Mob #104: [Then I’ll look into that information again. As long as it’s in Roha it’s fine.]
In the shifts created by the Rear Admiral, I was assigned to the first shift.
Lambert, Miss Roseweiss, and Dan were in the same shift.
So in Galactic Standard Time, we take the day shift while Arthur, Seira, and Moritz take the night shift.
Arthur and the others are probably lying down now even if they aren’t sleepy yet.
Since we had just started, the job was extremely peaceful.
It was so peaceful that I wanted to contact Gonzales to confirm what we discussed earlier, but I couldn’t during the job so I endured.
Thankfully, other than the periodic all-hands reports, Lambert, Miss Roseweiss, Moritz, or anyone else didn’t try to talk to me at all, and time passed quietly.
When the first shift ended and our break started, I contacted Gonzales right away.
[Yo. Aren’t you on an escort job now?]
That guy. Lounging around eating yakitori or something.
Probably from that Yakitori Kokatoris place in the shopping district.
“I’m on break now. More importantly, how come you didn’t know the military, specifically the Rear Admiral from the 1st Fleet, was involved with this job?”
I calmly told him just the facts.
I didn’t suspect for a moment that he hid the information on purpose.
He probably just couldn’t dig it up despite his skills.
[I see… Sorry about that. I don’t have a good excuse, but they must have communicated somewhere my net diving couldn’t reach. Or a conversation somewhere without cameras or mics. If they put written instructions between metal plates and delivered them directly without a courier, I wouldn’t know the contents. Of course, written and read outside camera view. Or they met in person and exchanged written notes before immediately burning them – it would be absolutely impossible to know about interactions like those. Let me sincerely apologize again.]
Gonzales straightforwardly apologized without denying his lack of ability.
Given his skills, places he can’t dive into are probably few and far between, so the latter methods were likely used.
Thinking about it, surprisingly primitive anti-surveillance measures seem to be more effective.
[Then I’ll look into that information again. As long as it’s in Roha it’s fine.]
From Gonzales’s very serious expression, it seems his professional pride was provoked by his failure to obtain the information before.
“Yeah, contact me around the same time.”
And so the first day’s break passed uneventfully.
When the second day’s work also ended without incident and I went on break, I got a message from Gonzales right away.
[Yo. Got some intel.]
Although Gonzales’s face looked quite haggard, he had the expression of a professional who had accomplished his goal.
“So what’d you find out?”
[Seems Stardun Corporation started buying up goods cheaply to increase profits, but since they’d never hired mercenaries as escorts before, the president asked his friend Rear Admiral Brezhskin for advice. Looks like he made it a condition to scout talent and lure out shady elements in exchange.]
“So the company tried to profit, the Rear Admiral just happened to advise them, and took the chance to scout talent and use it as bait?”
[Right. Seems the Rear Admiral was the type who didn’t care much for status even when young, and had been friends with the president since their school days even though he was a commoner. Rumor has it they became good friends after he punched out the previous Emperor during some school trouble.]
“That guy is outrageous…”
Considering it was during the previous Emperor’s school days, it was still an era of major class divides.
For someone of marquis status to befriend a commoner, much less punch royalty back then, would warrant execution easily.
But tales of the Rear Admiral’s school days aside, he got intel this time that he couldn’t before.
I’d like to know how he did it, but he probably won’t tell me.
[Since it’s you, I bet you don’t want to get caught up in the military’s talent scouting. Be careful how you act.]
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“Got it. Thanks for the info.”
I’ll have to be really careful here.
Military personnel may have snuck in posing as staff or mercenaries.
Given this, I’ll have to avoid standing out as much as possible.
But after that, trouble from a different vector than military scouting came my way.
After Gonzales’s call, when I finished eating and went to borrow a shower before returning to my ship, someone called out to me.
“Yo. Got a minute?”
The one who called out was a man who seemed a bit older than me, with several lackey-looking guys behind him.
“Can I help you with something?”
“Do you know that Roseweiss chick from [White Helmet]?”
“Well, I’ve seen her around.”
I smoothly lied since it seemed bad to say we’re acquainted here.
“Don’t you think a fine woman like that suits a man like me rather than some brat?”
The man struck a pose like he was fixing his hair, but it wasn’t as cool as Dan’s.
“I don’t know about suitability, but what does that have to do with talking to me?”
“Help me put that Lambert brat in his place.”
“No thanks.”
I immediately refused the man’s proposal.
The man made an angry expression.
“I can’t tolerate some brat being the same Bishop rank as me! It must piss you off for some nobody to outrank you!”
In other words, he was jealous and planned to gang up on and torment his junior, then have his way with the girlfriend.
So this guy was Bishop rank, huh? He doesn’t look it at all.
“I don’t really care. Besides, we’re on break but this is still during work hours.”
When I pointed that out, the man clicked his tongue in frustration.
Fighting between mercenaries is strictly prohibited during escort and security jobs.
Because if someone got injured or died, it would create a gap in the escort/security.
Sometimes the instigator also gets penalized.
Seems the other guy remembered this and
“Tch! Coward!”
spat those parting words before leaving.
I guess I don’t have to contact Miss Roseweiss after all.
Those guys probably won’t do anything, and even if they did, they’re no match for Miss Roseweiss anyway.
And then day 3.
We’ve finally reached the halfway point of the route.
To finish up safely the next couple days, I need to avoid conversations that might raise flags.
Well, I haven’t talked to anyone during the job so far, so it should be fine.
How careless it was to think that.
Even your own inner monologues can trigger flags…
Around 6 hours into day 3,
[Detected reaction at 10 o’clock. Probably pirates.]
Miss Roseweiss discovered pirates.
When the radar on my ship, upgraded to the latest model, didn’t detect anything.
As expected of an ancient electronic warfare machine, it’s on a different level.
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