Mob No.38: [He said higher up was too bothersome.]

[Niichan, next is 5 o’clock, ascend 30 degrees, distance 700]

“Roger.”

Like at the gate before, I move following ossan’s instructions at an ultra slow speed nearly stopped.

Polymer coating against debris is perfect.

It’s like an assembly line, smoothly collecting away and the recovery containers fill up fast so I go deposit them on the transport ship.

While occasionally seeing the towing of massive asteroids, as the space empties of rocks, stones, and dust it somehow feels nice to watch.

[Good, next is that one. 10 o’clock, descend 24 degrees, distance 600]

“Understood.”

I open the throttle for a moment, slowly approaching the target, and stop right on the spot ossan indicated.

I seem extremely compatible with this work.

Protagonist Side: Arthur Lingard

Following the debris guy’s instructions, I carefully handle the control stick.

[Good, stop around here.]

I stop the ship at the debris guy’s signal.

But it was quite far off from the optimal stop position.

No matter how many tries, I just can’t get it right.

“Sorry. It’s very off.”

[That’s normal. Took us a while to stop in good spots too.]

To the debris guy it’s trivial, he heads off the ship unfazed by my mistakes and approaches the asteroid to start work.

On the other side, Mr. Uzoss’s ship was stopped right in the ideal position.

Amazing. I could never stop it so easily.

While admiring his precise maneuvering, I make minute adjustments to my ship for the debris guy’s convenience.

“I wonder why Mr. Uzoss doesn’t get promoted? Considering his skill and character, even Queen rank wouldn’t be odd…”

[He said higher up was too bothersome.]

Seila answered my idle muttering.

And I found myself thinking that made sense.

“You’re right. Obligations and entanglements would increase as Bishop huh.”

Reaching Bishop rank in the Guild means increased work by rank of course, but pay also changes for the same work.

Equal here, but for past escorts, Bishop pay would jump 30% and facilities and services available change too.

But obligations undoubtedly increase, like mandatory special summons, aka [Red Papers], aside from unrefusable requests, compulsory attendance at year-end Guild parties, and more.

And there’s even rumors of factional fights, so I find it rather distasteful.

[There’s also rumors they only promote talent useful for image strategy and relatives of powerful nobles now.]

I do think it rude to Mr. Uzoss, but considering what I’ve heard from him, it’s not unbelievable.

“What a mess…truly.”

Feels like the rot at the top is spreading down.

Think it’ll go bad if nothing’s done, but nothing can be now.

[Alright, next please. 9 o’clock this time, ascend 15 degrees, distance 300]

As we talked, the debris guy finished and gave instructions for the next point.

“Got it! I’ll stop in a good spot this time.”

I gripped the control stick, determined to stop in a good position.

Protagonist Side: End

Work progressed extremely smoothly.

Ossan and I did 10 hours daily – 7 AM to 6 PM (18:00) with a 1 hour lunch break. No overtime.

Considering ossan’s stamina, with 1 rest day every 5 days, it had been 13 days already.

We cleared the minimum hours.

READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT GADGETIZEDPANDA.COM

As expected, finishing within 100 hours was impossible, but progress was nice and steady with only around 10 asteroids left needing towing.

But collecting everything would still take more time.

Incidentally, this venture got media attention, with TV ships filming operations and crew wandering the colony for coverage.

Naturally the photogenic people like Arthur and Seila not doing any actual work and the bigwigs were the only coverage targets.

But they did show images of mining near the satellite we don’t see and ore sorting and extraction on the planet which were somewhat interesting.

And what especially caught media eyes was a King rank mercenary participating in this very plain job despite the large project scale.

Her name’s Mireille Liechen Fariner.

Her ship’s the Red Fool Bird.

Epithets [Crimson Flame] or [Scarlet Goddess].

With pigeon-blood hair and gold eyes on fair skin, a tall, leggy beauty whose model would flee barefoot.

No clue why she took this job.

But great coverage material for media.

I often saw her taking interviews with Arthur and Seila now.

Her fans on-screen have surely skyrocketed.

And yesterday, some noble came to observe on-site.

The Lord of Planet Blauslant, seems he’s Count Circleus.

Apparently they have a similar asteroid belt in their territory, wants observational reference for collecting it.

Well, I’ll leave entertaining bigwigs to other bigwigs and focus on asteroid collection with Ossan Volbird.

And so after finishing work that day – the 14th day – the first thing upon returning to the colony was, same as before, stripping the polymer off my ship.

The stones and dust stuck to the polymer were extraction targets too of course.

After inspection and refueling, I was done for the day.

I had dinner at the restaurant then bought some small items at the tenant convenience store before heading back to the hotel area.

Some guys were already boozing it up in the lobby, but I’m bad with alcohol so didn’t join.

Don’t know them anyway.

On the way back near the hotel area, I found a crowd in the cafe zone.

There was coverage crew so seemed someone was being interviewed.

Glancing from afar, there was that noble-looking ossan with the stiff beard apparently passionately arguing something.

“…Thus, I say, we are recruiting excellent talent in my territory. Those who think themselves worthy…”

Seems he was pitching recruitment during post-interview.

No interest in being some noble’s subordinate, in my view a hopeless deal.

I briskly moved away from there and got near the hotel area again, where another crowd had formed.

The cause was the King rank [Scarlet Goddess].

Not that she’d done anything herself.

The guys who wanted to get friendly with her had surrounded her upon leaving her hotel room.

Obviously I don’t want to get caught up in that either, so I completely ignored it and headed to my room.

The room was business hotel style singles.

Capsule hotels are more calming, but this colony’s lodging is all this type so it can’t be helped.

I got comfortable then took out the light novel I brought and sprawled on the bed to continue yesterday’s reading.

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