Editing Tytania:Volume 1 Chapter 2 (section)

=== II ===

The unemployed young man on the run and the pickpocket girl walked side by side along the street going from the spaceport to the employment centre.

“What’s your name? I’m Lira Florentz.”

“I’m Fan Hyulick.”

“Sounds like a name I’ve heard somewhere. You don’t look like someone famous, though.”

“It’s a pretty common name.”

“It’s the first time I hear a name like that, though.”

“My father and grandfather both bore that name.”

Speechless, the girl studied the tall carrot-top youth with interest. Calculations and plans seemed to dance in rhythm in her mind. Lira changed the subject.

“So Fan, where are you staying tonight?”

“I haven’t decided yet.”

“Ementhal is a nice planet, but the hotels are expensive.”

“I’ll look for a cheap place.”

Fan Hyulick shook the rucksack on his left shoulder. In a tone meant to sound casual, Lira suggested.

“If you’re fine with it, how about crashing at my flat?”

Fan Hyulick silently stared at the girl’s face, looking at her cheeks flushing beneath the streetlights.

“Don’t get it twisted. We’ll be in separate beds. I live with my grandmother, and she dislikes dissolute morals. A woman must take care of her body when it comes to men.”

“… Good point.”

With a rather serious expression, Fan Hyulick agreed with the girl’s grandmother.

“A shabby but spacious sofa bed, a shower, and a hot breakfast. I don’t think fifty dakars is too much to ask for in exchange.”

“Would you add some eggs to the breakfast?”

“Fried? Boiled? Scrambled?”

“I’m partial to an omelette with herbs.”

“That would be fifty-five dakars.”

After replying “Fine”, the unlucky tactician had a look of wariness in both eyes.

“Now, just to confirm, you aren’t charging fifty-five dakars just for the omelet, are you?’

“I wouldn’t do something that scammy. Customers need to be treated well. There is such a thing as business ethics in this world, right?”

Though Fan Hyulick felt like asking why this girl who made such sound reasonings had pursued a socially disapproved profession like pickpocketing, he decided against it. He had something else on his mind.

The letters ‘Tytania’ were written in large in various places along the street. While Fan Hyulick’s gaze lingered on them,

“Around here, the most powerful person is someone from the Tytania clan,” the young girl explained. “He isn’t an underling either. He bears the actual Tytania surname. How can I put it? His station is different from ours. Looks like he’s living in extravagant luxury.”

“A million years ago, we were all upright apes. Station and status are nonsense.”

The most primitive form of egalitarism rolled off Fan Hyulick’s tongue. He had no reason to feel kindly towards Tytania. Four years ago he had been forced to live with lice in a Tytanian detention camp, and once he was finally released and returned home, his lover had married another man. Just last month, he had destroyed a Tytanian fleet in a battle with dismal odds of success, only for that very victory to be the reason he was driven out of his home city. Between that and the fact that Fan Hyulick didn’t possess an ounce of masochism, there was no way he could be favourably disposed towards Tytania. This was quite distinct from any objective evaluation or judgement of value.

Tytania wasn’t excessively cruel as a ruler. Not even Tytania could extract wealth from the desert or draw water from a dried-up pond. By enriching their citizens to some degree, they could syphon more wealth through crafty commercial activities while minimising the psychological backlash.

Hostility towards Tytania stemmed mainly from two types of people. The first were those who suffered tangible harm, mainly neglected royals and ruling classes from various nations, and the second were those who had a strong desire for freedom and independence and didn’t tolerate domination from any entity.

Those who were reasonably well-off and had no need to deeply scrutinise matters were likely to accept Tytania’s rule and superiority and live peacefully. Tytanian rule had existed since even before their birth, and as long as they didn’t resist it, they could live modestly without suffering any particular hardship. Considering the great costs that came with resistance, it was only natural that they would seek to maintain the status quo through compromise. Even livestock seemed to possess their own measure of contentment.

While on their way to the employment centre, the pickpocket pressed Fan Hyulick for details about his background.

“So, what exactly have you done?”

She assumed that he must have committed some kind of misdemeanour that made it impossible for him to live on his homeworld.

“I won a battle I shouldn’t have won; that’s it. And now that I’ve upset my sponsors, here I am.”

“So you’re on the run? Are you some kind of gambler? You’re more skilled than you look…”

“A gambler, huh? Well, yes, I guess you could say that.”

He couldn’t bring himself to correct the girl’s misunderstandings. In a sense, war was speculation and gambling. Oddly enough, no matter how horrific a conflict, someone always stood to profit. Tytania, of course, was such a party.

“Have you ever killed someone?”

“Yeah, well, to protect myself, I guess.”

“How many did you kill?”

“Well, about a hundred thousand or so.”

He answered honestly, but the girl questioning him couldn’t believe it. She looked up at him with an expression of exasperation as if he were suffering from megalomania and shrugged. As if to say he was hopeless. On that point, Fan Hyulick was of the same opinion as her.

The Ementhal employment centre was opened 24 hours a day. He had thought that it was rather commendable for a government office until he learned that they outsourced their operations to the private sector.

“Any special skill? Something that can be useful?”

“Special skills? Special skills, huh?” Fan Hyulick was genuinely struggling with the question. “I’m good at running backwards on the beltway, but I don’t suppose one would call it a special skill.”

The girl was more serious and angry than the one who said these words.

“A special skill is meaningless if you can’t earn your keep with it. Running backwards on the beltway, can you even put food on the table with that?”

It would have been foolish of him to insist that he could, so Fan Hyulick remained silent. The girl placed her hands on her hips and glared at him.

“To keep on living is serious business, right? It’s not sweet or fun. If you don’t earnestly fulfil your role, you’ll surely get your just deserts!”

Why must I be lectured by some pickpocket? thought Fan Hyulick, and yet he obediently nodded. He somehow was inclined to believe that she wished him well.

Eventually, they arrived at the employment centre. Like the Interstellar City League’s kontors, such centres bore the unique characteristic of their planet. In Bargash, which Fan Hyulick had once visited on a business trip, men in grimy overalls would line up, usually with moustaches. Here, in Ementhal, a gentlemanly clerk wearing a bow and tie greeted the young man and asked:

“Do you hold a certification for planetary engineering<ref>“Planet engineering engineer” (惑星工学技術者) is pronounced “planetary engineer”.</ref>?”

Fan Hyulick shook his head, remaining silent. Had he possessed such a qualification, he would never have been reduced to the drudgery of clerical work back in his civilian days.

“If you have a qualification, you won’t be short of work. Would you happen to have one?”

“I hold a spaceship pilot’s licence. Only an interstellar class B, though.”

“B class isn’t enough. Even A class is commonplace. If you had a special A class, I would have a dozen job openings to offer.”

''If only I had an A class military strategist licence'', mused Fan Hyulick as he indulged in an irrelevant fantasy. They could compile data on the number of wars fought, win rates, enemies killed, and allies lost, and then issue licences by grade. Kill more allies than enemies, and your licence gets revoked. That might be actually quite interesting. It would weed out incompetent soldiers and turn the competent ones against one another until the profession of soldier dies out. How great.

“I heard the economy was booming in Ementhal, but it appears it isn’t the case.”

“I don’t know who told you that, but I won’t take any responsibility for such irresponsible claims.”

After this rather cold response, the clerk asked him a rather odd question. If he had any knowledge of arts. Arts, of course, encompassed a wide domain, but in any case Fan Hyulick had no connection to it. He was good at whistling and making kites, but it couldn’t be called art. Similar to running backwards on a beltway.

“Never mind, it’s not as if I absolutely needed to find employment in Ementhal. I’ll be back some other day.”

Let’s decide on everything tomorrow morning after eating an herb omelette. Right as he turned to leave the reception counter, a grey shadow moved within his field of vision. Two persons wearing Tytanian uniforms stood there.

“Admiral Fan Hyulick?”

When addressed thus, the pickpocket girl started the young man with a frown and asked in a suspicious tone,

“What’s an admiral? Your nickname?”

“The essence of misfortune.”

Murmured Fan Hyulick, not entirely evasive. It was indeed precisely because he had been blind-sided by the title of “admiral” that he ended up performing this burlesque farce. Bad choices lead to bad outcomes.

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