3 bar menu

Azur Lane: Episode of Belfast Volume 2 Chapter 2 Part 3

With that short announcement, the meeting was officially about to begin. Warspite then adjusted her pose in her chair a little bit.

「Belfast, Edinburgh, can I ask you to lend me a hand with this right away?」

Called over by Hood, both Belfast and Edinburgh approached the blackboard after they were quietly waiting at both sides of the entrance to the conference room.

The two of them came towards the blackboard where Hood was standing, and took out the key to the lock on the iron box.

「–––––– It’s actually like doing a Handler’s Box, but on the Christmas Eve.」

The one who whispered that was Duke of York, the third battleship of the King George V Class.

「What remains at the very bottom is always hope, or is it simply that the negative legacy of the Crimson is simply too great……?」

「What does even a ‘Negative Legacy of the Crimson’ mean? You mean a deficit?」

Hood glared at the Duke of York for a moment.

「I’ll leave it up to you to interpret.」

「There is no need to interpret anything. We do this every year precisely so that we do not end up in the red!」

While the two were having such a thorny exchange, Belfast and Edinburgh each inserted their own keys into the locks and unlocked the box.

「Well then, let us begin, shall we?」

Saying that, the Head Maid thrusted her hand inside of the box.

In the same way, Edinburgh had another box opened and reached out for its contents.

After rummaging through the contents of each of the boxes, Belfast and Edinburgh put them on top of the table, and then both of them started to read the cards in their hands roughly at the same time.

「This one belongs to Beagle-san. She would like to receive a bunny plushie.」

「Mine is from Bulldog-san. She would like to get a cow-motif mug cup.」

At the moment when both Edinburgh and Belfast were done reading their respective cards, others started to flip through the data materials that they had from last year’s requests written on cards.

「One of them asked for something similar last year.」

After flipping through the materials, the Prince of Wales opened her mouth.

Warspite also started to flip through her data notes, and last year they each requested a ‘Rabbit Papa’s shirt’ for Beagle-san and a ‘Cow print T-shirt’ for Bulldog. For some reason those requests looked strangely similar.

「I mean, as long as it goes well within the limitations of our budget, it doesn’t matter what someone wants, right? As long as we can afford it, I mean.」

Illustrious raised her hand and called out.

「Maybe both of them just want to collect stuff with their favorite animal motif? If so, then I see no harm in doing so.」

「More than favorite, aren’t those animals that both of their namesakes would rather prey upon? Wouldn’t you agree?」

Listening to the words of the Duke of York, some of the people present nodded their heads as if they understood what she was getting at. Because when one was to look into it, both of their namesakes were originating in the breeds of dogs.

But seeing that there were no other opinions being raised here, Hood looked at everyone and then said:

「Well then, does that mean that we all agree that those requests can go under the “approved’ category?」

After waiting for a while and confirming that no one was going to object that, Hood turned towards the two maids.

「Well then, both of you. Could you pass those Christmas cards to me right here?」

When Belfast and Edinburgh handed over their cards just as they were told, Hood pushed the large stamp with the letters ‘Approval’ written on them one by one and collected them to place them on a separate pile.

This was in general just how the flow of this particular conference would go.

As they were all reading out the requests written on the Christmas cards and comparing them with the data from last year, debating whether or not to approve them, Warspite’s thoughts gradually started to drift off and she began to absentmindedly think about Queen Elizabeth once more.

–––––– If Her Majesty was in here with them right now……

It was none other than Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, who originally suggested that such a Christmas present tradition should be held by the Royal Navy every year from now on.

If she hadn’t been busy with her own share of work at the end of the year, she would surely have been sitting right here with them right now.

「What a pity…… Haah.」

「What do you think is exactly “a pity”, if I may ask, Warspite-sama?」

Illustrious, who was sitting right next to Warspite, looked at her curiously as she unconsciously uttered those words out loud.

In a panic, Warspite started waving her hand as she answered Illustrious question.

「N-Nothing! It’s nothing, really! Nothing at all! Just this Old Lady talking to herself, that’s all! Ahahahahahaha……」

While trying her best to sound truthful and not having to go into the details of what she just said, Warspite came up with a sufficient lie on the spot and laughed a little bit, trying to play it off.

She certainly needed a well-deserved rest, but for the time being she decided to focus her attention on the meeting at hand. She also reminded herself that no matter what her circumstances might have been, it was by no means an excuse to do her responsibilities half-heartedly.

「The next card is from…… Abercrombie-san. She would like to receive a set of firecrackers.」

「「「Denied」」」

Hearing the contents of the card that Belfast had read, Hood truncated it without a second thought, followed by everyone else in a single-minded decision.

「The contents of the gift can only be managed with the surplus of the military budget meant for the war operations that is being provided to each faction. But even though we are discussing what things we can and cannot give to others, we also must consider the safety of the gifts that are being requested. But what to do about this one……」

Hood muttered those words as if she was beginning to have a headache, pressing her fingers against her temples. It was also possible that she could hear Abercrombie’s annoying laugh ringing inside of her head right about now.

Just as Hood said, gifts are purchased with the surplus from the faction budget after deducting the necessary expenses from it for the purposes of various military operations. So depending on the year, there are times when most of the requests can be safely approved and there are also times when a vast majority of the requests need to be denied. That is also the purpose of the documents containing past requests –––––– so that the budget could be managed responsibly.

「But somehow, this year’s budget seems to be pretty severe, don’t you think? While it pains me to deny some of those requests, I guess that there is nothing that can be done about it. …… It’s only natural that not everything can be green-lit.」

As she put her hand on her cheek, Illustrious so with a sad expression. It was only natural that she wanted for everyone to receive the gifts that they wanted, but sometimes the things requested would send them well over the budget. So in those cases they had no choice but to deny them and offer those girls something else as a form of compensation.

It was a meeting that was somewhat difficult, because you had to determine what can be accepted and what can be denied, and sometimes certain requests would spark a heated debate.

And if anyone was to ask her why they were going so far for something like this, there would be only one possible answer to give right here.

—— The smiles of the children who are happy to receive their gifts…… That was the best thing in the entire world to behold.

Waspite and other attendees who attend the conference each year were hoping to give the same joy to the children year after year. That was the true essence of the Royal Navy’s tradition of “Santa Claus”.

After that, Belfast and Edinburgh alternately read out the requests for presents one after another, and everyone seriously discussed whether or not to approve them. The meeting seemed to go on until the sun went down.

「I wonder if we should take a break for the time being?」

As expected, it was difficult to do so many cards all in one go, so Hood came up with a proposal like that.

Looking at the clock, two hours have already passed since the beginning of the meeting.

「Excuse me, you maids over there. May I have a cup of tea?」

Hearing Illustrious gentle voice and seeing her smile, one of the maids immediately raised her hand in the air.