"Takehashi, your men are loaded."

I’ve already gathered like... Close to a hundred thousand Credits just by looting the Credit Chips from the corpses...

Takehashi shrugged, "It’s not like they can just go to a bank and store their money."

I swivelled around, "There’s a bank?"

I felt stupid for asking it as soon as the words left my mouth, but the girls answered me seriously.

"There’s several banks that are on a galactic scale and multiple other local banks depending in the sector you’re in, Boss."

"Most people would use one of the larger banks but to be honest, they are quite predatory. I would not recommend using them unless you are really, really rich, Captain."

"Or if you’re a Noble. That’s why we haven’t been using any banks, Tera."

"If you are looking for loans, Mistress, I would recommend the smaller ones as well."

Well geez, after hearing all that, it sounds like I should just stay as far away from banks as possible doesn’t it?

Good thing our personal terminals and Credit Chips can function as Credit storage so we don’t need to worry about that.

With all the money that we managed to loot from the dead bodies, I was thinking that it might be fine to just leave the weapons since it would be a hassle to carry them back until Mara lifted them all up into the air with her telekinesis which settled the issue.

Takehashi stared at the floating guns before turning to me, "I had refrained from asking this earlier but... Are you a Noble?"

Oh right... I had been so focused on everything else that I also forgot this one specific problem...

Takehashi knows about us having Psionics in our group... Can I trust her to keep her mouth shut about this?

While I was thinking about that, Amber came over to hug me from behind while grinning at the Pirate Lord.

"Oh, I’m definitely not a Noble~ I’m more like a runaway experiment~"

Mara also chimed in, "And I’m a runaway Noble. Does that answer your question?"

Takehashi blinked at them before turning to me, "I... Err... I know something that I shouldn’t, don’t I?"

I nodded my head slowly.

I could see her tail slowly tuck in between her legs as her eyes shifted between Mara and Amber, the latter still grinning at her.

"Would it... Would it help if I said that I won’t tell anyone?"

I looked her up and down before thinking about it for a moment.

She’s a competent fighter... She does have experience leading a group even if one ended up dead and the other betrayed her... And it’s not like she was currently beholden to anyone or had any goal anyway...

Right! I have decided!

I pointed at the Pirate Lord, "Takehashi! Be mine!"

"Fuee?!" She made a cute noise that I didn’t think I would hear from the supposed tyrannical Pirate Lord. "Wa wa wa... What are you saying?!"

"Hmm? I’m inviting you to join my Mercenary company of course? What do you think? You already said you don’t have anything to live for anyway right? So why not just join us instead?"

"Jo... Join you?"

I nodded, "That’s right. Then we don’t need to worry about you spreading this around since you would be one of us anyway."

She blinked at me for a few seconds before speaking once more in a rather soft voice, "You are... Inviting me to join you?"

"Yes?"

"To... Be your subordinate?"

"Err... Yes? I’m definitely not giving you the leadership position, obviously?"

"And I... Will have to listen to your orders?"

"Of course?"

"All... All of them?"

"If they’re reasonable? I’m not a tyrant."

Why is she asking such weird questions? Is it because this is her first time being someone else’s subordinate or something?

Hmm? Wait... Her tail seems to be wagging behind her and it’s slowly getting faster and faster... And is her breathing also getting faster and faster?

Before I could ask if she was having a stroke, she suddenly cried out, "Yes! Yes!! I’m in!! Please let me join!! I will join you!"

Huh... She seems way more enthusiastic than I thought she would be... Maybe she really was scared of Amber and Mara?

Then again... I guess if Amber and Mara were on the other side, I would be scared of them as well...

...

Actually on second thought... I think I would be too distracted by how hot they were to be scared of them so nevermind...

Speaking of which...

I turned back to my girls, "Are there any objections to letting her join us?"

Aside from Ries who was narrowing her eyes at her suspiciously, the others all shook their heads. And I believe the only reason why Ries was looking at her like that was because of the cat and dog thing.

Amber giggled, "That’s what we already expected to happen, Tera. I’ve seen how you looked at those legs of hers. I’m actually more surprised you didn’t invite her earlier."

Ok, first of all... Can you blame me? I mean... Have you seen those legs?! And not to mention those hips?! I was doing my best not to grab them, you know?!

And it doesn’t help that she’s wearing that skin tight pilot suit that literally does not leave anything to the imagination with how it hugged her curves.

I cleared my throat, "Ahem... I don’t just invite every beauty I see, ok?"

"But it certainly is a criteria, isn’t it?"

I’m not going to affirm or deny that claim...

Instead, let’s change the topic!!

"Right! Takehashi--"

"Yumiko," She interrupted.

I blinked at her.

She poked her fingers together, "Please... Umm... Just call me Yumiko..."

Ah... Right... That’s her given name I guess?

"Yumiko then... Err... About your weapons..."

The two swords that she had given to Matsumoto to use had been completely destroyed in the grenade blast so she was currently unarmed at the moment.

She waved her hands at me, "It’s alright! If we can get back to my Power Armour, I have some spares there as well. If those were also gone, then I know where I can get replacements too."

Oh right!! My Power Armour!! I knew I was forgetting something!!

I hurried all of them through the door and led the way back through the corridors until we reached the area where the ships were supposed to be.

And the view now was drastically different from when we first laid eyes on it.

Before, the entire area had been filled with ships of various sizes but now... The entire place was completely empty.

And not only that, it was revealed that this ’hangar’ wasn’t even a hangar in the first place and it was just a large room with the platform jutting out on one side.

The AI must have used hologram projections to make the room look bigger than it actually was and then used a mixture of more holograms and nanobots to create those ships to make it look like an actual ship hangar.

Takehashi... Errr... I mean Yumiko, sighed quite heavily when she saw the state of the room, since it reminded her of just how she got duped by that AI into believing that Pirate Sovereign ruse.

Turning our gaze away from the rest of the room, I found our Power Armours were still standing at the same place where we had left it.

Ries immediately went over to check on it while Yumiko went to check on hers.

I got the opportunity to look into the pilot seat of the Power Armour and I realised that the interior of the Power Armour was an entire room by itself.

In the centre of the suit was a seat that I assumed she would pilot the Power Armour from while the rest of the space was taken up by living amenities.

I see a cot tucked away at the back which was obviously where she would sleep, a small box at the side which I figured out was a refrigerator to store her synthfood, a large screen attached to the other side which I’m guessing was used for entertainment, and a container of drinking water stuck to the roof of the pilot cabin.

No wonder this girl could just stay in her Power Armour for days on end without even coming out...

She crawled into the opening and looked around before letting out a curse.

"That fucking bitch Helen!! Arrghhh!! I should have strangled her when I had the chance!!"

I peeked into the cockpit, "What’s wrong?"

"She destroyed them!" She cursed, pulling out two broken handles that I recognised were similar to the blades that Matsumoto had used. "And what’s more... Either she got the AI to do it or she did it herself... But the internal generators and engines were literally melted away!"

"Which means?"

"Which means that this is barely better than just a pile of scrap metal now!!"

A chill went up my spine and I quickly turned to look at Ries.

My Maochatte gave me a thumbs up, "Doesn’t seem like they managed to touch this one Boss~ My security systems seemed to have stopped them from doing anything to it. It just needs a bit of repair back at the ship but I can jumpstart it with an energy cell right now."

Phew... I would certainly be pretty pissed if I heard all of Ries’s hard work had been wasted...

Right then, I felt a tug on my arm and I turned to see Renata looking at me expectantly.

"Daddy?" She asked before pointing at Yumiko’s Power Armour. "Can I eat that?"

...

...

I... Don’t even want to ask...