Chapter 430: Daily Routine
I woke up to the sound of the alarm from my portable info terminal. It felt like I was still a bit sleepy and tired in both mind and body, but since this was mostly the result of my actions, I decided to ignore it. I’m sure I’d recover once I moved my body a little and took a shower.
“Fuwaa…… Good mowning.”
Perhaps sensing that I’d woken up, Mimi, who was sleeping next to me, seemed to have woken up as well. Her sleepy voice was quite enchanting.
“You can go back to sleep if you want.”
“Since you’re already awake Hiro-sama, then I better get up as well…… Nn. Alright. Let’s get up.”
Mimi’s bleary expression gradually regained its liveliness. I think she’s gotten better at waking up compared to when she first boarded my ship. That’s probably because she’s gotten used to the mercenary life already.
It’s not exactly regret, but whenever I saw parts of her that had greatly changed from how she was before, I felt guilty of possibly leading Mimi down a different path rather than what she was originally supposed to be like. Well, if I hadn’t intervened when I first met, or rather, caught sight of her, I believe her fate might have been much, much darker, but I still couldn’t help but think that way.
Perhaps, considering Mimi’s luck, things might have actually worked out for her even without me in the picture, but…… No, there’s no point in dwelling on what-ifs.
“Let’s go take a shower first.”
“Yes! Let’s clean ourselves up!”
I headed to the shower room with Mimi, who was hugging my arm. Well, well. I just woke up and I get to take a shower together with a beautiful girl with big breasts. I’ve certainly hit it big ever since coming to this world huh?
After spending a fun time inside the shower with Mimi, we headed to the dining hall and found someone was already present.
“Good morning, you two.”
“Morning, Elma. Feeling sharp so early in the morning. In other words, you probably drank too much last night huh?”
It was Elma, a silver-haired elf who served as the pilot of the Antlion – the second ship of our little mercenary group. She was happily gorging on artificial meat steak and something that resembled potato salad that was made via auto-cooker even though it was still early morning.
Her build was slim, but her physical abilities were actually higher than mine. A gorilla wearing an elven skin…… Well, I shouldn’t say that out loud since she’d probably fold my body in several places. Literally.
“It’s fine, right? Alcohol is the spice of life.”
“I won’t care about you if Dr. Shouko gets mad and scolds you.”
Judging from Elma’s reaction, it was clear that she had used the medical pod in order to sober up when morning came. Dr. Shouko, who recently became our ship doctor, wasn’t the kind to nitpick too much, but if she goes too far, I’m sure Elma will get a good scolding from her.
“Ah, good mornin’. Looks like you two managed to wake up early, Boss.”
While Mimi and I were receiving our breakfast from the automatic cooker Tetsujin V, a cheerful voice echoed throughout the dining room. When I turned my gaze to the source of said voice, I saw a red-haired and blue-haired pair of young girls. Or rather, dwarves.
“Good morning, Big Brother, Mimi-san.”
“Good morning to you too, Tina, Wiska. Are you gonna have your breakfast now?”
“Nah. Just a short break. We already woke up quite a while ago.”
While saying so, Tina headed toward the refrigerator containing beverages. Wiska seemed to be ordering some snacks from Tetsujin, and then walked toward us.
“Since we’re gonna be engagin’ in intense combat again, we were checkin’ the inventory of materials and duplicatin’ spare parts that’s prone to get subjected to wear and tear.”
“I see. Make a list of supplies you guys think we need in advance. We’ll get those supplies immediately once we arrive at the Imperial Space Force supply depot.”
“Okay, leave it to us.”
“Mm, I’ll be counting on you two. Come to think of it, you brought back a lot of items as well, right, Mimi?”
“Yes, I bought some luxury goods that tend to be in short supply on the front-lines at the colony we stopped by along the way.”
In the Reemay Prime colony, where we were staying previously, there was a general shortage of goods, leading to relatively high prices. Mimi excitedly went out to stock up on luxury goods that tended to fetch high prices on the front lines when we stopped over a random colony on the way to the gateway.
“Sounds great. Well then, let’s eat up and work hard again today.”
“Yes!”
Since we’re living a free-spirited mercenary life daily, it’s important to follow a well-regulated schedule. At least that’s what I think.
This was the gist of my daily routine. After waking up, the first thing I do in the morning is take a shower. Oftentimes, I took it together with the one I spent the night with. It was a fun time.
After that, I’d have breakfast and head to the training room for a workout. I often did this together with someone as well, but there were times I worked out alone. After the workout, I’d take a shower again and look around the ship. I did this primarily to see if there were any abnormalities, but it was also to strengthen my legs by walking around the huge Black Lotus. This was also part of the training.
Greeting each of the crew members I encountered while doing my rounds was also important to facilitate healthy communication. Also, I made sure to check if my face looked pale or if my expression was gloomy.
But these days, I think it’s better to rely on an expert for this sort of stuff.
“Hm. You look a bit sleep-deprived, but you’re relatively healthy otherwise. Did you have some fun last night?”
“Yeah. But isn’t that question a form of sexual harassment Doc?”
“The question was from a medical standpoint, so it doesn’t qualify as sexual harassment.”
Dr. Shouko responded with a grin. I highly doubt that the question was really from a medical standpoint, but it’s not like I was bothered by it all that much.
“If you’re suffering from exhaustion due to your nightly trysts, I’d probably prescribe you some supplements, but judging from your blood circulation and other factors, there doesn’t seem to be any problems for the most part.”
“Our chef is excellent after all.”
“It really is. It’s great that you can get enough nutrition even without relying on supplements due to that guy.”
Our high-performance automatic cooker, Tetsujin V, automatically determined the amount of exercise undertaken and the overall health status of the crew members, then served them suitable meals. It seemed that it was able to make such decisions based on information gathered from various sensors inside the ship. It’s great because it was pretty convenient.
“By the way, what exactly is Kugi up to? Or rather, what the heck are you having her do?”
After saying so, I turned my gaze toward Kugi, who was sitting nearby while wearing some sort of strange headgear. The fox ears on top of her head were standing up straight, and the three tails sticking out of her buttocks were also swaying back and forth gently, so it seemed that she wasn’t exactly bothered by what she was doing.
“Hello, My Lord. I am currently cooperating with Dr. Shouko’s research.”
“The people of the Holy Vuelzarus empire don’t travel outside their country very often, and even if they do, there are few chances to procure genetic information from them. There are a lot of interesting points about them, so I asked Kugi-kun for her cooperation. It’s difficult to use psionic abilities unless you have an innate talent for it, right? Unfortunately, out of all the crew members, I, Mimi-kun, Wiska-kun, and Tina-kun have no disposition for it. But there’s you, Kugi-kun, and Elma-kun, who do have the talent for it. Most of us are of different races, and the presence or absence of psionic abilities in each of us doesn’t display any discernible patterns, but interbreeding is actually possible…… In other words, each of our genetic makeups are actually pretty close and–”
Dr. Shouko started speaking at a rapid pace. Some people acted like this whenever they talked about their field of expertise. She was still talking, but I was only able to understand about half of what she was discussing.
“You can refuse if you don’t like it, y’know?”
“Yes, My Lord. But the doctor seems to be having fun, so–”
“Well, I guess…… I’ll be done with my rounds after checking out Mei’s place, so I’m thinking of training afterward.”
Kugi was currently undergoing training as Krishna’s sub-pilot, but she was also my mentor when it came to learning about my psionic abilities.
“Understood. Please come to my room later.”
“Got it. Oh, and Dr. Shouko. I’ll be continuing with my rounds now.”
“Hmm, is that so? I suppose keeping you here wouldn’t do then. I’ll see you later.”
“Okay. Try not to overdo it with work.”
I waved at the two of them and left the medical bay. Now then, let’s continue with our daily routine, shall we?
As soon as I entered the cockpit of the Black Lotus, I was immediately able to find Mei. Well, she was out in the open, so it wasn’t all that difficult to find her in the first place. She’s standing at her usual spot, so there’s no way I’d miss her.
“Good morning, Master.”
Mei turned around and gave me a morning greeting. Un, a real beauty indeed. I was the one who designed Mei’s appearance, so it felt like patting myself on the back, but she really was a beauty. Moreover, she wasn’t just beautiful, but also strong and versatile. As expected of the strongest maid I came up with.
“Good morning, Mei. Are there no problems with the navigation?”
“Everything is going quite well. We are scheduled to arrive at our target destination in approximately fifty-two hours.”
“Sounds great. Sorry for always leaving this to you.”
“No, Master. For me, being of use to Master is what makes me happy the most. Hence, there is no need for you to apologize like that, Master.”
“I know that, but……”
Not only was Mei in full control of the Black Lotus, but she also took on countless other tasks at the same time, such as serving as my training partner and acting as the other girl’s manager and life advisor. Honestly, I always felt that I was placing too much burden onto her and I owe her a lot.
“I am happy enough with your thoughts and consideration, Master. But if you insist……”
“If I insist?”
“Can you please give me a hug as a reward?”
“Okay.”
Honestly, this felt more like a reward for me, but if Mei wanted it, then I could only comply. I went over to Mei’s side and hugged her while being careful not to touch the cables connected to her neck and lower back. Ah, was Mei truly a maidroid? Even though she was a machine, she was soft, and warm, and smelled so good. It was quite a strange disconnect.
However, she was pretty heavy due to being a machine, and she was too heavy for me to lift on my own. But I couldn’t feel that in the slightest when hugging her like this though.
“Thank you very much. This will allow me to operate continuously for at least a month.”
“Don’t operate without stopping for a month for real though, okay? I’ll give you as many hugs as you want in exchange.”
Or rather, it was bad for Mei not to enter her maintenance pod regularly. As expected, something would probably go wrong with her body if she went without maintenance for a month.
And so, I regularly performed my daily routine as we continued heading toward our next destination. Living a life as a mercenary gave one a lot of free time while moving from place to place, so a daily routine was actually quite important. This was for taking on extraordinary challenges that might result in getting shot down and dying.
After dealing with the pandemic at the Reemay Prime colony, we headed for the Creon star system as our next destination.
The Creon star system wasn’t a particularly remarkable one. There were no planets particularly suitable for habitation, but traveling to the system was relatively convenient, and the mineral resources were pretty abundant as well. Compared to other star systems, it was a pretty run-off-the-mill one. The problem lay in the Creon star system being located smack dab in disputed space between the Graccan Empire and the Vereverem Federation.
Currently, the Graccan Empire was effectively in control, but it was previously a territory of the Vereverem Federation. Was it really suitable to call it a territory though? How about calling it a region instead? Nah, let’s go with territory. Anyway, it was previously claimed by the Vereverem Federation. However, as a result of wars between the two powers in the past, the Graccan Empire gained control of several surrounding star systems, including the Creon star system.
But the Vereverem Federation had not yet given up on regaining said territories and persisted in demanding the return of the ones they’d lost to the Graccan Empire, including the Creon star system. As a result, it and the surrounding star systems had turned into a conflict zone between the two powers, where they continuously engaged in skirmishes.
Well, for us mercenaries, all that historical claims stuff was of no concern. What’s important was that the surrounding star systems in the conflict zone, including the Creon star system, were all good places to earn tons of cash. However, even though they were good places for making money, operating within them was also quite dangerous.
Normally, we’d target pirates attacking civilian ships, and we’d try as much as possible to stay out of the conflict between the two major powers. As they say, the greater the profits, the greater the risk.
That’s not to imply that dealing with pirates was absolutely safe. But compared to fighting regular or irregular military forces that have snuck into the conflict zone, the level of danger posed by pirates was way lower. It’s only natural that genuine combat ships equipped with the latest bells and whistles were a lot more dangerous compared to modified civilian ships slapped with whatever equipment the pirates managed to get their hands on.
There’s no need to take such high risks just to make money, so I actually wanted to refuse this request…… However, that wasn’t possible this time around. Apparently, His Imperial Majesty the Emperor, who ruled over the entire Graccan Empire, personally ordered me to join up with the Imperial Space Force. It made me wonder about just what that guy was up to.
“You also have it hard huh, Captain Serena?”
“Now that we’ve met up, we’re already in the same boat. I’m going to work you hard, so be prepared.”
That’s what Captain Serena said with a smile when we met again less than thirty minutes after arriving at the Imperial Space Force’s supply base in the Creon star system. Her mouth displayed a smile, but it didn’t reach her eyes. Judging from her current behavior, there was definitely some kind of mess we weren’t aware of yet. Goddammit. That f*cking emperor! I’ll make you pay for this someday; you hear me!?
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