The days that went by since Linda boarded the Lotus as a temporary crew member were spent in peace. After all, we had nothing to do until Dr. Shouko’s research results come out.

“It won’t take long. I’ll get it done in a few days tops.”

I was a bit doubtful that she’ll really be done with her research in just a few days though. I mean, wasn’t that too fast?

“I’m not an expert either so I can’t say for sure, but it seems she’ll have an easier time because our equipment is relatively state-of-the-art.”

“Ya did say she could buy anythin’ she fancied back then Boss, so Doc did just that.”

“I mean, it wasn’t something a layman like me could get involved in after all. The only thing I could do was pay whatever cash was needed, and I thought I should splurge a bit if it meant getting someone talented like Dr. Shouko to join our crew.”

“How about ya treat us as well as Doc too, Boss?”

“I’m not stingy when it comes to you guys too, right?”

I had no intention of compromising when it comes to providing Tina and Wiska the equipment they needed. After all, adequate maintenance of our ships was directly linked to their combat capabilities. I told the sisters not to hold back if they needed anything, and I approved any purchases that passed through Mei’s thorough scrutiny.

“Mei’s checks are pretty strict so……”

“If that’s the case, then you have to butter up Mei and not me. I’m just a foolish boss who okays anything that passes through Mei’s excellent judgment after all.”

“You don’t have to sell yourself short though…… I think your judgment and decisiveness are amazing, Big Brother.”

“Me too, Boss.”

“Praising me like that won’t do you guys any good, y’know?”

Well, it certainly didn’t feel too bad to be praised like this. Mm, how nice. I’m a simple man, so I get all giddy whenever I’m praised by cute girls like this. It can’t be helped. That’s just how men are.

As for where I’m hanging out with the mechanic sisters right now, we’re currently lounging around in the break space. I was sitting down lazily on the sofa as Tina and Wiska sandwiched me between the two of them. Since their body temperatures as dwarves were relatively high, being sandwiched between them felt pretty warm.

And as I lazed around, someone suddenly loomed over me and then proceeded to plop herself in the space between my legs.

“You guys sure look pretty relaxed.”

“Aah!? That’s no fair, neesan!”

“Ah–!?”

The mechanic sisters wailed as the ‘special seat’ they purposely left open out of consideration for each other was suddenly taken without warning. The culprit was Elma, and she entrusted her back to my chest while ignoring the sister’s protests. It seemed that she just finished taking a shower because her hair was a bit moist.

“Good work. So, how was it?”

“The two of them were surprisingly not too bad.”

Elma praised the two people who weren’t present – Mimi and Kugi.

Elma has been acting as a combat instructor for the two of them for the past few days, and was particularly focused on her specialty, which was hand-to-hand combat.

Unlike Kugi who could use her telepathic abilities to protect herself, Mimi had no innate means of self-defense. I did buy a laser gun for her and trained her in its usage, but when push comes to shove, the last thing she could rely on was her own body.

Mimi had also more or less upped her physical strength through daily workouts and training, so whenever we had lots of free time on our hands, she goes and learns self-defense and hand-to-hand combat techniques from Elma and Mei. Kugi ended up training together with Mimi only recently due to her insistence…… Since she volunteered herself, Elma agreed to let her participate since there wouldn’t be much difference in teaching one or two people.

“Good to hear. It would be nice if they can reach a level where they can easily handle your average thugs, but…… I suppose it’s still impossible to have them go out alone huh.”

“Yep.”

Despite Mimi’s relatively short height, her chest was pretty massive and eye-catching. She was also a very pretty girl, so if she walks around without an escort, she’d probably get into some sort of trouble with men in less than three minutes…… And it’s not like I could make her wear a cloak that hides her figure and an intimidating-looking full-face gas mask whenever she goes out.

“How regrettable…… So, where did Mimi and Kugi go anyway, neesan?”

“Mimi’s exhausted from training and is resting in her room. And I suppose Kugi will come over after she puts Mimi to bed.”

“You trained her until she collapsed from exhaustion? Ain’t that a bit too much?”

“They won’t learn properly without any suffering.”

Elma sure says pretty scary stuff with a straight face sometimes. She appeared to be a mere slender beauty, but she was actually a real muscle-head.

“So, are you planning to just laze around here all day?”

“I don’t think that’s a bad idea, but I also need to raise Hartmut’s impression of me a bit more.”

“That’s true. There’s a better chance of him agreeing to your request if he sees you as a reliable ally instead of a simple acquaintance.”

“I suppose I should get to it then. It looks like Linda’s temporary boarding procedures are done anyway.”

Since that’s done, we can leave the colony without any problems. Well, leaving the star system itself is a different story, but there should be no problems with conducting activities within the star system.

“So, we’re free to do that again, right, Boss? Huntin’ pirates.”

“Right. Well, it’s nothing difficult.”

“Do you think we can make good money from hunting here?”

“Well, I believe we can.”

Due to the pandemic, merchant ship traffic has decreased, and the procedures for entering and leaving port have become more troublesome than usual. Under such circumstances, the system garrison that handles system security is forced to reduce their range of operations, which inevitably affects the security situation of the system as a whole. And that will lead to space pirates becoming more active. In other words, there will be more prey for mercenaries like us to hunt.

“But the number of merchant ships stopping by at the Reemay Prime colony has decreased due to the pandemic, right? Since that’s the case, wouldn’t there be fewer ships for pirates to target?”

“That’s actually not the case. Even if they don’t stop by the Reemay Prime colony, the number of merchant ships passing through the system itself won’t be affected much. That’s because this is a hub system that connects to three other systems via hyperlane nodes.”

If goods can’t be unloaded at the Reemay Prime colony due to the risk of infection, the merchants will just choose to go to other star systems to sell their wares. But that doesn’t mean they won’t pass through the Reemay system itself. In other words, the traffic volume in the routes to hyperlane nodes connecting to other systems was actually increasing. Naturally, pirates will aim for those routes.

“But, well, it’s still gonna be troublesome to get detained for an extended period due to quarantine measures each time we need to sell out loot though. That’s why I need to work on getting chummy with Hartmut so I can get some special privileges to expedite the process.”

“Ain’t that cheatin’?”

“My motto is to use whatever’s at my disposal. And since we’ll voluntarily work on subjugating pirates for them now that the system garrison is tied up, they probably won’t refuse if I made a few requests later on.”

There will probably be many items that are in short supply within the colony due to the pandemic among the loot we’ll obtain from the pirates. The amount of loot won’t be that significant, but since merchant ships were currently avoiding the colony due to the pandemic, there’s a possibility of the supplies serving as the colony’s lifeline becoming depleted.

Hartmut and his father, Viscount Magnelli, have probably arranged for some merchants under their employ to periodically deliver goods to the colony to avoid supply shortage, but what if I also contributed a bit to the improvement of the security and supply situation on top of that? They might find it a bit shady, but they’d probably still be grateful nonetheless.

“Alright then. Let’s go ahead and contact Hartmut, then earn some money and favorability.”

The three’s voices overlapped as they responded in the affirmative. Alright. Time for some fun pirate hunting.