I Woke Up Piloting the Strongest Starship, so I Became a Space Mercenary - Chapter 69

Yes, good morning everyone. It is yours truly, Hiro. I am your ever responsible MC, who made sure to properly lock the door to my room and slept very early the night before. Right now, I am trembling in trepidation after checking the door’s access log. There were two attempts to unlock my door last night. I wonder what this was all about. Just who could have done this?

I went to the dining room only to find Elma sulking while Mimi and Chris were huddled up in one corner of the table. They seemed uneasy, as if they were caught red handed trying to do bad things. All our gazes met, and a strange silence ensued. 

“……Okay girls. Let’s all calm down and have a little talk. First, I have absolutely no plans to lay my hand on Chris. Rather, I absolutely can’t y’know. There’s the fact of me being the one assigned as her temporary guardian. But, more importantly, laying one’s hands on a young noble lady would bring all sorts of trouble. If I were Chris’s grandfather, I would absolutely murder the damned mercenary who laid his filthy hands on my granddaughter in her time of weakness using all means necessary.” 

Mimi and Chris averted their gazes from me as I said so.

“And Elma, I had a sort of feeling this would end up happening last night, so I made sure to lock the door. It absolutely wasn’t meant to prevent you from barging in and ruining our fun or anything like that.”

“I see. It can’t be helped then.”

The sulking Elma’s mood finally turned for the better and she gave me a smile. 

“In any case, well… we have Chris with us after all. I think it would be best if we restrained ourselves from ‘those’ activities for the time being.”  

“Oh, you don’t really need to mind me, you know?”

“But something like that’s not proper, don’t you think……?”

I turned my gaze to Mimi, and she lightly shook her head with her face all red from shame. Eh? You’re telling me not to mind you and go right ahead, Chris? No, something like that ain’t fine at all.  Just why the heck are you girls so adamant about it anyway?

“I do not want to feel left out after all.”

“Don’t give me that. It’s impossible, okay. I already explained why, right? I’m sure you’ve already understood my reasons. And we haven’t even spent all that much time together in the first place. You might have just gotten influenced by the situation, but please calm down and think this through more carefully. Of course, this might be just a case of being hit by the suspension bridge effect, but I’ll do all that I possibly can to protect you even without us entering into that kind of relationship, okay Chris? We can’t take this kind of stuff lightly.”

I tried to explain as seriously as I could, but Chris still had a disgruntled expression on her pretty little face. Did you learn of such things as part of aristocratic education? You’re much too liberal for your age, young lady. And what’s worse was that she seemed pretty serious about it.

“Or are you saying I should go with what you want even if it would most likely cause a huge conflict between me and your grandfather, Chris?” 

“……No.”

“There are steps for everything, okay? I sure you wouldn’t want to do things that would damage your grandfather’s dignity and pride as part of the nobility, right?” 

“……Yes. You’re right.”

“Of course. Quite a number of imperial nobles are upstanding and honorable individuals after all.”

I gave Chris a warm smile as I rejoiced in my head at the fact that I was able to successfully persuade her. What? Don’t I feel guilty about tricking such an innocent young girl? Of course I don’t! It’s necessary for both Chris and my safety after all! Seriously, guys.

“Anyway, that’s how it is. Mimi, Elma, you two take care of Chris and make sure she doesn’t do anything reckless. I’ll do my part as well, of course.”

“Uu…… U-Understood.”

“Alright.”

“You watch yourself as well, Chris. I may look fine right now, but men’s reasoning can be unexpectedly fragile you know.”

Especially mine.

“Muuh… I understand.”

It looks like I finally convinced Chris to back down. I did a little work out after we finished eating breakfast, took a quick shower, and fixed myself up. 

“Do you always live like this usually?”

“Yes, this is how it normally goes in Hiro-sama’s ship.”

Mimi readily answered Chris’s question, but Chris had a subtle expression on her face. 

“I have always thought that life aboard a mercenary ship was more, well… uncouth and crude.” 

“This is the only mercenary ship I know that offers the same comfort as the cabin of a luxury passenger cruiser though.” 

Elma followed up on Chris’s words with a subtly negative nuance to her statement. But isn’t having a nice living environment a good thing? Thanks to that, we can eat delicious food, sleep on fluffy and clean beds, and have a fully equipped bathroom. 

“I’m of the opinion that living comfortably trumps living like your typical mercenary any day.   Alright girls, we’re finally going to the resort planet today. We’ll probably get into combat with Chris’s pursuers though, so don’t let your guards down.”

“Yes!”

“Okay.”

Mimi replied energetically while Elma just casually brushed it off.  C’mon Elma…… Well, I guess it would feel out of place if Elma were to be all enthusiastic just like Mimi. She always did a stellar job as my co-pilot, so I guess there’s no need to worry about her anyway. 

We all entered the cockpit soon after. I sat on the pilot seat, Mimi on the operator seat, Elma on the sub-pilot seat, and Chris on the sub-operator seat. With this, all the seats inside Krishna’s cockpit have been occupied. 

“Is it really okay for me to stay inside the cockpit as well?”

“This is the safest place inside the ship after all. The inertial control system functions best inside here as well.”

I answered Chris’s question as I checked Krishna’s systems. I deployed the shield at the lowest output setting yesterday just in case, but there was no indication of any attacks from the outside.  The enemies have most likely gotten wind that we have booked appointments at the resort planets and were probably thinking of springing an ambush while we’re on the way. 

Attacking at that point would pose the lowest risk to them after all. There was a good chance of the local imperial military garrison getting involved if they staged an attack inside the colony after all. There was also a chance of Chris’s grandfather finding out about the situation if they made enough of a racket and it ends up getting in the news or something. 

“Yosh. Mimi, send out a departure request.”

“Yes, understood!”

Mimi operated the console in front of her and sent a departure request to the port administration office. Our request got approved before long, so I started moving the ship to the departure area carefully. I already deployed the shield at maximum capacity. The enemies might lay an ambush by disguising it as a normal accident, so I remained alert of the surroundings. 

There seemed to be no ship that was behaving strangely. Was I just thinking too much? No, it wasn’t a bad thing to remain vigilant. We would probably be fine if a small cruiser rammed into us, but we would be toast if a fully loaded large cargo ship were to crash onto us head on.

“……Fuu, this sure is nerve-wracking.”

“We aren’t out of the woods yet. I set a route where it’ll be difficult to tell which resort planet we’re heading towards, so follow the navigation prompts carefully.” 

“Gotcha.”

I carefully followed the navigation route set by Elma as I continued to drive the ship. Yep, it should be pretty difficult for the pursuers to tell which planet we’ll be heading toward while following this route. 

“Get ready to activate the FTL Drive.”

“Yes! FTL Drive, charging started.”

When the generator output was increased, a droning sound signifying the FTL Drive being charged rang out. 

“Countdown start. FTL Drive activation in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…… FTL Drive, activate.”

Krishna started moving at superluminal speed when the drive activated. The stars that looked like stationary dots of light started streaming behind us as they turned into thin light streams.

“Waah…… So this is how traveling via FTL Drive on a ship looks like inside a ship cockpit.”

Chris excitedly raised her voice as she looked at the dynamic outer space scenery in front of us.   So, was the view different when seen from a window of a luxury passenger cruiser?  

“I’ve gotten used to it now, but I was also like that when I first experienced it–“

A warning alarm suddenly rang out inside the cockpit as I was talking. Well that was fast.

“Looks like they’re here.”

“Uhuh. And I was sure they would’ve had a hard time trying to pick out which planet we were going to go for too.”

“Maybe they just went ham cause they were planning on wiping us out anyway?”

The warning message displayed on the cockpit’s HUD indicated that we were hit by an interdictor. It would have been possible for us to avoid being hit by the interdictor in question, but our purpose was to bait out the enemies in order to destroy them all, so I just let it be. 

It would be better to make preparations for battle instead of forcefully shaking off the interdictor’s range after all. 

“Mimi, get ready for battle. I’ll leave the subsystems to you as usual, Elma. Let’s go all out guys.”

“Understood!”

“Aye, aye〜”

“U-Um, what about me?”

Chris called out as well but… Hm, what should I have her do? 

“We’re gonna do some intense combat maneuvers, so make sure you don’t accidentally bite your tongue. The Gs you’ll be subjected to will be limited by the inertial control system to a large extent, but you’ll still feel burdened during combat maneuvers, so brace yourself accordingly.  And try not to let out a loud voice even if you get scared, okay.”

“Y-Yes. I’ll do my best.”

Chris replied with slight nervousness in her voice. There’s a chance I’ll get distracted if she screamed out after all. Come to think of it, Mimi was all quiet during her first battle. But maybe she just froze up from fear back then so she couldn’t manage to scream in the first place.

I lowered the generator output and decreased our speed. I allowed the interdictor to work its magic and the ship finally went back to normal space. 

After a booming sound, the light streams finally went back to being points of starlight. I then raised the generator output to battle mode all at once. 

“Whoah! They’re really going at it huh!”

As I activated the weapon systems and performed evasive maneuvers, multiple crimson light projectiles pierced through the space Krishna was in just moments before. No warnings, huh. You guys sure are merciless.

“Enemy signatures detected. Twelve small craft and four medium-sized ones!”

“Scattering the chaff now. The flares and shield cells are ready to go any time.”

“OK. Let’s do this!”

I reversed our bearings and deployed all four heavy laser cannons and both ballistic shotgun cannons. 

Now then, let’s start the counter attack. I won’t let a single one of you bastards escape this place in one piece!