Chapter 142: Chapter 139 – Money Talk

Translator: SFBaka

“Welcome back.”

“Thanks.”

“We’re back.”

When we got back to Black Lotus, we found Elma resting up inside the break room. I, Mimi, and May all went out for business, but this elf sure was living it up huh.

“So, how was it?”

“We found out what we came there for. It looks like the standard bonus for those two would be 10-20% of the total earnings whenever they participate in jobs. It’s reasonable enough.”

“I see. The parts we salvaged the other day already got sold by the way.”

“Oh, really?”

“That was quite fast.”

“Yeah. Here. Take a look.”

I took the tablet terminal from Elma. She then sat down beside me. Mimi sat down opposite me as well and peeked at the terminal screen.

“……They sold for much higher than I thought.”

“Yeah. I also got a bit surprised.”

The sale price displayed on the terminal was higher than I expected. The small chimera ship sold for the price of 55,000 Enels. The medium-sized ship with a relatively undamaged frame and serviceable equipment sold for 90,000 Enels. In addition, the various weapons and parts we stripped from the other downed pirate ships sold for a total of 130,000 Enels.

“Um, so we earned a total of 275,000 Enels, right? It’s a lot more than the bounty rewards.”

” That’s amazing, Hiro-sama.”

“Yeah, it is. It’ll seem even more amazing if you consider the fact that this might be our average earnings from now on. After all, we’re going to be continuing with stripping down all we can from the ships we defeat and bringing those in good condition back to be sold. It’s gonna be great.”

“Wow!”

“The rest of the loot also got sold already as well. All in all, they got sold for 150,000 Enels.”

“This one’s also unexpected.”

“There were quite a lot of rare metals and other valuable minerals after all.”

The total prize money for the bounties was 217,000 Enels. The salvaged ships, weapons, and parts were sold for 275,000 Enels. And the rest of the loot sold for 150,000 Enels. So that makes our total profit 642,000 Enels. If it was from before we got the mothership, we wouldn’t have been able to reach even half the amount of this time’s total profits in a single sortie. So this actually means our average income has practically doubled!

“So how much are you giving those two?”

“I think 10% is appropriate for the work those two put in. What do you guys think?”

“Paying them a fixed amount of 10,000 Enels would suffice as well, I think. But 10 thousand does feel a bit cheap if you consider the fact that they risked their lives too. I’ll leave it up to you, Hiro.”

“I-I also think 10% is fine.”

“Okay then. I’ll pay them 10% of our total earnings. So their bonus is gonna be 27,500 Enels then. The remaining money is 614,500 Enels, so your share is 6,145 Enels and Elma’s is 18,435 Enels. Your share is gonna end up lesser than those two, Mimi. You sure you don’t have any objections?”

I’m also a bit iffy about it as well.

“Well, those two are professionals with the accompanying skills to boot, so I think it’s fine. Mimi has already improved a lot in her job as the ship operator, but she’s still shaky if you want her to transact business within a colony alone. The next step for her is to learn some proper self-defense techniques so she can fend for herself if need be. I’m sorry Mimi, but even though you perform a stellar job as an operator, I still can’t say you’re a full-fledged mercenary if you can’t go out of the ship without an escort.”

“I-I’ll do my best……”

Elma’s so strict when it comes to working. But I can’t really say otherwise since she’s doing such a perfect job as a sub-pilot and can go out of the ship to do errands by herself without any problem. And I bet she can even do a better job than Mimi as a ship operator. She also has quite a lot of channels built up for selling loot. She was formerly a solo ship captain as well, so I guess that’s just to be expected. She’s not a veteran for show.

“The total bonus for those two is 27,500 Enels, so each of them gets 13,750 Enels.”

By the way, my share is 589,920 Enels. It’s too much? No, the ships are a 100% mine y’know. I’m the captain as well as the owner and manager, so this much is fine. I’ll also have to shoulder everyone’s daily expenses too, so it’s just fair.

“My share is just a bit larger than theirs huh. Can you consider raising my salary a bit too, dear captain?”

Elma gazed at me with upturned eyes.

“Please ask for a raise only after you return at least part of your debt, my dear sub-pilot.”

“Oh, can I really?”

“……Are you really in such a hurry to pay it off?”

“Hmm. I wonder.”

Elma smiled teasingly. Damn. She’s really cute. But I still won’t raise her salary. As I was charmed by Elma’s smile, Mimi suddenly hugged my arm. I felt Mimi’s puffed up cheeks as she did so.

“Mimi-san?”

“It’s nothing, Hiro-sama.”

Mimi’s strength has been steadily increasing due to her daily workouts, so she’s now physically stronger than your average adult woman. I’ve also been working out myself so I was also growing in strength, but Mimi’s development also can’t be dismissed. In other words, what I’m trying to say is that her hug now hurts if she does it too strongly. However, the two soft mounds pressing on my arm served as wonderful cushions, so it’s all good. Oh, dear Lord. What bliss.

“That’s playing dirty, Mimi.”

“If I don’t at least do this, I won’t be able to win against you, Elma-san.”

Mimi and Elma seem to be in an argument with me sandwiched between them, but I wasn’t really paying attention since I was busy focusing on the soft sensations assaulting me from the left and right. Who cares anyway.

“Ah-! Boss is flirting around without me!”

“Big sis……”

A cute-sounding high-pitched voice rang out. It looks like May brought the mechanic sisters with her. I turned toward the spot where the voice resounded from and saw Tina running straight toward me, Whisker chasing closely from behind, and May looking apologetic at the very back. And due to Tina’s shout, the two soft sensations left my arms…… Oh, how lamentable. I then stretched out my hands in order to catch the running Tina.

“……!”

The starry-eyed Tina jumped straight into my arms with great momentum. She made quite the jump, but due to her tiny frame, it didn’t have enough force to knock me down.

“There, there. Good girl. Good girl.”

I unknowingly started petting Tina.

“Meooow!”

What are you, a cat? Come to think of it, I haven’t managed to encounter anyone having pets in this dimension yet, but do they actually have them? Cats, I mean. Anyway, I haven’t really seen any cats in the colonies we’ve been to. But was Tina really imitating a cat, or was it another type of similar animal? I’m not sure.

“”……””

“Haau……”

Whisker stopped at an awkward distance from me and her sister. She looks like she wants to have her stop, but doesn’t know how to go about it and just paused in place. Before long, her complexion started going pale and she became teary-eyed. I continued innocently stroking Tina’s head. I ignored the sharp gazes coming at me from left and right. I’mma ignore them no matter what. Whisker looked like she was about to wet herself from the pressure, but I’ll ignore that as well. Of course, I was also completely ignoring May’s gaze. See no evil, folks. See no evil.

“Okay, that’s enough. Turn end! Break up!”

“Uh, why?”

“Just cause.”

Mimi and Elma’s voices sounded harsher than usual. C’mon. It’s not something to get irritated about, you two. Tina’s just like a kid to me. She’s an adult in age, but just look at how she acts.

“Oh, right. The ship parts you salvaged for us have been sold already together with the two ships we recovered. The total profit is 275,000 Guineas.”

“It’s a lot more than we thought.”

“We were quite surprised as well. And as a result of consulting with the Mercenary Guild, it was decided that the bonus for the two of you will be 10% of the total earnings.”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“10%?”

“Yep. 10%. In other words, your bonus will be 27,500 Enels. You’ll need to split this amount, so each will get 13,750 Enels.”

“Thirteen thousand seven hundred fifty Enels……!?”

Tina tilted her head in confusion. It even seemed that steam was rising from her head. I turned to Whisker and saw that she was just the same as her sister.

“Our profits will vary depending on the job we undertake and how many we hunt per day, but you will get the same bonus rate from now on as long as you participate actively.”

“???”

It looks like Tina’s brain has already short-circuited. She was looking up at me with her neck still tilted to the side when she froze up. Instead of short-circuiting, did her engine stall or something?

“This has got to be a dream, right?”

I don’t know how she got to that conclusion, but all strength left her body as she buried her face on my chest. She looked like she was getting ready to sleep.

“It’s no dream. This is real y’know. It’s not really something worth being so surprised about, right?”

“Now look here, boss. We just pulled out parts from scrapped ships for a day and we got a bonus that’s worth four times more than our monthly salaries. Of course, we’re gonna be shocked silly!”

“Uh, I guess so, huh.”

“Just what have we been working so hard for until now……?”

Tina continued to sulk as she made herself comfy on my chest. Tina’s pressing herself closer against me, but the only impression I’m getting was of her being woefully flat. Even so, Mimi and Elma still looked really jealous as they continued giving harsh stares toward Tina.

Whisker, who has frozen on the spot herself, was pulled by May. She was then made to sit on the adjacent sofa while still looking glassy-eyed. So it really was that much of a shock for them huh.

Elma and Mimi couldn’t take it in the end and forcibly tore off Tina from me. Afterward, they both asked me to hug them as well. I then woke up Whisker, who ended up sleeping on the sofa from shock. She was already groaning strangely as if having a terrifying nightmare. Anyway, it was a bit of a mess, but in the end, I managed to have them all calm down and gather around the coffee table inside the break room. Whisker still looked somehow out of it, but she was at least responding properly when addressed, so I guess she’ll be fine after a while more. Probably.

“I guess it’ll turn out this way if you use an ordinary citizen’s common sense huh.”

“Yeah. Or rather, Boss’s sense of wealth is just so out there. It’s pretty stressful for little old me y’know.”

“Am I really that strange……?”

I didn’t think so myself, but it seems that Mimi and Tina thought otherwise. I don’t really have any intention of becoming a careless wastrel, guys.

“I don’t really think it’s that unusual. He’s a bit light on the purse strings sometimes, but it’s not like he’s wasteful when it comes to money, right?”

“Yeah. You tell em, Elma.”

“This is bad. These two are actually of the same kind.”

“Aren’t they? Recently, I’ve begun to question if I was the one who’s strange.”

Tina shook her head in exasperation and Mimi nodded strongly in agreement. Eh? Really, guys?

“We’re just looking at things from different perspectives. For us, our most pressing concerns when it comes to money are our daily expenses, meals, and our monthly salary. Big brother’s concerns are more focused on the prices of ships, equipment, weapon systems, and ammo. So what he considers as a bit expensive may start at a million or so. I bet he thinks 10,000 Enels is just chump change. No, I’m sure of it.”

“But 10 thousand is already a lot of money, right?”

“Yes, it is.”

“Eh……”

10 thousand Enels can’t even begin to cover the expenses for ammo replenishment and repairs y’know. Our two ship’s shields are pretty tough though, so I rarely pay for hull repairs, if at all. But in case Krishna ever gets damaged severely, even 100,000 Enels won’t be able to cover the repairs. 10,000 Enels was peanuts in comparison.

“There he goes with his ‘Eh…’ again. I suppose our perspectives really are worlds apart……”

“But won’t 10 thousand get easily spent in places like a fancy restaurant or something?”

“That’s only if the restaurant serves real organic meat and vegetables. In a regular restaurant, you can eat your fill with just five Enels or so.”

I guess she has a point.

“Our food cartridges cost 100 Enels though, and those are just regular ones. See. It’s not that unusual to spend that amount on food, right?”

“One cartridge can already make thirty meals. That means each meal costs just 3 Enels. 300 Enels would be enough to cover all your three meals for a month. If you add the bills for air, water, and other living expenses, you’d just need 1000 Enels to cover all the basics. Our salary is 3700 Enels per month, and that’s already considered relatively high y’know?”

Whisker nodded in agreement to Tina’s explanation. It’s true that they looked quite energetic and healthy when we first met, so they probably were relatively well-off. I see. My sense for money was unusual huh…… Well, Mimi’s already told lots of times in the past, but I really didn’t pay much heed to her complaints.

“Well, isn’t it fine? That just means I’m contributing a lot to driving the economy. Yep.”

“Yeah, that’s right. Since we’re well off, it makes no sense to hold back too much.”

It looks like Elma agrees with my point of view.

“And as long as you stick with me, you won’t be strapped for cash anyway. So just give up, okay.”

“Yes.”

“Yeah, I guess that’s right huh……”

“……We’ll try to adapt as soon as we can.”

Mimi nodded obediently at my words. Maybe she just wanted to prove that her money sense was the one that’s normal so she was being stubborn.

“It’s wonderful that everyone has managed to finally see eye to eye when it comes to our finances.”

May, who was standing next to the table, made a satisfied nod after our talk. I wonder what her opinion about all this was though.

“How about you, May? What’s your take on this?”

“Me? I do not have any problems whatsoever with Master’s proclivities when it comes to handling money.”

“Is that so? I’m a bit surprised.”

I don’t intend to be much of a spendthrift, but I wasn’t expecting her to not have any objections at all.

“Yes. You are a bit susceptible to hard-selling, but there have been no major problems so far. And it seems you are also aware of it to an extent, Master. I will endeavor to earn enough for us to spend freely without feeling burdened with Black Lotus, so there is no problem.”

“I see.”

If my money sense was that of the average joe, I wouldn’t be able to come up with the idea to buy Black Lotus in the first place. And besides, we’re earning good money anyway, so it’s fine.

“Yosh. That’s a wrap then. We’re done with this topic, okay? So, about the other thing that I discussed with the Mercenary Guild……”

I ended the talk about money matters for the time being and moved the discussion to my plan to make Black Lotus double as a mini cargo transport carrier. I still have to make lots and lots more money to reach my ultimate goal and make the girls happy after all. It would be better to plan ahead for a bright future instead of getting hung up on the past.