At the Dock with Mark’s Father
We took the train, a public transportation we had used recently, to head to the dock.
Although it was the opposite route from last time and we were traveling outside of rush hour, the train was still quite crowded.
Our spaceport is a joint public-private facility, and I felt there were many businessmen heading in the same direction towards the industrial park for private use.
Naturally, since we were going the opposite way and at a different time, we didn’t run into Tet-chan this time.
If we had encountered Tet-chan unexpectedly, it would have been problematic enough with Maki-neechan, but I shudder to imagine what it would be like with Kasumi.
I’m not confident I could keep my cool.
Fortunately, or perhaps as expected, we arrived at the dock without incident.
Entering the dock’s office, I called out to the staff.
“Hello. Is the president in?”
The managing director of the office greeted us.
“Ah, Captain. Sorry, the old man’s with a visitor right now. I can help if it’s something I can handle. What do you want to do? Wait a bit?”
Kasumi, who entered the office a bit after me, ignored my exchange with the managing director and called out loudly for the president.
“Boss, are you here~? It’s Kasumi!”
The president, who seemed to be in a meeting in the reception room, apparently heard Kasumi’s loud voice and called back just as loudly from inside.
“Perfect timing, come on in!”
The managing director and I exchanged glances.
“Is this okay?”
“Yeah, if the old man says so, you’d better go in.”
“Thank you. We’ll go in then.”
After this brief exchange, we entered the reception room.
I couldn’t help but notice how shabby the building was, with voices easily carrying through the walls.
The office they prepared for us was made from a ship’s cabin taken from a decommissioned vessel, so it should be perfectly secure. Yet, for their own office, they’re using this ancient building as is.
Thinking about how I still don’t quite understand Dorf values, I followed the guidance into the reception room.
“Oh, Captain, there’s a wonderful person here!”
Kasumi called out to me first thing.
She had already spotted Gian and was making a fuss.
This guy really is an explosive character.
In the reception room, sitting across from the president were two people, one of whom was the familiar Gian.
The other person looked familiar, but I couldn’t quite place him.
Who could it be?
“Perfect timing. Oh, the Captain’s here too? This saves us some trouble.”
“Trouble?”
“Yeah, this gentleman here wanted me to introduce you. This is Corona-Casbell, who’s both young Mark’s father and a good friend of mine.”
No wonder he looked familiar. I’ve never met him, but he’s Mark’s father. Of course they’d look alike.
“Hey, Gustav. Is this the guy?”
“Yeah, he’s the captain of that ship. His name is, uh…”
This guy doesn’t remember my name.
Can’t blame him, I suppose.
I usually went by “kid” anyway.
I didn’t know the president’s name either.
It’s the first time I’ve heard it.
So his name is Gustav.
I’m not sure how long I’ll remember it, but I’ll try to keep it in mind.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Nao-Bruce, captain of the space destroyer [Shunmin]. I’m grateful for your help through your son, Ensign Mark, during that time.”
“Huh? Oh, so you’re the one from back then… I haven’t seen my son in a while. Has he been doing well?”
“I haven’t seen him since our phone call either. Normally he’d be training in the same workplace, but given various circumstances, he’s been assigned to that ship.”
“No need for such formal greetings, kid. Just sit down. More importantly, Kasumi.”
“What is it, Boss?”
“Maria isn’t with you today?”
“The adjutant is on duty, so she couldn’t leave the ship.”
This Dorf president is quite a boisterous person, moving the conversation along rapidly.
After sitting down, I continued to express my gratitude to Mark’s father for that time, starting a conversation without going through the president.
“I heard you wanted to meet me. Is there something I can help you with?”
“Well, at last month’s party, I found out that Gian, who’s training at our place, knows you. I thought I’d at least put a face to the name. I had no idea you were acquainted with my son too. Did you know?”
Gian, suddenly brought into the conversation, looked completely lost.
Can’t blame him.
After all, we only became acquainted after I left that place.
But being from the same upper-class circles, he seems to know about Mark.
“I do know Mark, and I’ve known Captain Nao since we were children. We went to the same school.”
Next, I gave a brief explanation.
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT gadgetizedpanda.net
I explained that I was from the Bruce Orphanage and a graduate of the elite officer training school.
I also explained that my acquaintance with Mark began at that officer school.
From there, Mark’s father and I discussed various matters related to our business here.
Much of it was technical, leaving Gian behind. He began to chat up Kasumi, my companion.
Well, not exactly chat up, he just started talking to her out of boredom.
In reality, it seemed he was trying to gather information about me by talking to the president and Kasumi.
I hoped they wouldn’t talk too much about my performance as a captain, but I was in the middle of a conversation with Managing Director Corona and couldn’t do anything about it.
In my discussion with Managing Director Corona, we talked a lot about space torpedoes.
The current situation is fine.
The question is what to do going forward.
We still have plenty in stock, but given that we’re also equipping our carrier-based aircraft, we might use them up sooner than expected.
However, they can’t set up a new production line just for us, so we agreed that Casbell Factory would divert space torpedoes to us from the decommissioned ships and armaments they handle.
It seems Her Highness is also moving forward with securing adjacent land to stockpile these torpedoes, so we discussed that as well.
As expected of someone who’s friends with the president here, everything moved quickly, which was helpful.
When our conversation ended, the president asked me:
“So, what brings you here today? Is it about the estimate that came from Chief Maki?”
“Yes, that’s one thing. Also, regarding the carrier-based aircraft, I heard our Maria was involved with the armaments and got worried.”
“Oh, that. Don’t worry. The armaments are under the direction of some chief from the research institute. What was his name again? Anyway, it’s got Her Highness’s approval too.”
“Huh? Then why is our Maria…”
“She was talking quite friendly with that chief, so I’m guessing it was Maria’s proposal. Obviously, we can’t put morning glories on aircraft, so I helped Maria improve her sunflowers.”
I see. So that’s how it is.
I feel like I just heard something that’s going to give me a headache.
When did they get Her Highness’s approval… Ah, Chief Sardar.
I see, Chief Sardar went along with Maria’s proposal and secured Her Highness’s approval.
The royal family doesn’t usually get involved in such minute details, so it must have been a “use your best judgment” situation.
Besides, there’s no need to worry about the budget here.
It might be a different story if they calculated the man-hours and billed us, but knowing Maria, she probably worked on it while doing other tasks too.
I let it slide as well, so essentially, Maria indulged in her hobby.
This place really keeps me on my toes.
Just as I thought we had settled the most pressing issue, the president asked me:
“About the radio. We’ve got a real find, but there’s a bit of a problem. Kasumi, can you unlock it?”
The president was talking about a high-powered, high-performance radio.
It’s capable of interstellar communication, and while the encryption unit is separate, it naturally has top-notch security for information exchange.
Even though this one is second-hand, there’s an almost new one available, but apparently no one knows how to remove the security lock.
“I’d have to take a look to know, Boss.”
“That’s troublesome. We could buy that second-hand item, but it’s useless if we can’t use it…”
“Then let our company buy it. We’ll purchase it under the guise of market research for our research institute. We’ll try to crack the security lock ourselves, but you’ll cooperate, won’t you, Captain?”
“Yes, but is such a risky move necessary…”
“Market research is legitimate work. More importantly, investigating the security lock is crucial. If we manage to unlock it, we won’t need it anymore. At that point, we can have you dispose of the second-hand item here.”
“Oh, that’s a good idea. As expected of Corona. Quick thinking, I appreciate it. Is that alright with you, kid? When the time comes, Kasumi, you help out. Send Maria over too.”
“Well, Maria isn’t really good at this kind of thing. If the Captain agrees, I’ll bring Kaori. Kaori likes this stuff, so she’ll be a powerful ally.”
“Kid, it’s decided then. We can’t waste time. I’ll make arrangements right away. That okay with you, Corona?”
“Fine, but…”
“How long will you and your crew be on this planet?”
“We’ll be hanging around nearby for about three to four days from tomorrow. It’s for training. After that, it’s undecided.”
“That should be enough time to get everything ready. Come by again.”
The president, as usual, kept pushing the conversation forward at his own pace.
Before we knew it, we were practically shooed out.
The same happened to Managing Director Corona and Gian.
We parted ways with Managing Director Corona and the others outside the dock office.
It seems they had come here in a luxury car.
They offered us a ride, but I declined for now.
Even though Nihonium is considered Her Highness’s home turf, it wouldn’t be good for me, still not fully understanding the situation, to be seen getting too friendly with certain influential people.
Well, they’re associated with this dock, so it might be too late for that, but I’ll at least keep up appearances of being cautious.
Besides, I’m such a young captain in charge of my own ship.
I’m sure I’m being envied quite a bit behind the scenes.
Mr. Ferman warned me about this before.
As it was nearly noon, I stopped by a cafeteria in the industrial park before returning to the spaceport.
Also check out my friend Localizermeerkat for more LN translations!
BUY THE SOURCE MATERIAL TO SUPPORT THE AUTHOR !!!
Kindly click on the green button above and contribute to filling the green bar if you’re interested in having another LN from the request page translated. Also, every donation is being used to purchase the source material and to fund more English translations.
Please consider joining my Ko-Fi membership. By becoming a member, you’ll also gain access to 2-10 additional chapters of all of the novels from this site translated into English. Last but not least your support will also assist me in upholding the translation quality and speed. For more information, please follow the link.
Donation for faster release is always welcome
Additionally, I am now accepting translation requests.
Thanks for the treat. 👍👍