I-It's a space battleship...! - 32

"Seia-chan☆ listen to this!"

Tilt-

"We went to Abydos last time, right? That school in the middle of the desert!"

"..."

Nod, nod-

We did go to Abydos to help Hoshino last time.

Mika wouldn't normally bring up stories about other autonomous regions, so what does she want to say?

I decided to listen quietly for now.

"Ahaha☆ That Kaiser... was it? It's a pretty big corporation, so why did they try to take over the failing school called Abydos? Aren't you curious?"

"...?"

'Ah...?!'

Come to think of it, Kaiser Corporation is a large corporation.

Even though Abydos High School had its past glory, they invested enormous military force and capital to drive out the Abydos students.

This doesn't make sense.

"As expected from Seia-chan☆ You understood my words right away! Does your ears perking up mean you're surprised? Ahaha~!"

Mika said that and lightly patted my head once, then continued her story.

"So I got curious and investigated with Nagisa-chan, and we found an even more surprising secret~?"

'A surprising secret?'

"We found that Kaiser Corporation was digging up the desert for some unknown reason, and based on that, we investigated a little more... and what do you know~? It turned out to be Kaiser's weapons business!"

"...!"

A weapons business, in the Abydos desert?

What's hidden in that vast desert land that a large corporation is directly involved...?

It seems that I wasn't the only one who felt that way, as Mika continued to speak to me with an excited expression.

"We secretly stole some of Kaiser's data, and it turns out that the weapon was a much more amazing weapon than we thought☆"

What kind of weapon is it that she's building up the suspense like this?

Perhaps my frustrated feelings were evident on my face, Mika smiled faintly and started explaining again.

"Don't be surprised, Seia-chan? It's a spaceship! A spaceship called the Ship of Utnapishtim!"

"...?!!"

'A, A spaceship...?!'

"Ahaha☆ Your reaction is cute! Anyway, what I want to say is. We have nothing to do right now, so shall we go look for it too?"

Look for a spaceship...? The one that even Kaiser Corporation couldn't find...?

"... Don't make that 'it's impossible' face! Just listen to me! If we bring a lot of our Tea Party's forces, and mobilize Trinity's intelligence, we can finish it in an instant, right?"

"...!"

'That makes sense...!'

And very much so.

A spaceship, isn't this the epitome of romance?

"Ahaha☆ You look completely hooked! Let's go without hesitation, Seia-chan! Let's find the spaceship!"

"...!"

'Find... the spaceship...!'

I got on the helicopter with Mika, anticipating the spaceship that I would see for the first time in my life.

"This way, I can take Seia-chan out reasonably~ and I can also postpone the paperwork~!"

...Was that the goal!?

"Alright☆ Let's go, Seia-chan!"

"...?!!"

Squeeze!-

Mika, who revealed her true intentions, gently hugged me and departed for Abydos.

The search for the spaceship! Begins!

* * *

'Ugh... It's so hot...!'

Abydos was, as expected, hot. Is it because it's a desert?

"Uhe~ So that's why Seia-chan and Mika-chan came to Abydos~? I never thought of that kind of information~"

"Ahaha☆ Right? It's amazing, isn't it? I was amazed the whole time I was investigating!"

Hoshino heard that I was coming to Abydos and came to help.

When I said we were going to dig the ground, Hoshino brought a pickaxe from who knows where, but we were planning to use machines.

"U-Uhe... Heavy machinery... It's unthinkable in Abydos..."

Looking at Hoshino, who was embarrassed that the pickaxe she had prepared was useless, I patted her back lightly and started the full-scale operation.

'By the way, I hope they know where it is, right? They're not going to dig up this whole vast desert, are they...?'

"Hey, Seia-chan. Mika-chan. You know where it is before you dig, right? If you're thinking of digging up this whole desert... this old man is against it~"

Whoa, what. Hoshino and I are thinking the same thing.

"Of course not! It's all the information I got from Nagisa-chan?"

"...Uhe? But why didn't Nagisa-chan come? It seems like Nagisa-chan did most of the information gathering?"

"Ah, Nagisa-chan is actually... Ahaha☆ She's probably doing paperwork because I ran away?"

"...?!"

W-Wait. What?!

You left all that to Nagisa-chan...?!

Uwaaa...! I can see it...! I can see the future where Nagisa-chan will shove roll cakes at me when I get back...!

It feels like I'm having a precognitive dream without having a precognitive dream...

"Mika-sama! Seia-sama! We found it! We can see something here, and it seems like we just need to dig a little more!"

"Where? Oh, right? It seems like we're almost there! Come on, everyone, keep up the good work~☆"

Certainly, the power of manpower and heavy machinery is amazing. We quickly found the spaceship that Kaiser had only managed to find clues to after digging for a long time.

"Uhe~ Certainly, humans should use tools~ This is many times faster than this pickaxe~"

I listened to Hoshino and Mika talking and quietly looked at the spaceship that was gradually taking shape. I was disappointed at its smaller-than-expected size when I heard the words of the Tea Party attendant.

"Mika-sama! This seems to be stuck all the way inside. It seems like we need to pull it out with a helicopter, may we use it?"

"Ah, it seems like we just need a little more? We brought a lot of helicopters, so use them as much as you want!"

The attendant came up with the absurd idea of pulling out the spaceship with a helicopter.

Common sense tells you that it's impossible. There's no way the spaceship, rooted in the ground, will be pulled out just by tying it with a rope and flying up with a helicopter-

Rumble!- Rumble!- Crash!-

"...????"

'I-It worked...?'

...Indeed, there are many things I don't know.

"Uhe~ Your surprised expression is cute too. Shouldn't Seia-chan just come to Abydos?"

"We can't allow that☆"

"Tch..."

There was a bit of small talk, but anyway, back to the main point.

The fully extracted spaceship was much larger. Just looking at it from the outside was enough to make one exclaim in awe.

"Wow."

"Uhe~ Those Kaiser guys. They were trying to take this~?"

"...!!"

'A-Amazing...'

The enormous spaceship. The Ship of Utnapishtim.

Its huge and overwhelming presence perfectly struck my romantic heart.

"Uhe, Seia-chan's tail wags when she's in a good mood~?"

"Ahaha! Not only that, right? Her eyes are sparkling too☆ She's completely excited right now~"

Mika and Hoshino were muttering something, but that's not important!

A spaceship! It's the best! I have to go in and pilot it right away!

"Ah! Seia-chan?! Let's go together!"

"Uhe~ This old man is too old to run..."

It was the moment when a spaceship was added to Trinity's forces.