Kochugunshikan Boukensha ni Naru

『It’s morning. Please wake up.』

It’s been quite a while since I’ve been woken up by Nanom. Since I ordered Nanom to take care of the alcohol in my bloodstream last night before going to sleep, I didn’t have any hangover at all.

And since I would be unable to take a proper one for an extended period of time after this, I took my sweet time having a morning bath.

After getting out of the bath, I wrote up the recipe for last night’s stew. But it was still a bit early for breakfast.

Then, there was a call from Iris.

『Captain, I called to discuss about Sharon and Selena’s military ranks…』

(Oh, right. Warrant Officers Selena Conrad and Sharon Conrad have done an excellent job finding their commanding officer and bringing ample supplies. In accordance with the powers vested in me, and in recognition of their exemplary service, I hereby promote Selena Conrad and Sharon Conrad to the rank of Ensign. This is your Captain’s orders.)

『Acknowledged. Normally, it isn’t so easy to get promoted like this, but since we’re under a first-class state of emergency, there is absolutely no problem.』

I talked about Selena and Sharon’s ranks with Iris a few days ago.

According to normal imperial military regulations, the only ones a ship captain is allowed to promote in rank are formal officers. The non-commissioned ones do not have such qualifications. In other words, if the two of them were to remain as NCOs from here on out, there would be a lack of commanding officers in this planet’s branch of the imperial military. Iris told me that the only exception to this is an order from the commanding officer during a first-class state of emergency, so she requested that I promote the two as soon as possible.

With this, in the event of something bad happening to me, any of the two can be safely promoted to the ship’s captain, and they could then continue to lead the imperial military. It did make me feel quite relieved to know that.

Come to think of it, I wonder who exactly was older between Selena and Sharon? Because they had the same military rank, I was thinking of something like giving the older of the two first priority when it comes to promotion to the highest commanding officer, if it was ever needed. From the records, it seems that they did enlist at the same time after all. I should ask about it, I guess.

(Hey, Iris, just who is older between Selena and Sharon?)

『It’s Selena.』

(How come? They were enlisted at the same time, right?)

『This is because you mentioned Selena’s name first when you promoted them earlier. That’s the sole reason. There’s even a historical basis for this action as well.』

Can we really decide on something important like this using such a flimsy reasoning? Oh well. I guess there’s no problem if I don’t die or something. I have to be careful then.

『And Captain, I have directed one drone unit to standby at the airspace above your location earlier. Please let it accompany you during your travels.』

(A drone? Do we really need one following us? And weren’t they all tasked with gathering intel?)

The drones were currently going around various cities while monitoring and relaying the info gathered through the recon bits installed in the pubs around the continent. Due to the effective range of the bits being limited, this was a necessary arrangement.

『Keeping an eye on you all is important. If, by any chance, we happen to lose all three of you due to some incident, the operation we are currently carrying out will come to a complete standstill, and I will end up becoming just an oversized hunk of space debris.』

She does have a point huh. Well, I guess we can at least spare one drone for the job. It’s for insurance after all.

Since it was already time for breakfast, I went down to the dining area.

I joined the ones who were already there and drank some tea while waiting for the others to come down as well. The last one to arrive was actually Cleria.

“Uu, my head hurts… And I feel really nauseous.” Cleria complained.

I guess she’s having quite the hangover. And we’re gonna start traveling after this too.

(Hey Nanom, can you direct the nanoms inside Cleria’s body to get rid of her hangover.)

『Acknowledged.』

“Even taking a bath didn’t manage to make my headache go away, but I feel that drinking this tea is actually having an effect instead.” Cleria claimed.

“Ria-sama, you really drank too much last night.” Elna reprimanded in a harsh tone.

“Yes, I believe I did… I do remember having a lot of fun last night, but I do not remember exactly what I thought was fun…” Cleria honestly acknowledged.

“Fufu! Watching you last night was really interesting, Cleria-san.” Sharon teased.

“I’m absurdly curious now…” Cleria sighed.

“Fufu, I’ll tell you all about it later, Ria-sama.”

When the dishes for breakfast arrived, it seems that Cleria had recovered enough to eat her fill.

“I want to depart immediately after we’ve finished all preparations. What do you all think?”

Everyone agreed with me, so we decided to start preparing for departure immediately after our meal. Since we had a lot of baggage, we decided to bring the carriage in front of the inn first, then load everything else up on it, and then depart afterward.

All of us decided to come to Tarus-san’s store to claim our stuff, and we found Tarus-san together with his entire family waiting there, wanting to send us off.

All of the supplies have already been loaded inside the carriage it seems.

“Thank you for going out of your way to send us off, everyone.”

“No, this is just a matter of course. We owe a lot to you and your comrades after all, Alan-san. Well then, we sincerely pray for your safe travels, everyone.”

“Thank you very much. We’ll be going ahead then.”

Everyone uttered words of farewell as the carriage set off and we finally left the store.

When we reached the inn, we hauled off our remaining luggage and loaded them inside the carriage. This carriage had a large, box-like design, with plenty of space out front for people to sit on and ride, and equally ample space at the back to carry the luggage. It even has suspensions installed, so the ride was relatively comfy.

Since it was designed for use by a merchant firm, it had plenty of luggage space to store goods in, so we were able to fit everything with no problems. And the top of the carriage has some cargo space as well, so there was still plenty of leeway for more.

“So I guess it’s finally time for you guys to go huh, Alan. I won’t ever forget all the help you’ve given us.”

After saying that, Verse handed a large box over to me. When I opened it to check the contents, I found that it had at least twenty portions of katsuobushi. And there was some mustard inside a large pot as well. Finally, there was a great amount of bread. So he even managed to bake all these bread even after drinking like crazy last night. I’m impressed.

“Hey, is giving us this much really alright?”

“It’s fine. Those are your farewell gifts. Feel free to take them.”

“I see. Thanks a lot for these. We’ve been in your care, Verse. Thank you.”

“That’s my line. Let’s meet each other again someday, Alan.”

“Yeah, definitely.”

And so, we left the Nature’s Bounty inn and finally started traveling out of Gotania city.

After leaving the city, Elna immediately accompanied me on the coachman’s seat. I should make it a point to learn how to drive the carriage from Elna as soon as I can. Fortunately, driving the carriage wasn’t all that difficult.

According to Elna, the two horses, Tarth and Syrah, were very smart. They were very responsive to people’s commands.

Elna, who was sitting beside me, kept herself alert as she watched the surroundings, but I also had a drone watching from above using its multi-sensors, plus Nanom’s magic sensors, so we had all angles covered.

The drone was helping me navigate the route, and the weather was clear, so everything was quite calm. I even felt like sleeping.

The drone designated as D-1 informed me that we were about to reach the place where we were scheduled to have our lunch. D-1 was this particular drone’s call sign.

『Captain, this is D-1.』

(What’s up?)

『Five Gray Hounds are approaching our position. They are currently three kilometers away. Shall I proceed to eliminate them?』

Five monsters huh? They’ll serve as perfect targets for Sharon and Selena’s magic practice. Even if we now have enough energy packs for the rifles, I still want to use them sparingly if I could. Thus, mastering magic is very important.

(No, we will dispose of them once they come into range. Continue to monitor the surrounding area. If there are any changes in the situation, just give us an alarm and display the potential threats on the map. There is no need for direct communications.)

『Acknowledged.』