Chapter 271: A Brief Respite in the Midst of Something Fishy

“It’s in times like these that I really learn to appreciate Krishna’s comfortable living environment.”

“Yeah, that’s true. It’s all thanks to Mimi’s foresight that we get to enjoy this.”

“I-Is that so? Ehehe.”

Mimi smiled sheepishly after hearing Elma and my compliments.

It’s been roughly about six hours after the blockade started while waiting for all our allied forces to gather up. The pirates finally stopped biting the bait, and we decided to chill inside Krishna’s dining room for a bit. The mobilized mercenaries were allowed to dock and rest up inside large-class imperial military ships if they wanted to, but that wasn’t necessary for us since we had Krishna already.

『Are you guys gonna be fine without any maintenance?』

Tina asked us with a tinge of worry in her voice through the holo-display installed inside Krishna’s dining room. They were also taking a break on the Lotus, so we decided to contact them like this.

“We really didn’t consume that much ammo, and we basically just shot down helpless stationary targets. It’s fine.”

“I’ve already performed a diagnostics check earlier, and just like Hiro said, there are currently no problems. Just focus on your work, guys.”

『Alright.』

“Please be careful over there too.”

『Aye, aye.』

After Tina replied, she dropped the call. It took us about half an hour to completely salvage all the loot from the tagged pirate ships. They should have their hands full sorting the salvaged ships back on the Lotus.

“We basically haven’t incurred any losses during this operation so far huh.”

“We did make use of anti-FTL traps after all. We did well to take the initiative, and that’s why we didn’t suffer any damage.”

“And our targets were standard pirate ships after all.”

In the end, only one ship proved to have some pretty tough energy shields. I wonder what’s up with that. Did we actually manage to bag a Red Flag bigshot? Or maybe it was a black market merchant or shady official who just happened to come to do business with the pirates at this timing. Well, they did manage to bail out their cockpit block, and we made sure to tag them, so the imperial military should have the passengers in their hands right about now and were probably being subjected to interrogation. While I was thinking that, a call came in. What’s up? It’s from Battleship Restalias? Lt. Col. Serena?

“Yes, this is Krishna’s Captain Hiro speaking.”

『Oh, it seems you were in the middle of having a meal.』

“Hello, Lt. Col. Serena. What’s up?”

Just like I thought, the caller was Lt. Col. Serena. Yep. It’s from our current commander for this particular operation, Lt. Col. Serena. Even if I’m both a Platinum ranker and Gold Star awardee, isn’t it inappropriate for a mere mercenary to have this much of a connection to our commander?

『I’ll get straight to the point. Do you remember tagging a ship that had its cockpit block successfully bail out?』

“Yes, of course. They were pretty strange for pirates. And what about it?”

『Can you hand over the contents of the cockpit block without asking any questions?』

I looked at Lt. Col. Serena’s serious expression and eventually nodded.

“OK. We didn’t see anything and didn’t shoot down such a ship. Would you like us to hand over the related logs as well?”

『Please. Well then, if you’ll excuse me.』

“Aye, aye, ma’am.”

After I saluted at her image projected by the holo-display, Lt. Col. Serena nodded curtly in response and dropped the call.

“I wonder what that was about?”

“No idea. Anyway, we didn’t see or remember anything regarding that ship, guys. It just smells of something troublesome.”

“Yeah, that would be for the best.”

It seemed like a pretty serious affair earlier, so odds are it has something to do with nobles, or probably a scandal within the imperial military. How scary. I absolutely don’t wanna get involved in something so dangerous. God forbid.

“Um, but aren’t you guys the least bit curious?”

“Well, sure we are. But what will we do if we carelessly poke our noses and get burned as a result?”

“……That doesn’t sound so good.”

“Right?”

“Let’s just forget it.”

Its energy shield seemed a bit tougher than average, so we might be able to sell it for a pretty good price if we salvaged it. Oh well, it can’t be helped. It’s a favor to Lt. Col. Serena, so I’m sure she would make up for it in some way.

“Hiro, what do you think about this whole operation so far?”

“Hm? Let’s see. It’s really odd. Uh, it’s pretty efficient, sure. But how should I put this…? It just feels like some shady stuff is going on in the background.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Supposedly, the main purpose of this operation is to wipe out the Red Flag pirates in the surrounding systems. But y’know…… I just can’t help but feel there’s some other purpose to this operation than what they’re letting on.”

It’s not like I was completely certain, but Lt. Col. Serena’s movements kinda felt suspicious to me somehow. She completed the blockade way earlier than what was stated in the plan. Then there’s that bit with the strange ship and telling us not to ask any questions. The early blockade only succeeded because they purposely gave out false intel after all. Come to think of it, the Refill system’s planetary defenses have been breached twice already and they suffered two successive planetary raids in a very short time period. It all seemed really suspicious.

“That’s how I see it.”

“I see…… Now that you’ve mentioned it, things do seem pretty fishy, Hiro-sama.”

“We have no choice but to be careful not to get ourselves caught up in whatever trouble is going on and simply do our job. Somehow, I really doubt we can though.”

“Yeah. If you had someone on hand who can accomplish whatever dangerous mission you throw at him and return in one piece, there’s no way you’d miss out on making use of him, huh. Anyone would do the same. Heck, even I would.”

“Moreover, You have enough skills to clash with Drawn Sword faction nobles and win, Hiro. There’s no way she’s gonna miss out on a piece who can be used to great effect in both space and melee combat.”

“I didn’t really wanna hear that sort of assessment. Personally, I think I specialize more in space combat with starships though……”

In shogi[1] terms, I’d be a unit that can function both as a ‘keima'[2] and a ‘ginshou'[3]. Once there’s a chance for checkmate, I’m sure I’d be sent out to the frontlines without any hesitation on the commander’s part.

“Gah, let’s just stop. Thinking about it just makes me more and more depressed. Let’s just take a nice bath and chill inside the cockpit for now.”

“That’s nice. Who will enter first?”

“You can go ahead, Mimi.”

“Eh? You aren’t planning on entering together with Hiro-sama later, are you, Elma-san?”

“……Whatever do you mean by that?”

Under Mimi’s scrutiny, Elma couldn’t help but avert her eyes. Hou, that sounds really wonderful, actually. Yes, wonderful indeed. But it’s quite difficult to choose between the two of them in this situation. It’s not like they’d get angry…… but I better not say anything anyway. I’ll just shut up and watch things unfold. It’s better that way.

“Okay then. I’ll concede the bath, but I’ll take nap time in return, alright?”

“OK. That’s a deal.”

Right. Even if I don’t say anything, the parties involved will just resolve the matter by themselves anyway. Well, it’s not like I can do anything apart from going with the flow anyway. I didn’t plan on doing anything in the first place.

I watched Mimi’s back as she cheerfully left in the direction of the bathroom while thinking of another appropriate topic to chat about with Elma. In any case, I can’t tease Elma about her earlier deal with Mimi. That’s no good.

“Come to think of it, we never got the chance to visit the Rose clan’s territory in the end huh. Since we’re gonna land on Refill IV again to hand that thing back to the elves later, let’s pay them a visit at that time.”

“Nn, right. I don’t really have that much of a close relationship with my relatives there, so it’s not like we really need to pay them a visit…… Well, since we’ve found ourselves all the way to the elven mother system this time around, it would be rude not to show my face for a bit at least.”

“Yeah. I’m not related to them by blood, but technically, they’re also my relatives now, so I want to pay them a visit too.”

“…Right.”

Elma hid her face from view, but her pointy ears were bright red, so it’s clear she was both happy and embarrassed. Even if she hides her ears with both hands, her reaction was just that obvious, so it was pretty pointless to try and hide it anyway. She should just show her face and save herself the trouble.

“What kind of people are your relatives anyway?”

“Un, my memory’s pretty fuzzy since I was just a kid when I first came here……”

I spent time listening to Elma’s stories regarding her relatives, the Willroses, who belonged to the main Rose clan until Mimi finally came out of the bath. Yeah, it was good to have some time to cool down and relax like this even during an operation. Anyway, it was great that I wasn’t all alone. I should treasure the fact that I was blessed with such great companions.

TL Notes: