Ch.41Raising an Empress (4)

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**Title**: But I heard the Pirate Empress is coming soon

**Author**: SettingFetishist

**Content**: [Close-up shot of Pirate Empress’s chest]

What exactly is this Pirate Empress character supposed to be?

When I try to search the gallery, all I find are images like this posted by perverts and veterans,

or discussions about how powerful she is,

but no one actually mentions what kind of character she is.

As a lore enthusiast, I’m genuinely disappointed there’s no wiki right now,

so can someone please explain?

I’ll give you 5,000 minerals later if you can provide proper information, not just a few scribbled lines.

**Comments**:

-[A true setting enthusiast has appeared!]

-[He’s offering 5,000 minerals just for lore!]

-[Loves it as much as 5,000 minerals]

-[This game never properly released a lore book, so everything is just player speculation lol]

-[The comment above is nonsense. According to the lore book, she’s just a typical ‘once she sets a goal, she charges straight toward it’ character]

-[Her reasons for wanting to become a pirate aren’t revealed, but her goal is to become a ‘pirate boss’ and she works haaaaard for it]

-[She does everything she can to achieve that, and in endings 1 and 2 that we temporarily processed, she expresses gratitude to the player for helping with her goal]

-[The comment above is right, it’s just showing appreciation]

-[If you actually get endings 1 or 2 and talk with the Pirate Empress, she basically thanks the player for helping her become the Pirate Empress]

-˪[That was a thing?]

-˪[Why don’t you know this, you said you were a veteran]

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I’m screwed.

After much contemplation, I could now be certain.

After checking a post that happened to appear in the gallery, I realized the current situation was quite twisted.

For the Pirate Empress event chain to progress, the Pirate Empress herself would first need to escape from my base, one way or another.

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<Event: She’s Become Too Content>

<Your appropriate care and training has dramatically accelerated ‘Mary Ann’s’ growth.>

<At the same time, it has made her feel like this fleet and your side are her home.>

<The problem is that this has made her question whether she really needs to pursue her goal of ‘becoming a pirate MASTER!’>

<She once had grand ambitions to make all pirates kneel before her after suffering at their hands.>

<But the warm hospitality and care she’s experiencing for the first time in her life seems enough to shake the goals of someone still mentally immature.>

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The appearance of this event message confirmed my suspicions, and I felt a headache coming on.

‘No, my Empress!’

Moreover, this situation wasn’t just about me not getting to “consume” the Empress.

This was something briefly mentioned both by me and in the gallery previously.

Basically, everyone thought this event would last at most one to two months.

And in actual game time, it had progressed similarly, so everyone assumed it would be the same this time.

The problem was that the Empress (real) who was supposed to progress the event was now holed up here.

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**Title**: Why isn’t the Pirate Empress or whatever showing up?

**Author**: RedChicken

**Content**: [Proof that the event period has passed 3 months]

Seriously, is it normal for an event where pirates just randomly appear to last for 3 months?

When will the event progress to the next stage lololololol

**Comments**:

-[Agreed]

-[They said she’d come in a month…!]

-[For real, it’s like my mom who said she’d be back after sleeping for 100 days]

-˪[Ouch]

-˪[Ouuuch]

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**Title**: Next event stage is progressing!

**Author**: Anonymous

**Content**: [Staring toad image]

Actually this is bait

But what are you going to do about it?

What CAN you do?

You losers lolololol

You’re all kidnapped and imprisoned in the game and can’t even log out, what can you do besides getting angry and cursing, you losers lolololololololol

**Comments**:

-[Upvote if you rushed here and got pissed off]

-[It’s true and that makes me even angrier]

-[Where are you, writer?]

-[Give us your location, writer]

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**Title**: Holding my breath until Empress noona comes! *inhale*

**Author**: EmpressBootsSniffSniffSniff

**Content**: [Image of skeleton in coffin]

That’s what it says, right?

**Comments**:

-[Rest in peace]

-[He’s dead…!]

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**Title**: Acting all high and mighty just because the Empress event got extended by 3 months lolololol

**Author**: Anonymous

**Content**: [Image of personified mining ship crying]

Meanwhile, for 20 years…!

The pain our mining ships have had to endure…!!

**Comments**:

-[Hey worker, stop talking nonsense and go mine resources]

-[A laborer… talking back?]

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If we weren’t actually kidnapped and imprisoned in the game,

there would have been mass refund requests by now, given how seriously public opinion had plummeted.

I felt the same way and was genuinely curious about why she was acting like this.

In response to my confusion, Jessica, who was browsing the gallery with me, looked at me quietly and then:

“Commander, I just realized something.”

“Hmm?”

“I’ve figured out why Marian might not be escaping.”

She twitched her large rabbit ears, then gave me a sly look before offering an appropriate answer.

“In the original world, you had to personally handle everything yourself, right Commander?”

“Y-yes?”

“Thanks to that, whenever Marian would experience stressful situations like training or actual combat… you would have to take all that aggro, right?”

“Hmm.”

“But now it’s different.”

“…!”

With those words, Jessica continued explaining her interpretation of the current situation.

To summarize, in the original game, the ‘player’ handled everything.

So all of Marian’s aggro was directed at the protagonist, and no matter how much care was shown, the stress from training and actual combat would balance it out to a net zero.

As the gallery users mentioned, managing “friendliness” was difficult.

But now, that aggro was being distributed among Jessica and the others, significantly reducing Marian’s stress toward me.

While I should be receiving aggro and having my friendship points drastically reduced, I had instead become a caretaker providing support.

The other superhumans—Ignis, Berial, and Pashtra—were each training her directly in their respective fields.

Rather than feeling jealousy from my care, it was more like having gained a youngest sibling.

Unlike the original, the friendship decrease from aggro was split among me, Jessica, and the three superhumans—essentially one-fifth each.

Actually, I barely received any, so it was more like one-fourth for the others.

Meanwhile, the friendship increase was stubbornly multiplied by 5(!)

As a result, our Empress (real) had become so comfortable here

that the flame of determination for her main principle—or rather, her goal of “becoming a pirate master”—had dwindled.

The problem was that no matter how much I helped her grow in the current situation, as “Mary Ann” rather than Marian, she would barely reach S-rank at best.

Whether I liked it or not, I needed to encourage her to escape and grow.

Otherwise, not only would the event not progress,

but our Empress would stop growing, becoming not an Empress (real) but more like a “Colonel who gave up becoming a General.”

At this point, I realized I needed to do something, somehow.