Dinner With Family by Hiroyuki Morioka (best novels for teenagers TXT) 📕

“The enemy commander, Hecto-Commander Roiryua, knows that slaughtering land peoples would tarnish his name. His counterattack would be carried out so as to yield as few casualties as possible.”

Jint eyed the flowers in the garden. They were bryanflowers.

They really are lackluster, he mused again. They were a rather depressing dull purple.

Then Lafier came along. “Don’t you need to prepare to transfer ships, Jint?”

“I’m ready.” Jint kept staring at the flowers. “What about you?”

“I’m ready, too. Do you want to bring these flowers with you?”

“Didn’t cross my mind,” said Jint. He put a hand to his forehead. “Nah, let’s leave them here. There are tons in bloom on the other side. Probably too many for anyone’s liking, in fact.”

“Do you plan to touch down onto the landworld?”

“If possible.”

“But...”

“What sort of exercise is Trample-Blitz Squadron 1 going to do?”

For a fleeting moment, a look of anguish flashed across her face. “I can’t say.”

“Is my asking some kind of hindrance?”

“Of course not,” said the Royal Princess, shaking her head.

“Then why...”

“You know why. Because it’s been made confidential.”

“You know what my Delktunian friend told me?” he said bitterly. At the moment, he didn’t care if this sparked a fight between them. “He said the Abh can’t flout the established order on a genetic level. Guess he was right. Can’t you think about it with your own damned head?”

“There is a tendency not to defy the established order, that is true,” she said, calmly intercepting Jint’s anger in a way that surprised him. “That is our lot in life.”

“Doesn’t that get under your skin?”

“Our fates are encoded in the four bases of our genes. That has never made me feel any lesser a human,” she asserted. “Is that not true for you, too?”

“I don’t have genes that define my fate.”

“So is your fate unrelated to your genes?”

Jint struggled for words. “...I can’t say for sure.”

A whistle resounded in the landing deck.

“I’m honored to see you here, Fïac, Lonh.” Ship Commander Sobash and the line of Flicaubh starpilots standing by his side saluted simultaneously.

“I thank you for giving us special permission to board, Ship Commander,” said Jint, with an air of solemnity.

“I give you my thanks as well,” said Lafier.

“I never dared to dream I would one day greet Your Highness or Your Excellency onto my own ship one day,” said Sobash.

“Please, don’t call me ‘Lonh,’” said Jint. “I may be on leave, but I’m still a quartermaster rearguard.”

“Then I suppose I should address you as Quartermaster Rearguard Lynn,” said Sobash, wasting no time reverting to his old way of speaking.

“I would be grateful if you could.”

Sobash turned to Lafier. “I can’t call you ‘Ship Commander,’ though. That’s my title!”

“Then it can’t be helped,” said Lafier, looking unironically rueful.

“Allow me to introduce you to the crew,” said Sobash.

“Of course,” Jint nodded. Apart from Ecryua, he was meeting them all for the first time. After he heard their names, Jint noticed something: “There’s no clerk.”

“That’s right. Unfortunately, the clerk, Quartermaster Vanguard Starpilot Direrh, is currently indisposed.”

“Ah, that makes sense. They’re in the middle of handling the big resupply.”

Trample-Blitz Squadron 1 was restocking all the more here in the Countdom of Vorlash, since they couldn’t exactly hope to resupply at their destination, the Countdom of Hyde.

“Even so, things seem awfully hectic,” said Lafier. “Are you working the crewmembers without break?”

“I’m afraid so. We simply don’t have a second to waste.”

“In that case, we might be imposing on you,” said Jint.

“Oh, not at all. You were a clerk yourself, so you probably aren’t aware, but non-clerk starpilots are actually rather free during resupply procedures. We’re just pretending to be busy with the NCCs. Although, we are busy compared to when we’re just cruising.” Sobash dismissed the rest of the crew besides Ecryua. “I’m sorry, but I must return to my work tasks for a moment. Let’s have ourselves a nice long chat after leaving port. Vanguard Ecryua, please show them around.”

Ecryua just saluted — her silent “roger.” “This way,” she said.

Jint and Lafier looked at each other, and ambled after her. Ecryua led them to the starpilot mess hall. Though raid ships were bigger than assault ships, it appeared they didn’t have the space for a lounge.

The moment they opened the door: “Fïac Lartnér!”

Immediately, a woman stepped forward and bowed deeply. Very deeply.

She’s got good balance, thought Jint, impressed.

She looked up, but Jint didn’t recognize her. Lafier, on the other hand...

“You’re that imperial citizen, ‘Sehrnye,’” she said, tentatively.

“I’m absolutely honored you remember me!” said Sehrnye, eyes tearing.

“What are you doing here?” asked Lafier.

“I heard Your Highness’s ship was attacked, so I couldn’t just stand there. There was a conveniently-timed flight, so I got aboard without a moment’s delay. Nothing could make me happier than seeing Your Highness is safe and sound with my own eyes. I’m so happy!”

Guess she hasn’t got any business with me, thought Jint, who took that as his cue to enter the mess hall. There were no starpilots to be seen, as they were still engaged in the work of resupplying, but there were two people, quietly sipping their drinks. “NCC Leader Paveryua!” he said, startled. He ended up asking the exact same question as Lafier: “What’re you doing here?”

“Hey there, Quartermaster Starpilot. It’s been a while,” said Paveryua. “Why am I here? Well, if you have to ask, I guess I’m just an extra.”

“What, you’re not gonna react to me being here?” complained Samson, who was seated beside him.

“I mean, I half-expected you to be here,” said Jint, making to take a seat alongside. “Commandant Atosryua did tell us we’d bump into old acquaintances.”

“No sitting,” muttered Ecryua.

“Huh? How come?”

“I’m taking you to your room.”

“Oh, no, it’s fine. I can spot it using the map of the ship,” said Jint.

“You can guide me, then,” said Lafier.

“Allow me to serve Your Highness on your way there,” said Sehrnye, to no one’s surprise.

Jint still couldn’t remember who she was. He tilted his head to the side as he watched the three ladies leave,