Since the earl already introduced himself properly, it would be bad manners if we didn’t do the same. I opened my mouth straight away.
“I’m a Gold rank mercenary affiliated with the Mercenary Guild, Captain Hiro, your lordship. Please forgive me if I show you any discourtesy, as I am not quite accustomed to using formal addresses yet. These two lovely ladies here are crew members of my ship, the Krishna. This is my copilot, Elma. And this is my operator, Mimi. The one standing in the back is our maidroid, May.”
“I am honored to be in your presence, your lordship. My name is Elma.”
“L-Likewise, your lordship. I-I’m Mimi.”
“This humble one is called May.”
Elma reverently bowed toward Earl Daleinwald as she introduced herself. Mimi followed after her in a fluster. It looks like Mimi’s lost her cool a bit after meeting a high ranking noble with the regal bearing to match his status. She’s an imperial citizen after all, so she must be even more affected compared to me.
“Umu… Please take your seats, everyone.”
“Yes.”
We obeyed the earl’s words and took our seats once more. The maid then refilled our tea. It was more of that shockingly red tea. Should I call it new age tea or something? Nah, let’s just call it tea. Nice and simple.
“First, I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to all of you. Thank you for doing such a splendid job in taking in and protecting the heiress of the Daleinwald House, my dear granddaughter Christina. As the current head of the Daleinwald House and a grandfather, I am truly thankful.”
“We are unworthy of such words….. is what I’d like to say, but we really did have a hard time, your lordship.”
“Hey…!”
“Well, it’s the truth, so we need to tell it as it is, right? I’m sure Christina’s already filled you in on the details sir, but we ought to give you our account of what happened as well.”
I ignored Elma, who was frantically elbowing my ribs, and carried on with the conversation.
“I see. I have heard of what happened from Christina, but I suppose it would be good to hear the details from you as well.”
Earl Daleinwald nodded magnanimously and gestured for me to continue. When I displayed a smug smile, Elma sharply jabbed her elbow on my ribs. Ouch.
I then relayed the entirety of the past events with Mimi, Elma, and Chris supplementing my story from time to time. I told Earl Daleinwald about how we were persistently and mercilessly attacked, how we responded, and how much effort we expended in order to ensure Chris’s safety, in vivid detail.
I started with how we were attacked by pirates when we arrived at the Sierra star system, and how we found the cold sleep pod containing Chris in one of the pirate ship wreckages. We couldn’t possibly ignore such a discovery, so we secured the cold sleep pod and brought it back to the Sierra Prime colony. We unlocked the pod at the local port administration office, and found Chris inside.
“Fumu. It was truly a huge stroke of fortune that you all managed to find Christina.”
“Yes. And I also owe my life to dear father and mother, who did everything to ensure that I successfully escaped.”
“Yes. You’re absolutely right, dear……”
I allowed the earl and Chris to settle their gloomy feelings a bit and took some sips of the bright red tea. After a few moments of silence, I continued on with the story.
After hearing about the situation from Chris, I accepted her request for protection after receiving a promise of satisfactory rewards. Afterwards, we made multiple bookings on the three resort planets in order to confuse our pursuers, who were sent by Chris’s uncle. But as soon as we left port, we were suddenly attacked, and we had no choice but to repulse them. Then, the resort planet we chose to stay on was directly attacked by hundreds of pirate ships. But that attack was just cover in order to secretly send down military stealth dropships filled to the brim with combat robots. Then, I used my personal connections in order to get in contact with Major Serena Holz of the imperial independent anti-pirate mobile fleet, and managed to secure her help. And finally, I related the events of the assault by a rogue imperial military squadron, and how we worked together with the anti-pirate mobile fleet in order to defeat them.
“Afterwards, we went back to the Sierra Prime colony, and that’s when we got in contact with you, your lordship.”
“I see… Umu. It seems your story is similar to what Christina has told me earlier. I promise that you shall receive the appropriate compensation for all your earnest efforts.”
“Thank you very much, your lordship.”
I displayed an ingratiating smile. Elma looked like she was trying hard to suppress the urge to strangle my neck though. Anyway, with this, we’ve mostly secured a promise of appropriate compensation. We ended up rescuing Chris and earned a lot of money in the process. This is the best outcome.
Huh? What if Chris wasn’t a little beauty, you ask? Oh c’mon guys. It doesn’t matter if it was a pretty boy or an uncle. I would have extended my help just the same. I do admit my motivation to help was made stronger by the fact that Chris was a beautiful young girl though. Isn’t that obvious?
“We can talk about our compensation later. May I ask what you plan on doing now that you’ve reunited with Christina?”
“Fumu……”
The earl cupped his chin and silently ruminated after hearing my question.
“I brought as much of my forces as I could muster on short notice, but even with this much, we would still have trouble facing a squadron composed of military starships, even if they are one or two generations behind the latest models. If it is fine with you all, I would like to hire you to continue serving as Christina’s private guards for the time being.”
“As long as there is appropriate compensation, I am more than willing to accept the job. What about you two?”
“I don’t mind.”
“M-Me too.”
It looks like Elma and Mimi have no problems with it too. As for May, she would probably follow whatever I decide to do, so I didn’t ask her.
“Now then, let us continue talking about your remuneration. First, let us decide on your payment for serving as Christina’s guardians thus far.”
Earl Daleinwald called in his secretary, and we proceeded with the discussion regarding our payment.
It was decided that all of the expenses we ended up using in order to evade the enemy’s pursuit including the money we used to book the resort planets were to be fully reimbursed. In addition, we were also going to be paid an additional 5,000,000 Enels as remuneration for serving as Chris’s guards. As expected of a high ranking noble. How generous. He easily forked out more than 8,000,000 Enels just like that. So I take it that the earl considers this amount as nothing much compared to the life of his dear granddaughter.
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