Every time I wake up I feel like I had a weird dream. Like today, I’m feeling like I dreamed about petting a cat with glossy hard fur.
Hum, what am I doing today… Ah, yes, we’re leaving the Pokapoka colony to go to Mishyltia Prime. There was a transportation quest too, so we took it. We should be arriving at Mishyltia Prime soon.
Apparently I was petting Saratha’s head. We slept together yesterday, and her red hair was tangled in my fingers. I messed it up so much, that she’s going to get mad and constrict me with her tail when she wakes up.
Saratha is a snake person with a long tail, which tends to fall off beds. Sure enough, it’s curled up all over the room. I got her a spare futon for the floor, so I don’t think her tail will get stiff.
“Genma… Touching someone’s hair is one thing, but you got guts to mess it up like this…”
“Good morning…”
Oh no.
“Well, it’s fine… Last night was great… So walkers can use heels like that… I thought that was why you had legs.”
She grabs her comb from the bedside table, and starts fixing her hair.
“Hn… I feel like you finally learned how to hold back…”
“I’ve been training a lot.”
What should we do after the two transportation quests? I guess hunting space pirates is the most profitable option, I think as time silently passes.
Hyperspace or hyperlane. This is what they call a fairy path, or fairy road, and we use a hyperdrive to supply them with magic energy so they let us use these roads.
And so, once the hyperdrive is running, we can enter something called a warp space any time we want, and freely leave it too.
Because of this, there are small places, and newly established ones, where people aren’t allowed to just suddenly appear. This time we’re being guided by machines so that doesn’t happen.
“Time until we leave hyperlane…”
“Three~. Two~. One~. Zero~~!!”
“You never get tired of counting, do you Kori…”
I hear Kori and Suzuri as we reach Mishyltia Prime, but we’re still about five hundred kilometers away from the only space station here. I check our position, and gently step on the accelerator to start moving.
“Contact Van. This is Tortilla Double. We request permission to dock. We brought data from Earth and a mastery chef.”
“Done~. They say the station is being attacked by pirates, and to be careful not to get caught up in it~.”
“Careful not to get caught up? Did they finally get a large rail cannon…”
“Uwah, a magic energy wave!? They’re using a big spell!! It’s pointed… up ahead!”
“Up ahead is the Mishyltia station… Is this perhaps what they meant?”
“It seems so. The station is armed with medium defensive turrets, but Sumire has informed me that since they will not be in time, Mister Van will be using magic directly to destroy the space pirates’ ship.”
Pirates… Even if we take them down, they won’t buy the metal we take from their ship on the spot, right? He’s got his work cut out for him too.
“Van is the ruler of this place, right? Why is he using magic directly? Doesn’t he have stuff like combat ships?”
“The environment is a little special. He probably doesn’t have people that can pilot ships.”
“I saw on the news that he is capable of executing big spells with one hand.”
“Wow, yeah~.”
As Suzuri says, he can use big spells, but we’ve received a message saying the problem is that he has a maximum range of five kilometers. Apparently it’s not weaker than a laser cannon in terms of firepower, but it’s crazy that one person can do that.
“Well, it looks like he’s done taking out the space pirates, so let’s take it slow and head there. He’s probably dying to get what we’re bringing.”
Tortilla Double advances, without anything really happening. I look at the monitor and see a shining blue planet with a shining giant life tree. It’s clearly visible five hundred kilometers away.
At first I think the former protective observation station where we’re heading hasn’t changed much, but I see they built a pier where big ships can dock. It’s a somewhat round triangular pyramid, and I let the auto-pilot dock us there.
“This is Tortilla Double~. We’ve docked~. Come get the goods we transported~.”
“<It has been a while, Tortilla Double. I will go there with eight automata. I detect Iris and a new crew member. Can those concerned please come down?”
“So? I’m staying here.”
“Then I can go down there with Iris and Vasilisa. There’s no need for everyone to go. Take the controls, Suzuri.”
“Got it~!”
“Understood!”
We leave the ship and keep the rear hatch open, and see the same chocolate skinned walker mechanical intelligence with the shoulder length hair as before.
There are eight humanoids with round joins around her. I’ve never seen those ones before, and they’re all male walkers with the same brown hair, white skin, face, and clothes.
“It has been a while. These are infantry types 2, 8, 11, 12, 87, 118, and 210.”
“Yes, it has, but what’s with the numbers jumping like that?”
“It is a pleasure to meet you face-to-face, I am Iris.”
“It’s a pleasure, I’m Vasilisa.”
The infantry types all bow in perfect coordination, with a careful posture, right arm horizontally stretched, then bent from the elbow down, and finally touching the temporal region with their fingers. Do they not talk? And there are three digits worth of them?
“All infantry types are capable of speech, but they become uncontrollable if they start talking, so they are not allowed. Should I allow them?”
“Let’s not. First, this is the memory device with the data you ordered, and the mastery chef is in the cargo bay… Ah, there it is.”
The mastery chef that’s covered in cheap air packaging and a synthetic resin frame is brought by the five meter drone. It’s then carefully put down close to us, so it’s not damaged.
“This is the mastery chef. Please confirm it. This is the sale slip.”
I hand her synthetic paper with something similar to a QR code, and the mechanical intelligence puts her finger over it. My small information device then receives a message saying the quest is complete.
“Thank you for delivering it undamaged. Soldiers, take it.”
The infantry type dolls with spherical joints move out, pick up the mastery chef, and disappear quickly. When we installed ours, it was a pain because it was still heavy even after taking it apart…
“Still, I thought Van would be here since you asked Vasilisa to come, but is he busy?”
“He intended to come, but he used a bit too much magic, and is suffering due to drinking too much magic energy recovery potion. Serves him right.”
“Ah… Sounds rough. I’ve been there too.”
Good work, I hear someone say. When I turn in that direction, I see an elf with blue eyes, blonde hair, and chocolate skin smiling as he walks over here. Is he talking to the soldiers?
“Good job Genma! It’s been a while! Is that a scylla? And a mechanical intelligence? Nice taste.”
“I’m called an octopus person. You’re from the same place as Genma, right? I’m Vasilisa.”
“Hello, my name is Iris.”
“Hi. And I don’t want to talk about taste with you…”
He laughs, seeming as arrogant as when I last saw him. Then Vasilisa taps my foot with her tentacle, showing her displeasure.
“You really don’t want to work for me? Before I knew it, the space pirate bases in this star system grew to the double digits, and an imperial noble has been making waves. It’s rough, my dream of a slow life was crushed the moment I left to space!!!”
“Just hire other mercenaries. I don’t want to join a start-up company. It’d be non-stop work.”
“That’s why I’m inviting you, because it’s a black company with no days off… Seriously, even transportation is getting rejected because of the space pirate problem…”
“How about you at least buy combat ships? It’s easier than using magic.”
“They’re expensive, and I’ve already lost three ships. We trained the airborne ones to pilot, but the space pirates attack with twice or thrice as many! The airbornes were fine, but… Ah, airbornes are the automata air force, and also space force now.”
An alarm then rings in the dock.
“Master, a new imperial frigate and three combat ships are approaching. Five minutes until contact. As always they are ignoring our warnings that they will be destroyed if they approach us. It will be ten minutes until the defensive fleet from the Federation of Star Systems gets here, and they have sent an apology for falling for a diversionary tactic.”
“Dammit! We just got done dealing with space pirates too… Wait, Genma, can you and your ship get within five kilometers of the frigate? Your shield has been reinforced, right?”
“Theoretically yes, that thing’s pretty good and gave us a lot of leeway.”
“Please, bring me close to the frigate. Then I can use teleport magic to get inside the ship, capture the crew, and take it over. And you destroy the others. There’s two million puni in it for you if you succeed.”
“I can only get close, so can you take it over?”
“At that point it’d be easy.”
“I acc…”
My vision goes black for a moment, and I’m suddenly inside Tortilla double. Iris and Vasilisa are too.
“Ept… What was that?”
“Teleportation magic. There are fifty soldiers, marines, and airbornes in the cargo bay. And Sumire is here with me.”
I hear Suzuri’s surprised voice as I sit on the pilot seat.
“Ahh, the guests can sit over there on the floor. Suzuri, I’m taking the controls. I’m taking Tortilla Double out of the dock, this job is worth two million puni.
This guy really has cheats. I feel like he wouldn’t like hearing that, so I don’t say it.
Join my patreon to support me and read ahead.
