Chapter 54: Aftermath

In a white, spacious, and sterile-looking room with several tables and chairs set within. There was a cacophony of people’s voices engaged in discussion amidst the sound of moving machinery.

I was sitting on one of the chairs set within that room. It felt refreshing to be out of that stuffy power armor.

“Man, you really saved my sorry behind today. I also thought that was it for me when we were attacked by pirates back then, and this time was also looking quite hopeless too.”

Dr. Shouko handed me a drink while saying stuff like that. It was a chilled, cloudy white liquid. It didn’t seem that thick, so I guess it was some sort of sports drink or something.

“This is?”

“It’s a kind of rehydration drink. It has a nice flavor, so it’s quite easy to chug down.”

Looks like it really was a sports drink. I took off the cap and gave it a big swig. Yep. Sure tastes like Po**ri Sweat.

“Good work out there. It was tough, right?”

“Well, not much. I had my power armor, so it really wasn’t all that dangerous.”

When the development of the anti-creature nanomachine swarm got finished, I was invited into the general hospital’s premises and finally got the opportunity to get out of my stuffy power armor and take a nice shower. Afterward, Dr. Shouko was sent to welcome me. It seems she was assigned the duty because we already knew each other.

I was told to stay put inside the hospital for a while because coming back to the ship without properly dealing with the creature remains and residue stuck to my power armor may potentially cause some health problems and such. It wasn’t sure if they carried some sort of pathogen or not after all.

I was told to properly go through a round of disinfection, just in case, while the researchers made use of the creature’s remains and body fluids on my power armor to make some improvements in the performance of the anti-creature nanomachines.

“Is it fine for you to be here, Dr. Shouko?”

“Yep, the work over there’s just about finished anyway. There’s a chance of making some more improvements by using the results garnered from analyzing the samples stuck in your power armor, but they’ll be minor ones at most. They don’t need me there.”

She gently waved her hand in front of her in dismissal. She still seems a bit shaken from the whole ordeal though. Can’t fault her. She just went through another life-threatening crisis after all.

“But you sure are an unlucky lady, aren’t you, Dr. Shouko? It hasn’t even been one month after the pirate incident and here you are, getting involved in something dangerous again.”

“Yeah, you’re right. Based on the probability theory, it really seems unusual. Though I do feel the tug of fate somehow, since it’s you who managed to save me both times, Hiro-kun.”

“You believe in that sort of stuff?”

She really didn’t seem like the type to believe in occult stuff like that.

“Nope, not really. But there’s a chance I might just be swayed to believe in them. I mean, it’s happened twice already y’know.”

“I see? Well then, why don’t you follow what fate is telling you and become a crew member of my ship?”

Dr. Shouko’s expression froze up after hearing my invitation, that changed into a nice-looking smile afterward.

“That honestly doesn’t sound too bad y’know, but does a mercenary ship even need a physician on board? You can just stop over a colony and go to the medical facilities there in order to satisfy your medical needs if necessary after all. And at the very least, you can still make use of a med pod if you don’t have access to a colony for some reason. It would be a different story if it were a long-distance pioneering immigration ship or a deep space exploration vessel though. I probably won’t be able to sit still in a ship without proper research facilities, equipment and research specimens too.”

“That’s a shame then.”

Dr. Shouko is a very charming lady, so I really do feel it’s unfortunate. Eh? My motive is impure, you say? I’m a healthy guy, so isn’t this just natural? She’s a bespectacled beauty with chest assets on par with Mimi y’know. Any healthy male would have the urge to get a load of those knockers at least once, yeah.

“Fufu, your stare looks really lewd, you know?”

“That just goes to show I’m a normal healthy male Doc.”

“Are these really all that good? They make my shoulders stiff and grab too much unwanted attention, so I don’t really like them that much though?”

After saying that, Dr. Shouko brought her bountiful chest assets closer to my face. What a sight for sore eyes. Excellent! I praise and worship thee.

“Did you manage to get your fill?”

“The creatures known as males have natures that wouldn’t get tired of looking at a sexy woman’s body y’see.”

“Such a cheap-sounding nature.”

Dr. Shouko stood up from her seat while giggling cheerfully.

“That’s it for service time, mister. It’s almost time for the creature clean up operation to begin.”

“Aye, aye, ma’am.”

I also stood up and saluted Dr. Shouko, who was overflowing with service spirit.

I didn’t encounter many problems on the way back to the ship. I didn’t have any more business left cause the imperial power armor division had already started their creature extermination operation in teams of three.

But since I was wearing power armor myself – equipped with powerful weaponry to boot – I looked very much like a suspicious character. I was called out by imperial patrols once or twice and detained for questioning, but I was able to get out of them easily enough through declaring I was just coming back from responding to a rescue request sent to the Mercenary Guild by Inagawa Technology.

“So, what was the cause of the incident in the first place?”

『There’s no info regarding that for now. But it seems several private firms have already put forth their own measures to eliminate the creature threat.』

“Private companies? You talking about Inagawa Tech’s nanomachine swarms?”

『Yes. There’s also Eagle Dynamics, a military robotic weapons maker, that dispatched a large number of combat robots specializing in creature extermination within the colony. Cyclone Chemicals also succeeded in synthesizing chemical substances only toxic to the creatures and provided them to the military, along with specialized chemical sprayers. There are several more companies that sent out their own countermeasures as well.』

『It looks like the imperial military has stepped up the extermination efforts. And the independent fleet has also managed to return to port. It looks like this incident is closed to being completely wrapped up.』

“I see. But it really was a big incident huh…… We did manage to earn some money off of it, but I’m sure a lot of people have been injured or killed during the commotion.”

『Yeah. Oh, right. You don’t have to give us a cut of the earnings for this time’s incident, okay.』

“Hm? What do you mean?”

『If it was earned using the starship, then we wouldn’t have any qualms about taking a share because we all risked our lives together. But this time, it was just you who was out on the field, right? We’ll feel bad if we take a share of the money while knowing that we didn’t really face any sort of danger.』

“You sure?”

The two of them served as my Operator and Navigator respectively though.

『Yes. We’re sure. It wouldn’t feel right if we took a share even though we didn’t risk our lives fighting together with you, Hiro-sama.』

“I see…… Okay.”

Well, since they’ve said all that, then there’s no helping it. I don’t really have problems with giving them a share though, but they’ve already decided, so I’ll just have to comply with their wishes. What if I were in their shoes? I might blurt out the same thing they’re saying as well.

“From the looks of it, the colony would be in a state of high alert for some time.”

『Can’t be helped. We have enough water and food supplies anyway. We can just head to our next destination immediately after receiving the rewards.』

『It looks like we won’t be able to get off the ship normally for a few days though. We’ll have to stay indoors for now.』

“You’re right. We’ll just have to make the most out of it huh… Fufufu.”

I just came from a bit of exercise, or rather, a life-threatening operation of sorts, and am now feeling sorta excited. I’m gonna have the three of us work up a sweat later.

『……Have a bit of restraint, okay?』

Elma whispered to me on the comms with a slightly nervous tone.

『What are you talking about?』

It looks like Mimi still didn’t get it. That’s fine though.

“The two of you are also tired, right? I’m good on my end, so why don’t all of us spend some time in the bath later?”

“Mm……? O-Okay. Be careful on your way back, Hiro-sama.』

“Yeah. Be a good girl and wait for me, okay.”

I cut the comms and took the elevator. Once I come back, it’ll be time for another ‘battle’.

The impact caused by the unexpected creature outbreak was so great that it took five days for the military and port authorities to hand out all of the remunerations. Inagawa Technology immediately handed over their part of the reward payment to us though.

So how did we spend those five days, you ask? I better not say. It’s kinda embarrassing guys. Well, I’m no superhuman, so I couldn’t possibly keep at it indefinitely y’know. Though I do admit I had a hell of a time muehehe.

Elma acted reluctantly at first, but she was pretty into it in the end. And Mimi was hesitant only in the beginning as well.

“What a nice morning.”

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever.”

“Elma’s being cold, Mimi.”

“I’m sure she’s just feeling embarrassed. Elma san is kind of dishonest about her real feelings after all.”

“–Ngh!” Mimi gave a straight and honest commentary without an ounce of ill intent. Elma couldn’t voice any complaint to such a Mimi, so she just endured her embarrassment with a red face.

“Hahaha, you’re cute, Elma. Now that we finally got our pay today. Let’s start dividing it up then…… The total earnings we got for the pirate subjugation, including the sale of the recovered loot, is 835,464 Enels. And the payment we got from the military for the thirty-day contract we signed is 1,500,000 Enels. The bonus I earned from accompanying them in their regular operations is 372,514 Enels. All in all, we earned a total of 2,707,978 Enels for the month.”

“It took quite some time, but we did manage to earn a lot huh.”

“It’s an amazing amount……”

Elma seemed content and nodded while Mimi’s eyes turned to dots after hearing the amount. I thought it was just your average earnings for the kind of work we do. We were finally able to get a medical check-up, and I also managed to have Major Serena owe me a favor. All in all, not a bad result for a month of hard work, right?

“Elma’s share is 81,239 Enels. Mimi’s is 13,539 Enels.”

And my share is 2,613,200 Enels. My current total assets was now a whopping 17,022,017 Enels. Hm…… Can’t we finally buy a new ship with this money?

“It seems you’re thinking of something again.”

“Yeah. My total assets are already over 17 million after all. I’m thinking of buying a mothership with the money, actually.”

“A mothership?”

“It’s a ship capable of acting as a carrier base for smaller ships. It has quite the spacious cargo hold as well, so it would allow us to complete transport missions all by ourselves. But can we really purchase a ship with a decent grade with just 17 mil? It’ll easily cost us up to double the amount if we consider the remodeling costs you know?”

“Yeah, you’re right…… Okay then. Let’s save up a bit more before going through with the purchase. 17 mil does kinda sound half-assed.”

“But 17 million is quite a huge amount of money for ordinary people though……”

“Well, it’s a large enough amount for mercenaries who are into the business of frequently buying and selling ships, but this is still considered small compared to the wealth of the big players, right?”

“Yep. It does seem small compared to the assets those guys have.”

“Your sense of wealth is far too outrageous for me……”

Mimi seemed really troubled about the topic. The 13 thousand Mimi was able to earn this time was several times higher than the 4 thousand Enels standard monthly salary offered by the military after all. Even the 0.5% shares she was receiving right now can be considered to be much higher than the salary of your typical well-paid soldier.

“Anyway, we’ll head to the resort planet Mimi recommended next time. Let’s decide on whether or not to purchase a new ship depending on the earnings there. We’ll be able to earn more with a mothership in tow after all.”

You can earn several tens of thousands from just completing transport commissions alone, and you can make several hundreds of thousands more if you aim for the pirates that would get attracted to your transport ship like bees to honey. It was really a case of killing two birds with one stone. But of course, that’ll depend on whether or not you had the ability to protect your mothership.

“I’m sure the commotion has already been mostly resolved by now. Let’s immediately depart after finishing our resupplies.”

“Yes!”

“Alright.”

Mimi took up her tablet and started checking out our remaining supplies while Elma started the ship’s self-diagnostics procedure using the co-pilot console. I left the two of them to their jobs and went over to check up on the power armor that finally had its chance to shine a few days ago. It wouldn’t be funny if it broke down during an emergency situation after all.

And so, the three of us steadily made our preparations for departure.