✦ ✦ ✦
“Money isn’t everything, though. Luck and compatibility do matter in the end,” I said.
“Is that so…?” replied Nicholas.
Sorry. I don’t think I can actually give you any useful advice. In any case, I recommend you start by treasuring the people by your side right now. I’ll leave it at that.
✦ ✦ ✦
“See you later, Mimi. If he makes you cry, contact me. I’ll deal with him for you.”
“Ah ha ha… I’ll be fine. Hiro’s really nice.”
“Hmph…I’d really prefer to take you with me. But…” Celestia glared at me.
I waved dismissively back, signaling her to hurry up and leave.
Having spoken with my crew—mostly with Mimi—the old lady seemed satisfied, and she was prepared to leave. We’d come down to the lobby to see her off. Since we’re going to the trouble of seeing you off, though, can you just leave peacefully already?
My wishes seemed to reach her, since she turned toward the exit…
“Oh, right.”
…only to suddenly turn and face me again.
“Other rats are sneaking around, investigating you guys. Watch out, you hear me?”
“What? Give me a break already…”
Just when I thought I’d put all this trouble behind me, I was hearing that this was the tip of the iceberg. What a joke. Not a funny one either.
“Has this colony always been so dangerous?” I asked.
“Going by its security level, it should be quite safe…” Dr. Shouko answered with a wry smile.
What’re you smiling about? Damn it. In any case, I’ll have to figure out why those other people are investigating us and then deal with them too.
The moment we’d decided to stay in a colony for an extended period, this was happening. And one of our ships was currently unusable. If we could stay aboard the Black Lotus, though, we’d only have to be on guard whenever we left it. In the worst-case scenario, we could deal with most threats by turning on the vessel’s low-power shields as long as we were aboard. Even if attackers managed to get on, the Black Lotus was equipped with combat bots.
“Well, it’s not like we’ll have to change anything,” I said. “We already contracted Iga Security until the Black Lotus’s upgrades finished, and this hotel’s security probably reflects its price.”
“You’re not being thorough enough,” Celestia said. “You should at least put in effort to flush your pursuers out and deal with them yourself.”
“Why would I go that far? I’m not some bloodthirsty maniac. Anyway, I haven’t got that much free time to begin with.”
“You just want to laze around while a bunch of girls surround and wait on you.”
“That’s definitely a way more effective use of my time than diving directly into a fire. I’ve got more than enough trouble. Just dealing with whatever embers float my way is the best policy.”
I attracted enough problems as it was, so there was no reason to go look for them; trouble would find me either way. Still, I’m not the type to seek it. Well, okay, maybe I… Never mind. Let’s drop this topic.
“How wimpy. Mimi…are you sure about this guy?” Celestia asked. “At this rate, the number of girls is only going to increase.”
“I’m sure.” Mimi answered. “I know everyone will get along!”
“Well, you heard her. If you make her a little sad, it’s okay—but don’t ever make her cry for real, you hear me? I’d cut off your balls and grill you with my laser gun.”
“You sure say some scary things, Granny… But I’ll do my best to avoid that.”
“Hmph. Let’s go, you two.”
“’Kay. See you later, bro.”
“Bye-byeee.”
Nicholas nodded at me, while Lattis waved goodbye as they left with Celestia.
Will we ever meet again? I can’t help feeling like we will. That granny is the same type as that frigging emperor, but she has fewer strings attached—she moves much more deftly. She’ll definitely cause me trouble one day.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Phew! In the end, nothing extreme happened, and everything resolved peacefully!” Tina said.
“What do you mean, ‘resolved peacefully’?” I retorted.
Tina wore a casual outfit and held a beer in one hand. Looking around, I saw that everyone else was in leisurewear too.
“Do we plan on just spending the rest of the day chilling in our suite?”
“We know someone out there is investigating us. Why would we leave the hotel?” Elma asked, handing me a soft-drink bottle.
She has a point. If we could avoid trouble by just staying here, then that was the right decision. Fortunately, given the environments I’d once lived in, being cooped up indoors didn’t bother me. I imagined that also applied to everyone who’d lived in colonies and other outer-space locations in this universe.
“Hear, hear! Let’s drink and watch a holo-movie or something,” Tina said.
“Taking time to rest is important too, Hiro,” Wiska told me. “Being on edge all the time will exhaust you.”
“I can’t help feeling like you guys are pushing me in a certain direction so you can fulfill your desire to drink all day.”
“That’s simply your imagination,” Elma said, almost forcibly sitting me down on the sofa before herself taking a seat next to me. Wiska sat on Elma’s other side, while Tina settled on my lap. Oh no. The drunkards have surrounded me.
“We’re switching positions later, Sis,” Wiska said.
“Sure, if I remember,” Tina replied.
“Jeez…”
Wiska and Tina began to bicker. It looked as though two children had started arguing, but they were really both adults holding drinks. Make sure not to spill…
“Kugi, let’s play!”
“Okay, Mimi.”
It was good that Kugi and Mimi were getting closer. Both took out their tablets; they were probably going to play a fighting game or something together.
“Oh, this looks interesting,” Tina said.
“What is it?” I asked.
“A movie about a part-time worker observing a man-eating mascot robot late at night through a fast-food joint’s surveillance camera,” Tina answered.
“I guess it’s supposed to be a horror movie?” I asked.
“Why didn’t they just take the mascot apart right away?” inquired Wiska.
“Sis, that’d defeat the point…”
“A normal company wouldn’t produce a mascot robot that did that, so it’d definitely be the work of a third-rate unlicensed mechanic. Maybe a pirate?”
Wiska had jumped to a strange conclusion as she watched the movie preview on the holo-display. Applying her hypothesis, the movie would boil down to around-the-clock scrutiny of an illegally produced robot.
Since we’d paid for Iga Security’s services, I figured we might as well just relax while they went around hunting whoever was investigating us. Who is it this time? I still have no idea. Are they somehow related to the group that created Dr. Shouko? Probably not, since that happened so long ago. So just who is it…?