A week had passed since the Fierce Dragon fleets' attack on the Dax Empire.
The first batch of battle reports came out.
Every fleet began broadcasting, passing on the rewards for commanders and fighters at every level.
The first names announced among them were the mecha pilots'.
Basically every mecha pilot who had survived this battle went up three grades.
One who before might have been only a squad member was, after this, at least a deputy squad leader, so long as he was willing to stay with the unit.
And those who had performed outstandingly in the fighting did far better still.
One mecha pilot, the most outstanding of them all, even went up nine grades at once!
From a plain grunt at the start, he leapt to deputy commander of the Mecha Corps.
Besides that, there were many other rewards of every kind as well.
And the best of them
was naturally that the man himself and all his direct kin, every one, received Fierce Dragon Kingdom citizenship.
He also received a great sum in prize money:
a full ten million!
Of course, these ten million were nothing at all next to the citizenship.
For it should be understood that in the Fierce Dragon Kingdom now, to gain Fierce Dragon citizenship
by investment alone took investing over five million in the Fierce Dragon Kingdom for at least three years running before one could get a single citizenship!
Five million a year for three years, fifteen million in all, for only a single citizenship.
And this mecha pilot now had citizenship outright for all his direct kin.
He naturally became the envy of the other mecha pilots.
As mecha pilots, what they pursued was nothing more than making their names and winning merit, changing heaven and fate.
Now this family of his could be said to have reached the point of starting a new page from him.
"Gulizha, what do you plan to do next? With the merit you have now, you could transfer to the second line at the rear without any trouble at all. You could keep at least thirty percent of your present pay and benefits." His commanding officer looked at Gulizha before him, wearing his medal of merit.
The great majority of mecha pilots who had won merit would choose to retire to the second line, but at the same time they would still come back every so often for some training.
They would serve as mecha pilots' reserves.
Whenever, in the future, it came to a matter of the Fierce Dragon Kingdom's life or death, the Fierce Dragon Kingdom had the right to recall them to service and put them back on the establishment.
On this point, these mecha pilots naturally had no objection.
After all, everything they had was given them by the Fierce Dragon Kingdom.
If the Fierce Dragon Kingdom came to a matter of life or death, then in standing up to fight, they would be protecting their own lives and fortunes too.
"I want to stay." Gulizha's answer was something his commanding officer had not expected.
"Why? You were lucky this time and survived. But what happens next time, no one can say. You know it too: in this battle, of all the mecha pilots, fewer than thirty percent survived!" His commanding officer looked at Gulizha with a complicated expression.
Gulizha said with a smile, "Actually, these past days I've thought it over too, whether to go or stay. I'm not like the others. My family is too big. And in this reward, what I got was citizenship for my direct kin. But in my hometown there are a dozen-odd more relatives: my cousins, my uncles on my mother's side, my aunts, my father's elder brothers. Though they aren't my direct kin, when I was little, if not for their help, I could never have survived. I owe them too much. It's not something I can repay just by giving a bit of money. I promised them I'd at least get their children Fierce Dragon citizenship. So I have to keep winning military merit. And if I retire to the second line, it'll be very hard to win military merit again. And there's one more thing that matters a great deal. Once I retire to the second line, my pay and benefits will be only a fifth to a third of what they are now. Though that's already far beyond ordinary people, for my huge family it's still nowhere near enough. I need more still. It isn't that I'm greedy. It's that I want my children to have a higher starting point. I don't want them to become mecha pilots or interstellar marines. I want them to be able to become ship's crew, or engineers, to be better than I am. And all of that needs more resources put in. If staking my own life alone can buy them a future, I'm willing!"
Seeing this subordinate of his so determined,
his commanding officer did not try to talk him round any further.
"All right, then. We've arranged twenty days of leave for you here; unless there's an emergency muster, you won't need to come back. After the twenty days, you'll serve as deputy commander of our Fierce Dragon Mecha Corps. In wartime you command in battle; in peacetime you train the mechas under you. Any questions?" his commanding officer asked.
"Yes, sir."
The rewards were over.
Gulizha packed up his things and, once he had handed over his work,
boarded the interstellar transport made ready for them, bound for the Dragon Palace Starport.
Sitting by the window, he could see that azure planet behind the Dragon Palace Starport.
He could no longer remember how long it had been since he had seen this planet with his own eyes.
In the past he had not felt much for this planet;
he had thought it was simply a planet, some celestial body or other.
But after leaving for so long this time,
seeing this azure planet again, he felt he had rather missed it:
missed every blade of grass and every tree on this planet, missed its air, missed everything about it.
The starship docked at a berth of the Dragon Palace port; mechanical arms docked with the starship, and the gallery extended.
"We have arrived at the Dragon Palace Starport. Passengers in every compartment, please follow the route and line up to disembark."
The voice came over the broadcast.
Gulizha shouldered his backpack and walked off the starship.
He looked at the Dragon Palace Starport before him.
He had been to the Dragon Palace Starport a few times before.
But because he had come as a soldier then, he had gone aboard a starship very soon after reaching the Dragon Palace Starport.
So of this Dragon Palace Starport, famous all over Dragon Star, he had no clear idea.
He glanced at the time.
Before coming, he had told his family back home
that the whole family was to move to the Fierce Dragon Kingdom, and the people of the Armed Forces Department would help arrange it.
They had booked their plane tickets too.
The plane would not land for about another ten hours.
Even if he went down to the surface now, there would be nothing for him to do.
He decided to look around the Dragon Palace Starport first,
to see if there were any local specialties here he could take to the children.
The Dragon Palace Starport was very large, and there truly were a great many strange and advanced things,
which left a deep impression.
But Gulizha only took pictures of them, thinking that when there was a chance in the future, he must bring the children to see these things.
At the same time he grew all the more set on his idea of bringing his children up well.
He did not want his children to walk the old road he had walked.
And everything here at the Dragon Palace Starport was in fact Dragon Star's future.
And if one could not grasp the future and keep up with it,
then before long one was sure to be left behind.
Having gone round once and bought some local specialties,
Gulizha checked the time.
Only two hours had passed.
He had no patience to stay here any longer.
Forget it.
Go down first.
There was nothing much to do staying here.
At worst he would just go down early and wait for them.
His mind made up, Gulizha bought a space elevator ticket with his dog tag.
Though it was called buying, it was in fact free.
For he was a soldier of the Fierce Dragon Kingdom, and space elevator tickets were free for him.
He walked into the space elevator and found a seat.
As the space elevator started, he actually felt somewhat nervous inside.
Not, of course, because of riding the space elevator; at the space elevator's speed, it could have no effect on him at all.
Even if he stared at the high-speed view outside the porthole, his eyes would not change in the least.
For all this was nothing at all next to the feeling of fighting in his T3 Templar-class Medium Interstellar Combat Mecha.
He was nervous because the time to see his parents, wife and children was drawing closer and closer.
The space elevator touched down.
Gulizha walked out of the elevator and came to the waiting area.
Here there were buses to the mainland.
Again buying his ticket free with his dog tag, he boarded the bus and waited for it to set off.
A few minutes later, at the set time,
the bus set off.
It crossed the sea bridge.
The bus drew closer and closer to the Fierce Dragon Kingdom's capital.
The Fierce Dragon Kingdom before him, the Fierce Dragon capital,
were in truth somewhat unfamiliar to Gulizha at heart.
Since leaving his hometown to become a soldier of the Fierce Dragon civilization,
the time he had actually lived on Fierce Dragon Kingdom soil was no more than a week.
He had very soon been posted out into space, and after that aboard interstellar warships.
But even in the space environment,
besides training there were ideological-education classes too.
The ideological-education classes he had at first taken for something like a religion.
But after going once, he found he was wrong.
It was not any religion at all,
but told you why you were fighting, what your fighting meant, what your life meant.
The teacher giving the class would not say things like you must sacrifice yourself for the country, you must be loyal to the Fierce Dragon Emperor.
Instead he told you:
when the Fierce Dragon Kingdom does well, your life will be better.
And if you make your name and win merit in the army, you can get more rewards.
That can change your life, and change your family's lives too.
Then you can go home in silk and glory!
Then the people who looked down on you before will all think more highly of you.
The class they had thought would be very dull, yet at that teacher's words everyone listened very closely,
as if they could already see the picture.
He had even heard a saying:
to win riches and not go home is like wearing fine silk in the dark of night.[1]
So he had already arranged the next twenty days very carefully.
He took out his handheld terminal and connected to the local network.
He followed the living handbook sent to him before he came out.
Some things were written in it to help soldiers like them, long cut off from society, fit back into society in a short time:
telling them what people did for entertainment in this society now, what apps they used, how they lived.
It could be said that everything was in this handbook.
First, book a car.
He found a car-rental app.
But it seemed he had no driver's license.
He found that car-rental app on his handheld terminal and called through.
"Hello, this is Shenhai Car Rental. What can I do for you?"
"I need to rent a car, and I need a driver with it as well. For… probably the next week or so."
"How many are in your party?"
"Four adults, five children."
"Given that your party is a bit large, I'd suggest arranging a minibus for you outright, how about that, with a driver who stays with the vehicle twenty-four hours as well. Anywhere within the Fierce Dragon Kingdom is fine."
"All right."
"When would you like it?"
"Now. I'm at [redacted] right now; have your driver come pick me up, then take me to Fierce Dragon No. 1 Airport. I'm going there to meet my family."
"Very good; I'll arrange it for you right away. Since we've confirmed your identity as a Fierce Dragon Kingdom soldier, with a certain amount of spending authorization, you can enjoy our service first and pay after the service ends. Our driver is expected to reach your location within an hour; please wait."
"All right."
The call ended.
Gulizha made the next call: "Hello, is this the estate agent? I'm looking to buy a house. I can't come over now. Around tomorrow, I'll bring my family over to look at houses. My requirements: in the Fierce Dragon capital, a finished house we can move into anytime. And it has to sleep ten people."
"Budget? About ten million."
"Fine; I'll go house-hunting with you tomorrow."
Gulizha hung up on the estate agent and found the number for the local Armed Forces Department.
The Armed Forces Department was the department responsible for what soldiers like him needed in daily life; whatever needed handling, they could ask its help.
"Hello, this is the Armed Forces Department service hotline. What can I do for you?"
"Hello, my family has received Fierce Dragon citizenship. So I'm getting ready to bring them all here to live with me. I have five children. I'd like to ask how to arrange my children's schooling."
"Very good; please give me your soldier's dog-tag number. I need to look you up first."
"[redacted]"
"I've found your information here. You and your family all already hold Fierce Dragon citizenship. As for your children's school enrollment, you need only report your children's enrollment details at any primary school in the Fierce Dragon capital, and the school will arrange it directly."
"Is that so? Thanks, then."
After that came several more calls
before he had finally seen to everything.
By now that rented minibus had also stopped in front of him.
A driver in a suit, who looked very capable, got out and at a glance saw Gulizha in his Fierce Dragon training fatigues.
He came over at a brisk walk.
"Hello, you must be Mr. Gulizha. I'm the driver Shenhai Car Rental has assigned you. For the time ahead, I'm at your service!"