Chapter 695 - 695: The Commander Returns to His Loyal Starsea Empire

The Astral Express passed through the teleportation anchor. After a brief spatial tremor and a moment of disorientation...

Rumble!!!—

A spacetime passage burst open above the Solar System's Starbase.

One Astral Express after another emerged from within.

"Commander! It's the Commander's fleet!"

The little girls and shipgirls who had originally been stationed at the Starbase for research, sightseeing, and other activities immediately erupted with excitement.

They enthusiastically waved toward the trains above.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—

A group of excited little shipgirls jumped straight down from the anchorage, manifested their hulls, and accompanied the Astral Expresses.

At the same time, more than a hundred communications connected to the holographic interface, filling it with a huge cluster of profile icons.

"Commander, Commander, you're finally back, nanoda!"

"We've been waiting forever! Mm, Sister Yat Sen said that since you were personally leading the team, you'd conquer worlds really quickly, so why did it take so long?"

"Comrade-chan, take me with you next time!"

"..."

"Oh—"

After roaming through so many places aboard the Astral Express and finally returning to the Starsea Empire's homeland, the members of the various train crews all felt as though they had returned from another lifetime.

"We're home..."

Himeko took a sip of coffee.

Without even realizing it, she had also come to regard this world as her true home.

No matter how many worlds they explored aboard the Astral Express or how far they laid the silver rails, in the end they would always return to the Starsea Empire's homeland.

"Ah—"

The natives brought back from the previous worlds were even more transfixed, lining up against the windows and staring unblinkingly outside.

Unlike the empty stretches of space in other worlds, the Starsea Empire's Solar System and the surrounding star systems were extraordinarily lively.

Space fleets traveled everywhere. From one end of the starry sky to the other, Bulin fleets, Angeloid fleets, and shipgirl fleets came and went in endless streams, bustling with activity.

"Ah!! Those are the girls the Commander mentioned who can transform into starships, right?!"

Haruhi Suzumiya became even more excited.

She personally watched several little shipgirls leap into the air and directly manifest starships out of thin air. In the blink of an eye, their engines ignited and carried them across the sea of stars.

It looked both effortless and stylish.

"If only I had that kind of ability too. Then I could travel all over the universe."

She pressed her fingers to her temples, closed her eyes, and concentrated with all her might, trying to manipulate data and grant herself another superpower.

I'm a shipgirl, I'm a shipgirl, I'm a shipgirl...

What was the core of a shipgirl again? Let me think. Wisdom Cube, cube, cube...

But even after thinking until she was dizzy, no ship rigging appeared out of thin air.

"Calm down. Deep down, you don't actually believe you're part of the shipgirl species."

Setsuna knocked her lightly on the head.

"Did you forget what happened when you created the Starsea Empire before? That's an ability from another world. Even if you use data to create something similar, it wouldn't be the same as the original."

"And while you're here, don't use your superpowers recklessly."

"Oh!"

Little Haruhi stuck out her tongue.

She was normally extremely willful, but she still had to behave around this big brother who had taken her to see other worlds.

If she angered him and got thrown back home, that would be a disaster.

"My god..."

Ariel, Shiro, the natives from the Senren Banka world, Chtholly, and the huge group of fairies were all equally shaken.

For the first time, they directly witnessed the might of an interstellar empire. The scale of civilization had expanded from a single planet into space, reaching toward the universe and the stars.

As the Astral Express traveled through the busy traffic lanes, they frequently saw celestial megastructures on either side.

"What's that?!"

Chtholly pointed at the sun and cried out.

"A structure built on the sun? I-It... it's bigger than an asteroid, isn't it?"

"Oh, that's the Strategic Coordination Center and the Mega Shipyard. They're used for commanding space warfare, training, and assembling starships."

"The Solar System is the Starsea Empire's strategic center. Aside from the shipgirl fleets, there are also large numbers of conventional spacecraft for Angeloids and ordinary people to use."

Setsuna answered.

"If you're interested, you can go study at the Starship Academy."

The train passed over the Starship Academy. On the platforms below, girls dressed in Starsea Empire uniforms had originally been training.

When they looked up and saw the Astral Express, Bismarck, serving as an instructor, shouted sharply:

"—Salute!"

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—

Miho Nishizumi, Maho Nishizumi, Darjeeling, Alice Shimada, and the other girls from the Girls und Panzer world all snapped to attention and saluted the sky in perfect unison, as though being inspected by a superior officer.

The formation of more than a thousand people looked quite spectacular.

They had originally practiced tankery, but in the Starsea Empire, that had naturally become "starshipery."

They studied in detail how to pilot and command starships in space combat, being trained as reserve command personnel for conventional fleet operations.

"Whoa!—"

The newcomers had never seen anything like this before and could not stop marveling.

"In addition, the structure in lunar orbit is the research hub and headquarters of the Imperial Research Department. The ones around Venus' equator are the Nanoforge and the Star Ring Base..."

The Astral Express continued toward Earth.

Seeing celestial-scale Galactic Wonders from close range was overwhelmingly impressive. Those colossal structures directly flaunted the technological and engineering prowess of an entire civilization.

Things that had once existed only in imagination and works of fiction had all become reality in the Starsea Empire.

"Ah..."

Haruhi Suzumiya's mouth had not closed once. Yoshino, Mako, and the others had initially been asking questions out of curiosity, but after one shock after another, their brains simply crashed.

Before long.

Rumble—

The Astral Express landed at the capital's arrival and departure base.

"We're here. Get off."

"Ah..."

Everyone timidly stepped off the train.

The first thing that entered their vision was the capital of an interstellar civilization, futuristic to an unimaginable degree.

Everywhere they looked were things they had never heard of or seen before.

What is all this? Did I cross into another world again? Or am I dreaming?!

Shiro looked up at anti-gravity structures stretching from the ground into the heavens, along with spacecraft and shuttles moving through the sky.

Every building possessed almost limitless detail. It was like throwing Stone Age natives into a twenty-first-century international metropolis. Their eyes did not even know where to look, and their minds could not process that much information.

Under the sheer impact of it all, the newcomers and the Leprechauns simply froze in place and stared blankly for quite some time.

"Commander-sama!!!"

"My husband!"

It was not until Taihou and Mio rushed over from either side and squeezed into Setsuna's arms that everyone finally came back to their senses.

"This trip took you so long! Taihou thought that since you were personally conquering worlds, it wouldn't take much time. Why were you gone for so long?"

"If I'd known, Taihou would have gone with you—"

"My husband, take me next time!"

"Me too, me too! I want to go too!..."

A group of shipgirls and Spirits who had not joined the Astral Express began chattering excitedly.

"Don't be too rude in front of the Commander."

Yat Sen and Richelieu were much more elegant. They stepped forward, hugged Setsuna, and each left a light kiss on his cheek.

"Commander, everything in the Starsea Empire's homeland has been normal during this period. Grey and Herta have been tinkering with some strange inventions. You can go take a look when you have time."

"I've also compiled the other matters into a statistical list. Please review it later."

"Thanks for your hard work."

Setsuna kissed the woman in his arms again.

When he went out exploring worlds, having reliable people manage affairs back home was extremely important.

"Are these the new companions? Mm, there are quite a lot of them..."

The shipgirls turned their gazes toward the newly arrived girls.

There were more than a hundred Leprechauns of all ages alone. The youngest fairies and Vampy were still swaddled in blankets and being carried by Angeloids.

The shipgirls took the initiative to step forward and greet them.

"Welcome to the Starsea Empire. Since the Commander invited you here, you must already have earned his recognition."

"We hope we'll get along well from now on."

"Ah!..."

"Hello! H-Hello! Hello, everyone!"

Yoshino, Mako, Chtholly, and the others were overwhelmed by the courtesy and hurriedly stammered out replies.

Inside Kumoko's mind, heaven and earth were at war. Her several internal ministers held an intense debate over what greeting she should use at a moment like this.

Aaaaaah, this place is so advanced and prosperous, and they're all so beautiful!! It's so much better than the Great Elroe Labyrinth and all those other worlds, aaaaaah—

Hello? Hi? Howdy? Isn't that too ordinary?! Is there anything else?...

After agonizing over it for ages, her spider brain finally overloaded. She blinked cutely.

"Ciallo~"

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