Interrogation and Serena-sama

Well then, I guess it's about time to talk a little bit about me, a guy formerly

named Takahiro Satou.

Japanese. Born and bred in Hokkaido. Twenty-seven years old. Single. After

finishing high school, I studied and graduated from a local technical

university and worked for a local company soon after. I dated a woman I

managed to hook up with on the net in my college days, but it was a longdistance relationship and we soon broke up. I was hired as an in-house

network administrator just because I could use a PC fairly well, but I had no

specialized knowledge so I had to learn everything from scratch as I went

about work.

I spent my days cracking down on employees accessing news sites, mail

order sites and suspicious browser games and ero-sites during working

hours.

My hobby is gaming. Just gaming. I had broad tastes, and I played just about

every genre from both Japanese and Western titles. I became addicted to a

certain FPS game and managed to become the Scoring King and a Single

Digit Ranker after piling up copious amounts of effort for a considerable

amount of time.

There wasn't enough leeway to take the overall number 1 spot, but I was in

the running for number 1 or 2 in Japan at the time. I spent my days' fragging

mooks so much that my gaze turned into something my co-workers

described as "super sharp and way too scary".

But those days were eventually replaced by times spent adventuring all over

the vast universe when Stella Online went live. I also got into it quite a lot.

That's about all I can say about me… Oh, and my favorite food is

carbonated drinks. I can't get enough of that feeling when the bubbly

goodness goes down my throat.

Well then, I've been talking a lot of nonsense, but what really is my current

situation right now?

"So tell me, sir, just where did you get a hold of this large amount of rare

metals?"

"Like I told you, they're something I acquired from the pirates I managed to

shoot down earlier. What other explanation do you want?"

I was now being grilled by the port authorities.

It was great that brewed alcohol wasn't an illegal item on this particular

colony, but my stash of rare metals was being thoroughly investigated. And

honestly, no matter how much they questioned me about how I managed to

get them, I actually had absolutely no idea myself, so I had no other choice

but to downplay the matter and hope for the best.

My current identity was that of a self-proclaimed mercenary without any

official affiliation. I had nothing on me which could confirm my identity.

What if such a blatantly shady guy suddenly turned up and brought in a large

number of rare metals? Utterly suspicious. It was a matter totally reeking of

suspiciousness. The officer in charge of port security strictly interrogating

such a guy was definitely within reason.

"...Do you really have no intention of telling me where the heck they're

from sir?"

"I've already told you about how I got this stuff way earlier man. I'm really

starting to get tired of this meaningless back-and-forth convo officer."

It really feels like this guy's deliberately talking in circles. Is he waiting for

me to get pissed off and slip out some useful info or something? Or is he

after something else entirely? Like hush money maybe.

The heck? When I made a gesture implying that I'm willing to fork

something out under the table, the reaction I got was "Are you trying to drag

me down with you by offering that huh? You're thinking of either

threatening me or begging me to let you off by using that as leverage aren't

you?" Seems like trying to make a deal with this kind of straight-laced

fellow was just a waste of time.

So what should I do now…?

While I was in the middle of mulling over my options, the door of the

interrogation room suddenly opened without so much as a knock and

someone walked straight in.

It was a young woman. No, it would also be appropriate to call her a young

girl. And she was totally hot too. She held a dignified posture, had lustrous

blonde hair and ruby red eyes. She was clad in a crisp white military uniform

wrapped by a red mantle and sported a sheathed sword on her dainty waist.

Her visage looked very much like an ideal female knight or a beautiful war

maiden.

She gave an impression of being a lady of few words, but I managed to

notice a sharp, predatory glint flash within the depths of her eyes for a

moment. Looks like she was a lady who can't be judged solely on her

appearance.

"Serena-sama! Why are you in a place such as this my lady?"

"I saw an unfamiliar ship parked on the hangar bay. Is he the shipowner?"

"Uh- Err-"

The port officer, who suddenly became all jittery, handed over something

which looked like a tablet terminal to the female soldier named Serena. Her

gaze then turned towards me after looking over the contents displayed by the

terminal.

"This is quite a large amount of rare metals. You didn't happen to procure all

of this illegally now, did you?"

"I swear on my life I didn't."

"Hmm… A self-styled mercenary unregistered with the Mercenary Guild

who just managed to shoot down some pirates huh. Do you have anything

else you wish to report perhaps?"

"I have some data regarding the coordinates of their main base on my ship. I

obtained it from analyzing the data caches of the pirates I shot down. I was

originally planning on handing over this info along with claiming the bounty

rewards for those pirate ships, but when our dear officer got a look at my

cargo items, I was suddenly pulled into here."

I spoke in a way that emphasized how troublesome my current

circumstances were while shrugging my shoulders at the female soldier in

front of me.

I guess she's someone directly affiliated with the System Military. It seemed

like her rank's way above our dear port officer here, so I planned on showing

her a fully cooperative attitude so she would consider letting me off.

"There's no evidence indicating that his cargo is stolen goods, correct?"

"Y- Yes, that's right. But still-"

"Well then, it should be fine to let him go. I believe he plans to unload all his

cargo on this colony, correct? Considering the difficulty of procuring rare

metal supplies nowadays, I don't think this poses any issues to be

particularly concerned about, right?"

"H- However..."

"However? Do you have any other opinion you wish to share with me, the

daughter of Marquis Holz?"

"No, but my lady…"

"Speaking of which, I've recently received some reports about a port officer

who has been making it difficult for ships to unload their cargo inside this

colony without handing over some sort of bribe first."

The female soldier named Serena smiled beatifically at the port officer. The

port officer who was being smiled to was trembling in trepidation. I was also

trembling involuntarily. This was the first time I felt a smile was actually

scary.

"I- I would never do such a thing!"

"We are going to acquire some rare metals at a reasonable price, this selfstyled mercenary who has managed to shoot down pirates will claim his

reward and receive some Enel, and he is going to use that Enel to purchase

things from our colony afterward. With this, everyone will stand to benefit;

do you not think so?"

"Y- Yes, ma'am! You're absolutely correct! I shall process the required

documents immediately!"

The port officer hurriedly stood up from his seat and went out of the

interrogation room. Nah, it looked more like he was escaping for dear life. I

ended up all alone in the room with the female soldier he called Serenasama. Serena gazed at the fleeing figure of the port officer for a few

moments and then turned her attention back to me.

"My apologies. He's a little too serious regarding his job."

"No, well… I admit I actually seem quite suspicious so I guess it couldn't be

helped."

Yeah, I was definitely suspicious so it was inevitable. I don't have activity

records stored in any mercenary guild within the area. Actually, there won't

even be records of my ship in any of the neighboring star systems as well.

Moreover, the name data portion of the ship registry was corrupted. They did

manage to match my biometric data with those recorded on the ship for

authentication, so I somehow managed to keep it from being confiscated, but

one small mistake and it would have been taken away.

"Yes, so much so that it wouldn't surprise me if you said you strayed from

another faraway galaxy into this one. How exactly did you manage to arrive

on this star system?"

"There seems to have been an accident while my ship was on Hyperdrive.

I'm not sure if the accident was what caused it, but I think I've lost most of

my memories.

While I was still confused about what happened, I was suddenly attacked by

pirates. I somehow managed to beat them, looted their cargo and data caches

and managed to arrive at this station after analyzing the data.

Fortunately, I managed to remember my own name and the fact that I was a

mercenary."

I talked about myself while mixing truths and lies. I thought about this

particular background setting while in the middle of being interrogated by

that port officer earlier. There were no parts to retort over in particular, but it

was a story that can be considered a bit over the top from another person's

perspective.

"You've lost your memory, you say? Are you actually not a spy from the

Vereverem Federation, perhaps?"

"Now that's something impossible. But let's say I really am a spy for that…

err… Berebere Federation…?"

"It's the Vereverem Federation."

"Right. As a spy for that Vereverem Federation, would it make sense for me

to take a shipment of rare metals of unknown origin, board an unidentified

ship and casually waltz right inside this Colony? And as an unregistered selfproclaimed mercenary at that. It's just too conspicuous. If I were a

spymaster, I'd immediately recall that spy after reading up on his absurd

mission plan and give him a thorough beating."

You could also say this was all part of an elaborate ruse, but that's just

pushing it.

"I think I'd also do the same if I were that spymaster."

The lady soldier let out a soft peal of laughter. She's pretty cute when she

laughs like that. But she seems to be the really assertive type, and I'm

actually no good with those.

"Well, I guess this is good enough. I'm going to get in touch with the

military base, so please go ahead and feel free to collect your rewards and

turn in those data caches."

"Thank you."

She seemed to leave the room sporting a satisfied expression after I bowed

to her in honest gratitude… but turned around before she actually made it

outside.

"You're one interesting fellow. We will devise a mop-up operation using the

information you have as a reference, so be sure to participate, alright?"

She gave me a mesmerizing smile and promptly left. It didn't have that

overwhelming aura of coercion like earlier, but I instinctively felt some sort

of danger from that beautiful visage.

Pirate extermination missions were definitely profitable… but I felt getting

involved with her was bad news for some reason.

The port officer came back a little bit later and I was finally released from

the interrogation room. I've gotten quite hungry from the whole ordeal.

"Well then, we will proceed with the rare metal exchange. The total price is

2,500,000 Enel. Please confirm."

"Yep."

I activated a smartphone shaped information terminal and confirmed that 2.5

million Enel has been indeed transferred over to my personal account. This

miniature information device was usually placed inside Krishna's living

quarters and was widely popular all throughout the galaxy. This baby can

function as a portable communicator, space navigator, e-wallet and do much

other cool stuff.

There was a lot of other useful stuff inside the living quarters, but what I

brought out this time was only this information terminal and a laser gun for

self-defense. The laser gun along with its holster was confiscated when I was

taken to the interrogation room, so I had them return it earlier.

"There's nothing else right? I'd like to go to the Sector Guard headquarters

to claim my prize now so I can go back to my ship and rest soon."

"Yes. There is nothing else. We are sorry for taking up your time."

"That so. Later then."

There's nothing more to gain by dawdling in this place, so I finally left the

Port Security Department office behind. The next stop would be the star

system military base, but thanks to that lady soldier named Serena, the

process went relatively smoothly when I arrived.

The bounty for those pirates totaling 19,000 Enel and the information reward

of 150,000 Enel was given to me without much fuss. My net worth now

totals 2,669,000 Enel! That's a lot man!

I inquired about the prices of commodities on this Colony next and this was

the general gist of things: about 5 Enel for food. 10 to 15 Enels if you want

them a bit fancier. 3 Enels for a liter of clean water. The ship berthing fee

was 150 Enel per 24 hours. Hm, so an Enel is roughly equivalent to 100 Yen

huh? Basing on that, the water seems kinda expensive. The berthing fee

being 15,000 Yen a day also seems quite costly as well.

Well, considering this is a Colony and all, even the air I'm breathing should

cost quite a lot. And water's an equally important resource. If you look at it

that way, these prices seem to be quite reasonable, given the circumstances.

So, if I don't rent out a room inside the Colony and just sleep on the ship, the

cost of living in this Colony per day should total about 15 Enels for three

meals, 12 Enels for 4 liters of water and the berthing fee of 150 Enels. All in

all, it's a total of 177 Enels.

Hey, I can actually live here for 40 years fairly easily. Well, if I do stay here

for that long, I'm sure I'll encounter another set of problems. It would be

better if I can find someplace to convert into a base and settle down there.

Anyway, I got more than enough cash to spend on daily living as long as I

don't splurge like crazy. When people manage to get a lot of money, it's like

all their worries just disappear into thin air. I walked back to my ship with an

evident spring in my steps.