"Mm."
"Very good."
Commander Kelang looked at his adjutant, his eyes filled with approval.
Commander Boming, however, asked in confusion, "Sir, we've been using the Interstellar Guardian Alliance's identity to secretly develop our own technology for a hundred years. I understand that we had to maintain a perfect image to avoid suspicion."
"Just like those Kaban Scientists, we need to use their brilliant brains."
"And on those planets in the past, the populations were too large for us to silence everyone, so we could only put on an act."
"But."
"On Kepler-16b, there are only three or five outsider races."
"We could have simply killed them. Why go through all the trouble of acting?"
Commander Kelang chuckled. "My dear Boming, you haven't thought this through at all. At this rate, how can I let you take command of an entirely new fleet?"
Boming nodded slightly. "Please enlighten me, Commander."
"Of course I don't care what those aliens think."
"Even if I revealed my true face right in front of them, so what?"
"The Interstellar Guardian Alliance's reputation, its sense of justice, its spirit of selfless devotion—these things have long since taken root throughout thousands of light-years of space."
"Even if I let them go and they exposed us everywhere, who would believe them?"
"And even if someone did believe them, what then?"
"They would still only be a handful of people. What waves could they possibly stir up?"
"Just a few noisy voices. They would be forgotten by those mindless creatures in less than a month."
Commander Kelang spoke calmly, his eyes full of disdain.
Boming was even more confused. "But why did you explain so much down on the ground? And you clearly knew they had infiltrated the main ship, yet you pretended not to know and continued playing