tap tap
I neatly gathered the approved documents and put them in the drawer.
"Huh... You’re starting to look a lot more like a Commander now."
"I was a Commander to begin with, you know?"
Hipper snorted with a laugh.
"That’s rich coming from the Commander who used to make errors everywhere without my calculations, isn’t it?"
"Tch... Fair enough. But what can I do? When I was working at Azur Lane, everything was already provided for me..."
I had mostly wrapped up work and was idly drinking coffee while goofing around with Hipper.
At first, she had only ever snapped at me, but lately it felt like her sharp edges had softened quite a bit.
As I was chatting with Hipper, the office door opened.
creak
"Hey... you should knock before coming in."
"I did knock. The Commander just didn’t hear it."
Jean Bart walked in, her long brown hair catching the light.
"So, you’re still here?"
Akagi, Kaga, and the rest of the Sakura Empire fleet had already returned several days ago.
"Well, it’s close enough that I can afford to dawdle a little. More importantly, Commander. When are you planning to visit Vichya?"
"Ah... right."
With everything that had happened, I had completely forgotten about it.
"Tch. If you carelessly forget a promise, you’ll pay for it someday."
"But before that, I need Bismarck’s approval."
"Hm? It was already decided, wasn’t it? Why do you need Bismarck’s permission again?"
"A lot has happened, after all..."
"Haah... Listen, Commander. Aren’t you a little too tied to Bismarck? You’re the Iron Blood’s Commander, aren’t you?"
"I got chewed out by Bismarck pretty badly when I said that yesterday."
"......"
Jean Bart stared at me with a dumbfounded expression.
"Fine. I was planning to go anyway. If I don’t learn your new technology, this new ship project will be delayed."
"I’d like your answer by dinner tonight. Then."
Jean Bart stretched and left the office.
Even though she was slender overall, Jean Bart was still oddly easy to like, while Hipper was...
"What are you looking at?"
...No, never mind.
When I looked at Hipper with pity in my eyes, she bristled.
"W-what’s with that look all of a sudden? You were thinking something weird, weren’t you?!"
"No, I was merely contemplating the human body."
"Y-you little...!"
Before Hipper could go for my back, I quickly equipped my Commander-grade VH armor plating.
thud
A heavy impact rang out.
"W-what is this?! Ugh...! My hand hurts..."
"Hahaha. A Commander’s rigging, you brat. It responds even more strongly to physical impact."
"Grr...! This...!"
I quickly tore off the backplate and ran.
Teasing Hipper really was the most fun.
...
"...You really have to go?"
Bismarck looked at me with a pitiful gaze.
"...It’s already a scheduled trip. If we delay it any longer, it’ll be rude to Vichya."
"..."
Bismarck took my hand.
"......Can’t you not go?"
"I understand all your worries. I’ll have an escort accompany me again this time. And I won’t let my guard down like last time."
".....Then I’ll go as that escort."
Bismarck looked straight into my eyes.
"...Haah. Fine, I get it. Since this time it’s Vichya, I can also return quickly if something goes wrong at headquarters."
"R-really?"
"I figured you wouldn’t let me go otherwise if I didn’t say it like this."
"Mm... yeah..."
So she wasn’t denying it.
"Then I’ll let Jean Bart know too."
I waved and headed toward the shore.
I took a cigarette from my pocket and lit it.
With a clear ding, the lighter’s lid flipped open.
"Hoo..."
As I exhaled deeply, pale smoke streamed out in a long line.
I held the lighter Bismarck had given me up to the sunlight.
The gold-trimmed parts here and there gleamed brilliantly.
"It really does look a lot like Enterprise..."
I had almost thrown away the lighter Enterprise gave me, but in the end I tucked it away carefully somewhere.
Maybe it was my last keepsake from my time at Azur Lane.
Come to think of it, I was still taking good care of the bonsai Cleveland gave me too.
And the tea set Belfast gave me...
I suddenly remembered what Belfast had once said to me.
"Perhaps more than half of the girls in the fleet would have wanted to be like this with you, Master."
I had seen the perfectly composed Belfast look that broken for the first time.
That was why, now, thinking about them only left me confused.
They cast me aside, didn’t they?
Didn’t they all want me gone?
So why were they acting so sentimental now?
Before I knew it, my cigarette had burned down short.
I took out a portable ashtray and ground it out.
For now, I’d set old regrets aside and focus on what I could do now.
I went to Jean Bart and gave her a detailed report on the dispatch schedule.
"Bismarck is coming as your escort...?"
"That’s how it turned out. There was an incident last time, after all."
"...I see."
Jean Bart accepted my dispatch conditions without any objection.
She really was the type to seem prickly at first, but actually be pretty easygoing.
But unlike usual, Jean Bart was twisting her hair and looked oddly uneasy.
"Something wrong?"
"Mm... huh? Don’t worry about it. It’s not something you need to get involved in."
Jean Bart suddenly stood up from her chair and moved away.
There’s definitely something going on there.
Well... if it wasn’t my business, there was nothing I could do.
My reason said not to stick my nose in where it didn’t belong and get myself scolded for it.
But when someone who usually wasn’t like this showed a side like that, it was only natural to be curious.
I quietly asked Dunkerque what had happened to Jean Bart.
"Ah... um..."
Dunkerque seemed reluctant to tell me.
Usually, if I pressed a little hard, she’d reluctantly give in, but today Dunkerque was different.
"Sorry, but this one’s really hard to talk about..."
"Tch... alright."
In the end, I got nothing and went back to my room.
I could always look into the details once I got to Vichya.
They couldn’t hide it forever.
I packed my bags into a carrier case.
"Oh, right. Was my flagship done being repaired?"
I had heard it would be finished soon...
I hoped it would line up with the dispatch date.
Even though Bismarck was doing fine and moving around normally, she still needed rehabilitation.
Even now, I tried not to put Bismarck on the front lines unless I had to.
"But why on earth is that girl so obsessed with my every move...?"
Honestly, after hearing what Belfast and Littorio had said, I had started thinking I needed to change how I acted. But to be honest, I still didn’t fully understand the feelings or behavior she showed me.
"It’s not like I can just ask her directly..."
If it was something related to Bismarck...
When I first arrived and the trouble with the submarine fleet was resolved, she had even shed tears.
That could be seen as an event that eased a burden in her heart.
And then there was the reconciliation with Tirpitz...
If it were me, I’d feel grateful, sure, but did she really need to cling to me like that?
I hadn’t done anything that special.
As I kept turning the thought over and over, I came to a conclusion.
She was probably afraid that I, as a piece of human capital, might leave Azur Lane and go somewhere else.
In that case, Bismarck’s behavior made sense.
I finished packing and set my luggage in a corner of the room.
As I left the room to go smoke, I happened to run into Bismarck.
"Ah. Commander."
Bismarck greeted me first.
"Oh, Bismarck. Perfect timing."
"H-huh...?"
Bismarck looked like she was still trying to figure out what was going on.
"Come with me for a second."
I led Bismarck out toward the shore.
"So... what is it?"
"Bismarck. Don’t worry, I have no intention of leaving Iron Blood. How could I abandon the ones who accepted me first and go somewhere else?"
"...Huh? Ah... right..."
Bismarck’s expression, which had seemed to be expecting something, suddenly went blank.
What? Was that not it?
"Yes. I understand the Commander’s resolve. Thank you for pledging your loyalty."
"Right. So I’d appreciate it if you didn’t read too much into it when I talk to girls from other factions."
"......Haah."
Bismarck wore a complicated expression.
"I’m... busy, so I’ll head back now. Commander, make sure your dispatch preparations are thoroughly finished."
"Uh... yeah. They already are."
"Then I’m going."
Bismarck turned and left.
Somehow, it felt like I had tried to clear up Bismarck’s misunderstanding and only made the atmosphere even stranger.
I pulled out another cigarette with a stifled feeling and tucked it between my lips.
Just as I opened the lighter and tried to light it, I felt the cigarette being pulled from my mouth.
Who was it?
When I turned around, Tirpitz was standing there holding the cigarette she had taken from me.
"What is it?"
"...Cigarettes are bad for your health."
Yeah, I know. The person smoking them knows that better than anyone.
My body was giving me a very clear sense of how much it hated them.
"I know."
"...Then why..."
"...People who don’t smoke wouldn’t understand."
I used to wonder why people smoked them too.
I only started because a classmate at the academy recommended it, and now here I was.
Still, compared to that guy, I was tame. He was a heavy smoker who chain-smoked 6-millimeter cigarettes, but I wasn’t like that.
I drifted briefly into nostalgia.
The only female cadet in our class never really fit in with us and always seemed to stand apart.
Back then, I was a much more meddlesome person than I am now, so I approached her, said a few things, and kept her company.
That was how I ended up smoking too. Yeah, yeah.
As I was lost in the past, Tirpitz spoke and pulled me back into the present.
"The Vichya dispatch... if it isn’t too shameless, may I go too?"
"Hm?"
I looked at Tirpitz with a face that clearly said, Why bother?
"...I want to make up for my mistake from before."
"Heh..."
I patted Tirpitz on the shoulder and said,
"Hey, the problem was that those girls came in with a plan. It wasn’t your fault. You did everything you were supposed to do. It wasn’t your mistake, so don’t feel guilty."
"But still..."
"And besides, having two battleships, which are major assets of the fleet, move out would be a problem for the home port’s defense too. You have a more important job, don’t you? Guarding the new ship dock?"
Tirpitz let out a short sigh and seemed to give up.
"Haah... Understood."
"Good, good. Now hand the cigarette back."
I was the mast, after all.
Tirpitz started walking away, then suddenly looked back and said in a voice barely loud enough for me to hear,
"Have a safe... trip..."
...
"Please, show us mercy."
"...We’re in no position to be generous either. It may sound harsh, but the benefits your faction brings us are truly minimal."
".....So you’re going to throw us away once we become useless, just like you did with the Commander?"
"Mind your words!"
The two girls glared at each other fiercely.
"Hah... Fine."
Prince of Wales glared at Richelieu.
"Someday, you’ll pay for your karma. Royal Navy. And you too, Wales."
With that, Richelieu turned and left.
...
Morning came for the Vichya dispatch.
I dragged my carrier case and boarded the flagship.
As expected, subcontractors work better when you rough them up a little.
When the subcontractors said the repair would take another week, I brought a money bag over and swung a golf club in front of them.
Then I said,
"If this isn’t finished within three days, what explodes might not be this money bag, but your heads."
It probably looked like villain behavior, but I hadn’t actually hit anyone in the head, so wasn’t that legal?
It was basically the original contract fee plus a bonus.
Granted, I added the bonus in a somewhat violent way...
Anyway, if the result was good, then it was all good.
I finished setting the route and blew the pipe to signal departure.
"Fweeeet—departing!"
At my signal, the escort fleet followed behind me in perfect formation.
Since Jean Bart was here, I had her board my flagship too.
Bismarck seemed somewhat uncomfortable, but I soothed and coaxed her until I got her permission.
Honestly, I always wondered why I had to watch Bismarck’s mood when this was my escort fleet...
Ever since that incident, I felt like I’d been watching my step even more.
It felt less like the Iron Blood’s prestige that Bismarck always talked about and more like the Commander’s prestige had taken a hit...
Well, if the result was good, then it was all good.
I turned on autopilot and sat down at the table.
"Jean Bart. Are you really okay?"
"...I said I’m fine. Worry about your own business."
"....."
Her attitude, sharper than usual, made me think through a few possible reasons.
That day?
ahem
No, seriously, why was she acting like this?
Could it be because of the love shot?
No, that couldn’t be it...
With nothing but a suffocating feeling building inside me, I kept the voyage going.
And before long, the land of Vichya came into view.
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