Ch.59Gate (3)

# Chapter 59: Gate (3)

“You don’t know where it goes?”

“That’s right.”

The moment I heard this, that thing stopped looking like a “gate” and started looking more like a trash can.

“Are you joking? How exactly are we supposed to use that thing?”

A warp gate is only useful if it has two-way connectivity.

If it has nothing, how is it any different from a door to nowhere that can’t go anywhere?

“If that’s the case, why did you even call us here?”

So they dragged me away from my sweet time with my office slaves just to show me an incomplete gate with an unknown destination.

In response to my reaction, Alina approached subtly and answered on behalf of Minister Vermut.

“Of course, we needed to secure sufficient resources and capital to build the gate through the help of Mr. Small Flesh.”

“…Hmm?”

In other words, they intended to use me as a sponsor.

Hearing that, Riel and I couldn’t help but feel dumbfounded.

“Wait, doesn’t the Ministry of Technology and Science have one of the top five budgets among all government departments?”

“…”

“Where did all that enormous budget go that you need to come begging to us???”

“Well… that’s…”

“Think about it, our Ministry of Diplomatic Affairs only has 25% of the budget execution scale compared to the Ministry of Technology and Science.”

Riel, who occasionally served as the financial officer for the Ministry of Diplomatic Affairs, was particularly irritated.

She was exploding with annoyance as Minister Vermut and Alina were essentially shouting “give the money.”

‘Well done, Riel. Go tear them all apart.’

And I, who should have been stopping her, deliberately maintained silence and watched the spectacle unfold.

Seeing this, Minister Vermut began to make a tearful expression and…

“Everyone except Minister Arto! They see this and feel nothing!! They just criticize it as a useless endeavor!!”

“…”

“They don’t understand the value of gate technology, and only evaluate it as a waste of budget!”

Eventually, as he pushed us with his pitiful lamentations, Riel, who had been attacking on budget issues, hesitated and almost backed away.

And seeing that, I decided to step forward this time.

“If funding for gate research was the issue, why didn’t you come to me from the beginning?”

Honestly, based on Minister Vermut’s assessment until just now, he didn’t expect anyone but me to properly appreciate this, did he?

If that’s the case, coming to me from the start and begging for budget with me as a firm ally would have yielded much better results.

Minister Vermut seemed to acknowledge this fact, nodding his head in agreement.

“Ugh… I have nothing to say to that.”

“Did it not occur to you that approaching me so late and making demands might make even me reluctant to help?”

“…”

“Honestly, if you do it this way, I have no intention of helping.”

As I said that and turned around to leave.

Minister Vermut, abandoning his pride as both a minister of the Great Holy Sebelli Empire and a marquis, a high-ranking noble…

“No!!!”

He grabbed my pant leg and clung to me, wrapping mechanical tentacles connected to his spine around my body while wailing.

“Truly, Minister Arto is the only one who can help us now! Besides, just creating and maintaining that gate core has already depleted all our surplus funds!!!”

Faced with Minister Vermut’s ugly display of loud sobbing and wailing, I couldn’t hide my bewilderment.

“Wait, let go first so we can talk…”

“No!!! I absolutely cannot let go!!!”

I never expected a marquis to show such an unseemly appearance.

Of course, Minister Vermut’s behavior was clearly crossing a line.

Because of this, the Purge Unit members who were always on guard duty appeared from somewhere and tried to forcibly cut the mechanical tentacles wrapped around me.

But just before that.

“Minister Arto! If the power is cut off here, the gate core we’ve finally formed will become completely unusable!!”

“…Can’t you just restore it again?”

“We barely scraped together rare resources smuggled from various galactic nations because the Empire itself doesn’t have enough! It’s impossible to make another one!!!”

Hearing Minister Vermut’s wailing that nearly terrorized my eardrums, I stopped the Purge Unit members and sighed before speaking.

“Sigh… Alright, I’ll try to find a way somehow…”

“Thank you!!!!”

“So please release these tentacles quickly, and let go of my pants.”

“Ah, I’m sorry.”

Of course, even though Minister Vermut’s unseemly behavior stopped, my pants would never return to their original state.

—————————–

Later.

After mobilizing all sorts of political and business connections, including Artlaia, to secure budget and resources for the Ministry of Technology and Science, half a year had passed.

While I was in the middle of work, Minister Vermut of the Ministry of Technology and Science called me directly and said:

-“Thanks to you, Minister Arto, the gate construction has been successfully completed!”

He just dropped that statement with no proper context and ended the communication.

‘What was that?’

Not understanding what he meant, I remained frozen for a moment.

[Event: Warp Gate Construction]

[The Holy Sebelli Empire has finally decided to publicly demonstrate the development of amazing new technology that surpasses the existing hyperspace jump route navigation.]

[Its massive scale, large enough for fleet-level forces to move simultaneously with room to spare, is leaving an overwhelming impression in the memories of numerous media outlets and citizens.]

[+50 Goodwill toward the Holy Sebelli Empire from other nations for 5 years]

Seeing the event message that appeared right after, I nodded and said to Riel who was standing beside me.

“Riel, it seems the gate construction project has finally been completed.”

“That was faster than expected.”

I couldn’t hide my amazement at the surprisingly fast construction speed.

“They’ve successfully built one each at the southernmost region, the Cardian Black Hole, and the northernmost region, the Aiar star system.”

But if that’s the case, doesn’t it mean they had resources before we provided support?

Considering the time it takes to transport resources, that must be the case.

When I expressed this doubt to Riel, she shrugged as if it was nothing and said:

“I found out they borrowed resources from local companies and planets to start construction, and planned to pay them back when our resources arrived.”

“…”

Hearing that they had essentially implemented what amounts to credit card debt, I thought that perhaps that level of flexibility was necessary.

And while we were having such trivial conversation.

-Ding♪

When a notification suddenly rang on my terminal, Riel went to hand it to me.

[Warp Gate Demonstration Scene, Scheduled for Simultaneous Broadcast Throughout the Empire]

[Requesting viewing by civil servants and military personnel in each sector…]

[Providing audiovisual hyperspace communication for deputy minister-level officials and above in each department via office communications]

And this mass text message, reminiscent of my previous life, gave me an inexplicable sense of peculiarity, so I asked Riel to turn on the screen in the office.

“The remote is right in front of you, Minister. Why do you have to ask me to do it when I’m on the opposite side?”

“Yes.”

“Don’t you ever get tired of always asking me?”

“No? Not at all? It’s always fresh and enjoyable.”

There was a brief moment of teasing, but in any case, Riel turned on the office screen while grumbling.

-Boom boom boom boom

And right after the screen turned on.

-Doo doo doo doo doo doom~

-“Farewell~ Ka`zan~”

“…”

Somehow, along with a BGM that gave off an extremely cheap vibe, an opening propaganda video that looked like something from World War II in my previous life started playing.

“…”

“Minister Vermut couldn’t let go of his madness and did something weird again.”

After that unbearable cheap opening passed.

-“Finally, the demonstration of the Holy Sebelli Empire’s first warp gate navigation will unfold here and now.”

“Oh.”

Along with the clear voice of the announcer, the screen showed a warp gate structure that was even larger than most satellites.

“It’s incredibly huge.”

“Indeed it is.”

Although it looked similar to the game, was it because it was so massive?

My brain seemed to refuse to acknowledge that this was the same thing, as if rejecting the very perception.

Of course, I didn’t have the luxury to pay attention to such details now.

-“We’ve also been able to invite Minister Vermut of the Ministry of Technology and Science, who succeeded in developing the warp gate, to join us. Hello, Minister Vermut.”

-“Yes, it’s a pleasure to be here.”

It was unexpectedly enjoyable to see the bewildered look on Minister Vermut’s face, who had been unwittingly kidnapped by the fervent media coverage when he went to the site.

According to the event message, the warp gate itself would operate normally without major issues.

Therefore, without any particular worries or concerns, I was about to drink the prepared beverage while watching the perspective of the experimental ship, which was shown on a separate screen from the news interview.

-“3, 2, 1… warp out.”

-Fwooosh!

-“Warp gate successful… wait, where exactly are we?”

-Pfft!

If only the sight that greeted the experimental ship as it emerged from the gate wasn’t some completely unfamiliar planetary system instead of the Aiar star system.

“What in the world…!”

And because I was so focused on that reality.

-Crunch.

It was only after some time had passed that I noticed Riel, who had been splashed with the drink I spat out, was staring at me with blazing eyes.