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

Chapter 323: Weʼre Investigating This

After we looted the bodies and left the scene, we met up with Ries and Lea who had indeed been waiting outside the alley.

We then left the place quickly because the gang fight was still going on. We even have to step over a few corpses just to leave the area.

I actually thought about looting those bodies too, especially since there were others who had the same idea and were busy looting the dead gang members even as the shootout was still ongoing.

But then one of those looters got shot through the head by a stray bullet and I decided it wasnʼt worth it and quickly left with the girls.

On the way back to the ship, Mara told Lea and Ries about what she found out about the attackers and they seemed quite surprised for some reason.

”Wait… You mean that they were going crazy for the drug and not just… Erm… Organic food?” Ries asked.

Mara nodded, ”Apparently… And it seems like itʼs a wide scale operation as well.”

I scratched my head at that, ”Why would they even bother doing something like this? Like… Whatʼs the point of sneaking White Powder into organic food? Itʼs not like you canʼt just buy or sell them openly here right?”

Amber turned to me with a grin, ”Well~ If youʼre interested in finding out, thereʼs a job for that.”

I raised an eyebrow questioningly at her and she tapped on her personal terminal to show me a screen that she projected in front of me.

I narrowed my eyes on the words and I realised it was a Guild request where someone was asking people to find out why there was a boom in organic food demand and why the people seemed to be going quite crazy for it.

Incidentally, this quest was posted by the station master of the station itself so we know that it was legit.

Whatʼs more, the reward they were offering wasnʼt that bad either. If we could provide him with the explanation of why this was happening and provide proof of it, the reward was a hundred thousand Creas for each evidence provided. If we can solve the problem for him, there will be an additional five hundred thousand Creas on top of that.

Technically, we could already turn the vial that Mara had obtained to him for the hundred thousand Creas reward.

”I didnʼt think that the station master would be interested in things like this, much less post this for the Guild to handle.”

Mara scoffed, ”Of course he would care. Itʼs one thing to knowingly buy drugs and get high on them, itʼs another thing to be fed the drugs unknowingly and then go crazy for it and start getting violent. That disrupts business. And when business gets disrupted, the gangs wonʼt be happy and youʼve already seen what happens when they arenʼt happy.”

I raised an eyebrow, ”Do you mean the shooting we just witnessed?”

She nodded, ”If you want to know, that was a territory takeover by one of the gangs. Their business got disrupted so badly that one side decided that they had to take more territory for themselves.”

Amber continued, ”And when more of those fights breakout, that station master position of his wonʼt be relevant for very long~”

Of course, everyone is motivated by self interest here so I guess thatʼs to be expected.

”No wonder the station master is willing to fork out that much money for this problem to be solved,” I mused.

Amber scoffed, ”Heʼs underpaying actually. More because he still hasnʼt realised just how big of a threat this was to his position and he thought that it would just solve itself if he left it alone for a while. I would say that he needs to offer at least two or three times the current reward heʼs offering.”

Mara disagreed, ”Itʼs actually already a pretty high bounty. You forgot this is Denibi station weʼre talking about. Most people who live here wouldnʼt even see a hundred thousand Credits in their entire life.”

Amber slapped her forehead, ”Oh right. I forgot.”

I turned to Mara, ”So are we going to claim the reward? Or are we still going to investigate?”

Lea turned to me, ”I have a lead, Mistress.”

”Oh? You do?”

She nodded, ”Seeing that the interest in organic food came about roughly after we left, I believe the initial cause was due to people tasting your cooking.”

I blinked, ”You mean… That time that we ate in that bar?”

”Yes, Mistress. You already know that there were a number of people who tasted your food back then, right?”

”Ugh… Donʼt remind me… That was one of the most tiring things I had to do ever since I came here… Why were there so many people?”

Lea lowered her head slightly, ”I will make sure that never happens again, Mistress.”

Amber cleared her throat, ”Ahem, I think you mean ʼweʼ.”

The Alv turned to her slightly, ”Yes, of course.”

I tried to bring the conversation back on topic, ”So what about that event?”

”I believe that after tasting your food, the people that have tried it attempted to make your dishes by themselves which resulted in the increase in demand for organic ingredients in the station. That would of course result in an increase in price for it as well.”

”That still doesnʼt explain the White Powder though…” I pointed out.

She nodded, ”Indeed. Though I might have a few hypotheses in regards to that as well.”

”Oh? Thatʼs interesting. Letʼs hear it.”

”Mistress has mentioned meeting the thieves, right? I believe that there were some smugglers who wanted to take advantage of the sudden price hike of organic goods and started looking for places where they could obtain them for cheap prices to sell them here. Thus we have other groups of thieves that might have unintentionally stumbled upon another smuggler who was transporting White Powder with organic food.”

I raised an eyebrow at her, ”Why would they even be doing that?”

”Because organic foodstuffs are already quite expensive and if you were a customs officer who damages the goods while conducting a search, you are liable to pay for the goods you damaged. Thus, thereʼs quite a number of officers who would not want to even check organic food containers lest they ruin them. Thus, I believe a batch of contaminated organic food has been sold here.”

Ries perked up, ”This doesnʼt make sense though… How did they mix up the organic ingredients with the drugs? They couldnʼt have just intentionally mixed them together, could they?”

Lea hesitated for a moment at that, ”That is what I do not know. Perhaps when they were raiding the ship, the smuggler intentionally or accidentally mixed the White Powder with the organic food and the smugglers were not aware of the contamination and ended up selling it as it is, which led to what we see now. I, myself, find that a little unlikely that is the case though.”

”Could the smugglers themselves have added the White Powder into the organic food before selling them?” Ries suggested.

Amber frowned, ”That would really make no sense. Why would they want to mix those two products together when they can just sell them as two separate products? Itʼs not like the drug is illegal here.”

Riesʼs ears drooped slightly, ”Thatʼs true… Then what if these people were selling White Powder and organic food as a package together and the people who bought them also got the White Powder that made them addicted to it?”

Amber paused, ”I would actually like to say that people arenʼt that stupid… But this is also quite likely as well.”

Lea interjected, ”All of this is just our guesses with no proof anyway. For all we know, the truth might be very different from what is actually happening.”

I chuckled, ”Ahaha~ Yeah, for all we know, someone might just be adding White Powder to the food thinking itʼs salt so theyʼre mistakenly seasoning it with the drug and selling it to people~”

All four of them looked at each other before turning back to me.

”Thatʼs… Actually quite possible, Mistress.”

”I think that might actually be whatʼs happening too, Tera…”

”I actually believe thatʼs the most likely one too, Boss…”

”I also think that thereʼs a high possibility that this might be the truth, Captain.”

Oh come on, I was joking, girls…

I tapped the side of my cheek, ”Still… I guess that at least gives us a place to start from…”

Amber turned to me, ”That means weʼre going back to that bar again, arenʼt we? Weʼre going to go interrogate some people~”

”Well… I mean…” I drifted off, shooting Mara a look.

Mara smiled, ”I would be happy to help you read their minds, Tera. Itʼs not even a problem for me.”

”Great~ Then we might even find out if someone there was involved in the distribution too! Shall we head there now?”

Amber tapped on her personal terminal to bring up a map, ”Iʼll lead the way.”

Alright then, guess weʼre becoming detectives now~