Chapter 9: Where Are We off to Next?

Chapter 9:
Where Are We off to Next?

 

IT SEEMED THAT our stay at the Kormat System—more specifically, Kormat Prime—would be a prolonged one. Why, you ask? That would be thanks to the suppression ship that tore through Count Dalenwald’s flagship. Repairs were going to take a long time.

Unfortunately for us, the suppression ship tore pretty deeply into the ship, so its removal and repairs were predicted to take about ten days. I had to wonder why we didn’t just do the most urgent repairs and then head straight to the Dexar System, but it apparently wasn’t good for appearances to come home with a huge hole in your ship. Not that I minded, since…

“It looks like we’re getting paid today,” I remarked.

“Is it really right for us to accept 250,000 Ener a day for what we’ve done?” Mimi asked.

“I’m not gonna say no to a client!” Elma replied.

The Kormat System was replete with mineral resources, and it had two planets being terraformed. With their terraforming almost complete, they were beginning to expand Kormat Prime. As more merchants were drawn by potential mineral refinement and trade, the place was getting awfully lively.

Pirates naturally followed, so it was becoming a great place to work as a mercenary. But with the heavy wounds to Count Dalenwald’s defensive unit, and with some of the Kormat System’s army revolting alongside Balthazar, the system’s forces were greatly weakened.

Given the possibility of a large band of pirates coming to attack the colony, the Krishna and its crew were ordered by Count Dalenwald to stay here, just in case.

“I appreciate how lively the colony is, but damn, there is nothing fun to do here,” I complained.

“At least daily essentials are cheap,” Elma added.

“There aren’t many places selling high-quality goods, huh? More quantity than quality here.”

Commerce which was centered around the natural resources being mined from terraformed colonies would become very lively here. With that, shops that prioritized quality over quantity would begin to pop up for the laborers who were helping to expand the colony.

“I guess we’re spending another day hanging out on the ship. I don’t mind just being lazy for a day or two, but today, I think I wanna talk about what we’ll do next.” I decided to finally broach the subject of our future plans. “Basically, I want to look into buying a mothership.”

“A mothership, huh? What’s the budget?”

“Right now, maybe twenty-five million Ener. I don’t know just how much Count Dalenwald will pay us, but I guess we could consider it expandable to thirty million.” At this rate, he might end up paying us five million Ener today. No doubt our mission completion rewards and helping in the fight against Balthazar would add on to that.

“Hmm, maybe if we have that much… Still might be rough, though.” Elma cocked her head, brow furrowed in thought. Thirty million Ener would cover a common mothership’s purchase and customization, sure, but it was a little iffy whether it would cover insurance in case it got shot down.

I continued, “I don’t have plans to use multiple battleships yet, so a hangar that only holds the Krishna is enough. I’m thinking about not giving it much firepower and instead emphasizing hefty shields, speed, and cargo space. If we make it too strong, pirates would start attacking us in hopes of taking over the ship, right?”

“Gotcha. So, you want one that’s closer to a cargo ship than a battleship. I think we can do it, but we’ll be cutting it close.”

“Oh, but I do want to go to a manufacturer’s star system to make it as cheap as possible. The only question is which manufacturer we should buy from.” I tapped around on my tablet terminal to display a catalog on the cafeteria’s holo-display. “I’ve found a few potential candidates.”

The first one I showed off was the RIMS-013 Nighthawk from Rikon Industries. It was a medium-sized mothership with an emphasis on speed. Though its plating, shields, and cargo capacity left a little to be desired, it was a top-class mothership. Its mobility was nice, too, and the lack of plating and shields was only in comparison to other motherships. Just being a little inferior still meant that it was far tougher than the revamped private ships that pirates used.

“I think it looks cool and fast, kind of like the Krishna.” Mimi’s feedback was valuable indeed.

“A sharp, streamlined ship,” Elma nodded. “I do like one that can get away from trouble.”

“Agreed,” said Mei. “However, I believe it may not be suited for use with the Krishna. If you wish to make use of the Krishna’s offensive power, then perhaps emphasizing durability would be best?”

“I see. Then maybe this one will agree with you more.”

The next ship to be displayed was Space Zwerg’s own SDMS-020 Skithblathnir. It was slower than the Nighthawk, but it had lots of shield capacity and thick plating. It also had plenty of cargo space, making it great for commerce. The ship design had a lot of leeway, so depending on our customizations, it could work not just as a mothership/supply ship, but also as a mining ship or research vessel.

However, with the ship being so heavy, it wasn’t very fast or mobile. That also meant it was weak to being interdicted, and even in FTL travel, it wasn’t that fast—that was also true for hyperdrive.

“It’s big and chunky!”

“I don’t mind its capabilities, but I’m not a fan of its aesthetics.”

“I believe this ship would be more effective at utilizing the Krishna’s offensive power,” Mei chimed in. “It will have trouble with interdictors due to its relatively slow faster-than-light travel, but perhaps you would find attracting pirates to be more of a benefit.”

“Yeah, true. I don’t want it to be too slow, though.”

I then showed off the third candidate: Ideal Starways’ medium mothership, the ISMS-007 Chrome Elephant. It was somewhere in between the two ships I showed before it—slower than the Nighthawk, but with more cargo and protection; faster and more mobile than the Skithblathnir, but less shield capacity, thinner plating, and limited cargo room.

“It looks rather similar to the imperial fleet’s ships, doesn’t it?” Mimi asked.

“That’s because Ideal makes their ships,” Elma explained. “Just looking at their ships brings back bad memories for me.”

“I disagree with this compromise,” Mei said. “In this ship, we may be unable to escape enemies that the Nighthawk could evade, and unable to withstand attacks that the Skithblathnir could take.”

“Denied, huh? The specs aren’t bad, though…” I shrugged. Mimi didn’t seem to mind it, but this ship didn’t sit well with Elma at all. Mei also seemed against it, so we wouldn’t be picking the Chrome Elephant. “Let’s forget about that one, then. How about we talk about the Nighthawk versus the Skithblathnir?”

“Sure.”

“Of course.”

“I-I don’t mind either… I’ll let you all choose!” Mimi quickly abstained. To be fair, she didn’t know too much about ships yet. But at this point, it looked like Elma would vote Nighthawk and Mei would vote Skithblathnir, which meant I would have to be the tiebreaker. How should we do this?

“First,” I began, “let’s talk about why we’re buying a mothership.”

“Good idea!”

“Sounds good to me.”

Mimi and Elma readily agreed to my proposal. Mei nodded in silence.

“Ultimately, our goal can be summarized as ‘making more money.’ Let’s consider what our current bottleneck is right now. I’d say that’s our lack of expandability, including cargo space.”

“The Krishna does seem to be a small craft specialized toward fighting, after all,” Mei agreed, “so that is a difficult point to cover for.”

Since the Krishna was a small battleship made with fighting in mind, it was good at its intended purpose. However, it wasn’t built with expansion in mind. With a small cargo hold, we couldn’t store much loot, putting to waste many of the things that we could otherwise get after killing tons of pirates.

“So that means the goal of buying this mothership would be procuring cargo space and expandability,” I continued. “In that case, the best of the three ships would be Skithblathnir.”

“Agreed.”

Elma rolled her eyes. “Fair enough,” she said.

“Good; I’m glad we agree so far. Now, if we only prioritize those, then the Skithblathnir is the obvious choice. Its rival, the Nighthawk, is inferior in expandability but superior in speed. Mobility is also a major factor, because escaping an ambush is always important.”

“Yep, that’s right.”

“Is it?”

This was where Elma and Mei’s views clashed.

Mei explained, “Speed would enable us to escape attacks without deploying the Krishna, but that means putting the Krishna’s offensive capabilities to waste. Yet if we deployed the Krishna and fought, a ship as large as a mothership would not be able to evade much with its meager mobility. In such a situation, the Nighthawk’s weak shields and frail plating would also become the Krishna’s weakness. In other words, the only benefits of choosing it would be slightly faster cruising and faster-than-light travel.” Her logic seemed almost flawless.

Next came Elma’s rebuttal. “Your points are good, but what about the crew’s safety? With the Skithblathnir’s size and limited mobility, we’d be sitting ducks in front of laser fire, multi-cannons, large-bore artillery, and anti-ship torpedoes. Powerful shields and plating are great and all, but we’ll still blow up if they hit us with enough firepower. The Nighthawk can’t dodge everything, either, but at least it can get into FTL travel while the Krishna buys us some time.”

“We plan to mainly fight pirates, so I believe it would be silly to expect large-bore artillery or anti-ship torpedoes,” Mei replied. “They much prefer to seize medium and large craft, rather than destroy them. They would never use such overt methods of attack. Furthermore, the Nighthawk is too small for a mothership, making it difficult to expand. I think it would be difficult for it to satisfy our basic goal of expandability.” She punctuated this with a shake of her head before adding, “There may be times when we would prefer to pilot the Nighthawk over the Krishna, but if we plan to use both ships in tandem, then I am certain that the Skithblathnir would be more well-suited to our needs.”

Finally, Mei turned to stare at me. I put a hand to my chin and thought for a moment. The way she explained it, the Skithblathnir seemed to synergize better with the Krishna. But was that true? If the Nighthawk excelled at anything, it was clearly mobility. High mobility meant low-stress piloting and speedy escape from danger zones.

“Elma will probably be the usual pilot of the mothership, and I figure the Nighthawk would be the easiest one for her to pilot,” I said after some consideration.

“Yep, that’s for sure.”

“I think so, too.”

Elma and Mimi both agreed with that. She originally piloted a fast, hard-to-control ship. It was pretty clear that instead of driving the dull Skithblathnir, she would feel more at home with the nimble Nighthawk.

“Will Miss Elma be controlling it?” Mei asked, surprised. “I was under the impression that I would pilot the mothership.”

“Oh?”

“Huh?”

Elma and I were both surprised by that statement. Huh? Why Mei? I never even thought of that.

“Yes. Miss Elma is an indispensable co-pilot for the Krishna, and likewise Miss Mimi as its operator. With that in mind, I believe it would be best for me to pilot the mothership. Fortunately, I am able to deal with any potential invasion of the ship. As long as they aren’t equipped with space suits or power armor, I can simply depressurize the inside of the ship and stop them at once.”

“That’s disgusting…” I said, imagining the gruesome sight.

Mei might’ve looked like a cool beauty with long, black hair, but she was actually a machine lifeform. As such, she could work just fine in outer space without any extra gear. If pirates came in ready to plunder, they would instead die and expel disgusting substances from every orifice. Jeez, just imagine cleaning all that up.

“I don’t plan to let pirates attack us, but if they did, I could remove them without issue.” With that, Mei put a hand to her chest and nodded sternly, as if showing some expressionless confidence. I looked to Elma, and then to Mimi. It seemed our decision was clear now.

“In that case, we’ll have to go to a star system where Space Zwerg has a production facility. Mimi and Elma, do you mind?”

“Nope, I don’t care.”

“Sure!”

“Okay, then that’s where we’re going next. Cool with that, Mei?”

“Yes, Master,” Mei agreed quietly. As it turned out, Space Zwerg had a manufacturing plant in the Vlad System, which wasn’t too far from here. It was about four hyperlanes away from the Dexar System, where we would go after the count’s defenses finished their repairs.

“The Vlad System seems to be very heavily influenced by Space Zwerg’s business,” Mimi informed us. “It and its child companies even manage the colonies.”

“Huh, really? Sounds like fun. I’m always up for unique experiences.”

“Yeah…’unique’ sure is one way to put it.” For some reason, Elma looked a little perturbed. Had she been to the Vlad System before? Meh—might as well just be excited instead of bugging her about it. She’s wary of danger, so she’ll let us know if something is up. If she’s not saying anything, then we have nothing to worry about.

Heavily influenced by Space Zwerg’s business, huh? Like a corporation’s own autonomous region? I wondered how their governmental situation worked. I can’t wait to see all of that.

 

***

 

Our surplus of free time continued into our fifth day on Kormat Prime as we waited for Count Dalenwald’s flagship repairs.

Standby orders were surprisingly stressful. Since we had to be ready to launch at any time, we couldn’t leave the ship. In Elma’s case, that meant a limit on how much she could drink. We’d been on prohibition during standby duty before, but we kinda disobeyed that since we had Mei. Yet despite that, it put a huge amount of stress on Elma. Every day, she looked a little more dead inside.

Mimi and I weren’t as stressed as her. I was kind of a lightweight, so I didn’t drink. Mimi was of age, but she didn’t partake much. That said, I was stressed about not being able to go out into space freely. I messed with some simulations to distract myself, but I wanted to fly around real space. Mimi was probably the least bothered of us right now.

“I dunno if exercising more out of boredom is healthy or not,” Elma muttered to herself, wiping the sweat from her brow. Combined with her form-fitting gym wear, she was looking awfully sexy.

“Hey, it’s healthier than getting used to boredom and living a life of depravity.”

“Perv.”

“I’m the perv? I seem to remember that you—Ow, ow!” My defiance was met with her pulling on my cheek. To be fair, we did live a life of depravity for the first three days.

Now that we had a team of four with Mei, our new rotation was two on standby and two resting. After restraining ourselves while Chris was here, being alone just kinda led to…well, y’know. But we knew we couldn’t do that forever, so we decided to live the healthy way.

“Excuse me.” Suddenly, Mimi’s voice came over the training room speaker.

“Yeah, what’s up?”

“Um, we’ve received a message from Count Dalenwald. It seems to be a summons…or maybe an invitation? He wants us all to go to his flagship.”

“Huh. I wonder what for? Well, what time? Now?”

“It says one hour from now. He also says that they will prepare lunch.”

“Lunch with nobles, eh? Sounds fun. You and Mei get ready to go out; Elma and I will rinse off.”

“Yes, Captain.” Mimi hung up, so I looked over to Elma.

“There you have it. Let’s go clean u—hey!!!” Elma threw a fresh towel right at my face. What’s the big idea?

“If I bathe with you, you’re gonna try and pull something. Hard pass.”

“Say whaaat?”

“Don’t ‘say whaaat’ me. Get serious. We’re about to go meet the count.” After totally avoiding eye contact, Elma left the training room ahead of me. She was right, to be honest. Gotta get serious.

 

***

 

After making ourselves presentable, we headed to Count Dalenwald’s flagship. Repair drones flew in and out of the hole in the ship’s white hull, still hard at work on repairs.

All of the other ships had already finished repairs, so security was returning to the Kormat System. Count Dalenwald had prioritized repairing the system’s army and his defensive unit over the flagship, allowing security to recover much faster.

“That means we won’t be needed anymore,” I mused.

“Probably not, given the system’s security,” Elma added.

Mimi chimed in, “I didn’t think much of it when we were talking about the police and the nobles governing these systems back on Tarmein Prime, but now that we’ve actually met and interacted, they certainly seem to be careful rulers.”

“Yeah, you never really get an eye for this stuff until you look at it from a mercenary’s point of view. Merchants probably see it since they perform intersystem trade, but most people who make money in their home colonies wouldn’t notice.”

“Data indicates that more than eighty percent of colonists never leave their home colony,” Mei informed us. “To them, space pirates and the forces who protect them are distant beings.”

Wow, eighty percent? The other twenty must be those mercs and merchants I mentioned. Not many other people would go between star systems. But if you consider it as one out of every five people, that doesn’t sound like a small number at all, does it?

We walked and talked until we arrived at the ladder to Count Dalenwald’s flagship. As usual, burly macho men with full body armor and laser rifles blocked our way.

“Hi there,” I greeted them. “We’re here at the behest of the count.”

“We’ve been waiting for you. May we take your weapons?”

“Of course,” I agreed, handing my laser gun and its holster over to the men. I also threw in the backup energy packs. Mimi and Elma followed suit, handing over their own weapons.

“They’re rather heavy. Do you mind?” Mei asked, giving them her black ball thing, security baton, and more. They were all made from highly compressed metal, so they were heavier than they looked. The men winced as they took them.

Seriously, where is Mei hiding all those weapons? We’re gonna need a detective on this case.

“We have waited for your arrival,” a maid greeted us when we were inside. “Please, follow me.” We seemed to be headed aft, to a higher deck of the flagship.

“It’s still a little early for lunch. I wonder what the count wants?” I asked out loud.

“He didn’t exactly spell it out in the summons…” Mimi added.

The maid didn’t seem to hear us, as the only thing she said to us was, “Please wait here.”

“All right.”

We had been brought to a large drawing room. The ship was huge, but this was one luxurious way of using space. The terrarium in the corner was chock full of plants, and the room itself was well lit, making for a refreshing setting.

“Yep, that’s high-class nobility for you,” I said. “Good taste. When we buy a mothership, we should set up a nice, relaxing space like this.”

“Sounds good to me,” Elma replied, “though I doubt we need a drawing room this formal. A casual couch, a table and chairs, and a big holo-display should go a long way.”

“A bigger cafeteria would be nice, too!” Mimi added, ever the gourmand.

“Yeah, the Krishna’s is kinda small.”

We had plenty of furnishings, but the Krishna was small, so it lacked living space. No matter how much stuff you had, there were always space limitations. Count Dalenwald’s ship made excellent use of its extravagant space, and it made an impression on us. We were planning to buy a large mothership, so it was totally possible to imitate this. I liked the terrarium, too: I definitely wanted one of those.

We looked around the room and chatted until the count and Chris entered. We all stood to greet them.

“Greetings. You may sit.” Count Dalenwald was just as intimidating and blunt as ever. Might as well just sit.

We all took our seats almost simultaneously and received black tea—more like red tea—from the maids. Count Dalenwald then shot a glance at the maids, prompting them to leave. What could he want if he was sending his servants away? I felt a sudden, intense foreboding.

“You don’t have to worry,” he reassured us. “I’m not going to force anything on you.”

“Really?”

“Christina has told me all about you. She says you prioritize freedom and hate being restrained. The Dalenwald family owes you a great deal, and we would never force you to do something you don’t want to.”

“I’m glad to hear that.” I glanced to Chris, who returned a polite smile. Oh, she’s in refined-lady mode.

“I’m rather ashamed of everything that has transpired,” the count continued. “Balthazar was always an ambitious man, but never did I think he would go this far. I was clearly mistaken…or perhaps complacent. In either case, my carelessness resulted in the loss of my son and his wife. Without you and your crew, I would have lost Christina as well. Allow me to thank you again for that.”

Count Dalenwald bowed his head, despite his expression remaining severe. It must be rare for a noble to bow his head to some crappy mercenaries. Maybe that was why he sent his servants away?

He lifted his head again. His face was still stern, but maybe he just had resting rich face. “You deserve an adequate reward for all you’ve done. I am more than able to employ you as a knight, but I imagine you would not welcome that.”

“Yeah—er, I mean, yes, sir.”

“If you do not desire territory or titles, then our options are limited. It becomes a question of what’s realistic.” Count Dalenwald waved his hand, causing a holo-display to rise. It showed calculations regarding the time it would take for the flagship to be repaired, how long the trip to the Dexar System would be, and so on. “If things progress as they have, then I will have hired you for a total of twenty-two days. I also wish to add an additional reward to that. Your total will be eight million Ener.”

I expected our bodyguarding reward to be a bit over five million, but this went above and beyond that. That’s nobility for you, giving you an extra half on top of an already-high price.

“Thank you for that,” I eagerly replied. “We were planning on buying a mothership, so that’s a major help.”

“A mothership?” Chris cocked her head. She probably didn’t hear that word every day.

“Large ships that can dock and maintain smaller ships are called motherships,” I explained to her. “You can stock more materials on them, so you can go for longer voyages and fight for longer. And with all the cargo space, we can store tons of pirate loot. If we want to make more money, it’s a great first step. Oh… Sorry, I guess I shouldn’t talk to you so informally in front of Count Dalenwald.”

“Don’t be so mean. I’ll cry!”

“Please don’t…” I snuck a glance at the count. It was hard to tell whether he noticed or not, but he simply closed his eyes and crossed his arms.

“As long as you are discreet, I don’t plan to complain. I have my own friends that go beyond social standing, too. But…” He glared at me. Oof, scary. This guy is way too intimidating. “I cannot allow you to have the relationship that Chris wants. You seem to understand that well, so that is all that I should have to say on the subject.”

“Grandfather!” Chris objected.

“I will not budge on this matter. Nobles and commoners must know their places and stay in them.” Count Dalenwald’s position was clearly set in stone here. Again, I had zero plans of trying to get involved with Chris, so I didn’t mind this development. She looked extremely peeved, though. “That ends that conversation. Now, you mentioned purchasing a mothership. The nearby Vlad System should have a ship manufacturer there, as I recall.”

“Right. That’s exactly where we plan on going. We think they have just the ship for us.”

“Then perhaps this will be of some help.” Count Dalenwald reached into his pocket and pulled out what looked to be some kind of medallion. Huh. What’s that? “This medallion is inscribed with the Dalenwald family crest. It is proof that we stand behind its bearer.”

He held out the medallion. Can I really just…take it? Like, just pull it out of his hand?

“It won’t do anything to bind you to our family, of course,” he assured me. “It simply means that we vouch for you as a person worthy of trust.”

“That sounds like a big deal…” I said. In other words, if I did anything dishonorable while I had this, it would affect the Dalenwald family by extension. Accepting it felt a little intimidating.

“Worry not. I’m not trying to force anything upon you, as I said before. You may not find many uses for it, but if anyone gives you trouble, they’ll think twice if you show them that. Furthermore, Space Zwerg of the Vlad System imports many metal resources from our territory. Dwarves have a strong sense of duty. Present that medallion, and they’ll treat you well.”

With that, Count Dalenwald tossed the medallion in my direction. I frantically caught it on its way down. It was a lot bigger than a 500-yen coin, but it wasn’t as heavy as I expected.

It was made of a shiny silver metal, but it didn’t seem like any metal I had ever seen. Definitely not aluminum, at least. Maybe it was silver? I had never cared much for silver accessories, so I couldn’t tell the difference. At any rate, it would be rude to give it back now.

“Heh,” I chuckled. “Pushy.”

“You can’t be a count without some measure of pushiness.” Count Dalenwald smirked—just slightly though. That was probably the best smile he could muster. “That’s all I have to say. I have some errands, but I would like you all to eat lunch with Christina.”

“Grandfather?” Chris looked up at him.

“I have negotiations with the imperial fleet. Both of us are in a frenzy thanks to my son.” Count Dalenwald heaved a sigh and stood up. I tried to stand too, but he gestured for me to stay. “I want you to spend time with Chris. She’s been rather bored these past five days, you see.”

The count said good-bye and began to walk, dignified as ever, out of the room. Suddenly, he stopped and looked to Mimi. “Incidentally,” he said, “have you and I met before?”

“W-Wha?! M-me?!” Mimi stammered. “N-no, I…don’t think so. Chris—sorry, Christina—was the first noble I’ve ever spoken with.”

“Hmm…I see. My apologies for the strange question.”

“I-it’s okay!” Mimi shrunk back and shook her head. As a lifelong imperial citizen and a commoner, she couldn’t handle a nobleman like Count Dalenwald. The poor girl was so shaken.

But what was the deal with all that? Was the count actually mistaken, or did she just look like someone else? It’s not gonna turn out that Mimi is actually a noblewoman, right? Right?

 

***

 

“Damn, I didn’t think we’d make this much.”

“That’s a glimpse at the wallet of a noble with territory,” Elma said sagely.

“So…much…money…” Mimi’s eyes were spinning.

After lunch with Chris, we returned to the Krishna and gathered in the cafeteria to discuss the sum that Count Dalenwald had revealed to us.

It was honestly shocking. Bodyguard fees plus our bonus totaled out to eight million Ener in one go. That was eight hundred million yen! Not to mention we had made eight million Ener already by bringing Chris to him safe and sound, so that meant Count Dalenwald had given us a total of sixteen million Ener for this whole crazy chain of events. What a big spender.

Anyway, Mimi’s cut was 0.5%, meaning that she earned 40,000 Ener. Elma’s 3% netted her 24,000 Ener. The remaining 7.72 million Ener made up my personal cut. My funds were about 24.4 million before, so now I would be at 32.1 million. Anything past that first decimal point got eaten up by ammunition, fuel, and docking costs, so I just truncated it for simplicity.

We had estimated the price of a mothership at thirty million Ener, but we could expect some discounts thanks to Count Dalenwald, so maybe we could splurge on its specs a little more.

“Urrgh…” Mimi groaned to herself, covered in sweat as she looked at her Ener balance. Hm? 0.5% isn’t that much. It just doesn’t feel right for me to take 7.72 million while Mimi only gets 40,000… Okay, I got this.

“By the way, Mimi. You’ve gotten pretty used to your operator work lately, right?”

“Huh?! Um…yes?” She jumped. My declaration must have taken her by surprise.

“Yep,” Elma agreed. “She’s finished her training, and she’s off to a good start.” It was unclear whether she knew what I was getting at or not.

“I’d say it’s about time we looked into increasing Mimi’s cut.”

“Ah? N-no, thank you! I’m fine!” Mimi waved her hands frantically, still holding her tablet. Why was she so against getting a raise?

“Don’t be like that. When you get more responsibilities, you should get higher pay to match. You’re already successfully taking care of docking permission, refueling and refilling ammunition, and selling off loot. You even know how to handle communications and watch the radar. Don’t you deserve to be paid what you’re worth?”

“He’s right. Half a percent is as low as it goes. Why not make it a full one percent?”

“Yeah. That means you’ll get 80,000 instead of—”

“I-I’m fine! Next time! We can do it next time!”

“C’mon,” I urged. “We made a ton of money, so let’s do it right this time.” I was confused by Mimi’s strange refusal. I could see resisting a pay decrease, but a pay increase? That’s just bizarre.

“I could never use that much money!” Mimi screamed.

Elma and I looked at each other.

“You can’t even customize a zabuton for 80,000 Ener,” I said.

“Yup,” she agreed. “That won’t buy you even the crappiest generator.”

The zabuton was the ship which every Stella Online player started with. It was rectangular and flat, so people liked to call it the zabuton, after the real-life cushion. That was SOL slang, but for some reason, Elma understood it. It was moments like this when I had to wonder if this was a different universe or not.

“Please don’t talk to me with your views about money,” Mimi complained. “I’m a common person. 40,000 Ener is enough to live in luxury for an entire year.”

“Is it? I guess that does sound about right.”

Multiplying that by a hundred to convert to Japanese yen would put her at four million yen. Ignore taxes and insurance, and that would be enough to live a whole year with some leeway. Water, air, and housing were expensive in this universe, but food was extremely cheap.

“But anyway, things are different out here,” I told her. “If you’re that serious, then we’ll leave it at half a percent this time and bump you up to a full percent next time and from there onward. That’s my decision.”

“Gulp…okay.” Mimi sighed and muttered some complaint under her breath.

It wasn’t like she had to use money immediately. She could just save it up. If Mimi ever had to leave this ship for any reason, her savings would naturally be a huge help.

Aww. Imagining a life without Mimi just makes me feel sad. Okay, calm down. Breathe in…breathe out.

“What are you doing? It’s creeping me out…” Elma said, but I honestly thought she was sweet for worrying about me.

“Nah, I’m fine. Don’t worry about it; just had some bad thoughts. By the way, what should we do about Mei’s reward?”

Mei cocked her head at my question. “My reward?”

“Yeah. You’re working as a crew member here. Cleaning and other odd jobs, assisting us, teaching sometimes, even being a bodyguard. You do plenty of work, don’t you?”

“I see. But that will not be necessary. The Steel Chef 5 handles the ship’s meals single-handedly, yet you wouldn’t pay it a reward. I am the same. It is my duty as a Maidroid to carry out any orders that you give me.”

“But you need clothes and stuff, right?”

“I have my maid outfit and some backups, so that won’t be necessary. If I require anything for work, then I will ask you.”

Was that how it worked? I looked over to the girls, but Mimi cocked her head and Elma nodded to me. I guess that’s how it works. Huh.

“Okay,” I gave in. “But seriously. If you need anything, don’t hesitate to ask.”

“Yes. Thank you for asking.” Mei bowed and righted herself again, looking awfully happy. Maybe I was going crazy, but I think she liked my concern.

Things sure were different in this universe.