Ten days have passed since the meteor destruction quest, and five of those were spent doing a patrol quest. It earned me about a hundred thousand puni per day.
“There were so many space pirates. It makes me wonder if there’s an off season for them.”
“I think it will calm down if you hunt too much, but there are quite a few people who fall into that life…”
In the living room with a thick rug, I’m lying sprawled on an L-shaped couch, and Saratha is leaning on the rug and pillows.
“Well, it’s fine since we’re making a lot of money now. Suzuri was relieved to see the bank balance go up, and I’m done with maintenance too…”
“There were more degraded parts in need of replacement than I thought. It’s crazy that it was working normally like that.”
There was a lot of simple stuff like cracked coolant pipes and electrical wires with peeling insulation.
The self maintenance checks this sort of thing. It does, but if it’s not bad enough that it needs replacing, it ignores it.
There haven’t been any short circuits or electric shocks, and the cracks were only on the surface, not inside, so they weren’t a problem. But still, we decided to change them while we were at it.
“It’s fine if we take it easy… But it’s a different story if we’re going to keep hunting continuously.”
“There won’t be any space pirates in the end. If there aren’t any nice hunting grounds, it’ll be the same no matter where we go.”
“Stable continuous work… Maybe we could accept transportation quests too.”
“It would make less money…”
“That’s the thing, we won’t keep spending like crazy like we do now. How do other mercenaries make a living…”
I hear the sound of an automatic door opening, and since Suzuri is the only one on the ship, it’s her.
“Other mercenaries make money in wars!!”
“That’s what I figured.”
“Are you against it, Genma?”
“I can hunt pirates without a care, but war feels different…”
Aiding in an invasion just doesn’t feel the same.
“But you have a designated quest.”
Says Suzuri. I shared my e-mail address meant for mercenary stuff with everyone, so now there’s less miscommunication and things I forget.
“From the Mercenary Guild? Guarding and participating in a war…?”
“I guess you have to reject that.”
“ Guarding is one thing, but you don’t like war.”
“Hn… Well, I don’t like the idea of attacking, trampling over people’s lives. If it’s a defensive war, it’s not that different from hunting pirates.”
“Oh? Then are you perhaps taking it?”
“Maybe. It’s not offensive, and there are a few things making me curious.”
▽▽▽
A battle drone we call a cleaning drone cleans the living room, as everyone mistreats pillows and faces this way.
“I decided to accept work about joining a war, guarding defense targets. Taking part is in itself worth thirty thousand, and the rest is commission based.”
“That’s ten thousand more than when we escorted Tamani Oishi Nº3~. Is it because it’s a war~?”
“Back then we just slipped in when they were recruiting.”
“It was a bargain for a ship with a hyperdrive and large laser cannon turret! That is what they thought.”
“Ah, that time Suzuri was treated as a smuggler. I wonder what will happen this time.”
Iris stands up and explains information about the client.
“They have been active for approximately thirty years, and a mechanical intelligence connected to Alliance is in charge. Basically, they are following the Alliance’s rules, so there is no worry about that this time. I have also contacted the mechanical intelligence directly, and… Well, as long as the mechanical intelligence does not rebel, you won’t be dragged into anything illegal.”
I feel like she’s omitting that we’ll be dragged into trouble.
“So, about participating in a war… The idea is to fight another country. Hum, the army of Count Dellaovonno of the Livaceno Empire.”
The living room monitor is displaying data about the count’s domain and its scope, provided by the client.
First, the Livaceno Empire is a dictatorship with a hereditary system. The emperor is at the top, and a ruling class of noble families manages the empire.
There is rank among the nobles, and thanks to the translation implant, I see the words marquis, count, viscount, baron, baronet, and knight in order. Don’t they have dukes?
Also, a count is recognized by the emperor by having at least three star systems. Owning a star system is the same as owning a star.
This means that nobles with a title above viscount will lose their title if their star system ownership falls below a certain threshold. Apparently this causes all sorts of problems, but that doesn’t matter now.
So, this Count Dellaovonno is a famously declining noble. His star is approaching the end of its lives, and no one lives on those planets anymore.
That alone doesn’t mean it doesn’t count, but for a count, that’s still like losing an economic bloc the size of a planet.
Because of this, he’s rushing to expand and causing problems with star system nations.
“By the way, this count is in real trouble, because he used a star system with a healthy economy as a collateral to borrow money from the Galactic Credit Union Alliance to build his warships.”
“This quest is to fight the count’s army as a mercenary, and while battleships and cruisers have not been confirmed, several destroyers have.”
“So, are you thinking of going?”
“I think it will work out if we don’t have to fight the destroyers or its carriers.”
Kori, Suzuri, and Vasilisa all check information on their tablets.
“We’re supposed to be guards in this war, guarding a pretty strange ship and place.”
▽▽▽
Two days after we accepted the quest, we’ve loaded up on stuff like torpedo materials and missiles, as well as things like fuel, and we move to the designated area in the vicinity of the Pokapoka colony.
I can see the guarding target… And it looks odd. I had prior information, but now that I’m actually seeing it, it really is a strange ship.
If I had to describe it, I’d say it’s like a king trumpet mushroom. The front is round, and the rest of the ship stretches from there. It’s like king trumpet mushroom I’d see in a Japanese supermarket.
These ships are called shield ships. It’s my first time seeing one in operation.
But this king trumpet mushroom is really big. The top of this mushroom has a diameter of one kilometer. The thickness of the armor has been disclosed to be an even one hundred meters, but it’s probably thicker.
The shaft of this mushroom gets progressively thinner from the top, and apparently the plasma engine in the back has a diameter of eight hundred meters, bringing it to a total length of one and a half kilometers. At this point, it’s too big for me to make heads or tails of it. It has to be bigger than ten Tokyo Skytrees.
Fittingly, this ship is called Shiitake. It’s one of the reasons why I accepted this quest.
The idea is to accompany Shiitake and act as its mobile turret in case of combat.
“This is Tortilla Double~ I’m Kori the communications officer, speaking on the behalf of the Highway three mercenary Genma. Requesting permission to dock~.”
“<Permission granted.>”
First, we’re going to dock and stock up on food and water. They also want to meet face to face, so we’re going to oblige.
There are a few cargo bay shutters along the body of the Shiitake. With a diameter of eight hundred meters, it can probably fit ten Tortilla Doubles stacked on top of each other.
I take Tortilla Double there as instructed, but… I can see small defensive lasers here and there between hangars.
It must be tough to defend a ship of this size against power armor assaults… Then again, if it’s one and a half kilometers on the side, they’d have to walk a kilometer.
Tortilla Double’s autopilot lands us with no issues, and the docking is complete. Then I hear the sound signaling we’re getting a transmission, so I accept it.
“<Tortilla Double, my master… Ah, so you really do not want to meet face to face? I apologize, I am Sebastian, a mechanical intelligence, but my master would like to meet you in the dock. Could we meet your entire crew?”
“Ah… I’m Genma. It won’t be a problem if you give us some time to get ready, but is there something wrong?”
“<My master wants to meet a Japanese person… No, make your acquaintance.>”
Whoa, if this person knows I’m Japanese, is it also a Japanese person?
“I know you mentioned meeting face to face, but… Is there a problem with doing it over communication devices?”
“<No, I want to use this as a reason to have my master, who has been a shut-in for thirty years, speak to someone else, since… No! Don’t resist! You’re the one who set these parameters! Tch! Excuse me. I am not plotting… Well, I am, but…>”
“Ah… Can we meet some other time?”
“<No, I will force my master there. I want to resupply you and meet you in the dock thirty minutes from now, is that all right?>”
“Ah… Understood.”
Another weird client…
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