Azur Lane: Episode of Belfast Volume 2 Chapter 2 Part 4

「Me! Me! I will brew it!」

Warspite stared at the figure of the maid as she walked steadily by.

–––––– If she remembered correctly, it was someone who Belfast once called Bell-chan.

Although she was very young, Warspite thought she had a very firm personality for someone of her age.

「Here you go.」」

Saying that, Bel-chan handed Illustrious her tea.

As for Illustrious herself, who was sitting right next to Warspite:

「Thank you very much.」

Illustrious accepted the cup with a smile on her face from the hands of the lovely and small maid.

Seeing that, Bell-chan bowed and left back to her position.

The members of the Maid Corps served the tea and sweets to the participating members one after another.

As they have spent their time relaxing and talking amongst themselves,

「Rejoice, everyone! For I am finally here!」

All of a sudden, the door of the meeting room was opened with a mighty force.

「Y-Your Majesty the Queen!?」

Warspite raised her voice in shock, because standing in front of the door was none other than Queen Elizabeth of the Royal Navy herself, who was absent from the dormitory for so long to tend to her end of the year duties.

「Y-Your Majesty, how!? Why are you even here…… Usually you wouldn’t be able to come back to the dormitory until the end of the year……」

Illustrious asked while placing her hand firmly on her cheek.

「Yes, that’s right. Usually, that would be the case. But! Things have changed this year!」

“Right, right.” said Elizabeth, while she came to the place where the iron boxes were being kept and fell on top of the seat right next to them.

「I know that this work is important and that it needs to be done as soon as possible, but come on! Are you kidding me! It’s almost Christmas out there in the world! At a time like this, why should we the representatives of all factions sacrifice our precious day off for the sake of doing some boring work? What a sick joke!」

「Well, if you are putting it like that, Your Majesty…… I guess that you are right.」

Hood nodded her head as if it was a completely reasonable and justified reason for skipping important work like that.

「That’s why, starting from this year onward, we have stopped doing that kind of ridiculous schedule! We are going to do what work can be done there, and what we can bring back with us to the dormitories, we are going to bring it back! And what we can’t do for the moment, let’s put it off! After discussing it with the other representatives and trying to rationalize it some more, I managed to be able to return to the dormitory between today and the end of the year. Which is exactly why ––––––」

Elizabeth then made a small pause here and deliberately cleared her throat out loud so that she knew that she would have everyone’s undivided attention.

「–––––– That is exactly why I’m also going to be a part of this year’s Santa Claus operation!」

A wide smile appears on Elizabeth’s small face as she says that.

And seeing Her Majesty’s expression become like that, there was no way that everyone else’s expression wouldn’t turn to smiles as well.

「Your Majesty!」

Naturally, it was the same for Warspite, and she stood in front of Elizabeth while realizing that her usual sharp expression had collapsed and was nowhere to be seen.

「Oh my, if it isn’t Warspite ––––––」

Elizabeth smiled at her wickedly, and then she stared at Warspite as if she was trying to peer deep inside of her soul.

「–––––– Knowing you, you must have felt pretty lonely all this time, huh? So, did you really missed me that much?」

Warspite’s expression first changed into that of a complete shock, and then she just started to wave her hands quite frantically to cover her own embarrassment.

「N-No, that’s not true, Your Majesty! True, I admit that I was feeling a little bit lonely without you, but I was trying my best to endure and not to worry about you that much!」

「You know, you would sound a whole lot more convincing if you did not have those tears welling up in your eyes.」

「Huh!? N-No way! N-No, that’s not true, Your Majesty ––––––」

Warspite then hastily tried to cover her eyes and wipe those tears away, but there were no tears welling up in the corner of her eyes at all.

「Just kidding. I just thought it might help you loosen up a bit, Warspite.」

「Huh!? Haa…… Hahaha. Welcome home, Your Majesty!」

Warspite smiled embarrassedly even though she was completely caught up in Her Majesty’s mischief once more.

「Alright then, Bel, Edi! I want you to tell me the presents that are written on those cards immediately. Of course, I will also hand out presents on the day of the event itself. What kind of Santa would it be without something like that? I’m really looking forward to seeing all of those smiles on everyone’s faces!」

「Yes, Your Majesty!」

Belfast said while bowing down her head in front of Elizabeth, and then she and Edinburgh resumed taking out the Christmas cards from the boxes and reading their contents out loud.

—— I’m happy. I am so happy for you right now, Your Majesty.

While looking at the profile of Elizabeth who enthusiastically faced the meeting head on, Warspite thought like that to herself deep inside of her heart.

* * *

「–––––– Alright then! It’s high time to disband!」

With Elizabeth saying those exact words, the long meeting finally came to an end.

Belfast looked out the window while everyone stood up from their seats. It was getting dark, and she had to start preparing dinner immediately if she wanted to make it in time.

It was a good thing for her to actually ask Kent and Suffolk to prepare the stew in advance.

Belfast then turned towards Edinburgh right next to her:

「Let’s just clean this place up and go rejoin the others right away.」

「Yes, that’s right, Bel. Let’s hurry!」

One of them wiped the desk with a wet cloth while the other collected the empty cups of tea.

「……But I must say, the end of the year is a truly tiring and difficult period. Right after Christmas is over, it’s time to prepare for New Year’s Eve. As maids, this means that we have a very short time period to prepare for everything accordingly, which is making things even harder.」

Belfast looked up at Edinburgh, who unintentionally started to complain like that.

「That being said, the Royal Navy’s New Year’s Eve isn’t nearly as busy as the one they have at the Sakura Empire, isn’t it?」

When Belfast pointed that fact out, Edinburgh’s movements suddenly came to a stop.

「Huh? Hey, Bel. Come here for a second.」

With Edinburgh beckoning her little sister with her hand, Belfast approached her quickly,

「What happened?」

「Doesn’t this thing belong to Her Majesty?」」

What Edinburgh was holding in her hand was an expensive-looking fountain pen.

It was characterized by a copper shaft made of resin with a pattern resembling a marbling print, and Belfast had the feeling that she had seen something similar in Elizabeth’s office before on more than one occasion.

「I’m sure that you are right about that. I’ll go back to Her Majesty and deliver it at once.」

「Yes, you do that. This thing looks to be really expensive, and I am sure that Her Majesty must have simply dropped it and failed to realize that it is gone, seeing that she can sometimes be really clumsy for no apparent reason.」

Edinburgh smiled shyly and scratched her cheek while saying that.

「That’s why I think it will be best to leave it to you, Bel.」

As soon as Belfast was handed the fountain pen by Edinburgh, she left the conference room and headed for Elizabeth’s office at once.

As she walked down the corridor, she looked out the window.

After Halloween was over, the temperature around the Home Port had started to drop bit by bit every day. She had a feeling that this year would be much colder than usual and that it would start way earlier than usual.

Even though the leaves on the trees were still red and yellow, there was already frost accumulating on top of the mountains surrounding the Home Port. If this temperature drop trend was to continue, the first snow of the year would be relatively close at hand.

「At this rate we might even have ourselves some White Christmas, who knows?」

Then, when the Head Maid took her eyes off the window, she saw Elizabeth and Warspite right in front of her.

This particular corridor was the place where the children’s rooms and some of the Light Cruisers were located. Elizabeth and the others were standing in front of one of the doors and talking amongst themselves in hushed voices.

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