A Mercenary's Calling Card
"Heh heh heh. Hahahahaha!"
Back aboard his own ship, Jincheon took one look at the handle fixed to Gareld's waist and burst into roaring laughter.
"Of course a mecha story needs one of these. I was planning to grab one the second we hit Keren anyway — looks like I just saved myself the cash."
He had punched straight through Lexerei's torso with an accelerating strike, and Gareld's fingers were wrecked in several places as a result. Fortunately it was a mecha built with Calsorn Empire technology; a standard unit would have been unusable all the way up through the elbow.
"Still, it's a shame. A little longer and we could have finished off the cruiser too."
Laser rifle power packs were not infinite, so they had been forced to pull back — but Calsira had learned with her entire body that taking out even one more enemy made everything easier later, and the regret spilled out of her freely.
"Calsira."
"Yes?"
Jincheon, who had escaped disaster thanks to her and climbed a full step higher because of it, approached her with a smile.
"Thank you. Without you, I would have kept getting toyed with by that guy until I lost."
Trust the mecha's performance. Dodging every enemy attack is not the highest priority. Without that advice, Jincheon would never have broken free of a combat style that tried to evade everything no matter the cost.
"Ah…"
When he stroked her head and praised her, her expression froze into an awkward, uncertain smile. It was the first time she had ever been praised like this after returning from a fight.
"…Hic… hic…"
"Huh? Did I say something wrong?"
Jincheon asked, flustered by the sudden tears running down Calsira's face.
"N-no… Being told I fought well… getting praised… it just… suddenly… sob…!"
Calsira tried to compose herself against the tears that had come out of nowhere, but once the dam of emotion broke, everything she had been holding down for so long came flooding out with it.
No matter how hard she fought, all that ever came back was her brothers' open pressure and killing intent. What this child wanted was never a royal title or honor — just one sincere word of praise.
Jincheon drew her into his arms and kept stroking her hair. She was an adult only in body; in every other way she was a child with virtually no real experience of the world.
"You did well. You've really been working so hard."
"Hic…! Waaaaah!"
Just that — praise for what she had done. That alone was enough for all the hardships Calsira had endured to start pouring out with her tears.
"……"
Heliane watched someone cry with pure joy over a single word of praise, and her expression turned complicated. She was ashamed of her past self — the one who had sought revenge on a child this fragile, calling her an enemy. In its place, her hatred for the Zabalcan Empire that had worked this girl so mercilessly only burned hotter.
Whether they had never accounted for the possibility of Jezer failing, or whether some circumstance had simply prevented them from sending a follow-up force, was impossible to say. What was certain was that after Jezer's raid, they reached the Jotala family's territorial waters without further attack — and at a leisurely pace.
A few more hours on, they were met by a patrol bearing matching colored insignia. One corvette, one destroyer, and two mechas surrounded the group and demanded answers.
"Who are you? Did you know this is Jotala territory?"
"Hey, we contracted to deliver goods to Jotala. Tell your higher-ups the name Kader and they'll know."
Seeing that they knew nothing about them, Kader was certain he had been used. He answered in a voice with every emotion dammed as tightly as he could manage. If he didn't hold it down, curses would come pouring out on the spot.
"Wait a moment."
The confident way they spoke prompted the patrol captain to report up the chain. At first the higher-ups wondered who that even was — then they realized who Kader was, and a small commotion broke out. Just as Kader had expected, this delivery had been a Jotala scheme from the very beginning.
"Orders came down to let you through. The boss is waiting for you."
"Yeah. Of course they're waiting for us."
Kader muttered it low enough that the comms wouldn't catch it, swallowing his anger. The one silver lining was that Jotala family ships had come out and helped with what a single transport had been towing. Thanks to that, they reached the Jotala family base in two days.
The headquarters of the Jotala family — a massive asteroid converted into a fortress. When Kader saw the countless ships coming and going, and the gun batteries that could erase the likes of them in a single volley, his rage instantly shriveled to nothing.
The Jotala family he knew was a mid-sized pirate group with three battleships, four cruisers, and dozens of destroyers and corvettes. Of course, they also ran illegal businesses on other planets besides piracy, which was why they called themselves a "family" — but one must never forget that at their core, they were still pirates.
Will they actually pay? But if I don't complete the mission, my reliability drops and the next job gets harder to land… uugh…
Trust was an intangible asset money could not buy. In a trade crawling with human scum, it was only natural that work flowed toward smugglers with high success rates.
"Cap. Shouldn't we tell Jincheon's side too?"
"Yeah. They look like they've got temperaments of their own."
"Ah, right. They need to know the situation as well."
Having their lives saved twice and then walking into a pirate den without a word would be the height of irresponsibility. Kader opened a channel to Jincheon's group, exchanged brief greetings, and laid out the situation from front to back.
"Hmm. So that's how it is."
"There's a chance the worst-case scenario could happen."
"They hired you with no intention of paying from the start, after all."
"Exactly."
The high commission Kader had received was almost certainly just bait to draw in moths like him — a casually tossed figure, because they had never intended to actually pay it. Normally a delivery job varied by cargo and destination conditions, but this one would typically run a hundred to two hundred thousand credits. Kader had been promised several times that amount, but knowing the full picture now, he couldn't help but worry.
"Don't worry."
"Pardon?"
"If it looks like they're going to stiff you, I'll collect for you."
Jincheon leaned back into his chair, smiling like a man who had just found something entertaining.
"Honestly, I'm hoping your worst-case scenario happens. Because then I'll get to see something very interesting."
"What? What do you mean by—"
"Heh heh heh."
He cut the channel without the slightest regard for Kader's question.
"…I've got a bad feeling about this."
"Should we write our wills in advance?"
The crew with Kader broke out in cold sweat at the ominous weight of it.
Jincheon's transport and Kader's freighter docked at the pirates' berth. Jincheon disembarked with Calsira and Heliane as a precaution; Kader came down with a few crew members who had good judgment under pressure.
"Good to finally meet you in person."
"Thank you again for helping us get this far."
Having spoken only over comms until now, the two shook hands and greeted each other properly. But Kader's eyes went more to the women on either side of Jincheon than to Jincheon himself.
"What? Recognize them?"
"Ah, no. It's just… a Zabalcan and an Orobece together is… a bit…"
Zabalcan's notoriety was common knowledge in these parts. Cross into the neighboring star system and the fighting between Zabalcan and the anti-Zabalcan coalition was already underway — any smuggler would know. And the Orobece, whose homeworld had been invaded by Zabalcan, hated them enough to spit curses at the mere mention of the name. So an Orobece standing calmly beside a Zabalcan was naturally strange.
"Oddballs turn up everywhere."
Jincheon answered simply and offered no detailed introductions. Well — the universe was vast enough. One unusual relationship like this was hardly surprising. Kader, who didn't know their faces anyway, thought as much and let it go. Right now he had the matter in front of him to deal with first.
"Hey. The boss is coming."
A rough-looking guard who had received word opened his mouth in warning toward the group. Normally Kader would go meet the boss himself, but Jotala — eager to assess the situation even a little faster — had come out first while they were still docking.
A moment later, a woman in an elegant dress hard to associate with pirates appeared, leading several people. She had the look of a lioness fused with a human, soft-looking fur covering her body. From the way the others treated her, she was clearly Jotala.
But when Jincheon saw her face, he felt a strange nostalgia.
What is this feeling? This familiarity, like I've seen her somewhere before… Ah…!
He remembered a manga from early childhood — a trio of men and women with lion faces, scouring every kind of ruin for artifacts. The only line that had stuck with him was a professor's lament: "If only we'd had a little more time and budget." He couldn't even remember the title anymore, but looking at her face brought that character straight to mind. Of course, her appearance was far from Jincheon's tastes, so he felt no desire to claim her.
"Impressive, Kader. Thank you so much for delivering our precious cargo."
She and Kader clearly knew each other by face — instead of introducing herself, she started with thanks for the successful delivery. Naturally, anyone could tell from her voice that it was pure formality.
"Hahaha, of course — a commission from Lady Jotala herself. I had to give it my all."
Kader offered polite thanks carefully, so as not to give her any leverage.
"That aside — are those the mercenaries you hired?"
I knew it.
Kader swallowed his anger at someone who thanked him for delivering precious cargo, then showed more interest in something else than actually receiving the goods.
"These people helped us when the mercenaries we'd hired were attacked."
"Helped you?"
"They said they just happened to be passing by."
"Passing by, huh… Nice to meet you. My name is Freda Jotala. The family name comes first."
"Jincheon. Same here — family name first."
When they introduced themselves, Jotala's eyes twitched slightly. She didn't care for the casual speech — the disrespect of him using informal language. But Jincheon simply operated his Bio Device and transmitted business cards to everyone around.
"And this is my business card — and user manual."
"User manual?"
A business card was a business card. What was a user manual supposed to mean? The other family members were on guard for contingencies and didn't look at the cards, so only Jotala checked the contents.
How to Use:
1. Point at the problem.
2. Step back.
3. Enjoy the results.
"Pwahahahaha!"
"Pffft!?"
Jotala couldn't hold back the laughter that burst out after reading the card. Kader, the only other person who had checked it, found something like a laugh escaping him unbidden.
"I'll give you all a moment — feel free to look at the card this guy handed out."
At Jotala's order, the others checked the contents too.
"Kwahahaha!"
"Heh heh heh! What is this?"
"This is actually hilarious!"
Despite the pirates openly mocking him, Jincheon never dropped his easy smile. The card said nothing about retaliating for being laughed at. He only used his true power when a fight started — one that didn't involve mechas.
"At first I thought you were a real stiff, but you've got a better sense of humor than you look."
Whether that was humor or not, they would find out by experiencing it. A moment later, Jotala — still with laughter lingering — got to the point.
"Anything major happen on the way?"
"As I said earlier, the Confedon pirates demanded we hand over the cargo out of nowhere, and these people took care of them. But after that, Jezer Golmon showed up and attacked."
"…What?"
Jotala's face, which had been smiling from Jincheon's gag, hardened.
"What did you just say?"
"Jezer Golmon attacked us. With his own cruiser. We were in a tight spot, but these people killed Jezer and half-destroyed the cruiser, driving them off."
"……"
When Kader finished, a silence fell so complete you could almost hear breathing. Jezer was dead? Killed by these no-name mercenaries?
"Hey, don't joke around. You expect us to believe Jezer — of all people — got taken out by these guys?"
In the end, a man who had come with Jotala couldn't hold back and snapped irritably. Jezer's terror was better known to those on hostile terms with him — a natural reaction. Kader judged that to get paid properly, he needed them to know Jezer had been killed, and transmitted a pre-recorded combat video via Bio Device.
"This is the footage from after Jezer attacked."
He had edited out the useless scenes to keep it short, but anyone who had faced Jezer would recognize his personal unit Lexerei and his distinctive high-speed mobile combat.
It's real.
From the signal an officer sent her, Jotala learned that Jezer was indeed dead. Jezer's Lexerei was used only by him, and even if someone else could pilot it, he would never hand it over.
All three of them using Garelds, and their movements are excellent. Plus a Calsorn Empire transport ship…
Learning from the footage that Jincheon's group was armed with Calsorn Empire weapons, Jotala felt greed stir — she wanted them.
"You clearly have real skill. Why not skip being mercenaries and join our family?"
"Well. That's something I'd need to think over carefully — but there's a problem to resolve first, isn't there?"
"A problem?"
"This friend here is owed money. Shouldn't we settle the payment issue first?"
At that, Jotala's mouth closed.
Originally, the real bait had gotten drunk like an idiot, caused a scene, and gotten arrested by the police, forcing them to revise the plan and hire a smuggler instead. Anyone who wasn't a complete moron would hire mercenaries for a trip into the Began System, so they had posted a high reward figuring someone would take the bait. They had even promised to pay on arrival — since the Confedon family would obviously take them out on the way.
But Confedon wasn't stupid either, and had come out personally with his personal guard, matching their containment move for move. Jezer's death was a gain of sorts, but the thought of actually paying an amount they had never intended to pay from the start started to feel wasteful.
Having finished thinking, Jotala signaled one of her subordinates.
"You little shits! I've been watching and watching, and you keep acting like assholes! Does the boss look like your buddy!?"
The subordinate, coached in advance, started picking a fight with Jincheon over something trivial.
"Didn't you see my business card?"
"Business card? Ha! This bastard's concept game is insane! 'Ignore the warning above and you'll regret it'? Go on — make me regret it, you son of a bitch!"
Jincheon smiled at the thought that he could finally use his true power, and asked one thing.
"Before that, I've got one question. Mind telling me how many people live in this fortress? Answer, and I'll kill you without making it hurt."