Mob No.102: “I do not need you, the weaker one, to protect me. If you keep bothering me, I will not show mercy next time.”
Side character: Shiora-Dilopers
I was excellent.
In training at school, I never lost to my seniors, classmates, or even teachers.
The teachers would say I still had more to learn compared to veteran mercenaries and military aces, as if to console themselves over losing. But I thought I could beat them.
When I joined the rebel army as my father’s proxy, I never imagined I would be shot down.
In fact, at first I shot down many enemy ships.
I had no enemies among either the regular troops or mercenaries.
The preliminary battles where I could flaunt my abilities to those around me ended, and full-scale combat began. My unit confronted the 11th Fleet and its subordinate mercenary units.
Of course at first I shot down several ships.
And I thought I could quickly shoot down the next target, a light brown ship.
However.
The moment I caught the light brown in my sights, it disappeared from view, somehow getting behind me and firing its beam.
I barely evaded it and closed in, but even when I fired my beam, it slipped smoothly out of the way.
And while evading my attacks, it shot down other ships as well.
It was as if it was using me, who it wouldn’t shoot down, as bait to lure in prey.
And it did this not just once or twice. It executed this maneuver many times.
I became indignant about this and tried to close in on the light brown ship, but it slipped away again and attacked other ships.
Before I knew it, I started having an absurd thought – maybe that [light brown ship] perfectly predicts my every move? Or can it see inside my head with ESP or something?
When a thought like that crosses your mind, you get a feeling like you’ve been placed on the palm of some huge entity, and a strange fear grips you.
That’s when I finally understood that what the teachers said in frustration, that [I still had more to learn compared to veteran mercenaries and military aces], was the truth.
And in the next moment, my ship violently shook.
I’d been hit. By that [veteran mercenary] I had just felt fear towards.
Fortunately, no, deliberately, I was hit in the thrusters.
The moment I realized that, without checking my surroundings, I activated the emergency escape system.
As I withdrew from the battlefield without being shot down, I felt relief at surviving, vexation at being used as bait and then disposed of, and shame at how arrogant I had been. I couldn’t help but sob.
And just before I was rescued by a cargo ship behind friendly lines, I witnessed a red band of light race across the battlefield towards our allied position.
After that light raced by, nothing remained.
Including the unit I belonged to.
I didn’t know what that red light was, but it seemed I had been spared by being shot down by the [light brown ship].
Afterwards, the band of red light ravaged the allied position and sealed the rebel army’s defeat.
Thanks to Her Majesty the Empress’s mercy during the post-war processing, I was able to return to my parents without being imprisoned.
Fortunately my father’s illness also recovered, and my parents suggested I resume studying at the national Rutolum Academy high school division, but given that I had defied the Empress, it was unlikely I would be allowed to resume studying there.
I had originally intended to join the military, but since I had in fact collaborated with the rebel army, it would be difficult to get in.
Given that, I concluded that the only place I could make use of my skills was as a mercenary.
That’s when I remembered that [light brown] mercenary who had toyed with me and crushed my pride.
I do want revenge. I want to win.
However, [let bygones be bygones from the battlefield] has been an unwritten rule since long ago.
So I decided I wanted to join the mercenary guild that light brown mercenary belonged to.
I might get a chance to watch that battle up close again. I thought it would help me improve.
But I didn’t know which mercenary guild that [light brown ship] belonged to.
So I decided to ask my cousin on my mother’s side, big sis Schneela.
Schneela-Flores, my mother’s niece, is the daughter of my uncle on my mother’s side.
She’s an Imperial Army lieutenant colonel, currently serving as adjutant in the Central Fleet Suppression Unit 1st Fleet.
I looked up to big sis Schneela like that, so it was unfortunate we ended up opposed in the last war, but she was my only recourse for information.
Thankfully, big sis Schneela listened to my request and was genuinely overjoyed that I had survived.
She said she wanted to find out more details about skilled mercenaries like him.
After exchanging information, big sis Schneela sounded me out about joining the military.
She said no one in her 1st Fleet would care about my background.
If it were any other time I would have leapt at the chance, but this was my atonement, so I politely declined.
And so I made my debut as a mercenary at the mercenary guild ytz branch.
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My first job as a mercenary was an assignment to guard a salvage colony, introduced to me by the gorgeous receptionist Zeistoul who registered my mercenary application.
Fortunately, I discovered Mr. Uzos as soon as I arrived on site.
I wanted to call out to him, but I agonized for 2 days over what to say.
Even on the 3rd day when I resolved to speak to him, I agonized all morning over timing, and was finally able to talk to him at the end of the shift.
When I spoke with him, as I thought, he didn’t know who I was.
Even when I told him I was shot down by him, he didn’t bat an eye and remained composed.
And as I felt from the photo, I didn’t feel a shred of the overwhelming pressure I felt on the battlefield.
Under normal circumstances, I would want to request a mock battle during our free time, but since guard duty requires being on standby to sortie at any time, I endured.
Furthermore, when I was in school I was in an environment where everyone around me was a rival, and combined with my awkwardness at conversation beyond work-related matters, I was unable to make any friends, but here I was able to get along well with the girls my age who were working there.
I was having fun like that when there was an over-familiar guy about my age who was always up in my face.
He’s around my age, so I won’t tell him to use polite language, but his over-familiar attitude left me with a bad impression.
A few days later.
That over-familiar guy was bothering Mr. Uzos.
And what’s more, it was for my sake. Revenge. To defeat him. He was spewing things like that.
So including his previous over-familiar attitude, I set him straight.
After that, Mr. Uzos asked me how that guy found me, why he called my ship’s color a nickname, and why I told that over-familiar guy about my circumstances, and when I answered honestly, he warned me to refrain from talking about personal matters.
After that our relationship settled into simply exchanging greetings.
I really wanted to seize the timing at the end of this job to request a mock battle, but I lost my chance.
Thinking that this was that over-familiar guy’s fault made me mad.
Still, I somehow managed to do my job, and at the end of my final shift, I had plans to have a sweets party with Miyachan and Tenoichan, girls I had befriended.
Incidentally, even though the shift ends we have to stay here until everyone’s shifts are over, that’s the rules.
So we were enjoying cake and parfaits at the colony’s cafe, when that over-familiar guy showed up and
“Listen Shiora! That coward admitted defeat to me in a dogfight! I ordered him to never go near Shiora again so don’t worry!”
He unilaterally bragged to me with a smug look.
I find it hard to believe this civilian beat the veteran mercenary Mr. Uzos in combat.
I also doubt he even owns a fighter craft.
Then,
“I saw this guy picking a fight with one of the heavyset security guys this morning. He was saying something about deciding it in VR, but the security guy was like [Yeah yeah, you win] and brushed him off,”
Said Tenoichan, who seems to have witnessed the scene.
I see. Since Mr. Uzos doesn’t seem interested in things like his reputation, he probably just brushed the guy off easily.
But what is this guy thinking?
Didn’t I make it clear not to be so familiar?
And he claims to have ordered Mr. Uzos not to approach me, which will make it even harder for me to request a mock battle.
“As I have told you before, I do not recall giving you permission to address me so familiarly. If you continue to harass me, I will report you to the police,”
I informed this over-familiar person.
“Why’s it gotta be like that!? I’m doing this because I care about Shiora! I’m protecting you, you know!?”
The over-familiar guy then showed anger and grabbed my left wrist with his right hand.
“Let go of me. That’s a clear case of assault, you know.”
“I’m not letting go of this hand!”
Since he wouldn’t let go even after I warned him, I decided to defend myself.
First I stood up from my chair, pulled my grabbed left hand while pushing up his right elbow with my right hand and locking his joint, tripped his left leg, and slammed him to the floor using my arm.
“Guhaa!”
I tried to restrain myself, but it seems I slammed him down too hard, as he was immobilized by pain.
To that immobilized over-familiar guy,
“I have no need to be protected by someone weaker than me like you. If you continue to harass me, I won’t hold back next time,”
I added while lightly touching the gun at my waist.
“I-I get it! I get it!”
He fearfully acquiesced.
As the over-familiar guy was taken away by a staff member, Miyachan and Tenoichan held out their palms to me.
So as they taught me, I energetically high fived them.
Heroine side: end
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