115 Lord's Edition 27 Enemy of the Empire

"Man, you're lucky. Still haven't been called for expedition, huh?"

Prince Lucas, who thinks I’m completely fooled, is going out of his way to be nice to me.

He’s even helping with reconstruction aid for the former Eighth and Ninth Prince’s territories.

Enjoying himself, doing the pointless thing of rebuilding what he destroyed himself. Pathetic.

"Give them a boost, tickle their pride, and they’ll hand over more cash," said President Kamizawa.

We’ll use every penny we can squeeze out of them—funnel it straight into compensation for Earth-born abduction victims.

Before long, Lucas started acting like an older brother, fussing over me in one way or another.

Then, one day, he says the same thing again.

"Expedition? What’s that?"

"Guess you didn’t know after all."

Lucas had this annoying habit of getting all smug whenever he found something I didn’t know and then just had to teach me.

Sure, Ai’s been a lifesaver—she’s the one who spills the forbidden stuff I’d never learn otherwise.

And sure enough, Lucas was dripping with superiority, practically glowing as he explained.

“Yeah, you know the Empire’s got massive military power, right? But that’s not just for squabbling among the princes.

It’s for fighting external threats. Your territory’s on the frontier—no direct combat for you. But higher-ranking princes? They might tag along on the Emperor’s own campaigns.”

“Wait… so this ‘external threat’ isn’t the same as the Old Empire or those rogue space fleets?”

“Ah, no. This one’s different. The real one. The one the Empire’s entire survival depends on.”

Then—cut. The dimensional comm just vanished.

Probably about to slip into some high-level imperial secret?

What’s really terrifying is that dimensional communications are being eavesdropped on and censored.

Who the hell does that kind of thing—cutting off the private line of the fourth prince—anyway?

Well, I'm not the target, so I'll just ignore it.

The fighting strength and economic power of the first, second, third, and fourth eldest princes turned out to be utterly absurd.

But they’re not using that military strength just for the succession struggle.

I didn’t know about the enemy the Empire had to bring in its full regular army to fight.

Seems like the higher-ranking princes, those with claim to the throne, are expected to fight when facing external enemies.

I was in the middle of hearing about the external threat from Fourth Prince Lucas when the transmission cut out.

Maybe it was too early for me… or maybe I’m just outside the curtain because I’m not a bloodline prince. I spun theories, but got nowhere.

"Guess I should shore up the domestic front before they shove another side job on me."

Daron-4 was still in ruins, but infrastructure recovery was moving fast. Food transport was back on track—life was no longer a struggle.

But the industries the locals had depended on were destroyed.

Most residents were industrial technicians, utterly incapable of rebuilding the factories that had been flattened.

"Hey, where’s that X-class shipyard they had, anyway?"

What orbited Daron-4’s satellite was the Daron Fortress—a station identical to the hub dimensional jump gate defense units—plus its attached factory satellite.

Both had been obliterated by concentrated fire from the Fourth Prince’s fleet.

But they were already in auto-repair mode. Supposedly, given raw minerals, they could heal themselves through fusion-like processes, just like patching together broken metal.

Assign the inhabitants of Daron-4 to the task.

But the main X-fleet ship? Nowhere to be found.

I’d assumed there’d be an asteroid-sized factory flagship.

It had vanished.

Maybe it jumped dimensions—warping away.

I asked the refugee representative from Daron-4, just to be sure.

“Didn’t you say this was an industrial planet? Where’s the shipyard? Can’t see one in orbit.”

The refugee representative gave me a puzzled look.

Then, like something just clicked, they spoke.

“Oh… you didn’t know. This planet itself is the factory.

We assemble parts—automatically manufactured underground—into full ships at surface-level factories.”

“So… the upper-level factory’s just a construction site, then?”

"Yes. We order ships via surface terminals, receive completed units from underground, and deliver them."

"So... building the upper-level factories is just a quick job, then?"

"Yes. We’ll be back to full production capacity in half a year—no more than that."

"Once we’re producing, we can just leave the economy to run itself, right?"

"Yes. Leave it to us."

Daron IV’s recovery is turning out to be surprisingly fast.

And that production capacity will directly translate into military strength.

"Alright, let’s go meet the main brain of this factory planet."

I descended underground, made contact with the central AI, and brought it under my control just like the factory flagship.

‘Akira-sama, your orders. I’ll manufacture anything you want.’

The main brain of the factory planet reacted again to my DNA, submitting once more—but at the same time, its limiter was disabled, and its manufacturing capability went absolutely insane.

A station-class fortress ship can be manufactured. A factory satellite (with Fortress Cannon) can also be produced.

Meaning we can make brand-new versions without needing to repair anything from the orbital debris.

Built underground, then launched straight through the underground Dimensional Jump Gate to the orbital Dimensional Jump Gate, and deployed into space.

Conversely, it’s pulling resources from asteroids through the Dimensional Jump Gate.

Might be faster to just send the pre-repair Daron Fortress and factory satellite as raw materials.

What the hell is this cheat-level factory.

Lucas probably didn’t want to hand it over—but he must’ve thought it was a waste to destroy it.

Planning to keep the residents hidden so the underground factory stays secret, I guess.

But overdoing the sabotage? People are leaning more toward me than Lucas now.

Didn’t see that coming, huh.

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After some time spent attending to domestic affairs, a tremor shook the empire.

Enemy forces advancing. Not some stray warship from the old empire, not some derelict space vessel—no, the enemy designated as imperial secret.

The empire went on high alert. The top four princes were summoned.

Even I, among the seventh princes, was ordered to come to the Imperial Capital after the preparation period.

And the enemy data, finally unlocked.

They were machine lifeforms who saw organic beings as nothing more than parts.

Humanity's archenemy. Incompatible beings. So they say, we’re locked in a war that’ll only end when one of us is wiped out.

"Could it be that overthrowing the Empire might actually be a net loss for humanity?"

Maybe I need to rethink my whole damn view of the Empire.

Reached five thousand five hundred points.

All thanks to your support. Thank you.