Elma

"Strange."

"What? Doesn't tonight's dinner suit your taste? This is a special dinner

made from high-quality food cartridges and artificial meat, y'know."

"That's not it~! Why is this place so...!?"

Elma suddenly stood up from her seat, making it rattle.

"Why is a mercenary ship like this one so freaking luxurious!?" Elma

exclaimed as she pointed her finger at the newly refurbished, sparkling

clean dining room. Uh, even if you ask that…

"Y'see, I think a comfortable living environment is very important.

Delicious meals, clean rooms, clean and comfortable beds, and other such

things have a positive impact, both physically and mentally, on the people

who spend their time living in such a space."

"I understand the logic… I understand, but…! This just looks like the inside

of an ultra-luxurious passenger space cruiser!"

"It was money well spent. That was a truly satisfying shopping experience.

You did great for looking up such a nice place, Mimi."

"Ee~eh!"

"Nn…!"

Elma bit her lip in frustration, which got distorted into a strange shape, due

to failing to get her meaning across.

"Elma."

"What!?"

"Other people have their own circumstances. This is ours. Get used to it."

"Kuh… I understand."

Elma was still reeling from having her image of mercenaries completely

upended and kept muttering from time to time, but she at least began to eat.

I also went ahead and brought chef Tetsujin's specially made dinner to my

mouth.

Meals using ordinary food cartridges were plenty tasty already, but these

high-quality ones were a class of their own. The artificial meat steak was

also a lot tastier than usual. It's the same meat like the ones we cooked

using the previous auto-cooker before it was replaced. But why is the taste

of this particular steak so different? All hail the power of Chef Tetsujin!

"It's delicious, right?"

"…It's delicious to the point that made me think all other food I've eaten

before utterly pales in comparison."

"I really get you."

"I understand that feeling too."

Mimi and I deeply agreed with Elma's comment and nodded approvingly.

Chef Tetsujin is just that impressive. It's scary how effortlessly he's

conquering our collective palates. For example, the taste of the artificial

meat is enhanced by two or three levels; the exquisite meaty flavor cooked

with just the right heat and timing, and the fragrant aroma of spices was all

spot-on. It was a dish overflowing with such fine craftsmanship. This was

the quality of the meals Chef Tetsujin cooks. We spent the rest of the time

making small talk and proceeded to take turns having a bath after our meal.

"Please teach Elma how to use the bathroom facilities. Or rather, wouldn't

it be fine if you guys just entered together?"

"I guess you're right. Shall we then?"

"How to use the facilities…? Well, I guess I don't mind."

Elma tilted her head curiously but ended up agreeing, so I left her to Mimi,

and entered the bath first. Ah, this full-body automated massage is darn

amazing! It did seem to use up a lot of hot water, but because the bathroom

makes use of an advanced water purification technology, the actual water

consumption was practically nill. There's also the added benefit of not

having to worry about running out of water, even on long voyages. After I

finished bathing, I went out and headed back to the dining room just

wearing a plain t-shirt and half-pants. I found Elma and Mimi whispering

among themselves.

"Yo, I'm done, you guys."

"Piiiii~!"

"Whoah!"

Elma, who was busy having some sort of hush-hush girl-talk with Mimi,

got startled and cried out with a weird voice, which ended up surprising me

as well. Just what is with her all of a sudden? Is she trying to imitate a

sparrow's cry or something?

"W- Well now, you finished quite quickly, didn't you!?"

"Not really. It's how long I usually take… Hey, you okay? Your face is

pale."

"I- I- I'm quite f- fine, thank you! I'm completely okay!"

"A- alright…"

I turned towards Mimi with a questioning gaze but just got an ambiguouslooking smile in return. What? What's going on? There was a growing

sense of uneasiness building up inside me. I think there was a big

misunderstanding going on around here. I somehow strongly felt that way.

"Hiro-sama, I'll go ahead and enter the bath with Elma-san, okay?"

"Go right ahead."

I let both of them go while still feeling that weird sense of unease. Hm?

Elma seems strangely jittery for some reason…? And Mimi seems kind of

lonely…? I don't get it.

Well, I won't get anywhere mulling about things I don't get anyway. It's a

waste of brain cells. I'm not particularly trying to toss it to the backburner

y'know. This is what's called the efficient use of thinking power. And so, I

stopped thinking about Elma's unusual behavior and decided on considering

my future plans in my room.

Today's event nearly drained my wallet, so I'll have to earn some more

money as soon as possible. To prepare for the possibility of our ship getting

severely damaged, I need to make at least 100 million Enel.

"Hmm…"

I ended up looking at the mercenary request notices on my terminal. It isn't

like there wasn't any job worth good money, but almost all of them are

cargo transport requests. They mainly entail transporting goods produced

from Termaine Prime to other star systems through a series of relatively

dangerous space routes and sectors. Depending on the amount and value of

the goods, you'll get one to three million Enel in compensation. If you can

transport goods efficiently, you'd make quite the killing.

But unfortunately, Krishna's cargo bay isn't large enough to hold a lot of

items. Carrying a small number of goods to different star systems would

make one enough to cover for the fuel and maintenance costs. But with

Krishna's limited loading capacity, making cargo transport our main source

of income would be quite inefficient.

"Guess it's bounty hunting after all."

The main base of the large-scale pirate fleet operating in this system was

successfully destroyed some days ago, but pirates, by nature, are not

monolithic. There are those small-scale outlier groups not affiliated with

large fleets that try not to be too conspicuous in their activities. They only

go active whenever a large-scale pirate subjugation ends. This is because

the overall alert level of the star system military would inevitably turn lax

after a successful subjugation operation ends.

"Let's aim for the asteroid belt area then."

The resource-rich asteroid belt area is frequented by both private mining

ships and pirates aiming for said ships. I'm gonna earn some bounty money

tomorrow by hunting down those pirates.

Once I decided on my course of action, I proceeded to search for an ideal

hunting point. I'm sure the pirates wouldn't dare to operate in the areas

close to the territories of the Vereverem Federation. The situation would be

similar in the sectors near the Termaine Prime colony, where the military's

main base is located.

The military was currently busy sorting out and recovering the usable debris

and damaged, inactive ships in the vicinity of the former pirate base, so the

security was pretty tight, with practically no gaps which can be exploited to

worm in on the area.

"So my only options are this area, that area and this one too…"

I selected spots where the pirates are more likely to appear. Next, I needed

to pinpoint the areas frequented by private mining vessels. Even if the area

was a favorite pirate hang-out, there would be no point if there weren't any

mining vessels to prey upon. If there was no prey available, even pirates

would get fed up.

However, honestly speaking, the exact coordinates of places classified as

popular mining points or "resource-rich areas" are tightly guarded by the

private mining firms. That's only natural though. Those are their main

sources of profit after all.

"Hmm, this is kinda more troublesome than I expected."

I opened the Termaine System star map in order to glean more info, but it

wasn't that easy to locate possible mining spots. It can't be helped then. I'll

just have to try again tomorrow.

The moment I decided to end my research, the door to my room suddenly

opened.

"Huh? What's up? Or rather, couldn't you have knocked first before coming

in..."

The one who opened the door and entered my room was Elma. She was

wearing strangely rough, thin-looking clothes. More importantly, I don't

think she's even wearing underwear! After noticing my heated gaze, Elma's

face turned red from embarrassment and crossed her arms over her modestlooking chest, seemingly trying to hide them.

"I- I've come..."

"Eh?"

Uh, I didn't particularly call for you, y'know. I inclined my head in

puzzlement, making Elma's face even redder as she glared daggers at me.

Naw, naw, I don't get this at all man. Why'd she suddenly enter my room

without any warning and started glaring angrily at me?

"It's because of 'that'…"

"Huh…?"

Elma sighed and passed me, who was sitting in front of my desk, and

proceeded to sit on my bed. It was a bed large enough to accommodate

Mimi and I when we go to sleep. Err… her wearing that type of thin

clothing and sitting on my bed… I think it's not good to lead me on with

those kinds of suggestive actions y'know.

"…Love me."

"Huh?"

"I said, make love to me, you dolt!"

"But why!?"

I couldn't help but let out a sharp retort to Elma's impassioned declaration

as she sat on my bed.

"Didn't you say you want me? Didn't you pay that 30 million Enel because

of me? In other words, it's like that, you idiot!"

"Eeee~h!"

I thought back to the things I said, Elma's reactions and Mimi's sad

expression. I see, so that's how it is. I did say that I wanted Elma. I went

and said it. But what I meant was for her to act as Mimi's tutor and support

me, right? Ah, maybe she misunderstood what I meant by 'support'?

I see, if that's the case, then I kinda get why Elma had such thoughts. And

even if it was just a misunderstanding on her part, Elma still went ahead and

accepted this situation. Hm. I once again gazed at the trembling figure of

Elma sitting on top of my bed. She had a really well-featured visage and

thin, pretty silver hair. The soft bulges pushing up on her thin one-piece

were on the smaller side, but it's not like there was none to appreciate. Her

body was wonderfully slender and her skin was white and smooth-looking.

She was definitely a real beauty. It seems that her misunderstanding led to a

direction completely different from what I originally intended, but it's not

like me to refuse such an enticing offer.

And I think it'll be rude to the other party instead if I went and held back

even though she's already gone to such lengths and permitted such a

development.

"I understand. I'll try my best not to make you regret this."

"––! B- Be gentle, okay...?"

"I'll do my best," I declared as I gently patted the head of Elma, who

currently had an expression akin to a frightened child, and pushed her lithe

body down on the bed.

* * *

"You beast."

"..."

"Brute. Sex fiend."

"I'm safe since I had your consent."

"Uu..."

Elma clenched her dainty fists and started hitting my chest with them.

Hahaha, this girl…

"That wasn't the proper way of making love…"

"That's not true. I was really happy y'know. It was the best."

I wasn't some saint anyway. I'll go all the way if I can.

"You beast…"

"Just think of it as the little rabbit that willingly fell into a trap and got eaten

by the big, bad wolf… Ow, ow…! That seriously hurts y'know. Don't pinch

it so much."

Elma, who puffed up her cheeks in a cute pout, pinched the sensitive spots

on my naked chest. That really hurts y'know.

"I think it's only proper to lead you through all the ins and outs, right?"

"I think a sincere person would properly say it first before proceeding to do

those kinds of things."

"I don't really think it's proper for a person to say those things openly and

embarrass their partner though."

"You just have an excuse for everything, don't you? What a bad mouth."

Right after saying that, Elma proceeded to seal my lips with her own.

"Ow– Mmph."

"Mmm."

Seriously, stop biting my lips when you kiss me, girl. It kinda hurts, okay.

"Well we already did it, so there's no use complaining about it. Though I

can't really help but worry about it a bit."

"I was really happy, thought it felt really amazing and was very satisfied

though."

I locked gazes with Elma once more. Elma turned away with her face all

red.

"...It didn't feel bad, okay. You were gentle like you promised."

"Great!"

"What's so 'great' about it huh?"

"Ow, ow, ow, ow!"

She pinched my flank hard this time. Damn, that smarts!

"I'll really give it to you if bully me too much."

"...Go ahead and try then."

"Okay. You got it."

So she's been provoking me since a while ago to invite me for a second

round huh? Okay then. Let's properly answer her expectations.

* * *

"Good morning."

"Uh, morning."

I left the still-tired Elma on the bed the next morning, got a bath and

managed to find Mimi sitting in front of the table at the dining room. She

wasn't doing anything in particular, but just silently sat there.

"..."

"..."

This silence was really unbearable. Mimi's expression was kinda dark and

lacked its usual liveliness. Was it 'that' perhaps? Is her 'don't throw me

away' phobia having a relapse?

"U- Um…?"

"There, there."

I forcibly made the confused Mimi stand up from her seat and proceeded to

lead her to the newly refurbished bathroom. Communication and skinship

are important after all.