Roon was in an excellent mood today.
It was the day the Commander, who had been sent far away on an assignment, was finally coming back.
Roon was sitting at the harbor, swinging her legs and even humming to herself.
"Hmm-hmm~ It should be about time for him to arrive..."
Even though it was already past the scheduled arrival time, there was nothing on the horizon.
Then.
Wheeeen—
"Battle stations! Everyone, prepare for combat. Battle stations!"
"Tch... I was just about to reunite with the Commander..."
Roon’s face, which had been smiling brightly only moments ago, turned vicious in an instant. She deployed her rigging and leaped into the sea.
When Roon arrived, a fleet of unprecedented scale had already gathered there.
"Did something huge happen? I’ve never seen so many ships assemble like this before~"
Roon asked, looking around.
"Your Commander was kidnapped."
Jean Bart gave Roon a short answer before heading back to her own position.
"......Huh?"
Roon could only freeze on the spot.
She had finally thought she was going to see the Commander, and now what? Kidnapped? By who?
As Roon’s mind went blank, she caught snippets of the murmurs around her.
"This has to be the Royal Navy’s doing. Who else would pull something like this?"
"What about the Eagle Union? They’d do it too."
"Only the Royal Navy would do something this shameless!"
Royal Navy?
Those people took the Commander away?
Her time with the Commander... how dare they?
"Heh.....hahahahahaha..."
Roon laughed darkly.
Her rage was now aimed at only one place.
Royal Navy.
"It’s Bismarck’s summons! They’re forming a task force to rescue the Commander! Everyone who can be mobilized, gather at the main base immediately!"
Roon hurried toward the main base.
"....Make sure we rescue the Commander by any means necessary."
With those words, Bismarck turned and left.
On the operations map, a red dot marked the Commander’s presumed location.
The mad wolf, not the mad dog, had begun to move.
...
"Then, Commander, may I ask why you abandoned us and went to those Iron Blood women?"
The maids, having satisfied their own private desires, had moved on to a full interrogation.
I was so irritated by their utterly obvious question that I snapped at them.
"You were the ones who abandoned me! And now you want to talk about who abandoned whom?!"
Belfast clutched at her chest.
"Commander, we most certainly..."
"You had nothing to do with it? Don’t give me that bullshit. Fine, maybe the others, but Belfast. You knew, didn’t you? You were Elizabeth’s aide, and you’re telling me you didn’t know? Am I supposed to believe that lie?!"
"I’m sorry to say... yes."
"Bullshit!"
Bang!
I slammed my fist on the table.
"Master, please calm yourself and think about it once more. I do not possess the authority to vote in the Grand Council.
Her Majesty could have hidden it from me if she wished..."
"That doesn’t even make sense. You expected me to walk out on my own until the night I was kicked out? And now that you know the reason, you think this is how you should be treating me?"
".....I will not ask you to return to the Royal Navy. Even the Eagle Union..."
"Those bastards are all the same!"
Bang!
I slammed the table again.
I couldn’t contain my anger.
"You played dumb when you were cutting me out, but now you’re saying the Eagle Union’s doors are open? Who are you trying to act noble for?!"
"M-master... you told Dido... you told Dido you wouldn’t abandon her..."
I glared at Dido.
She was completely overwhelmed by my presence.
"H-hic..."
Dido’s face went pale, and she shut her mouth again.
"....Master, please remember the first day we met. We swore to one another. No matter what happened, we would trust you and face every hardship together... Please, Master... trust this Belfast..."
"If you wanted to hold on to me, you had plenty of chances. Honestly, I was half-hoping someone would tell me not to leave. If even one person had asked me to stay, this whole mess wouldn’t have happened. But there was nothing. Nothing at all! And now you’re going so far as to kidnap me like this, and you still think I’m the selfish one...?"
My last words never finished.
The searing pain in my abdomen cut me off.
"Then what were we supposed to do?! You wouldn’t listen to a single word I said, and we weren’t even given a chance! How are we supposed to atone for anything? Selfish, you say? Did you ever consider how we felt, being cast aside without even a chance to meet you? Why was I supposed to know everything?! Did you not leave even the slightest possibility for a misunderstanding? Was our bond with you really something that could be broken so easily? If you had allowed it, this Belfast would have followed you to the ends of the earth, to the stars, even to the universe itself. Have you forgotten this Belfast’s vow so easily? Was my vow truly so light to you?"
"Kh...hck...kgh..."
Belfast had grabbed my collar and was crying.
To be honest, I could barely hear what she was saying.
The sudden pain had nearly knocked me out of my senses.
"....That will do."
Belfast knocked me over and climbed on top of me.
"W-what are you doing..."
With all the strength drained from my body, I could only helplessly endure what Belfast was doing.
"If you do not resist, it will not hurt."
At those words, Dido and Sirius swallowed hard.
"Ma... head maid... that is..."
Belfast slipped her tongue into my mouth in a sticky kiss.
"Mmm... so sweet... Master... Master..."
Belfast began unbuttoning my shirt one button at a time.
"...Stop, Belfast. If this goes any further, there’s no turning back."
"I imagine more than half the girls in the fleet would have wanted to be like this with you."
"What...?"
"In any case, you don’t seem to have any intention of believing a single word I say."
The moment Belfast’s hand touched my belt.
Kaboom—!
"Ghk?!"
"Where are those disgusting girls who dared lay hands on the Commander?!"
It was Roon.
I rolled away and took refuge in the corner.
"Damn it..! How did she find us?!"
"Roon! The Commander’s in here too! Don’t fire recklessly!"
But there was no way those words reached Roon’s ears now that she had been swallowed by madness.
"Kya-hahahahaha! So it was the Royal Navy’s trash!"
Roon’s turrets turned toward the three maids.
"Break, break, break—!!!!!!"
With Roon’s terrifying laughter, the sealed room that had trapped me was blown apart.
"Tch... at least we need to get the Master out of here...!"
"As if."
Prinz Eugen tripped Sirius.
"Ngh?!"
Thrown off balance, Sirius slammed hard into the floor and sprang backward.
"Tch... the Master must be preserved for later. Then I’ll be off...!"
Belfast triggered a smoke bomb.
Roon, lost in madness, smashed everything within reach.
"Trying to run?! You think you can run away?!"
I slipped behind Roon and hugged her from behind.
"Roon!! Calm down!"
"Hah... huh...?"
The moment I wrapped my arms around her, Roon finally began to come to her senses.
"You were going to kill me too?"
"A... ahh... Commander..."
Once Roon confirmed that I was safe, she finally calmed down completely.
"Commander, are you hurt?"
Prinz Eugen came over and checked my condition.
"First we need to get out of here. The Eagle Union fleet is approaching."
Eugen hoisted my arm over her shoulder and led me outside.
"How long... was I like that...?"
"Four days since the incident."
Seeing sunlight and breathing the outside air again after four days made me feel alive once more.
...
The Eagle Union fleet was moving based on the coordinates transmitted from headquarters.
"Enterprise! We’ve spotted three unidentified ships!"
Independence seemed to have found something with her scout plane.
"The Commander?! Is the Commander there?!"
"Hmm... I don’t think the Commander is there... But those three are getting close to us!"
"Let’s pursue them. Those three might be the clue we need."
The dispatched fleet, including Enterprise, increased speed and closed in on the unidentified ships.
Before long, once they were close enough to see with the naked eye, Wichita raised a megaphone and shouted.
"You three there! We are ships of the Eagle Union! State your identities!"
As if they had heard her, the three changed course and began heading straight toward them.
"They’re coming this way?"
"Stay alert. We’ll attack if we have to."
As the distance closed, Enterprise used binoculars to identify them precisely.
"....Belfast..?"
Once Enterprise confirmed their identities, she threw down the binoculars and accelerated.
"Belfast!"
"Enterprise...?!"
"What happened? Why are you here...?"
"I’ll explain later. Right now, Iron Blood is taking the Commander away!"
"Did you figure out where they went?"
"That is... we fled while dealing with two heavy cruiser-class ships, so we couldn’t fully assess the situation."
Enterprise rested her chin on her hand.
"Haa... damn it, always one step too late."
Even Enterprise’s good fortune couldn’t bring the Commander back to them.
".....Searching this entire area would be too much for us. We only have two carriers, me and Independence..."
"Let’s return for now."
But Belfast was fidgeting with something, looking hesitant.
"Um..."
Belfast explained the whole situation to Enterprise.
"......I never imagined you’d do something like that."
'Well, I’m not really in a position to talk, am I.'
Enterprise let out a sigh and took Belfast by the hand.
"...Since we owe you, and our goals are the same. Follow us for now."
"Thank you, Enterprise."
Belfast lifted her skirt slightly and bowed.
Her usually elegant curtsy looked strangely shabby today.
...
"You succeeded in rescuing the Commander?!"
Bismarck had not left the receiver’s side the entire time.
"Ah... thank goodness... thank goodness..."
"What happened?"
Tirpitz asked, showing a rare trace of impatience.
"They succeeded in rescuing the Commander... Aside from some fairly bad bruising on his abdomen and being extremely exhausted, there doesn’t seem to be anything seriously wrong."
Bismarck let out a long breath.
"....That’s a relief."
Tirpitz turned and headed outside.
She wasn’t sure how she was supposed to feel happy in moments like this. Tirpitz felt awkward.
Her mind was overflowing with joy, but she couldn’t quite figure out how to express it.
And at the same time, she was uneasy.
Tirpitz had once been punished for causing harm to the Commander in the past, and because she had failed to properly carry out her duty of escorting him this time as well, she blamed herself for allowing this to happen.
Bismarck was no different.
Since her sister had always been poor at expressing emotion, she couldn’t imagine what kind of face she should make when the Commander returned.
Not long after, the special assault team came back into view over the horizon, with Eugen and Roon carrying the Commander.
The Bismarck sisters went down to the harbor to greet them.
When Prinz Eugen set the Commander down, everyone rushed over at once to check his condition.
"Commander! Do you know who I am?!"
Admiral Hipper rushed up to him in a panic.
"...You were really that worried, huh..."
I gave a small laugh and looked at Hipper.
Only then did Hipper seem to realize how she looked, and her face turned bright red in an instant.
"Heh heh... even if she always acts snappish, Hipper really is that kind of person."
Eugen chimed in.
Hipper was trembling all over from embarrassment.
"Yeah! I was worried, you idiot! You vanished all of a sudden for no reason! Why’d you suddenly show up and make me worry, huh, huh?!"
Hipper burst into tears and threw herself into my arms.
Oh wow, this is rare... Eugen, you got that on video, right?
"Bismarck, Tirpitz..."
The two of them, who had been watching Hipper intently, turned toward me at my call.
"I’m back..."
"Ah... uh... y-yes..."
Bismarck pulled her cap down and looked away.
"Tirpitz."
"....."
Tirpitz walked over to me.
"...Commander, this is all my fault... I repeated my mistake once again..."
A single tear rolled down Tirpitz’s cheek.
"Punish me.... This incident is entirely my responsibility..."
I gave a faint smile and stood up.
Then I pulled Tirpitz into a tight hug and patted her back.
"I asked for a welcome, so why are you bawling like that, idiot."
"I’m... sorry... I’m sorry..."
Tirpitz’s shoulders shook slightly.
"It’s okay. It’s okay."
Tirpitz stayed in my arms a little longer before finally pulling away.
"The Royal Navy and the Northern Parliament are currently in a standoff, Commander. And the Sakura Empire, Vichya, and Sardegna have all sent fleets to assist us. It’s a selfish request, but... can you stand on the front line for us...?"
Bismarck asked quietly.
"Hmm... I lost my flagship..."
"If that’s the problem, it’s over there."
"Huh?"
Th... the Flying Dutchman...?
No, what am I even saying.
"...So you brought it over here for me."
"...Yeah.."
"Thanks."
I placed a hand on Bismarck’s head.
"Th..."
Just as I was about to leave, Bismarck grabbed my sleeve.
"....I... I also..."
"Hm?"
You also?
Ah...
Understanding what Bismarck meant, I pulled her toward me.
"U... ugh..."
Bismarck’s cheeks flushed red.
"I... I should go now."
Bismarck slipped away on her own and fled in a fluster, as if she were being chased.
I turned back, thinking, Is that all? and then...
"Ro... Roon...?"
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