After our conversation, a maid brought us some tea. Mei and I returned to the Black Lotus after finishing it.
What? Why didn’t we join in the fight against the Bradys when we brought the battle bots with us? That’s fair enough, but Hartmut himself told me, “It’s my duty as governor to destroy the bandits, and I’m going to do it myself.” I appreciate his kindness, but I wouldn’t have minded it if he asked me for my help.
Well, putting myself in danger with no reward would be ridiculous, and simply pointless… If I had to point out any benefit that I could gain from this, it would be improving my battle senses by stepping into the line of death. Since my current situation was not like a game where I could simply level up after some simple combat, in the end I would need to take risks to gain any benefit, that’s why I decided to leave the rest to Hartmut.
“Ah, welcome back, Hiro-sama! You’re back early, huh?” (Mimi)
“Well, it was decided that I would not be participating in destroying Bradys. I’ve also talked to Hartmut. Regarding the pandemic, I’m sure it’s probably going to get under control soon, so I think it’s about time we leave this colony…”
“Big Bro! How did it go!?” (Tina)
“–Oh you see- ugah!?”
I was talking to Mimi, but when Tina heard my voice, she came running out of the cafeteria and tackled me in the side of my head when I was just about to reply to her.
“Calm down…I’ve talked to Hartmut, and he finally said he’ll take heed of my words and act accordingly. But, yes, he said he wants to make Aylia happy in the end. He also told me that he likes Aylia not only for her looks but also for her heart, so I don’t think there’s any need to worry about her. The rest is just a matter of what they will do about it.”
“Hmm…okay. Thanks, Big Bro.”
“No problem.”
I pat Tina on the head. I was glad to see that she finally understood what I meant before. It was time to say goodbye to this colony, and it was also time to have Linda be returned to Aylia in the colony.
“Oh, where’s Dr. Shoko? I haven’t seen her in the last couple of days.”
“She’s holed up in her lab. Should I call her?”
“No, I hope she’s okay, but what the heck is she doing?”
Curious, I decided to visit Dr. Shoko’s lab. What in the world was she doing in her lab for two days?
“Dr. Shoko? What are you…oh…”
“Hmm? What’s wrong?”
Dr. Shoko’s lab was covered in mushrooms. No, they were not growing all over the place, but each plant was kept in a case, but there were a lot of them. Not just ten or twenty but much more.
“What’s going on here?”
“Ahh… I was wondering if there was any way to breed the mushrooms that caused the spread of pathogens and then render those pathogens harmless. I’ve been doing a lot of trial and error so far, and from that, I’ve developed a cure for humans. However, if we don’t eliminate the source of the pandemic, it will never be contained, right? That’s why I’ve been tinkering around to see if I could create a mushroom that would counteract those mushrooms that spread the pathogen.”
“I see…? Will it work?”
“Well, yes. It might work, but we’d have to contaminate the colony with a new breed of fungus in exchange. I doubt it would be approved.”
“Yeah, I don’t think so!”
“Indeed.”
Dr. Shoko laughed as she said so.
“Well, I’ve finished designing a purification nanomachine that targets only the pathogen in question, so we can use that instead. But it’s still difficult to control when used on living organisms.”
“I see…? Then, do you think the pandemic of this colony can be dealt with?”
“If we use a special medicine and purification nanomachines together, I think we can stop it right away. Oh, I’ve compiled the data and samples, so please take care of them. I’m going to take a shower and have a good night’s sleep. Fuaaah…”
Saying that, Dr. Shoko shoved a sturdy-looking container that looked like it could hold a bunch of stuff onto me. After that, she yawned and left the lab.
“…Now that I think about it, isn’t Dr. Shoko the most dangerous person on this ship?”
I shuddered as I felt the weight of the container I had received.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from f(r)eeweb(n)ovel.𝒄𝒐𝙢