Chapter 68: Before the Storm

The next day…

“Delicious……!”

Chris was happily munching on a hamburger (reproduction) first thing in the morning with sparkling eyes.

Well, I did serve hotdog and pizza (reproductions) made by Tetsujin V to her during last night’s dinner. I’m sure Chris-chan hasn’t experienced tasting these kinds of auto-cooker created junk food before, so all this turned out to be quite a fresh experience for her. No wonder she’s so taken with them.

It looks like she really liked their strong flavors and the act of eating by grabbing the food directly with her hands.  Well, I guess it’s alright since junk food reproductions made by auto-cookers are actually low-calorie despite their taste and appearance. They’re wonder items that look and taste like junk food despite being fairly nutritious and relatively healthy.  

“Is this really okay? Wouldn’t her family accuse us of teaching her strange stuff?”

“It’s fine. I think they wouldn’t object to her learning about the food that normal commoners eat.”

“But you know, Tetsujin V is actually a really high-class item that can’t be afforded by your average citizen, so you technically can’t say that these are stuff normal folks can eat……”

The auto-cooker that was previously installed in the ship before we got Tetsujin V really wasn’t all that bad, but Tetsujin is just one… no, three levels higher than your normal auto-cooker.   Yeah, Elma’s got a point. Maybe setting the stuff Tetsujin V comes up with as examples of ‘food that your average citizens eat on a daily basis’ really isn’t appropriate huh? 

Guess I’ll find time to serve her some food that’s made by a normal auto-cooker, even if they wouldn’t be as delicious. Maybe I’ll serve her some Alein system specialties next time. 

Oh, wait. The specialty of Alein system was that funky shake made out of the unprocessed stuff contained in food cartridges huh. According to the folks over there, the contents of food cartridges that have been produced a year or two earlier tasted the best. I really don’t get them.

But let’s get back on topic.

『So, how was your first night sleeping together, Mimi? I hope she didn’t have any nightmares because of what she’s been through.』

『Yes, well, there wasn’t anything like that, thankfully. But she might have been really exhausted since she fell asleep really quickly.』

『I see. That’s good to hear.』

I was exchanging messages with Mimi as I ate my meal and asked her about Chris’s condition last night. I was worried she might have had nightmares or flashbacks about what happened to her. Well, it’s just the first night, so it’s too early to feel relieved. 

“So, what’ll we do today?”

“Well, there’s nothing we can do except for ship maintenance. Walking around outside is dangerous, and we can’t resupply in the colony either since we don’t know what the enemies will do with the goods if they somehow got their hands on them before they get delivered.” 

“But is it really that easy to tamper with the food and supplies even with the automated goods delivery system in place?” 

Mimi tilted her head to the side and asked. I was curious about that as well.

“Well, I’m sure they wouldn’t be able to tamper with them easily. But in the off chance that they do manage it, we’ll all be goners if they slip in something like a high-powered plasma grenade.” 

“Yeah. They wouldn’t be able to break in from the outside easily, but if they set off a powerful explosion inside the ship, even Krishna won’t come out of it unscathed.”  

By the way, plasma grenades are weapons that release copious amounts of super-heated plasma along with powerful explosions when thrown and detonated. They’re fairly dangerous.   In fact, they can easily punch a hole through the walls of a colony, so private individuals or organizations were forbidden to get a hold of them. They were strictly provided only to the military. But even so, I get why Elma gave such an example. She’s basically telling us to prepare for the worst case scenario.  

“Will they really go that far…?”

Mimi looked like she still had misgivings. Well, it doesn’t hurt to be prepared anyway. But we just took custody of Chris yesterday, so I don’t really think they’ll be able to prepare something of that caliber on such short notice.  

“But, well, there’s the fact that Elma was already marked by them yesterday.”

“Yeah, there’s that. Their response was just too fast. With that in mind, it wouldn’t hurt to be extra cautious.” 

“Uu… I guess you’re right. We really can’t let our guards down.”

“Well, the fact that I’m still alive already poses quite the problem to my uncle’s plans. I think it’s best that we always act with the worst case scenario in mind.”

Chris finished eating her hamburger and elegantly dabbed her lips with a napkin. Her good upbringing really shows through these little gestures. Well, I also wipe my mouth after eating, but it’s impossible for me to be that elegant when doing so without looking unnatural. 

“But there’s a chance we’ll raise their suspicions if we don’t go outside the ship at all too, right?”

“Don’t worry about that. At the very least, they already know that we’ve taken custody of Chris, so they’re already wary of us from the get go. Since they’ve most likely assumed that Chris has already told us her situation, they probably won’t find it too unnatural even if we stay cooped up in here.”

“I guess so.”

Well, since we’ve heard of all the gory details, I’m sure Chris’s uncle has already marked all of us as targets for elimination. Holing up after feeling threatened would seem just natural huh. 

Chris’s expression clouded over.

“I’m deeply sorry everyone…… I’ve involved you all in this.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it. There’s no way this guy would leave a cute girl like Chris alone y’see. You can just chalk all of this up to fate, I guess.”

Elma hit my cheek lightly with the back of her hand repeatedly as she said so. Well, yeah. I just can’t leave a cute girl who’s obviously in trouble alone after all…… I’m sure this disposition of mine will land us in all sorts of trouble in the future, so I’ll just have to grit my teeth and take responsibility. That’s just the kind of guy I am.

But what about Mimi and Elma, you ask? Well, I do love and treasure the two of them, so I’d like to take responsibility for them as much as I possibly can as well. But that’s that, and this is this. Because there’s always a chance of me dying or being unexpectedly sent into another dimension once more, I’ll have to set some measures up in preparation for those.

In fact, I’ve secretly made arrangements with the Mercenary Guild in the off chance that they completely lose contact with me and I go MIA, or worse, get labelled as KIA. I’ve made it so that Krishna and the rest of my assets will all get transferred to Mimi if those things ever happened to me. 

What about Elma? It does look like she hasn’t completely cut ties with her family, so I don’t think she’ll get into any sort of conflict with Mimi if I do go MIA or KIA. Yeah, I’m sure she wouldn’t do anything like that. And besides, Mimi’s already lost all her other loved ones, so I have to prioritize her when it comes to these sorts of things. 

“?”

It looks like Mimi noticed my melancholic state so she turned her gaze toward me worriedly. I brushed it off and told her it was nothing. 

“In other words, we’re all completely free for the whole day huh.”

“Un, should we just hunt down some pirates?”

“Now why’d it suddenly jump to that……?”

I mean, won’t there be danger of us getting ambushed while we hunt for pirates with our little princess in tow? And even if they didn’t do so, we’ll still end up showing them some of our cards…… Or rather, to think she’ll suggest hunting down people so naturally like that. It seems Mimi’s already gotten somewhat used to the mercenary lifestyle and ways of thinking huh?

“Hm, that would end up letting our enemies witness some of our capabilities, so we probably shouldn’t. In these circumstances, we need to compose ourselves and prepare as much as we can instead.”  

After saying that, Elma got up from her seat and took out beer from the fridge. Oi.

“It’s still early in the morning y’know.”

“Well, we won’t be able to get off the ship anyway, so what’s the harm in drinking a little? They won’t be able to do anything to us if we activate the shields.”

“Well, that’s true, but……”

I gave up and took out some non-carbonated cola from the fridge. I also got one for Chris. It seems Mimi didn’t really like them, so I didn’t get one for her. 

“Hey Chris, this stuff pairs really well with things like hamburgers, hotdogs, and pizzas. Drinking it while eating those would be best.” 

“Truly?”

Chris took the bottle of non-carbonated cola I offered with both hands and started to drink it in an elegant manner.

“It has a faint smell of medicine, however… it’s very sweet.”

“Isn’t it? This pairs really well with hamburgers. You can try it out later at lunch.”

“Understood.”

“Oh c’mon you… the earl will tear you a new one for teaching Chris to drink that sort of stuff along with junk food.”

“I don’t want to hear that from someone who has no qualms drinking alcohol just after finishing breakfast first thing in the morning.”

I met gazes with Elma. Oh? What? You wanna go? I obviously can’t win against you in a hand to hand fight though. So please let me off this time.

I raised both hands in surrender. What? I look pathetic? You idiots. Elma’s grappling moves are seriously bad news y’know. They don’t leave you with injuries but are still hella painful. She’s a specialist at inflicting pain without injury… What a barbaric elf.

“It looks like the two of them really do get along after all.”

“Yes, they do, don’t they? I even feel a bit jealous sometimes.”

“But Mimi-san also gets along well with Hiro-sama, right?”

“E-Ehehe…… Yes.”

Mimi held both cheeks with her hands and made a bashful smile. Hahaha, how cute, Mimi.

“Oh, but I do think Hiro needs to show more care for me. Rather, please treat me the same as Mimi sometimes, you.”

“So you actually are bothered by how I treat Mimi and you differently, huh.”

“I-I’m not… really all that bothered.”

“Hehe. Don’t I treat the both of you equally in bed though?”

“Be……!? Hey!? W-What are you saying in front of Chris!?”

Elma’s face turned bright red. Hahaha, how’s that?

“I-Is this what you call an adult conversation…?”

“A-Ahahaha…”

Nope. This is just sexual harassment. It’s really fun to tease Elma like this y’see. Her reactions are really cute.

And so, the second day of Chris’s stay with us passed without incident. 

But the enemies not making any move at all does seem a bit concerning. I even activated the energy shield to provoke a response, but got nothing. It was honestly a bit eerie. 

Oh, and by the way, Chris seems to have warmed up to Mimi considerably, and the two of them even had some girl talk before going to bed last night. 

“……”

“……”

Mimi and Chris kept furtively glancing my way with reddened cheeks during breakfast the next day.  Did they actually…? No, they couldn’t have, right? What should I do though?

Nothing came to mind in the end. Mimi and Elma should know full well that I had no intention of laying my hands on Chris. I won’t behave inappropriately.

I decided to ignore it in the end and went for a bath after working out for a bit. We’ll probably get really busy soon.