Chapter 199: Chapter 195 – Morning at the Dareinwald Villa

Translator: SFBaka

I was woken up when I sensed the presence of someone getting on top of the bed.

I caught the intruder with both arms as the sunlight gently caressed my eyelids, and hugged her tightly as she tried to squirm out of my embrace. When I did so, the intruder gave up all resistance. I once again started to drift off while feeling the gentle warmth of the intruder’s body.

“Good morning. Huh? Hiro-sama?”

“Nn-……?”

Hmm? I thought the intruder was Mimi, but…… hm? Elma’s not one to do this sort of thing, and the twins always come in pairs…… I started touching the intruder’s body all over to check. Her body size wasn’t much different from Mimi though.

“Hmmm……”

A soft and supple sensation was transmitted to my palms. However, their size was incomparable to Mimi’s. Hm? Come to think of it, just where was I sleeping anyway?

“Umm…… Would it be better if I come back in an hour to wake you up?”

My consciousness was instantly jolted awake when I heard Mimi’s hesitant voice from the side of the bed. Cold sweat started trickling down my back as I tossed the futon away from the bed I slept on.

“P-Please be gentle…… U-Um, but if it’s only for a bit, y-you can also be rougher with me……”

There was a young girl with bright red blushing cheeks together with me on the bed. She looked up at me enticingly with moist eyes.

“Chris!? Why the heck are you here, Chris!?”

My scream echoed all throughout the Dareinwald family villa in the imperial capital.

Well, not really. Man, these noble villas sure are neat. Their soundproofing was practically perfect. Phew. What a relief.

“You’re terrible. Did you really have to scream like that?”

“I’m really sorry, okay.”

Chris puffed her cheeks up in anger, but I felt she was really cute when she did so. Well, Chris didn’t really seem to be all that angry anyway so her mood quickly turned for the better after some coaxing.

We’re currently staying over at the Dareinwald House’s private villa in the imperial capital.

After the tournament, we promptly returned to the Grakkis Secundus colony, picked up the mechanic sisters who sported dead fish eyes from all the stress, and descended to the imperial capital once more. We then planned to finish everything we needed to do in the imperial capital while staying in the Dareinwald villa for a couple of days.

Maybe it’s because I became quite famous after the tournament? Or maybe it’s due to my unrestricted gateway access pass or my status as a Platinum-ranked mercenary. Heck, maybe it’s mostly because I’m a Gold Star recipient. In any case, the processing of our second landing application was comparably speedier and smoother compared to the first time.

“But y’know… Can you please stop doing this from now on? I mean seriously. It’s really bad for the heart.”

“Did I make your heart race, Hiro-sama?”

“You did more than making my heart race. I thought I was gonna have a heart attack. Geez.”

It’s seriously not funny, okay.

Chris- Lady Christina Dareinwald was the only true heiress of the Dareinwald House.

The current earl and family head is her grandfather, Earl Abraham Dareinwald. But the one who’s supposed to be his successor - Chris’s father - was plotted against by her uncle and ended up dying along with his wife. After the conflict within the family for succession was resolved, Earl Dareinwald had his other son judged for his crimes.

We, Krishna’s crew, also got involved in the succession conflict for some reason and acted together with Chris for a while. As for our connection with Chris…… Well, we kinda bonded a lot during the time we spent with each other. It’s the kind of bond that can’t be explained with mere words. And so, that also resulted in us making a connection with the Dareinwald House as well.

By the way, Chris was a raven-haired, onyx-eyed beautiful girl. She’s about the same height as Mimi, or maybe a bit shorter. As for her build…… Mm. Let me just say she has great potential for growth in the future. She seems to have a very favorable impression of me and shows me quite a bit of affection, but I haven’t laid my hands on her at all.

She’s the granddaughter of an earl after all. And unlike Mimi, she’s still a minor. Even someone like me won’t cross that kind of line, okay.

“Ahaha…… I was really surprised too.”

Mimi quipped wryly as she walked together with us. I thought she was an ordinary girl from a colony at first, but it turns out that her grandmother was the actual blood-related sister of His Imperial Majesty, the emperor of the Graccan empire. As they say, it’s always the seemingly normal ones who hold the most secrets.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Anyway, a lot happened due to Mimi’s heritage, and I even resolved myself to go against the entire empire for her, but it turned out that the emperor was a pretty understanding guy, and she ended up being allowed to continue living as a mercenary.

In order to sort things out, an empire-wide tournament was held, and I ended up standing out a lot…… Well, I guess that’s just the price to pay for our current situation.

I separated from Mimi and Chris in order to freshen up, and when I arrived at the washroom, I found Elma already inside. It looks like she’s just finished freshening up.

“Morning, Elma.”

“Good morning, Hiro. Did you sleep well?”

“I certainly did sleep well, but the wake-up call was really shocking.”

“Hm?”

Her pointed ears popped out of her silver hair as she tilted her head. She’s a veteran mercenary with five years of experience and also the daughter of Viscount Willrose. I also discovered this for the first time when we got to the imperial capital, but I wasn’t as surprised compared to Mimi’s case because I already had a bit of an inkling that she was a young lady from a noble family before.

Well, there was some trouble due to her extreme sis-con of a brother and her father who despised me for taking her first and almost cut me down, but Elma’s mother and older sister were on our side. They made her father submit to reality, and Elma’s sis-con brother grudgingly acknowledged me in the end after losing in a swordsmanship duel with me in the tournament. All’s well that ends well, I guess.

“What? Why are you staring at me like that?”

“You look really pretty today as well, Elma.”

“Mou…… Just what are you saying so early in the morning? Geez.”

Elma’s face turned red and she started gently hitting my arm. Whenever I seriously anger her, I end up on the receiving end of brutal submission moves, but she properly holds back at times like these. Elma really was a cute girl. But it’s better not to piss her off for real. I mean seriously. I might be able to keep up with her during CQC training nowadays, but aside from her reaction speed, her pure physical strength was several levels above mine.

I quickly fixed my outfit and freshened up. Afterward, I headed for the dining hall of the villa and found not only Mimi and the others waiting inside, but also a beautiful girl in maid clothes who had mechanical gizmos for ears. It looks like she prepared breakfast for us.

“Good morning, Mei.”

“Good morning, Master.”

The maid bowed her head with a deadpan expression. She’s a maid-type android- a maidroid, to be exact. She had long, flowing black hair, brilliant eyes framed by red-rimmed glasses, wore a chic Victorian-style maid outfit, and a pretty developed chest - though not as developed as Mimi’s. Her appearance was entirely customized by me by the way.

Yes, that’s right. She’s the ultimate maid-san I personally designed. I splurged a lot and customized her entire body to the limit, resulting in her overall combat capabilities becoming roughly on par with a high-end combat robot.

“What about those two?”

“They told me to let them rest for a while more because they felt ‘dead-tired’.”

“I see……”

We also had twin mechanic sisters tagging along with us after getting dispatched by Space Dwerg - the company they are working for - to our ship, but it looks like they were both still asleep. I’m not too sure about what happened to them, but it looks like they didn’t really get along well with the Space Dwerg people working at the imperial capital branch. It seems they wanted to avoid inconveniencing me, so when I told them I’d bring the sisters with me back down to the planet-city, they let them go without much of a fuss. Anyway, let’s leave those two alone for the time being.

“Let’s have our breakfast first then. What about the earl?”

“My grandfather went to the imperial palace for some personal business. He said he would be returning by evening, so we would be able to join him for dinner later.”

Chris promptly answered my question. I see. It looks like the earl was pretty busy huh. I guess being a noble might be more difficult than I first expected.

“I see. Let’s come back here by evening as well then. Let’s get some light exercise after breakfast first, and then go out for some shopping. Let’s eat out somewhere nice for lunch.”

“Yes! I’ll check on shops with good prospects right away!”

Mimi, whose goal was to eat lots of delicious food all throughout the galaxy, gushed excitedly with sparkling eyes. Perhaps her grandmother who fled from the imperial capital and the imperial family was also fond of such gourmet adventures.

“It’s fine to get excited about lunch, but why don’t we eat our breakfast first?”

“Yes.”

Chris watched Elma and Mimi’s exchange with a warm gaze. Maybe she’s reminiscing about the days we spent on that resort planet.

“Let’s have breakfast now, Chris.”

“Yes, Hiro-sama.”

She can’t be together with us all the time, but lets at least make as many great memories with her as we can while we’re here. Well, in the future, it might not be so difficult to pay Chris a visit because of my unrestricted access to the imperial gateways.