The Man Who Received a Spaceship: It Turned Out to Be a Star!? - chapter 100

Episode 100: Ceasefire and Aftermath

The fleet that mediated the Halmaine civil war and constructed the orbital elevator successfully returned to Aguilacana.

Meanwhile, Japan held a general election during this period. The Minji Party secured an overwhelming victory, winning a majority well beyond half the seats in the legislature, nearly reaching the two-thirds threshold. Combined with the seats held by their potential allies, they achieved a supermajority, bringing the prospect of constitutional revision into view for the first time.

Following the election, Koichi, the Minji Party leader, was re-elected as Prime Minister in both houses, retaining his position with no changes to the cabinet.

This election marked a turning point, as former ruling party lawmakers—including some ex-ministers previously embroiled in scandals over foreign donations—faced indictment and prosecution. Multiple instances of substantial “indirect contributions” from foreign entities also surfaced, prompting discussions about stricter legal regulations.

In line with pre-election discussions with Aguilacana, the Japanese government shifted its stance to actively promote immigration.

Recognizing that the accelerating immigration to Aguilacana would exacerbate Japan’s labor shortage, Aguilacana decided to provide humanoid high-performance robots—“high-performance” by Earth standards—to Japan at no cost. For each immigrant family, two robots would be lent to the government; single applicants would receive one. However, since the manufacturing cost of these robots was negligible from Aguilacana’s perspective, each immigrant would likely receive two regardless of family size.

These robots, while de-tuned to prevent them from performing highly specialized intellectual tasks, were exceptionally efficient in manual and semi-skilled labor. Coupled with Japan’s plans for regulatory reform, their affordability and versatility were expected to make them indispensable across various industries, including agriculture, fisheries, logistics, and retail.

To ensure fairness, the robots provided to the Japanese government would be prioritized for companies losing employees to immigration. This policy incentivized businesses to encourage their staff to emigrate, setting the stage for future social debates in Japan.

Simultaneously, immigration centers expanded their capacity and numbers. Even within the short recruitment period this year, approximately 300,000 individual immigrants, translating to about 700,000 people including families, were expected to depart for Aguilacana. This figure projected annual numbers exceeding one million.

Initially, Aguilacana planned to provide education for immigrants’ children up to Japanese high school levels and send them back to Japan for higher education. However, given the population size, establishing university-level institutions became necessary. Thus, a comprehensive university was planned for the Sweet Potato Island settlement. Although the island’s name drew criticism for being unrefined, it was merely a placeholder I’d used. Eventually, the residents would name it themselves.

The comprehensive university would incorporate Aguilacana’s specialized education programs and offer graduate schools and affiliated research institutes for those with the ability and desire to pursue advanced studies. The aim was to cultivate talents who could contribute to Aguilacana’s scientific and technological progress.

The mediation in Halmaine resulted in securing a planet within a neighboring star system as a future migration destination for Earth’s population. Although the Alze faction was informed that migration wouldn’t begin for several decades, the groundwork had been laid.

Within Aguilacana, infrastructure could be established rapidly regardless of scale, but migration to Halmaine’s reserved planet would require large-scale development from scratch. However, even this posed no concern. A single workshop ship and resource-laden transport vessel could deploy specialized work ships to construct the necessary infrastructure efficiently after migration plans were finalized.

Although migration to that region was a distant prospect, as per the agreement with Alze, numerous probes were already deployed around their territory to monitor for Zeno activity. This network would eventually expand, ensuring a 50-year warning of any Zeno incursions. Unless faced with a massive Zeno force targeting the solar system, Aguilacana was fully prepared to repel them.

With these plans in motion, I felt a sense of resolution. The burden weighing on me as the lone Earthling chosen to captain the planet-sized starship Aguilacana seemed to lift.

Looking back, from the day I gazed at a shooting star during my corporate days, my life had been an extraordinary journey. Now, perhaps it was time for me to retire.