Chapter 29: Starcrossers!

“I really thought I was going to die……”

“Hahaha. Oh c’mon. It wasn’t that bad.”

“It certainly seems so, but… as expected of Hiro-sama!”

Elma looked like her soul just slipped out from her body and let out an utterly weary sigh while Mimi looked at me with a sparkling gaze. Fufufu. It’s fine to praise me some more, y’know.

“So, just how much did we earn this time?”

“I wasn’t really paying attention to the number of confirmed kills. How about it, Mimi?”

“Yes! Um… We managed to shoot down three battleships, four heavy cruisers, two light cruisers, thirteen destroyers, and twenty-one corvettes.”

“Yeah! Quite a big haul. If I’m not mistaken, a battleship nets us 2,000,000 Enel each, a heavy cruiser is 500,000, a light cruiser is 300,000, a destroyer is 100,000, and a corvette is 50,000. If we don’t count the cost of the anti-ship torpedoes, we’ve managed to earn 10,950,000 Enels huh. We’ve really hit the jackpot this time!”

“Ten million nine hundred fifty thousand Enels……”

“Since we fired off four anti-ship torpedoes, a total of two million just went out the drain. So our real earnings is 8,950,000 Enels. My share is 3% of that amount, so I’d get a total of 268,500 Enels.”

“Let’s see. So Mimi’s share is 44,750 Enels then.”

“Fourty four thousand seven hundred fifty Enels……”

It looks like Mimi was stunned silly after hearing how large our earnings were. So, if I subtract their share, my total earnings is 8,636,750 Enels huh. My previous total savings was 2,200,000 Enels. I’ve also managed to get about 500,000 Enels from selling the black boxes and data caches of those Federation recon ships we encountered in the asteroid field. All in all, my total money right now is a little over 11,330,000 Enels. That’s a lot of cash.

“So we now have about 11,330,000 Enels huh… Looks like I’m still short.”

“Your still short of money with that kind of amount? Are you planning to buy a new ship?”

“Nah. I want to purchase a nice-looking detached house with a garden on a residential planet somewhere.”

“I see. You’re still short by a lot if that’s the case.”

I guess so, huh. In order to get myself a house on a residential planet in the Graccan Empire, I’ll need to fork out money to get the required first-class citizenship and land title. Those alone would cost several hundred millions, apparently. It looks like 11,330,000 Enels really is just a proverbial drop in the bucket.

“With your skill, wouldn’t you be able to reach that goal faster by enlisting in the Graccan Imperial Military and then aim to become a knight?”

“Uh, well…”

The nobility system is the governing method adopted by the Graccan Empire. People who come from high ranking noble houses are tasked with the governance of each individual sector within the territory of the empire, supported by the general populace.

The nobles generally do not allow people of common birth to ascend to their ranks because they place utmost importance on the purity of their bloodlines. But there are some exceptions. Knighthood is one of them.

If a soldier were to render enough outstanding merits in the service of the Graccan Empire, they would be knighted, and would then be granted first-class citizenship and rights more or less equal to those of a noble.

“Nah, I’ll pass on that. Being a soldier or a knight sounds like a whole load of trouble. I’ll just stick with earning money at a steady pace.”

“That sounds just like you. I do agree that it sounds troublesome though.”

Elma smiled and shrugged her shoulders as she replied. Mimi… still hasn’t recovered from the shock, it seems. She was muttering ‘enels, enels…’ while spacing out.

“So what are we going to do next? It’ll be awkward to rendezvous with the military fleet after the thing we just pulled off.”

“Wouldn’t joining back up with the fleet be fine? If we caused even more of a commotion at this point, there’s a chance some of the other mercenaries would do something rash due to jealousy. Let’s just stay put at the back of the fleet for the time being.”

“Yeah, you’re right. Let’s do that, then.”

I pointed the bow towards the direction of the imperial fleet and used the hyperspeed drive to close in.

“This is the Krishna. We’ve completed our mission and have returned.”

I sent out a transmission as soon as the hyperspeed drive was deactivated. The operation commander, Lieutenant Serena, immediately opened a comm line. Her expression when her image appeared on Krishna’s cockpit display gave away her good mood.

『Thank you for your hard work. It looks like you’ve made quite a lot of money, haven’t you?』

“Yeah, I guess. It’s alright, considering the risks we took. It’s only proper that we got this much in return.”

『I guess you’re right. Please hand over the combat data then. Why didn’t you get in some more kills?』

“We’ll probably invite the jealousy of other mercs if we continued to stand out, so we decided to stop. The ammunition, chaff, flares and shield cells were also getting consumed at a fast rate.”

『I see. Well then, Krishna, please serve as one of the bombardment unit’s escort ships for the remainder of the operation…… By the way, do you have any idea why those crystal monsters suddenly appeared in the middle of the Federation fleet?』

“Maybe the Fed flagship we shot down was carrying something dangerous?”

I replied with the excuse I’ve prepared beforehand. I’d anticipated that we’d be under suspicion as well, but the most they could do was speculate, so it would be fine if we didn’t let anything slip on our end. I’m lying through my teeth, of course. But it’s not like they have a method to find out the truth anyway. All the evidence got blown up by the anti-ship torpedoes after all.

『……Let’s leave it at that, then. Serena, out.』

The transmission line was cut and the window displaying Lieutenant Serena’s image closed.

“Okay then. Let’s just sit back and watch the fireworks until this operation is over, shall we?”

“This operation turned into such a one-sided game because of you after all.”

“Impressive, ain’t it?”

“Don’t get too cocky, buster… is what I’d like to say. But I really can’t, with these results and all. It truly is impressive. Though there were a lot of times where I felt we were gonna get shot down.”

“You’re really amazing, Hiro-sama.”

Mimi, who seemed to have recovered from her earlier shock, puffed out her bountiful chest in pride. Umu. Those sure are some nice breasts. Shooting down all those Fed mooks really wore me out. I’m gonna have my girls spoil me rotten tonight. Guhehehe.

The Termaine System defensive battle, as recorded in the historical archives, concluded in a surprisingly short time frame, considering its scale. It ended in a complete and utter victory for the Graccan Empire, whose officials thought it would be a harsh, grueling battle at first.

There were a lot of uncertain factors in this particular conflict. According to the official records, the Vereverem Federation fleet had just warped out when a horde of crystal creatures suddenly attacked them and brought down a large number of ships.

The Vereverem Federation suffered devastating losses in this battle, with almost 90% of their warships reduced to space debris. There were few surviving soldiers, and due to fear of public sentiment turning for the worse, the Vereverem Federation immediately implemented an information blackout.

On the side of the Graccan Empire, information regarding this battle was also unusually scarce. There is a high chance that they had also implemented some form of information control.

Perhaps it’s due to the unexpected and unexplainable attack of crystal creatures on the Federation fleet.

Just why had a great swarm of crystal creatures attacked the Vereverem Federation fleet that had resulted in them suffering tremendous losses?

In the first place, no matter how large the number of crystal creatures, it was improbable for the Federation fleet to have suffered that level of damage from them, considering the fleet’s overall strength. They would naturally have taken some losses, but not to that extent.

At this point, rumors about a certain mercenary who had stayed at the Termaine System during the conflict surfaced.

Yes. They were about the vaunted Captain Hiro. According to the records, he was, in fact, present in the Termaine System during this period.

And, as a result of an in-depth investigation, it was proven that he was assigned to a special mercenary squad helmed by the Imperial Military’s famed Lieutenant Serena Holz at the time of the conflict.

Captain Hiro and Lieutenant Serena Holz. The miraculous victory attained by the Graccan imperial forces was achieved in the presence of these two individuals.

There are few official records remaining, so there exists no definite proof of this conjecture, but later events gave rise to the saying that ‘it wouldn’t be a surprise for whatever fantastic incident to happen as long as those two were present’. And it seemed this assertion, no matter how ridiculous it sounded, could not be dismissed as a mere rumor after all.

Because, as you dear readers know, these two individuals have performed a number of great and wondrous feats in the course of their celebrated careers.

“Again?”

“Did she send one again, Hiro-sama?”

Three days have passed since the end of the Termaine System defensive battle.

Elma and Mimi let out fed up sighs and chided me when they saw my expression turn awkward after I checked out a message that was sent to my personal data terminal. My face must have looked really terrible for the two of them to react like that.

It was a super passionate love call from my dear Lieutenant Serena.

『The Graccan Imperial Armed Forces are in need of talented pilots! Competitive salary! Complete employee benefits! Automatic granting of Class 1 Imperial citizenship! Plus a lot more perks and substantial bonuses! The Graccan Imperial Armed Forces wants you!』

These were roughly the contents of said message. She was spamming my private inbox with these kinds of messages these past few days. She was also sending emails to my Mercenary Guild account. It was a full-blown spam mail harassment scheme.

“So, what are you going to do? From the looks of things, that woman won’t stop until she gets what she wants.”

“Her eyes were like those of a hunter eyeing her prey.”

“I’m not exactly happy about it either, you guys.”

I’d normally welcome a hot girl hitting on me, but it’s a different story if said girl was just doing so in order to force me to enlist in the military and be her subordinate. I’m going to have to say ‘no, thank you’ to that. No matter how high the pay they’re offering, it still won’t trump the potential earnings I can get while working as a mercenary. I’d also have to say goodbye to personal freedom if I did enlist. And don’t even mention the possibility of having to hand over my Krishna.

I’m a bit interested in being granted Class 1 Imperial citizenship and employee benefits, but it’s not like I absolutely need those employee benefits anyway. And I can always apply for citizenship once I managed to make enough money to pay for the registration fees. It was honestly not something I’d really consider at this point.

“Oh, to hell with it. Let’s just run.”

“Is that alright?”

“I’m fine with it. Choosing their next destination freely is one of a mercenary’s basic rights. Getting away from here before things get out of hand seems to be the smart choice, in my opinion.”

Mimi inclined her head while looking a bit worried towards Elma, who stood up from her seat.

“We’ve finished restocking everything apart from the anti-ship reactive torpedoes, so we can depart immediately if you like.”

“Well, it’s not like we’ll be needing those torpedoes immediately anyway. That’s fine then. Let’s hustle, girls.”

And torpedoes costing 500,000 Enels a piece aren’t exactly run-of-the-mill merchandise you can just purchase from the market whenever you want anyway. They’re actually quite rare. Most weapons dealers don’t have them in stock, it seems. It’s not like the game, where you could easily buy them from specialty shops or the item mall.

“W- We won’t get in trouble for this, right…?”

Mimi still seems bothered about escaping the Termaine star system, but it’s not like we’re wanted fugitives or something. The other party is a duty-bound military officer. She probably won’t be able to pursue us even if she wanted to.

“So, where are we going next anyway?”

“It’s a bit far from here. We’ll need to pass through six other star systems.”

“Six systems… So we’re really going to that place we talked about yesterday huh?”

“Yup. It’s the mecca of Imperial medical technology.”

“The Alein star system, right?”

“Uhuh, that’s right.”

We talked about our next destination as the three of us headed towards the cockpit.

We’re planning on going to the Alein star system next. It’s a place where state-of-the-art medical space stations and colonies specializing in biotechnology research and development are gathered.

“I heard their specialties are different kinds of artificial meat and a great variety of genetically enhanced produce.”

“How about booze?”

“Well, since they have genetically enhanced produce, I’m betting they have some kinds of alcohol that make use of those as ingredients as well, right?”

“It sounds lovely! I think we’ll get to taste a lot more gourmet delicacies once we get there!”

I sat on the pilot seat while Mimi and Elma sat on the operator seat and sub-pilot seat respectively. We snapped on our seatbelts.

“Mimi, send out a sortie request.”

“Roger.”

“Elma, you’re in charge of monitoring the generator output and subsystems like always.”

“I gotcha. Roger.”

“We got an OK for the sortie request.”

“Great! We’re bailing, guys!”

Our ship disengaged from the hangar bay docking mechanism, retracted the landing gear, and blasted off into open space.

The scenery in outer space is majestic and beautiful as always. Seeing it kinda reminds me just how insignificant an existence I am in the grand scheme of things. But, at the same time, I’m also excited by the prospect of traveling through the vast sea of stars towards the greater universe.

“So, first stop is the Rouma star system.”

“Yes. I’ve set the coordinates on the navi.”

Mimi fiddled with the console in front of the operator seat and inputted the destination coordinates on the navigation system. I pointed Krishna’s bow towards the coordinates indicated by the navigation system.

“I’m firing up the hyperspeed drive.”

“Gotcha. Hyperspeed drive activation, countdown start.”

“5, 4, 3, 2, 1…… Hyperspeed drive, activate!”

Krishna accelerated explosively and started heading towards our new destination.

“Our destination is the Rouma star system. Hyper Drive, charging start.”

“Hyper Drive, commencing charge sequence.”

“Hyper Lane linking, finished.”

“Countdown. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 ーー Hyper Drive, activate!”

The space in front of the ship warped, and we plunged straight into the Hyper Lane.

Right, then. Let’s get this journey rolling. It’ll be a great journey across this boundless universe. And this time, it’s not a game.

“You’ve certainly made great achievements during the last operation… But, are you really fine with this?”

The terminal screen displayed the face of my uncle making a worried expression on the other side of the line. A smile crept onto my lips as I nodded in affirmation.

“Yes, I’ve always pushed for the formation of a special independent unit that will go around the empire’s territories in order to hunt down pirate groups, haven’t I? I just think now would be the perfect time to finally put it into practice.”

“With your abilities, I’m sure I’ll be able to easily get you a post on a more well-known and distinguished unit… but it seems there’s no point convincing you, is there? Understood. I’ll go ahead with the preparations.”

“Thank you very much.”

“Mm. Do take care.”

My uncle cut off the transmission on his end. The projection on the holo-display got cut off automatically as well.

“Fufu… I’m not going to let you get away, you know?”

I gazed at the light trail left behind by a certain starship as it plunged into the depths of space and muttered under my breath.

My expression reflected on the glass window displayed a distinct, daring smile.