Chapter 276: Re-sortie

The next morning, I carried the still-weak-in-the-knees sisters and entered the bathroom together. The bathroom seemed a bit narrow if I entered together with Mimi, Elma, or Mei. But since the mechanic sisters were on the small side, the three of us were able to fit in somehow.

“You look like you’re enjoyin’ yourself, Boss.”

“Course I am. It’s the best.”

The scene reeked of crime at first glance, but once you get used to it, or rather, once you resign yourself, it’s really nothing to get too concerned about. And besides, the two of them were really cute anyway.

“Why are you goin’ all red now after all that’s happened, Whisker?”

“B-But Big Brother… Nn… Big Brother keeps rubbing my belly……”

“Your skin is so silky smooth and nice to touch after all.”

As we soaked inside the bathtub, I kept caressing Whisker’s belly as she sat on top of my lap, making her protest in a sexy voice.

“When Boss does somethin’ like that…… I think he’s rarin’ for another go.”

“I only do this occasionally.”

In fact, it wasn’t that rare for me to have another go while taking a bath in the morning together with Mimi, Elma, or Mei after going at it all night.

“But I’m not gonna go as hard as I did yesterday. I promise.”

“You’re not that convincin’ if you keep touchin’ us like that Boss. Do you really remember what you did to me last night?”

“I’m not touching anything especially delicate so I’m safe. As for last night…… I, uh, just went with the flow?”

“I think there was a difference between how you treated Whisker and me though?”

“In other words, I wanna treat Tina like I treated Whisker last night.”

“E-Even if you say somethin’ like that– Uh, it’s not like I’d hate it or anythin’……”

This time, it was Tina whose face turned red as she turned away from me. What the heck? She’s just so adorable.

“Ah……”

Whisker, who was fidgeting bashfully on top of my lap, seemed to have noticed something and raised her voice. Now, now, Whisker-san. That’s not right. Uh, but her reaction wasn’t exactly off either. If you react like that, you’re gonna put me even more in the mood y’know? And when Tina seemed to have guessed something after seeing Whisker’s reaction, she grinned provocatively even as her face turned even more bright red.

“Yesterday, we got done in by Boss, so it’s our turn now, right?”

“Heh. You wanna go? Bring it on then. I’m gonna show you how much of a difference experience can make.”

“We’re gonna make you eat those words, Boss.”

Afterward, we made out like crazy again.

“So, what about those two?”

After taking a nice, long bath, I tossed the tired Tina and Whisker on top of my bed and went to the dining hall for breakfast, where I met with Elma who immediately greeted me with a reproachful gaze. Don’t look at me like that, Elma-san. I get embarrassed easily.

“I decided to give them a full day off.”

The troop reorganization should get finished by today, but even if it does, it’s not like we’ll sortie immediately afterward. First, we’ll need to move the combined fleet to our next target star system, and after moving there, we’ll need to make various adjustments again. Well, I guess they already took something that into account in the initial planning phase, so it might not take all that long anyway.

Unlike the fleet-footed mercenaries who usually fly around on a single ship, a military fleet was sluggish as heck in comparison. Something like that was unavoidable when building up a considerable force, so it can’t be helped. After all, even if you assembled a large force if you don’t perform coordinated maneuvers, having that many ships was practically meaningless.

In any case, there was no problem for the mechanic sisters to take a break until the next day.

“Muu…… How nice.”

“We’ll do it next time we have a long break.”

“You promise?”

“Hey, what about me?”

“I will do my very best as long as time permits, milady. Please play nice and share you two.”

Although it’s been the case for quite some time, now I was well and truly a bona fide harem bastard in both name and substance. Granted that it wasn’t that unusual for a mercenary living in this dimension though. There was a strong feeling of crossing that one final line.

“Share, huh. Fine then. I’ll take you up on that. I suppose it would be best to have Mei manage the schedule.”

“That’s right. I can be at ease if Mei-san handles it.”

Mimi nodded in agreement with Elma’s words. Before I knew it, Mei has developed a mysterious air of trustworthiness, special among the girls. I wonder what they were talking about with each other without my knowledge– On second thought, it’s probably best if I don’t find out. Having knowledge of something I might not want to know in the first place can possibly hurt my fragile heart after all.

“So, what are our plans for today?”

“We’ll wait until new orders get handed down, but I think it’s about time for the fleet to make a move. I’m not sure if we’ll immediately blockade the target star system and move to destroy the pirate base the moment we arrive though.”

“Yeah. It feels like something that colonel would actually do though.”

“It all depends on how far they’ve prepared for the operation, I think. Though Serena-sama is certainly shrewd enough to make arrangements like that though.”

“I see? Well, yeah, I suppose so.”

She was a lieutenant colonel serving in the imperial military at such a young age after all. It wasn’t that strange to think that she’d made prior plans to expedite the operation of the combined fleet in order to quickly smoke out and destroy the space pirates.

“In any case, there’s nothing we can do right now but wait. We can’t just sortie on our own after all.”

“That’s true. Well, I suppose I’ll hand today over to those two. Make sure to take good care of them.”

“Right. We’ll call you if something happens, so please take your time, Hiro-sama!”

“Take my time huh…… Well, okay then. I guess I’ll leave it to you guys to keep watch and take care of those two in the meantime.”

They haven’t had breakfast yet, so I’m sure those two are already quite hungry. In any case, both of them don’t have enough strength to move around for the time being, so I guess I’ll have to nurse them around today.

Eh? Was it okay to be so laid back even though we were in the middle of an operation to eliminate space pirates, you ask? It’s exactly because we’re risking our lives that we need to treasure these downtimes. They help to maintain a positive mentality too. Yep. A peaceful and fulfilling life is essential to maintain a healthy spirit.

The imperial military moved faster than we expected. I took the sisters, who lost strength due to our morning bath activities, to the Black Lotus dining hall for breakfast, and by the time we finished having our meals, a new sortie order was issued. Well, it’s not like we have to do anything after the order got issued since Mei was in charge of piloting the Lotus for the move to the next battlefield, but since the military moved faster than expected, it was more than likely that we’ll take immediate military action the moment we reach the target star system. Since that’s the case, we’ll have to stand by inside Krishna so we’ll be ready to launch at any time.

“Things sure are busy.”

“It can’t be helped, Big Sis. But can we really take a break for the entire day, Big Brother?”

“Our combat readiness and maintenance are perfect. You guys can just relax and rest up.”

“We have our tablet terminals, so we can still operate the bots and drones to recover the loot and stuff. We’ll just get bored sittin’ around here, so don’t worry about us too much. Just leave it to the amazin’ Tina-chan.”

“That’s right. Be careful out there, Big Brother.”

After saying so, Whisker hugged me and kissed me on the cheek. I also returned a kiss on Whisker’s cheek.

“Ah, that’s sly. Me too! Me too!”

“Yes, yes. Here you go.”

I hugged and kissed Tina who made a racket. If this were a manga or anime, this was more than enough to constitute a death flag, but it’s not like this was the first time for me to encounter such a flag anyway. Well, I guess I’ll just have to do my best not to die.