Chapter 36

Episode 36. Let’s Negotiate!

Since the screen didn’t show anything below the thighs, that was as much as I could see of her.

Judging by her appearance on the communication screen, she didn’t look much like a pirate.

Her black hair was tied into a messy ponytail, seemingly cut haphazardly.

With eyes that were a mix of black and brown, her face alone gave off a rather cute vibe.

Since her legs weren’t fully visible, I could only guess, but she was definitely shorter than me.

Probably around 160 cm or so.

Despite that, there was a reason I initially called her a “girl” but now referred to her as “her.”

Even though her chest was so flat it was almost concave, with no curves to speak of.

If I hadn’t heard her voice, I might have mistaken her for a guy.

But her overall figure, wide hips, and thigh shape told me that the woman on the screen was at least an adult.

Anyway, after quickly scanning her appearance, instead of immediately responding to her words after she interrupted the First Mate,

I decided to take a moment to organize my thoughts and hold off on answering.

Of course, that wasn’t the only reason I delayed my response.

“Negotiation, you say?”

-“Yes, negotiation!”

Seeing my lukewarm reaction, she seemed to think things weren’t going as she expected.

She slammed the table in front of her and pointed to the self-destruct button the First Mate had missed.

-“You’re here to take this ship, right?”

“Hmm… well, you’re not wrong.”

-“Then let’s make it quick and easy! All we need to do is talk, right? Why are you hesitating, mister on the other side of the screen?”

I looked at her, who spoke so casually to me, and shook my head.

“From what I see, it’s a situation where the First Mate of that ship, and now some woman I don’t even know, is threatening me with a self-destruct button.”

-“Ah.”

Finally seeming to understand why I was reacting this way, she nodded once and spoke to me again.

-“Then just promise me one thing.”

“A promise? What is it?”

-“First, just promise me you’ll keep it.”

In the midst of this, she seemed to be in a hurry, sweating a little as she urged me to answer.

Feeling slightly annoyed, I frowned and said,

“Do you make contracts without even checking the terms?”

-“Ugh… seriously.”

Seeing her, who had a beauty rivaling our superhuman Pashtra, get irritated,

Her already cute appearance combined with her frustration made me feel a little flustered.

Of course, since it was just a communication screen, there was no way she could know how I felt.

After a moment of thought, she seemed to come to a conclusion.

She nodded firmly and spoke to me in her usual confident tone.

-“Alright, I’ll make it clear. I’ll give you this ship without blowing it up, so just take me in for a while!”

“…”

Her bold approach to what seemed like a forced job interview, or rather a forced employment, left me wondering how to respond.

But my dilemma didn’t last long.

Since Jessica, who was supposed to handle rear support and base management, couldn’t be here this time,

Pashtra, who was acting as a temporary adjutant, cautiously offered her advice after seeing me struggle.

-“Um, Commander? May I say something?”

“…What is it, Pashtra?”

-“From what I see, considering her attitude and the situation, it wouldn’t be bad to take her in.”

And with Pashtra’s advice, Jessica, who had been watching the situation, also contacted me via communication.

-“Commander, I agree with Pashtra’s opinion.”

“Is that so?”

-“Yes, there’s no need to provoke them and risk blowing up the cruiser.”

Feeling that their words made sense, I combined the opinions of our officers.

Turning to the woman on the still-connected communication screen, who was sweating nervously, I calmly replied.

-“Alright, I’ll accept your negotiation.”

-“Really? Then, sorry to bother you, but there’s one more thing I need to ask.”

“…?”

Her immediate request after I agreed to negotiate made me think she was a woman I couldn’t let my guard down around.

As the corners of my eyes twitched upwards.

Right after that.

As the communication screen zoomed out, the entire view of the bridge where she was came into sight, and her “request” was heard.

-“Can you come and save me? Hehe.”

It turned out that around the command seat on the bridge where she was, about a dozen rough-looking pirates had surrounded her, weapons in hand.

As soon as I saw that, I canceled the retreat orders for Ignis and Belial.

I immediately issued a new order to suppress the bridge as quickly as possible, by any means necessary.

==========

After such a chaotic battle.

With the newly captured cruiser and the fleet returning, I parked(?) them at the base and immediately instructed to bring the newly recruited ‘pirate girl’ to the command center.

“Yes, understood.”

“I’ll bring her right away!”

And no more than 5 minutes after Belial and Ignis left upon hearing my words, she was brought before me.

Seeing her, dressed in a somewhat ambiguous outfit for a pirate, I immediately opened the status window to check what kind of character she was.

Honestly, as mentioned before, there are times when we can recruit ‘pirates’ into our ranks.

In such cases, their abilities are usually guaranteed, which made me somewhat hopeful.

But the moment I saw her status window, I felt a sense of disappointment.

—————————————-

<Mary Ann>

<Level 1>

<Type: Melee>

<Trait: Pirate>

<Stats>

Health: C

Attack Power: C+

Physical Defense: B-

Magic Power: A

Magic Defense: S+

Agility: C

—————————————-

The pirate girl named Mary Ann was nothing more than an ordinary B~A grade character.

Even her traits weren’t particularly special, and instead of receiving buffs in some stats.

She had the ‘pirate’ trait, which heavily debuffed her relationship stats.

While her magic power and magic defense were somewhat decent.

Her physical defense… in other words, her tanking ability, was the only thing that wasn’t C grade.

I realized that what we gained this time was actually a pirate cruiser.

And the Mary Ann in front of me felt like some kind of freebie.

Of course, even so, an A-grade superhuman is still much stronger than a ‘regular’ soldier.

Thinking that she could be used for base defense, I looked at her, who was brought in with her hands tightly bound, and opened my mouth.

“Well… by the way, why was she brought in tied up like this?”

“That’s right! It’s not polite to tie me up after saying you’d accept me!”

As I opened my mouth, Mary Ann eagerly continued.

But in response to her demeanor, Belial, who had gone to fetch her, spoke coldly.

“Commander, without a clear contract in place, we can’t leave a former pirate unguarded in front of you.”

“Hmm.”

“And Commander, she has a much better combat sense than you’d think. It’s not bad to be prepared for any situation.”

Adding to that, Ignis also spoke up, and Mary Ann turned her gaze towards the two women, shaking her head vigorously.

Then she turned her head towards me, looking at me with moist eyes.

“It’s unfair! There’s no way I’d attack you, oppa, after negotiations!”

“…Hmm.”

And at this point, I could feel something strange.

Looking at her stats, she was at the lower end of A-grade… no.

She barely scraped by between B and A grade, so why were Ignis and Belial so tense around her?

In this incomprehensible situation, I wondered if I had missed something and started to examine Mary Ann’s status window again.

Before long, I realized the true identity of this ‘Mary Ann’ character and felt my head go completely blank.