Chapter 2:
Revisiting the Arein System
A FEW DAYS LATER, Konoha left with Verthalz’s immediate-response fleet. We spent the next two weeks exploring and cleaning up in the Riche System, then bid the Grakkan Empire’s fleet farewell so we could head to the Arein System, Dr. Shouko in tow.
“You get to leave while I’m still stuck here?” Colonel Serena glared at me with a terrifying smile, the veins in her temples bulging. Still, there wasn’t anything for me to do here, so there was no point in my staying. I wasn’t one to hang around for no reason.
“Aren’t you afraid that leaving will come back to bite you…?” Elma asked me.
“I don’t bother worrying about stuff like that. It’s better not to, unless you want to completely drain all your energy.”
“Is that how that works?”
“I want to maintain some distance,” I insisted. “Indulging her would be a bad idea.”
“Yeah. It’d be a problem if you started to care about her.”
“No comment.”
I stopped responding to Elma’s probing. After all, it was a little too on the nose. During this expedition, I’d ended up indulging Colonel Serena quite a bit; when it counted, I’d been unable to shove her aside and turn her down. If I didn’t take the opportunity to distance myself from her while I could, I might end up at her beck and call. It wasn’t something to be proud of, but I was a bit of a softie.
“All done! No problems!” Tina declared as she entered the cafeteria, looking exhausted. She wore a dress that was even plainer than usual. Wiska entered behind her in a similar outfit.
“Done with your medical checkups?” I asked. “Everything fine on your end too, Wiska?”
“Yes. No problems detected. It’s Kugi’s turn right now, and once she finishes it should be yours, Hiro.”
“Got it. What a hassle… Actually, I guess I probably shouldn’t say that.”
After all, having Dr. Shouko perform checks like these ones to monitor our health was basically the entire point of having her join the crew. Treating those checks as an undesirable chore conflicted with the purpose of having her around.
“True. So what were you all talking about?” Tina asked.
“We were talking about Colonel Serena.”
“Ah…the colonel?” Tina responded. “She’s the type who’s pretty, comes from a good family, and has high social standin’ and a cute personality—yet I can’t help pityin’ her.”
“Pitying? You pity her?” I asked.
“Makes sense…” Elma said. “I pity her too.”
“Same here,” Mimi added.
“Yeah,” Tina confirmed.
For some reason, not only Elma and Mimi, but even Tina, were giving me sad looks. Is Colonel Serena really a subject for pity? I guess she must be, given that they all agreed. Wait… Reading between the lines here…am I the reason they pity her? I have continually evaded her advances—but give me a break. She’s not someone I could get involved with. If I made a move on her, her family would definitely have me executed.
“By the way, was it really okay for us to just leave like that?” Wiska asked. “I can’t help but feel that we left a job only half-finished.”
“Nothing is better than getting paid for just lazing around,” I replied, “but since we have other priorities, it was best to get moving ASAP. We can just leave the investigation into ancient alien beings and sentient AI to them. Our priority right now is to have Dr. Shouko join our crew officially.”
The Imperial Fleet had hired Dr. Shouko as a temporary researcher, but there was no longer a need for further research into the new plating material, and a method to communicate with Mr. Tetrahedron had already been developed. Thus, Dr. Shouko had applied for early dismissal. Her application had been accepted, so she’d come over to our ship, and now we were headed toward the Arein System. For Dr. Shouko to join our crew as our official ship’s doctor, she would first need to resign officially from her current position as a researcher for Inagawa Technologies; we were going to Arein so that she could do so.
To be honest, it would’ve been totally possible for her to come along on our mercenary adventures even without taking that step, but doing that could potentially have had consequences. In the worst-case scenario, Dr. Shouko might’ve lost imperial citizenship, which could’ve led to her assets being frozen and even her doctor’s license being revoked.
If she lost that license, she would no longer have been able to purchase goods that weren’t sold to ordinary citizens, such as advanced drugs, medical ingredients, research equipment, and many more things. That would have been bad, and not just for her but for us too.
Thus, we were bound for Arein. Resigning from Inagawa Technologies should be a simple task, and I doubted there would be any problems… Then again, this was us, so we had to be prepared for anything.
“Speaking of Arein…that’s quite close to the Tarmein System,” Elma noted.
“The Tarmein System…” Mimi repeated with a somewhat despondent look.
That was her home system. She definitely had fond memories of it, but she likely had a lot of painful ones as well.
“I’m not sure how to feel…” she went on. “I’d kind of like to visit it again, but I also kind of don’t want to.”
“Yeah, makes sense,” I replied. “Well, we’ll be in the neighborhood, so we can drop by if we feel like it. If you get a strong urge to take a look, make sure to speak up—don’t hold back. Promise me that.”
“All right, Master Hiro. Thank you.” As if clouds had cleared, a smile returned to Mimi’s face.
That’s better. I prefer to see Mimi smiling as much as possible. “Don’t sweat it. I can do at least that much for you.” Then I said to the others, “If anyone else wants to visit their hometown, don’t hesitate to tell me. We’re not struggling financially, and we can make money just fine hunting pirates as we travel around the universe.”
“Traveling around the universe is typically viewed as a dangerous endeavor,” Wiska noted.
“Well, it is hon suggestin’ it,” Tina replied.
The way she phrased it made it sound as if I didn’t share the same common sense others had. Well, she’s not wrong. Unfortunately, I couldn’t really deny that accusation; it was essentially true.