“Oh ho… So this is what it’s like inside?”
“I hear that most hotels designed for nobles are like this.”
After we’d set down our luggage, Dr. Shouko had begun looking around the rooms we’d booked, Wiska tailing her not far behind. Although Wiska was a skilled mechanic on par with Tina, she was more a researcher or inventor than a pure technician. She was better suited to researching and developing new designs than to working with her hands. She got along very well with Dr. Shouko, a genuine researcher, and these days it wasn’t uncommon to see Wiska follow her around.
“How does that make you feel, as her older sister?” I asked Tina.
“It does make me a little sad, but I think it’s a good thing,” she replied with a faint smile.
I was sitting on a sofa, and Tina had thrown herself into my lap. She was an outgoing girl; that was why she’d been able to break the ice with the rest of the crew quickly. In contrast, Wiska was rather shy. Of course, she’d been part of the crew for a while, so she’d become acquainted with everyone; still, she’d spent most of her time with her older sister, Tina. When Wiska wasn’t with her sister, it had been because she’d shut herself into her room to research or work on something. Nowadays, however, she often headed to Dr. Shouko’s room or followed her around, like she was doing right at this moment.
“Yeah,” I agreed, “It’s probably good.”
“I’ll use you to make up for the hole Wis left by not hanging out with us!” Tina looked up at me from my lap, a mischievous grin on her face.
I patted her head. “Yeah, yeah, fine. I’ll pay attention to you.”
“These types of rooms are all very similar,” Kugi noted.
“Uh-huh. They’re decorated in what you could call the ‘imperial style,’” Elma replied. “Other countries tend to find these kinds of rooms too plain and unimaginative.”
Those two sat across from Tina and I, assessing the large, luxurious room; it was the chamber’s layout and furnishings that Kugi had referred to as “very similar.” In the Wyndas System, where I’d met Kugi, I’d also rented a large space meant for nobles—you could’ve called it a suite or penthouse. There were some differences between what I’d booked then and the rooms we’d taken this time, but the layout and furnishings were almost identical.
“I guess you could say this really has the ‘imperial noble’ vibe,” noted Dr. Shouko. “A more generous interpretation of the style entails admiration for how it strongly emphasizes tradition and social status.”
“I see. So all the rooms being the same is unavoidable.”
“Yes. You could also say it’s pragmatic. After all, colonies only have so much space, so even nobles need to accept some limitations.”
In a planet’s residential areas, you could use as much lateral and horizontal space as you wanted—well, you couldn’t, but you were afforded a lot more freedom. Colonies had fixed ceilings and limited space, though, so even the spatial luxuries nobles could afford were strictly limited. Of course, if they put up enough money, it would change things, but not many nobles were likely willing to go to such extremes while merely staying at a hotel where they’d spend only a few days or, at most, a month. That was likely what had given rise to this concept of a standard colonial hotel for nobles.
“I’m done choosing!” Mimi declared, rising from her chair. She’d been sitting at a table by herself, using her tablet.
“All right, then let’s get moving.”
It would’ve been fine for each group to leave in their own time. Dr. Shouko’s appointment with Inagawa Technologies wasn’t for a while, though, and we weren’t in a rush to get the Black Lotus’s upgrades finished, so we’d decided to head out after Mimi chose stores to purchase stuff like booze from.
“I’ll make sure to get us the best food and drinks!” she added.
“Glad to hear it, but please don’t choose anything too bizarre—actually, never mind.”
Occasionally Mimi acquired “bizarre” items for us that looked nothing like food but were supposedly edible; they’d all ended up being quite delicious. By now, the longstanding crew members and I had gotten used to such selections, so we’d surely be fine. However, they might challenge Kugi and Dr. Shouko, who were still new to the group.
Thinking back, Kugi’s first time facing one of Mimi’s bizarre dishes had been quite a spectacle. Her fox ears had trembled, her tails visibly bristling in revulsion; she’d stared at the dish in slack-jawed disbelief with fangs—maybe her canines—visible. When I’d pointed that out to her, she’d immediately covered her ears and blushed.
✦ ✦ ✦
Inagawa Technology’s office building was separate from the hospital where Mimi, Elma, and I had met Dr. Shouko, but it was pretty close by.
“What kind of products does Inagawa Technology make?” I asked Dr. Shouko as we sat in the inter-colony transport system’s rattling car.
“Hm? Hm… I guess they mainly sell cutting-edge medical devices and biotechnological services, but they also deal in nanomachine technology. They’re what you’d call a bionics company.”
“A bionics company?” Kugi asked, confused.
I wasn’t sure what that referred to either, although I had an inkling. After all, at this point, the topic of physically enhanced nobles had come up multiple times.
“That means that a company’s research and products are mainly in the field of the biological sciences: for example, genetic engineering or performance-enhancing drugs. Companies focused on replacing body parts with superior artificial limbs, on the other hand, would be referred to as cybernetic companies. Inagawa Technologies offers drugs and chemical goods as side products, while cybernetic companies offer electronic devices and robots as side products. But both tend to offer certain nanomachine and medical equipment services that don’t clearly fall onto either side.”
“I see. I understand now,” Kugi said. “Given that distinction, would psionic technologies be more the province of bionics or cybernetics?”
“That question’s hard to answer, but I’d say they lean toward bionics.”
Kugi was surprisingly intellectual—or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that she hungered for knowledge. As a shrine maiden, she’d been raised in an environment isolated from the secular world, spending her days training in spiritual matters, so she was a somewhat sheltered girl. Perhaps as a result, she was very curious. She seemed to hunger for knowledge of the outside world.
Noticing my gaze, Kugi became embarrassed and said regretfully, “My sincerest apologies, my lord. How unbecoming of me.”
“You didn’t do anything warranting an apology. I was just impressed by the effort you put into learning new things. Don’t mind me—do as you please.”
“Yes, my lord,” Kugi answered with a blush, appearing to shrink inwardly.
Hmm…not good. I need to be less obvious in the future.
“Pfft! Your captain doesn’t mind, so there’s no need for you to feel embarrassed,” Dr. Shouko told her. “I’ll talk with you about whatever you want, assuming you don’t get tired of me. Feel free to drop by whenever you wish. I’m technically the ship’s doctor, but everyone aboard is healthy, so there’s actually not a lot of work for me to do. Let’s both learn new things together. How about it?”
“All right…!”
Kugi’s fox ears perked up. She glanced over at me, and when I gave her a nod, her face brightened. I wanted her to learn as much as she could without needing to worry about what I thought. After all, what she learned could ultimately come back around and prove helpful to me.
I felt the train car slow down as it reached our destination. At some point, I’d become extremely sensitive to changes in acceleration.
“Looks like we’re about to arrive.”
“Hm? Oh, you’re right. Make sure not to forget anything.”
“All right!”
Sometime while staying with us, Dr. Shouko had managed to tame not only Wiska, but Kugi as well. Was she actually a professional conwoman? Well, in any case, it was a good thing. It was important that the crew trust and feel comfortable around the ship’s doctor. People weren’t willing to entrust their body to someone they were dubious of. I had to do my best to ensure that Dr. Shouko officially joined our crew.