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Azur Lane: Episode of Belfast Volume 2 Chapter 3 Part 5

「Did you come out the back door by any chance, Ark Royal-san?」

Bel-chan asked her.

「Huh? A-Ahh, y-yes, that’s right.」

Ark Royal nodded her head.

「So why didn’t you just accompany them all the way back from the dormitory? You could have gone together.」

「No, you see, that’s because…… if you come out together, they would be wary of my presence, and just like that I can witness them in all of their energetic glory!」

Ark Royal then made a face that seemed to be saying: isn’t that only natural?

Bel-chan then asked another question, even though Ark Royal’s behavior was already quite strange as it was.

「Why do you like Destroyer girls so much, Ark Royal-san?」

「Well, it’s because they are so cute! That’s why!」

Ark Royal excitedly spread her hands and answered immediately.

「Of course, compared to the Destroyer girls, your charm and cuteness are also the best, even though arrived here only recently, and Bel-chan, I am sure that someday……」

Then, after thinking about it for a while, Ark Royal raised her head, the expression on her face looking as though she just managed to come up with something really great, at least in her own opinion.

「Alright then, how about I introduce you to each of the Destroyers that are currently living in the Home Port and talk about their good points and charms in a really magnificent and romantic way!」

「Huh?」

Unfortunately, before Bel-chan managed to snap out of the shock that this statement caused her and urge Ark Royal to stop and not do that, the Aircraft Carrier already started explaining each and every single Destroyer from the Home Port in great detail.

And what was even worse here was the fact that it was the kind of story that took a REALLY long time to actually wrap itself up properly.

At first Bel-chan intended to listen to Ark Royal’s story from start to finish while paying attention at all times, but soon she found out that her consciousness turned somewhere else entirely and would refuse to focus on that subject once again.

–––––– But the road that Ark Royal used to get here…… It seems that there was still some of the fresh snow over there.

Right now completely ignoring Ark Royal’s impassioned speech, Bel-chan stared at the forest road. She thought that if she was to follow that path right to the end, perhaps she would leave footprints that would not be trampled with.

On their way back, the two followed the footsteps of Ark Royal and returned to the back door of the Royal Navy’s Dormitory.

Bel-chan then managed to slip away from Ark Royal, who was still chattering all the time, and she stepped steadily into the forest where the fresh snow still remained mostly untouched.

It was only sometime later that Ark Royal was able to realize that she was ditched.

「–––––– And just like that, this is the exact reason as to why I love the Destroyer girls so much, and…… Huh? Oh my? Bel-chan? Where are you?」

* * *

As Bel-chan walked through the woods, she came across a road that split into two different paths.

Ark Royal’s footprints were left on the sloping road on the right split path.

It would seem that the right path continued slightly uphill and led right back into the Royal Navy’s dormitory, and that no one passed by the left split path.

「Alright then, left side it is!」

Immediately, Bel-chan stepped on the fresh snow with no footprints let on it and started walking straight ahead.

Not even noticing that she had already gone way beyond the grounds of the Academy, Bel-chan continued to go deeper into the mountain while staying in a relatively good mood.

「It is so very quiet here.」

The snow-buried forest was even quieter than the hill of the Academy where Bel-chan was not all that long ago.

–––––– Please, don’t stray too far from the Dormitory’s grounds. Can you do that for me?

At that time, Belfast’s words from right before she was about to go out suddenly crossed Bel-chan’s mind.

And at last she has come to realize just how far she managed to stray from her original place where she was supposed to be.

「Let’s go back, everyone must be worried……..」

If possible, she wanted to explore a little bit more before going back, but she felt that it would be dangerous to proceed any further than this.

The reason for this was that the snow, which had been flickering until just a little while ago, was starting to get stronger again.

Now she was still able to retrace her steps back to the forked path a while back. Giving up was something that could not really be helped here and Bel-chan turned the way she came with a determined look on her face.

But it was then that,

「–––––– The singing of……a bird……?」

Bel-chan lifted her head up and started to listen intently.

In the middle of the quiet snowy mountains, she thought that she could hear the voice of a small bird coming from somewhere.

「I think I also heard the meowing of cat.」

Those were actually two different voices that Bel-chan could hear coming from the same general direction.

Normally, she wouldn’t pay all that much attention to it, but since she has been walking in the quiet snowy mountains all this time, the new sound that could be heard all of a sudden picked her curiosity.

The direction she heard the noise coming from was in a forest where no one had set foot yet. Bel-chan decided to go back just now, but she wondered if it was really okay for her to continue on like this.

After worrying about this and that for a short while,

「In the end, I am still confused about what to do……」

In the end, Bel-chan could not help it but to worry about the little bird and its cries. Bel-chan then stepped on the fresh snow and walked through the trees in a rather hasty pace.

And just like that, before long Bel-chan was able to identify the owners of the two cries.

「This is……」

She could see a small bird perched on a nearby tree’s branch.

And right at the foot of that same tree as the branch on which the bird was sitting, for some reason there was a round cat that was trying to cling to the tree’s trunk, as if it was going to climb it up and get the bird.

「Why are you doing this? Are you perhaps trying to eat that bird……?」

At that moment, the little bird kicked the branch on which it was sitting and moved its wings to fly away.

However, for some reason, the little bird landed back on the branch, or it was more accurate to say that it fell right back on it. And then it lost its balance and fell towards the ground.

The place where the small bird fell was on the snow less than a meter from where Bel-chan was standing right about now.

And seeing the bird fall down to the ground, the cat tried to move away from the tree’s trunk and come right towards its prey.

「Oh no, you won’t!」

When Bell-chan shouted that out loud, and then the cat jumped back as if it was startled.

「Do you want to eat that poor thing? Go away!」

When Bel-chan shouted those words out loud with clear hostility behind them, the cat kept shaking its head and hissing frantically.

Something was wrong with that cat. Thinking that, Bel-chan glanced at the little bird next to her.

That’s when Bel-chan finally took notice of something.

The bird’s left wing has not moved at all since a while ago.

「No way… are you injured, little one?」

When Bel-chan asked that out loud, the cat then ran up to some object that was now on the ground, and which it was holding in its mouth a second ago. That object was actually a small hat. So, could it be that the cat was actually trying to help the bird get of the tree without getting injured?

「Sorry for the misunderstanding, little kitty. Anyways, this little one need to seek treatment immediately……」

Bel-chan held the little bird in her arms and started running as the round cat still with the hat in its mouth started to lead the way.

Her destination was the direction from which she had come here.

Bel-chan was running at full speed, knowing that time was of the essence here.

The little bird seemed pretty weak. It must have exhausted its strength trying not to fall from that tree or trying to fly away. Looking at its limp body in her hands, Bel-chan picked up her pace even more as she grit her teeth.

Despite her frustration, she managed to find her way back after a while.

「The footprints that Ark Royal-san left are……」

She hurriedly searched for them, but the snow had already managed to cover them completely, and the footprints had already disappeared.