Seiza

I'm usually an even-tempered person.

What? Stop joking, you say? You think so? No, really, I am guys. It's a

different story while in the middle of a job because usually, I got pirates

aiming to take my life. But I don't easily get mad with people I've

become close to. But when it comes to people I'm unfamiliar with, like a

store clerk or a ticket seller, I'll just act like normal and won't be all

confrontational.

Of course, this depends on the attitude of the other party as well. For

example, I didn't feel like acting polite toward that government official

who was in charge of Mimi's debt or that port officer who put me in

detention back on Termaine Prime.

There's also the saying 'Rich folk don't get into fights.' back where I'm

from. It's a saying that basically means that rich people are aware they

won't gain any money by getting into fights, so better not get into one in

the first place. Well, the nuance is a bit different, but I'm basically a rich

guy now, so I wanna spend my time as peacefully as possible, at least

when I'm not on the job. That's what I thought. But…

"You think I can still let this slide just like that? No way, man! I'm done!"

I think I've been patient enough, really. There's the unauthorized

scanning, them crowding around the docks right in front of my ship

while making a huge racket, and them calling me out here so early in

the morning. There's also the saying 'Stroke the face of a Buddha three

times, and his anger will be roused.' No, that actually doesn't mean you

can only forgive three times, but a warning so people are reminded not

to go too far. But in this case, I'll go with the 'three times' interpretation.

So bite me.

"Um… We're really sorry."

Sara was currently kneeling in seiza in front of me. Yep. She was

kneeling directly on the floor of the garage smeared with oil and

grunge. The one right next to her was the chief engineer and overseer

of their workshop. And behind them was the dwarf woman who hit me

like a dead ball earlier, and the other dwarf woman who f***in threw

her at me. I also had all the other engineers and mechanics kneel

behind them.

"Hey, I'm your client, right? We did undergo some back and forth, but in

the end, I still bought the latest model of your ship without much fuss,

so I should be a valuable client now, right? Is repeatedly

inconveniencing and even injuring a valued client Space Dwerg's modus

operandi? Or maybe it's just how you dwarves do things? Is calling out a

customer this early in the morning only to let him eat a dead ball your

idea of manners or something? Huh? C'mon, say something!"

"T-That w-was never our intention…"

Sara looked up at me with a teary-eyed expression.

"Hey, hey, hey, don't give me that, lady. I'm the one who wants to cry

here. And don't you think the sight of a human-like me looking down on

a dwarf lady as she kneels on the floor while crying may give others the

worst impression possible? It's like I'm the villain now even though I'm

actually the victim here, so stop."

Yeah. This situation really paints me in a bad light if a random stranger

happens to pass by without knowing what's up.

"Anyway, holding you up like this without getting any work done is

inefficient and doesn't do me any good either. First, just get back to

work. If you do a sloppy job, you better believe I'm gonna chase you all

down to the ends of the galaxy and crush you to a pulp, so you better

shape up, y'hear. Don't just get caught up with analyzing tech and

properly overhaul my ship. And be quick about it. Alright, scram."

After my rant, the rest of the dwarven engineers and mechanics went

back to work except for Sara, the chief engineer, and the dead-ball

sisters, who were still kneeling in seiza.

"So, next up is you guys…"

I glared at Sara with a scowl on my face.

"I won't tell you guys what to do in order to make it up to me. I'll leave

that up to you. I'll have you show me just how sincere you are in

apologizing for all the crap I've been put through this far."

"Hyesh…"

Sara nodded while crying sorrowfully. The chief engineer also nodded

with a pale face. The dead-ball sisters already went past being deathly

pale, but that's not my problem.

"For now, just continue the overhaul. But we'll put purchasing the

Skizbrazunil on hold for now. I'll decide whether or not to go through

with it depending on how you'll compensate me. You're fine with that,

right? Oh, and I'm putting the purchase on hold, but I won't tolerate

something like stretching out the deadline for delivery. You guys

understand, right?"

"Hyesh…"

Sara nodded weakly once more. I checked my Enel balance and handed

10,000,000 Enels as down payment, which is half the 20 million we

initially agreed upon. The remaining 10,000,000 will be handed to them

if there are no glaring flaws with the final article.

Of course, if I don't find the ship to my liking, the 10 million will be

refunded to me in full. If Space Dwerg fails to satisfy me, they'd have to

shove a fully customized latest edition of Skizbrazunil back to their

inventory without getting rewarded for all the work they put into it.

Since it's such a large ship, leaving it parked inside their facility would

incur additional costs to the company until they somehow manage to

dispose of it. They can't just use the public docks after all. So who

exactly will take the fall if that ever happened, I wonder? Muahahaha!

I'm sure they'll be pretty desperate after this hehehe.

"Okay. Discussion's over. I'm looking forward to how exactly Space

Dwerg and you dwarves will show your sincerity. Depending on the

results, I may leave this colony straight away once the overhaul of my

ship gets finished. I'm still a Gold-ranked mercenary y'know. You at

least have an idea of what will happen when someone like me decides

to use… a more forceful approach, right? I'm not all that bad with

firefights just so you know."

I had my guard down earlier, so I ended up eating that dead-ball full on.

Well, of course, I didn't have my guard up. I wasn't expecting to get

assaulted like that just for visiting a ship workshop after all. I mean,

that's just common sense.

"Yes… We will do our best to give you proper accounting and satisfy

your demands."

"I hope so, Sara-san. I hope so."

I then turned my back on her and walked out of the workshop. I was

initially planning on looking for power armor weapons and some

sightseeing after finishing my business here, but I don't really feel like it

anymore. Let's just go back.

Or rather, why the heck did they even call me over in the first place?

And they even wanted to capture me. What the heck? I even ate a dead

ball and got injured. I have to give myself credit for not drawing my

laser gun and going nuts after all that's happened. I mean seriously,

man. Sheesh.

"Shall I massacre all the dwarves, Master?"

"It's fine, May. It's fine."

After getting back and telling the girls what happened, May made a

dangerous proposal with a blank expression. When she heard I ended

up getting injured after inconveniencing me so early in the morning,

she got really angry, which was obvious even with her usual blank look.

Well, it's not like she was planning on seriously killing them anyway…

She's not, right? Oh boy.

"I don't understand why you had to go through that though, Hirosama…"

"So they wanted to secure the pilot, huh…"

Mimi was confused after hearing my story. Yeah, I don't get it either.

Why'd I need to eat a dead ball first thing in the morning anyway? I

looked toward Elma and found her deep in thought. Does she have an

idea about what happened?

"Have you thought of something?"

"Those dwarves may have deduced how you've been using the ship's

thrusters to make those unorthodox maneuvers after taking Krishna

apart. Yes, that's most likely it."

"But the data pertaining to that is locked though?"

"They must have deduced it by checking out the thrusters directly.

Dwarves have the uncanny ability to make detailed observations

regarding the state of metal alloys and the like. They can 'read' metals

much like how people and elves read books. So even if they don't have

access to the data, they'll be able to deduce how unique and unordinary

your maneuvers are just by 'reading' the state of the thrusters."

"Reading the state of metals huh…"

May connected to the net and searched for information. She then

nodded as if convinced of Elma's conjecture.

"But why'd they want to capture me though? They can just use their

own test pilots."

"Engineers have this tendency to compete with each other in securing

competent test pilots you see. It may have been a conditioned reflex."

"But isn't it counterproductive since it would probably scare off or

infuriate potential candidates…?"

They should act in moderation and not lose their cool when it comes to

things like this.

"In any case, I wonder what they'll do after this… You said they need to

show their sincerity, but I can't predict what method they'll use to do

so."

"They were very rude to their client, but in the end, Master managed to

come out of it with only light injuries. You can at most get a 500 Enel

compensation fee if you hand your diagnostic data to the authorities.

Well, a blunder such as this should have become a big issue back at

their company. I'm sure they are frantically thinking up

countermeasures in order to deal with it."

"Well, they're dwarves though… Honestly, I won't even be surprised if

they end up doing something over the top."

Elma sighed and made a wry grin. Come to think of it, how is the

relationship between the elves and dwarves in this dimension anyway?

I always had the image of them not getting along because that's how

they're usually portrayed back on Earth.

"Do you have something against dwarves, Elma?"

"No, not really. I don't have any particular opinion about them. But,

well… when it comes to dwarves, there are a lot among them who can

be called, uh, eccentric. Their train of thought has a tendency to go wild

often, and may take totally unexpected directions. It's a nice quality to

have as inventors, engineers, and researchers, but it pertains more to

their instincts as a race, so it may blow up in their faces and trouble the

others around them."

"I see… Well, Sara doesn't seem like the impulsive type at least… She's

not, right?"

"Perhaps. Well, it's not like every dwarf is like that, and there are quite a

lot of dwarves who act in a reasonable manner as well. They just have

that tendency because it's a trait of their race."

"Um… We will be in your care starting from today. I'm Tina."

"L-Let's get along… I'm Whisker. Please go easy on us…"

That night, the dead-ball sisters came into our room wearing

suspiciously thin clothing.

The dwarf named Tina had red hair and had cute features. She wore oilstained overalls and a work helmet this morning, so I didn't manage to

get a good look at her face back then. And the other dwarf girl named

Whisker had aqua blue hair. I also didn't notice it earlier this morning,

but she was quite cute too.

Or rather, they kinda looked the same aside from their hair color. Maybe

they're twins. Oh well. Anyway, there's just one thing I want to say to

them right now.

"Scram."

I then closed the door again. Afterward, I began to hear sorrowful wails

from outside the door.

"If we go home like this, we'll end up without a home and a job!"

"Please hear us out, sir! We'll do anything you say!"

They started banging on the door. Ugh, so noisy. Guess I'll call hotel

security.

"U-Um, Hiro-sama…?"

"Huh?"

I was just about to call hotel security using the room's terminal when

Mimi spoke up.

"Um… Is it okay if we let them in first?"

"Look, Mimi. I'm really angry right now. I was wondering what Space

Dwerg will do in order to compensate me and they actually give me

THIS? What the heck is this even supposed to mean anyway? They

tossed their underlings away and told them to serve me as

compensation. Did they think I was a womanizer just because I came to

their office with the three of you in tow? So this is how they planned to

compensate me?"

I do admit I like women just as much as the next guy, but this is just

plain rude. And something like taking advantage of women because of a

matter like this is a huge no for me. Forcefully taking a woman by using

threats, money, and authority just leaves a bad taste in the mouth and I

want no part in that stuff.

May did get forcefully handed over to me, but she seems okay with it

anyway, so it's fine. That's a different thing, so it doesn't count, okay.

"Ugh. I just don't care anymore… I'll leave those two to you, Mimi."

"…Eh?"

"Go ahead."

"Um… Okay. I'll let them in first and hear what they have to say."

I sat back down on the sofa and let out a tired sigh. Are dwarves my

natural nemesis or something? We just can't seem to see eye to eye. Or

rather, they really rub me the wrong way.

Before long, Mimi entered back into the room with the dead-ball sisters

in tow. And then, she let the two of them sit down on the sofa opposite

mine. She also sat down beside them.

"Man, the appearance of dwarven women is just a cheat… It's like I'm a

complete villain or something."

"A-Ahaha…"

Mimi made an awkward smile as she coaxed the dead ball sisters who

were sobbing sorrowfully beside her. By the way, Elma was lounging in

front of the table a bit further away and was constantly glancing over to

our group to check the situation. May quietly stood behind me and

stared down on the dead ball sisters with a chilly gaze.

After matching gazes with May, the dead-ball sisters shivered in fright

and hugged each other tightly, so her glare must be really intense.

"Um, May-san. Please don't bully the two of them too much."

"I am not doing anything of the sort, Mimi-sama."

May answered in a cold tone. It was cold and hard, just like a starship's

hull.

But it's not like I don't get where she's coming from. Compared to our

cold attitudes, Mimi looked at the dead-ball sisters with a sympathetic

gaze. Maybe it's due to their appearance, which resembled young

children.

"I was once in the same situation as the two of them after all, Hirosama. That's why I can relate to them to an extent."

"Mmph…"

C'mon, Mimi. You know I'm weak to that sort of stuff. And, well, I was

part of the reason why these two ended up in this situation in the first

place. So, I can't say I didn't feel even an iota of guilt–

"No, I don't feel guilty at all. Absolutely not. It's all their fault, to begin

with. They're just getting their just desserts."

That was dangerous. I was about to get swept up in Mimi's rhythm.

But… fine. I understand why Mimi feels pity for the two of them at least.

I guess I'll hear them out for Mimi's sake.