I accepted the guarding/conflict participation quest, and docked in a shield ship called Shiitake that just looks like a king trumpet mushroom to me.
I keenly feel the presence of someone from back home, who I’m going to meet according to the wishes of the client.
“I don’t really understand it, but it doesn’t feel like a trap.”
“Yes, I think he really just wants to talk. Although he also has an agenda to take his master out of that room and speak to other people.”
He said his master has been holed up for thirty years, but would be dragged out. I don’t really get it.
“Let’s all head out armed. He’s still our client, and he’s offering to resupply us.”
Shiitake’s dock isn’t different from the one in Zadar or Akul. They all share the same standard. There are walls of exposed metal without a single decoration, and somehow, this place that’s big enough for Tortilla Double’s auto pilot to enter easily is being held up without a single pillar.
On the wall leading to the interior of Shiitake, there is a big gate, big enough for a five meter tall power armor to walk through. The double door slides open slowly, and I feel like this place looks a lot like where they keep airplanes in airports on Earth.
With the door open, I see a flat bed truck. It feels like it could carry four tons, but it’s like it has an electric engine, because I don’t hear any engine sounds at all as it approaches.
It stops in front of us, and the driver comes down. He has elliptical-shaped white machines on his ears, and is dressed in a butler uniform like Iris. He comes across like a soft man of gentle features.
“Thank you for waiting! I am Sebastian, a mechanical intelligence serving Miss Hiiragi! You may call me Sebas.”
“Thank you. I am Iris, and I serve Mister Genma.”
Iris takes a step forward and introduces us to Sebastian. Meanwhile, a bipedal robot takes a long desk, a chair with a back and armrests like an office chair, and six chairs with wheels from the truck, that it then places on the floor.
The robot then places round cookies that come out when you simply input cookie and nothing more, and half liter bottles of water in front of the chairs.
“Please have a seat. It is nothing much, but we prepared a snack.”
What should we do? Is what Saratha means as she hits me lightly, but I figure we should just accept the hospitality.
“We will then. And is your Hiiragi not coming?”
“In a moment. My master has been rolled up and loaded in the truck.”
As Sebastian responds, Iris taps the chairs to check for any danger. She prompts me to sit in the middle, so I do that. It’s like I’m supposed to be facing someone, but said person isn’t here.
The chairs are all for walkers, so Saratha and Vasilisa ignore them, instead sitting as they do on the snake torso and octopus tentacles.
“Stop! I can’t! With some harem creep!? A normie! Some happy guy! He’s not gonna talk to me!”
“You’re almost there, so give it up already!”
Says Sebastian as he brings something rolled up in cloth from the truck over here. Vasilisa, Suzuri, and Saratha look on with suspicious expressions, while Kori nibbles on cookies.
When they’re halfway here, the cloth is unrolled, and the person I could tell from the voice is a girl, is sat forcibly on the chair. Her hair is disheveled, and her bangs cover her eyes. She’s wearing a reddish-brown sweater.
“Ah… Hey…”
“Ah… Hello. I’m Genma, a Highway three mercenary. These are…”
“Yeah I know, your wives.”
“You know about us~?”
“I saw the videos.”
The ones on my slow life channel. There are currently the introduction, the one where I destroy the Herald of Autumn, and one about moss slime.
“You’re Japanese, uh?”
“Well, yes. I came here from the year 2025 in Japan.
“Kah! That’s the third isekai’d person counting me! So how did you start?”
“Hn, before that, why do you want to know?”
She says she’s just curious. What should I do? Well, it’s fine, I’m not really hiding it, so I tell her I was at a marriage hunting party, was fed alcohol, and before I knew it, I was in a cold sleep pod. Then I got inside Tortilla Double.
“Oh? Are you different from me?”
“How was it for you?”
“Ah, it went like this. It was a busy period, and I was doing twenty days of work straight while chugging energy drinks. I went out to get lunch, and collapsed on the street. When I came to, I was alone in a giant zero gravity shipyard. I started touching around the facility, and it started working on its own. It made the Shiitake, so I got on it.”
She talks a lot for someone who’s been a shut-in for thirty years and doesn’t want to talk to anyone…
“I see… I’ll just be blunt, what’s the purpose of this meeting?”
“I dunno, ask Sebas!”
I turn his way, and he speaks with a smile.
“I set up this meeting thinking that since my master does not wish to speak to anyone, if someone else from Earth were to come, you might build a somewhat good relationship. I apologize for the inconvenience.”
I glance to the side, and see Iris with her eyebrows raised a little. She’s expressive.
The other girls look exasperated, except Kori, who wants more cookies. Apparently they’re pretty good, so she took mine too.
“What was I gonna do!? Everyone except earthlings were tyrants! I let people in, and they turn out to be savages who try to take over the ship right away!”
“Are there others who were isekai’d?”
“Yep! This Chinese woman who’s a cultist for peaceful sleepers and a member of the lying sprawled race! This quest is about defending that place!”
Are all earthlings who come here weird? I’m really perplexed, but manage to hold on.
“Wait, you said they were all savages, but you’ll have to let them into the hangar to resupply and…”
“I can’t help that. They have to pay fifty thousand puni per person as a deposit if they want to go further than the dock. I prepared the soil, planted trees, and made a forest. If they take branches or withered leaves, their fifty thousand is confiscated. If they don’t do anything, they have it back.”
Saratha looks annoyed because she was interrupted, and I feel like this person is no good.
“Hn, so… Ah, did you know the Earth’s gone? My ship deals in digital data from Earth, so if you want it, you can buy it from the Shiitake’s website. They have copy protection, so you can’t copy and sell it.”
“I see, so when are you moving out?”
“Dunno. When everyone I hired gets here. For now, leave the ship in the dock. I can’t guarantee your safety.”
See you, says the presumed Hiiragi, who never introduced herself, before going to the passenger seat of the truck.
“To think Miss Hiiragi would have a proper conversation with someone else, let alone a man…”
“Don’t you think your standards are pretty low to call that proper?”
The mechanical intelligence were also talking, but the truck moves out on its own. Then Sebastian approaches us.
“What was that all about~?”
“First, I would like to thank you for speaking with my master. And thank you for bearing with someone who has a little trouble communicating.”
“I don’t know if I would call that speaking with someone.”
“Yes, as an apology, I will add some organic food items to your supplies.”
The door on the other side opens, and a container passes by the truck as it makes its way here.
“Welcome to the Shiitake. This is also a tourism ship. Its maximum size is five hundred meters, and its many floors have many different kinds of natural parks, as well as pool and hot springs areas. Your Tortilla Double has a boarding pass, so please feel free to come by even after the quest is over.”
Says Sebastian as he hands me a black card the size of a postcard. I’m about to hand it to Iris when Kori swipes it.
“Wah, there are coordinates. Are these current ones~!?”
“Yes, my master planned to give them to people who were transported or reincarnated if she encountered them, but they were left alone for thirty years. You may use these to exit hyperspace close to our ship.”
“Eeh? You’re just gonna give us something that tells people where your ship is?”
“Of course! And you may invite acquaintances when you come. Since this is a tourism ship as well, we welcome foreign currency.”
“Genma, how about we tell that elf?”
“Hn… I’d like to ask her first.”
“So this is a tourism ship, but Hiiragi was acting like she had no choice but to let people onboard?”
“Yes, my master has suffered through a few incidents where others tried to take over the ship, so she does not like that, but we need the puni to maintain the ship.
I excuse myself, move away from Sebastian, and send a short message to Van Elbes Leu Mishyl Mishyltia, AKA Van.
I found someone who was ‘isekai’d’. Should I try to get her contact?
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