"Well then, I'll show you around the ship first!"
After seeing off that mercenary guy named Hiro, the maidroid, and that lady doctor, the big-chested girl named Mimi grabbed my hand and started leading me around. I don't really need to be led around like a kid and can walk on my own, but... pushing her away and ignoring her would feel bad, so I just let her pull me without complaining.
"Mimi seems to be really fired up about this."
"Aww. She beat me to the punch..."
The two lady dwarves followed behind us. Aside from different-colored hair, they looked practically the same. It's my first time seeing twins for real. There were no twins living in the orphanage after all. There's also another lady following after us. She said her name was Kugi. They already introduced themselves, but all I knew was that Mimi was close in age to me, and that Tina and Wiska were dwarves. Are those ears on top of Kugi's head and the tails behind her real?
"First of all, this here is the ship's break space!"
"...It's really big. Seems really expensive too."
"It's actually cheaper than it looks."
"Big Brother really haggled the price down after all."
It was a really large and brightly lit open space. The dining area and the hall where sofas and other stuff were placed were adjacent to each other across an aisle, and they were separated by transparent partitions instead walls. I also saw stuff that looked like green plants inside parts of the hall's walls. Are those actually real? I heard that real plants were really expensive though.
"...I guess it's just a hobby nobles are into."
"Um, not really? And Hiro-sama originally wasn't a noble."
"Yeah. Boss wasn't granted a title yet when he first met us."
"He also wasn't one when he bought this ship."
"But that guy has swords, right? So, he's definitely a noble."
"He wasn't born a noble. He was only granted a noble title due to his exploits as a mercenary. Also, it's just an honorary title."
Is there really such a thing? Aren't nobles born nobles or something?
"Let us leave that topic for later. Would it not be better to continue with the tour of the ship first?"
"That's right! Um... all of us can freely hang out inside this place. Mei-san and the cleaner-bots handle the cleaning, but please try not to make too much of a mess... I suppose that's it? Anything else I missed?"
"Nope. Well, if there's somethin' she doesn't get, then won't it be fine if she just asks us later? She probably won't be able to take everythin' in all at once."
"That's true. Also, you can have meals and snacks any time you feel like it in the dining area over there. The auto-cooker installed inside is really high-quality, so the meals are always really delicious."
"Meals..."
Come to think of it, I haven't had a proper meal in days. I suddenly felt really hungry.
"Everyone, why don't we continue chatting while having tea and snacks?"
As I was brooding over my empty stomach, the lady named Kugi suddenly came up with such a suggestion. It didn't seem like she made the suggestion after noticing my situation, but... it's great timing anyway. I ain't gonna complain.
"Yeah. Let's get Tetsujin to whip up some sweets fer us."
"Right!"
Mimi took my hand again and dragged me to the dining area. She made me take a seat and brought over some food I haven't seen before from the machine in the back. It's probably that auto-cooker thingy or whatever the heck it's called.
"Here you go."
Kugi smiled at me as she piled snacks onto my plate... Wait, these are snacks? They look like plain bread to me.
"C'mon. Try them first."
"You can also get drink refills as much as you want."
"...Down the hatch."
The bread wasn't that big, but it does seem heavy. I took a bite and found the thing nice and chewy. This stuff should be very filling.
"...What?"
I found Mimi staring at me as I ate the sweets, or rather, bread. I was curious about why she was staring at me so intently.
"It's nothing. Um, what do you guys want to talk about first?"
"Let's see. How about stories regarding My Lord? She must be curious about just what kind of person is helping her."
"Mm, that sounds good. Who's gonna start?"
"I'll do it. There's a real good chance Mimi and Kugi are gonna make Boss seem like some kinda Prince Charmin' after all."
""Eeh?""
Mimi and Kugi wailed in dissatisfaction. Mm, I kinda get that feeling too. I mean, it does look like they really love that Hiro guy. But aren't Tina and Wiska also the same as them? I was gonna point it out but decided against it. Anyway, let's listen to their side of the story first.
After treating all the orphanage facility's residents and delivering supplies, we left the combat bots behind to defend them and returned to the Lotus. After undergoing various anti-infection measures, took off my combat armor. I thought I'd have a quick shower and passed by the break space along the way, but I ended up encountering Linda, who looked at me with a strangely wary gaze.
"What's the matter?"
"...Nothing. You smell really sweaty, so get outta here already."
"This brat...!"
I thought she had something to say, so I ended up asking in concern, and this is what I get? Well, I suppose it's also my bad for talking to her while stinking of sweat huh? Yeah. Let's just leave it like that. I-It's not like that actually got to me, okay?!
I took a shower while tearing up in my heart, and when I came out, Linda was already nowhere to be found. Mm. I wanted to talk to her for a bit, but has she already gone to Dr. Shouko? I don't feel like going out of my way to come after her, so I'll just wait for an opportunity to talk to her again.
For the time being, there's nothing much to do until Dr. Shouko finishes investigating about the secret of Linda's immune system. As for sending the inventory list to Hartmut, I left that to Mei, so I was now quite free.
"Good work out there. Here."
"Thanks."
While I was chilling out on the sofa in the break space, Elma brought me a bottle of water. I accepted it, opened the cap, and started gulping the contents down. Mmm. It's cool and refreshing. After all, water tasted best when cold. But I heard that water at room temperature was better for your health though.
"So, how was Linda? Is she fitting in properly?"
"It looks like she'll be fine. I personally haven't talked to her that much since I performed maintenance checks on our weapons after you guys left. But she seems to be hitting it off pretty well with Mimi and the other girls."
"Is that so? Sounds good. I have to arrange where that girl's gonna sleep soon."
"It seems she'll be bunking with Tina and Wiska. Tina already said she'll make her a bed."
"We still have a spare room with a bed though... Well, I suppose that's fine."
If Tina proposed it, then it's probably because she judged that it was necessary. I'm not sure about what it was like to live in that orphanage facility, but it didn't look like each child was assigned an individual room. Maybe Linda would have trouble sleeping if she was alone in a room or something to that effect.
Since it's Tina and Wiska we're talking about, I'm sure they'll have a breeze remodeling their room to accommodate one more person, and if Linda's fine with it, then there's no problem, I suppose. I'll just check on them a bit later.
"How were things at the facility?"
"Oh, the treatment went well, and we've taken measures to prevent reinfection. Dr. Shouko said it should be fine after installing that air purifier."
"Then it should be fine for now, but you're not planning on assigning those combat bots to guard them indefinitely, right?"
"Nope. There were two men who collapsed together with Airia, right? It looks like those guys were actually from an underground organization backing the orphanage. And since they appeared to be experts when it comes to matters requiring more of a violent approach, I hired them to act as the facility's full-time guards."
"Is that alright?"
"If they don't live up to expectations after taking my money, I'll just send them drifting into outer space."
I wasn't speaking metaphorically either. I really meant that. I'll just load them on the ship and jettison them into outer space later. No one will care if two people suddenly disappeared in this colony anyway, given the current situation. There were many ways to launch a ship with other people on board apart from the crew after all.
It's illegal for a colony resident to migrate to another colony or board a ship as a crew member without undergoing formal procedures, but it was simple enough to sneak inside a cargo hold as stowaways. As long as they make it inside a ship's cargo hold in the first place.
However, if stowaways were discovered and branded as illegal immigrants after arriving at another colony, it will spell disaster for them. They'd likely get deprived of their citizenship and then sent to a prison colony. They were gonna be treated no different from space pirates, so it was practically a death sentence. Or worse.
Well, there were also cases where colony citizens who claimed to be abducted by the ship owner went and asked help from the military police, but... Unscrupulous merchants apparently also devise such situations in order to ruin the reputations of their rivals though. Well, the authorities will probably see through the deception if it was done too sloppily. In any case, it wasn't good to be involved with stowaways.
Oops. It looks like my thoughts ended up drifting instead.
"Anyway, everything now depends on Dr. Shouko's research results... Oh, but let's process Linda's temporary boarding procedures just in case. It'll be troublesome if we get suspected of perpetrating illegal immigration after all."
"That's true. It might be best to leave that kind of thing to Mei, but... do you want to try doing it yourself for a change?"
"Nah, I'll pass."
I feel sorry for always bothering Mei about stuff like this, but I really didn't have any good memories when it comes to those kinds of formal procedures. I'll just go ahead and keep relying on her.