I Woke Up Piloting the Strongest Starship, so I Became a Space Mercenary

Chapter 400: Numbers Are My Mortal Enemies

“It feels like my brain’s about to explode.”

“We should have just left this stuff to Mei.”

Following the talk about changing the percentage Mimi receives from our income, we started working on calculating the distribution rates for her, who would now be treated as my spouse, and the salary for our new ship doctor, and it was giving me one heck of a headache. Perhaps Elma was having problems with it too since she was displaying a strained smile.

“???”

As for Kugi, she didn’t get a thing about what we were doing and was behaving like a lost space cat. Stuff that has to do with numbers and calculations really was complicated after all…… I don’t really get them all that much myself. I only got part of the discussion.

Anyway, in summary, given her current skills, it was decided that it would be appropriate to raise Mimi’s share from 0.5% to 1.5%. Then, it was suggested that Dr. Shouko’s base salary would be 20 to 30,000 Enels. It would be handed out every end of the month, and a bonus would be given to her for her work as a ship doctor and whenever she contributes to our profits by making use of her skills as a researcher.

“Hmm. Don’t you guys think Dr. Shouko’s share is a bit too small?”

“Wouldn’t it work out if we just made up for it by adjusting her bonus pay?”

“I believe 30 to 40,000 Enels per month is a high enough salary, but…… Is that still a too little for a Platinum ranker?”

The Mercenary Guild onee-san gave us an exasperated look. Well, it certainly wasn’t a paltry sum, but it still felt lacking compared to the money the other crew members were already receiving. Well, it’s not like my current funds were exactly bountiful anyway. I suppose 20 to 30k wasn’t that bad after all.

As for the thing about conjugal property, mercenaries, and their crew members were subject to special treatment to a certain extent according to general imperial law. So, as far as I was able to pick up from what was told to us about the topic, it was suggested that Mimi should keep receiving her share of the rewards just like before, and if certain changes in the situation occur such as Mimi deciding to quit mercenary work and concentrating more on taking care of our children, it would be best if we could discuss property distribution once more and put it into writing.

“Well, stuff like people irresponsibly getting others knocked up and then getting themselves unceremoniously killed somewhere is pretty common.”

“Sounds kinda harsh……”

“Or rather, that’s actually the usual pattern. Mercenaries often hop from star system to star system after all. Compared to the others, you, Captain Hiro, who actually surrounds yourself with them and gets properly accompanied by your partners, is a lot better off. Mm, better off indeed.”

The onee-san’s lips curved in a smile as she said so, but her eyes certainly weren’t smiling. Even if Mei was excluded since she was a maidroid, there were Mimi, Elma, Tina, Wiska, Kugi, and Dr. Shouko. I was certainly surrounded by women. Six of them at that. I also think this was a bit too much, but there were certain really deep reasons that led to this situation, so please cut me some slack, onee-san.

“Regardless of our number, this guy is actually quite sincere most of the time, so there’s no need to worry. And unlike other mercenaries, he doesn’t drink, frequent brothels, or take strange drugs.”

“Also, My Lord is a very kind person.”

“Oh my……”

Please stop looking at me like I’m some sort of lady-killer. I ain’t at fault in the first place, so I have nothing to be ashamed of.

“Ahem. Well then, since Captain Hiro-sama and the others successfully subjugated pirates and destroyed their base this time, your total remuneration, including the sale value of the resources recovered from the pirate base, is calculated to be 23,060,000 Enels.”

“I expected as much. That base was pretty small after all.”

“Right. Most of the base was still unmodified asteroid.”

“But we still made a decent profit, right?”

“Well, I suppose.”

“Yeah. We did manage to earn a decent amount.”

I checked out the item breakdown of that 23,060,000 Enels, and the largest item was the reward for actually destroying the pirate base, followed by the purchase of the raw materials recovered from the base, and then the rewards for shooting down the pirate ships and the bounties for the pirates themselves. In addition to all that, there’s also the profit we’ll make from the sale of the loot, so if we added everything up, I think we’d make a little over 30 million Enels. However, since we decided to hold off on selling the loot here, they haven’t been converted to cash yet. So, depending on the situation, we might just make a bit more profit.

“Also, the local authorities of the Alein system have just gotten in touch with the Mercenary Guild, and it appears you are trying to purchase a large number of medical supplies?”

“Oh, that. It would be more profitable to dispose of the loot we got this time around somewhere else rather than selling them off here. And since there were already plenty of those types of goods included in the loot we got, we wanted to leave with a full load and sell all the goods elsewhere for a higher price. Or rather, do they actually need to make an inquiry about this kind of stuff?”

“That’s because the items in question aren’t regular medical supplies, but advanced ones. Depending on how they are used, they can serve as materials to manufacture highly addictive and dangerous drugs, so their distribution is monitored and restricted. Some of them require a specialized license in order to trade, but since you have someone properly qualified as a member of your fleet crew Captain Hiro, there should be no problem.”

“Dr. Shouko huh? Come to think of it, there was a small-scale manufacturing plant in the lab.”

In other words, since we had the equipment and a person with the required skills, our fleet can actually engage in the manufacture and sale of drugs if we wanted to. So, the local authorities of Alein wanted to make sure that we were actually ‘clean’ and made that inquiry.

“If you ever make use of your position as a Platinum-ranked mercenary in order to distribute dangerous illegal drugs, you will be stripped of your rank, and the Mercenary Guild will issue a dead-or-alive bounty for your head, so please take note. That is also a Class-1 felony under imperial law.”

“I’m a good guy, okay? No need to worry. Earning money using that method is way too risky in the first place, and there are a lot of other ways for me to make as much money as I want even without resorting to that.”

“That’s true. But on behalf of the Mercenary Guild, I’d still like to remind you not to undermine your status as a Platinum ranker.”

The receptionist onee-san then displayed a broad smile.

Un, that smile. You want to remind me not to smear mud on the reputation of Platinum rankers, right? I get it.

“In any case, we’ll leave responding to the authorities to the Guild. Please transfer the reward amount to my personal account as soon as possible.”

I’ll leave the actual reward distribution to Mei. She’s really good at crunching numbers after all.