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Azur Lane: Episode of Belfast Volume 2 Chapter 1 Part 15

「What the!?」

The thief kicked the ground as if it wanted to jump high over Bel-chan’s head and landed right behind her.

At that moment, everyone’s sights went straight to Bel-chan.

「…………………!?」

The thief managed to turn the tables on the Maid Corps once more, leaving everyone present seemingly stunned and unable to react.

And then it started to jump around over and over again, as if provoking its pursuers to try and hit it now.

「No!! Head Maid! At this rate Bel-chan is going to be caught in the cross-fire!」

Kent’s distressed words weighed heavily on Belfast’s mind right about now.

Despite all of her personal vows to not let herself be caught off guard this time around and bring this entire thing to an end, something completely opposite ended up happening.

The thief who was able to advance beyond the circle of armed maids and get back to safety immediately started to run away once again. Now that it has distanced itself from Bel-chan and the rest of the maids, they could resume shooting at it, but with such a distance between them and their target there was a really slim chance that they would actually be able to land a solid hit on it.

「–––––– Umm, Belfast-nee-sama?」

At that time, Bel-chan pointed at the thief who was getting farther and farther away.

「Would it be okay if I tried to hit that thief with my cannon fire right about now?」

Hearing Bel-chan say that, Belfast tilted her head as if she was having a hard time understanding what she just heard.

「Since there is no risk of accidentally hitting one of our comrades in the process, I would say that there is no problem with you doing so, but…… I’m afraid that at this moment the thief is already outside of the effective range of our cannons.」

「If it’s a distance like that, then I believe that there won’t be any problem with me actually landing that shot.」

Along with those words, Bel-chan’s appearance started to shine really brightly.

While letting out a sigh of relief, she chased after the thief with such a great speed that it made it look as if she had vanished from the scene in an instant.

「No way……」

Edinburgh said while her mouth went totally agape as she gazed at the figure of speeding Bel-chan.

Everyone else was just as dumbfounded as Edinburgh was at the moment, knowing what just happened but actually having a hard time comprehending it.

At the same time, Bel-chan was still running at an unbelievable speed and showed no signs of stopping anytime soon.

And then she was able to easily catch up to the thief who was also running at an unbelievable speed all the time, and at that time the barrels of Bel-chan’s guns made a dull sound.

The range between the two was now almost completely zero, so close that the barrels of Bel-chan’s guns were actually touching the tip of the thief’s nose.

As for the thief, it just stood there, rooted in place, unable to move even an inch forward or backward.

It was as if I was completely unable to actually comprehend what happened here just now.

「…………………!!!

In the midst of all that, Bel-chan got her guns ready to fire all at once.

「…… I know that this is actually going to hurt, but do try your best to tough it out, pretty please?」

CLICK! And with that short and quiet noise, all of Bel-chan’s guns fired all at once.

At the same time as Bel-chan’s guns fired off, the thief made an astonished face as the whole territory around it started to become a barren wasteland ripped apart by cannon fire. Of course, the sheer force of the assault and the momentum of the shots landing on the ground caused its body to be sent flying in the air only for it to come back crushing towards the ground after going several meters forward.

And once the thief’s body landed back on the ground, Bel-chan stepped on it and held the thief firmly in place, making sure that it would not be able to run away no matter what.

Then the Belfast’s group, who was up until now just watching this spectacle from afar in sheer astonishment and amazement, hurriedly rushed to Bel-chan’s side in order to assist her.

「B-Bel-chan!? Are you alright!?」

Edinburgh got to Bel-chan first and started to shake her by the shoulder, as if that was going to confirm whether she was alright or not.

「E-Edinburgh-nee-sama…… That hurts, that actually hurts.」

「I never would have thought that you were able to run so fast like that, Bel-chan! That’s really amazing! You really saved us all here!」

The situation might have been contained for the time being just like that, but if the previous encounter taught everyone something, it would be to not let their guard down around this thief, lest they want to chase it around all over again.

「Nee-san, you might want to let go of Bel-chan for now. At this rate you might actually hurt her.」

While leaving a word of caution for Edinburgh, Belfast then approached the candy thief, who was still lying on the ground, seemingly knocked unconscious by Bel-chan’s mighty barrage.

The thief’s head had been cleanly blown off from its shoulders by the previous barrage, so for a moment out there Belfast felt as though a wave of nausea was about to overwhelm her, but that feeling disappeared as soon as it appeared. And then a completely new feeling replaced it altogether.

「This…… But this is……」

When Belfast got closer to the “corpse” of the thief and looked at it more carefully, what she was actually a small yellow creature she had seen before, peeking from the cut in the bag on the thief’s head.

Holding one of those creatures in her fingers, Belfast picked it up and brought it closer to her face, glaring at it really intensely.

No matter how she tried to look at the creature, it looked just like the Manjuu, one of the creatures that you could see all over the Home Port, taking care of various tasks.

「Now then, you guys. Care to explain to me what it is that you are all doing……?」

At that moment, when Belfast pinched the manjuu’s cheeks slightly, it woke up with a mighty jolt.

And when the small creature realized that it was being suspended in the air, it started to panic, thrashing its small wings and legs around like wild.

「“Everyone seems to be enjoying this Halloween greatly, so we wanted in on the fun as well. And seeing just how many people were carrying sweets and candy around, we wanted to help ourselves to some of that as well, while also giving everyone a scare.” …… Goodness gracious, where did you even obtained such a wrong information as to what Halloween is all about?」

Listening to the manjuu’s frantic explanation, Belfast could not help herself but to let out a deep and long sigh at the same time as voicing her thoughts out loud. It would seem that this entire “ghost-hunting” business has been the result of one huge misunderstanding. And it was so nonsensical that it was making Belfast want to laugh out loud.

「Okay, now listen to me, and listen well, guys. Thanks to your ‘participation’ in the event, this year’s Halloween has become one huge mess. Do you understand what I’m saying? Also, you are going to return all the sweets and candy that you have stolen to their rightful owners, right this instant. Which reminds me, where did you even manage to store them all this time?」

Seeing that Belfast was not kidding, under the constant monitoring of the Head Maid’s sharp gaze, the manjuus immediately guided everyone present towards the place where they managed to stash all the stolen sweets and candy.

* * *

「Whoa…… Just take a look at the sheer amount of this thing……!!!」

The place that the maid group managed to arrive after being guided by the small group of manjuus was a small cave just a short walk from the sandy beach near the main Home Port facilities.

What was in front of the maids’ eyes was a literal mountain of stolen sweets and candy. And the sheer amount of it was making it really hard to believe that the manjuus were able to collect all this across the span of one single day.

「Are you saying that all the sweets and candy in here comes from the children from whom you have stolen it all?」

Hearing the sharpness in Belfast’s tone, the manjuus started to bow their heads down all at once, to the point where they almost brushed their foreheads against the ground.

「But I mean seriously, guys…… What were you thinking!? What were you even going to do with all of this!? There’s no way in hell that you would be able to eat all of that all by yourselves!」