I Woke Up Piloting the Strongest Starship, so I Became a Space Mercenary 97

Since the earl already introduced himself properly, it would be bad manners if we didn't do the same. I opened my mouth straight away.

“I'm a Gold rank mercenary affiliated with the Mercenary Guild, Captain Hiro, your lordship. Please forgive me if I show you any discourtesy, as I am not quite accustomed to using formal addresses yet. These two lovely ladies here are crew members of my ship, the Krishna. This is my copilot, Elma. And this is my operator, Mimi. The one standing in the back is our maidroid, May.”

“I am honored to be in your presence, your lordship. My name is Elma.”

“L-Likewise, your lordship. I-I'm Mimi.”

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“This humble one is called May.”

Elma reverently bowed toward Earl Daleinwald as she introduced herself. Mimi followed after her in a fluster. It looks like Mimi's lost her cool a bit after meeting a high ranking noble with the regal bearing to match his status. She's an imperial citizen after all, so she must be even more affected compared to me.

“Umu… Please take your seats, everyone.”

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“Yes.”

We obeyed the earl's words and took our seats once more. The maid then refilled our tea. It was more of that shockingly red tea. Should I call it new age tea or something? Nah, let's just call it tea. Nice and simple.

“First, I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to all of you. Thank you for doing such a splendid job in taking in and protecting the heiress of the Daleinwald House, my dear granddaughter Christina. As the current head of the Daleinwald House and a grandfather, I am truly thankful.”

“We are unworthy of such words….. is what I'd like to say, but we really did have a hard time, your lordship.”

“Hey…!”

“Well, it's the truth, so we need to tell it as it is, right? I'm sure Christina's already filled you in on the details sir, but we ought to give you our account of what happened as well.”

I ignored Elma, who was frantically elbowing my ribs, and carried on with the conversation.

“I see. I have heard of what happened from Christina, but I suppose it would be good to hear the details from you as well.”

Earl Daleinwald nodded magnanimously and gestured for me to continue. When I displayed a smug smile, Elma sharply jabbed her elbow on my ribs. Ouch.

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I then relayed the entirety of the past events with Mimi, Elma, and Chris supplementing my story from time to time. I told Earl Daleinwald about how we were persistently and mercilessly attacked, how we responded, and how much effort we expended in order to ensure Chris's safety, in vivid detail.

I started with how we were attacked by pirates when we arrived at the Sierra star system, and how we found the cold sleep pod containing Chris in one of the pirate ship wreckages. We couldn't possibly ignore such a discovery, so we secured the cold sleep pod and brought it back to the Sierra Prime colony. We unlocked the pod at the local port administration office, and found Chris inside.

“Fumu. It was truly a huge stroke of fortune that you all managed to find Christina.”

“Yes. And I also owe my life to dear father and mother, who did everything to ensure that I successfully escaped.”

“Yes. You're absolutely right, dear……”

I allowed the earl and Chris to settle their gloomy feelings a bit and took some sips of the bright red tea. After a few moments of silence, I continued on with the story.

After hearing about the situation from Chris, I accepted her request for protection after receiving a promise of satisfactory rewards. Afterwards, we made multiple bookings on the three resort planets in order to confuse our pursuers, who were sent by Chris's uncle. But as soon as we left port, we were suddenly attacked, and we had no choice but to repulse them. Then, the resort planet we chose to stay on was directly attacked by hundreds of pirate ships. But that attack was just cover in order to secretly send down military stealth dropships filled to the brim with combat robots. Then, I used my personal connections in order to get in contact with Major Serena Holz of the imperial independent anti-pirate mobile fleet, and managed to secure her help. And finally, I related the events of the assault by a rogue imperial military squadron, and how we worked together with the anti-pirate mobile fleet in order to defeat them.

“Afterwards, we went back to the Sierra Prime colony, and that's when we got in contact with you, your lordship.”

“I see… Umu. It seems your story is similar to what Christina has told me earlier. I promise that you shall receive the appropriate compensation for all your earnest efforts.”

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“Thank you very much, your lordship.”

I displayed an ingratiating smile. Elma looked like she was trying hard to suppress the urge to strangle my neck though. Anyway, with this, we've mostly secured a promise of appropriate compensation. We ended up rescuing Chris and earned a lot of money in the process. This is the best outcome.

Huh? What if Chris wasn't a little beauty, you ask? Oh c'mon guys. It doesn't matter if it was a pretty boy or an uncle. I would have extended my help just the same. I do admit my motivation to help was made stronger by the fact that Chris was a beautiful young girl though. Isn't that obvious?

“We can talk about our compensation later. May I ask what you plan on doing now that you've reunited with Christina?”

“Fumu……”

The earl cupped his chin and silently ruminated after hearing my question.

“I brought as much of my forces as I could muster on short notice, but even with this much, we would still have trouble facing a squadron composed of military starships, even if they are one or two generations behind the latest models. If it is fine with you all, I would like to hire you to continue serving as Christina's private guards for the time being.”

“As long as there is appropriate compensation, I am more than willing to accept the job. What about you two?”

“I don't mind.”

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“M-Me too.”

It looks like Elma and Mimi have no problems with it too. As for May, she would probably follow whatever I decide to do, so I didn't ask her.

“Now then, let us continue talking about your remuneration. First, let us decide on your payment for serving as Christina's guardians thus far.”

Earl Daleinwald called in his secretary, and we proceeded with the discussion regarding our payment.

It was decided that all of the expenses we ended up using in order to evade the enemy's pursuit including the money we used to book the resort planets were to be fully reimbursed. In addition, we were also going to be paid an additional 5,000,000 Enels as remuneration for serving as Chris's guards. As expected of a high ranking noble. How generous. He easily forked out more than 8,000,000 Enels just like that. So I take it that the earl considers this amount as nothing much compared to the life of his dear granddaughter.

However, even if we did purchase her on Sierra III, May wasn't considered a part of the expenses for ensuring Chris's safety. Well, I guess that's reasonable. We did just purchase her quite recently, so considering that, it's reasonable that she wasn't considered as part of the necessary expenses.

Adding the 240,000 Enels we received from guarding the Pelican IV, and cutting out Mimi and Elma's share of the money, my current assets now amount to about 24.4 million Enels.

I've also subtracted the money used to buy stuff on Sierra III while we were on vacation, the payment for the lecture given by the receptionist gynoid when we went to the Orient Corporation workshop, May's option parts and weapons, and all other miscellaneous expenses.

By the way, Mimi's share for the Pelican IV escort job and being Chris's guardian was 41,200 Enels. Elma's was 247,200 Enels. Elma's earnings should be roughly enough for purchasing a fully customized Bronze rank ship of her own, right? But she hasn't repaid even a single Enel to me though.

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I don't really mind, actually. It's fun being with her, and she's really reliable.

But I have 24.4 million huh? I think this much is enough to purchase a pretty decent mothership. Well, I'd have to earn a little bit more in order to fully customize it.

After we finished discussing the payment for the previous job, we moved on to discuss the details for our new contract.

“The average hiring fee for Gold rank mercenaries is 80,000 Enels per day. But we are willing to pay you 250,000 Enels per day to continue acting as escorts to Christinsama.”

Earl Deleinwald's secretary confidently declared our proposed remuneration. Wow. 250,000 Enels a day. How generous. It's leagues apart from that stingy Major Serena, who only paid us the minimum amount of 80,000.

But I was a bit uneasy about the fact that they're willing to fork out more than three times the regular price. Of course more money is a good thing, but since they were willing to triple the price just like that, there should be a corresponding amount of danger to the job. Maybe there's still something they're not telling us.

I gave Elma a questioning gaze, and she moved closer to whisper her thoughts to me.

“I'm sure there's a bit more to it, but basically, this is hush money. This may cause a really nasty scandal for the Daleinwald House if word got out after all.”

“Um, we've already told Major Serena about the whole incident though.”

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'I'm sure they've already taken that into consideration. Like I said, the things Chris's uncle pulled off would result in a huge scandal for the Daleinwald House, and their use of military issued stealth dropships and the involvement of a rogue imperial squadron would put the imperial government on the spot as well. Both the empire's top brass and the Daleinwald House don't want this matter to blow up more than it already has, so they're giving us hush money. If we ever mess up, we'll have both the Daleinwald House and the empire out for our heads, so keep that in mind.”

“Ugh…… I'll make sure not to let anything slip. You be careful too, Mimi.”

“Y-Yes!”

After listening to Elma's explanation, Mimi became blue in the face and nodded. Earl Daleinwald just quietly observed our reaction. He was very calm and composed. Chris had a bitter smile on her pretty face, and the secretary had his usual business smile. Man, this old guy's scary.

“We'll accept those arrangements.”

“Very well. Resupplying and 'cleaning up' would take a few days more, so just make some preparations for departure for the meantime. We will get in contact with the Mercenary Guild later on and arrange a formal request.”

“Understood.”

I was curious about what he meant by 'cleaning up', but I'd better not to ask. No matter how I think about it, that bit sounded somewhat ominous, so I'll just leave it at that. It was scary to have both a distinguished noble house and an entire empire hot on your tail after all.

And so, we managed to secure our payment for our previous efforts, as well as another lucrative contract. After a few more minutes of idle talk, we finally decided to get off the earl's ship.

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“Well then, I'll see you all tomorrow.”

Chris, who was flanked by the beefy onii-sans from earlier, accompanied us outside the ship in order to send us off. She made an elegant bow.

“Yeah. Leave it to us.”

“We'll do our very best for Chris-chan's sake!”

“Yep. No need to worry.”

We started walking down the ramp, but I suddenly remembered something and paused. I then turned around and went back. I then searched my jacket pocket for something.

Hey, hey. It's not like I'm trying to take out a weapon, so stop readying those laser rifles, misters. They're damn scary.

“I forgot about this. Here's your pendant back, Chris.”

The thing I brought out from my jacket pocket was the pendant Chris handed to me when she requested my help after waking up from the cold sleep pod. It was an expensive-looking article inlaid with a beautiful purple jewel.

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“No, please keep holding on to it. You still have to keep protecting me after this, right? I'm counting on you, my dear knight.”

Well, I feel that the forces Earl Daleinwald brought with him were more than enough though. I don't think we'll have much to do, actually. Well, since Chris herself said so, I suppose I'll just hold on to it for the time being.

“……If that is your wish, my lovely princess.”

“Yes, please keep it safe.”

Chris's lips formed into a beautiful smile after hearing my reply. Yep. She sure is pretty. Her white dress also suited her and made her seem even more like a fairy tale princess.

“We'll be going then. We'll see you tomorrow.”

“Yes. Tomorrow then.”

I turned around and walked away once more as Chris and the beefy laser rifle-toting onii-sans saw me off with their gazes.

We're mostly finished with ship maintenance and resupplying, and we got a whole lot of money on our hands right now, not to mention a daily income of 250,000 Enels. Since we successfully handed Chris's custody over to her grandfather, I'm sure Chris's uncle and his lackeys would not make a move on us anymore. Looks like we can finally relax now.

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Chapter end