Mob №128 “I shouldn’t have bought that sterilization washing capsule…”
After escaping from Grandma’s clutches(?), when I returned from the care facility, the two neighborhood hags that mother had silenced when my parents came to Planet Ytts for mother’s niece’s wedding were at the house.
Previously, they’d spewed insults about me being a mercenary, saying I was barbaric, practically a criminal, a loser in life, and so on.
Naturally, they couldn’t possibly be mother’s friends, and apparently they barely have any neighborhood relations either.
When I wondered what those people wanted, they were saying things like [Lately the price of things is] or [Investment is good because the future is uncertain], expressing things in various roundabout ways, but basically they’d come to demand money.
Asking my mother, who isn’t even their friend, and moreover demanding money from me, who they’d spread bad rumors about before – what shameless people.
So when I politely declined, this time they said things like [Despite being a criminal~~] or [We’ll use it effectively], saying things like that pink-haired woman Ako Chandela I’d encountered before.
So—
“Please leave the premises immediately. Otherwise, I’ll call the police for trespassing and extortion, and if you push it too far, I’ll use force. After all, I’m in a barbaric profession called mercenary. I’m used to rough stuff. And I’m prepared for it too.”
When I said that and directed my gaze to the gun at my waist, the hags hurriedly fled.
“Sorry, mother. This is going to spread more bad rumors.”
“Don’t worry about it. Those people are famous around here for being hated.”
Apparently, besides me, they’d spread bad rumors about various people and gossiped about things both true and false, so they’re thoroughly hated by the village people.
Despite such trouble, I spent the next two days relaxing, and on the morning of the fifth day after arriving in the countryside, I decided to go home.
On the day of departure, father and mother came to see me off at Balbis Central Station.
“Take care of yourself.”
“Contact us if anything happens.”
Without any particularly sentimental atmosphere, we parted, and after that I arrived at Planet Tavul’s spaceport without incident, boarded the regular ship, and after a two-day journey, safely returned to Planet Ytts.
It was the same when I came, but usually I dock my own ship at the mercenary guild’s parking bay, so being at the spaceport itself is quite refreshing.
I descended from the spaceport to the planet surface on the orbital elevator, and when I arrived at Palubea Station on the high-speed superconducting maglev linear train, it was already close to 11 PM.
From there, I returned to my apartment by taxi and collapsed onto the bed without even unpacking.
The next morning, after finishing breakfast and cleaning the room, I went to greet the landlady with souvenirs, and from there headed to the mercenary guild.
Before going to the mercenary guild counter, looking at the requests on the bulletin board is my usual habit.
Looking at it, during the 12 days or so I’d been resting, the types of requests had become quite one-sided.
“Yo. How was your vacation? You met your parents, right?”
Old man Roans turned to me with an unnecessarily good smile for some reason.
“The debts and troubles are all gone now. From here on out, it should be peaceful and uneventful. More importantly, haven’t the pirate searches and exterminations gotten ridiculously frequent? I thought most of the fallen nobles had already been captured or dealt with. Plus, this is the first time I’ve seen a standalone request for sector patrol, isn’t it?”
When I voiced my genuine questions, Old man Roans’s expression changed.
“According to intelligence, while they call themselves pirates, they’re apparently riding around in heavily armed warships. There’s no doubt it’s Nekirelma’s commerce raiding operations.”
I see, that would explain why pirate extermination and pirate searches have increased.
In this case, these pirate ships are technically called privateers—private ships that have received permission (letters of marque) from the government of a nation at war to attack enemy nation ships and seize their vessels, cargo, and goods. They’re essentially state-affiliated pirate ships.
Probably, though, considering how the ships are clearly warships no matter how you look at them, it feels less like “privateers” and more like “national raiders.”
“But then wouldn’t that be a job for the military?”
“Of course the military is constantly deployed, but apparently they don’t have enough hands, eyes, ears, or legs. That’s why standalone sector patrol requests have started appearing.”
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT gadgetizedpanda.net
Sector patrol is originally one job within a “security” contract, and it’s an essential task that occurs during long-term security assignments.
The fact that they have to do this means pirates are really running rampant.
“So what job are you going to take?”
“I’ll think about it a bit more. I want to look at various information sources.”
“I see. Well, that’s your way of doing things.”
Old man Roans said this while opening a plastic bottle of coffee and pouring it down his throat.
After leaving the mercenary guild, I headed to the black market shopping district to visit my friend at Patterson Dispensing Pharmacy.
Of course, this was to get various information from my information broker friend.
The space still has that suspicious atmosphere drifting through it, but I’m completely used to it now, which makes me feel somewhat lonely and frustrated with myself.
The shopping district itself is peaceful, with only the suspiciousness exploding as usual.
Now, about that butcher shop—this time there’s no special prepared food sale, just a sign reading “Today is Minotaur Meat Sale Day! Steak Cuts – Sukiyaki/Shabu-Shabu Cuts Super Special Price!”
When I arrived at Patterson Dispensing Pharmacy, unusually there was a customer inside.
One old man was receiving an explanation about medicine from Gonzales—or rather, Gonzales wasn’t explaining much.
“That’s why, why do you grab my hand every single time, Guilute-san?”
“Well, it’s because Gonzales-jouchan’s hands are so smooth.”
Apparently, the old man customer was sexually harassing Gonzales.
Even Gonzales couldn’t very well punch an elderly person, so Gonzales wore a smile like chewing on a bitter bug.
Then, an old woman entered the pharmacy and—
“That’s enough, you rotten old geezer!”
—she whacked the old man on the head with a plastic bottle.
“What are you doing… Geh! Wife!”
“Don’t trouble the doctor!”
“I’m not particularly troubling…”
The old man tried to object, but the old woman grabbed his ear and said,
“Doctor, I apologize for my old fool.”
She greeted Gonzales in a completely different voice from when yelling at the old man, then left the pharmacy.
After the couple left, Gonzales let out a big sigh.
“That old man… is he always like that?”
“Well, yeah…”
Gonzales seemed quite exhausted, so my business could wait until Gonzales recovered.
“I shouldn’t have bought that sterilization cleaning capsule…”
Originally, Gonzales didn’t want to return to being male, so Gonzales used the funds for brain transplant surgery to purchase the sterilization cleaning capsule. However, at a pharmaceutical association meeting, the old men from the association set their sights on Gonzales, and Gonzales became a victim of sexual harassment. Now Gonzales wanted to return to the original form quickly—but because Gonzales bought the sterilization cleaning capsule, there was no money left for brain transplant surgery.
“Regretting it now won’t do any good. Besides, maybe if Gonzales returns to being male, this place might lose all its customers.”
I meant it as a joke, but…
“I was already in this appearance when becoming a pharmacist, so… it’s possible?”
The person in charge responded seriously.
Apparently, human relationships were surprisingly important in the medical field.
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