Just Can’t Catch Them by the Tail

"So we need to shut ourselves inside the ship again?"

"That's how it is."

"Um… Can you tell me what exactly did you find dangerous about that

woman? Um, Marie-san, right?"

"Hm, let's see... It's a bit difficult to give a definite explanation, Mimi."

How should I explain that feeling? The sense of interest and the

uncomfortable hint of sadism in her eyes the moment our gazes met,

her unsettling smile, the overall atmosphere about here... It's akin to a

predator trying to tease its prey or a child's propensity for cruel acts

against insects or small animals. When I described it to them with those

allusions, Elma nodded in agreement.

"I also thought her grin was a bit creepy, but... I was more surprised

that Hiro actually responded coldly to a beautiful woman."

"Was she really that beautiful, Elma-san?"

"She was a really flashy woman. Now that you mentioned it, her

features were certainly quite striking, I guess. But my attention was

completely taken up by that intensely unsettling feeling she gave off, so

I didn't even notice back then."

She had a flashy hair color and strangely out-of-place clothing. Come to

think of it, she was also wearing accessories, wasn't she?

"Well, I can't say anythin' about your intuition Boss, but she didn't really

do anythin' aside from greetin' you, right? So we can't exactly report her

to the guild or imperial military just based on a hunch."

"All we can do right now is to stay put inside the ship huh."

"Doesn't it seem like we're hidin' because we're scared of her? It's a bit

uncool."

"Even so, what if we went outside and someone ended up getting

captured? If my worst assumption turns out to be right on the money, I

don't even dare to think of the consequences."

"By worst assumption, are you implying… that woman really is

connected to the Red Flag pirates? Isn't that a bit of a long shot? That

woman's a Gold-ranker you know?"

Elma, who read my thoughts, wrinkled her eyebrows.

"About that, Elma. She's nicknamed the Lucky Looter, right? I bet the

reason she's been given that nickname is either because she's lucky

enough to often encounter pirates who have loads of plundered goods

stashed inside their ship's cargo holds after a successful raid, or that

she often finds places or coordinates where pirates have hidden their

accumulated treasures."

"Even if that's the case, maybe she just has a knack for sniffing out

treasure, or she simply is just that lucky. I think it's a bit premature of

you to judge that a person is connected to pirates just because of

intuition."

"That's certainly true. What I'm spouting right now may just be baseless

accusations. But that's why I had Mei conduct an investigation on her."

Mei, who had been waiting behind me without getting in the way of our

conversation, was busy collecting and analyzing information related to

Captain 'Lucky Looter' Marie by making use of her powerful processing

speed and multitasking capability.

"The people managing the Mercenary Guild aren't stupid. They always

do a good job of analyzing the information of all the mercenaries

affiliated with them, so I doubt they'd promote someone suspicious to

Gold rank."

"That's why I'm waiting for Mei's analysis before making any

conclusions. Just call it insurance."

However, Elma did have a point. As Elma said, the guys running the

Mercenary Guild weren't stupid. They should have evaluated one's

personality as well before promoting mercenaries, right?... Uh, on

second thought, maybe not. After all, I shot off from Bronze rank all the

way to Platinum like a runaway starship without facing much scrutiny.

Well, my achievements against space pirates and crystal lifeforms were

basically difficult to play down, especially with Lt. Col. Serena as the

witness. There should be a record about my saving Chris in the Port

Administration Bureau's central database, and my overall conduct

should have also been reported by the Dareinwald House to the

relevant authorities. So maybe that's why the guild wasn't that strict

regarding my promotion. It was the imperial family that directly

awarded the Gold Star to me as well. I even competed in a tournament

directly sponsored by them and won.

"That's just because you're a special case you know?"

"Dammit, can you please stop reading my thoughts?"

"It's because you're just too easy to read, Hiro. So I can't really help it."

"That's true."

"Yep."

"I agree."

"That's harsh guys."

The heck? Can you stop ganging up on me, ladies? Well, I guess I just

appeared too worked up so they were joking around a bit to calm me

down. I hope. That's how it is right? Right?

As we continued to joke around, Mei finally opened her mouth to

announce her findings.

"Master, I have completed my investigation on Captain Marie."

"Well, that was fast. Give it to us then."

"Yes. As Master correctly surmised, Captain Marie was given the

nickname 'Lucky Looter' due to her often finding accumulated pirate

loot and supplies hidden in deep space and asteroid belts. In fact, her

Crimson Lance mercenaries have been known to bag more loot than

average during pirate hunting operations compared to other

mercenaries."

"She should have at least been suspected of being connected to pirates,

right?"

Mei silently nodded in response.

"Yes. There are indications that the Mercenary Guild was also

suspecting her and had performed investigations on Captain Marie and

her activities several times. However, it seems they just couldn't get

ahold of any incriminating evidence. Also, Captain Marie makes sure to

properly hunt down space pirates regularly apart from plundering

hidden stashes. As a result, she has a solid track record as a bounty

hunter. The total pirate capture and kill records of the Crimson Lance

mercenaries rivals or possibly even exceeds yours, Master.

Furthermore, they have also managed to uncover the locations of many

space pirate bases by interrogating captured pirates and analyzing their

ship's data storage. Their achievements on this front are also well above

that of most mercenaries."

"In other words, despite being really suspicious, the Crimson Lance

mercenaries generally take the job of pirate hunting pretty seriously, so

they seemed to be pretty upstanding mercenaries, all things

considered, right?"

"Yes. The discovery rate of hidden accumulated pirate loot and hidden

space pirate bases are both much higher than average for the Crimson

Lance mercenaries. They have been constantly hitting numbers that can

be said to be abnormal, so the Mercenary Guild had tried to ask if she

had any tips or valuable know-how that led to such astonishing results.

Captain Marie was recorded to have given the following reply: They're

not that hard to find once you get the hang of it."

"Hmm... That's all?"

"Strangely, I can't really outright dismiss her words as nonsense..."

There were also treasure hunting events in SOL where players

competed to uncover hidden pirate stashes. Basically, the event had you

analyzing the data storages of destroyed pirate ships to obtain the

coordinates of those hidden treasures, but the probability of

successfully getting the coordinates of those stashes was actually quite

low. So purposely aiming for such a thing would be very difficult, to say

the least.

"But that's not something you can intentionally aim for, right?"

"Yeah. Well, it's possible that there's some secret to their resounding

successes, like special equipment designed to aid them in their

search... But honestly, it's far simpler and more believable to surmise

that those guys are related to a space pirate group."

"But doesn't that seem strange? They're connected to pirates but they

still hunt down pirates."

"Space pirates aren't a monolithic lot, so it's possible that they were just

dealing with other pirate groups that were getting in the way of the Red

Flags."

"Ah, I see."

Whisker gave her take on Mimi's question. That's certainly possible.

Perhaps, the bit about finding hidden loot was simply a bare-faced lie,

and in truth, they obtained those stashes by killing off rival space pirate

groups. Or maybe they were just presenting the loot their pirate

comrades have accumulated for them.

In other words, the Crimson Lance mercenaries might be running a

racket of taking illegally plundered goods from civilian victims and

presenting them as their 'lucky finds' to cash them out legally. Basically,

it was money laundering.

"But we can't just use these to pin somethin' on them. In the end, all we

found out was that the mercenary corps of that Marie woman was

discoverin' hidden loot and pirate bases at a rate that even made the

Mercenary Guild suspect somethin' else was goin' on, right?"

"That's true. After all, even the Mercenary Guild wasn't able to catch the

snake by its tail, so to speak... But even so, I still want to bet on my

intuition."

How should I describe it...? This might sound like I'm spouting

nonsense, but my intuition this time was kinda close to divine

premonition. Err, something like that anyway. It felt like my entire body,

heart, and soul were rejecting that woman with all their might. And I,

for one, don't think it's exactly normal to have such an intense feeling

that a person you've met for the first time was your enemy.

"You really are a bit too tense, aren't you? Are you okay? You wanna

fondle my chest to relax?"

"Okay."

After hearing Elma's offer, I discarded all my other thoughts in seconds

and decided to bury my face on her breasts. Well, they sure didn't have

the sheer volume of Mimi's assets, but they still felt really nice. They

smelled really good. Great, even. My heart was slowly being healed.

"Aren't you too faithful to your desires, Big Brother?"

I can't help it y'know. I'm a healthy young man after all.

Well, we discussed at length, but there wasn't anything conclusive in

the end. I hope my suspicions really turn out to be false.

Well, in any case, they won't be able to chase after us once we're back

down on Theta. And even if they did come down to Theta themselves,

they wouldn't be able to make much of a mess while on the surface. If

they did try to pull something big, there's a good chance they'd be

discovered. The surface of a planet was just too small compared to the

huge expanse of outer space. As soon as a laser cannon set to anti-ship

output gets fired on the surface, the star system garrison in charge of

planetary defense would immediately mobilize.

In the end, we couldn't get out of the ship, and we wouldn't be able to

leave the colony either before our descent application gets approved, so

we just spent the entire time lounging around inside Black Lotus