There he goes.

Milanor left me and the bioroid behind in the lounge. He said he needed a shower, probably because he felt he was being sweaty and smelly, but honestly, he wasn't. Still, I guess he wouldn't like having dinner feeling like that so it couldn't be helped.

"Now then, Lady Naya. Would you like to come to the cafeteria with me?"

"Ah, sure… You don't have to call me Lady, you know?" And it was even more pretentious than the Miss she called me before.

"Please, I insist. This personality of mine was the wish of my late creator, so I hope you wouldn't mind this humble servant so much."

Even so, that very polite mannerism of hers made me feel uncomfortable. It reminded me of something I didn't want to remember.

Right. This is different from back then. I don't have to be so wary, I know that. I reassured myself repeatedly.

"Alright, fine. Can you lead the way?"

"Of course. Please follow me."

The both of us left the lounge and came back to the walkway attached to the wall of the cargo hold. When Milanor explained to me before, I had a doubt this massive area could be referred to as something like that, as it was nearly empty. There was only a big lump of something in the corner covered by a black sheet.

"Are you perhaps wondering about something, Milady?" the bioroid suddenly asked me, perhaps seeing an incredulous look on my face.

"…I feel like if I told you it would sound like I'm ridiculing your master."

"Oh my, but feel free. The dear master surely wouldn't mind, and neither would I. Why, I have felt like he deserved some good scolding recently. If you must know, I had done so many times myself, maybe even on a daily basis."

Is that something you should do to your own master? I wondered after hearing her response.

"If that's the case, then I'll tell you what I've been thinking for quite a while," I decided to indulge my curiosity. "I know that he's a broke freelancer, he showed me his bank account before. But I questioned that fact after seeing this… ship of his. This is not something that should be normally owned by an individual, isn't it?"

Not for someone other than billionaires, at least. I saw many people of that kind before, and I knew how much financial prowess would be needed to own something like this.

I thought back to when I first laid my eyes on this ship, back at the space elevator. I trusted Milanor when I met him, and he told me he had a crew of 3 on his ship, including himself. I assumed that meant his ship was the small kind like those piloted by wandering spacers I frequently saw on the news, but then he told me…

"There, on the right side."

I remembered him pointing his finger at a big, white, winged ship that I immediately noticed when I looked around the port's terminals. My thought back then was a quick "Nope, no way." I couldn't picture this flat-broke freelancer that had only 23 credits in his account could have anything to do with that grand ship.

"What? How can you not see it? It's that big, winged, white one over there."

But he kept pointing his finger at that same grand ship, even describing its exact appearance. Of course I couldn't believe him. Who would be? The whole way through the port I kept thinking that maybe he was tricking me, or maybe he was just joking around, and maybe trusting him was a mistake. But…

"Welcome to my ship, FIS-1245 Star Cruiser Helios." He pompously declared right after the airlock behind him opened. I couldn't doubt him any longer. This was really his ship.

"…because of certain circumstances… Lady Naya? Are you listening to me?"

"Huh!? Oh, what?" the bioroid's voice pulled me back from my thought.

"Are you spacing out? Forgive me, but I was just telling you that while my master's first impression was unfortunately quite miserable, he normally wasn't that pathetic."

It seemed like she was telling me about Milanor's history, though I didn't hear much of it.

"Ah, are you telling me this was a rare occasion?"

"Quite so. My master only got carried away due to a sudden windfall that came our way just recently. I realized how much that sounded like an excuse, but it was, fortunately, the truth."

If she stated it that strongly, then I suppose I had just to accept it.

"But seriously, he had only two digits of credits in his account. No matter how much he could blame it on bad luck, that was just too much."

How would he get anything done with that kind of money? He couldn't even afford any decent meal with just that. And when you consider that he possessed this huge ship…

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"…Lady Naya. I predict that you will be with us for quite some time, so I will take the liberty of telling you this. We are not actually as destitute as you might think," she suddenly lowered her voice as she said this. "For the last year, when we had started freelancing as a team of 3, I had gradually prepared for an emergency situation such as this. By taking small amounts of money from my master's income, slowly over the months, I had piled up a sizeable number of reserve funds. Of course, my master is not aware of this, nor would he be able to access and use it."

"…Isn't that called—"

Embezzlement? I kept the last part in my head, surprised that suddenly our talk became something that sounded shadily criminal.

"Are you perhaps having misapprehension about my treatment of the dear master's financial matter? It's for the good of the master and all of us, after all, so I sincerely beseech Milady to put no mind on this matter. For that reason, I also humbly ask you not to mention this to both him and Lady Fia, or it could put the whole ship into jeopardy," the bioroid went to a great length to warn me about her questionable background maneuvering.

"That girl too?"

"Yes, quite so. There were times when the mistress was the one who encouraged him into unhealthy spending, and it would be too much for my master to refuse her."

"I-Is that so…?"

That girl earlier, Fianna, seemed to have a close relationship with the captain. What exactly was going on between them? If she was close enough to regularly influence his spending, they must've been far more than close friends.

While this conversation was going on between us, we continued walking through the long walkway to the elevator. We reached it just as we were done talking.

"…Excuse me, but… Milady, I also have some questions I would like to ask you. Would you mind?" She suddenly resumed our talk just as we went inside the elevator. The door soon closed after us.

"Ah, sure."

"Thank you. It is about my master… or rather, about your meeting with him. I assume you already know, but I had been listening to you both when he went to hide in your room from the vigilantes. I know that the situation was volatile and it was best readily cooperate with each other, but I wondered… you seem to readily trust my master quite fast," the bioroid said this and at the end, "Too easily," she added.

"…What're you implying?"

"The professor you are searching for… She had been missing for quite some time, hadn't she? It couldn't have been an impulsive request when you offered it to my master. I am sure you must have considered searching for the professor even before you met him. That is to say…" she paused and focused her gaze on my eyes. "Why didn't you ask this to the Association Guild?"

"…!?" I was startled when she suddenly brought it up.

Freelancer Association Guild, or simply the Guild, was a collective group that was formed by freelancers to help their lifestyle. It was a massive organization that spanned the whole known galaxy and even little bits beyond, stretching as far as freelancers would go. If it was a comparison by area of activities, the Guild could be said as one of the largest institutions of mankind.

However, it was not the kind of organization that could beholden its members. By their nature, freelancers greatly valued the freedom to do their own thing, at their own discretion. The Guild existed to help with this kind of lifestyle, and it was far for them to restrict freelancers' independence in any way. Clients could give a job offer to the Guild and they would help them find a corresponding freelancer for them. The Guild also functioned as a protector and guarantee for its members and their employers. For instance, they would ask the prospective client their official identity, details of the job, risks, and such things to ensure the request was free from anything shady.

All in all, it would be to the benefit of both parties to make any deals and agreements through the Guild.

That was the information I had gotten about it when I looked it up on the Network. The bioroid's question was only natural, but I was shocked that she actually confronted me about it.

"…"

I couldn't answer her, as I didn't want to reveal too much about my goals—just yet. As if reading my thought through the difficult expression on my face, she said, "I am sorry, please forget my question. Truthfully, even with the reserve funds I mentioned earlier, your advance payment is still helping us a lot. I could not be any more grateful. Please forgive me for being imprudent," she bowed her head to me.

"N-No, no! It's… fine."

As I thought, her excessive politeness really made me uncomfortable. I prefer being with that unrestrained Fianna girl way more than this bioroid.

"Thank you, Milady. Well then, this way." I didn't notice that the elevator door was already open. It seems we had arrived on the main deck.

I wanted to get out of this slightly awkward atmosphere that was formed between us. Noticing the big door that Fianna said led to the engine room, I immediately found a chance.

"Ah, Miledi," I called to the bioroid before she went to the cafeteria. "I had been wondering about this, but is it really true that this ship could reach a maximum speed of 10 parsecs per day?"

I heard Milanor saying something like that when we were on the bridge earlier. During my independent search, I had once considered buying a ship of my own. After all, I had more than enough credits for that. I quickly abandoned the idea after just a bit of digging into the life of a spacer, however. Not only did I have to own a license to pilot a ship, but I also couldn't possibly operate it on my own.

Still, I had gained a shallow knowledge of space travel thanks to that little digging. The speed he claimed this ship could reach would be about twice the speed of the average hyper relays. It took me more than one week to travel to Runanthor from Avalon even when using the express liners, but with this ship, it would only take at most 4 days.

"Hm? Indeed, what my master bragged about is true. The engine on this ship is not the average mass-produced acceleron warp drive you could find on the average cruiser. It is a custom-built Neptunian Class-C/650 SL Factor 10, a modified version based on the NOS HyperDrive engines used by the fast frigates of the Millennium Empire's Navy, said to be the fastest fleet in the galaxy. Of course, it was created by the same creators that built me."

"Umm, and that means what?"

"Oh, excuse me. That means that the engine could provide a superluminal thrust of about ten times the mass of this ship for one parsec per day. It was considered insane when the designers proposed it to the shipyard. Still considered insane by today's standards, for that matter. At the time, it was the most powerful engine ever built for a Category C ship. Borrowing from one worker involved in the construction: "A monster fitter for a dreadnought. It's like slapping a rocket on a suburban home shuttle." Nevertheless, it was successfully built and compactly fitted into the ship, completely disregarding common sense."

Miledi explained all of this to me without pause. I barely understood what she was saying except that part about 'fitter for a dreadnought.'

Still, what she said further convinced me about what I had been thinking since I saw the ship up close. Operating this whole thing must have cost a lot of credits.

Can a single freelancer (two helpers notwithstanding) able to maintain such a grand ship, at least financially? I had been wondering about that.