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

Chapter 473: I Might Have Made A Mistake

Shufu station looked like a large stick with multiple rings around it with the rings getting progressively bigger the higher around the stick.

”Apparently they started with the bottom ring first since this was originally just meant to be a border watch station. But then they started expanding upwards and made another ring to accommodate more people and they just kept adding more as it became a trading hub in this sector as more and more people came here,” Ries explained.

”So the ones with the larger rings are the newer sections of the station?” I asked.

”Thatʼs right. Thatʼs why I suspect that our pirate friends might be in the lower rings. Those areas are basically the lawless slums of the station.”

”Iʼm surprised that no one did anything to deal with that if they already knew that place had such poor conditions.”

Amber chuckled, ”Itʼs simple, Tera. Since the station was built up from the bottom, most of the crucial systems keeping the station running would be located there as well. If they try to flush the people out from there, they might risk damaging crucial systems that keep the station running so they just leave it as it is.”

I turned back to peek at Amber over my shoulder, ”That just sounds like theyʼre just too lazy to deal with it so they ignore it.”

”Thereʼs some truth in that. And they donʼt want to spend the money to hire people to deal with it either since it will no doubt be expensive. And if the pirates are hiding there, they will definitely fight back and that would turn into a mess.”

”And weʼre going there ourselves huh… What if we end up blowing the station up?”

Amber showed me a peace sign, ”Then we blame it on the pirates and get out of there~”

I narrowed my eyes at her, ”Right… Letʼs try not to blow up the station, ok?”

We requested permission to dock and got permission to use one of their docking arms. It seems like unlike the other stations, we were expected to pay for docking fees the moment we docked with the station.

They were even charging you for using the hangar bay as well so it wasnʼt just because they were doing this for the larger ships.

We werenʼt sure how long we would be staying here but it seems like they were charging ships by the hour up until a day. Then after that they would charge you according to how many days you are docked with the station.

At least their prices were still rather reasonable and we did earn quite a bit of money so we werenʼt really bothered by this arrangement.

As our ship finished our docking procedures, I gathered the girls together on the bridge.

”So… Where do we start?” I asked.

Mara answered my question first, ”Just like any other case, we gather information first. We can just go somewhere that lowlifes would hang out and I should be able to read their thoughts and I should be able to find out if thereʼs any information related to those pirates.”

Having someone on your crew that can literally read minds is really a cheat huh?

Amber raised her hand, ”In that case, I suggest we split into two groups to cover more ground! I call dibs on Tera!”

The other girls scowled at her and Ries immediately started to protest, ”You canʼt just call dibs on Boss like that!”

Amber stuck out her tongue, ”I can and I just did~ Ehe~”

Lea turned to me, ”Mistress, we still need to restock the ship with supplies and ammunition as well. I can volunteer to do it if you like? But I think it might be safer if I wasnʼt the only one so…”

Ah, thatʼs right, it wouldnʼt be safe for Ries and Lea to be alone since theyʼre not humans they might run into trouble if they were to walk around on their own.

In that case…

”Mara, you can go with Ries to do some information hunting. Lea, youʼll stay on the ship with Amber to resupply our ship and watch over it. Iʼll go and do some scouting on my own as well.”

”What?!” All the girls cried out at the same time.

”Why not just follow me, Captain?”

”I want to stay with you, Tera!”

”Canʼt Boss go with us?”

”Could Mistress just stay with me instead?”

Why is it that on this particular matter all four of you seem to be so synchronised together?

I shook my head, ”Iʼll be practically useless if I were to go with Mara since she would be reading thoughts anyway. Ries is with you just there in case something unexpected happens. And Lea knows what type of ammunition we need for the ship and I trust Amber to be able to dissuade any bad actors from trying to take over the ship. As for me, I intend to do my own search since splitting up would allow us to cover more ground.”

Amber frowned at me, ”Iʼm not sure you would be safe going on your own though…”

I raised an eyebrow, ”Itʼs not like Iʼve never been in a fight before, Amber… I think I can handle things myself…”

”Thatʼs definitely a flag, Tera… Now I think you should follow one of us instead of going on your own…” Amber pointed out.

I waved at her, ”Iʼll be fine. If anything happens Iʼll call one of you. Now chop chop, letʼs not waste the money weʼre spending on the docking space, alright?”

Mara disagreed, ”If Captain would like to find information on the pirates, I would really insist that you come with me instead of going alone…”

”But that would really slow down our investigation though…”

Ries then raised her hand, ”Umm… Boss? Why are you in such a rush anyway? We could just take it easy canʼt we? The pirates donʼt know weʼre coming and they still believe that their cover hasnʼt been blown yet so they shouldnʼt be going anywhere any time soon… We could just search for them at our leisure…”

Amber let out a gasp, ”Ries is right, Tera! Why not letʼs just have a few days off at the station?! Itʼs supposed to be a trade hub so there should be a lot of things to do and buy there! We can just use our telepathy to search the people near us and tell you if there is, so we wonʼt be wasting time either!”

I paused after hearing the girls tell me that.

I had that moment to self reflect and I realised that if it wasnʼt for the girls giving this suggestion and pointing it out to me, I may have never realised what was going on with me.

Despite already being here for a few months already, I was still treating this like a game instead of real life.

Everytime I reached a destination, it was like I reached a new mission area and I was just focused on looking for quests to complete before I move to the next mission area to repeat the process again.

I never really thought that the new place I reached was… Well… A completely new place teeming with life and new things to explore where actual living and breathing people live their lives.

Instead, I had been basically treating each of these locations like in game locations where I was only able to go to set places within the locations itself while also only being able to do set actions as well.

Weʼve basically been running all around these places doing quest after quest and also letting these ʼquestsʼ dictate where weʼre supposed to be going as well.

I realised that all this while we have been going to places that we ʼhadʼ to go instead of places that we ʼwantʼ to go.

Ughh… This isnʼt good… I really need to reflect on this…

”Girls… I must apologise…” I told them with my head lowered.

The girls let out a gasp and rushed towards me.

”What are you doing, Tera?!”

”Please raise your head!”

”Why are you apologising?!”

”Are you going to leave us, Mistress?”

I straightened myself, ”I have not been prioritising our own wants and kept focusing on doing these things because itʼs like a ʼquestʼ of sorts… If you hadnʼt told me that, I might not even have noticed what I was doing…”

The four of them blinked at me before all of them hugged me together.

”Tera… Are you kidding me right now? Being with you is all that I want.”

”Mistress… You should not apologise for that. We are here to follow you.”

”Thatʼs right, Boss! Iʼm having the time of my life just being here as well!”

”The same goes for me as well, Captain. If it wasnʼt for you, I would still be stuck in the same place on that station.”

You girls…

”Letʼs do what Amber suggested then… Letʼs go on a date in the station today.”

Well… I can tell the girls really like the idea because they all pounced on me and I got stuck kissing them for the next ten minutes.