I ended up flirting, lazing about, and going on dates with the rest of the crew for a few days until the planetary descent request was approved. But it definitely wasn’t compensation for my recent escapades such as getting into a relationship with Serena or the talks of engagement and marriage to Chris. Definitely not.

Meanwhile, Elma got in touch with House Willrose in the imperial capital, and it seemed that Tina and Wiska also contacted someone. Going by the sister’s previous actions, this was certainly unusual. I don’t remember them doing so in the past.

“Did you guys make a long-distance transmission to Reemay Prime and got in touch with Airia or something?”

So, I decided to ask them directly.

The Reemay Star system was the system that Tina used to live in, and Tina’s acquaintances and friends were living in the Reemay Prime colony. I wondered if she took the opportunity to call them while we were staying in the capital, but I got a rather unexpected reply.

“Uh, well, we called our Ma.”

“Ma?”

“Yes. We haven’t really told you much about our family, right, Big Brother? Um, so, our parents are actually divorced. My Big Sis was taken in by our dad, and I went with our mom instead.”

“And, well, our stupid Da went an’ kicked the bucket, leavin’ me behind ta fend fer myself. But I somehow managed ta make ends meet back on Reemay until I got reunited with Wiska and ended up meetin’ ya later, Boss. Unlike our idiot Da, our Ma’s pretty well put together.”

“Well put together huh……? So, isn’t your mother angry about the fact that you guys ended up resigning from a regular company and began working as mercenaries instead?”

“”……””

The two of them averted their eyes after hearing my question. Thanks for the very obvious response, girls.

“Uh, well, it’s basically just her naggin’ via text messages y’know? I mean, it’s impossible fer her ta suddenly storm our ship since we often move from place ta place, right?”

“Riiight. I really hope an enraged mother doesn’t suddenly show up in the capital since transportation options are widely available.”

After all, since the imperial capital was literally situated at the center of the Graccan Empire, commuting here wasn’t all that hard. Naturally, a majority of the gateways were capable of connecting to the imperial capital, and civilian passenger transport companies were granted the rights to make use of said gateways.

In other words, just like I said earlier, if said mother found out that her daughters were in the imperial capital along with the mercenary who lured them away, she would probably cancel all her previous plans and immediately head to the capital.

“N-Nah, that probably won’t happen, right……? Ahaha.”

And two hours after we had such a conversation–

“Hello. I’m Sheila, Tina and Wiska’s mother.”

“I’m their uncle, Bargan.”

“Gatram. I’m their uncle as well.”

A grand total of three people–my mother-in-law, and her older and younger brothers–made their way to the Lotus.

“Welcome. I’m Hiro, a humble mercenary. I’ve been in the care of your lovely daughters ma’am, and am truly grateful.”

Since I couldn’t possibly turn away Tina and Wiska’s mother and uncles who came for a visit, I invited them into the ship and led them to the break space. After all, there was no such thing as a fancy reception room on this ship. Therefore, there was nowhere else where we could receive guests apart from the dining hall and the break space. The next time we buy a mothership, I should consider having them install a proper guest hall.

“”……””

Tina and Wiska didn’t even sit next to me. I could only see their faces from behind the sofa I was sitting on. They were using the sofa and me as shields.

“Um, you sure got here pretty quickly.”

“We were in the Windas system for work when I received a message from my daughters, so I decided to pay a quick visit along with their uncles. In fact, I’ve been wanting to pay a visit for a while, but I just haven’t gotten the chance to until now.”

“In fact, I should have gone to you myself. I apologize for dragging your daughters all over the place without paying you a proper visit. After all, working as mercenaries necessitate travelling around a lot.”

“It can’t be helped since you’re an up-and-coming Platinum-ranker and a hero worthy of receiving a Gold Star from His Imperial Majesty. I am an ordinary commoner like my daughters, and as an honorary viscount, you have more important things to do aside from meeting their parents…… right?”

“Uh, I really am sorry ma’am.”

I bowed my head in unconditional surrender to the sense of coercion contained within my mother-in-law’s gentle smile. Actually, I may have gotten used to the fact that Mimi no longer had parents and didn’t have any idea if she had any remaining relatives until recently. Elma, on the other hand, actually kept her family circumstances secret at first. That’s probably why I didn’t pay much attention to meeting Tina and Wiska’s parents. It was completely my fault. Perhaps I should have gotten in touch with her when the girls decided to resign from Space Dvergr. Though I could only consider it in hindsight.

“Let’s leave it at that, Sheila.”

“Yeah, Sis.”

Bargan-san and Gatram-san, who were sitting beside Sheila-san, promptly pacified her. After being admonished by the two, Sheila-san closed her eyes, and after calming herself down for a short while, she let out a sigh.

“Just why? Why did something like this– And the two of them together……”

“Didn’t you also get together with Gram despite our objections, Sheila?”

“I think it’s in their blood. But ain’t he a lot more decent than you gave him credit for, Sis?”

Was Gram the name of their deceased father? I’m happy that Gatram-san thinks I was a pretty decent guy, but I’m not exactly sure I could really be described as decent…… After all, I was a mercenary. A rootless wanderer. It was a job where it wouldn’t be surprising if one lost their life at any point.

“I-I have no intention of ever leaving Big Brother’s side!”

“M-Me too…… I’m gonna stay with Boss forever.”

The sister’s hands reached out from behind the sofa and grabbed both of my shoulders. Since the two of them said as much, I suppose I should show my resolve as well.

But Wiska seemed to be much more comfortable with addressing her family. Whereas Tina seemed to take a step back, and there was a hint of reservation in her tone.

“Wiska-chan, Tina-chan, we didn’t come here with the intention of bringing the two of you home by force.”

“That’s right. Even if we did try, it ain’t gonna work out since our opponent’s the famed Captain ‘Crazy’ Hiro. We’d be cut into dwarven meat slices in an instant.”

“Uh, I wouldn’t go so far as to cut down my lover’s uncles into pieces unless absolutely necessary. I really am sorry about not meeting with you all right away. I sincerely apologize. But as long as the two of them want to stay by my side, I also want to stay by theirs. No matter what.”

I bowed my head once more, then looked at Sheila-san directly as I declared my position. Sheila-san also stared back at me. Her facial features resembled Tina and Wiska a lot. They were mother and daughters, after all, I suppose. The color of her hair was a slightly purplish blue, and both Bargan-san and Gatram-san also had the same hair color. Perhaps the late Gram-san was the one with red hair? As I mulled over the matter, Sheila-san once again let out a sigh.

“Are you sure you can properly take care of both of them? Dwarven women are very affectionate, but it’ll turn into quite a mess if you betray their feelings you know?”

“I will do my best in my own way.”

Sheila-san nodded at my reply, while Bargan-san and Gatram-san displayed bitter smiles. Oh, it’s that, isn’t it? The two uncles probably investigated our circumstances in detail before coming here. Well, um, since both of them didn’t object despite being aware that I had many romantic partners, I suppose we’ll be fine. I didn’t want to make light of their opinions on the matter after all.

“I see…… In that case, please allow me to have a chat with my daughters first. Along with all their other newly made sisters. Just us women, alright?”

“Uh, sure.”

It seemed that Sheila-san also had a good grasp of our circumstances.

In cases like this, it’s better to go along with what the woman wants.

“We have been a family of merchants for generations, you see. Well, I suppose it’s rare these days to keep a family business going from generation to generation. And besides, not every family member can participate in running the business.”

“Bro took over the family business, and I ended up enlisting as a soldier. Now that I’ve retired from the military, I’m working as a security captain on a passenger transport ship.”

While Sheila-san and the other ladies were having their girls-only talk, Bargan-san, Gatram-san, and I took the opportunity to come to the hangar where Tina and Wiska usually worked. We each grabbed any item that could be used as a seat and started chatting among ourselves as well.

“What about Sheila-san?”

“Sheila has a pretty good head on her shoulders. She went to a good school and found work in an aerospace engine manufacturing company. She ended up meeting Gram there, and Tina and Wiska were born soon afterward.”

“But Gram was a bit of a drunkard and also liked to gamble. In the end, they got into a big fight and broke up about two or three years after Tina and Wiska were born. And Gram ended up disappearing along with Tina soon after that. Actually, it was more like kidnapping.”

“Seriously……?”

I don’t want to say anything bad about someone who already died, but that was really a bit too much…… In the end, he died and left Tina behind to fend for herself. I heard she struggled quite a lot. Of course, not everything about the guy was bad, mind you.

“After a while, we were surprised when Wiska-chan managed to find Tina-chan and brought her out of Reemay Prime. Sheila was both happy to reunite with her daughter and absolutely bonkers regarding Gram and the mess he caused. She even said she wanted to revive him from death and kill him herself you know?”

“Well, that’s only natural since the guy practically kidnapped Tina and disappeared with her only to end up dead, causing Tina a lot of hardship as a result……”

Furthermore, she ended up getting involved with the local mafia and criminal gangs, so when Tina escaped from Reemay Prime, she had to brave a lot of dangers. Of course, Sheila-san would get angry.

“Due to her experiences, she held a rather negative view about her two daughters getting into a relationship with you, Hiro-dono…… But it seems she came around a bit when she got to meet you face to face.”

“It would be great if that really is the case. Um, you know, you really don’t have to keep acting all polite around me. Even if I’m called a Platinum-ranker, a Gold Star recipient, and an honorary viscount, I’m still younger than both of you. And I’m also the, err, husband of your nieces, yeah? What does that make me, by the way?”

“You’d be our nephew-in-law.”

“Right, nephew-in-law. Well, I may not be as cute as Tina and Wiska, but I’d be happy if you treated me the same way you treat them.”

“Hahaha, it looks like I got the famed hero as my nephew-in-law. I guess this is something worth bragging about a bit.”

Bargan-san laughed heartily, and Gatram-san also held a grin on his face.

“Um, calling me a hero is a bit of an exaggeration, I think. Or rather, how are they actually describing me out there, exactly?”

“Oh? Our nephew-in-law seems to be indifferent to fame. I believe you got interviewed by several media companies a while back, right? A documentary program using footage from those interviews is currently being aired. The clean and celebrity-like lifestyle of a first-class mercenary, romance with several gorgeous women, thrilling battles together with the Imperial Space Force and fellow mercenaries against menacing space pirates, eye-popping earnings, raising awareness about the social evil known as piracy from a mercenary’s perspective…… Captain Hiro’s mercenary documentary is a very popular program right now.”

“What the heck? That sounds freaking scary…… I’m too scared to check it out myself.”

Watching a documentary program that shows snippets of my daily life was a pretty terrifying prospect. Actually, I’ve been actively avoiding watching it, but it seems that Mimi records the episode data and watches them often…… It’s easy to find out whether or not she’d been watching them since she would have this silly grin on her face.

“To be honest, I’m quite the avid fan. I’m actually pretty excited to have this opportunity to talk to you in person.”

Gatram-san said something outrageous while hiding his mouth with one hand.

“Uh–…… Do you want to take a holo-pic with me or something? With Krishna in the background.”

“Would that be alright?”

“Of course. We also have a lot of loot from pirates, so I’ll give you some of the non-dangerous stuff as souvenirs.”

“I’m really happy right now. I actually feel like screaming in happiness.”

Gatram-san looked up at the ceiling and trembled in excitement. Please refrain from shouting, since it looks like it’s gonna be pretty loud.