Fantasy Galaxy: Why Are There Goblins and Orcs in Space?

Chapter 18 : Sario's Journey

My name is Sario Barakeru. I was born on Jilta, the fourth planet in the Civilization Level E Korado Star system - a Kūshī from an ordinary family who dreamed of becoming a spacecraft pilot.

My luck ran out when pirates ambushed the spacecraft I was aboard and captured me. I was no rich man's child, so I was sold on the Lower-Class Citizen Market and bought by the Goblin army.

After that, the Goblins worked me like a dog, day after day. But I met an Earthling named Zen, and together we managed to escape. Getting back to my home system of Korado Star, though, required either a massive sum of money or a spacecraft capable of long-range faster-than-light travel.

Zen and I had obtained a small spacecraft, but it lacked the performance to reach Korado Star. So we hatched a plan: start an interplanetary shipping business, save up, and then head home.

While preparing to launch that business, a piece of news blindsided me. I was in my Guest Tower room using my Smart Glasses to draft the application forms when the words "Korado Star" caught my eye. War had broken out in the Korado Star system.

「What does this mean?」

I searched for more on Korado Star and found the full story: the system and the Goblin race's Gonuwa Empire had entered a state of war.

No…… What happened to Planet Jilta? Was my family safe? I dug through every source I could find, but nothing told me what had become of my homeworld.

Panic clawed at my chest until I couldn't sit still. I shot to my feet and paced the room. Every fiber of me screamed to get back to Korado Star immediately.

「What should I do?」

Traveling the two hundred seventy light-years to Korado Star would cost roughly two hundred million Credits. I didn't have that kind of money. Selling something to cover the fare was my only option.

The only thing I owned worth selling was the small spacecraft. But that belonged to Zen as much as it did to me. I considered selling the knowledge in my head, but quickly realized it wouldn't work.

The planets with markets for that kind of expertise were a bit too far to reach. That left selling the spacecraft. My thoughts were spiraling in circles when Zen walked in.

One look at my face told him something was wrong.

「Sario, what happened?」

I told him about the situation in the Korado Star system.

「Don't tell me - you want to go back to Korado Star?」

「That'sh right, but I don't have the fare. I need roughly two hundred million Creditsh.」

Zen thought for a moment, then made a suggestion.

「Let's sell the small spacecraft.」

「Are you shure? Once we sell it, we might never get another one.」

「What we can't replace is the Trans-Space-Time Jump Field Generator and the Luon Drive. Strip those out and sell the rest.」

That made perfect sense. The small spacecraft was an interplanetary vessel built by the Civilization Level C Anubis Race, but you could buy one for a few billion Credits.

I put the small spacecraft on the market immediately. The Trans-Space-Time Jump Field Generator and Luon Drive that had been installed aboard were removed and stored in a rented warehouse along with the maintenance robots.

Because I'd rushed the sale, buyers beat the price down to roughly one billion Credits. I tried to give Zen half, but he refused.

「Once you get to Korado Star, you'll need to find your family and evacuate them. And if you want to come back here, that'll take a fortune too. I'll earn while I'm here, so you take all of it.」

Those words nearly brought me to tears.

「Thank you.」

「Don't worry about it. Just don't forget - I'm the one holding onto the Trans-Space-Time Jump Field Generator and the Luon Drive. Those are worth far more than the spacecraft ever was. Make sure you come back.」

I said goodbye to Zen and set out for Korado Star. No ship ran a direct route there, of course, so I hopped from vessel to vessel, working my way closer.

Five months later, I reached the outer rim of the Taritaru Star system - one step short of Korado Star. From there I made the slow journey to Rodoa, the system's second planet, and stepped off at Farau Spaceport.

Along the way, I'd heard that many Kūshī had fled to Rodoa. I planned to gather information here.

Rodoa was a planet ruled by the Kāshī Race - a people who had branched off from the Kūshī thousands of years ago and developed independently. They looked identical to Kūshī and shared the same civilization level.

Asking around near the spaceport, I learned that refugees from Planet Jilta were living on Daria Island on Rodoa. I headed straight there.

The Taritaru Star government hadn't wanted to take in a flood of refugees, it seemed. But intermarriage between the Kūshī and Kāshī was nothing unusual, so Kūshī already living on Rodoa had petitioned the government to accept the displaced.

The government's answer was to open Daria Island - previously uninhabited and undeveloped - as a temporary settlement. The Kūshī were told to develop it themselves and make it livable.

Having fled a war zone, the Kūshī had little money to speak of. Under those circumstances, scraping together the bare minimum infrastructure for survival was all they could manage.

Packing roughly ten million Kūshī onto a small island was no simple feat. When I arrived on Daria Island, I immediately started searching for my family. For the record, we were a household of five: my parents, my older brother, my younger sister, and me.

Daria Island was blanketed in what seemed like countless temporary housing units. Kūshī families crammed into every last one.

I searched for my family's names on the Planetary Information Net. No hits. So I went to what passed for a temporary government office on Daria Island and asked if there was any way to check on my family's status.

A male clerk assisted me.

「The Barakeru family from Orinsara Province, yesh? We have our own lists, so let me shearch. ……I see. It appearsh that a Ms. Sonya is living here on Daria Island.」

I showed my identification to prove I was her brother, and they gave me Sonya's address. When I arrived, I spotted a familiar girl walking toward me down the road, weariness etched into her face.

「Sonya.」

She looked at me and tilted her head.

「It'sh me. It'sh Sario.」

Sonya's eyes flew wide. She broke into a sprint, threw herself at me, and burst into tears. Years had passed since I'd disappeared, but she remembered.

「Big brother……」

I waited for her tears to subside, then asked what had happened. Sonya had been at school when the war broke out, from what she told me. While the Goblins hammered Planet Jilta, the school evacuated its students to the spaceport and shipped them to Planet Rodoa. It tore her from the rest of the family - but she was the only one who survived.

The area where our parents and older brother had been was obliterated in the Goblins' initial surprise attack, by all accounts. They were almost certainly dead. Hatred for the Goblin race surged through me.

「Big brother, what happensh to us now?」

Sonya had been living in something like an orphanage - a temporary shelter for children waiting until family could be found, after which they had to leave.

After thinking it through, I decided to head back to Tiratia Star first. I wanted to talk things over with Zen before making any decisions.

「Let's go to Tiratia Star together. Your big brother has a friend there.」