“I’m exhausted.”
As I listened to that damn granny talk, I sank into the sofa, surrounded by Mimi, Elma, and the mechanic twins. The discussion was mostly finished, so Dr. Shouko was messing with her tablet by herself nearby. She really did everything at her own pace.
“You’re welcome to my tails, my lord.”
Kugi perched next to me, and I started petting her fluffy tails. “Ah…I can feel my worries fading away…” Her tails both felt and smelled wonderful; I wanted to sniff them forever.
As for the Iga and Koga ninja, we’d contacted them earlier and said that they were free to go, and that they could just leave minimal personnel to watch over us. Celestia and I had already reached an accord of sorts, so there likely wouldn’t be any more violence.
“I’ll rub your shoulders, Master.”
“Thanks. Ah! There. There. Ooh!”
The young man and woman from the granny’s crew were looking over at me.
“…I’m going to make it big too one day.”
“As big as hiiim? Aren’t you aiming a little hiiigh?”
Now that I thought about it, I hadn’t yet found out what their names were. “Sorry… I was basking in the relief of overcoming a huge threat, but I still haven’t learned your names.”
“Oh, I’m Nicholas. Celes took me in, and now I mess with mechanical stuff and do odd errands for her.”
“I’m Laaattis. I was also taken in by Celes, and I work as her operatooor.”
Nicholas and Lattis both seemed like normal humans. Nicholas was a soft-looking man dressed in mercenary attire and sporting a faux-hawk haircut. Lattis was a woman with a demure appearance and average-sized breasts. She had well-shaped facial features, but she didn’t particularly stand out. The pair didn’t have obviously muscular builds, so they probably weren’t great at close combat.
“I feel like I was just appraised.”
“It’s obvious where you’re looking, you knooow?”
“Sorry; can’t help it in our business. I’m not really good at appraising mechanics or operators’ skills, though.”
“Oh, I’m pretty average, honestly,” Nicholas said. “Lattis is incredible, though.”
“Not reeeeally. I don’t think I could beat that Maidroid over theeere.”
“Any human who could surpass Mei one on one would no longer be human, honestly. I can’t outshine her either outside of space battles or close combat.”
I actually had faced off with Mei before, using a simulator. We played mirror matches against each other, both fighting with the same model of ship. Mei made perfect, precise movements—exactly as you’d expect a machine to maneuver—but that made her predictable too. She always made the optimal move, so as long as you had a way of dealing with it, beating her wasn’t so hard.
In terms of close combat, I could now defeat her if I used my psionic powers. Even Mei had no way of fielding attacks that required nonphysical responses.
“Whaaat? She’s an AI with a small positron braaain installed, right?”
“Yeah…?”
For some reason Lattis had recoiled from me. “You can actually beeeat that thing? In a simulator space baaattle?!”
“I’ve won each of a total of twelve matches.”
“Yes,” Mei confirmed. “I lost all twelve.”
“You’re joooking!” Lattis was now visibly leery.
I didn’t understand why. “Is that really so insane?”
“It’s pooossible to beat machine intelligence with numbers, but only a complete freak could beat it one on one in a miiirror match. That’s like beating one of those shiiitty unclearable games that constantly chaaanges without making a siiingle mistake in one tryyy.”
“Yikes. What the heck…?” Nicholas chimed in. “I can’t even envision what you’re saying. Was it harder than the gold-rank test program?”
“Oh, beating Mei is way more challenging. That test is a complete joke.”
When I signed up for the mercenary guild upon first arriving in this universe, I’d been given that test. I remembered it as completely boring and stupidly easy.
“I seeee. You’re a professional weiiirdo,” Lattis said.
“Professional weirdo. Good phrase,” Nicholas remarked.
“I don’t mind a girl calling me that, but it’s annoying hearing a guy say it.”
Hearing a girl call me a freak was kind of a turn-on. Hm? It shouldn’t have been? Wait—Kugi, Mei, how come it looks like you two just had a revelation? I don’t actually have that kink…
“Bro, how can I become like you? I want to flirt with a ton of girls too.”
“I’m not your ‘bro.’ But to be like me…I guess you need luck and timing?”
“Useless advice!” I’d replied seriously to his serious question, but it seemed he didn’t like my answer.
“I didn’t aim to arrive where I am today,” I elaborated. “You do need the courage to take the first step, though, and the confidence to act on your beliefs. You heard earlier about how I met Mimi, right?”
“I did.”
“An innocent girl is saaaved from hoodlums by a meeercenary. That meeercenary invites her aboard his shiiip, where he forcibly… Anyway, eventually they develop mutual feeeelings. Sounds like a hooolo-novel’s plooot,” Lattis commented.
“I didn’t force her to do anything, okay? I was the one in for a surprise after inviting her onto my ship. At any rate, that situation with Mimi is what I was referring to in terms of needing courage and confidence. As for Elma… I also helped her out when she was in trouble.”
“What do you have to do to encounter so many situations where you can save cute girls and beautiful women?”
“Uh…be lucky, I guess?”
“I can’t control that!”
Those encounters were probably where my ability to manipulate fate—or however Kugi had put it—came into play. But that wasn’t something I controlled consciously, so I had no choice but to refer to it as luck.
“In any case, helping Elma back then pretty much required me to drain my savings. Another example of courage.”
“And finaaancial strength.”
“In the end, the world runs on money,” Nicholas remarked.
“It’s true that money can resolve most problems you encounter,” I agreed. That didn’t mean it solved all your problems, though. If you were dealing with someone who had no interest in money or material things, it was useless. “I’m aware that luck operates a lot differently for me than for most people, but that’s not always good. I pretty much attract problems—literally.”
“Your eyes just immediately glazed over,” Nicholas noted.
“A commissioned military officer took an interest in me and started following me around to turn me into her subordinate. After destroying a pirate base, I returned to the local colony only to find it was overrun with mysterious monsters and had become a hellscape. Then, I got involved in some political intrigue involving an imperial noble who tried to cut me down with his sword. At that point, the officer I just mentioned showed up again and made me join her in landing on a planet in the midst of terraforming, where I had to fight biological weapons of double-digit heights. Enviable experiences, right? Want to trade?”
Nicholas turned down my offer with a grave expression. “No way. I don’t have enough lives to expend on that.”
Figures. I’d turn it down myself in his shoes.
“You also charged through a swarm of crystal life-forms by yourself.”
“That wasn’t so dangerous.”
“You make absolutely zero sense sometimes,” Nicholas said.
“There’s a reason people call him ‘Crazy.’”
“It’s been a while since I heard that nickname. Thinking about it, isn’t it just an insult?” I asked, looking over at Lattis while fluffing Kugi’s tails. Hey, how come you’re looking away? You must agree. That’s why you’re avoiding my eyes.
“Ahhh…right. Um…what about meeting her? I think her name…is Kugi?”
“Forcibly changing the subject, I see. As for Kugi… Uh…how do I put it…?”
“It was destiny,” Kugi said.
“That’s how she views it,” I added.
“More advice I can’t act on. How about those two dwarves, then?”
“I went to check on my ship while it was under maintenance, only for the older twin to suddenly fling her sister directly at me like a torpedo.”
“Wait, what? Sorry, can you repeat that?”
“I went to check on my ship while it was under maintenance, only for the older twin to suddenly fling her sister directly at me like a torpedo. That led to this and that, and finally resulted in the shipbuilder sending them to me as dispatched mechanics.”
“‘This and that’?”
“I won’t go into detail, to protect their image, but a lot happened. In the end, it also came down to money.”
“Money?”
“Skilled ship mechanics make a lot, right?”
“Do they? Well, I guess they make a lot more than those working for companies. I hear company mechanics don’t even make five thousand a month.”
As a ship mechanic himself, Nicholas likely knew how much mechanics could earn on mercenary ships. I wasn’t sure how advanced his own ship’s facilities were. Even if it didn’t have facilities on par with the Black Lotus’s hangar, though, a mechanic could still produce quite a profit by repairing parts salvaged from pirate vessels, as long as they had the minimum necessary tools. A mechanic’s presence made a big difference in how much money a mercenary vessel could bring in.