Chapter 291 - Clan Assembly Hall

Translator: SFBaka

Editor: Thor’s Stone

With Lilium in the lead, we entered the Rose clan’s Assembly Hall, which was a fairly imposing high-rise building, ignored the elevator, and walked all the way to what seemed to be a conference room.

It had a prominent-looking meeting table placed right in the middle of it. The table kinda reminds me of something back in Japan. Y’know. It’s those tables various government delegates use whenever they held a conference. They get shown a lot in the news.

“I am Nazaris ri Rose, the patriarch of the Rose clan and an honorary viscount. Indeed, I am technically considered an imperial noble, but mine is just an honorary title. So please do not be so formal with me. Let us freely speak our minds, shall we?”

“Much obliged. I’m Captain Hiro, Thank you for taking some of your time to meet with us. By the way, what exactly is this meeting about anyway? We just followed after Lilium, but I didn’t think we’d be meeting with the clan chief directly right from the get-go.”

We were urged to take a seat, and I asked what was on my mind the moment I made myself comfortable. Our goals for this time’s trip were to visit the Willrose clan members based here on Theta and go sightseeing a bit in the Rose clan’s territory. Meeting with the Rose clan patriarch wasn’t included in our plans at all.

“Hahaha, you really are being quite direct. As expected of a Platinum-rank mercenary. Well, I received word from House Willrose you see. It’s regarding your visit. Even though the one with you is a daughter of House Willrose’ branch family, they are still obliged to report when said daughter will be bringing in visitors from other planets. So please do not blame House Willrose for this matter. They merely fulfilled their obligations to the main clan. I am the one who insisted for this meeting to happen and take full responsibility.”

“I see. “So?”

I prompted the chief to get to the main point. Well, if their chief insisted on the meeting directly, I guess there’s no way House Willrose could have refused. The chief is at the very top of the Rose clan leadership pyramid after all. It’s relatively difficult for an individual or group to refuse the whims of their leaders after all.

“Hm. I would once again like to apologize for practically forcing this meeting on you. We Thetan elves have really caused so much…… so much trouble for you all, Hiro-dono.”

Mr. Nazaris suddenly displayed a stressed-out expression akin to a Tibetan fox, and his gaze turned hollow. Ah– Mm. From the looks of it, he should have faced a lot of troublesome stuff himself. But your young-looking and handsome face is going to waste with an expression like that y’know, chief.

“It’s just that I really, really wished to apologize to you personally. I’m sorry for imposing.”

After saying so, Mr. Nazaris deeply bowed toward us. The other elves inside the conference room also bowed together with him. As he said, the method they used was a bit forceful, but I liked the fact that they were very willing to apologize on behalf of all the Thetan elves and sincerely bowed their heads. To a certain extent, that is.

“I’ll accept the apology. But let me just say that this apology alone won’t change my impression of the Thetan elves.”

“But, of course. In any case, I am already grateful that you have decided to accept our apology for the time being. We of the Rose clan will pay for all your expenses during your stay, so please do enjoy yourselves to the fullest.”

“Let me give you some advice, Chief Nazaris. You better not resort to offering something like this to mercenaries in the future for any reason. Our common sense regarding money and expenses is apparently far removed from most other folks. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“If this will allow us to atone for all the problems we’ve ended up causing you, then the costs will be well-spent.”

Mr. Nazaris chuckled and shrugged his shoulders in a relaxed manner. Well, the Rose clan is the most wealthy faction here on Theta anyway. So does this mean we can let ourselves go and party hard? Since they’re the ones who offered, then it would be a waste not to accept their goodwill.

“Well then, I suppose we’ll leave it at this. It won’t do to keep you from your sightseeing after all. I’ll continue to have Lilium act as your guide, so please do tell her if you have any requests and we’ll try our best to fulfill them for you.”

I turned toward Lilium whose name was mentioned and saw her bow toward me with a serene expression on her face. It would certainly be helpful if she continues to be our guide since we’re already quite familiar with her. She would be able to anticipate what would interest us easier than another new guide.

“Oh, and before I forget, let me hand this over to you guys.”

After saying so, I placed the Sacred Tree seed that was leaning beside my chair on top of the meeting table. The Sacred Tree seed on top of the table looked like a double-ended spear with spiral drill-shaped points. Parts of it were transformed to some sort of blue-green crystalline material.

“That’s…… That holds an extremely special significance to us elves…… Are you sure about giving it to us so– so easily?”

“It might be irreplaceable to you Theta-dwelling elves, but not for me. Just having it with me makes me feel like I’ll get caught up in a lot of troublesome stuff. And besides, we’ll be leaving the Refill system soon. I can’t take it with me, of course. So the best course of action I could come up with is leaving it with you guys.

Or rather, I just wanna get rid of this cursed item quick. The sooner, the better. But I won’t say this out loud because that would probably upset the elves.

“Understood…… If you yourself insist, Hiro-dono, then we will humbly receive it. We will take responsibility for looking after the Sacred Tree seed.”

“Please do. I’ve been encountering one trouble after another since I managed to find that. Be sure to handle it with care, alright? I mean seriously.”

“We are quite aware. We’ve had a long and storied history with the Sacred Tree seed after all.”

“You really handed it over just like that, Hiro-sama. Was that really okay?”

Mimi suddenly asked while we were riding inside a car that was on the way to the estate of House Willrose.

“I talked about it a little with Mei, but no matter how you slice it, we absolutely can’t chose the option of taking it with us. It’s better to return it to the place where it should be. I can’t exactly explain why, but it kinda felt like I’d be saddled with some sort of heavy responsibility if I continued keeping that thing for just a little longer.”

There was nothing concrete, but I do have a speculation as to why that is. There was a good chance that the seed turning crystalline was part of its germination process or something to that effect.

“Anyway, let’s stop talking about that special-grade cursed item. I totally wash my hands of any further involvement. That’s final.”

“If you say so, Hiro-sama……”

For some reason, Mimi looked glum. Well, it’s probably because we found that thing together, and Mimi spent a lot of time interacting with it as well. She might be feeling a little lonely because it was somewhat like parting with a friend. Probably.

“Hey, neesan. What’re the people from House Willrose like?”

“Hmm, let’s see. They seemed like pretty normal folks, I guess. I only visited them once when I was little, so I don’t actually remember much. According to the story I heard from my father, the main family of House Willrose is one of the oldest and most venerable families under the Rose clan.”

“Hmm…… Did you have any relatives you managed to get along with when you visited them, neesan?”

“I don’t think I managed to become that close with anyone in particular because all of them were trying to be as considerate as possible back then. I do remember playing with an older female relative though.”

“I see. It would be nice if we could meet that big sister later.”

“She’s long become a proper adult, so there’s a good chance she’d already taken an opportunity to widen her horizons and see more of the world you know. Who knows? She might be a successful career woman already.”

Elma, who kept being questioned by Tina and Whisker, tilted her head to the side before giving them her response. That should certainly be the case, but I wonder at what age can an elf be considered an adult? I think I’ll ask Elma later.

“I wonder what kind of food we’ll get to eat this time.”

“I’m looking forward to it!”

According to my personal impression of elven food, it was closer to Japanese cuisine than Western cuisine. I haven’t really gotten a lot of opportunities to sample it back on Earth, but I think it’s the most similar to Taiwanese cuisine.

By the way, after our visit to House Willrose and giving our greetings, we plan to check in at a good inn to chill out and relax. We’ll go sightseeing the following day. That said, we don’t plan to stay too long. As long as those suspicious people remained up in space, it would be dangerous to overstay our welcome. Who knows what kind of devious trap they’re possibly cooking up for us. After having our fill of sightseeing, we plan to use the gateway network to perform an ultra long-distance jump straight to a high-tech star system. Only a small number of privileged people and the imperial military are able to use the gateway network, so they shouldn’t be able to follow us after jumping.

Of course, it’s possible that they have already anticipated our plan to use a gateway. There’s a good chance that they have, actually. If that’s the case, then they would probably set their net up along the route to the gateway to catch us. So what should we do then? Unfortunately, it would be really difficult to completely give them the slip due to the relatively slow speed of Black Lotus. And so, it would be best to head straight for the gateway using the shortest route, trap or no trap.

“Hmm……”

“Hiro-sama?”

“It’s nothing. I was just thinking a bit.”

Because there was a difference between our fighting power and theirs, we can’t choose to confront them head-on. If we fought, I could probably destroy quite a number of their ships, but Black Lotus would most likely get shot down from a concentrated barrage. Krishna would be able to escape, but losing our mothership would be the same as getting defeated. Of course, there was the choice of completely abandoning the Lotus and escaping with Krishna with the mechanic sisters and Mei in tow, but…… I don’t want to do that. No way. It would be a huge loss to just throw away the Lotus, and moreover, it would feel like I was running away with my tail between my legs after getting my behind handed to me. That would be the same as defeat.

“Well, there are still some cards I can play.”

Yep. If you can’t take them head-on, then just go about it another way.

The rest would depend on when and how exactly they’d attempt to go after us.