A Brief Rest before Sortieing

"Eh? We're really bringing that thing with us?"

The moment she saw me back with the constantly flashing specialgrade cursed item, Elma instantly displayed an annoyed expression.

"It just turned out this way. In the worst-case scenario, the Rose clan is

willing to take all the blame, so rather than leaving it with them, they

want us to bring it away instead."

"Eh... Is that really okay?"

"No idea. Well, it's not like this guy did anything wrong by itself, so I

think it's fine. If it turns out that this thing actually affects causality and

all that metaphysical BS to pull even more bad luck toward us, we can

always destroy it using Krishna's laser cannons."

The special-grade cursed item pulsed two times as if to deny my

assumption. Oh, come to think of it, I instructed this guy to shine once if

it wants to say 'yes' and shine twice if it wants to say 'no' just recently

huh. Surprisingly, this guy properly remembered my instructions. It's

quite the earnest drill-spear-seed thingy.

"Ah, Hiro-sama. We've already finished resupplying. We can sortie any

time."

"Nice work, Mimi. Were we able to stock up on enough anti-ship

reactive torpedoes?"

"Yes. In addition to the four we already have on Krishna, we got a dozen

spares as well."

"Ok. It really is convenient to have a mothership huh."

"A dozen? Just what do you plan on fighting against with that much

firepower?"

It's not like there's anything bad about having plenty of spare rounds

y'know. Now that we had 16 shots, including the ones already loaded

onto Krishna, we can even singlehandedly turn an entire pirate base

into space debris.

"The sortie schedule still isn't finalized yet, so take this chance to get a

nice break. You can stretch your wings in the colony if you want, guys."

"Hm. I'm fine staying here, I suppose. I feel calmer staying inside the

ship."

"I'm also gonna stay on the ship. What about you, Hiro-sama?"

"I'm gonna check up on the mechanic sisters. After that, I'm gonna

check up on Mei next. If there are no problems, I guess I'll take it easy

myself."

The elves were very welcoming, but I can rest better inside my own

ship. There's a certain sense of security. It's like I'm staying inside my

home. Nah. Maybe it's simply because the security measures were tight,

and when push comes to shove, we can high-tail outta here

immediately with the ship, so that leads to peace of mind.

"Okay. I'll tag along too. I'm free anyway."

"I'll come too."

"Is that so? Well, I suppose it's fine."

When the three of us arrived at the hangar section, we found the

maintenance bots hard at work. Whisker was sitting in a spot apart

from the maintenance bots so she wouldn't get in their way while her

hands were swiftly operating her tablet terminal.

"Ah, Big Brother– Oh, and everyone as well. What is it?"

"Ara? Did you only have eyes for Hiro, Whisker?"

"T-That's not it."

Whisker denied Elma's words in a fluster while her face turned a bright

shade of red as the other grinned and teased her, but wouldn't her

reaction cause Elma to tease her more? Mimi also had an amused smile

on her face.

"We ran out of things to do since we've completed all our tasks before

the sortie, so we decided to go around the ship to check things out. How

are you guys doing?"

"Um, there's currently no problem for now. Krishna's maintenance is

already complete. We're conducting a full check right now, just in case."

After saying so, Whisker turned her gaze toward Krishna, which was

parked inside the hangar. Some maintenance bots and drones were

floating all over Krishna and executing scans. I had no idea how it

worked, but I suppose that's how they scanned Krishna's status.

"What about Tina?"

"Big Sis is checking up on Black Lotus. She's probably working together

with Mei-san right now."

"I see. You guys can take a break after finishing your tasks, okay? We'll

need you sisters to work real hard later when the operation goes

underway after all."

"So that's really going to be the case?"

"Probably. Oh, but it's impossible to salvage every ship that comes our

way, so it shouldn't be that harsh. We're probably gonna be salvaging a

lot of equipment though."

The number of ships we can salvage would be four at most. We can

shove two ships inside the hangars and then tow the two others with

Krishna and Black Lotus respectively. We'd probably be limited to three

small-class ships and one medium-class. Furthermore, in order to tow

the ships, we'd have to use both the FTL Drive and Hyperdrive. If the

output drops, chances are we'd lose the ships we're towing. That's why

we can only do it after the battle with the pirates.

Furthermore, we can't delay the rest of the fleet's work just for our own

profit, so we need to be quick about it. That's why the mechanic sister's

true battle would only start after the operation is concluded.

"Oh, what's up, you guys? Why're y'all here?"

Mei and Tina finally appeared inside the hangar area while we were in

the middle of chatting. Judging from their current looks, I suppose the

maintenance work on Black Lotus is already complete as well.

"We already finished our tasks. That's why we're going around the ship

to check things out instead."

"I see? We're all done too."

When I turned my gaze from Tina to Mei, she nodded in affirmation. I

see. So they were done with their tasks as well.

"Hey! Now, wait just a darn minute! What's with that earlier reaction,

Boss?"

"I confirmed it with Mei, just in case."

"Hey, hey, hey, I'm also a pro y'know? Don't you think that reaction's

rude?"

"I'm sorry, okay."

I honestly apologized to Tina, who was giving me an annoyed glare. It's

because of your usual devil-may-care attitude, okay? I didn't mean

anything bad by it. And I do trust your skills.

"Oh? So you're apologizing huh? If that's the case, then please turn your

words into actions properly, Boss."

"Eh? What are you on about now?"

Was being crafty in fashion among women nowadays? Oh well. I guess

I'll hear her out anyway.

"Gimme a hug."

After saying so, Tina approached me and outstretched her arms.

"Eh?"

"Gimme a hug. I'll forgive you if you lift me up and gimme a nice tight

squeeze."

She then gave me a sunny smile. As she smiled, Tina continued

outstretching her arms, as if to urge me to hurry up and hug her

already. Eh? Well, I didn't really mind. A hug's nothing. If carrying her

up and hugging her would fix her mood, then it's fine.

"Nfufu..."

I hugged her from the front just as she wished, and Tina immediately

latched on to me tightly by wrapping her arms around my neck. I

supported her behind with my left hand and wound my right arm

around her back.

"Goro nya〜n."

"Man, this sure is one big kitty..."

When I looked down as Tina made herself comfy by resting her cheek

on the side of my neck, I found Whisker staring up at me without

blinking. What's with that greedy look on your face, young lady? Do you

want to be carried up and hugged as well, Whisker-san?

When I turned toward the others, I found Elma, Mimi, and Mei giving

me similar looks.

"I'll be fine with a normal hug you know?"

"I'm fine with that too."

"I do as well."

"What's with this situation?"

Eventually, I ended up carrying and hugging Whisker as well after

placing Tina back down. Afterward, I moved to hug Elma, Mimi, and Mei

in that order. This is fine, y'know. It's refreshing to see them actively

express their desires. Was this what they mean by equal treatment or

something? Well, I guess equal treatment is important in a relationship

like ours after all.

It's been a few days since we've stationed ourselves within the Refill

Prime colony. I suppose they were still in the middle of soliciting the

help of other nearby star system garrisons since we're gonna be

conducting a large-scale pirate subjugation operation this time around.

Right now, we're waiting for all forces to arrive.

And since we've already finished resupplying and maintenance, we

ended up with nothing, in particular, to do anymore. But even so, we

had our regular daily routine, so it's not like we were completely idle.

We could still do things like physical workouts, training, and studying.

"...Do you really undergo this kind of training routine regularly?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"I see..."

Today, Lt. Col. Serena and some of her subordinate officers who had

noble backgrounds were paying us a visit. They apparently heard that I

would be training in swordsmanship with Mei, and that's why they

came over. It looks like they were also relatively free until all the

participants were gathered up.

"Master, here I come."

"We have spectators right now, so please go easy on me."

"Understood. I shall go hard on you then."

"Listen to what I'm saying please. I'm begging you."

My desperate appeal was ignored, and Mei, who turned into a black

gale, swiftly closed in on me while brandishing her metal practice

sword. I was also holding a similar metal practice sword.

Why weren't we using a safer training sword? Well, it's because Mei

can't display her swordsmanship properly unless she's using these

kinds of swords. In fact, I already lost count of just how many 'safer'

practice swords she's ended up breaking.

A silver flash shot out of Mei's body. If I ate a hit like this directly, I'd

probably end up getting some broken bones, and if I got really unlucky,

my internal organs might take some damage as well. Of course, if that

happened, I'd end up vomiting blood again, so I really couldn't afford to

get hit.

I shuffled my feet and slid out of the trajectory of Mei's attack by a

hair's breadth. At the same time, I aimed a counter at the wrist of the

hand Mei was using to hold her weapon with the sword in my left hand.

However, my counter hit nothing but air since she managed to pull her

arm back at a speed faster than the slash I performed. The moment that

happened, I already knew she'd follow up with attacking my nowexposed left flank, so I immediately moved back to take some distance

away from Mei.

After that, we proceeded with an exchange of sword attacks. All the

slashes I unleashed with my two swords were parried by Mei using a

single sword, and conversely, I endeavored to evade and parry her

sword slashes as well. I really couldn't afford to eat even one of those. I

couldn't take them with my body, but I also couldn't directly cross

swords with her either. If I forcefully received it with my swords, they'd

probably get broken. And even if that doesn't happen, they'd probably

get blown away from my hand, or I'd lose my footing due to the force of

the clash. All of those outcomes were pretty unfavorable for me.

"Gah!?"

In the end, Mei won the match. I failed to properly parry one of Mei's

slashes and the sword in my right hand ended up getting broken. With

that, it was practically checkmate. I gradually got cornered, ate a kick to

my gut, and was blown all the way to the training room's wall. Since I

ate a blow to my stomach and had my back crash directly against a wall,

I couldn't help but writhe in pain. Once I managed to finally catch my

breath, the training sword icon at the top of my head crumbled,

signaling my loss.

"This is impossible man..."

"That's not true, Master. Your reaction speed is now 8% faster

compared to before. You still have a lot of room to go, Master."

"You didn't have to go so hard on Boss, Mei-han..."

I rubbed the spot on my belly that got kicked by Mei and got up. It was

hella painful man! I'm definitely bleeding internally.

"Oh, if you want, you guys can also undergo Mei-san's perfectly safe

training program free of charge."

"It totally doesn't seem safe though?"

"What are you talking about? It's totally, perfectly safe. I mean, look, I

ain't dead, right?"

After saying so, I puffed out my che– Goddamit, it hurts like hell! It

looks like sticking my chest out is currently impossible.

"Sorry, but I think I need to get inside the med-pod for a bit. I'll leave

entertaining our guests to you."

"Yes, please leave it to me, Master."

Mei bowed toward me and turned her gaze toward Lt. Col. Serena and

company. It kinda seemed like they were all shaking in their boots, but I

suppose it was just my imagination. It's alright. It's totally safe, I tell

you. You guys aren't gonna die, at least!