Mezametara Saikyou Soubi to Uchuusen-mochi datta node, Ikkodate Mezashite Youhei to shite Jiyuu ni Ikitai - Ch. 59

[x_renon_x]

@x_renon_x what's your pfp from?

Linkle by Kreamu 18+ content

 

[chemy1347]

I'd say definitely not worth it, but on the other hand, the dude does dream about a house on a habitable planet. It's not worth it for a mercenary as it would bind him to the empire (and the will of the government) and there would be expectations, if not responsibilities, but it could make gaining land on a planet much easier.

I'm not sure, though, that his deeds would still be enough to earn a noble rank. Much cheaper for the empire to give him another medal, some money, pretty speeches, and a bit of publicity. They might suggest a contract to bind him a little bit. He shouldn't accept any contracts. Maybe if there's a really petty nobility rank, like knighthood, that doesn't cost the empire anything and is not hereditary, it could happen. The empire would lose nothing, but it would bind Hiro to the empire for the rest of his life. Existing noble houses would hardly care about another knight appearing.

Iirc he qualifies for knight already during the Catgirl's arc, but refused. I think noble ranks were mentioned again when he was awarded the 1st assault medal, but he refused again.

Pretty sure it'll be a running joke until the person awarding the title becomes too high rank to ignore lmao

 

[Illusione-Tempus]

Pretty sure it'll be a running joke until the person awarding the title becomes too high rank to ignore lmao

You know damn well the Emperor will be involved in awarding a title just so he can no longer refuse.

 

[tonie]

This does not make sense from the military's point of view. Think about it, they can take the remote chance that info gets leaked (like everyone does IRL) and possibily learn important intel or they may go

I'd like to point out a few things here since you still can't let this go.
It's still up to Serena and nobody else in the military to ask him.
Since nobody knows why these things happen and nobody else knows that Hiro knows "something" about the Crystals.
And she did guarantee him (he threatened her) not to even hint at him as source of info at all costs.
And she does know from experience already (and because Hiro told her too) that things do leak out. Take for example the large scale pirate suppression operations. The pirates already know beforehand when these happen and these things are kept within the military and the mercenaries guild that are receiving the job offers. True that those may happen because some pirates pose as civilians or maybe even mercenaries and infiltrate the city, but it cannot be excluded that some have shady dealings with the military itself (literally 2nd chapter when Serena voices out suspicions of officials taking bribes).
And even if things are being kept at the highest military personnel level only, the fact that those can be hacked is still a possibility seeing as the medical facility's info from volume 2 was also leaked and Hiro's DNA data was stolen. Also if she had pointed Hiro as source of the information, she would have already breached his deal with him and he'd do his part too which will be far more damaging for her.

Besides all of that the most important point is this: Had she asked him and he answered her with with the correct answer (which he simply doesn't know), what would she do? How can she leak this information without disclosing her source of information? She can't just simply say "Oh yeah, those crystals? Yeah they must be using some telepathy or something, just trust me bro ".

Even if she tried to, it'd only be a headache for her and more work which she already had enough of.

So don't bully Serena, she's overworked and even the noble's brain implant does not mean she is willing to take on more overtime work.

 

[tonie]

Pretty sure it'll be a running joke until the person awarding the title becomes too high rank to ignore lmao

WELL, ABOUT THAT...
ABOUT THAT ACTUALLY...
You'll have to find out and hope you won't get spoiled, haha!

 

[chemy1347]

I'm not saying the MC specifically has to investigate this. He was with a whole detachment of the empire's military. You'd think they'd at least question him about it, given it was him that came up with the whole plan of using the crystal.

The military has been shown to know too little about crystals

I'd like to point out a few things here since you still can't let this go.
It's still up to Serena and nobody else in the military to ask him.
Since nobody knows why these things happen and nobody else knows that Hiro knows "something" about the Crystals.
And she did guarantee him (he threatened her) not to even hint at him as source of info at all costs.
And she does know from experience already (and because Hiro told her too) that things do leak out. Take for example the large scale pirate suppression operations. The pirates already know beforehand when these happen and these things are kept within the military and the mercenaries guild that are receiving the job offers. True that those may happen because some pirates pose as civilians or maybe even mercenaries and infiltrate the city, but it cannot be excluded that some have shady dealings with the military itself (literally 2nd chapter when Serena voices out suspicions of officials taking bribes).
And even if things are being kept at the highest military personnel level only, the fact that those can be hacked is still a possibility seeing as the medical facility's info from volume 2 was also leaked and Hiro's DNA data was stolen. Also if she had pointed Hiro as source of the information, she would have already breached his deal with him and he'd do his part too which will be far more damaging for her.

Besides all of that the most important point is this: Had she asked him and he answered her with with the correct answer (which he simply doesn't know), what would she do? How can she leak this information without disclosing her source of information? She can't just simply say "Oh yeah, those crystals? Yeah they must be using some telepathy or something, just trust me bro ".

Even if she tried to, it'd only be a headache for her and more work which she already had enough of.

So don't bully Serena, she's overworked and even the noble's brain implant does not mean she is willing to take on more overtime work.

Iirc Serena did question him about the Singing Crystal, but Hiro pretended to know nothing, and Serena knew not to push it.

Serena's professional relationship with Hiro (as opposed to her romantic one, which we all take pity on lmao) feels like how a manager treats that one really capable subordinate who'll get shit done properly, but the less you know about how he got it done, the better.

Btw, I'm glad next up is Elma's arc. She's the one with the most similar wavelength to Hiro and operates like a bro. Particularly I'm curious why despite being shown multiple times to be a sensible and cautious character (aside from her spending habits), she was piloting such an insane ship before she met Hiro.

 

[tonie]

Iirc Serena did question him about the Singing Crystal, but Hiro pretended to know nothing, and Serena knew not to push it.

Ahh at the time with the singing crystal she didn't know he knew anything about the crystal lifeforms at all, she did ask if he used to have crystal but could not prove it nor proving it was worth it. If anyone participating in this campaign did prove or even hint the crystal was used, it could be used against them on political stage as "Those nobles who use cowardly underhanded tactics that besmirch the empire's name" or something like that. Since Serena herself mentions she has enemies even within the military as a woman with success (but still a woman in their eyes) and they'd be happy to send her "back to the kitchen" had she used a mercenary, she personally hired, as basically a spearhead of the defense.

And at the stage with the mother crystal, it's as I've mentioned earlier.

Btw, I'm glad next up is Elma's arc.

Btw, the next arc is the Imperial Capital, aka volume 7. Elma's is volume 9 so two arcs more. Oh unless you mean her meeting the... yeah maybe but not really a complete arc, right?

 

[finalm]

I'd like to point out a few things here since you still can't let this go.

I'm commenting on the justifications given, not even mentioning Serena anymore. How exactly can I "not let this go?". Is it your goal to shut down the discussion?

And she does know from experience already (and because Hiro told her too) that things do leak out. Take for example the large scale pirate suppression operations. The pirates already know beforehand when these happen and these things are kept within the military and the mercenaries guild that are receiving the job offers. True that those may happen because some pirates pose as civilians or maybe even mercenaries and infiltrate the city, but it cannot be excluded that some have shady dealings with the military itself (literally 2nd chapter when Serena voices out suspicions of officials taking bribes).
And even if things are being kept at the highest military personnel level only, the fact that those can be hacked is still a possibility seeing as the medical facility's info from volume 2 was also leaked and Hiro's DNA data was stolen. Also if she had pointed Hiro as source of the information, she would have already breached his deal with him and he'd do his part too which will be far more damaging for her.

Again I wasn't even talking about her thoughts on the matter, merely why the military wouldn't be demonstrably interested into looking into this, whether they get to Hiro or not. The responder basically said that they wouldn't because of the risks of leaks, which is just ridiculous no matter how you cut it. Your argument to that can be summed up with "well, leaks CAN happen.", which no one would ever take as justification to abandon obtaining intel.

Besides all of that the most important point is this: Had she asked him and he answered her with with the correct answer (which he simply doesn't know), what would she do? How can she leak this information without disclosing her source of information? She can't just simply say "Oh yeah, those crystals? Yeah they must be using some telepathy or something, just trust me bro ".

Even if she tried to, it'd only be a headache for her and more work which she already had enough of.

So don't bully Serena, she's overworked and even the noble's brain implant does not mean she is willing to take on more overtime work.

I already anwsered this. It does not matter if he knew or was willing to divulge it. It's one thing for her to dig for things unprompted, but not to look into things that can affect her or her forces' survival chances? That's just pitifully bad writing, no matter how much she hates her job.

 

[finalm]

The military has been shown to know too little about crystals

But that's the point. The encountered a phenomenon they don't know about, that can potentially be just as dangerous as the crystals themselves and they are not motivated to find out? Why is this such a contentious concept to people?

 

[tonie]

not to look into things that can affect her or her forces' survival chances?

He already told her everything and she believes that. Can't dig out more than that, end of the story.
Besides she knows better if they're threatened by those crystals or not. The threat is gone once they destroyed probably the only mother crystal within the close proximity of their borders and she's out of there after this.

The encountered a phenomena they don't know about, that can potentially be just as dangerous as the crystals themselves and they are not motivated to find out? Why is this such a contentious concept to people?

They ARE motivated, but it's not HER job to do that (at least not anymore).
And as I said, the military does not know about any source of information about the Crystals.
Why can't you accept that you're the only one that has a problem with it.

BTW Besides him willing or not willing to divulge things, I mentioned a few other reasons as to why Serena may not want to ask him and you're just ignoring it.

 

[tonie]

Is it your goal to shut down the discussion?

Fair! My bad, so let me sum it up.

Vol. 1. The Singing Crystal incident.
The fight between the Empire and the Federation happens. A voice is being heard even though it's through the emptiness of space vacuum and the crystals got involved. Even if Empire suspects a singing crystal was used, they choose to stay silent.
Why? Things are political of course.
For one it might be a hypocritical of them to use extremely illegal and dangerous thing as this and even if it was used by a single mercenary, the fact is that Serena personally hired him doesn't help. She will let it go herself easy because it'll only be trouble for her and bring some political ammo for her enemies which she herself admits to have.
Another it might to do with the Empire wanting to preserve their pride. Nobles are oh so prideful, so they spin it the way that it was in fact Federation that was carrying a singing crystal aboard their flagship that went down. Of course they have no proof for that so the matter is let go of too.

Vol. 6. The Mother Crystal incident.
The Mother Crystal gets critical hit and the voice is heard once again and again when it dies.
At this point the Empire itself, military and researchers have no idea where to even point for information. All they can do is research the crystal mother's corpse from now on and harvest what they can. But that research may last many years and we have to consider there might be local differences between each species of crystals in the galaxy. After all even some humans may speak using their voice, other may be mute or use a different language or maybe a sign language.

Serena on the other hand already received all information she could from Hiro and having overworked herself quite a bit, is tired of trying to spin information from Hiro's as a legit analysis and decides even asking is not worth it as she is unlikely to ever encounter the crystals again since they are so rare to fight against with the exception of that single outpust which now is safe thanks for Serena and Hiro.
Here things are simple: Serena kept Hiro away from all the trouble or at least until he decided to directly involve himself. But even still his status as informant is safe, so only merits of becoming a decoy and delivering a kill stays to reward and the military knows nothing and suspects nothing, it's the perfect stealth!

So that's why Serena is my main focus, since Empire knows nothing much about the crystals.
They still know some things, as they harvest and use rare crystals from their corpses, but they don't know much about their living specimens since most of the ships sent there never returned.

 

[Morose]

This does not make sense from the military's point of view. Think about it, they can take the remote chance that info gets leaked (like everyone does IRL) and possibily learn important intel or they may go "nah, there's a risk someone else would also learn it" and get nothing at all. No one that ever lived would go with the second option.

First of all, regarding Hiro's involvement with Crystal Beings so far in the Manga, there have been just two cases.
One during the Federation Invasion (back in Ch.10 of the Manga), and the other being the Current Arc.

There is nothing to say regarding military possibly questioning Hiro about the current arc events, as like i said before, Serena had covered all her tracks to keep Hiro's involvement regarding the info he provided a secret from her higher ups, as she had proactively claimed that the planning she did was based on recon info. Aka., the higher up military officials don't know that Hiro has some exclusive info regarding Crystal Beings which they don't.

And like i said, Serena isn't questioning Hiro much regarding his info source, because she wants to maintain her relationship with Hiro, as that's too beneficial for her personally (plus the blackmail he did back in Chapter 56.2). I mean, her sudden increase in military ranking has all been thanks to Hiro's help, plus his tactics relating to hunting pirates. Plus he had directly and indirectly saved her a few times already.

----

As for events during the Federation Invasion plot, the higher ups (including Serena) guessed that Hiro had used a Singing Crystal to summon a horde of Crystal Beings to sabotage the Federation Invading forces.

In this situation, the military had not much to gain, but rather much to lose if they questioned Hiro about it.
Like i said, the possibility of info leak is there, even if its really low.

But at that time there wasn't much profit for the military by questioning Hiro, as all he had done is just used a Singing Crystal. Which while dangerous, is a strategy anyone could employ, as everyone knows what happens when a Singing Crystal breaks (hence its a Highly Restricted Item). It is a rare item though, so not an easy tactic to utilize. Also, Hiro didn't really showcase that he had access to some rare info related to Crystal Being that the military already didn't possess.

So, the most they could question Hiro about is how he got the Singing Crystal for which he had clear answer, possibly even ship logs as well to prove it.

But that would give rise to the possibility of him being needed to be either fined or imprisoned for possessing a illegal item, and not handing it over to the authorities immediately upon acquiring it (i mean, remember how in Ch.49, his ship was searched to check whether they had any illegal item or not).

But if Hiro is either fined or imprisoned, they can't be secretive about that, as the info would be applied to various database be military or guild, including the reasoning for why it was done. And in such a case, information would become publicly available (i mean, it would be at that point be treated as a criminal charges and have to be record).

And this in-turn could possibly give rise to various international issues, as it would prove to everyone that someone in the Empire had used a dangerous illegal item like a Singing Crystal as a weapon against someone else. This could be a political issue, as even though it was the Federation who had invaded, the fault would immediately move towards Empire for countering using a strategy like that.
Its like, if a country invades another country. And in retaliation, the invaded country used a nuke against the invading forces.
But even if the fault lies with the invading country for what they did, every other country would question the invaded country for using a nuke in such a case and blame them.

So, during that time, the military rather than waste time and resources and possibly international issues by questioning Hiro and having to follow up on this after that, decided to turn a blind eye on what he did, as at the end of the day, the whole situation if kept quite was more beneficial for them, and they didn't really have concrete proof for anything.

Aka., they got to easily wipe-out the Invading forces, got hands on some rare Crystal Being materials. And even the Federation couldn't question them, as the Empire could just say that their encounter with the Crystal Beings was just a freak accident.

 

[Snuffy.Flicks]

Rather convenient. Just like how the robots are implied to have supreme military power and run everything "for everyone's benefit" in the background, but the galaxy is convenient still a lawless and dangerous rubbish pit, and bios live under an illusion of liberty and structure.

I'll try to help you out a little.

Spoiler

AIs as they are in the Empire, didn't spread everywhere. Other places use different, and more fucked up, systems for data processing.

 

[finalm]

He already told her everything and she believes that. Can't dig out more than that, end of the story.
Besides she knows better if they're threatened by those crystals or not. The threat is gone once they destroyed probably the only mother crystal within the close proximity of their borders and she's out of there after this.

She doesn't know that. You yourself mentioned this ability is related to a wider set of supernatural powers that will matter. It's reasonable to assume a person who has unexplained knowledge and abilities himself might know something. It's also reasonable to ask, since he himself admited he doesn't know everything there is to know about crystal lifeforms, but might have encountered a similar phenomenon to psionics before. Why are you so adamant that not attempting to learn is the correct thing to do here, at any cost apparently?

They ARE motivated, but it's not HER job to do that (at least not anymore).
And as I said, the military does not know about any source of information about the Crystals.
Why can't you accept that you're the only one that has a problem with it.

Of course it's her job, she a high ranking member of the military. Picture this - what do you think would happen if the rest of the brass learned she had just such a potential source on hand, for an extended amount of time, yet couldn't be bothered to even try to seriously grill him for info for some strange reason? Do you think they'd accept such excuses?

Also, you act as if this is some sort of popularity contest, bro. I don't remember signing up for one, so I honestly couldn't care less if anyone else shares this point of view. Either engage with it like an adult, or not at all.

BTW Besides him willing or not willing to divulge things, I mentioned a few other reasons as to why Serena may not want to ask him and you're just ignoring it.

I believe I already addressed the notion that forgoing gathering intel for fear that someone else might also learn of it is ridiculous. It's like giving up a race in the hopes that it will somehow prevent other contestants from crossing the finish line later too. As for your comment about him potentially refusing to anwser anything no matter what - what of it? If she doesn't even try then the result is the same: they learn nothing.

 

[Morose]

Rather convenient. Just like how the robots are implied to have supreme military power and run everything "for everyone's benefit" in the background, but the galaxy is convenient still a lawless and dangerous rubbish pit, and bios live under an illusion of liberty and structure.

Because in the end, MI's (aka., Machine Intelligence), in this series need a connected network to work in.

While the Empire is open network for them to work and live in (as both digital & physical beings).
The same isn't true in other nations or Space Pirate strongholds.

Both have their own network, which are physically seperated, so MI's can't access them unless they find a related physical access point (this is technically true in real life as well, aka., no person or AI can't access a private server which is physical separated).

So, MI's while powerful, aren't really almighty either.

 

[finalm]

Fair! My bad, so let me sum it up.

Vol. 1. The Singing Crystal incident.
The fight between the Empire and the Federation happens. A voice is being heard even though it's through the emptiness of space vacuum and the crystals got involved. Even if Empire suspects a singing crystal was used, they choose to stay silent.
Why? Things are political of course.
For one it might be a hypocritical of them to use extremely illegal and dangerous thing as this and even if it was used by a single mercenary, the fact is that Serena personally hired him doesn't help. She will let it go herself easy because it'll only be trouble for her and bring some political ammo for her enemies which she herself admits to have.
Another it might to do with the Empire wanting to preserve their pride. Nobles are oh so prideful, so they spin it the way that it was in fact Federation that was carrying a singing crystal aboard their flagship that went down. Of course they have no proof for that so the matter is let go of too.

That's all well and good, but why would it matter for whether the Empire attempts to find out in detail what went on? You are talking as if them remaining ignorant will somehow make all their rivals do the same as well. If they suspected where to start digging, why wouldn't other powers as well? Except those powers might actually act and get their hands on the MC first. This train of thought is honestly baffling to me.

Vol. 6. The Mother Crystal incident.
The Mother Crystal gets critical hit and the voice is heard once again and again when it dies.
At this point the Empire itself, military and researchers have no idea where to even point for information. All they can do is research the crystal mother's corpse from now on and harvest what they can. But that research may last many years and we have to consider there might be local differences between each species of crystals in the galaxy. After all even some humans may speak using their voice, other may be mute or use a different language or maybe a sign language.

What do you mean "no idea"? They know their officer was somehow able to get her hands on info that was unknown to the rest of the world, as far as they are aware. They also can see she's being evasive about her source, likely assuming she want's to monopolize it for achievements. Then it turns out there are even more things she hasn't warned them about. Any realistic military would put the squeeze on her with all it's might to get to the bottom of this.

Serena on the other hand already received all information she could from Hiro and having overworked herself quite a bit, is tired of trying to spin information from Hiro's as a legit analysis and decides even asking is not worth it as she is unlikely to ever encounter the crystals again since they are so rare to fight against with the exception of that single outpust which now is safe thanks for Serena and Hiro.
Here things are simple: Serena kept Hiro away from all the trouble or at least until he decided to directly involve himself. But even still his status as informant is safe, so only merits of becoming a decoy and delivering a kill stays to reward and the military knows nothing and suspects nothing, it's the perfect stealth!

Her being "tired of trying to spin information" might sound cute, but it's doubtful it would fly with the admiralty when you remember that people died in those battles. What is she going to say when confronted with the possibility that those deaths might have been avoidable if she hadn't showed more loyalty to the MC than her own people for some unfathomable reason? Hell, she should be asking that herself now, since a court martial would be the least she could expect IRL.

So that's why Serena is my main focus, since Empire knows nothing much about the crystals.
They still know some things, as they harvest and use rare crystals from their corpses, but they don't know much about their living specimens since most of the ships sent there never returned.

An as I keep saying, this is exactly why both it and Serena should be primarily concerned with learning more, not whether it's a pain or not to pull on the MC's tounge.

 

[finalm]

First of all, regarding Hiro's involvement with Crystal Beings so far in the Manga, there have been just two cases.
One during the Federation Invasion (back in Ch.10 of the Manga), and the other being the Current Arc.

There is nothing to say regarding military possibly questioning Hiro about the current arc events, as like i said before, Serena had covered all her tracks to keep Hiro's involvement regarding the info he provided a secret from her higher ups, as she had proactively claimed that the planning she did was based on recon info. Aka., the higher up military officials don't know that Hiro has some exclusive info regarding Crystal Beings which they don't.

And like i said, Serena isn't questioning Hiro much regarding his info source, because she wants to maintain her relationship with Hiro, as that's too beneficial for her personally (plus the blackmail he did back in Chapter 56.2). I mean, her sudden increase in military ranking has all been thanks to Hiro's help, plus his tactics relating to hunting pirates. Plus he had directly and indirectly saved her a few times already.

That's fine, but they know she has a source that she's unwilling to divulge. They can only assume it's because she wants to be the only one to benefit from it, achievements-wise. It would be one thing if everything went smoothly according to plan, that would mean she got all the intel and made good use of it. However, there were more than a few surprises, including the way the battle actually concluded. There is no way in hell they'd just let that slide, because if her source knows more than she got, then it's gross negligence at the very least. In their eyes, there were casualties that might have been avoidable, after all.

As for events during the Federation Invasion plot, the higher ups (including Serena) guessed that Hiro had used a Singing Crystal to summon a horde of Crystal Beings to sabotage the Federation Invading forces.

In this situation, the military had not much to gain, but rather much to lose if they questioned Hiro about it.
Like i said, the possibility of info leak is there, even if its really low.

But at that time there wasn't much profit for the military by questioning Hiro, as all he had done is just used a Singing Crystal. Which while dangerous, is a strategy anyone could employ, as everyone knows what happens when a Singing Crystal breaks (hence its a Highly Restricted Item). It is a rare item though, so not an easy tactic to utilize. Also, Hiro didn't really showcase that he had access to some rare info related to Crystal Being that the military already didn't possess.

So, the most they could question Hiro about is how he got the Singing Crystal for which he had clear answer, possibly even ship logs as well to prove it.

But that would give rise to the possibility of him being needed to be either fined or imprisoned for possessing a illegal item, and not handing it over to the authorities immediately upon acquiring it (i mean, remember how in Ch.49, his ship was searched to check whether they had any illegal item or not).

But if Hiro is either fined or imprisoned, they can't be secretive about that, as the info would be applied to various database be military or guild, including the reasoning for why it was done. And in such a case, information would become publicly available (i mean, it would be at that point be treated as a criminal charges and have to be record).

And this in-turn could possibly give rise to various international issues, as it would prove to everyone that someone in the Empire had used a dangerous illegal item like a Singing Crystal as a weapon against someone else. This could be a political issue, as even though it was the Federation who had invaded, the fault would immediately move towards Empire for countering using a strategy like that.
Its like, if a country invades another country. And in retaliation, the invaded country used a nuke against the invading forces.
But even if the fault lies with the invading country for what they did, every other country would question the invaded country for using a nuke in such a case and blame them.

So, during that time, the military rather than waste time and resources and possibly international issues by questioning Hiro and having to follow up on this after that, decided to turn a blind eye on what he did, as at the end of the day, the whole situation if kept quite was more beneficial for them, and they didn't really have concrete proof for anything.

Aka., they got to easily wipe-out the Invading forces, got hands on some rare Crystal Being materials. And even the Federation couldn't question them, as the Empire could just say that their encounter with the Crystal Beings was just a freak accident.

Not questioning him does not help them in the least. If they were able to figure out what he did, so will any other rival state. They are essentially leaving him for those rival states to scoop up and interrogate themselves - properly, in secret. Or is the notion of an intelligence service holding someone illegaly to get what he knows not something a space-faring civilization would do, in your opinion? Realistically, the Empire would have at least considered doing the same themselves, even if they made a different decision in the end. As it stands, it's just brainless writing. That's not something rare in manga or LNs but what baffles me is why do you and others do such mental gymnastics to defend it? It's not like you have to stop liking the series just because you admit the author's not bright enough to do sensible worldbuilding...

 

[Morose]

Of course it's her job, she a high ranking member of the military. Picture this - what do you think would happen if the rest of the brass learned she had just such a potential source on hand, for an extended amount of time, yet couldn't be bothered to even try to seriously grill him for info for some strange reason? Do you think they'd accept such excuses?

Technically, Serena is not that high in ranking, yet.

She is a Lieutenant Commander of a single fleet (though a big and current tech one). But she is not on the same level as someone like Captain Broadwell who was the highest commanding officer for the whole army (including Serena's fleet) present during this Crystal Being war plot.

So, it's not like the top brass have the time to waste on investigating whether the info provided by a military officers was completely truthful or not, when everything went well and the operation was a success.

They have much bigger concerns to deal with as they have to work on protecting the borders of the huge Empire with hundreds of Star Systems under their control.

And even if they learn about it later, there is not much they could do about it then.

Serena being the culprit for hiding potential helpful info, at most would only suffer a demotion, as the info being hidden isn't related to some national security against other nation. It's just info related to monster species.
There is also the fact that while Serena herself is a lower ranking commanding officer, she belongs to a high ranking noble family, so taking direct action against her isn't that easy, atleast in the sense of protecting the image of the Empire.

And as Hiro is a mercenary with no fixed address, so it's not like they can easily go after him to question him.
Though they can still call him later through the Guild to question him if needed, but Hiro does have the right to ignore answering them what he don't want to (mercenary are given such rights to protect their own trade secrets, and avoid exploitation by nobles).

I believe I already addressed the notion that forgoing gathering intel for fear that someone else might also learn of it is ridiculous. It's like giving up a race in the hopes that it will somehow prevent other contestants from crossing the finish line later too.

The issue isn't about gathering of Intel, it's about the subsequent consequences that might occur after it.

The Crystal Being while a problem for the Empire, isn't really a big or urgent issue for them, as they have been managing to handle them most of the time for all these years without MC's game lore info dump. So, any info provided is just a bonus for them, whether they get it directly or indirectly.

The bigger issue for Empire is Federation who has been aggressive towards them for a long time.

Both sides do heavy anti-campaign to denounce the other side. So the Empire does actively try to ignore situation that might harm their position.

Which is why they ignored Hiro using the Singing Crystal during the Federation Invasion plot back in Ch.10, as they had nothing to gain then.

 

[finalm]

Technically, Serena is not that high in ranking, yet.

She is a Lieutenant Commander of a single fleet (though a big and current tech one). But she is not on the same level as someone like Captain Broadwell who was the highest commanding officer for the whole army (including Serena's fleet) present during this Crystal Being war plot.

So, it's not like the top brass have the time to waste on investigating whether the info provided by a military officers was completely truthful or not, when everything went well and the operation was a success.

They have much bigger concerns to deal with as they have to work on protecting the borders of the huge Empire with hundreds of Star Systems under their control.

And even if they learn about it later, there is not much they could do about it then.

Serena being the culprit for hiding potential helpful info, at most would only suffer a demotion, as the info being hidden isn't related to some national security against other nation. It's just info related to monster species.
There is also the fact that while Serena herself is a lower ranking commanding officer, she belongs to a high ranking noble family, so taking direct action against her isn't that easy, atleast in the sense of protecting the image of the Empire.

The issue is that they don't know what exactly they missed out on, on account of her being loyal to the MC instead of the nation she was a noble of. The operation might have ended on favourable terms to them, but it was not a success, because it went wildly off course. Under such circumstances, any real military would launch an in-depth investigation, especially into her and what she's hiding. Now, depending on what kind of influence her house has, she might be able to resist it to some extent, but we're not told of anything like that going on so it's just a plot hole.

And as Hiro is a mercenary with no fixed address, so it's not like they can easily go after him to question him.
Though they can still call him later through the Guild to question him if needed, but Hiro does have the right to ignore answering them what he don't want to (mercenary are given such rights to protect their own trade secrets, and avoid exploitation by nobles).

They could issue an APB for him all throughout their territory and that of their allies, like how a real country hauls in people for questioning, when they don't want to come in by themselves. Assuming they don't just want to snatch him up on the down-low and send specialists like that after him, which other states would also be likely to try.

The issue isn't about gathering of Intel, it's about the subsequent consequences that might occur after it.

The Crystal Being while a problem for the Empire, isn't really a big or urgent issue for them, as they have been managing to handle them most of the time for all these years without MC's game lore info dump. So, any info provided is just a bonus for them, whether they get it directly or indirectly.

The bigger issue for Empire is Federation who has been aggressive towards them for a long time.

Both sides do heavy anti-campaign to denounce the other side. So the Empire does actively try to ignore situation that might harm their position.

Which is why they ignored Hiro using the Singing Crystal during the Federation Invasion plot back in Ch.10, as they had nothing to gain then.

How exactly can they be sure he does not have ties to the Federation, some other hostile state or organization, when they just ignore him? The whole thing could be some false flag operation to hide another invasion or worse, a sign that their enemies have access to knowledge and tech realted to crystal lifeforms and were just testing it there, while also escalating hostilities between the two. Getting to the bottom of this is a pressing issue no matter how you cut it.

 

[Morose]

That's fine, but they know she has a source that she's unwilling to divulge. They can only assume it's because she wants to be the only one to benefit from it, achievements-wise. It would be one thing if everything went smoothly according to plan, that would mean she got all the intel and made good use of it. However, there were more than a few surprises, including the way the battle actually concluded. There is no way in hell they'd just let that slide, because if her source knows more than she got, then it's gross negligence at the very least. In their eyes, there were casualties that might have been avoidable, after all.

Possibly they know, or they don't as they are convinced by Serena's made up story about the info being from multiple recon info consolidated (Serena never claimed her info is from a single source).

As for the unexpected surprises during the mission, that's to be expected for the higher ups, as Serena claimed the gathered intel were from recon info, which couldn't be hundred percent accurate.

Also, the actions Hiro did is easily chalked up to something a mercenary did, or him being just crazy (they do call Hiro "Captain Psycho").

Truthfully, the Top Brass of the military would never even consider the possibility that the source of all the Crystal Beings info provided by Serena is a single non-enhanced mercenary who haven't been active for that long either.

They would rather believe the info is from several recon missions, which was analysed by a noble with enhanced processing capabilities.

For example, think that there are two source of info regarding a new creature. One is said to originate from a random person who came and claimed to have info on it, while the other is said to be by someone you know who had consolidated various research and recon info.

Who would you believe more, even if both are true.

I mean, timeline wise, Hiro should technically still be a Rookie Mercenary, as it hasn't even been a year since he became a Mercenary but he is already Gold Rank.

Not questioning him does not help them in the least. If they were able to figure out what he did, so will any other rival state. They are essentially leaving him for those rival states to scoop up and interrogate themselves - properly, in secret. Or is the notion of an intelligence service holding someone illegaly to get what he knows not something a space-faring civilization would do, in your opinion? Realistically, the Empire would have at least considered doing the same themselves, even if they made a different decision in the end. As it stands, it's just brainless writing. That's not something rare in manga or LNs but what baffles me is why do you and others do such mental gymnastics to defend it? It's not like you have to stop liking the series just because you admit the author's not bright enough to do sensible worldbuilding...

The thing is, as long as everyone ignore the issue, no one will find out.

The Federation doesn't know that a Singing Crystal was used against them during their Invasion.
Only the invading force had the full info. Aka., a unknown ship suddenly attacked them, a mysterious scream triggered and Crystal Beings started to gather.

And most of those invading forces are either now dead or captured by the empire. Aka., to the Federation leaders, all they know is that their mission had failed because of an unexpected attack by Crystal being monsters.

Also it's not about brainless writing.
Yeah, i wouldn't claim that some of the writing isn't bad, as it's clearly is.

But a lot of stuff are clear cut.
Even in real life, military or police doesn't also question every aspect of stuff that happen if there is no negative drawbacks. While i don't know how it's in West, but in East it's quite common. Aka., ignore stuff that are bothersome if there is no negative issue from doing so.

Keep in mind, what most of the Authors (especially Japanese rookie authors) typically write, are always directly or indirectly influenced by their own culture.