What Do You Mean I'm The Captain Of A Yandere Mercenary Company?

"You… Can make beer too?"

"I didn't make this from scratch if that's what you're wondering," I explained, placing the mug of beer I mixed at the usual place I would put his food. "But I do know how to mix alcohol and I learned some bartending skills from a bartender."

"Why the heck are you a Merc then? You could make a fortune with the food you're cooking. If you opened a restaurant or something, you could just live off of that."

"Simple. I'm not interested. I take more pleasure flying through space and seeing new planets and stations than just staying in one place. Besides, I don't have a license and I sure as hell won't be going to those fake schools to get one."

"Hmm… Fair enough."

I was about to turn around and leave him to his beer when he called out to me, "Hey, where are you going?"

I raised an eyebrow at him, "Back to the bridge so you can have your beer?"

"What? Are you too good to talk to me now or what? I haven't even answered your question of why I'm hiding my identity yet."

"Huh? Are you going to show me who you are or something?"

"Of course not. Watch this."

He reached out his palm towards the mug of beer and some kind of tube popped out and stuck itself into the mug.

The beer was then sucked up through the tube and the entire mug was emptied in an instant.

I could just imagine him smirking at me being that helmet of his.

"I told you, didn't I? I was prepared to launch myself out into space if I had to. Of course I would need sustenance while waiting for my men to rescue me so this suit is also capable of storing food and water. Well… Obviously I can't store the food you made of course."

Right…

I went over to take a seat on top of one of the boxes opposite him, "So… Why are you even hiding your identity? The UTG already knows who you are, right?"

"Heh, ironically, this is the one thing that I am grateful to them for. Because of my status, it was protocol for them to scrub all records of me and my unit from existence so the only people who knew who I was were members of my own unit where, aside from myself, the only surviving member is Matsumoto."

"That still doesn't answer the question."

"Do you think I actually want to be a Pirate Lord in the first place?"

I gave him a pointed look, "You seem to be doing pretty well for yourself, are you not?"

He paused for a moment and I thought he was considering his words when I heard the sound of swallowing.

It took me another moment to figure out that he was most likely drinking the beer I had made for him and he was completely engrossed in drinking it right now.

"Hey… Don't just chug the whole thing in one go…" I muttered.

There was another pause before he turned back to me, "How are you even able to make beer this good?!! What is this?!!"

"I don't know what to tell you but I just do it and it turns out like this."

Naturally, there's no need for me to tell him about my perks.

"Anyway, you were saying?" I reminded, trying to push the conversation back on track.

"What did I say? Oh right. I had mentioned about the ambush when we managed to get out of the planet, right? At that point, the VIP was dead, almost everyone in my unit was dead and we were barely hanging on in a ship that was on the verge of falling apart. It may sound like bragging but if it was anyone else, I'm pretty sure they would have just died there and then."

Unless they are a Psionic… Was what I wanted to say but I managed to keep my mouth shut and simply nodded at him.

He continued, "At that point, I made the decision that would ensure our survival… We abandoned the ship and boarded one of the other ships to commandeer it to escape. At that point, we were still not aware that we had been betrayed and thought they were merely insurrectionists or maybe traitors so we eliminated them… But that bastard had even expected this and used this as a fact to cement our position as traitors and labelled us an enemy of the UTG. And then they remotely detonated the bombs that had been planted on the ships that had been there to ambush us. I don't even think the people involved in the ambush knew their ships had bombs placed on them."

"Geez… For someone who isn't fit to be in their position, they seem to have gone through great lengths just to plan for your demise, huh?"

The Pirate Lord nodded, "Funny how humans think, isn't it?"

"So how did you still live then?"

He tilted his head up to look at the ceiling, "My men… They sacrificed themselves for me… All of them literally used their bodies as a shield to keep the bomb from doing the damage that it would have… The only damage the bomb did was a single damaged reactor and the lives of a dozen of my best men… And then there were only two remaining. Just Matsumoto and myself…"

The sound of him chugging down more beer could be heard and I chose not to say anything this time.

He let out a sigh, "I could have chosen to just fade into obscurity. Aside from one person, no one knew my face and everyone else thought I was dead. Both Matsumoto and I could have just taken the ship and flown off to the nearest colony and start a new life… But after I have learned of the truth behind all of this… I could not just let these bastards think they actually succeeded…"

"So you chose to become a pirate?"

"To become a scourge. A thorn. Something to remind them that I still exist and I knew what they tried to do and a reminder that they failed. And they should live in fear that one day, when I've gathered enough influence and power, I might just turn my guns towards them and take revenge for what they had done."

"So is that it? You're doing this all for revenge?"

"Hahahaha! Of course not! I don't give a shit about them. I've lived my life so long being their obedient dog and what did I get? Nothing! So now I live for myself! You asked why I still hide my face? Once we obtain the Pirate Hoard and ownership of the planet… I'm shedding off this armour and living the rest of my life happily and easily on that planet without a care in the universe! I'm retiring! And since my own crew also wouldn't know what I looked like, they wouldn't be able to find me either! This is the perfect plan! Hahahaha!"

Oh.

Not gonna lie, I was expecting to hear something like this guy preparing to make use of all the things that this pirate sovereign had left behind to attack the UTG or something.

Turns out this guy really just want to screw around with those people without actually dedicating the rest of his life to doing it and all of this was just a set up to achieve exactly that.

"You're a diabolical one…" I pointed out.

"Why thank you. I'm glad that you noticed since that's exactly what I've been trying to do!" He laughed heartily.

"What about all that sob story of your men that died? I thought for sure you're going to go out of your way to avenge them or something."

"Pfft. In case you've forgotten, I told you my unit was the one to be sent to make impossible missions possible. You think we had zero casualties every time? I've seen my men die over and over again countless of times. The most we do is drink to their memory and move on with our lives. In this line of work, you learn very quickly that being stuck in the past is useless and I also already learned that if you live for anyone aside for yourself, you're going to have a bad time. Why do you think I managed to reach this position in just a short time? Even if these guys are part of my crew, the moment they do something that crosses me, I don't just let them go unpunished."

Well… I guess I can see that… Since this guy literally crushed someone's arm for speaking out of turn right in front of me…

"Aren't you afraid that they might take revenge for all the torture you've inflicted?"

"Isn't that exactly why I'm not letting anyone see what I look like? Once I'm done with this, I'm retiring and no one is going to be able to find me anymore. This Pirate Lord is just going to disappear~ Ahahaha!"

Hmm… I guess that's one way of doing things…

Whatever floats his boat I guess?