Grudge Braker - Androids and hard-boiled eggs -

The Ghost of Centauri -2

Whew, whew, whew.

The communicator vibrates at the bedside, making a guttural noise.

"Hmmm, shit, head."

Kent remember drinking cheap synthetic whiskey that Richelieu had the guards buy after the Colonel and Kent had opened a bottle of whiskey until he passed out.

"Master, please wake up, you have a coded document from the military police."

Noel's voice echoed through the room as the information terminal on his desk automatically turned on. If Noel gets serious, she can hack into every appliance in the room, no use defying her.

"Noel, I love you, so turn down the volume."

"I love you..."

Kent, who has come to know how to handle Noel, says so and asks her to lower the voice that echoes through the speakers.From a side table, he grabbed an alcohol/aldehyde decomposition potion and chewed it up with a bite.

"Ugh, it's always gross."

Kent frowns at the disgust of being forcibly drained of alcohol.

"Then you need not drink so much."

"I'm doing it to break my body or break my mind, Noel."

"Being Human is such an inconvenience, isn't it?"

Kent thinks that it is a well-made AI that makes the voice that echoes from the speaker softer.

"So, what do you know about the ghosts?"

" I' ve received the decryption key. 300 seconds to decode."

"That guy's in deep shit."

Even with enough power, Noel has enough specs to compete with the electronic warships of the Solar System Space Force.It took Noel five minutes to decode it, which is unusual.

"Okay, you decipher that, I'm going to go upstairs and get some food."

"Are you having an affair with a vixen?　It's terrible."

Noel protests in a sulky voice.

"Where are you going to learn those words?"

"It's the Master's fault."

"I'm going back to the ship after I've had my meal, and you can stash half of the ten million credits up front so Scarlett doesn't find them."

"It's a promise, isn't it?　If you don't come back soon, I'll transfer the entire amount to the guild, right?"

Unfortunately, this high-spec AI was a bit broken. No, to be precise, it was broken at a level that was firmly against the law.Kent had acquired Noel by accident two years ago during a run-in with Scarlett and the hostile Land Merchants.

When Kent tried to hook it up to the ship to check its operation before reselling it, she simply took over the ship. It was a head-scratcher at the time, but now it's a buddy you can count on.Except that I'm a bit jealous...

§

"Hey, Cheryl."

"Hi, Kent, you're so early today."

"A corned beef sandwich and coffee, please."

A young girl named Cheryl runs a cafe upstairs in Kent's house.The café was originally run by her bearded father, but since he died in the war, she has been running it on her own.

"How's the economy?"

"As you can see, Kent, I think it's about time you paid your bills or the shop goes out of business."

When Cheryl freaked out, Kent took out an electronic coin from his pocket.

"I've had the income, I'll pay you in bulk."

Kent owes Scarlett a maintenance fee in the afternoon, 9.2 million credits if I remember correctly, plus the shop loan he inherited from Cecilia, and the fines to the star system army, Kent has always been poor.

"You don't have to do it, it's Kent anyway, and I don't expect you to."

"Holy shit, I'll pay for it before Scarlett takes it all."

Charging the coin, which resembled a plastic casino chip, to the full amount, Kent flicked it toward Cheryl with his thumb.

"You'd better thank Miss Scarlett, because if you hadn't been picked up by her guild, Kent would be a pirate by now."

Cheryl laughed as she caught the coin that had flown by while spinning. With a smile on his face, Kent thinks that Cheryl, who was a junior high school student when her father was drafted and killed in action just before the end of the war, has grown into an adult.

"Here you go, it's take-out anyway, isn't it?"

"Oh, hey, I'm busy."

Kent accepts the bag of coffee and a corned beef sandwich and stands up.

"Kent, come and have dinner, don't just drink all the booze!"

Waving at Cheryl's voice as she pursued him, Kent turned back to the hole.

"Noel, are you done deciphering this?"

"........."

"Noel?"

Checking that the information terminal on his desk was lit, Kent called out again.

The communicator buzzed and vibrated and the letters danced on the small screen.

"PLZ RTN 2 SHP" (back to the ship, please)

Did you find a bug in the room?　Well, something was up, Kent grabbed the scooter's battery and hopped on the front scooter with a corned beef sandwich in his mouth.

It's not easy to make a profit, is it?

§

"Whoa!　Look out!"

A large black-painted limousine suddenly jumped out in front of the scooter that passed in front of the guild and headed for the port block.

Kent tipped the scooter to the left, locked the rear wheel and let it slide. He gave the accelerator full throttle, spun it into a wheel spin, rebalanced it and got it back up.

The car that jumped out of the way looked familiar. A limousine made of earth with the ornament of a goddess spreading her wings on the bonnet, and a dragon crest painted in silver on the door.

"Killing me? Liddy!"

"I'm sorry, Master Matsuoka."

The android Liddy says with a not-so-apologetic look on her face.Without a sound, the rear window opened and a girl with blonde hair tied in a twin-tail smiled and waved her hand.

"Kent, are you talking about making money without telling me?"

"My dad's relatives died, and I'm getting his inheritance."

Kent knows that it's impossible to protect personal information in the Centauri system. The economy of this system is controlled by the transportation guilds. If Noel didn't do well, he wouldn't be able to take half of the five million credits with him.

"Well well, you're telling me that you were a bong from a rich house?"

Scarlett's red eyes taper vertically. A beautiful, but not age appropriate, figure of a girl.

Whether it was a cyborg or a prosthetic body, Kent broke out in a cold sweat as he stared into the reptilian eyes.

"All right, all right, I'll tell you, and you can give me a ride to the port block."

Kent pulled the scooter to the side of the road, disconnected the battery, and threw it into the trunk of the car.

"Please come this way, Master Matsuoka. Guns over here, because it will scratch the seat."

With that, Liddy held out her hand.

"It's a reminder of a comrade of mine, so be careful with it."

"I'll be very careful."

Kent pulled a gun from his hip holster, handed it over, and sat down next to the girl in the wide back seat, sighing.

"Now, Kent, tell me what happened?"

Kent lightly flicked his index finger at the puckering girl's forehead.

" Ouch, what are you doing?"

Kent glanced at the communicator, it would be a matter of life and death if Noel could get through to him.

"You idiot, if there's a communication device that works in this car, it's a 'tachyon' device."

Scarlett says with teary eyes, holding her forehead.

"Scarlett,"

"What?"

"My opponent this time is Plutus, and I'd better not get involved."

Looking into her red eyes, Kent said.

"You're dealing with a lot of hassle, aren't you?"

"Oh, so let's just pretend you didn't listen to me this time."

"It's a mockery that you're worried about me."

Smiling, Scarlett grabbed Kent's ear and whispered in him.

"Don't tell anyone, but I'm in a lot of love with you."

As Kent froze, Scarlett slid her small body closer to him and writhed in his chest.

" Wait, Scarlett."

Kent's heart leapt as he was pressed against the girl's limbs, soft, yet still as hard as a young fruit. Just as he hurriedly tried to pull away, a watery-eyed Scarlet slammed the muzzle of a large-caliber blaster under Kent's chin.

"So, before I want to blow your brains out, I'd love it if you could tell me what happened?"

§

"Noel, I'm late,"

It wasn't until an hour later that Kent, who had been told everything, arrived at 'Flamberge' groggily.

"Master, are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm alive somehow, Scarlett caught me on the way."

There was a small sound and the camera in the cockpit focused on Kent.

"So the Master is a Loli-con, that's awful."

"Wait a minute, Noel, what are you talking about?"

"If this happens, I'm going to have to hack a sextaroid out of a decorative window on Sixth Avenue..."

"No, wait, Noel, please, get back to work."

Noel is excellent, and is undoubtedly one of the best in this space region when it comes to computing power.

"Come on, you're the only one who can serve as my partner."

"...is it just me?"

"Yeah, I don't know of anyone more useful to me than you."

"I'm the only one..."

...but it's a lot of trouble.

In a photo-neuro computer composed of self-propagating micro-machines, pseudo-emotions are inherently excluded.

Not to mention, it can be a dangerous factor for people.I don't even want to imagine a space battleship in a jealous rage.

Even Kent doesn't want to imagine a space battleship in a jealous rage. But Noel is a broken AI that violates such electronic computer laws.

"So let's get back to work, and why did you summon me to the ship?"

"I feel like I'm being cheated out of something."

Yeah, well, I'm deceiving you. Kent urged him to hurry up and face the camera.

"At 0900, we sensed an electronic attack on the Master's home, and at the same time we sensed an attack on 'Flamberge'."

"Military police?"

"No, I put him in the deceptive memory field, and then I put a string on him, and it originated from Centaur Ⅱ."

If the information leaked out from around Richelieu, well, is it a trap or just a jerk.....

"So?"

"Referring to the Master's past data, calendar information that yesterday is the date of the deaths of Major Cecilia and Major Andersen, countered by C minor class security, have just located the hostile forces and released the information."

"........."

"Master?"

Oh, yeah, yesterday was the day we were killed in action in the military records. The day before the war ended, we were shot down in a sortie and listed as "killed in action".

"Didn't he remember?"

Richelieu's face, red-eyed and liquor-fueled, flashed in Kent's mind.

"System check, prepare to sortie, Noel."

"Yes, Master."

"What about CIWS?"

"It's operating normally in both the rear and the front, with six medium-range missiles on board."

"Missile?"

"Survival is a priority, I've placed an order with the guild, 360 thousand credits, paid in cash."

Kent grunted. It's the right call, the right call...but oh well, if we get this done, we have 20 million credits left, whatever.

"System check initiated, main reactor full run, diagnosis initiated."

As Noel gleefully begins her work, Kent shakes his head and calls for control.

"Control, this is 'Flamberge', requesting permission to leave.

"Hey, Kent, do you have a job?"

"Yeah, Rick, I'm poor and bored."

A checklist ran on the panel in front of Kent at a very, very unreadable speed, and green signals were lit in each part.

"Control, I've checked the navigation information. Wire release, minute electromagnetic projection requested."

"Roger, this is Centaur Control, you are cleared to take off. Good luck with that."

The fixed arm comes off with a small swing. The blockade runner "Franberge" glides slowly into the sea of stars.

"Thank you, Rick, 'Flamberge' out."

Oh well, it's just stardust if anything.Kent grinned at Noel's voice as he happily went about his business.