I guess they'll start with questioning. While I don't relish being interrogated, I'm sure Alice will come to my rescue if anything goes wrong.
"Here we are. Please come in."
Following his instructions, I enter the room. It's a small space with a low table and two sofas. The wallpaper is a light green with tiny flowers blooming at the bottom.
The only decoration in the room is a framed photo of a landship. This ship looks slightly different from the one outside, so it must be the one they used before this one.
"Take a seat and wait. The leaders will be here shortly."
"At least I feel safer here than in the forest."
As I say this and sit down, the man smiles at me. Just then, there's a soft knock on the door, and two women enter. They're wearing tight black combat suits that show off their figures, making me a bit uncomfortable with where to look.
"Are you the one?"
Not sure what she means, but I give a slight nod just in case.
The two women sit across the table from me, while the man who led me here takes a seat next to me. There's another knock on the door.
A Neokomoran woman enters carrying a tray with coffee. She places a cup in front of each of us, bows, and leaves the room.
"Please enjoy your coffee. Since the excavation is nearing its end, we can't offer much else."
"Thank you."
I drop three cubes of sugar into my cup and take a slow sip.
I took a sip and was surprised. This coffee is clearly of a different quality than what I usually drink. The lifestyle of someone working with the Knights and in the Yard is worlds apart.
"Being alone in the wilderness with a fighter... Were you abandoned, did you fight off some pirates, or are you just a collector of odd things?"
"I think it's probably the latter. I was working at the Yard until recently. I had a bit of a neurotic streak and was wandering the wilderness when I found that fighter."
Two women were staring at me intently. The man who led me here was leaning on the edge of the sofa, looking at me with a bitter smile.
"Unbelievable... But if that's true, you must be a freelance knight."
"I wouldn't necessarily say I'm a knight. I've never heard of such a thing."
They glanced at each other after hearing my story. Are they thinking it's impossible?
They're probably older than me, but both are wearing tight combat suits and have the kind of looks that could place them high in a beauty contest. It would be nice to keep enjoying the view...
"But you piloted a fighter! That's something only knights can do."
"In that case, we should talk about the conditions."
Huh? What conditions?
"It's about the conditions for you to join our knightly order. My name is Alec Thunder, but you can call me Alec."
I guess my surprise showed on my face. Alec explained, "Call me Rio. As for the knights..."
I've been told that the knights are a closed group, always recruiting from specific groups, and many of their members are family or close relatives, as the dwarves at the yard told us.
Then a small ringtone from a mobile device chimed. A woman with platinum hair pulled out her device and opened a tiny virtual screen in front of her. Someone must have sent her an email; she's so pretty, everyone must be after her attention. She quickly read the content, her eyes widening more and more until, finally, her mouth fell open, and she stared at me in disbelief.
The woman next to her, with her neatly trimmed blonde hair, noticed and peeked at the virtual screen. Her eyes widened too before she turned to look at me.
"No way! Is this for real?"
"I don't understand your question."
"Dominic, I'm lost too. What is going on here?" Alec chimed in, addressing the blonde beauty.
She collected herself, downed her coffee, and turned to Alec. "Look at this. This is the preliminary report from Belud about his fighter. It's not a fighter… it's a battle maiden!"
"What! There's supposed to be only one War Maiden per kingdom, and nobody can even properly operate them!"
Alec leans over the table to check the virtual screen in front of Dominic. Come to think of it, Alice did say she was a War Maiden. She mentioned it was the last in the development series but also said it was a prototype.
"Can we hire her?"
"It depends on the negotiation. … How about three gold coins as a signing bonus?"
The monthly pay at the yard was 20 silver coins, or 2,000D. After spending 1,500D on food, clothing, and lodging, only 500D was left. I've never even seen a gold coin before. Is it okay to receive so much?
"Of course, we'll provide clothes and a room for you. Meals are paid individually though... Do you happen to not have any money?"
"I used it all when I went out into the wilderness."
"In that case, I'll add ten silver coins. Everything on this ship can be handled with credits, so if you need to use money, it'll go through the yard. You can get luxuries and entertainment items by applying to the living department; they'll handle it through the yard too."
So everything on the ship can be handled with credits. If I can get what I want separately, there might be more options than at the yard. All that's left is the salary.
"What about the salary?"
"5,000D per month. You'll be treated as an officer. Depending on your role within the knight's division, you might get a bonus equivalent to the profit from one Barge."
The pay is about three times what it was in the Yard era, and if they provide clothes and a room, that's quite a high salary!
At the very least, it's much better than the Yard era.
"Hmm, do you think so?"
"I'd like to sign the contract. Otherwise, I might end up as food for beasts in the wilderness, so this is a welcome opportunity."
Was the contract prepared in advance? The platinum-blonde woman flipped a tablet around and placed it in front of me, revealing the terms we had just discussed. After confirming there were no mistakes, I signed with the electronic pen handed to me. Dominic and the others, looking satisfied, pulled out a small pouch from their bag and handed me three gold coins and ten silver coins.
"This bracelet signifies that you are a member of the Viola Knights. Please wear it at all times. This ring, which you can wear on either hand but on your middle finger, shows that you are a knight of the Viola Knights."
She took out two items from her bag. The Giselle alloy bracelet gleamed silver. It looked like a single plate connected by chains, with decorative script spelling out the name of the knightly order, though it was too ornate for me to read. Below the text, several metal pieces were embedded in a row, likely a Dwarf technique to prevent counterfeiting.
The stone in the ring is a common black crystal, but there seem to be small pieces of metal embedded around the base. With these two, I guess I'm now a knight of the Viola Knights.
"Your battle maiden only investigated the outside, so don't worry about any disassembly. …Alec, why don't you show him to his room? As the head knight, I hope you can help him out with various things."
"Yeah, that's the least I can do. Might as well introduce him to the others too."
Alec stood up and patted my shoulder. After giving a slight nod to the two women, I followed Alec out of the room, waving back at them.
"First, let's get you to your room. It's one floor down from here."
He spoke without even looking at me.
"Is the beautiful lady we just saw the leader of the knight's order?"
"That's right. She's beautiful, but unfortunately, she doesn't seem interested in men. The platinum blonde is her deputy, Reidra, who is a descendant of dragonkin."
When you say dragonkin, aren't they the ones that often appear in urban legends? You know, like suddenly appearing out of the dark or talking to someone who isn't there.
"Surprised, huh? But she's Dominic's childhood friend, so she's just a regular girl."
"Huh..."
I felt both relieved and a bit disappointed at the same time.
When you step out of the elevator on the first floor, you'll find three corridors stretching out before you. The corridors heading left and right curve gently, but the one straight ahead towards the bow of the ship seems to extend quite far.
"This is the upper level of the two-story living area. Both sides of the corridor leading to the bow are lined with private rooms. The end of the corridors on either side is where the living department has set up shop. By the way, what's the number on your bracelet?"
I quickly checked the plate on my left wrist bracelet and saw a number etched on the right edge.
"It says D-402."
"That's on the port side. Lower level left and right are A and B, while this floor's left is C. 402 means... here we are!
Go ahead and change inside. Just match my outfit, and that should be fine. Your combat suit should be in the bag, so bring it with you to the observation room at the bow. I'll introduce you to the team."
Following Alec's instructions, I held my bracelet up to the door, and it opened. I noticed there was no doorknob, which seemed to indicate a high level of automation.
I raised my hand to wave goodbye to Alec as he headed down the corridor, and he waved back.
The room isn't very large, containing just a single semi-double bed and a lighting desk. The window is about 1 meter square, but it doesn't open. There are floral curtains, but whose taste are they reflecting?
Clothes are neatly folded on the bed. There's also a closet on the other side of the bed, so maybe they were left out here to make things easier for me. The black bag next to the clothes probably contains my combat suit.
I might as well get changed… It's a bit complicated having everything including underwear laid out, but I'll just swap out my old, worn jeans for these new clothes. I'll put on the sportswear-like outfit over the underwear and then slip into the jumpsuit. Looks like it's black. There's even a hat, but since Alec wasn't wearing one, it should be fine inside the ship.
I wrap the gun belt around my waist and slip an old leather pouch I used as a wallet into one of the belt's pouches.
Is this right? After fixing my hair in the closet mirror, I head towards the observation room as Alec suggested.
The door closes automatically behind me as I step out. A metal plate on the door reads D-402, so I shouldn't get lost.
Still, there's room 203 to the left and 419 to the right. Even if they skip numbers, this is a bit much.
The boots in the closet look like combat boots. They're similar to the safety boots I was wearing before but much lighter. They seem to stick to the floor a bit, probably to muffle the sound of footsteps—there are others sleeping, after all.
Just keep walking toward the bow of the ship. The corridor must be over 50 meters long—quite a distance! At the end, there are two doors and staircases leading down on either side.
One door is labeled "Dining Room," and the other "Observation Lounge."