No matter how free mercenaries may seem to be, once they’re under a contract, they’re basically tied to the ones who hired them until the completion of the job. So I can’t just act arbitrarily without the Earl’s consent. In the first place, the other party was a high ranking Imperial noble, so I had to be even more mindful of my actions. If the Earl thought of us as ‘guys who he can’t get a read on and seem highly likely to double-cross him’, then I can’t even imagine what kind of actions he’ll take against us… I’m scared just thinking about it. Maybe he’ll pull out his sword without a word and cut us down on the spot?

“And so, Captain Hiro has decided to turn a blind eye towards everything and became just your regular flunkie.”

I then tapped the send icon on the messaging app and sent the above mail along with some silly emoji stickers.

『Don’t worry, Hiro-sama. It seems my grandfather is already taking all possible precautions against my uncle. I don’t think there’s any cause for concern, but I’ll try to warn him just in case…』

A reply was sent back along with an animated cartoonish black cat sticker with a troubled expression. Fumu. It looks like Chris was quite skilled in playing mahjong.

『I’m sure it’ll be alright! Even if something did happen, I’m sure Hiro-sama will do something about it.』

That message was sent along with a cartoonish squirrel-like creature sticker posing like a bodybuilder. After sending that message, Mimi made some more reckless moves. However, she always seemed to draw good tiles.

『No matter how skilled Hiro is, there’s still a limit you know…… Well, judging from all that’s happened before though, he’ll likely pull through one way or another.』

That message was sent along with a super-deformed one-eyed alien sticker sipping a glass of wine like a boss. It was finally my turn to draw. And it was–

“Hey, I got a Ron!”

『Same for me.』

『What!?』

The one-eyed alien from before appeared again. But this time, it was incinerating a city with an eye beam. Uh, well, Elma’s uchisuji wasn’t bad, but she just has the most rotten luck. It was bad to the point that even that starship filled to the brim with good luck charms, the U*ko, would probably get attracted to her, just like with a certain galaxy police officer. Her incredible bad luck may even rival that guy. As such, she was way too weak at gambling. She was a total pushover. She only got bad hands ever since we started playing this mahjong app on our portable terminals. Her total score was quite a sight to behold, in a completely different sense.

By the way, Mimi was the reigning queen of the game. She played really recklessly, but always seemed to avoid bad hands, and as a result, her score steadily rose. She truly seemed to be blessed by the goddess of luck.

By the way, I was chilling in Krishna’s cockpit and playing online mahjong with everyone using my portable terminal while exchanging silly messages with them in order to kill time. Mimi and Elma were currently taking a break.

Even if Krishna was traveling the hyperlane via auto-pilot, at least one person should still stand by inside the cockpit just in case. Mimi and Elma were probably inside their own rooms or the dining room. May was with me, sitting quietly on the sub-operator seat. She didn’t join in the fun but served as the audience to our mini e-mahjong tournament.

『I wouldn’t lose to you guys if we were playing a racing game!』

The SD alien was dejectedly bending forward as the one who sent it grumbled in frustration. Is she really that down about losing…… Well, in any case, we didn’t have much to do except playing around like this. Like I said earlier, we were traveling on the hyperlane via auto-pilot, and it’s next to impossible to get attacked by enemies while inside the subspace tunnel.

We were now traveling from the Zeiger system to the Uerick system. And once we pass the Uerick system, we’ll finally reach part of Earl Daleinwald’s territory, the Comatt system. And after that, we’ll finally arrive at the Dexer star system.

We didn’t face any problems when we warped out to the Zieger system, and even got escorted by Zieger system troops part way because of Earl Daleinwald’s friendly relations with the ruling noble house over there. We traveled through it without any incident, and now we just left the system and went back into the hyperlane.

The travel time between the Zieger system and the Uerick system via hyperlane was roughly ten hours. It was an hour or so since we jumped into the hyperlane.

“Master, you can just leave the task of standing guard inside the hyperlane to me you know.”

May called out to me as I continued playing e-mahjong with everyone.

“I’m sure you’d be able to do everything well May, but I don’t wanna push everything onto you, so……”

“I do not mind. Unlike biological life forms, I feel no physical or mental fatigue whatsoever.”

“Yeah, I know. But still… I know what you’re capable of, May. But I don’t want to get used to dumping all the work to you alone. And anyway, there’s little chance the enemy would be able to mount an attack inside the hyperlane. As you can see, we have nothing much to do and are just playing around.”

“What about deepening your relationship with the two ladies?”

“We have to keep a balanced lifestyle. I think we have to keep everything in moderation. Or rather, it’s to keep everyone from getting too preoccupied with stuff like that. Especially me.”

Mimi and Elma are both unparalleled beauties after all. And of course, May is the same. I may lose my edge if I keep indulging myself in the three of them; though it may just be too late for that already.

“Is that so?”

“Yep. With my current assets right now, I could probably just laze around while hunting some pirates occasionally and just indulge myself in a decadent lifestyle together with all of you. But I don’t want to do so. I’m serious.”

That may be an attractive prospect, but I still haven’t fulfilled my dream of owning a detached house with a garden on a residential planet. Anyway, I’m currently planning on buying a mothership to increase our money-making options. We’ll be able to earn more with it, and that would take me one step closer to fulfilling my dream.

“I do not think that kind of lifestyle seems so bad, but if Master says you do not want it, then I will simply comply. But if one day you feel otherwise, then please don’t hesitate to inform me. I will support you as best I can.”

May said something so tempting with a straight face. Well, she sports that serious look more than 90% of the time anyway. She may be the crew member I have to be wary of the most. I feel she’ll lead me to a path on no return if I let my guard down…… I need to polish my self-control more. And I can’t exactly blame her for it because she’s just acting in good faith due to her loyalty to me. Anyway, it’ll be fine if I pull myself together. I hope.

Eventually, we arrived safely at the Uerick system. We didn’t go for a stop-over at the Uerick system main colony and continued to travel on. Just like what happened at the Zeiger system, we were also escorted by some of the local forces partway. It looks like Earl Daleinwald got along fairly well with his fellow lords.

“It’ll take twelve hours before we arrive at the next system, right? Wanna switch?”

“I’ll just stay inside the cockpit for the duration of the journey, so why don’t you all take a break, everyone? If my conjecture proves to be correct, the most dangerous part of this journey is when we arrive at the Comatt system, so it would be better if you face it in your best condition.”

“No, uh, like I said, I don’t want to leave everything to you, May…”

I was about to refuse, but Mimi cut in.

“Hiro-sama, wouldn’t it be better to take May-san up on her offer this time? Her conjecture has a high chance of occurring after all. If May-san is fine with that arrangement, it wouldn’t hurt to rely on her more depending on the situation.”

“I also agree, Hiro. You act too reserved around us sometimes. Of course I also think it’s not good to rely on May for everything, but don’t you think being too reserved and not allowing her to do her job is a disservice to her as well?”

“…Really?”

“Yes. I agree as well.”

May backed Elma’s claim and nodded in the affirmative.

“I am happy that you treat me no differently from your other companions and treasure me, but I am a maidroid first and foremost. My reason for being is to be of service to you, Master. Please do not be reserved and make use of my services more. I will be happier if you do.”

“I see.”

“Yes.”

May nodded once more. Umu. How troubling. In my view, May was just a regular beautiful girl, just like Mimi and Elma… She didn’t really act like an artificial being and you wouldn’t even notice if not for those mechanical ‘ears’ of hers. No, well, I’ve been trying to remind myself that May’s an android ever since she started staying with us guys. But since I first saw maidroids on Sierra III, my first impression of them was beautiful maid onee-san, see.

Seeing her as a machine was also made difficult by what happened to the two of us when we went to the workshop on Sierra Prime. And we kept that relationship up even now. Whenever I held her in my arms, all I could feel was the softness and warmth of a beautiful girl.

“Okay then. I’ll do as you say and leave the cockpit to you, May… But I just finished resting a while ago though.”

It’s only been three hours since I woke up from my last nap. I caught some Zs just before we took the hyperlane towards the Comatt system.

“How about you eat a meal first, then take a relaxing bath, and rest in your room afterward?”

“Hohoo. Do you plan on joining me for those, Elma?”

In other words, doing ‘this and that’ after eating a meal and taking a quick shower.

“U-Uhm… D-Do it in moderation, okay?”

After getting what I was implying, Elma’s face became beet red.

“I also think that’s a great idea. Can I join in too?”

I’m not sure if Mimi really understood the flow of my exchange with Elma or not, but she displayed a sunny smile and was raring to go. Hoo. Doing it with all three of us huh? My interest is piqued. It may be the beginning of me sinking deeper into the honey trap, but who the heck cares at this point? What? I’ll pull myself back out before sinking completely so it’ll be alright guys. No, really.

“Okay then. Let’s all go ahead and spend some quality time together.”

“H-Hey, Mimi! W-Wait! I said wait!”

“Let’s all have a nice time together. First, we eat! Let’s have some artificial meat today!”

“Hm. Sounds good.”

“Hey!!”

We pulled the panicking Elma with us and went to the dining room to have Tetsujin V make some delicious meals for us. May sent us away with a somewhat amused-looking gaze despite her stoic expression.