I Woke Up Piloting the Strongest Starship, so I Became a Space Mercenary

That’s not it, Believe Me

“Cheers to our victory.

“Cheers!”

“Cheers!”

About an hour after the raid on Brady’s hideout and handing over the data storage and other items to Hartmut’s men, I returned to the facility with Heinz and Zeke and had a little consolation party…more like a dinner party, with Aylia and the kids who were taking care of the youngsters.

“Yum! Wow, this is delicious, isn’t it?”

“Yummy!”

The food served at the party was brought in from Black Lotus, and all of it was prepared by Tetsujin. The facility did not have an automatic cooker, so until now children had mainly eaten packed food that could be heated up in a microwave-like machine. The dishes prepared by Tetsujin Fifth, a high-performance automatic cooker, seemed to surprise not only the children but also Zeke and the others.

“Since they were pleased with the food, it was worth the trouble of having it brought all the way from Black Lotus.”

“I think only big bro would use a military battle bot for something like that, though.”

The ones who brought this food were the military battle bots who had participated in the raid of the hideout. They had returned to Black Lotus once with Mei, then switched the plasma grenade launcher packs on their backs to cargo packs and delivered the food to this facility.

After the raid on the hideout, I had the idea for this dinner party and immediately contacted Mei to make arrangements for the food and equipment replacement. Even though I was away from the Black Lotus, Mei could access the maintenance and refitting systems of the Tetsujin and the battle bots, and I felt confident that she could safely communicate with the remaining crew members on the ship.

“Thank you very much, Hiro-san. The kids are very happy… they’ve been feeling confined for a while now.”

“Yeah, no problem. Well, it’s just an occasional thing, you know.”

This was the case. In fact, I initially planned to take Heinz and Zeke to a slightly fancy restaurant and buy them a drink, but then I changed my mind and thought, “Wouldn’t it be better to give the children at the facility a good meal as well?”

And so we decided to have a dinner party at the facility.

“Hmmm…you really sound just like that kid.”

“It’s not like I’m trying to be nice to her.”

Tina and I get along well, or maybe the reason I often find it easy to spend time with her was because of those mutual similarities. She sometimes acted out of the ordinary, but then again, so do I. That makes it the two of us. And I was not well aware of this at first. It was only when someone pointed it out to me later or when I was thinking back on my actions that I noticed this.

“As for the people who attacked this place, we took out what we thought was their main hideout and put most of their personnel out of action, so I think you’ll be safe for a while, but just be careful.”

“Yes, thank you.”

“Also, I’m sorry to go off on a tangent, but I’ve asked the new acting governor to take care of this place for me.”

“What?”

Aylia’s eyes darted. That couldn’t be helped. Although I’ve been talking to Aylia about the protection work for this facility, I haven’t told her anything about what I have been doing behind the scenes at all.

“I heard that the organization that used to sponsor this place has lost its power, and they’re kind of dishonest people to begin with, right? The new governor is going to use the chaos caused by this pandemic to clean up this colony’s mess, and when that happens, this place will lose its backers after the cleanup is over. So, I know it’s selfish of me to do this, but I’ve decided to deal with the procedures regarding this facility.”

“But… um, is it really alright to do this? One of the rights’ holder of this facility is an organization that may be involved in the chaos, right?”

“Don’t worry, I have given Hartmut a number of favors in exchange for taking care of this place. As for the rights to the building, if necessary, they will take it and make it the official property of the governing body or will be given over to you, Aylia, and you will be able to use it as you see fit.”

Aylia was very upset by my sudden statement or rather declaration. Sorry, now that I thought about it, we had pretty much reached an agreement without the consent of the parties involved in the facility. Well, it didn’t matter! It was not a bad move!

“Oh, um, is he a noble? That governor?”

“Oh, yes. And he is quite a handsome man.”

I was, too, but I was smart and humble enough to keep my mouth shut since saying such a thing now would only increase Aylia’s confusion. Well, not really. If I was that smart, I would not have put Aylia in a strange situation in the first place, right? But still, I would not admit that I was not smart enough to find other ways to deal with things in a less confusing way.

“Will it really be alright? They are not going to suddenly stop supporting us on a whim and discard us, right?”

“How unreasonable were the nobles in Aylia’s mind are? Hartmut seemed like a sincere young man, so I don’t think you need to worry. If you’re that worried, I’ll let him know that if he breaks his promise to me and treats Aylia and the others badly, I’ll have a hell of a revenge on him.”

“Eh, can you really afford to do that?”

“No problem, no problem. After all, I am a platinum ranker. Most nobles would avoid making an enemy of a platinum-ranked mercenary, or rather, a Mercenary Guild, and above all, I think they fully understand from this incident that it is not good to make an enemy of me.”

However, if by any chance Hartmut did go back on his word, I also had a contingency plan. We could use the Mercenary Guild, the other nobles we knew, or worse, the royal family, to socially accuse Hartmut of being untrustworthy, or even more directly challenge him to a duel in front of the other nobles. If I could draw someone into a space battle, I wouldn’t lose, or if I wanted, I could even settle it in a swordsman’s duel. Either way, if there were any problems, I would nip them in the bud before they had a chance to fight.

“I see…but even though you’ve been so good to me, I don’t have anything to give back…”

Aylia looked over at me. Aylia was beautiful, and her body was…well, nice. She was very attractive. Aylia was a mature woman, and I was sure that she would be sensible enough to enjoy a night with me without any repercussions.

But, well, it was clear that on the day I did that, my lovely crew would give me the cold shoulder. It might also leave a bad impression on Heinz and Zeke, and she might already be on good terms with one of them. It was no good, after all, thinking about those kinds of things. But it was simply in a man’s nature to think about it even though it was not a good thing.

“Don’t worry, I’ll have Tina give me a lot of money back.”

“Tina…well, um…well, Hiro-san and Tina…are you two… that?”

“If you ask me what kind of relationship we have, we do have that kind of relationship. What do you call it, male-female intimacy?”

“You and Tina… well, maybe that’s what you’re into…? And what about Linda?”

I felt Aylia shifting herself to a position that would protect the children from my view. Okay, okay. Let me explain it to her. Calmly.

“No. I’m not a pedophile, even though I’ve been involved with Tina and her sister Wiska. It took me a long time to make up my mind to hook up with those two, okay? I’m a normal guy, okay? I just happen to like them because they happen to have that kind of body type. And I swear I don’t look at Linda that way.”

“By the way, I was thinking to myself, why is it that the rest of your crew, except for Hiro-san, are all women?”

“…”

“…”

I felt as if Aylia’s perception of me had been reduced from that of a kindly mercenary to that of a womanizer. My crew being all women may have been true, but that didn’t mean that I was a womanizer, though I couldn’t explain it.

“Let’s not talk about this because it seems no matter what I say, it’s not going to work. Okay, stop, stop.”

“…I guess so.”

Aylia’s cold, deadpan look at me didn’t change even as she agreed. She was disappointed. Ah, yes, if I gave her Tina’s contact information, maybe that would clear up a lot of misunderstandings – or maybe not. I should contact Tina later and ask her if I could give her contact information to Aylia.

T/N: See you in .