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Azur Lane: Episode of Belfast Volume 2 Chapter 3 Part 7

「Understood, Nee-sama!」

Holding a birdcage and a book in her hands, Bel-chan left the kitchen.

Bel-chan could not simply leave the bird alone and go outside to play once again, so she decided not to go out for the rest of the day, and when she went out into the hallway, she noticed that it was snowing heavily outside the window, just like it did last night.

「Fuaaah…… What an incredible blizzard out there……」

A voice came from the direction of the entrance, and when she looked that way, the three C-Class Destroyers that she happened to see earlier were all here, covered in snow from head to toe.

It seems that the weather took a drastic turn for the worse while the maids were busy with treating the little bird’s injury.

「Geez! I was thinking of making an igloo back there, but it ended up with a snowball fight and nothing else!」

Crescent puffed out her cheeks as she stepped on the ground in anger, while Bel-chan walked up the stairs in a hurry.

She reached her room, and when she was safely inside, she immediately looked for a place where she could put the birdcage.

She caught a glimpse of a table with a vase by the window. The vase has never been decorated with flowers since Bel-chan first came to this room, so it was a perfect location.

「Besides, I can always put the vase somewhere else. So it’s really okay.」

Bel-chan then quietly placed the birdcage on top of the table.

The redstart was no longer lying down as before, but was curled up in its cage and didn’t move at all. Wondering if it was because it was cold, Bel-chan looked around the room for something to warm the poor thing up.

「How about something like this?」

What she found was a desk lamp. It was battery-operated, and if you were to place it near a birdcage, it would surely make it very warm.

Next, she tried covering the cage with an unused blanket, which should trap the heat inside of it and make it even warmer.

She also had to prepare some water and something for the bird to eat. So she took a small bottle, removed the cap from it, filled it with water and put it inside of the cage.

Next, I looked at the book that Sheffield brought her, and started to skim through its contents. What she was looking for was the section that would tell her what particular food the redstarts eat. She then found out it eats mostly small insects such as spiders, and a red fruit called Vilacanthus (photo attached). It also said that it eats various kinds of nuts.

When she saw that information, Bel-chan remembered something that she happened to see when they went to pay a visit to Erebus’s hut around Halloween’s time.

She then spoke out loud to herself: “I think that I saw it near that hut…… there were clearly some nuts over there, and I vaguely remember some fruits as well!”.

Bel-chan then decided to leave the room right away. She had to make sure about that.

When she opened the back door of the dormitory, snow rushed inside with the sound of a ripping wind.

She zipped up her coat halfway up her face and put the hood on. Then she made sure that only her eyes would be left unobstructed from the elements outside.

The distance towards the Erebus’s hut was not all that great to traverse.

「Alright then –––––– Let’s go!」

With that small shout to keep herself motivated, Bel-chan ran outside. She hurriedly held down her hood, which was about to be blown away by the strong wind, as she jerked forward on the snowy road, seeing that the footprints she had left when she passed through here not all that long ago disappeared.

「This is…… Yes! That’s it!」

When Bel-chan came towards the secluded hut, there were certainly viracantha fruits and some nuts growing there.

She brushed off the snow from them and she returned to her room again and put the nuts and fruit in a small cup and placed it inside of the birdcage, right next to the cap filled with water.

「…… But for some reason you still won’t eat, huh?」

On the contrary, even though she had created a warm environment, the redstart was still curled up in front of the pitcher of water.

Seeing that, Bel-chan was starting to become anxious. And after a long while of her pondering and pondering what she should do now, she heard the sound of the door opening and saw Edinburgh coming inside of the room.

「I have heard the news. Bel-chan, is it true that you are taking care of a small bird?」

「Edinburgh-nee-san, this is ––––––」

When Bel-chan told Edinburgh that the little bird did not want to eat anything, Edinburgh nodded her head and peered at the redstart inside of the birdcage.

「Well, maybe it is something that can’t be helped for now, because it is still too weak. Maybe it will start eating the nuts after it has recovered a little more of its strength.」

「But if it won’t take in any nourishment, it won’t be healed!」

「Fufufu! Well, about that……. Just leave it to your Edinburgh-nee-san! I will take of that!」

Edinburgh then removed the bottle that was placed in the water pitcher of the cage. She then left the room in a hurry, and Bel-chan was sure to follow right after her.

The two of them came back into the kitchen.

Suddenly, for some reason, a burst of cold air rushed in.

「–––––– Bel-chan, what happened?」

Kent was standing in front of the back door leading outside of the dormitory, which had been opened wide. Her whole body was tightly wrapped in winter gear, and she even had goggles on her eyes.

「What happened? Why are you being dressed like that?」

When Bel-chan asked her that, Kent raised her goggles to her forehead and laughed out loud.

「Snowsuit! As expected, if we let the snow pile up like this, soon the dormitory would be buried under all that snow! So I am going to start shoveling it away together with the Head Maid!」

「I was just about to tell Bel-chan the very same thing. I also wanted to ask for her help with wrapping up the remaining work inside of the dormitory. It is kind of a drag, but what cannot be helped cannot be helped, as unfortunate as that might sound.」

Edinburgh started to dig through the cupboards without making any excuses. Bel-chan looked back at Kent, thinking that there was not really any reason to make a fuss quite like that about such a matter.

「Please be careful, so that you won’t slip outside.」

「OK! I have heard it earlier, but Bel-chan, do your best to take care of that little bird!」

After saying that and putting on her goggles again, Kent dashed outside of the dormitory.

「Oh! There it is, there it is!」

After seeing Kent off, Edinburgh brought a sugar pot in front of Bel-chan.

「If it won’t be drinking any water, please try to give it some sugar water. Just by putting sugar into your body, you can recover your physical strength, you know?」

Edinburgh then also added: “Add a little water and heat it to about 40 degrees before adding the sugar for the best effect.”

「No matter how warm the place where you are staying is, if you drink all of the water you want, your body temperature will be at or below it, right? That’s why I thought it would be better to let it stay like this until it feels better.」

Somehow, she said so with a smile, but what she said made a lot of sense.

After returning to her room and giving the redstart a drink of sugar water, Bel-chan brought her chair in front of her birdcage and continued to watch over the bird. When it was time for her to eat, Belfast, who knew about her situation, took the trouble to bring her food to her room as well.

Even when night fell and everyone was about to fall asleep, Bel-chan continued to watch over the weakened redstart sitting on her bedside.

「It’s okay…… Everything will be, okay……」

Bel-chan spoke softly.

「Because I will be…… watching over you…… this entire time……」

Bel-chan shook her head and slapped her cheek when she almost lost consciousness more than once, telling her that she couldn’t sleep just yet.

But a few hours after the date changed, she had reached her limit.

Bel-chan fell on top of the table and fell into a deep sleep, and in her fading consciousness she felt something warm lay upon her back. .

* * *

When she woke up in the morning, there was already no one in the room.