I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse: Volume 15 Page 6

  “Really?! Thank you, Harissa!” I nearly shouted, gratefully lowering my head.

  “That being the case, allow me to go and receive leave from the king forthwith.”

  Harissa immediately stood up to make good on her word. I stood up too to see her off, and it was right about then that something occurred to me.

  “Er...”

  “Hm? Is something the matter, Sir Rekka?”

  “I hope not. It’s just that minister... I don’t even know his name, but he was pretty opposed to us taking you with us. Are you really just free to go as you please?”

  When I voiced my worries, Harissa giggled.

  “That man is selling our kingdom’s magic technologies to other nations, so he’s actually leaning towards the militant hawks in terms of taking a side on the war.”

  “Huh? Doesn’t that make things even worse?”

  “It’s fine. The king, in comparison, is a dove. I’m certain he’ll consent if I say I wish to go. And if the king and I are in agreement, then no minister will be able to oppose us,” Harissa answered.

  Man, did she ever sound confident and reliable right now. Seeing the little girl I once knew suddenly so grown in the blink of an eye was a rather strange thing.

  “...”

  Harissa stared at me silently for a moment before sidling over to me.

  “You’re the Sir Rekka from when we only just met, right?”

  “Hm? Yeah, I am. Well, technically speaking, I’m the Rekka from about half a year after that. What of it?”

  “Nothing,” Harissa said, moving her hand held level from the top of her head to me and back. “What do you think? Our height difference has shrunk quite a bit since we first met, hasn’t it?”

  “Ah, yeah...”

  I’d noticed that the moment she first hugged me. But acknowledging it made Harissa’s lips curl up into a wicked grin for some reason.

  “I may have been a little pipsqueak in the past, but look at how mature I’ve become!” she said, twirling on the spot. “So if you’re going to choose a heroine, you should choose one that gets better with age, don’t you think?”

  “W-W-Wait! Stop! Hold it right there!” the doctor shouted, interrupting her in a panic. “Don’t go saying things to tempt or sway Rekka!”

  “Hmph. I don’t see the problem. It’d be unfair if my past self wasn’t chosen just because I used to be childish.”

  “If that’s allowed, then I—”

  “No! It’s not allowed! That’s completely off-limits, you hear?!”

  “Ngh... I’m at a disadvantage since I haven’t changed much at all.”

  “I said off-limits!”

  Both Satsuki and Lea were ready to jump into things too, but the doctor wouldn’t hear it. Meanwhile, Harissa was impishly giggling at the chaos.

  “Does something seem a little different about Harissa’s personality to you?” I muttered.

  “I can tell you exactly what it is—she’s matured into a little devil,” L snarked, crossing her arms.

  The ruckus in the room continued for a while before eventually dying down.

  “Now, I shall head straight to the king. The necessary procedures and formalities may take a day or so to complete, so please wait here for me until I return.”

  “All right,” I said with a nod.

  After that, Harissa left out the window exactly the way she’d come—invisible and flying.

  ▽

  We spent that night in the guest house, and Harissa came by the next day as promised to let us know her negotiations with the king and minister had been mostly successful.

  “Unfortunately, however, they will not grant me leave indefinitely. I’ve been given a furlough of three weeks and must return afterward...”

  “That’s more than enough time.”

  From there we boarded our spacecraft, and Harissa’s colleagues saw us off as we made our exit through the gate back to our world.

  “Now that we’ve recruited Lea and Harissa, what’s next?” the doctor asked.

  “Hmm... Come to think of it, how strong are the extremists really?”

  The abducted heroines were probably being held at their headquarters. My ultimate goal was to rescue them, but I still didn’t know exactly what we were up against. That made it hard to gauge how strong—and how well defended—we needed to be. Based on the group of giant robots that had attacked my hometown, I was guessing the extremists were a pretty serious force to be reckoned with.

  “I wonder. You did destroy several of the independent armaments they sent to the past, and their resources should be somewhat depleted after their attack on the agency. I suspect they’re in a somewhat weakened state right now...”

  As the doctor began hypothesizing, one of the panels on the ship’s command console started bleeping and flashing.

  “What’s that?” I asked.

  “A message. It’s from... the agency.”

  “Bleh.”

  “We’ve been charging ahead rather recklessly so far, so I guess we’re finally getting fussed at.”

  The doctor’s tone was light and joking enough, but we really had caused some serious commotion back at the agency. Things were still in disarray at HQ, so they’d probably been delayed in getting around to dealing with us, but if the agency decided to take a strict stance with the doctor... Things could get ugly.

  “If it’s that bad, you can always tell them I forced you all to act under my orders.”

  I was a Namidare and they were heroines. If I said that I’d forced them to listen to me, it should sound convincing enough.

  “I was the one who asked you to come to the future in the first place, so I wouldn’t do that to you. Now, let’s see...”

  The doctor opened up the message with a laugh, but the smile on her face froze over when she began reading.

  “What? What does it say?” I asked in a panic.

  But the answer that came back was far more dire than I could’ve imagined...

  “The Greater Galactic Federation has declared war on the agency.”

  Chapter 5: Beyond a Billion Stars

  “Declared... war...?”

  I felt the back of my throat dry up as I repeated those words.

  “Yes... And based on this timeframe, the Greater Galactic Federation’s main fleet will attack agency headquarters in 24 hours,” the doctor said in disbelief.

  The Galactic Federation was the space government Iris was a part of. Why were they declaring war on the agency?

  “I read the declaration, but...”

  “What did it say?” I asked.

  “To sum it up, they’re claiming that the agency has secretly been harboring Rekka Namidare,” she replied with a strained expression.

  The agency was harboring Rekka Namidare? In this case, they surely didn’t mean future Rekka...

  “Are they talking about me?”

  “Probably.”

  I was at a loss for words.

  “This is all my fault...”

  “That’s not true. Like I said before, I was the one who brought you to the future.”

  The doctor was quick to shoot down my attempts to blame myself, but even if she had a point, it didn’t change the fact that the Galactic Federation was about to attack the agency.

  “There must be... I know! You can just hand me over to the federation. That way I can meet with Iris.”

  That would basically mean surrendering to the Galactic Federation, but it was better than war. And if Iris’s goal was to find me, it would give us a chance to meet and talk. I could hopefully explain things to her and negotiate her cooperation in the process. The doctor, however, looked conflicted.

  “That would be an absolute last resort because it would mean acknowledging your existence publicly.”

  “I mean, I know we’ve been hiding my identity to prevent any unnecessary chaos, but... do we really have a choice now that it’s come to this?”

  “There’s some merit to that line of thinking, but to b
e quite frank, you’re basically a walking trigger for war.”

  “I’m a trigger...?”

  Uncertain of what she meant, I cocked my head to the side.

  “The Greater Galactic Federation is an extreme example right now, but the thought process is essentially ‘Rekka Namidare is with someone else’ giving way to ‘he should be with us, so let’s attack and take him.’ So if you’re with the federation, someone else is just going to do the same thing—turn around and declare war on them. It’s a vicious cycle.”

  “Ugh...”

  When she put it plainly like that, it made perfect sense. I was the cause of the War of All, after all. It had dragged on because my future self went missing, but if my whereabouts were discovered (even if I wasn’t the Rekka they were looking for), things would blow up all over again... just as the doctor was describing.

  “I have to wonder where they got their intelligence, though...” Satsuki pondered aloud.

  “That is indeed a problem,” the doctor said with a nod.

  “Even if the agency analyzed their security camera footage and decoded the disguise hologram and figured out we had Rekka with us, I don’t believe they would spread sensitive information like that so recklessly.”

  “Certainly not if it would result in a declaration of war from the Galactic Federation. I can’t imagine them doing such a thing on purpose.”

  The doctor and Satsuki seemed to be on the same page there.

  “What about Aburaamu, then?” asked Satsuki. “We turned off the hologem at the guest house, right?”

  “I set up some magical precautions to counteract that.”

  “When I went to talk to the king about taking my leave, it didn’t seem he or the others suspected anything,” Harissa added.

  “The planet I was on was unpopulated, so the leak couldn’t have originated there,” Lea added too.

  We all began stroking our chins. Just who had told the Greater Galactic Federation that I was with the agency? Nothing I’d done since coming to the future should have aroused any suspicion of my identity, and the doctor had just confirmed no one had been able to see through my disguise. That being the case, I needed to change my line of thinking. This wasn’t about me being exposed... It was about who knew I was with the agency.

  “Hmm...”

  Who knew that I’d made contact with the doctor? Who knew that I was in the future, or at the very least could figure it out? Who would know that I wasn’t in the past right now? There was only one answer to all of those questions...

  “The extremists.”

  “Huh?”

  “The extremists know that I made contact with you, and they can probably guess I’m in the future since I left the past with you.”

  There was a high chance at least one of the giant robots had seen me with the doctor. The extremists also had their own time-space translocator, so they could continue to observe what was going on in the past. They’d know I was missing and could easily put two and two together.

  “You’re right. All signs seem to point to them. I can’t think of anyone else that checks all the boxes at the moment.”

  That gave us our answer, but it wasn’t a pleasant one. Troubled, the doctor pensively looked up at the ceiling.

  “If they’re our real enemy, there’s no point in asking them to relent or withdraw. And since they’re not a government, we can’t take political action against them.”

  “Damn...”

  What were we supposed to do? What could we do? The doctor may have said otherwise, but this war was my fault one way or another. And we’re talking serious business here. Real serious. There has to be something...

  “If it’s come to this, is our only remaining option to meet with Iris?” Lea suddenly chimed in.

  Everyone looked up at her in surprise. Unlike the rest of us, she didn’t seem particularly perturbed.

  “No matter how militant Iris has become, she wouldn’t blatantly ignore what Rekka has to say. And even if she did, the hawks should readily acknowledge that this Rekka isn’t the Rekka Namidare of this era. Once they learn that, they might back down without a fight.”

  “Huh.” That made plenty of sense, actually. “All right, then—”

  “It won’t be easy.”

  Just as I was about to agree with Lea, the doctor interjected.

  “According to the message, Iris is leading a whole fleet to storm the agency. That means we’ll have to dodge battleship after battleship just to get to her,” she explained. “Moreover, this small ship can’t keep up with battleship speeds. We’ll almost certainly be shot down before we reach Iris.”

  “Almost certainly, huh...?”

  The doctor wasn’t just saying that to shoot my hopes down, either. She’d already run simulations in her head, and that was the conclusion she’d reached. It was a warning: this mission would be suicide.

  “But this ship has warp capabilities, right? What if we just warped to Iris’s flagship?” I asked.

  “Warps are actually rather easy to spot. Warping relies on spacial distortion, so the exit location is readily observable with a warp-detection radar. They’d be ready and waiting for us the second we came out of it.”

  “I had no idea...”

  So warping wasn’t as OP as it seemed...

  “If we had a speedy battleship of our own, it would be one thing...”

  “Doesn’t the agency have any?”

  “The agency has a nonaggression policy, so we don’t have any vessels outfitted for combat.”

  “Is there somewhere we can borrow one?”

  “It’d be hard to find someone willing to stand against the Galactic Federation, not to mention lend us a warship on such short notice. Nobody wants the agency as an enemy, but no one really has a reason to go out of their way to help us.”

  “Then could we hire one?”

  “Same deal.”

  The six of us continued to discuss potential options, but we couldn’t agree on a good solution.

  “Hey, I know! What if Harissa uses her invisibility magic on the spaceship so we can approach unnoticed?”

  I offered up yet another idea, but the doctor again shook her head.

  “Being invisible won’t hide our heat signature. We’ll still be easily detectable on radar. You’d have to wear a space suit and swim closer for something like that to work.”

  “Right...”

  Swimming through outer space between battleships to reach the heart of an enemy fleet? Even I knew that was a ridiculous plan. However...

  “What if I went?” Lea volunteered, raising her hand. “I can function fairly well even in space.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah. Oh, has my past self not revealed that to you yet?”

  “Can’t say she has...”

  What the hell had I gotten caught up in that would warrant sending Lea into space?! Calm down, Rekka... Stay focused.

  “So, Doctor, would Lea be able to fly under their radar?”

  “I do believe so... The main radar installed on battleships these days is designed to detect the heat of ship engines, so the heat from a living being shouldn’t be enough to register.”

  Hearing that, Lea nodded.

  “I can fly through space in my Leviathan form, so I should be able to approach Iris’s ship without issue.”

  “That’s great! Then all we need to do is—”

  I was about to celebrate our plan, but the doctor interjected again.

  “No. Lea would still need to get within visible distance of Iris’s flagship. And the second they see her, they’ll do a more thorough scan of the area. They’d undoubtedly find us too that way, and we’d never get away in this ship.”

  “R-Right...”

  “Besides, there’s no point in sending Lea alone. Iris probably won’t listen to anyone other than you, Rekka.”

  Iris’s flagship was the heart of her giant fleet. In order to reach her, we’d either have to actively avoid gunfire or actively avoid radar.
Lea could avoid enemy radar, but she’d easily be in firing range by the time she was spotted. Worse yet, we’d be sending her in alone. Even if she managed to make it to Iris in one piece, there was no guarantee she would be able to convince her.

  “Which means we need to figure out a way to get me to Iris. And without anyone other than Iris seeing me...”

  “That’s right. In the end, we still need a ship capable of getting right up close to the enemy, not to mention a captain and a crew to pilot it.”

  So this all came down to needing a ship. Too bad I didn’t have one in my—wait! I hurriedly pulled a piece of paper from my pocket. It was the list of heroines the doctor had given me. I’m pretty sure they were on it...

  “Yes! The answer’s right here!”

  Everyone turned to look at me when I suddenly raised my voice, and I excitedly showed them the list in response.

  “Iris isn’t the only heroine from space! There are other heroines with ships that might help us out!”

  We didn’t need massive amounts of firepower or political clout. All we needed was a quick way to get to Iris. So instead of looking for a way to save the agency, it was easier to find a way to save me.

  “Based on the common heroines on this list, the ones I know right off who should have ships are... Fam, Shirley, and Rain.”

  Fam was a former member of the space pirates known as the Seageists. Rain was the princess of her own planet. And Shirley was a genius probably on par with the doctor. Between the three of them, surely one of them would have what we needed. The doctor patiently listened to my plan and thought it over.

  “Yes... Maybe one of them can help,” she said, eyeing a single name on the list of candidates.

  ▽

  We began the monumental task of using the Magic of Omniscience and warping... over and over again. The reason for that was because the heroine we were trying to track down wasn’t sitting still in one place, but rather constantly moving around aboard her spaceship. It made it troublesome to chase after her, even with Satsuki’s magic. One warp took several hours, so while we were warping, she was still on the move. Sometimes she was even warping too, which made things even more fun. But at the end of our little game of tag, we finally caught up to her. Perhaps I should say we were captured.