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Azur Lane: Episode of Belfast Volume 2 Chapter 4 Part 9

「Where is my sister……?」

Hearing those words, Elizabeth and Warthheit’s faces stiffened at the same time. Bel-chan did not miss that sudden change of their behavior, and with Sheffield’s sudden attitude change earlier, it was now perfectly clear to her that something was wrong here and that everyone was acting really strange.

「Everyone…… I don’t even want to think that this is the case here, but…… Are you perhaps hiding something from me? Something that has to do with my sister?」

Belfast asked that question calmly and quietly. Although she was very calm and composed, there was something extremely cold about the way in which she spoke those words right now.

「—— N-No? We are not hiding anything from you. And that’s the truth.」

Elizabeth’s voice suddenly rose up. It was obvious that she was trying to deceive her, and even Bel-chan knew that it was a blatant lie just now.

「Your Majesty, with all due respect, but what you just said just now only makes you sound like there is something really going on.」

Warspite panicked when she saw that Belfast was about to leave the bed because of Elizabeth’s words just now. She then tried to hold her back at all costs.

「Please, let me go, Warspite-sama. I’m going to find my sister on my own.」

「Oh no, you don’t! You still have a fever! You need to rest and recover!」

Warspite said so in a stern tone as she tried to press down on Belfast’s shoulder in a vain attempt at forcing her to lie back down..

While Belfast started to have another coughing fit and sat back down because of that, she then spoke up with a half-irritated look on her face.

「Then if you want me to stay in bed and focus on recovering, you could at least be honest about the whereabouts of my sister!」

「That’s why we keep on telling you! It’s nothing! Bel, stop being so stubborn and unreasonable here!」

Belfast slowly shook her head as Elizabeth tried to answer her quickly.

「If it is seriously nothing, then please tell me where my sister is right now!」

「Geez! she’s inside of the dormitory, alright!? So don’t you dare go out into that hallway, Bel! This is your Queen’s order! You hear me, young lady!?」

Belfast stopped in her tracks the moment she heard her Queen giving her a direct order.

Elizabeth then signaled Warspite to leave Belfast alone for now.

「What if you were to overexert yourself and fall down because of it? What would you do if you ended up hurting yourself really badly because of that? I don’t think that I need to order you to stay in your room for the rest of the day and recover from this cold, but if you’ll force my hand, I will do it! So stay inside for the time being and behave like a good maid should! Is that clear?」

Elizabeth then sent Warspite to fetch some maids who could keep watch over Belfast for the time being . As she put her hand on the door of the room,

「Bel-chan! You make absolutely sure that Bel won’t leave this room, understood?」

After saying that, Elizabeth stormed out of the room while shutting the door behind her.

「Belfast-nee-sama……」

Bel-chan glanced up at the bed with an upward glance.

Belfast sat still with only her upper body being upright. The little maid couldn’t even read what she was thinking because the Head Maid was so expressionless right about now.

Far from being emotional, Belfast could feel that even her very soul fell silent.

Then she slowly moved her lips,

「—— Dorsetshire said so to me yesterday.」

She said so with a hoarse voice.

「She said that she thought that my actions and words are not nearly “passionate” enough.」

The Head Maid was holding her futon tightly in her clenched hands.

「—— But right about now, I’m…… I’m nowhere near cool and composed at all!」

And just like that, Belfast ripped off her futon from her body and grabbed the edge of her bedsheet and stood up.

「Wai —!? N-Nee-sama!? You can’t! You must stay here and rest!」

In a panic, Bel-chan also stood up from her chair.

Elizabeth and Warspite were surely still somewhere out there. So if she was to go outside right now, it would have been a clear violation of Her Majesty’s direct order.

「If you go out into the corridor, Her Majesty will scold you for sure, Nee-sama!」

While listening to Bel-chan’s words, Belfast picked up another sheet.

「I do not intend to go out into the corridor」

「Huh?」

Belfast tied the sheets tightly together, tied one end of the makeshift rope to the leg of the bed, and threw the other out the open window, an action that made Bel-chan’s face turn pale in an instant.

「It won’t be a violation of Her Majesty’s order because I will come outside through the window!」

She said something like that, and then Belfast descended from the window to the ground along the rope made out of bed sheets. And at the same time Bel-chan unintentionally opened her mouth wide and her eyes shone bright with this brilliant display of both wisdom and action.

「…No, it’s not good! This is hardly the time to be impressed like that!」

Bel-chan instantly came to her senses, and she herself descended through an escape door made out of bed sheets.

Once she decided to the ground floor, she gave chase after Belfast. It was her duty to take care of her for the day, and she was not going to abandon that responsibility now.

「Nee-sama! Please come back!」

When Bel-chan got down to the ground, she saw Belfast heading inside of the dorm from the side of the front door. She rushed after her, went back inside of the dormitory, and ran off without losing sight of her sister’s back.

Belfast’s destination seemed to be the kitchen. If you think about it normally, it’s the only place where Edinburgh could have been right now.

Normally, it was around the time dinner was being prepared.

Thinking so, Belfast opened the door of the dining room and walked towards the kitchen.

「Belfast-nee-sama! Please, go back to our room right now and ——」

Bel-chan then swallowed the rest of her words.

「Huh…? Where is everyone……?」

The kitchen was empty. No one was there. Dinner had not been prepared yet, and there was no sign of Sheffield, Kent or Suffolk in the empty space of the room.

「But why……?」

Bel-chan looked hard at Belfast’s back, who muttered in a hoarse voice. Her shoulders were starting to tremble little by little right now. Even though she was in a feverish state, the speed of her legs earlier made it impossible to feel it.

Bel-chan then thought that maybe some of Belfast’s lost stamina managed to recover —— but it was then that……

「… … When I first came back to the Home Port!」

It was then that Belfast started speaking in a trembling voice.

「At that time, I wasn’t as familiar with nearly as many people as I am now. And I was not even interested in getting to know anyone else. I was fine with just doing my own things, even if it meant that others would slowly end up drifting apart from me. And I was thinking about that only recently.」

The Head Maid’s fists were clenched tightly at that very moment.

「But my sister…… Edinburgh never thought any less of me because of that. She saw more in me than I was ever able to see…… And she even said to me once: ‘I want you to get along better with everyone, Bel. That is…… That is the only request that I would ever have for you as your older sister.」

「The only request as an older sister……」

When Bel-chan repeated those words under her nose, Belfast strongly turned her back.

「Yes. That was the only real favor that she ever asked of me. And ever since that time she insisted on us having those regular “Certain question/ sisterly interrogations” in order to make sure that I am actually on good terms with everyone else. It was not something to which you could simply say “Yes” so frankly……」

After saying that, Belfast rushed out of the kitchen.

「Belfast-nee-sama!」

Bel-chan panicked and immediately ran after the Head Maid. As she exited the dining room and went into the corridor, the little maid did not know whether she had gone left or right, stomping and wobbling, and if she were to make a bad decision here, she would end up running in circles.

「Uuuhhh~…… Over here」

After hesitating for a bit which of the corridors to choose, Bel-chan ran in the direction of the glass door leading into the inner courtyard.