Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary

Liesel huffed and slumped back in her seat at Avery fairly blatant rejection.

Maybe what she was feeling was simply a crush that would not go anywhere, but this was the first time she had felt this way about someone.

There had been a fair share of boys that had tried to pursue her on the ship she had lived on. They were the children of her aunt's crew members just like she was.

However, she still had the Kaizer name despite not being in a high position among the family.

This made her like a prize that all of the young teenage boys had wanted to claim. Some merely because they thought she was pretty, but most at the behest of their parents to help elevate their status within the crew.

It had all been so shallow that Liesel had basically locked herself away in the flight simulator that had been aboard the vessel. No one would disturb her so long as she was improving her skills.

The only real friend she had ever made was Casey. In large part because their parents were close with each other.

Becoming a mercenary had not seen her meaningful connections growing either.

She had moved through the ranks too fast to relate with other recently registered mercenaries, and most of the veterans that approached her tended to just want to use her in one way or another.

This was why Avery was a breath of fresh air.

He was around the same age as her, talented, and did not appear to have any alternative motives. In fact, Liesel was the one that had approached him in hopes of being able to use him.

'Maybe I'm the shameless one.' Liesel thought, feeling a bit gloomy.

Nevertheless, she was not willing to just give up.

Obviously, she knew that Avery thought that she was attractive. The only reason that he was not accepting her was because he already had two lovers.

"I see. You're just into older women. Being a couple years younger than you means that I never had a chance."

Avery grimaced at this but said nothing in response while he collected his thoughts.

He could not deny that Jasmine and Kasandra were a bit older than him. Jasmine was around four years older, and Kasandra was around five.

That big of an age gap did not make too much of a difference for them, and it would become even less so as they grew older.

"Okay, I give. If you can get Kasandra's and Jasmine's approval, I'll consider a relationship with you if that's what you want. It's not like I hate the idea, it's just that I don't want to be unfair to the two people I'm already with. Truthfully, Kasandra was wary of Jasmine at first too. She's just being protective of me so that I don't end up in a honeytrap. If you can assuage all of her worries about you, she'll probably being accepting. Jasmine though, I don't know about." Avery said, hoping that this would bring an end to Liesel's teasing.

Fortunately, it worked, since she did not bring the subject up again, and she was far more animated as the two of them discussed other aspects about their work.

Soon enough, they reached Dramid and been given permission to land.

Just like before, being associated with Azade had made the process go smoothly and quickly.

Once they had touched down in the designated hangar, Avery and Liesel disembarked from the Dauntless. With Kasandra and Casey exiting their own ships and coming over to join them.

Waiting to greet the four of them was one of Esmeralda's secretaries. He was here to bring Avery to her and Jasmine.

When they reached the office of Azade's representative, Jasmine stopped the conversation she was having with Esmeralda and ran right up to Avery.

It had been too long since they had last seen each other, and she emotionally embraced him.

"I missed you too, Jasmine."

Avery pulled her in tightly and gave her the comfort that she was seeking.

It had been weeks since they had been able to have more than the most basic interactions. The only times they had met was for work.

Regrettably, the time was not right for them to catch up with each other. There were still a few things that needed to be wrapped up.

"It's good to see you again, Avery." Esmeralda said a bit stiffly.

Even after everything that Jasmine had told her about him, she still did not quite approve of their relationship together. Though, she knew that voicing such an option would only strain her relationship with Jasmine.

"Yes, I'm glad to see you in good health as well. Thanks for taking care of my crew while I was busy. Now, how is the matter that we were tasked with investigating proceeding?"

"The chancellor has already voiced her concerns and used her connections in the central government to get things moving. Anderson was caught trying to flee the system and arrested, and his coconspirators in the Department of Education are under investigation and have no means to escape."

"As for the fake institutions that had been set up, around a fourth of them have already been uncovered and those involved have been taken into custody. Needless to say, it's going well. The corruption that Regina could not tolerate is being rooted out and should no longer affect Azade."

This was good news, and Avery was satisfied with the results.

There were still the people that had been behind the scheme to begin with to worry about, but that was something that Avery would leave for Jasmine's mother to deal with. He was ready to move on to something else. Missions more in line with more normal mercenary work.

As they had already been paid for the job, there was not much else to wrap up.

Avery just signed a few documents that Esmeralda presented to him, and everything was finished.

"With that done, let's talk about more important matters now."

Avery cocked an eyebrow at this, believing that everything already should have been completed.

"Aunt Esme! We agreed that I was going to tell him when the time was right." Jasmine said in a fluster.

"Yes, and that time is now. I want to be here for it."

Curious about what was going on, Avery turned towards Jasmine.

When he looked at her, her cheeks flushed red, and she began fidgeting around bashfully.

"Um, so, my mother…" Jasmine said, trailing off before finishing her train of thought.

"Yeah, what about her? She's not trying to force you to give up on being a mercenary again because you got hurt, right?" Avery asked nervously.

"No, that's not it. It's well… She's already set a date for our wedding and wants us to return to Azade!" Jasmine forcefully blurted out.

Out of everything that Avery had been expecting to hear, this was more surprising than what he had thought.

While he sat there stunned by the announcement, the first to collect themselves among the group gave a calculated response.

"Congratulations! That's amazing. When will it be?" Liesel said with a bright smile on her face.

Jasmine was naturally taken aback by the sudden complement from someone she did not know.

"You must be Liesel, yes? I've heard a bit about you from Avery and Kasandra, but this is my first time meeting you in person. Thank you for helping them out during the competition."

"Yep, I'm Liesel Kaizer, the newest member of Avery's team. It's really nice to meet you. I hope that we can become fast friends." Liesel said, trying to ingratiate herself with Jasmine.

Usually, Jasmine would have caught onto what Liesel was doing, but her focus was still on the matter at hand.

Avery had not said anything yet and was just staring off into space in a stupor.

Thankfully, he was able to shake off the surprise after not too long.

This news had been far outside of his expectations, but he had already stated that he would be marrying Jasmine to her mother.

He knew that this would be coming sooner or later, he had just not thought that the announcement would be so abrupt.

"Let's get back to this sudden wedding I'm just hearing about. I don't have any problems with it, but it has certainly come out of nowhere." Avery said wanting to get to the bottom of how things had proceeded so far without him.

As it turned out, Regina had been discussing this with Jasmien and Esmeralda over hyperspace communications for a bit over a week now.

It seemed now that the job she had hired Avery's team for was over, she wanted to move fast on having Avery and Jasmine wed. Apparently, there were some political reasons for this as well.

Word that Jasmine had returned to Azade had reached the ears of other high-ranking officials, and Regina had been receiving marriage proposals for Jasmine from other powerful families wanting to make a connection with the current chancellor.

This had been part of the reason she was trying to speed things up and had announced that Avery and Jasmine were already engaged.

"So, when is the wedding then? There are still a few things to clean up here, but after that, I suppose our schedule is free." Avery said.

"It's about four months from now. That was the longest amount of time my mother was willing to give us. She wants to do this quickly, but I think a part of it is that she just wants to see me again."

Although it had come as a major shock, Avery nodded in agreement. He had no reason to refuse as he loved Jasmine and was ready to official marry her.

He figured that four months would be enough time. They could slowly make their way towards Azade while picking up some work. At least so long as nothing else unexpected occurred.