"Enjoying yourselves are we?" Amber smirked.

I didn't get to answer because Ries answered first, "Puuurrrrr~ Yesssss~ Boss, mooooreee~"

She pawed at me to make me continue patting her head, which I instinctively went ahead to do so, making her purr even louder.

I looked up at the two girls smirking at me, "I… Can explain?"

Amber smirked at me, "Really now? So what's the explanation?"

"I'm… I'm just patting her?"

"Mmm~ Is the patting going to go into the heavier category?" Amber asked.

I rolled my eyes and looked down at Ries, who was completely absorbed in my head patting and ignoring everything around her.

"As you can see, it's just a wholesome patting session, nothing more."

Amber giggled, "Alright then~ Don't mind us~"

She then sat down on the couch across from me and Lea hesitated for a moment before settling down on the same couch as well.

I raised an eyebrow at her but decided not to comment on it.

Instead, I asked, "What did you two do today?"

"Oh you already know, right? We went gambling!"

"Uh-huh… And how were the results of it?"

"Well~ Ehehehe~"

"We won, Mistress," Lea answered for her.

I was actually surprised by that, "You did?"

Amber jumped in, "Yeah! We did! We did! I won back all the money I lost and even made a big profit!!"

Lea cleared her throat, "To be more precise… We were losing and not just losing but losing really badly. That was until Ries messaged us that you were betting on the battlebots arena and we went to bet on the same battlebot you did, Mistress."

Ah… I didn't even know that happened.

I looked back down at the Maochatte who had already curled herself up in my lap and was fully enjoying the headpats I was giving her with a satisfied look on her face.

Her ears were wiggling and her tail was even swishing back and forth in the air, tickling my side.

So cute.

I turned back to Amber while continuing to pat the cat girl on my lap, "Well… I already know what the result was so how much did you bet?"

Both of them raised up a single finger.

I raised an eyebrow, "A hundred thousand Credits? I guess that's quite a bit you earned there."

Both girls shook their heads in unison.

My eyes widened, "A million Credits?"

Amber smirked, "That's right~ We made a killing on that!"

I groaned, "What would you have done if you lost all that money?"

"Oh we won't! Because you bet on that too so there's no way we could lose!"

Ugh… I don't even want to say anything about this anymore… I just hope they don't make this into a bad habit and then end up going into debt because I lose one bet eventually…

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

"Right, right… So what now?" I asked.

"Hmm? What do you mean?"

"I mean I came back early to pat Ries. I'd thought you two would be somewhere celebrating your win or something instead of coming back so early."

Amber's eyes sparkled, "Oh~ We definitely intend to celebrate the win~ But that would come later though~"

I already had a feeling what she meant by that but I shall not ask…

She continued, "We were thinking of starting the process of registering ourselves as a Mercenary Company of course~"

"Oh, right. I was going to ask about that. So how do we do that? Do we have to go to a guild branch to register for that?" I asked.

Amber waved her hand at me, "Pfft~ Of course we don't~ We can just do everything through the GalNet! We can even do it right now if you want~"

I raised an eyebrow, "Wait… Really? Just like that? We don't need to go and prove our identity, get interviewed or whatever?"

"They wouldn't have time to process all the applications coming through the guilds if that's the case. They already have our information anyway so we just need to register ourselves and the system will process our request and then either approve or reject it. In our case, I doubt they would reject it after what we've done so far so there shouldn't be anything for us to worry about."

"I'm assuming we also need to pay a fee for it?"

"Ehehehe~ Why else do you think we're gambling?"

I facepalmed, "We don't need to earn money this way, Amber… I'm pretty sure we can afford it even without it, can we?"

Amber giggled, "You need to pay an administration fee of ten million Credits."

"What the fuck?" I couldn't help but let out a surprised curse at what I thought was a ridiculous amount. "Why the heck do you need that much?!"

The answer came to me in an instant so I answered it myself even before Amber could tell me, "Wait… It's to show that we are economically capable, isn't it?"

Amber clapped, "That's right~ Though there's another reason behind it. Normally, they would of course expect several Mercs to come together to start a Mercenary company, so everyone is supposed to chip in money to have a stake in the company."

Ah… So it's not just a 'company' but also an actual company…

"Kind of weird that they would bring bureaucracy into what is just a Mercenary group though…" I pointed out.

Amber shrugged, "It didn't use to be like that before. They used to allow any Mercs to just sign up as a company but then disagreements between members started and a number of them dissolved into pirate groups from there. The Guild then implemented rules to stop things like that from happening again."

"How do disagreements turn them into pirates?"

"Oh you know, how the rewards should be split, what missions to take, who's sleeping with who, that sort of thing. Then mutiny happens and tadah, you got yourself a bunch of outlaws!"

"Ok… How does the so-called administration fee help then?"

"That's easy, the one who puts in the most money gets the most say of course. And those who didn't don't get any say~"

So literally just company shareholders… They're literally operating this like a company…

Well, whatever, it's a format that I'm familiar with anyway.

I nodded at her, "Alright… So there's four of us. We'll need to put in two and a half million Credits each, right?"

Amber gave me a look like I just told her I had three heads, "What are you talking about, Tera? You aren't paying for anything in this particular case. We will be the ones that are paying for this! Why else do you think we went to gamble so much?"

I blinked.

Ok first of all, that's a terrible reason to go gamble. Second of all…

"What do you mean by that? Are you saying I shouldn't have a stake in this?"

Lea smiled at me, "Mistress… You have already invested more than we will into this."

"What do you mean?"

Ries pawed at me, "You bought the ship, Boss~ Nyaaa~"

Oh, I didn't think she was paying attention to the conversation this entire time…

I raised an eyebrow, "But you girls also contributed into the money pool to purchase the ship?"

Amber rolled her eyes, "Come on, Tera. Let's say it then. How big of a percentage was the Credits spent on the ship yours?"

I grimaced, already knowing that my argument would be used against me, "Umm… Around ninety?"

"I'm pretty sure that number is closer to ninety five instead, Tera…"

"Still… That five percent is a lot of money… That's still a few million Credits you know?"

Lea sighed, "Mistress, just let us take this for you. You've done enough for us and this isn't even enough for us to repay what you have done."

Err… I don't really know what I did? Unless they're just talking about my cooking? I guess they really were talking about my cooking.

Alright fine…

I guess it would look ungrateful for me to reject them if they were so insistent on it.

In return, I guess I could cook up something nice for them for dinner tonight.

Although I have a question…

"Do you three have enough Credits though?"

Amber giggled, "Ehehe~ Of course we do, Tera! Did you forget about all the money we've split for the jobs we've done? Heck, there's already enough Credits between Lea and myself already to afford the fee, there's no problem at all, Tera!"

Well… I guess so… After all, Lea did earn enough to buy her own freedom back if she wanted to but she chose not to, so that money was still with her.

I shrugged, "Alright, I've got nothing to say to that… So err… You girls hungry?"

Amber licked her lips, "Oh, we are hungry alright~ Especially after we were treated to such a sight after coming in here~ You're not going to leave us hanging, are you, Tera?"

I was just about to ask what she was talking about when Amber stood up and her hands reached up to pull off her top, exposing her bare chest to me.

Ah… I guess we're going to do this first then…