The rookie destroyer crew in distress

Shin nosuke's team successfully completed the request from the Cosmo Environment Bureau.

Originally a mission to investigate cosmic whales, it unexpectedly turned into a rescue operation for a young whale. The bodily tissue collected by Marks and the recent footage recorded near the parent whale became incredibly valuable research material for the study of cosmic whales.

The information was treated as top secret by the Cosmic Environment Bureau, and although some research had progressed, it was reportedly planned to release the data carefully, taking precautions not to affect the ecology of the cosmic whales. Shinnosuke and the others were made to swear secrecy, receiving a substantial bonus payment—framed as a non-disclosure fee—on the condition they told no one outside the Free Merchant Guild. To Shinnosuke and his team, however, this posed no problem at all.

Besides having no intention of spreading the word in the first place, an additional reward was actually quite welcome.

Thus, this job was successfully completed with a particularly favorable payout.

For some time afterward, Shinnosuke and his team steadily built up their track record and income through escort duties and cargo transport.

The prolonged conflict between the Rimuria Galactic Empire, the Damura Star Cluster Commonwealth, and the Akeria Galactic Federation had created what amounted to wartime prosperity, allowing Shinnosuke and his team to steadily improve their performance and income. While visiting the guild to look for new assignments, Shinnosuke and Seira spotted the faces of rookie escort vessel crew members Andy and Ellen.

Andy and Ellen are freelance merchants, so it's not unusual to see them at the guild.

But what was unusual was that they weren't at the job search booth—instead, they were at the booth for selling ships and equipment, and job listings.

"Hey, what are Andy and Ellen doing here?"

"Who knows? Maybe they wrecked a ship, or looking for new gear..."

It was a bit curious, but still, no reason to interfere with them.

Shinnosuke and the others had come to the job search booth hoping to find new work, but there didn’t seem to be any promising leads.

Glancing briefly at the counter, they noticed Lina idly sipping tea, unusually idle and lost in thought.

If she’s not busy, perhaps I can use this chance to gather information by stopping by her counter.

"Hello, Lina."

"Eh?...Geez, hah, yes!"

Lina, completely caught off guard, jumped up with a silly reply.

"Ah... Shinnosuke-san, what is it?"

Flustered, she tried to cover up her reaction.

"Well, I just came by to see if there was anything good going on..."

"Ah, sorry about that. There aren't any jobs available right now specifically for Shinnosuke-san. There were a few a few days ago, but everyone else took them all. Right now, the only ones left are large-scale cargo transports or escort missions suitable only for D-rank escort ship crew members. I expect more requests to come in around next week or so..."

Rina, still fiddling with her terminal, wore a grim expression.

"Shinnosuke-san, what would you like to do?"

Shinnosuke shrugs his shoulders at Serah, who is looking up at him from beside him.

"Well, it can't be helped. We'll just come back another time."

"Yes, indeed."

As a C-rank escort vessel crew member on the verge of promotion to B-rank, Shinnosuke couldn't very well take work meant for D-rank or lower escort vessel crew members.

Shinnosuke was about to reschedule his visit for another day when he suddenly remembered something.

"By the way, I saw Andy and the others at that booth earlier..."

Lina's expression darkened at Shinnosuke's words.

"Andy and Ellen? Actually... they're going through a really tough time right now."

"Huh?"

"I've been contacted by Iris, their supervisor, but it's been quite difficult to handle."

"What happened?"

"Andy and Ellen lost their ship during work..."

Apparently, Andy and Ellen had taken on a cargo escort mission, but during the job, they were attacked by space pirates.

Though they barely repelled the space pirates and managed to protect the cargo ship, their escort vessel, the Beetle, had sunk.

Although they were experienced escort pilots, they were still rookies, and their income from the job hadn't yet stabilized—making it impossible to save enough for a new escort vessel, leaving them in financial hardship.

"They're trying to get hired by some merchant ship, but it doesn't seem to be going well."

Indeed, the image of sailors struggling after losing their ship isn't a favorable one.

It would be difficult to find work with another merchant vessel.

"Still, if they're qualified crew members, they should be able to find work somewhere if they're not too picky."

"It seems their pickiness is the main issue. It's quite rare to find a job that'll hire both of them together..."

In other words, although Andy and Eren have been close friends since childhood and have worked separately on different ships to gain experience, now that they've finally managed to go independent and can work together, they apparently want to join the same ship.

"That's not really my place to say, but that's quite an idealistic notion,"

"I understand that too, and I can also see why they'd want to work together. I heard from Iris, the supervisor, that the two of them were full of energy and put in their best efforts right up until the ship was lost. So Iris seemed to want to fulfill their wish, which is why she came to me for advice."

Still, it seemed there was nothing Linna could do about it.

She had approached several free merchants in person, but apparently received no favorable responses.

After hearing Linna's explanation, Seira looked at Shinnosuke as if she wanted to say something, but held her words back.

Shinnosuke could guess what Seira was trying to say, but it wasn't something he could decide on right then and there.

At the very least, Fubuki's crew was already sufficient.

Shinnosuke then left the Free Merchant Guild with Seira by his side.