NOVEL NEXT Chapter 3: Interrogation and Serena-sama
Well then, I guess it’s about time to talk a little bit about me, a guy formerly named Takahiro Satou.
Japanese. Born and bred in Hokkaido. Twenty-seven years old. Single. After finishing high school, I studied and graduated from a local technical university and worked for a local company soon after. I dated a woman I managed to hook up with on the net in my college days, but it was a long-distance relationship and we soon broke up. I was hired as an in-house network administrator just because I could use a PC fairly well, but I had no specialized knowledge so I had to learn everything from scratch as I went about work.
I spent my days cracking down on employees accessing news sites, mail order sites and suspicious browser games and ero-sites during working hours.
My hobby is gaming. Just gaming. I had broad tastes, and I played just about every genre from both Japanese and Western titles. I became addicted to a certain FPS game and managed to become the Scoring King and a Single Digit Ranker after piling up copious amounts of effort for a considerable amount of time.
There wasn’t enough leeway to take the overall number 1 spot, but I was in the running for number 1 or 2 in Japan at the time. I spent my days’ fragging mooks so much that my gaze turned into something my co-workers described as “super sharp and way too scary”.
But those days were eventually replaced by times spent adventuring all over the vast universe when Stella Online went live. I also got into it quite a lot.
That’s about all I can say about me… Oh, and my favorite food is carbonated drinks. I can’t get enough of that feeling when the bubbly goodness goes down my throat.
Well then, I’ve been talking a lot of nonsense, but what really is my current situation right now?
“So tell me, sir, just where did you get a hold of this large amount of rare metals?”
“Like I told you, they’re something I acquired from the pirates I managed to shoot down earlier. What other explanation do you want?”I was now being grilled by the port authorities.
It was great that brewed alcohol wasn’t an illegal item on this particular colony, but my stash of rare metals was being thoroughly investigated. And honestly, no matter how much they questioned me about how I managed to get them, I actually had absolutely no idea myself, so I had no other choice but to downplay the matter and hope for the best.
My current identity was that of a self-proclaimed mercenary without any official affiliation. I had nothing on me which could confirm my identity. What if such a blatantly shady guy suddenly turned up and brought in a large number of rare metals? Utterly suspicious. It was a matter totally reeking of suspiciousness. The officer in charge of port security strictly interrogating such a guy was definitely within reason.
“……Do you really have no intention of telling me where the heck they’re from sir?”
“I’ve already told you about how I got this stuff way earlier man. I’m really starting to get tired of this meaningless back-and-forth convo officer.”
It really feels like this guy’s deliberately talking in circles. Is he waiting for me to get pissed off and slip out some useful info or something? Or is he after something else entirely? Like hush money maybe.
The heck? When I made a gesture implying that I’m willing to fork something out under the table, the reaction I got was “Are you trying to drag me down with you by offering that huh? You’re thinking of either threatening me or begging me to let you off by using that as leverage aren’t you?” Seems like trying to make a deal with this kind of straight-laced fellow was just a waste of time.
So what should I do now…?
While I was in the middle of mulling over my options, the door of the interrogation room suddenly opened without so much as a knock and someone walked straight in.
It was a young woman. No, it would also be appropriate to call her a young girl. And she was totally hot too. She held a dignified posture, had lustrous blonde hair and ruby red eyes. She was clad in a crisp white military uniform wrapped by a red mantle and sported a sheathed sword on her dainty waist. Her visage looked very much like an ideal female knight or a beautiful war maiden.
She gave an impression of being a lady of few words, but I managed to notice a sharp, predatory glint flash within the depths of her eyes for a moment. Looks like she was a lady who can’t be judged solely on her appearance.
“Serena-sama! Why are you in a place such as this my lady?”
“I saw an unfamiliar ship parked on the hangar bay. Is he the shipowner?”
“Uh- Err-“
The port officer, who suddenly became all jittery, handed over something which looked like a tablet terminal to the female soldier named Serena. Her gaze then turned towards me after looking over the contents displayed by the terminal.
“This is quite a large amount of rare metals. You didn’t happen to procure all of this illegally now, did you?”
“I swear on my life I didn’t.”
“Hmm… A self-styled mercenary unregistered with the Mercenary Guild who just managed to shoot down some pirates huh. Do you have anything else you wish to report perhaps?”
“I have some data regarding the coordinates of their main base on my ship. I obtained it from analyzing the data caches of the pirates I shot down. I was originally planning on handing over this info along with claiming the bounty rewards for those pirate ships, but when our dear officer got a look at my cargo items, I was suddenly pulled into here.”
I spoke in a way that emphasized how troublesome my current circumstances were while shrugging my shoulders at the female soldier in front of me.
I guess she’s someone directly affiliated with the System Military. It seemed like her rank’s way above our dear port officer here, so I planned on showing her a fully cooperative attitude so she would consider letting me off.
“There’s no evidence indicating that his cargo is stolen goods, correct?”
“Y- Yes, that’s right. But still-“
“Well then, it should be fine to let him go. I believe he plans to unload all his cargo on this colony, correct? Considering the difficulty of procuring rare metal supplies nowadays, I don’t think this poses any issues to be particularly concerned about, right?”
“H- However……”
“However? Do you have any other opinion you wish to share with me, the daughter of Marquis Holz?”
“No, but my lady…”
“Speaking of which, I’ve recently received some reports about a port officer who has been making it difficult for ships to unload their cargo inside this colony without handing over some sort of bribe first.”
The female soldier named Serena smiled beatifically at the port officer. The port officer who was being smiled to was trembling in trepidation. I was also trembling involuntarily. This was the first time I felt a smile was actually scary.
“I- I would never do such a thing!”
“We are going to acquire some rare metals at a reasonable price, this self-styled mercenary who has managed to shoot down pirates will claim his reward and receive some Enel, and he is going to use that Enel to purchase things from our colony afterward. With this, everyone will stand to benefit; do you not think so?”
“Y- Yes, ma’am! You’re absolutely correct! I shall process the required documents immediately!”
The port officer hurriedly stood up from his seat and went out of the interrogation room. Nah, it looked more like he was escaping for dear life. I ended up all alone in the room with the female soldier he called Serena-sama. Serena gazed at the fleeing figure of the port officer for a few moments and then turned her attention back to me.
“My apologies. He’s a little too serious regarding his job.”
“No, well… I admit I actually seem quite suspicious so I guess it couldn’t be helped.”
Yeah, I was definitely suspicious so it was inevitable. I don’t have activity records stored in any mercenary guild within the area. Actually, there won’t even be records of my ship in any of the neighboring star systems as well.
Moreover, the name data portion of the ship registry was corrupted. They did manage to match my biometric data with those recorded on the ship for authentication, so I somehow managed to keep it from being confiscated, but one small mistake and it would have been taken away.
“Yes, so much so that it wouldn’t surprise me if you said you strayed from another faraway galaxy into this one. How exactly did you manage to arrive on this star system?”
“There seems to have been an accident while my ship was on Hyperdrive. I’m not sure if the accident was what caused it, but I think I’ve lost most of my memories.
“While I was still confused about what happened, I was suddenly attacked by pirates. I somehow managed to beat them, looted their cargo and data caches and managed to arrive at this station after analyzing the data.
“Fortunately, I managed to remember my own name and the fact that I was a mercenary.”
I talked about myself while mixing truths and lies. I thought about this particular background setting while in the middle of being interrogated by that port officer earlier. There were no parts to retort over in particular, but it was a story that can be considered a bit over the top from another person’s perspective.
“You’ve lost your memory, you say? Are you actually not a spy from the Vereverem Federation, perhaps?”
“Now that’s something impossible. But let’s say I really am a spy for that… err… Berebere Federation…?”
“It’s the Vereverem Federation.”
“Right. As a spy for that Vereverem Federation, would it make sense for me to take a shipment of rare metals of unknown origin, board an unidentified ship and casually waltz right inside this Colony? And as an unregistered self-proclaimed mercenary at that. It’s just too conspicuous. If I were a spymaster, I’d immediately recall that spy after reading up on his absurd mission plan and give him a thorough beating.”
You could also say this was all part of an elaborate ruse, but that’s just pushing it.
“I think I’d also do the same if I were that spymaster.”
The lady soldier let out a soft peal of laughter. She’s pretty cute when she laughs like that. But she seems to be the really assertive type, and I’m actually no good with those.
“Well, I guess this is good enough. I’m going to get in touch with the military base, so please go ahead and feel free to collect your rewards and turn in those data caches.”
“Thank you.”
She seemed to leave the room sporting a satisfied expression after I bowed to her in honest gratitude… but turned around before she actually made it outside.
“You’re one interesting fellow. We will devise a mop-up operation using the information you have as a reference, so be sure to participate, alright?”
She gave me a mesmerizing smile and promptly left. It didn’t have that overwhelming aura of coercion like earlier, but I instinctively felt some sort of danger from that beautiful visage.
Pirate extermination missions were definitely profitable… but I felt getting involved with her was bad news for some reason.
The port officer came back a little bit later and I was finally released from the interrogation room. I’ve gotten quite hungry from the whole ordeal.
“Well then, we will proceed with the rare metal exchange. The total price is 2,500,000 Enel. Please confirm.”
“Yep.”
I activated a smartphone shaped information terminal and confirmed that 2.5 million Enel has been indeed transferred over to my personal account. This miniature information device was usually placed inside Krishna’s living quarters and was widely popular all throughout the galaxy. This baby can function as a portable communicator, space navigator, e-wallet and do much other cool stuff.
There was a lot of other useful stuff inside the living quarters, but what I brought out this time was only this information terminal and a laser gun for self-defense. The laser gun along with its holster was confiscated when I was taken to the interrogation room, so I had them return it earlier.
“There’s nothing else right? I’d like to go to the Sector Guard headquarters to claim my prize now so I can go back to my ship and rest soon.”
“Yes. There is nothing else. We are sorry for taking up your time.”
“That so. Later then.”
There’s nothing more to gain by dawdling in this place, so I finally left the Port Security Department office behind. The next stop would be the star system military base, but thanks to that lady soldier named Serena, the process went relatively smoothly when I arrived.
The bounty for those pirates totaling 19,000 Enel and the information reward of 150,000 Enel was given to me without much fuss. My net worth now totals 2,669,000 Enel! That’s a lot man!
I inquired about the prices of commodities on this Colony next and this was the general gist of things: about 5 Enel for food. 10 to 15 Enels if you want them a bit fancier. 3 Enels for a liter of clean water. The ship berthing fee was 150 Enel per 24 hours. Hm, so an Enel is roughly equivalent to 100 Yen huh? Basing on that, the water seems kinda expensive. The berthing fee being 15,000 Yen a day also seems quite costly as well.
Well, considering this is a Colony and all, even the air I’m breathing should cost quite a lot. And water’s an equally important resource. If you look at it that way, these prices seem to be quite reasonable, given the circumstances.
So, if I don’t rent out a room inside the Colony and just sleep on the ship, the cost of living in this Colony per day should total about 15 Enels for three meals, 12 Enels for 4 liters of water and the berthing fee of 150 Enels. All in all, it’s a total of 177 Enels.
Hey, I can actually live here for 40 years fairly easily. Well, if I do stay here for that long, I’m sure I’ll encounter another set of problems. It would be better if I can find someplace to convert into a base and settle down there.
Anyway, I got more than enough cash to spend on daily living as long as I don’t splurge like crazy. When people manage to get a lot of money, it’s like all their worries just disappear into thin air. I walked back to my ship with an evident spring in my steps.