I Woke Up Piloting the Strongest Starship, so I Became a Space Mercenary

Chapter 57

Translator: SFBaka

Editor: Thor’s Stone

“Uh……”

“You got too carried away and drank too much, idiot . ”

It’s been an hour since I shoved Major Serena inside the med pod . Our poor elf princess, who got carried away and opened one bottle another, ended up dead drunk and passed out in the end .

I just like what I did an hour ago, I carried the passed out Elma to the medical bay . It’s been an hour already, so I guess the alcohol has already been taken out of Major Serena’s system . I planned to wake the major up and place Elma inside the med pod .

When I came inside the med bay, I saw Major Serena sleeping peacefully within the med pod . The vital check came out clean, so I operated the med pod in order to wake Major Serena up . After a short while, Major Serena finally started regaining consciousness .

After a bit, she started looking around the room in mild confusion until she finally fully opened her eyes, which displayed some mild surprise . She hurriedly got up–

“–!?”

With a thud, she ended up hitting the transparent glass-like cover of the med pod and became all teary-eyed . My dear major, you’re still acting like a ditz even if you’re no longer under the influence of alcohol huh . Are you really a major?

I operated the console and opened up the med pod’s hatch . The hatch can also be opened from inside without my intervention, but I bet our ditzy major would have some trouble even with that .

“Anyway, can you get up first? I’m gonna put her in next . ”

“O-Okay……”

Major Serena got up from the med pod while massaging her forehead . I then put Elma inside next, operated the console again, and closed the hatch once more .

“Um……?”

“Major had one too many drinks and ended up venting all her frustrations from work to me, then completely passed out afterward . While presumptuous, I took the liberty to put you inside the med pod in order to relieve you of the alcohol from your system . I hope you took no offense ma’am . ”

“……”

Major Serena’s face turned bright red and awkwardly averted her gaze from mine . Well, of course she’d feel awkward . She something like barging in on a person’s private ship just to have an outlet to vent her frustrations after all . She then drank alcohol like crazy, acted like an unreasonable drunk, and had to be shoved inside the med pod in the end . Anybody with even a modicum of common sense would feel shame from these kinds of actions at least .

“U-Um, I’m sorry . ”

“Nah, it’s fine . One really needs to let out all the stress that’s built up like this sometimes . It seems you’ve piled up quite a lot after all . ”

“Uu……”

Major Serena hid her blushing face with both hands . Looks like I really hit the nail on the head .

“And this is the second time this happened anyway . ”

“Uguu……!”

It was just a repeat of what happened last time .

“I suggest bringing some medical nanomachines that would help out with drunkenness the next time you go out for some alcohol ma’am . Or rather, don’t you think you’re just too damn defenseless? I mean, not only did you board the ship of a male merc like me . You also drank like there was no tomorrow and even ended up passing out . Be more mindful, alright . You’re a noble lady after all . ”

I’m sure there are more than one or two methods to manipulate one’s consciousness in a technologically advanced society like this . If they only wanted to remove a person’s ability to move freely, they also had the option to resort to more ‘primitive’ things like cutting up the limbs and such . And there’s also the method of taking Major Serena to god-knows-where while she’s passed out as well .

It would have been totally possible to do a thing like selling off Major Serena to the guys from the Vereverem Federation if I ever had the mind to . Major Serena was a young and beautiful noblewoman with a nice pedigree after all . I bet there are guys who would pay any price to procure such a fine specimen in order to do whatever they liked to her out there .

“I’ll reflect on my actions . ”

Major Serena shriveled up and got a bit dispirited . Cute– No, no! Don’t get fooled! Just who was the person in front of me? Major Serena . A completely sober Major Serena . Is there really any chance such a Major Serena would feel down after hearing my lecture? Well, I guess there is . But it might not be the case as well . I still have my doubts .

“Well, since you say you’re reflecting, I won’t lecture you any further . I’m not a guy who’s in any position to scold someone like you anyway . ”

I picked up Major Serena’s sword I propped up on the wall earlier and gave it back to her .

“I guess it’s time for you to go back to your own ship already . You’d get in trouble if any strange rumors about this got spread around, right? Actually, me too . ”

“Y-You’re right . Exactly . ”

Major Serena received the sword and slowly got up .

What about Mimi? She woke up in the middle of my drinking session with Elma and was now busy tidying up the dining room . In the end, it was the youngest of the girls, Mimi, who had the most self-control among the three .

I opened the main hatch of the ship and assisted Major Serena down the ramp . Major Serena turned back toward me in the middle of the steps .

“Will I ever see you again?”

“I’m sure you’ll get to meet us again if you continue hunting pirates . Those guys are one of our main sources of income after all . And you also owe me, remember?”

If you think about it like that, I was like a predator who thrives in devouring the flesh and blood of pirates in order to live . Yeah, it’s an apt description, in a sense . But I’d like to think I’m a bit more decent of a person than that . There’s no real pirate worth pitying after all .

“I see…… You’re right . I’ll be seeing you then . ”

“Yeah . Later, major . ”

Major Serena flashed me a pretty smile one last time and turned away . After seeing her off, I returned inside the Krishna and let out a sigh .

“I’ll be seeing you, huh . ”

It’s unfair for you to say a thing like that with those abandoned puppy eyes, lady . What the heck should I do? I really feel someone like Major Serena is a little bit too much for someone like me .

Well, I guess we’ll still get to meet up if there really was some sort of connection between us . I better just turn my attention to our departure tomorrow instead .

Then came the next day .

The actual reserve supplies used up during yesterday’s drinking party was fairly little (the alcohol was Elma’s and the food was Mimi’s), so we could launch anytime .

Since the girls were drunk from alcohol last night, we didn’t have the chance to do some nightly activities, so I just did some training first thing in the morning, took a bath, and did a bit of info gathering while sipping some warm coffee .

The info I searched for was not about the resort planet we were going to go next or the things to look out for while traveling there . It was about the bioterrorism incident that occurred a few days ago .

The cause of that incident has finally come to light .

Those pale white monsters were, as expected, variants of the ones we saw being bred at the cultured meat factory . The auto-apoptosis feature that was a security measure in case a specimen ever escaped from a meat plant was removed via genetic manipulation, and their aggressive instincts were instead enhanced to dangerous levels .

It seems a certain organization has already claimed responsibility for causing the bioterrorism incident this time, and the imperial government has already given an order to the military for the organization’s extermination .

The name of the terrorist organization was the Artificial Life Protection Association .

They were a group that was dedicated to protecting the rights and promoting the release of artificial life forms born and bred for the people’s convenience . So they were like the futuristic extremist version of conservationists or animal rights groups huh? They sound like a group I didn’t ever want to get mixed up with .

“Good morning, Hiro-sama . ”

“Morning . ”

Mimi and Elma entered the dining room just after I finished reading the article .

“Morning, you two . Let’s have breakfast and prepare to head out . ”

“I hope there are no more interruptions this time . ”

“Um, doing it two times in a row should be unlikely, even for someone like Major Serena…”

Mimi replied to Elma’s statement while sporting a wry grin . I’m sure Mimi has already classified Major Serena as『that type』inside her heart . You know . That type . A troublemaker, I mean .

“Well, I guess it’ll be fine . But let’s depart straight away, just in case . Being delayed for a day or two is already too much . ”

I’m sure it’ll cost us quite a bit once we got to our destination, but we have a budget of over 17 mil, so we still have a fair bit of leeway available . That’s a whopping 1 . 7 billion if forcibly converted into Yen after all .

“Anyway, let’s eat up first . I wonder what today’s daily specials are?”

“I’m famished, so I want something that’s a little on the heavy side today . ”

“I’m fine with something light . I don’t have much of an appetite during mornings anyway . ”

We made a lively fuss as we started to order our meals from the auto-cooker .

We’re going to a new place later on . But first, we spent our morning doing our usual routine as always .