CH 323

It’s been three days since we’ve had lunch together with an off-duty Colonel Serena. I was afraid Col. Serena would immediately throw a request with conditions too good to refuse our way, but there was no such thing, and we continued spending our days in peace.

“I didn’t think mercenaries were actually so, umm……”

“Laid back?”

“Umm, yes. It might be rude of me to say this in front of you, My Lord.”

“Nah, it’s not rude at all.”

I shrugged my shoulders in response to Kugi, who was currently sporting body-hugging training wear, and took a sip of my protein-rich energy drink.

Hm? It’s really aromatic. Kinda tastes like kinako (roasted soybean flour). It’s pretty nice.

“We’re having our ships maintained, so we’re a lot more relaxed than usual. There are almost no pirates active in the Windas system, so there basically aren’t that many jobs we can take on in this system aside from basic escort requests. Escort requests normally take a few weeks and can take up to a few months sometimes, so they’re a little bit too much to handle for Krishna alone.”

“And we also can’t afford to leave Black Lotus and Antlion here.”

“As a result, we currently can’t move away from here, and since we also can’t take any jobs, we can just busy ourselves with working out, eating, and sleeping.”

We first saw off the mechanic sisters who went to work early in the morning after eating and getting dressed. Then the four of us who were left went to the sports gym near the hotel. The hotel itself didn’t have a dedicated gym, so we went out of our way to come here. After all, if we only ate and slept all the time, our bodies would become dull.

“By the way, did you have a general impression of mercenaries before, Kugi?”

“Yes. I’ve seen a good number of holo-movies, novels, and comics about the activities of mercenaries.”

“Well, that’s unexpected. Judging from your words from before, I kinda had the impression that the people of the Holy Vuelzarus empire didn’t really care about such things.”

“Of course, we do. Certainly, people like me do value our duties a lot and prioritize them whenever appropriate, but in order to accomplish them, a fulfilled and healthy lifestyle is also needed. And to have a fulfilling and healthy lifestyle, entertainment is, of course, essential. Our country also has many forms of entertainment available.”

Kugi proudly stuck her chest to the front as she explained.

“I kinda get it but kinda don’t too…… Well, it’s certainly not realistic for everyone to just focus on their duties and spend their entire lives without having any fun.”

No man’s an island, I suppose. The mission Kugi keeps mentioning sounded really grand and far-reaching. The scale was a little too big for me to understand. I can’t really imagine working hard all my life for such a thing.

“I’m gonna change the topic for a bit. You have a lot of stamina, don’t you, Kugi? Or rather, aren’t you really athletic?”

“Is that so? I haven’t really noticed.”

Kugi tilted her head to the side cutely after hearing what I pointed out. The sight of the animal ears on her head moving from time to time was really adorable.

“I thought that too. She’s practically on par with you, isn’t she, Hiro-sama?”

“Not exactly. I think she’s actually better than me when it comes to muscle strength and instantaneous power.”

Judging from the data displayed by the running machine, I had more stamina than Kugi, but all her other physical abilities were either on par or above mine. As expected, it seems she wasn’t quite able to match Elma who had undergone physical augmentations though.

“Do all the locals of the Vuelzarus Holy Empire have ears and tails like yours?”

“Well, there certainly are many people who have ears and tails like mine. But some have ears and tails of many different shapes and sizes. Some have ears like yours, My lord, but have horns too.”

“I see……?”

I wonder. I can only imagine what they’re like, but don’t they sound pretty much like beastmen? And some had ears like humans but possessed horns on their heads? Kinda like oni? I dunno.

Kugi’s usual clothes kinda resembled a miko’s get-up, so my current impression of the Holy Vuelzarus Empire was a kemonomimi empire with a sort of Japanese-style atmosphere, but since there were people who seemed oni-like as well, was it more of a youkai empire instead? The Holy Vuelzarus Empire huh. How unfathomable.

“If Kugi isn’t particularly gifted physically among her people, then they might all have higher basic physical abilities compared to humans like Mimi and me.”

“Is that so?”

“Tina and Whisker’s race is also naturally strong, so it might really be like that.”

Because those two were dwarves, their overall power and grip strength was amazing. Their livers were also especially hardy, judging from the copious amounts of alcohol they drank every day.

“By the way, what are we gonna do after completing our workout menu for today? We don’t have anything planned in particular, right?”

“Mm, let’s see. It looks like there aren’t any places that seem great for sightseeing around here……”

In the last three days, we’ve basically visited all the commercial and entertainment areas available here in the Windas Tertius colony. There weren’t any particularly interesting places, but the shops in the commercial area had pretty good selections of goods.

Come to think of it, Mimi bought a lot of stuff from that imported goods store back then…… She does sometimes hit the jackpot, but most of the food Mimi buys from stores like those are basically pretty grotesque.

“Oh, right. The items I ordered will arrive on the Krishna today guys.”

“The items you ordered?”

“Yes! They’re all specialty foods brought here from various places by trading ships! Are you interested, Kugi-chan?”

Mimi displayed a bright smile toward Kugi. Oh boy. Don’t rush to agree, Kugi. If you get baited by that smile, you’d probably experience something unthinkable. That smile is a trap that invites you to a hell-like food tasting party.

Mimi continued to preach the splendor of imported specialty foods to Kugi, who was listening with great interest. As I watched the two’s antics, my portable data terminal’s ringtone suddenly went off. It was probably Tina. She’s supposed to be working right now though. Did something happen?

“Yes, hello? What’s up?”

I switched the terminal to speaker mode, and Tina’s voice went up from it.

『Ah, Boss? We only needed to work half-day today, so we’re off work now. You wanna hang out with me and Whisker fer a meal?』

“Sure. But just the three of us?”

I glanced at Mimi and the others. Why did they only ask for me and not the others? This was the first time something like this happened.

“I and Mei are here, so just go ahead.”

Elma, who had been looking at me, gave her consent. Mimi also turned toward me and nodded. Hm? This kinda feels like it’s been planned in advance, doesn’t it?

“What are you guys up to……? Well, alright. Where should we meet up?”

『Thanks a bunch. Umm, I’ll send the location data right now. We’re gonna head there immediately after this.』

“Got it. See you both later.”

When I hung up the call, the map data of our meet-up spot was sent to my terminal immediately. Hm? It looks like a restaurant with a somewhat high-class feel to it.

“It’s better not to ask about the circumstances, right?”

“Just have the two of them tell you directly.”

“Ok. I’ll leave them to you.”

“No problem. You owe me one though.”

“I’m not Colonel Serena you know. Gimme a break.”

I retorted to Elma while smiling bitterly and glanced over to the corner of the training room where Mei was standing. She nodded in response. Now then, I wonder what will happen.