In the face of the overwhelming power of the star system garrison fleet, all the summoned crystal lifeforms eventually got annihilated.
And now that they’re gone, this matter is over!
“Yeah, there’s no way that’s happing huh.”
The crew of Krishna and Black Lotus along with the mercenaries we hired as escorts were detained and by the Mirabreeze star system garrison forces. Well, even if we got detained, we didn’t display any resistance and obediently went with them to their system’s main colony, so we weren’t bound like prisoners, and the treatment wasn’t too bad.
“Then you guys just got caught up in the mess and didn’t illegally possess a Singing Crystal, correct? Is that what you’re saying?”
I was now sitting face to face with my interrogator from across a table. I was now inside a gray-colored and dimly lit interrogation room, where a crisply dressed military police officer from the star system garrison was questioning me.
“Yeah, that’s right. If you wanted to make a profit by using a Singing Crystal to hunt a crystal lifeform swarm, you wouldn’t do it right before a hyperlane node with heavy traffic passing through it, right? And you certainly wouldn’t use one if it would get your mothership and the mercenaries you hired as escorts along with yourself trapped in the middle of a crystal lifeform swarm, let alone stay behind in order to buy enough time for them to get away. Anyone other than me would have died ten times over you know. And you already checked the logs of all our ships, right?”
“But of course. However, we still need to hear the statements of all parties involved after all. I also personally think that acting all suspicious of a Gold Star recipient like yourself is a bit improper, but this is just protocol you see. So according to the statements of your crew members as well as the mercenaries you hired, you said something about possibly being caught up in a crystal lifeform swarm mid-transit within the hyperlane, and that you devised a concrete plan of action and relayed it to them afterward. What exactly led you to this development?”
“I’d like to say it was nothing but unfounded intuition, but I ended up actually being dead-on. However, it would take quite some time to relate the process of how I got to such a conclusion, and it might even include subjective paranoid and as-of-yet unfounded suspicions that would possibly throw some shade on the reputation and honor of a certain group. Even so, do you still want to hear it?”
“Yes. And do make it concise, please.”
“I did say it was gonna take some time y’know?”
So I proceeded to tell the military police officer the entire story that could even get published as a full-length novel and finally got released afterward.
“It sure took you a while in there.”
“Thanks for the hard work, Hiro-sama.”
“Yeah. I’m bushed.”
After getting released from the star system garrison’s interrogation room and returning to the Lotus, I was welcomed by Elma and Mimi. It looks like the mechanic sisters were busy performing maintenance and repairs on Krishna. The Black Lotus also fired its main cannon and all its armaments during the battle, so they were planning on performing a thorough maintenance on it as well.
“What are we going to do after this, Hiro-sama?”
“Since we already got cleared of all suspicions, let’s just get ourselves out of this colony first. Let’s just perform maintenance on the ships after passing through the gateway.”
“Right. We got held up a bit, but it looks like we’ll be able to reach the Eineolus system, where the gateway is, roughly on schedule.”
“Since we got them in trouble, I suppose I better give those guys a reasonable bonus.”
Luckily, we managed to earn some extra income this time. Since we got cleared of any suspicion, we were able to turn the ship’s combat logs in for some nice rewards. Since I managed to defeat a considerable number of crystal lifeforms with a single ship, I earned more than enough to cover the cost of the four reactive torpedoes I used up.
Also, rare crystals could be obtained and processed from the remains of the crystal lifeforms, so the Resource Management Department of the Mirabreeze system happily bought them off our hands. In total, I earned more than enough to cover all the expenses we incurred, including the employment rewards of the mercenaries. Since we did get them involved in something so dangerous, I suppose a nice bonus is the least we could do.
And according to the reports, the mercenaries also hunted quite a few crystal lifeforms, so they did earn some extra as well. Well, that is that and this is this.
“Okay then. I’ll go inform everyone that we’ll be leaving soon. Would 30 minutes from now be fine, Hiro-sama?”
“Sure. Thirty minutes should be enough for those guys loitering around inside the colony to make it back to their ships anyway.”
I won’t wait up for those who are late though. I’ll leave them behind with no hesitation, and that means no pay, let alone a bonus.
And so, I went with Mimi and Elma to the Lotus’ hangar so we can get onboard Krishna, and right when we arrived there, my portable data terminal’s ringtone went off. It wasn’t a simple voiced message but one with video. Hm? I wonder who could it be. Was it Chris? Was she taking a breather and then decided to message me? I took out my terminal from my jacket pocket and looked at the screen. I immediately frowned when I saw who it was that sent a message to me.
“What’s up? You’re making a really ugly expression again, Hiro.”
“What’s wrong, Hiro-sama?”
“It’s this.”
When I showed the two of them my terminal’s screen, they both wrinkled their brows as their mouths twitched involuntarily. Yeah. I get that reaction. I really do.
“Just how did she manage to get her hands on your contact address……?”
“No idea. I certainly didn’t give it to her.”
“Maybe she got it by asking the Mercenary Guild or the mercenaries we hired……?”
“In any case, we can’t just ignore this.”
To be on the safe side, I contacted Mei and had her check if something strange like malware was attached to the message.
『Hi. You probably won’t agree to meet with me in person, so I took the liberty of messaging you instead. You’re fine with this, right?』
Was it taken from her ship’s cockpit? Marie’s entire upper body was displayed on the terminal screen looking all relaxed. Just look at this hag. Grinning and giggling all creepy-like.
『Well, it’s not like we have a lot of stuff to talk about, but…… I figured I had to say hello at least, yeah?』
Marie’s hologram performed a theatrical but flirtatious side-glance.
“If you have nothing good to talk about, then don’t send me a message in the first place, dammit!”
“There’s no point getting angry at a holo-message you know……”
“I also find this person strangely unpleasant.”
Mimi unusually puffed her cheeks in distaste as she looked at Marie’s hologram. I’m not sure why exactly, but seeing Marie this time seems to have gotten on Mimi’s nerves.
『You were really great, you know? You held your ground against that crystal lifeform swarm with just one ship. It was something little old me can’t hope to imitate…… Thanks to that, you were also able to avoid an accidental friendly fire incident. Sorry about that, by the way.』
“This shameless hag…… You were obviously aiming for us on purpose dammit.”
『I really wanna get along with you better the next time we meet y’know…… We’d really appreciate someone as skilled as you have an amicable relationship with us. Anyway, for the time being, I’d be glad if you can consider all that’s happened between us water under the bridge. We’ll at least treat it that way on our end.』
After saying so, hologram Marie displayed a suggestive but nasty-looking grin.
“What do you think she means by this?”
“If we take it at face value, it looks like she’s saying the grudge held against me by the Red Flags will become ‘water under the bridge’ so to speak. But it’s pretty risky to take her words as true.”
“She didn’t really make any clear-cut statements after all. Not that we should be expecting any from people like them.”
The two ladies seem to have come to the same conclusion as I have regarding Marie’s words, yet accepted that it would be dangerous to believe them just like that. After all, she might pull something like saying she forgave me personally but doesn’t guarantee that the rest of her comrades would too.
『So there you have it. Let’s get along the next time we meet, kay? I’m fine with taking it even further you know. If you catch my drift.』
“No way.”
“The hell is this ugly hag saying!? You’re so dead when I get my hands on you!”
“That’s absolutely no good.”
Yeah, this just earned her everyone’s ire. Well, of course, it would. I personally don’t want to have anything to do with a woman who’s like a carnivorous plant that would devour anything that it manages to ensnare. She was dangerous in a different sense from Lieutenant Colonel, or rather, Colonel Serena.
“Let’s just forget about her. This universe is vast. Anyway, we’ll probably never run into her again once we make it past the gateway.”
“Right. The empire is huge after all.”
“I really hope that’s the case.”
Elma muttered while displaying a faraway gaze. Stop that, you! I refuse to get a repeat of someone like Col. Serena who we always manage to encounter even after jumping around through gateways. Speaking of which, I wonder if we’ll encounter her again soon…… Just what’s the heck is the deal with us and that disappointing beauty anyway?
“Okay, let’s switch gears, guys. Anyway, right now, we have to focus on getting to the gateway and jumping to another place.”
“It kinda feels like we’re just running away though.”
“It can’t be helped. We can’t deal with a large-scale organized pirate group by ourselves after all. We’re not heroes. We’re just plain old mercenaries.”
“Um, hearing you saying that just sounds so wrong for some reason, Hiro-sama……”
“Right. After all, a plain old mercenary can’t possibly survive after plunging right in the middle of an enemy nation’s fleet or a swarm of hostile crystal lifeforms, can’t fight and beat nobles with swordsmanship even while not undergoing any biomodification procedures, and certainly not have the emperor himself award him with a Gold Star when he got promoted to Platinum rank in record time.”
“I can’t heaaar you!”
I’ve made my ears unable to hear anything inconvenient. Amazing, right? I endeavored to forget the matter with Marie as we continued to head inside Black Lotus’s hangar. The mechanic sisters noticed us immediately.
“Ah, hi there, Boss. Congrats on gettin’ released.”
“Congratulations, Big Brother.”
“I wasn’t actually put in prison, you know? So can you not act like I’ve just tasted the air of freedom again after doing some major jail time?”
“”Kyaaa!””
I ground my fists on top of the work helmets of the two sisters who were clearly in the mood for playing around. They were wearing seriously lame-looking helmets with the Space Dwerg logo printed on them. Yep. It was the logo depicting an old dwarven guy straddling a retro-futuristic cartoon rocket.
“We didn’t take that much damage, right? Just finish up replenishing the equipment and ammo for now. We’ll be departing soon.”
“We’re already done with that, so no worries, Boss. We can head out anytime.”
“We’d really like to do a full check after such an intense battle even if we didn’t take any damage though.”
“Let’s do that after getting to a safer place. Thanks for the maintenance work as always, you two.”
I then gently stroked the top of their helmets and headed for Krishna.
Phew. We’re finally saying goodbye to this place and heading to our next destination.
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