I almost forgot. I nearly wasted the whole day.”

Sir Dominic thanked Strelch.

“So, what kind of training will I be doing?”

Sir Dominic now showed interest in the space warfare training he was about to learn.

“Actually, it depends on what kind of warfare we’re talking about.”

Strelch began.

“Even in space warfare, fighting inside a planet isn’t much different from Gacha Land.”

“It’s the Home Planet type.”

Captain Elang said in response to Strelch’s words.

“Home Planet?”

“Fleet battles.”

“Hmm.”

Strelch fell into thought at Captain Elang’s words.

After thinking for a moment, Strelch said this to Sir Dominic and Captain Elang:

“Fleet battles aren’t our specialty. Our forte is assault and occupation. But we do know the basics.”

“Because if the captain dies, you might have to take command of the ship,” Strelch added.

“Those basics are enough.”

Sir Dominic said.

“It would be strange to expect more than the basics in just a few days, wouldn’t it?”

“That’s true.”

Strelch nodded at Sir Dominic’s words.

“By the way, do you have a ship? No, do you have a fleet license?”

“Ship? Fleet license?”

Sir Dominic questioned Strelch’s words.

“What? You don’t have a ship or a fleet license? And you’re talking about fleet battles—”

Sir Dominic turned to look at Captain Elang.

“This is the first I’m hearing of this too.”

Captain Elang looked confused, saying it was news to him as well.

“Of course it is. You’re a commander. Commanders from outside are considered to have all vehicle licenses by default.”

At Strelch’s words, Sir Dominic finally realized why Captain Elang didn’t know about the licenses.

Captain Elang truly didn’t need licenses, so he was unaware of their existence.

“Hmm. Then we can’t even practice…”

Strelch began to ponder as he looked at Sir Dominic.

While licenses might not be necessary for battles inside a planet, space combat absolutely required licenses and personal spacecraft.

Due to the massive repair costs of space battleships, rentals were impossible.

“…Why are you hesitating?”

At that moment, Yekaterina interjected between Sir Dominic, Strelch, and Captain Elang.

“Money can solve this.”

“Money? But it would cost millions of Gacha Stones.”

“What are you worried about?”

Yekaterina looked at Sir Dominic.

“One of Gacha Land’s richest people is right here.”

Sir Dominic suddenly remembered his assets at Yekaterina’s words.

Indeed, he had enough wealth to build a space battleship without batting an eye.

“I see.”

“With construction time acceleration, it’ll cost at least 500,000 more Gacha Stones.”

“I have that much.”

“Really? Then it’s a question of whether you want to be greedy or practical…”

Learning that Sir Dominic had sufficient funds, Strelch introduced him to several battleship construction companies he knew.

Just then, Sir Dominic suddenly felt someone’s gaze.

When Sir Dominic turned his head in the direction of the gaze, he saw Captain Elang staring at him with surprised eyes.

“What’s the matter?”

“…You really are rich?”

“Did you think I was pretending to be rich?”

At Sir Dominic’s words, Captain Elang suddenly felt embarrassed, like a nouveau riche standing before someone truly wealthy.

Then, he discreetly put his fur coat into his inventory.

In that moment, Captain Elang was the most polite person in the world.