“Did you have a good time yesterday?”
“?”
I typed on the keyboard and casually asked the Commander that.
It wasn’t really an important topic; I just asked out of curiosity.
“What are you talking about? What did the Commander do yesterday?”
“I believe he had dinner with Agni after finishing his afternoon work.”
“Oh…! That’s a big scoop!”
Midori said that, but honestly, I didn’t know much.
I was a bit tired yesterday and had a quick meal before dinner, so I didn’t even go out to the restaurant.
So all I knew was that they had made such plans.
Honestly, I wasn’t particularly interested in anything beyond that.
“So that’s why the bulletin board was so noisy yesterday!”
“Is that so?”
“Well… um!”
It seemed like I should check that bulletin board again tonight.
The last time I was there, I was dealing with a terrible headache, so I had shut myself off from it.
It looked like a lot had happened while I was unaware.
Right now, I was busy, so it might be better to look later.
In fact, I had already finished my morning tasks.
“I simply spent time with the agent who did well in the operation. Nothing strange happened in the process.”
“Strange things!!!”
“Midori, settle down a bit.”
“How can I settle down?! Hurry! Hurry and tell me~ okay?”
“Hah….”
The Commander looked quite troubled.
He said it was just a meal, so why was he so bothered?
“Really, nothing special happened. I just had a meal with Agni, wandered around a little, bought ice cream at the convenience store, and said goodbye.”
“Oh ho….”
“……”
“Now, both of you, stop looking like you’re so interested.”
Saying that, the Commander turned his head back to the monitor.
His words were pretty ordinary.
Just as he said, nothing out of the ordinary had happened.
Having a meal with an agent was neither serious nor strange nor absurd.
I honestly didn’t think too much about it.
It was just risky for the ship’s commander to lead a promiscuous life.
I was only mildly worried.
*
-Knock, knock.
During the ordinary afternoon schedule, while I was working on my afternoon tasks, I heard a knock.
I turned my gaze slightly to check the door, and Midori was completely off her desk, looking intrigued.
“Come in.”
The Commander said that while typing on his keyboard.
Then the door opened, and I was slightly surprised.
There were various agents, so there should naturally be quite a range of characteristics among them, but…
-Clunk…. Clunk….
“……”
I never expected someone in such enormous protective gear.
I wondered if there was such an agent for a moment.
“Are you the one who contacted me?”
-Yes.
“…?”
“Eh…?”
The answer to the Commander’s question was clearly strange.
It sounded like an electronic voice mixed with static, as if it was coming from a walkie-talkie.
Of course, it proved she was an agent, but still, I didn’t get it.
I hadn’t played Catharsis that diligently, so I didn’t know much about the characters.
I couldn’t recognize every character, but… this was a first.
-I want to work here starting today. Is that okay?
“I don’t know why you’ve come here, but it’s honestly troublesome to just come in suddenly after contacting us….”
“What is this!”
“Well… let’s change the location. After all, this is a workplace.”
The Commander said that and stood up.
He really meant to change the location.
I didn’t know where he intended to go.
By the way… it wasn’t just the protective gear, but she was tall as well.
I didn’t even know who she was, but she was on the taller side for a woman.
In the 170s?
I couldn’t tell.
I didn’t know why she was wearing the protective gear this far, but she was indeed tall.
-Yes, that’s fine.
“Then… Lindera?”
“Yes.”
“Follow me. You’re my Vice Commander, after all.”
“Understood.”
I intended to follow anyway.
After all, the Commander wasn’t as adjusted to the job as I was.
Besides, there was no reason for me to miss out on the recruitment of a new agent.
Of course, I didn’t know who she was.
But still, since it was a new character being added, I had to be curious.
If I hadn’t mentioned it, I would have followed just for the sake of it.
*
“First of all, could you please show your face?”
-Um. I’m sorry. I’m not comfortable showing my bare face yet…
“I see. Well, there are various agents, so this is nothing unusual.”
“……”
As the Commander said… there were indeed many different agents.
It was sometimes frustrating in various ways.
Many were strong-willed and stubborn individuals.
Of course, the unknown agent standing in front of us was one of them.
Anyway, where we arrived was… just a garden.
To be honest, it was a place we rarely used since it was of no use on usual days, and there’s no particular need to come here now.
But it was a quiet place to talk without bothering others, so maybe that’s why we came.
-This place is…?
“It’s a garden.”
-There’s a lot of dirt and plants.
“Since we have many agents living here, always seeing only the ship must be tiring, right? This is a place for that purpose.”
-I think it’s nice.
“Now, let’s really move on to the conversation. First of all… what’s your name?”
-I’m Dirtstone. You’re the Commander, right?
“That’s right.”
Short introductions.
Just an exchange of names and titles.
Honestly, although I could hear the Commander introduce himself, it still didn’t register properly in my ears.
Every time I ended up in such situations, it felt a bit awkward, but I decided to let it slide.
After all, it wasn’t the first time this happened and it was bound to happen repeatedly.
“First of all… you want to be employed on our ship. Is that correct?”
-Yes.
“What’s the reason?”
-I was protected on the mountain before.
“…?”
“……”
It seems we’ve really got a frustrating agent here.
*
“So what happened!? You two just went without me! That’s just too much!”
“Midori, didn’t you spend the time vigorously on your phone in the meantime?”
“Th-that’s because! You two went out…? I was the only one working, so… well! Regardless!”
After wrapping up the story, we returned to the office.
In simple terms, the agent named Dirtstone would now be working with our fleet.
Honestly, I still didn’t understand the situation, but adding an agent wasn’t a bad thing.
Moreover, she came to us on her own, and the salary wasn’t a big concern?
“I want to know too!!! Hurry!!!”
“Lindera? Why is Midori acting like that again?”
“…Isn’t she normally like this? Let’s just ignore it.”
As I said that, I headed toward the coffee pot.
Honestly, I was struggling to concentrate because of the earlier conversation.
I wasn’t feeling ill, but it felt like a headache was creeping up.
“First of all, just know that the one who just entered is the new agent who will be working on the ship.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. I don’t quite get the exact reason either… but we’ve finalized the contract and that’s the end of it.”
“Wow…. That’s a total scoop! Yahoo!!!”
“Commander.”
I called out to him while handing over a coffee.
I had a lot to say, but I couldn’t do so due to that earlier conversation with Dirtstone.
To be honest, I felt incredibly frustrated while listening.
But I couldn’t just cut Midori off every time she spoke.
“About Dirtstone…”
“Speak.”
“Honestly, the information is way too lacking. I’m still not sure why she came here, and her abilities are still….”
“Stop.”
He raised a hand to halt me.
Okay, now he was going to answer me.
He would probably address the things that had me curious all along.
To be honest, I was still lost in the whole situation apart from the fact that we had added an agent.
It was strange in itself that an agent would just come to our ship.
After all, this wasn’t the kind of place that fought against contamination directly…
“I know what you’re referring to.”
“Then?”
“The number of agents is lacking anyway, and testing agents isn’t difficult. If her skills are exceptional, we’ve easily got a good agent; if not, then we’ve just acquired a decent one.”
“……”
“Besides… didn’t we agree on a low salary? I think that’ll do just fine.”
“That’s….”
True enough.
She really made a good deal.
I thought the Commander would do well in business negotiations if he weren’t a Commander.
Of course… being tall and handsome, if he sweet-talked a wealthy lady, she’d probably give him cash in no time.
Just as the Commander said, if her skills were good, it was a steal; if not, we had gotten someone reasonably acceptable.
“Though I honestly would have liked to see her face by now.”
The Commander casually drank some coffee as if to brush off the topic.
The corners of his mouth lifted slightly; he seemed to be in a good mood.
Was he happy about bringing in a new agent?
“Commander.”
“What now?”
“If that’s the case, how about including her in the temporary 2nd squad formation?”
“Dirtstone?”
“Yes.”
I said this while making sure to look into the Commander’s eyes.
This was a sincere suggestion this time.
Since the number of agents was still small, most of them would take other jobs on the ship when there weren’t any operations.
Of course, we didn’t instruct them to do so; they just did it to keep themselves busy.
“In a way, isn’t that the easiest way to prove her capabilities?”
After all, the crucial aspect of an agent was combat.
If they were strong and could operate in contaminated areas, that was a good sign.
We received missions to cleanse those contaminated regions, and excelling in that field was a virtue for an agent.
“What do you think?”
I figured the Commander wouldn’t be able to reject this suggestion.
After all…
“If Dirtstone could take the lead…”
The thing was, our ship had a somewhat ambiguous situation with tankers.
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