I Woke Up Piloting the Strongest Starship, so I Became a Space Mercenary

When we got back to the ship, the first thing I did was guide Mimi to her room. I was using the single room as my bedroom, so she’ll have to choose from the two double rooms. They’re literally just across from each other along the hallway, so it didn’t really matter which one she chooses.

“I’ll take this room. Um… Would that be alright?”

“Of course. Once you arrange your luggage, you can take a shower. Afterward, I’ll have you undergo a simple vital check on the med-pod.”

“It even has such equipment… T- This ship is amazing! It’s comparable to a first-class residential unit.”

“Really?”

I’m not really a good judge for these things since I lack this world’s common sense. Afterward, I toured her to the laundry room, kitchen, medical bay, training room, cockpit and cargo hold. It was more efficient to show them to her all at once after all.

“Please don’t enter the cockpit unless I expressly allow it.”

“I understand.”

“What else should I… Ah! We’ll have to buy you a portable data terminal too Mimi.”

It would be better for her to have a personal terminal so I can contact her anytime. She could also use it to gather info. Guess a tablet type would be a good choice.

“But such an expensive thing is…”

“It’s a necessary expense after all.”

There’s not much work to do inside the ship. Let’s buy one tomorrow to pass some time. And didn’t we only manage to buy the minimum amount of clothes and living essentials? Let’s buy some more clothes and household items too.

“Anyway, you must be exhausted so take a shower first and rest up. Let’s talk about vital checks and other business afterward.”

“Yes. I’m sorry.”

“I’d like to hear a ‘thank you’ rather than ‘I’m sorry’ though. You’re familiar with how to operate the shower right?”

“Yes, I’ll be fine. Thank you very much.”

“That’s more like it. I’ll either be in the cockpit or my own room, so just tell me if you need something okay. Don’t hesitate to say if you’re hungry. We’re going to be living together from now on, so there’s no need to be reserved alright.”

“I understand.”

Mimi nodded obediently. Great. It’ll be troublesome if you hold back even if you feel hungry after all. This is good.

I can’t just watch a girl as she takes a shower, so I left the room and moved to the cockpit. I haven’t asked Mimi about her exact age yet, but she doesn’t seem to be at an age where she still needed adults to supervise her. I wonder how old she is? Judging from her earlier story, she seemed to still be a student in the middle of adolescence. Her height’s on the smaller end, but some other aspects have grown splendidly… Hm. About 17 years old, give or take? I’ll just ask her later.

I didn’t have much to do, so I decided to research about the layout of the 3rd Block in order to prepare for tomorrow. We’ll have to buy some more daily necessities and clothes for Mimi. Speaking of which, should I also buy some medicine just in case? Yeah, I’ll get some too. We’ll also need to buy an information terminal. There’s a lot of stores listed huh?

Well, since that’s the case, all the more need to research each shop and read reviews about all of them. When I did so, I was surprised with the results: things like shops selling illegally procured goods, selling medicines long past their expiration dates or coming home with your purchase only to find nothing inside the package except for scrap materials.

When I excluded those from the search results, the number of relatively “decent” stores inside the 3rd Block turned out to be quite few. Oh, and the convenience store and clothing shop Elma led us to were actually some of those few “decent” ones.

I’ve always mocked her as a disappointing space elf, but she really was quite reliable.

While I was busy doing some research, Mimi’s face peeked out from outside the open cockpit hatch. She really was quite the cutie; specially after taking a shower and getting refreshed. But her clothes seemed a little thin. The temperature regulation system inside the ship was pretty high-end, so she won’t end up getting uncomfortable from being cold anyway.

“Are you hungry?”

Mimi’s cheeks turned red from my question, and she gingerly nodded her head.

“Alrighty then. Let’s eat go eat some grub. Feel free to tell me if you’re hungry, just like now okay.”

“Yes…”

She still seemed embarrassed about being hungry. It’s alright. I understand. I led the embarrassed Mimi to the kitchen. Well, even though I called it a kitchen, there were actually no kitchen equipment inside apart from the Auto-cooker. The said device basically handles all food preparation, so it may be more appropriate to call it a dining area instead of a kitchen.

“You can eat whatever you like. I bought some artificial meat earlier. I actually feel like trying it now. Do you want to try it too Mimi?”

“I’ll try it.”

I set the Auto-cooker to prepare a menu using artificial meat and activated it. I selected the large serving for myself and the normal amount for Mimi. After a few moments, the Auto-cooker let out a ping which indicated that the meals were ready.

“Hm. So this is the so called artificial meat dish… It’s white colored, but it does seem fairly delicious huh?”

“Yes, it does.”

What appeared on our plates were meat resembling fish fillets covered in sauce, with pilaf and potato salad on the side. The amount on my plate was quite a lot since I ordered a large serving.

“Muh… This really is pretty good stuff.”

“It’s delicious.”

This artificial meat things was delicious. It was sweet and juicy, non-greasy and with just the right texture. And the sauce used was also quite exquisite. The pilaf had also soaked up the artificial meat’s juices, which served to enhance its umami flavor. The potato salad? It tasted like your normal potato salad.

“You don’t have to force yourself to finish it all, okay?”

“I’m fine…”

Mimi’s stomach was already bulging a bit. It seems like she’s forcing herself to finish her food. Let’s order a smaller serving for her next time. Yep. Mimi peered at my face as I put the plates inside the dishwasher. What’s up? I tilted my head in puzzlement.

“W- What are you going to do after this?”

“After this, huh? Hm. Well, if you sleep after eating, you’re more likely to get fat. I guess I’ll head to the training room to move my body a bit or something?”

Krishna also had a well stocked training room. The various exercise equipment are all designed for preventing muscular degeneration while out in space. I’ve also basically spent most of my time since coming to this world holed up inside my ship, so I need to exercise inside the training room to avoid putting on weight.

“It’s fine if you went and rested up some more Mimi. You must be pretty exhausted right?”

There really were a lot of eventful stuff today. I already feel kind of worn out because of them. I’m sure Mimi feels more exhausted than me.

“U- Um… Okay, I’ll do so.”

Mimi seemed to want to deny it first, but thought a bit and changed her mind. Yup, it’s better if you rest up obediently. After bidding her good night, I headed for the training room.

I don’t really intend to become a bodybuilder or anything, so I just exercised moderately. I completed each exercise in a menu set by an AI instructor. This AI instructor created an optimized exercise routine based on the data about my calorie intake gathered from my information terminal and the Auto-cooker.

The workout was quite intense, but having a definite goal displayed helped motivate me to complete the menu.

After sufficiently exercising, I went and took a shower next. I sort of just went with the flow earlier today, but I ended up having to live with a young girl under one roof from now on. I want to avoid being seen as some sort of creep while we’re living together. My heart won’t be able to take it.

After washing up a little more than usual, I finally went to bed. After coming to this world, I kinda felt the urge to live a healthier lifestyle. I planned to exercise regularly, eat a well-balanced diet and get adequate sleep. Yep, how healthy.

“Nnn… Haa.”

I took off my jacket and pants and laid down on the bed in just my underwear. A lot of stuff happened to me today. Why the heck did it turn out like this even though I just went out to buy some food? It felt like my meeting with Elma was the trigger that started it all. Did that space elf have a quality that attracts trouble or something? It might be better to keep some distance from now on.

“Um……”

While I was absorbed in thought, Mimi’s face peeked out from outside the open door. For some reason, her face was bright red and she seemed quite tense.

Man, I messed up. I ended up leaving the door open due to habit. And I was even just in my underwear.

“What’s wrong? Uh, hold that thought. I’m in my underwear, so let me change into something decent first.”

“……”

“Wait up a bit oka— Eeh!?”

Why’d you suddenly come in when I told you to wait? Rather, why the heck are you wearing a transparent negligee!? You aren’t even wearing bra and panties oi! That’s bad! Really bad!

“Stop, stooo~p! What the heck!?”

I reflexively covered my eyes with my hands. But I’d like you folks to forgive me for peeking through the gaps of my fingers. It’s a man’s natural instinct.

“I’ve come to fulfill my nightly duties……” Mimi whispered in a small voice as she slowly drew near the bed I was lying on. The only thing she’s wearing was a transparent negligee. She doesn’t even have slippers on.

“Uh, well… Don’t we do this kind of thing after getting to know each other better or something?”

“Um, this is the only thing I can offer you… And I don’t hate it if it’s with Hiro-sama……”

She called me by name for the first time just now. No, wait. Now’s not the time for thinking about that. Aa~ah! You mustn’t dear customer! You really mustn’t! While I was busy panicking, Mimi finally reached the bed and snuggled up to me. Uooh! Two soft things are touching me! It was Mimi-san’s large-caliber chest missiles! Critical! Critical hit! This is bad!

“Um…… I already drank some medicine, so it should be fine.”

“Me- Medicine!? What medicine!?”

“Um, contraceptives… and some that would prevent it from hurting for my first time… Elma-san gave them to me… Even this underwear is from her.”

Nanii!? So it was that damn elf! Does she expect me to thank her for this!?

“Um…… Do you not like me? Do you prefer someone beautiful like Elma-san…”

“I can’t. I really can’t, okay. I didn’t really help you out aiming for this sort of stuff!”

“But this is the only thing I can do… And, well… I’m scared… So please…”

Scared? Of what exactly? What does she mean?

“I have nothing else… so this is to make sure. If I do this… then big brother won’t… abandon me…”

Mimi’s voice gradually lowered to nothing more than a whisper. I see. So she thinks she’s no good for anything else other than ‘this’. So she’s worried I’ll suddenly change my mind and throw her out. That’s why she wanted for us to have a sort of connection through our bodies. So that’s it. That’s it huh? Does she really think I’m that kind of lecherous guy? It kinda hurts man.

“Big brother… Hiro-sama won’t do anything like that. So please don’t worry, alright?”

“But… Um.”

In other words, if I don’t deal with Mimi’s doubts about my character, she won’t feel relieved. While I was thinking about how to deal with this matter, the information terminal’s ring tone rang out. I saw the message ‘Take responsibility and properly embrace her.’ when I looked at the screen.

There was only one person who would send me such a message in this situation. In other words, it was that disappointing space elf who planned all of this.

“Please… Don’t leave me…” Mimi cried out with a sorrowful voice while hugging me. She was probably worried about this sort of stuff because of the things Elma said earlier. I’m gonna give her a good armlock when I see her next time. Absolutely.

“Fine, I get it.”

“……!”

Ah, what the hell should I say at this point? This stuff was way over my head so I ended up mostly speechless.

I don’t really have any clever words on hand to say in this situation. It was a bit too special. For the meantime, I pulled Mimi closer to me and lightly returned her hug. I gently patted her back in order to reassure her a bit.

“I’ll be as gentle as possible.”

Mimi wordlessly nodded her head and relaxed her body. What the heck is with this eroge-like development?