Chapter 34: Underground Cityscape

I spent my time flirting… or rather, wrestling with Elma on the bed – exchanging attacks and counterattacks in an exciting display of skinship that was a tad bit too hardcore.

When I woke up the next day, I immediately took a bath, finished some light training routines, took a bath once more, and entered into relaxing mode afterward. Elma? She went and took over my bed again. This time, it was my win.

“Good morning, Hiro-sama.”

When I went over to the dining area, I found Mimi taking a break wearing her training clothes. It seems we all managed to work up a sweat even though it’s still morning.

“Morning, Mimi. You went for some training?”

“Yes. I was planning on taking a bath after this.”

Looks like we missed each other earlier.

“I see. I’ll prepare our breakfast then.”

“Thank you very much. I’ll take a bath first.”

Mimi flashed me a cheerful smile and skipped over to the bathroom. She would have run into me while I was bathing if I weren’t so quick to finish. But washing off the sweat I got from training didn’t take that long, and Elma still hasn’t woken up, so I only took a quick shower. Oh well. We would’ve wasted much time if we bathed together anyway.

“Good morning……”

“Hey there, morning.”

Elma woke up while I was in the middle of preparing breakfast.

“What the heck are you wearing?”

“My BF’s T-shirt.”

It seems she borrowed one of my shirts from my closet and wore it. Elma’s taller than Mimi, but she’s still smaller than me. When she wears one of my shirts, it ends up looking like a one-piece dress with a really short skirt. It looks quite risqué.

“Mimi’s taking a bath right now, so you can take one after her.”

“Nn……”

It turns out that Elma was a poor riser, and she’s always like this when she wakes up. It’s not to the point of doubting whether or not she could do mercenary work in her current state, but it seems she completely lets herself go on off days like this one. Maybe you could say she was good at switching gears.

“Ah, Elma-san, good mor… You look kinda amazing there.”

“Mooorning〜 I’ll take a bath as well, m’kay〜”

Elma headed into the bath while covering her mouth with one hand to stifle a yawn and waving back at Mimi with another. Mimi gazed at her back with a stunned expression.

“That sure looks nice……”

“Do you want to wear one of my shirts as well, Mimi?”

“Can I!?”

“Y-Yeah. Go right ahead.”

Her excited reaction surprised me. I really didn’t think wearing my shirts would make her so excited. But, well, if Mimi were to wear my shirt…… the front end would probably be the point that would end up looking risqué. Her body shape’s way different from Elma’s after all. Hahaha.

“Let’s eat. You fine with today’s meal being the daily special?”

“Yes!”

After hearing Mimi’s cheerful reply, I operated our trusty auto-cooker, the vaunted Tetsujin V, and ordered the daily special for me and her. I got a large serving while Mimi had a normal one. Mimi also ate larger servings than normal when she first came to the ship, but now she only eats normal amounts.

She’s also working out a lot. I’m sure it’s because she’s conscious of her weight. I don’t think she put on that much weight though.

“Judging from her state earlier, I’m sure Elma’s gonna take a while in the bathroom, so let’s just eat ahead of her.”

“Yes… Alright.”

Mimi seemed a bit hesitant at first but nodded along anyway. Elma always takes long baths whenever she completely enters her ‘Off’ mode. One hour is par for the course. It’s probably another one of her ways to refresh and de-stress herself.

“Okay then. Thanks for the meal.”

“Thanks for the meal.”

I put my hands together before eating and said my thanks, and Mimi copied me.

Today’s menu consists of something resembling rice, something resembling a roasted salmon fillet, something resembling egg rolls, and something resembling potato salad.

Uh, I describe them as ‘resembling’ cause even if these dishes look no different from the real thing, they were actually processed by the auto-cooker from food cartridges containing algae and krill-like creatures. But they did taste quite authentic, so I guess there’s no problem.

But why pair Japanese breakfast dishes like rice, salmon and egg rolls with potato salad? They’re all delicious, sure, but Chef Tetsujin sometimes serves some really incomprehensible food pairings.

By the way, Mimi’s meal consisted of something resembling congee served in a deep dish, something resembling grilled meat, and something resembling vegetable salad. Mimi looks like she was enjoying them, so I guess that congee’s also pretty tasty. Probably.

“Mimi, can I have some of that too? I’m curious about how it tastes.”

“Sure, here you go.”

Mimi scooped up a portion of her congee with her spoon and held it up to me. It was a bit embarrassing, but I ate up in the end. Fumu…… What can I say? It was a sweet, slightly mellow-tasting soup-like porridge. It did seem unexpectedly filling. There were also hints of cheese and honey. I don’t think this actually qualifies as a main dish. I feel it’s more suited as a dessert instead.

“It’s tasty, right?”

“I think so, yeah. I haven’t tasted anything quite like it yet, so I can’t say for sure. But it does warm up to you after two or three mouthfuls. I’ll give you this egg roll in exchange then, Mimi. Say ah.”

“A〜hn.”

I picked up a bite-sized piece of egg roll with my chopsticks and brought it close to Mimi’s dainty lips. This mock-egg roll was fluffy and packs plenty of umami. I’m sure it’ll fit Mimi’s tastes as well.

“Mm〜, it’s delicious. Here, have another bite of mine. A〜hn.”

“A〜hn.”

Mimi offered me another scoop of the sweet-like porridge., which I obediently ate. Mm, exquisite. It wasn’t overly sweet and nice on the palate, and the cheese and milk combined to make a nice harmony of flavor. It was such a curious dish.

“You guys……”

Elma called out to us in an exasperated voice after seeing Mimi and my embarrassing display of feeding each other.

“Good morning, Elma-san.”

“Morning, Elma.”

“Haa… Good morning. I can go back inside the bathroom for a bit more if I’m in the way.”

“???”

“What, you want in on this too, Elma? Here you go then. A〜hn.”

I picked up another piece of egg roll and held it out to Elma, who plucked the piece off with her fingers and put it in her mouth. Her gesture of licking the tip of her finger afterward looked somewhat sexy.

“Flirting first thing in the morning…… Well, I did monopolize Hiro yesterday, so I guess today is Mimi’s turn, isn’t it?”

“Ehehe.”

Mimi’s cheeks flushed red as she displayed a satisfied smile. Flashing a wry grin after seeing Mimi, Elma also started ordering her breakfast from Tetsujin V.

“How about the two of you go for a date then? I’ll keep a watch on the ship and let you guys know once Inagawa Technology calls. Oh, and please visit the Mercenary Guild today as well. We didn’t manage to go there yesterday after all. It would be better for us to make a visit so we can inform them we’re in the area.”

“Ah, understood. You’re fine with that, Mimi?”

“Yes!”

Mimi did a guts pose, clenched both fists in front of her ample chest, and breathed out heavily. She sure is pumped up.

“I’ve done my research yesterday after all!”

“You sure look excited.”

“She sure does. Escort her properly, okay?”

“Unlike her, I haven’t researched at all… unfortunately. Oh well. I’ll make sure to protect her if we encounter trouble of some sort.”

“That’s fine then. That’s enough.”

Elma received her plate filled with breakfast from Tetsujin V and sat down next to me.

But Elma-san, ain’t a big, fat steak coupled with heaps of potato salad a bit too heavy for breakfast……? Oh well. It’s not like I’m the one eating them anyway.

“This place really is quite different in atmosphere compared to Termaine Prime.”

“Yeah, it is. It’s definitely more lively compared to there, and the air the citizens are giving off is also different.”

After disembarking from the ship, we started walking around the brightly lit streets. It’s very different from the night-time scenery I saw with Elma yesterday.

In addition, the people walking about the streets give off a pretty unique vibe. The folks walking around Termaine Prime’s 3rd Block wore almost identical looking clothes, but the citizens of Alein Tertius’s lower block looked quite varied.

There were people wearing suits, as well as girls wearing goth loli fashion-inspired dresses. There were also people wearing skin-tight bodysuits which made me wanna tsukkomi if those could really be considered clothes. And some even wore mech armor. Are they cyborgs or something?

And there were a lot of alien-like creatures walking about as well. I still think looking human is the best though. The looks were varied – from amphibians to reptiles, to cats, dogs, foxes… And these weren’t the ones I consider weird. And I even wanna get to know some of those animal-eared young ladies and blue-skinned sexy onee-sans.

But how am I supposed to react to something like a jellyfish floating in mid-air, like a lightbulb with tentacles? Rather, it really looks like a tower of squirming tentacles that seems like it’ll fit right in if featured on an R18 doujin. Is that some sort of communication tower or something?

Nah, it feels like it’ll be my loss if I keep being bothered by it. I desperately shut the sight of them out of my head. If I kept dwelling on them, it felt like my SAN points would go down to critical levels.

“Man, to think that it was brighter in the lower block.”

“The upper block, which houses the starship docks and garrisons, is always covered in night-like darkness. Basically, most of the citizens live in the lower blocks, and the brightness of the artificial illumination adjusts itself to simulate the time of day. So they have morning, noon and night here.”

Mimi’s composed expression didn’t display any visible changes even after seeing such strange sights. Maybe she’s used to it? So it really is different for folks who were raised in an environment where seeing those alien creatures are the norm. I see.

“It looks like that building continues up until the ceiling.”

I gazed at a really tall-looking structure that didn’t have any people around its immediate vicinity. It’s really big. I wonder just how tall it is?

“It seems that serves as one of the support pillars for this colony. It extends out to the bottom-most layer of the colony as well.”

“Oh yeah. I saw building-like structures sticking out of the colony’s outer well when we first came here.”

When we first came to port, I saw the cuboid octahedral outer wall of the colony with structures protruding on its sides. The structure in front of us is most likely one of those.

“What sort of tenants are present in those buildings?”

“There’s a lot! There are various restaurants, shops, clinics, trading company offices and hotels in them.”

“Oh, it looks like we’re gonna enjoy exploring even just one of those buildings huh.”

“One day probably isn’t enough to go around most of the shops.”

We continued walking around town while discussing such things. We just ate breakfast, so I don’t feel like looking around for food yet. What should we do now, I wonder?

“How about we shop for some clothes, Mimi?”

“Um, okay… But I think I have enough clothes right now though.”

“Let’s buy you the latest fashion. I kinda want to see Mimi wearing those sorts of dresses.”

I turned my gaze towards a young girl wearing a cute gothic lolita dress in the distance. Mimi’s face turned bright red. “Eh? What is it with that cute reaction?

“Is something wrong?”

“No, um, I don’t think that kind of dress would suit me, so…”

She seemed to have turned away from the young woman in embarrassment but was sneakily peeking at her from time to time, so it looks like she was actually interested. Can’t be helped. Let’s be more forceful here.

“That’s not true. Anyway, I wanna see you wear them, so we’re definitely going. Let’s go right now.”

“Eh… Um……”

“Some of the stores you researched about sell that sort of stuff, right?”

“Y-Yes, but……”

I broadly smiled. Mimi sent me a troubled smile in return. Hahaha! Just give up, young missy.