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

Elizabeth started to move her palm as if she was chasing after her escort. Her expression at that moment was also pretty smug.

Warspite would then blow on the straw slowly and gently to create a large soap bubble that just kept on increasing its size.

A small soap bubble was born from the tip of her straw without much of a problem.

She thought that she was doing pretty good, and when she blew some more into the straw. Soap bubble was illuminated by the sun’s light, and it grew bigger and bigger while shining in rainbow colors.

As for the bubble itself, it quickly became larger than Warspite’s head, and then,

「Ah!!」

The soap bubble burst into nothingness without making even the slightest of sounds.

At that moment Warspite regretted that she was so greedy with it. She should have gone much softer on the soap bubble, but now it was far too late for that. She would simply have to pay attention to that next time around.

「Fufufu, what a shame, Warspite. Such a pity.」

Elizabeth smiles fearlessly seeing Warspite’s bubble bursting like that.

「And now it’s my turn. Watch closely! I’ll show you how it’s done!」

When Elizabeth grasped her own straw with the soap solution, she started to gently blow air right into the middle of the soap-covered ring.

The soap bubble quickly grew in size, easily surpassing the size of the one that Warspite previously made.

Seeing the soap bubbles getting bigger and bigger with no sign of it stopping anytime soon, Warspite could only let out a sigh filled with admiration.

「Amazing…… It’s really amazing, Your Majesty!」

The soap bubble continued to swell and grow in size, and before the two of them even knew it, it was already spreading across the entire sandy beach.

「……T-This is.」

Warspite was actually starting to wonder if this bubble was not actually way too big for its own good.

Even though it was already an impossibly large size, the soap bubble continued to expand even further, as if there was no cap on just how large it would actually get.

Before the two shipgirls knew it, the bubble had expanded so much that a few people could have easily fit their heads inside of the hollow space inside of it. And, on the contrary, the bubble was still increasing in size, to the point where it was about to pass the perimeter of the uninhabited island and start to go beyond it.

Warspite also raised her voice when she realized that the situation with this bubble right here was becoming really abnormal really fast.

「Y-Your Majesty? N-No matter how you look at it, this is starting to get really weird, don’t you think ––––––」

Warspite was frantically trying to convince Elizabeth to stop doing what she was doing, but Her Majesty would not show any signs of stopping her endeavor anytime soon, continuing to blow into the soap-covered straw like it was nobody’s business.

「A-At this rate, isn’t it basically going to explode!?」

Warspite then had a thought like that occur in her head: what would happen to the two of them if they were right next to the soap bubble of this size when it would finally decide to burst?

「No, Y-Your Majesty, please stop this immediately…… 」

Before the two even knew it, the soap bubble was huge enough to easily fit an entire adult person inside of itself, with even some extra space to spare, and –––––– knew it, the soap bubble was big enough to crush one person ——

POP!

「Hauah!?」

It was at that moment that Warspite jerked on her feet and jumped out of her bed involuntarily.

His forehead was literally drenched with sweat. It took her a moment to calm herself down, but then Warspite realized that she was actually inside of her own room at the Royal Navy’s dormitory. She then realized that everything that was happening up until now was only a really bad dream.

「Ah. Yeah, go figure. It was way too weird to actually be true. Just like I thought……」

Warspite then covered her face with both of her hands, partially to wipe the sweat off of her face and partially to cover just how embarrassed she was.

What a foolish dream to have! She could clearly feel that right now her face was so red with shame and embarrassment that it might have actually been catching fire any moment now.

「I’m sure…… I’m sure that it must have been because I was so busy lately that I had no time to actually sit back and catch a break…… I can’t think of any other reason……」

Recently, Warspite has been leaving the Academy frequently due to various military commissions that she was a part of, and she may have accumulated fatigue from continuing to perform missions at sea almost every single day for a prolonged period of time.

In the first place, it was already four months ago that she went to an uninhabited island and played with soap bubbles together with Queen Elizabeth.

That invitation wasn’t just a part of a regular mission, or a side activity while being on their way back home from a mission. It was just that one day when Elizabeth was done with another mountain-load of paperwork, she invited Warspite there out of sheer curiosity.

And besides, at that time, there was no way that Elizabeth would ever propose a soap bubble showdown like that. Not a chance in hell.

In reality, it was just taking a perfectly normal breather. Of course, Elizabeth had the soap bubbles with her at the time, but she just suggested that they could blow some of them towards clear blue skies as a method of enjoying themselves while they were being at it.

Elizabeth sat beside her while the two were drinking tea and laughing as she looked at the many soap bubbles that had formed all over them.

「It was so much fun……」

It was surely an uneventful time, but Warspite was sure it would be one of the unforgettable memories that would be sticking with her for the rest of her life.

But why would she even have such a dream now all of a sudden?

「Could it be because Her Majesty…… is not here at the current moment?」

At that moment Warspite cast a quick glance at the calendar hanging on the wall.

It was already three days before Christmas, and Elizabeth had not yet returned to the dormitory.

Currently, she was busy with her various duties at the Home Port along with representatives of all other factions. Since it was a standard procedure done at the end of the year each year, she told Warspite that there would be a whole lot of paperwork to do. Even more than usual.

Every year around this time, Elizabeth would not come back home until New Year’s Eve.

And just like every year before this one, this time around she was gone for about two weeks already.

–––––– I really miss you, Your Majesty……

After thinking that for a moment, Warspite was taken aback.

「W-What the hell am I even thinking!?」

After smacking herself really good to the head like that, Warspite immediately changed her clothes and headed towards the dining room for breakfast.

* * *

In the afternoon of that day, Warspite headed to a certain conference room around the dormitory.

「–––––– Warspite-sama. We have been waiting for you. Please take a seat.」

Belfast was standing at the entrance of the conference room, and Warspite sat down at her usual seat to which she was guided by the Head Maid.

In addition to Belfast, there were many other maids serving the room.

From now on, the meeting that would be held in this room would be dedicated to picking what kind of Christmas presents they would be handing to the children this year.

Other participating members included Hood, Illustrious, Prince of Wales, and Duke of York.

In front of the blackboard at the back of the conference room, Hood, the main facilitator, was lining up large iron boxes one by one.

Inside the boxes there were Christmas cards written by the girls living in the Royal Navy’s Dormitory.

On those cards, there were various items that the shipgirls requested as the gifts that they would like to receive from Santa Claus this year, and each card had additionally the name of the shipgirls that would like to receive that particular gift.

The participants of the meeting would look at the requested items written in that way and discuss whether it will fit within the budget. The cards would be then divided into accepted requests and declined requests.

「–––––– Everyone, I thank you for all of your help and for cooperating with this year’s meeting as well. Without any further ado let’s get started.」

Shortly after Warspite took her seat, Hood announced that to everyone currently present in the room in an official tone.