Steve was patiently waiting outside the tea room. He was ready to serve at a moment's notice. He didn't expect Master Pearson to burst out the doors with such great enthusiasm!
Pearson was forcefully grabbing Erin and pulling him out of the room. If it weren't for the bright smile on Pearson's face, Steve would think that Erin was being tossed out.
'Did I misjudge this young lad?' Steve thought to himself. He might have rushed to conclusions earlier.
While he had this thought, a mental transmission came from Pearson.
'In about half an hour, request two military starship quotas from the Clover Clan. They should respond quickly. Send the details to my device afterwards.'
Although Steve found this order unusual, he didn't question it at all.
Still inside the room, the mother and daughter pair were bewildered by this sudden change.
'Is this really my husband?' Charlotte watched Pearson pull Erin outside of the room swift and forcefully.
'Is that really my father?' Alice was stunned. She has never seen her father's enthusiastic side before. In fact, until now, she didn't even think her father could even express those kinds of emotions. To her, Pearson was the type of father that was caring on the inside but cold on the outside.
Both Alice and Charlotte realized something quickly. Weren't they about to be left behind?!
Alice jumped off her seat first. 'At least let me say goodbye!' She thought to herself as she rushed out of her room. Her mother, Charlotte, promptly followed.
At the same time, Alice thought it would be useful to save Erin's communication details to her device. She's only ever maintained a professional relationship with most of the people she knew.
Even in secondary education, for reasons she couldn't understand, many of her classmates didn't initiate conversations with her. She was also too shy to initiate conversations herself.
The only reason she could comfortably meet with Ron and his guests earlier was because of Ron's close relationship with her father. She treated Ron like an uncle.
As Alice and Charlotte were running out, Steve realized that all of them were suddenly leaving. He followed the two of them to the mansion's entryway. There was still half an hour till he needed to contact the Clover Clan. He wouldn't message them earlier since Pearson gave a specific time.
By the time Alice and Charlotte arrived, it was already too late. Pearson's planetary ship was already flying out of the mansion's air zone.
'Fast!' They both stared at the ship flying away. They thought Pearson would simply have a military grade ship delivered to their home.
They didn't expect that Pearson would actually be taking Erin straight to a military starship depot instead. These depots are where inactive starships are stored on planets. Their planet had many depots for civilian grade starships. They also had quite a few fighter grade starship depots.
However, for military grade, there was only one depot in the entire mega-planet of Charh! This was only because of how prosperous Planet Charh was. Most planets, unless owned by the Intergalactic Armada, usually couldn't afford to store so many military grade starships. To be considered a depot, it had to store thirty thousand inactive starships at the bare minimum!
"Steve, prepare another ship. We will head to the military starship depot too." Charlotte instructed as she noticed Steve catching up with them.
"Understood, Madam. I'll get to this immediately." Steve's answer was prompt.
On Pearson's ship, Erin was in a daze. He thought that convincing Pearson would take a lot more effort. He did not expect Pearson would look more excited than he was.
'..This is well-intentioned, right?' Erin could not think of any reason why this might be a potential trap. He sensed no ill-intent from Pearson's words and tone earlier.
As he glanced outside the ship's windows, he saw things moving at a ridiculously fast pace! It didn't take long for the scenery to shift into an ocean.
"We should reach the base in about ten minutes." Pearson said as he noticed Erin was checking out the speed of his ship.
"This model is called Scout Mark IX, it is one of the latest of its series. It's still a prototype though. The makers tried incorporating some fighter grade starship components into the engine. Even though it is a planetary ship, the incredible speed is comparable to a starship. Which is also why I prefer using it." Pearson was blatantly lying. He forced the personnel in charge of the prototypes to lend him their fastest ship earlier. All of this was just to rush back to his home sooner. He wouldn't tell this to Erin though.
"Remarkable." Erin complimented the ship.
As time passed, Pearson's ship finally approached an enormous metallic base in the middle of the ocean. When Erin first saw this sight, his jaw dropped. It was like an enormous continent made entirely of metal!
Countess dots were floating around. They were all war drones! Giant weaponry was scattered across towers on this metal land too.
The weirdest thing that Erin saw was a giant hole at the center of this island. This hole looked like a giant meteor bore a hole straight through the planet! It was so huge that hundreds of ships could enter and exit at the same time.
Pearson's ship quickly approached this hole. None of the war drones or weapons got in his way. In fact, many of the drones diverted their paths just so Pearson's ship could move even smoother.
As the ship dived deep into the hole, Erin noticed that there was only a little bit of illumination. It was mostly dotted lights to prevent ships from hitting the metallic walls. The hole was so deep that most of the view below was very dark. The lights just barely illuminated the areas they passed.
The ship descended quickly. Even after a few minutes, they had yet to reach the bottom of the hole.
One the ship finally stopped descending, a horizontal pathway illuminated a large connecting tunnel. The ship entered this tunnel and continued forward for a couple minutes.
As it reached a giant wall, Erin assumed this was the end of the tunnel. The illuminated lights turned off. Now, the only light was the illumination coming from the ship itself.
Before Erin could ask Pearson where they were, a giant light started seeping from the wall in front of them. It was at this moment that Erin realized the wall was actually a humongous door!
The door opened up so widely that Erin's eyes couldn't adjust to the light fast enough. The ship had already entered this new space before Erin's eyes could finally adjust.
"..This!?" To Erin, the sight before him was incredible. Thousands of starships were floating quietly above each other in this giant metallic enclave! The lights in here were so bright that every corner of each starship was visible.
The enclave was like a miniature world!
All the starships here were sectioned off into their own areas. From largest to smallest, Erin could see carriers, destroyers, battleships, cruisers, frigates, and even other starship classes that he couldn't recognize!
Pearson saw this and smiled. Unless they were ranked highly in the Intergalactic Armada, very few people could access a military starship depot. It so happens that Pearson, as a Guardian, was one of those very few people. Furthermore, as the lead Guardian overseeing Planet Charh, he had the ability to bring trusted guests into a depot located on his planet.
At the center of this enclave was a giant floating platform. Pearson's ship was heading for this platform.
"Out of these ships, is there a type that you personally prefer?" Pearson was testing the waters. Although the Clover Clan offered two quotas, he didn't know which type of quotas they are. For example, if he gave Erin a cruiser but only received two frigate quotas, then Pearson would be at a loss.
"If possible, I would like a destroyer with a built-in AI." Erin thought about it and realized he didn't even know what he qualified for. So he decided to aim ridiculously high.
If it weren't for the fact that he didn't have a pilot crew, Erin would have asked for a carrier. Those huge starships could carry a ton of smaller class starships with ease! He simply didn't want to hire any until he was of a much higher level. So the most reasonable choice was to get a starship that can guide itself through its own artificial intelligence.
'..Destroyer? With an AI chip installed!?' Pearson was dumbfounded by Erin's preference. The high background that the young man had could barely qualify him for such an extravagant starship. However, that wasn't the issue!
Pearson really doubted that the Clover Clan would trade in two military quotas of that level.
"Haha. That's quite a large appetite you had. Unfortunately, the Clover Clan would need to trade in the equivalent quotas."
"I'm already pushing the limits of my authority by bringing you here. Especially since there are a few mid-class starships and several thousands of small-class starships for you to pick from." Pearson tried to knock down Erin's expectations.
As they were talking, the ship landed near the center of the floating platform. Pearson brought Erin to the exit and then started walking to the centermost zone.
There was a giant floating crystal at the center of the platform! The energy emitting from this crystal was enough to wake up the tiny dragon hatchling in Erin's innermost shirt.
Erin could sense that the hatchling really wanted to absorb the energy from this crystal. Afraid of causing unnecessary trouble, Erin mentally ordered the hatchling not to act. The tiny dragon hatchling reluctantly accepted Erin's orders.
"Alright then." Pearson activated a holographic control panel right before the giant crystal. He input a few things that Erin couldn't recognize.
"Now we just wait." Pearson said as he finished. The lights around the enclave began dimming considerably. The atmosphere felt like nautical twilight.
"Once I receive word from my butler, the ships that you're able to choose from will light up. Then you can pick from there." Pearson was straightforward. He wasn't going to bash down Erin's dreams on purpose.
If the value of the two quotas were high enough, Pearson expected that a few mid-class starships should light up. Thus, Erin should have some reasonable choices to pick from.
A few short minutes passed and Erin was simply making some small talk with Pearson.
Their small conversation was interrupted when Pearson's communication device lit up. Rather than looking down at his device, he simply pressed a few buttons and had the data transferred straight to the giant crystal. He trusted his butler's capabilities.
Suddenly, the giant crystal started shaking!
'Eh?' Pearson was confused. This situation has never happened before. The crystal should simply be signaling out some rays of light now.
On the other hand, Erin didn't know what it was supposed to do. So he thought the shaking was normal and started looking around the enormous metallic enclave. He was waiting to see which starships would light up.
Before Pearson could check to see what was wrong, the crystal emitted a light so incredibly bright that Pearson subconsciously activated an energy shield to protect his body and eyes. The tiny dragon hatchling sensed something was off and sent a protective barrier around Erin too.
Erin was dumbfounded by the hatchling's actions.
'Why did he put a barrier around me?' Were Erin's last thoughts before an immeasurable glow engulfed every single part of his vision. It was the complete opposite of complete darkness!
Pearson barely managed to reach the holographic control panel through this blinding light. Although it made it incredibly hard to see, the light wasn't damaging. When he saw the words on the control panel, his brain froze.
"..Titan?!" Pearson muttered out this word with such intensity that Erin felt his eardrums shake.
"TWO TITAN QUOTAS?!" Pearson's yell was dangerous!
The tiny dragon hatchling increased the barrier protecting Erin's ears before his master became deaf. However, the sound was so strong that it shook the barriers around the rest of Erin's body.
If it weren't for the hatchlings shields, Erin would be spitting up blood right now!