What Do You Mean I'm The Captain Of A Yandere Mercenary Company?

Chapter 309: A Brief Glance Into Noble Families

I returned to the Bridge with Mara and Amber in tow.

”Captain on the bridge~”” Amber announced cheerfully.

”Welcome back, Mistress,” Lea greeted casually.

I took my place on the Captainʼs chair while Amber and Mara flanked me.

”Shall we start bombarding the base?” Amber asked.

Considering the fact that Ries had already plastered herself against the side of the window to stare out at the shipʼs guns, I believe sheʼs expecting it to start soon.

I turned to Mara and she gave me a nod so I gave the order.

”All guns, fire at will.”

Lea activated all the guns and I watched as the turrets all turned to point at the base that was built on the asteroid.

There was just a momentʼs pause as Lea lined up the guns to their target locations before she pulled the trigger on her console.

All the guns on that side of our ship fired in unison, the lasers reaching the base first and burning two holes in the building.

The three railgun shells came right after them and blasted through not only the base but also the asteroid as well.

Next came the wave of missiles and autocannon rounds as it peppered the surface of the asteroid, throwing up a cloud of dust and obliterating what was remaining there.

Of course, that wasnʼt enough so Lea continued her bombardment of the asteroid to Riesʼs delight, the Maochatte letting out purrs and moans from time to time as she watched the cannons fire at our target.

In the meantime… I got a little busy with plugging in all the Credit Chips that Amber had looted into my Codex to start tallying up the money.

At the same time, I also asked Mara if she was going to tell us what was going on now.

She sighed, ”Where should I start? Hmm… I guess letʼs just get this out of the way. You know Iʼm a Psionic.”

I nodded, ”And I also know that all Psionics are Nobles.”

She shook her head, ”That is a little incorrect. All Nobles are Psionics. But not all Psionics are Nobles.”

”Ok… So that means youʼre not?”

She smiled mischievously at me, ”Actually, I am a Noble.”

I blinked, ”Ok… Do I… Err… Do I need to bow or something?”

Amber coughed, ”Ahem. Youʼre missing a word in front of the ʼNobleʼ.”

Mara rolled her eyes at her and I just shifted my gaze in between the two women, wondering whatʼs going on.

Was Amber insinuating that Mara was a ʼformerʼ Noble?

The doctor continued, ”I am indeed a Noble, Tera, despite the fact that I do not wish to be one.”

I raised an eyebrow at her, ”Ok… I kind of figured that out since you chose to be a Gene Splicer in the outer colonies instead of chilling in some high class mansion or something. The question I have is why?”

”I suppose I should just start from the beginning… As I said, I am a Noble but you might think that being a Noble would give me a lot of power and freedom to do whatever I want, right?”

”Let me guess… You have some expected responsibilities that come with the position?”

She nodded, ”That is indeed the case. What do you know about Nobles, Tera?”

I shrugged, ”Not much… Just that they are supposed to be some kind of higher class people and they possess Psionic powers I guess?”

”And do you know about the competition between the Noble Families?”

I shook my head.

She hummed, ”Mmm… Itʼs kind of an open secret. But even when the Psionics fought against the UTG, there were different groups amongst the Psionics since they were kept in different locations. Each group had their own leaders and specialties in Psionic abilities and each one believes they are the strongest. So even after the UTG surrendered and gave in to our demands, the war was still not over.

It was now a war within the Psionics to claim the top spot of power.”

I grimaced, ”Iʼm guessing the Noble Families is just a fancy term to refer to each of the groups?”

”Fufufu~ Thatʼs right Tera~ I knew you were smart~ Not like a certain idiot over there who needed everything to be spelt out for her~”

”Hey! I never asked you for that history lesson! You just started talking about it so I wasnʼt even listening!” Amber protested.

Mara completely ignored Amber and continued, ”So after Psionics got the peace they wanted, what did they do? They now want to be the biggest fish in the pond they find themselves in. We know our power and how big of a threat each other could be. The only reason why the UTG was still making the decisions instead of the Noble Families is because we were too busy keeping each other in check.”

”Thatʼs one thing I wondered,” I admitted. ”With that much power, why didnʼt the Noble Families just take over the government instead? Why just settle for being so-called Nobles?”

”Because each group had different ideals. Some just wanted peace; Some just want the status without the responsibility; Others just want to live normally… Only a few of the groups wanted absolute power.

The ones who wanted power knew that if they were to stage a rebellion on their own, another of the Noble Families might see their own positions threatened and help the UTG instead so they effectively kept each other in check. But that brought about another problem you see…”

”Thatʼs the big fish problem?”

”Indeed. In order to avoid the possibility of being absorbed or taken advantage of by other Noble Families, each of them needed to ensure that they had the strongest Psionic in their Family. Weʼve already figured out that our abilities come from our genetics so every Noble Family started coming up with different ideas on how to obtain the strongest Psionic.”

I looked pointedly at Mara, ”So… Gene splicing?”

She smiled wryly at me, ”That is true for a few Families but there were other ideas. Mine in particular was through breeding.”

I blinked at her, ”What?”

She nodded, ”You heard me right. Since it was all genetics, the family I was a part of believed that having two strong Psionics coming together would obviously give birth to an even stronger Psionic.”

”Ok… So you guys just marry other Psionics from other Noble Families?”

Her lips curled up even higher, ”Tera… Do you think any Noble Families would allow their own talented and strongest Psionics to be married away into another Noble Family?”

Things clicked into place and I widened my eyes, ”Wait… You…”

She sighed, ”Which was why I ran away actually. They were going to make me breed with one of my uncles and I had no love for that man. I was one of the strongest telepaths in the Family so they wanted my genes. And just so you know, this was actually pretty common.”

”So you ran away… And then those people…” I gestured towards the asteroid that Lea was still bombarding while Ries was literally hopping around all excited by the window.

”People my Family… Or more likely, my uncle, hired to find me and take me back to them so that I could be bred by him. Theyʼve never stopped looking for me and they wonʼt stop. In fact, right now they are still trying to hide the fact that I ran away but sooner or later, word would get out that I left and other Noble Families might also start searching for me so that they can use me as a breeder.”

”And thatʼs normal too?”

”Oh yes. Some of the Noble Families kidnap each otherʼs members to be used as breeding stock. Even my family had a few males and females kept in the Dungeons and used for that. Iʼve at least had the fortune of never witnessing the state of our Familyʼs dungeon where they were kept.”

”And the government allows this?”

She shrugged, ”What could they do? They already got themselves beaten completely and saying anything would just invite a second beating. Besides, this was good for the UTG as well. If the Noble Families are too busy fighting each other, we wouldnʼt have time to plot or conspire against them in the first place.”

Makes sense…

”So what about the Gene Splicing? Is that a cover?”

She giggled, ”Fufufu~ Oh not at all. I always had an interest in them when I was young. We needed to learn about them, you see, considering thatʼs where our abilities came from. So by extension I got into the idea of Gene Splicing and it became my hobby.

Obviously I couldnʼt really do it professionally when I was still in my Family but now that Iʼm sort of free from them, I saw no reason why I shouldnʼt pursue it professionally.”

I was just about to ask if the reason why she doesnʼt mod herself was because of her Psionic abilities when a notification came from my console that warned me about a ship approaching us.

Mara also noticed it and smiled, ”Thatʼs our little smuggler. Time to make some money, Tera.”

Right. I guess I can ask more later.