Chapter 230: To the Refill Prime Colony

When we went to them to hand over the pirates, we were detained by the system garrison and subjected to a stringent cross-examination… Well, not really.

“We owe it to you all for wiping our behinds this time. We’re sorry for the trouble, and are very grateful for your help.”

The leader of the Refill system’s local forces was currently bowing deeply toward me.

After handing over the surviving pirates to the Refill star system garrison forces that arrived at the scene and took temporary custody of the captured elves, we towed the large-class pirate ship we captured with Black Lotus and arrived at the Refill Prime colony.

As soon as we arrived, a car from the system garrison headquarters on Refill Prime came, and the soldiers told us the top guy leading the local garrison forces, General Gem Dar, wanted to meet with me. And so, that brings us to our current situation.

By the way, General Gem Dar was a dandy-looking handsome uncle with a neatly trimmed mustache. I wonder how old he actually is.

“As I said earlier General, it was all just a coincidence, so you don’t really need to mind it. And besides, I had some ulterior motives when I dealt with them anyway.”

I personally didn’t act with the noble intent of rescuing the hostages, but simply wanted to capture a relatively intact large-class pirate ship, so I even went as far as engaging in a melee combat operation, so being thanked so profusely like this was kinda making me uncomfortable. Things only turned out the way they did because of a whim. In fact, depending on my mood back there, I could have just as easily decided to blow up the entire pirate ship along with all the hostages.

“If you say so, then let us just leave it at that then. However, just know that we are truly grateful. Thanks to you, the innocent lives of a number of our people were saved.”

“I understand. I understand, alright.”

I seem to be really appreciated here, and it’s honestly giving me a lot of pressure. The intensity of their gratitude is super high. It was really just a whim on my part, okay. Their feelings of gratitude directed toward me were so strong that I was actually getting cowed by it a bit. C’mon man. The only reason I went for a boarding action was to capture the pirate ship and train Mimi for melee combat operations, okay.

“You can expect a large bounty reward and an official letter of appreciation in addition to the prize money from the military. It will take a few days for the paperwork, so please stay and relax in this colony for the meantime.”

“Oh, that’s convenient since we were planning on staying in this colony for a while anyway.”

“This colony? If you don’t mind me asking, what is the reason for your visit to the Refill system?”

“Oh, we’re just on a pleasure trip. One of my crew members is an elf you see. I heard about the mother system of the elves from her and thought I might be able to enjoy some rare delicacies and drinks here, as well as find some rare trading goods. Fortunately, all three crew members including myself have first-class imperial citizenship, so we can apply for a surface trip on the planet.”

“Hou, all three crew members you say……”

General Gem Dar stroked his chin and acted all impressed.

The citizenship system in the Graccan empire was a bit too complicated and strange from my point of view, but first-class imperial citizenship was surprisingly simple. Citizens with first-class citizenship could step foot on any colony or residential planet and live there if they so desire just as long as they followed and completed certain procedures and the places they went to weren’t under any special restrictions by the empire. Furthermore, as long as it was a temporary visit and not an application for permanent residency, a person with first-class citizenship could bring one or two additional persons with him or her…… That’s basically how it works.

In other words, since I, Mimi, and Elma all had first-class imperial citizenship, we could bring Tina, Whisker, and Mei with us as well. No, wait. Mei’s a maidroid, so maybe she’ll be treated as part of our equipment instead……?

“But that truly is convenient. In fact, among the people you helped, there was a son and daughter of a prominent clan on Refill IV.”

“Ah– ……I see?”

When I went inside the prisoner’s holding cell of the pirate ship, I remember meeting the beautiful woman who remained calm as she talked to me even in the situation she was in, and a handsome guy who was shot by lasers and had life-threatening injuries. Maybe it’s those two?

“Well, I’ll just consider the matter once they actually come to me for a talk or something.”

“Yes, that would be for the best. But from what I’ve seen, it’s very likely that it’s how things will turn out, so just keep that in mind.”

“I understand.”

“Haah– Man. That sure made my shoulders all stiff.”

“Yeah, yeah. Good work.”

“Good work, Hiro-sama.”

“Nice work, Boss.”

“Good work, big brother.”

When I got back to Black Lotus, I went straight for the break room and found everyone else waiting there. Mei stood silently behind me and gently massaged my shoulders while I relaxed on the sofa. Man, Mei’s service is really first-rate. As expected of my Mei.

“So how’s everything progressing?”

“We’re still in the middle of processing the application for planetary descent. There are a lot of detailed steps we need to accomplish in the application procedure after all.”

“We’re dealing with a government institution, so it can’t be helped. How about you, Mimi?”

“We’re sorting out the cargo of Black Lotus and the cargo we secured from the pirate ship. There are a lot of items, so it’s a bit troublesome.”

“There was a lot of stuff in the pirate ship’s cargo hold after all. If some items don’t have that much value, I think it would be a good idea to just include them to Black Lotus’ supplies instead of selling them.”

“Understood.”

Mimi’s become such a reliable operator now. It looks like we really need to raise her cut soon.

“How about you guys, Tina, Whisker?”

“We’re in the middle of making a remodeling plan for that pirate ship.”

“When we checked it out, it was surprisingly well-made, so we probably just need to clean the interior, make some repairs, and replace the armor plates, thrusters, and other equipment.”

“I see. I’ll leave that to you pros then. Do the usual if you need any materials and equipment for repairs.”

“Gotcha Boss.”

“Yes.”

Repairs cost money of course. After all, in order to completely repair destroyed equipment, you need the appropriate components, and it costs money to build those components. And even if you bought ready-made goods instead, it’ll still cost money. In this case in particular, since we only managed to encounter a single ship, it wasn’t possible to strip the needed components from the wreckage of other ships like we usually do, so it would take more effort and money to repair it. Of course, it would be bad if the total repair costs exceeded the selling price of the ship, so I believe Tina and Whisker were also factoring that in their plans.

“So I’ll leave all the finer details to you guys as usual.”

“Oh, it’s fine if you helped out a bit you know?”

Elma pressured me with her smile, but I ignored her. If two people meddled in each other’s work, it would be totally inefficient, right?

“I’ll tell you what I talked about with the general now. It wasn’t really that much of a big deal though.”

So I told them about how there were children of a prominent clan on Refill IV among the people we managed to rescue.

“I see……”

“So that’s what’s coming this time……”

“It looks like it’s your win, Whisker.”

“Ahaha……”

I’m not sure what exactly they bet on, but if I had to guess, they should have bet on what kind of troublesome stuff we’ll encounter this time while I was meeting with the general. Yeah, that’s probably it. Mercenaries like to bet on such trivial stuff to entertain themselves often. I’m sure they got the idea from Elma.

“Well, no matter how powerful and influential that clan is, it won’t be able to compare to the imperial family.”

“That’s a bad comparison, don’t ya think, Boss?”

Tina cracked up after hearing my words.

Well, even if the clan was really that powerful and influential, that’s only on Refill IV. They might have received a peerage from the empire, but compared to the imperial family, that’s really not worth much. An influential clan on Refill IV can probably be likened to a Japanese neighborhood association or something like that.

“You shouldn’t underestimate them too much. It’s true that the Refill system is just one of the many star systems under the empire, but it also serves as the mother system of an entire race. Moreover, those are the direct descendants of a clan deeply rooted in this system you know… For those of us who routinely fly around space most of the time, Refill IV is just a tiny habitable planet within one of the myriad star systems. But for those who don’t have the luxury or opportunity to leave the planet and go out into space, that place is their entire world.”

“Hm.”

“I see……”

“So that’s how it is.”

I, Mimi, and Tina each reacted to Elma’s words. Whisker seems to be thinking deeply about them as well.

“Even so, we did save them after all. They probably won’t treat us badly. But it’s always good to be careful. That’s especially true when interacting with other cultures.”

I think there was an anime that portrayed humans raising a white flag of surrender, only for the aliens to misunderstand it as a declaration of war, and it led to a quagmire of bloody conflict……

“We’ll be counting on you then, Elma-san.”

“I’ve only come here once in the past, so I don’t remember much about this place.”

“If they have a unique culture here, then there should be something like a tourist guide available, right? Mei, can you go and look it up for us?”

“Understood. Please leave it to me.”

And so, we spent our first day in the Refill system performing the necessary procedures, searching up relevant info, and organizing our supplies.