“Ah…”
“Um… Isn’t that Elma-san?”
Mimi and I ended up seeing a certain someone’s sorry figure while we were walking on the way to the convenience store on the 3rd Block. She was leaning on the wall a little further from the convenience store’s entrance and sat directly on the pavement while covered by a white hooded mantle. Normally, this get-up would be enough to make it difficult for others to recognize you. But the hood on the figure’s head was distorted into a strange shape. That’s definitely because of her pointy ears.
When I took a closer look, I managed to spot a few empty liquor bottles behind her. Maybe she just couldn’t handle her problems anymore and just resorted to drowning her sorrows by drinking alcohol.
“Hiro-sama…”
“Nmm… We’ll just ask about her circumstances for the time being, alright?”
We approached the figure in white and stood to the side. The person in question was startled by our approach and trembled slightly. Somehow, I felt a hint of danger while looking at her figure.
“….Tsk!”
Her actions were lightning-fast. The figure in white drew her laser gun with blinding speed and aimed it towards me. However, my reaction was equally fast, and I was able to aim my own weapon at her at the same time. I saw eyes akin to a dead fish peeking out from under the dirty, white mantle. Oh boy. Looks like she really had it bad. She stared at me for a while with a lifeless gaze, slowly lowered her laser gun and proceeded to display a mirthless smile.
“Fufu. What? Did you guys come to make fun of me or something?”
“That’s not it, idiot! You did take care of me a while back, so I just wanted to see how you were holding up… And, well, Mimi insisted y’see.”
“Elma-san…”
Mimi sat down right next to Elma and held both of Elma’s hands in hers. Elma smiled softly as she looked down on their overlapping hands.
“Looks like our positions have been flipped in just the span of half a month huh.”
Mimi couldn’t say anything after hearing Elma’s words and silently went to take Elma in for a hug. Elma weakly hugged her back.
“So, how are you?”
“The compensation and penalty fees filed by the Sector military… I already sold my entire assets and bled my savings dry, but I still couldn’t manage to get enough.”
“How much is left?”
“About 3,000,000 Enel more…”
“3,000,000…”
I checked my assets on my personal terminal. I have about 3,500,000 Enel on me. I definitely had more than enough to bail her out.
“I can’t earn money right now either since repairing my ship would take more than two weeks, and even the reward money I made during the mission was canceled out by the fines due to the accident I caused… I did try to consult the Mercenary Guild about it though.”
Elma powerlessly shook her head.
Well, I guess that’s about right. Repairing a totally damaged ship would take a lot of time, and if a merc can’t use their ship, they can’t make money. There would be no lending company that would offer a loan amount of 3,000,000 Enel to a wandering mercenary, and 3,000,000 Enel is a pretty exorbitant fine, to begin with. She could try going to banks, but are there any conventional banks in this world?
But still, she’d already sold all her assets and used up her entire five years-worth of savings, but she still ended up short 3,000,000. Just how large were the penalty fees anyway? That’s pretty damn scary man.
“What’s the payment deadline? What’ll happen if you can’t pay?”
“Today… In about two more hours… If I can’t pay, they’ll send me to forced labor in the orbital prison on Termaine III. There are a lot of former pirates imprisoned in there. Once they learn that I’m a former merc……”
Elma began crying in despair.
I was prepared for the possibility of dying while out in space when I first got my ship. But this… This is just…!”
“Elma-san…! Hiro-sama!”
Mimi looked up at me as she cradled the sobbing Elma within her arms. Her gaze was begging me to do something.
I crossed my arms and began considering things. Yup… Bailing her out would be simple enough. I’ll just have to pay the fines, and she’ll get off scot-free. But doing that would reduce my funds to just a little more than 500,000 Enel.
Well, that’s still a pretty big amount. But it isn’t something that would last us indefinitely, considering the operating expenses of my ship. There’s no problem if we just went for some minor repairs and resupplying, but if something went wrong which leads to our ship getting wrecked, the fees would be astronomical. But I guess it won’t be much of a problem if I was able to make a lot more money quickly… Should I hunt down the remnant pirate groups in the area for starters? Mimi kept looking at me with an uneasy expression. Man. I just can’t refuse that gaze.
“Hey, Elma.”
“…What!?”
“Come aboard my ship and become one of my crew.”
“……Eh?”
“I’ll pay that three million. So be my crew member in exchange. I’ll have you teach Mimi the ins and outs of being a mercenary from scratch. And you’ll have to act as her support in combat as well.”
“Wha– Wait, are you serious!?”
I ignored Elma who was shocked silly at my proposal and took out my portable terminal in order to check the time. There’s just a little bit more until the repayment deadline.
“We don’t have much time. Go and make your decision already. It’s either you become one of my crew, or get thrown into a prison filled with former pirate inmates to serve as their plaything.”
There’s no middle ground. It’s like I’m forcing her, but Elma looks like she was a person who held a lot of pride, so I was being pushy on purpose.
“But, but why…?”
“If I don’t help you out, Mimi would grieve. And furthermore, it’ll leave a bad taste in my mouth if I left you alone to face such a cruel fate. And well, I kinda want you with me as well.”
She really made a big mess this time around, but Elma was still a veteran merc with five years of experience. She would be great to have around me, who still lacks this world’s common sense, and Mimi, who was born and raised inside a colony.
Also, she had enough skills to handle an out-of-control ship and managed to survive a crash practically uninjured. She would be great as a sub-pilot in case of an emergency. I also plan to have her lecture Mimi regarding ship piloting, but that’s still a long way off.
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