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345 – I Get How You Feel but It Ain’t My Fault
We returned to the Dauntless while escorting the Screech Owls fleet and decided to contact Col. Serena for the time being.
『

Can you run that by me again?』
Col. Serena’s stressed voice echoed around the break space of the Black Lotus.
“We managed to get multiple data caches that might lead to the discovery of the location of the pirate’s base from the wrecks of the pirate ships we encountered earlier. Mei’s still in the middle of analyzing them, but if you want, we can immediately hand you our results so far along with the decryption keys and the physical data storage devices.”
As a result of helping out the Screech Owls and stripping the pirate ship wrecks of loot, we succeeded in recovering multiple data caches in addition to the various junk equipment. Mei immediately got busy analyzing the data storage devices, and I contacted Col. Serena to explain the situation.
『

Are you sure you aren’t actually connected with pirates? One just doesn’t usually bring such crucial intel right at the start of a subjugation operation you know?』
“Of course, not. C’mon, that doesn’t even make any sense

 Anyway, we already got our hands on them, so it can’t be helped. I’m not at fault here.”
You can also say it’s just my usual propensity for trouble twisting my fate, but I don’t really wanna rely on such a metaphysical explanation. That said, I do recognize that I’m a trouble magnet to some extent.
『Haa

 Well, that’s fine, I suppose. It’s good that we’re making progress. There’s no downside to being able to destroy the pirates sooner.』
“As expected of you, Colonel. I’m glad you’re pretty reasonable.”
『Please send the data storage devices to us. I’ll transmit the port number to you.』
“Aye, aye, ma’am.”
I gave her a crisp salute and ended the transmission. I quickly received the port number that’s used by the ship-wide goods delivery system, so I forwarded it to Mei. Mei will handle sending the data storage devices to Col. Serena.
“What shall we do next?”
“The military will probably announce a job to subjugate the pirate base before long, so I suppose we’ll just have to wait until then.”
“Will that be alright? If we don’t work, won’t Colonel Serena scold you, My Lord?”
“We’ve already done plenty by discovering and delivering those data storage devices to them, and we can earn more by participating in the base subjugation anyway.”
Tina and Whisker will be busy polishing up and performing maintenance on the equipment we’ve managed to recover for a while, and the hangar of the Lotus was close to full already. The equipment we got surprisingly took up a lot of space because most of them were laser cannons.
“It’s important to work hard, of course. But it’s also important to avoid taking unnecessary risks. It would be fine as long as we can earn our fair share of money.”
We weren’t heroes of justice on a mission to destroy evil, but mercenaries who hunt down pirates and the like for a living. It would be fine as long as we can make money in the end. It’s not like I was hungry for combat merits in order to accomplish some sort of goal. I’ve already achieved Platinum rank which was the highest rank available to mercenaries, so I didn’t really need to pay a lot of attention to contributing to the guild.
“And besides, even if you try avoiding trouble, it will just come to you anyway.”
“Don’t say something like that

 Anyway, good work out there.”
“Yeah. Thanks.”
I knocked fists with Elma who just finished taking a shower in the Black Lotus. She then sat beside me on the sofa. Mimi and Kugi were already sticking to my left and right though, so Elma ended up sitting beside Kugi.
“So, how was it? Your first battle piloting your own ship after a long time.”
“It’s kinda lonely and stressful being alone to be honest. I have to do everything by myself, so it’s quite stressful. I ended up calling Mimi several times during the battle.”
“Fumu. Do you want Mimi to accompany you for a while? I think it will be a good experience for Mimi as well.”
“Hmm. Thanks for the suggestion, but I’ll pass for now. I’ll probably get used to it after some time.”
“That so? Well, it’ll serve as good training for Mimi, so try it sometime.”
I pretended not to notice Elma exchanging glances with Mimi and the intense gaze piercing my left cheek. I think it’s necessary to raise her skills though. As I was thinking about such things, my portable terminal’s ringtone suddenly rang out. It’s Captain Souls of the Screech Owls huh. I exchanged contacts with the guy before we parted ways.
“This is Hiro. What’s the matter?”
『Souls here. Well, uh, I’m treating my crew for a meal and I was wondering if you wanna come too. You did save our behinds back there, so let me treat you guys to a drink or something.』
“Sounds good. But I’m actually a real lightweight so I’ll pass on the drink. Three of my crew members are heavy drinkers though. You sure you can handle them? It’ll probably cost you.”
『I don’t mind. We do have some extra budget from selling off the loot we got from those pirates. And it’s not like we returned empty-handed from our expedition.』
In other words, the Screech Owls managed to acquire some kind of loot in the unexplored star system

 Man, I’m getting a really bad feeling about this. Please just let it be my imagination. Anyway, I feel that I really have to get that cargo off the hands of the Screech Owls as soon as possible.
“We’ll take you up on the offer then. We have seven people on our end

 Uh, but only six of us will be eating and drinking. One of us doesn’t need to eat or drink at all.”
『Doesn’t eat or drink

? Well, alright. I’ll send you the meeting point.』
Information on one of the restaurants inside the Dauntless was sent over by Souls. Hm. Well, it doesn’t seem to be the shady kind of restaurant. But the possibility of them pretending to be friendly while setting up a trap wasn’t zero, so we still had to be careful. After all, as their captain, I was responsible for the safety of my crew.
“Ok. We’ll see you there. We need to get ready first, so it’ll take a bit of time.”
『Alright. How about meeting up after half an hour?』
“Let’s go with that

 We’re getting treated by the Screech Owls guys.”
“Mm

 I’m a bit uneasy about it though.”
Mimi was slightly hesitant.
“Oh, their operator seemed to be quite taken by you huh? It’s gonna be fine. Just don’t leave my side.”
“Then we should all stick close to Hiro later.”
“Yeah. Let’s stick to him closely. Like, really close. You have to stick to him too, Kugi-chan.”
“C-Closely? Like this?”
Mimi and Kugi snuggled even closer to me. Mm. I’m happy about it, but doesn’t it feel a bit too eye-catching? I mean, aren’t we overdoing it a bit?
“You sure have it hard, Hiro. You’ll have to take care of Tina, Whisker, and me in that state later after all.”
“Please ease up a bit on the drinking, guys

”
Because I already felt an unpleasant premonition about those guys’ cargo, please don’t add to my troubles. I mean, seriously.