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416 – Victory Drink

“Hahaha, now that’s how you make a killing as a merc.”

The interstellar merchant we rescued from the pirate attack sent us off with reward money that was way more than what we could have gotten from bagging one pirate ship. We also nabbed all the loot the pirates dropped and stripped the best equipment off of their ships in addition to the bounties placed on their heads. It was a pretty profitable deal. For us, anyway.

“How much did you guys earn from that?”

Linda, who was dressed in what appeared to be a plain-looking patient gown, asked me out of curiosity.

“The merchant rewarded us with 20k, and the pirates without any special bounties on them netted us about 3000 to 5000 per ship. Since we shot down a total of fourteen ships, we would get at least 42 thousand from them, and we’d earn even more after selling off the loot and some ship equipment. More or less, we’d probably get around 100,000. We can probably get more depending on how much the loot and ship equipment sell for.”

“Seriously……? It sounds like you can rake in a lot of cash working as a merc.”

“Well, you’d have to invest several hundred thousand Enels first if you want a shot at earning big though.”

“That’s way too many zeroes for a pleb like me…… But how exactly do folks sign up to be mercenaries anyway?”

“Hmm, let’s see……”

Mimi began giving Linda a rundown on how to become a mercenary. I wonder if Mimi enjoyed these question-and-answer sessions with Linda? She often entertained her just like this. It’s a bit amusing to see Kugi pricking up her ears and nodding along on the side. Her cute fox ears kept twitching with interest.

I left Linda with Mimi and went to the mess hall. There, I found Elma drinking some beer after finishing up her work. I took a can of non-carbonated cola out from the fridge and plopped down beside her.

“Good job out there. So, what are we gonna do with that girl?”

“Thanks. Well, if we keep increasing the number of our crew members every time we head somewhere, we’d run out of cabins really quick.”

“Hmmm? You did lay your grubby hands on Tina and Wiska eventually, so I thought that girl was also right in your strike zone.”

“Oh, c’mon. That girl’s genuinely off-limits y’know…… Even someone like me has a sense of morality and conscience, okay? Or rather, I did hesitate a lot before laying my hands on those two. Also, I did hold back from laying my hands on Chris, so I wish you’d give me a bit more credit.”

“I just thought maybe you’ve changed your mind.”

“There’s no way I would. Why are you so fixated on something like that anyway……? Oh, I see.”

So, that’s how it is. I got it. Ok, ok.

“……What?”

“Oh, nothing. I just thought I’d hang out with you a bit more today. Can you whip up an alcoholic drink without too much of a kick for me?”

“Oh. You’re up for it? How rare. But if you’re down, then sure.”

The fact that it was non-carbonated was a pity, but even a lightweight like me can drink something akin to a rum and Coke cocktail. Of course, the fact that I was a lightweight drinker wouldn’t change, and my face will still turn red from intoxication pretty quickly, but I’ll just let Elma take care of the aftermath. Let’s just leave it to her then.

“I’ll probably go down pretty quickly, so please take care of me.”

“Just don’t throw up in my face.”

“I probably won’t, so don’t worry.”

Elma took out a colorless, transparent alcoholic beverage that smelled a bit sweet from her personal storage rack and mixed it with some of the mock cola in a drinking glass. The alcohol was probably not rum, so it wasn’t exactly rum and Coke, but I suppose I shouldn’t sweat the small stuff.

By the way, the two alcoholic dwarves who usually come running from just a whiff of alcohol were currently busy with performing repairs and maintenance on the stripped pirate ship equipment so we can sell them off for high prices. Even if Mei wasn’t busy piloting the Black Lotus back to the Reemay Prime colony, she probably won’t join us for a drink. After all, she doesn’t actually get drunk from alcohol. It would just get stored within her body.

I had no idea how exactly she goes about disposing of it, but…… in any case, it would just be a waste. Since that was the case, Mei usually avoids showing up to drinking sessions.

“Well then, cheers.”

“What are we toasting to, exactly?”

“Uh, to our usual win against the pirates?”

“Why do you sound so unsure……? How half-baked.”

Despite sounding grumpy, Elma was actually in a pretty good mood. I’ll try to keep her in good spirits and give her plenty of service. In order to do that, I have to be careful and avoid getting dead drunk right off the bat.

“Whew. That’s better.”

“Do stuff like that in moderation next time. You’re not exactly suited for drinking alcohol, Hiro-kun.”

“I will. Thanks, Doc.”

The next day — even though there wasn’t exactly a day and night cycle in outer space — my light headache was treated via the med pod, and I was subjected to a light scolding by Dr. Shouko. I drank with Elma yesterday and spent the rest of the night inside my room together. Even though she drank far more alcohol than me, Elma didn’t even suffer a hangover, and after taking a quick shower together with me, she immediately headed out to grab a bite…… Was her liver made of steel or something?

“By the way, how’s the progress with Linda’s matters?”

“I’ve managed to figure out how her immunity works. I’m now in the middle of simulations to see if her form of immunity can be successfully granted to others.”

“Simulations?”

“We don’t have enough time to conduct clinical trials on living organisms after all. Luckily, you prepared the best equipment for me, so I can simulate the process and results virtually. This saves a lot of time and effort.”

“You’re saying you’re gonna use the data from those simulations to determine what happens when we administer a new vaccine or something to someone……? Will there be no issues regarding the accuracy of the results?”

“Of course, there won’t. We have a near complete and comprehensive data of the races living in the empire, so there shouldn’t be any problems. I’ll be simulating the effects on each and every race, so it would still take a bit of time though. Even so, it probably won’t take more than 24 hours, I think?”

Doc said something like that with a straight face, but from my point of view, I was simply in awe of the power of advanced science and technology in this world. The speed of vaccine development was already impressive, but being able to completely determine the effects of the vaccine in just one day was even more amazing. Moreover, the accuracy of the results was all but guaranteed.

“Regular people don’t have a lot of knowledge when it comes to topics like this after all. Feel free to ask if there’s something you’re curious about, okay?”

“I don’t know if I can even come up with a relevant question, but anyway, I do get that you did something really amazing, Doc.”

“I’m not sure if you really got the gist of what I was talking about, but…… oh well. Just leave the matters regarding the pandemic to me.”

“I’ll do that. Just give me a heads up if you discover something we can use as a hand against Hartmut.”

“You got it. I’ll show you that the high price you paid for all that state-of-the-art medical equipment wasn’t wasted.”

Saying so, Dr. Shouko puffed out her enormous bust. Un. Such wonderful eye candy.