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

「Curlew, just admonishing someone in a stern way is not going to help that someone improve.」

「But Nee-san! As excellent maids it is our duty to strictly watch others on a daily basis so that we can properly discipline them and help them improve their mistakes.」

It seems that there was a subtle difference when it comes to the educational policies of the sister shipgirls of the Ceres Class.

Kent and Suffolk, who were caught in between their arguments right now, waited patiently for them to finish arguing while growing more and more intimidated by the minute.

「Wow…… Somehow I feel really guilty here. I mean, this whole situation is kind of our fault, isn’t it?」

「And it does not really look like it is going to end anytime soon…… right?」

The two Maids smiled wryly to one another when they realized that instead of being preached on by Curacoa and Curlew the two Ceres Light Cruisers were busy arguing with one another.

As Kent and Suffolk were patiently waiting for the two of their senpais to finally be done with whatever it was that they were talking about now,

「—— Ah, speaking of which, you two.」

As if Curacoa suddenly remembered something important, she stopped arguing with Curlew and looked at Kent and Suffolk.

「Belfast actually sent us to tell everyone to gather in the kitchen once you are done with your cleaning duties. Apparently, we need to discuss the matter of flowers and who is going to take care of them.」

「Taking care of flowers?」

Beside Kent, who twisted her neck in puzzlement, Suffolk suddenly had twinkles in her eyes for some reason.

「Wow, flowers! The flowers, you say?」

「Surprise! Did you like flowers that much, Suffolk?」

「Why, of course! They are all beautiful and colorful, and they smell absolutely great, to boot!」

Suffolk folded her hands in front of her chest and stared into the distance with her eyes still looking as though they were mesmerized by the topic of flowers.

「I absolutely love gazing at the sky all day, but looking at the flowers is something that I enjoy doing all the same! If you are going to arrange various kinds of flowers together for us to look after, I definitely want you to pick some gerberas into the mix.」

「Gerberas? Why those in particular?」

Truth to be told, Kent happened to know next to nothing about flowers in general.

Or rather, it was just that she’s never really had any particular feelings about flowers before, so it was a bit surprising to see Suffolk’s devotion to flowers to be so big and the maid herself to suddenly become so passionate about them.

「What do you think, Kent?」

「What? About flowers? What do I think about them?」

「Well, of course! Besides, isn’t it already decided? If we are going to be taking care of the flowers, why don’t we do it together? What do you say to that?」

When she was being invited by Suffolk to take care of the flower together like that, there was actually no way that Kent could possibly refuse her.

「OK! But just let me warn you now, I have like, zero knowledge about flowers of any kind. Or flowers in general. Don’t say that I did not warn you.」

「No problem! Even I don’t know that much about it, but even people like us can do some simple stuff like watering, for example!」

Curlew let out a deep sigh as she looked at the proudly chest-puffing Suffolk as she spoke those words.

「And I still don’t know what you guys are even talking about…… Talk about jumping from one topic to another at your own pace.」

「But be that as it may, the two of you seem to be really good and close friends, huh?」

Curacoa said that and then chuckled lightly, witnessing the exchange that went between the two Heavy Cruisers of the County Class.

Then suddenly she looked up as if she had suddenly remembered something important once more.

「Oh no, this won’t do. This won’t do at all. By staying here for so long, someone might think that we are slacking off as well. We need to get back to work!」

Then, after she said that, she hurriedly grabbed the laundry basket and went down the stairs to the lower floors.

「You two, just promise me that you are going to be more careful from now on. Just this once I am going to keep this incident from Belfast, but if I happen to catch you like this next time, I won’t be so merciful.」

Curlew spoke to Kent and Suffolk with a stern tone and then she followed after her sister downstairs.

After that Kent and Suffolk, who were left alone once again, resumed cleaning the floor with their mops, but this time around actually putting some effort into it.

「Alright then, Kent! Let’s just give it our very best to wrap this thing up as soon as possible! Together!」

「Yes, let’s do just that —— Oi! Wait just a minute, Suffolk! We were just told not to run in the corridors!」

「I know! And I am not running! I am just walking really fast, that’s all! And just like that, victory is going to be mine!

Kent hurriedly tried to follow after Suffolk, who was trying to quibble and move forward at full speed once more, but she suddenly moved her gaze outside of the window and stopped right in her tracks.

The sunshine that was filtering through the trees and gently coming inside through the windows was warmer than anything else, and today it seemed to be especially warm.

* * *

「Is everyone present and accounted for? Have you all finished your assigned tasks?」

When Kent and the other maids finished cleaning and returned to the kitchen as they were told, everyone else was already there, gathered up around Belfast.

And by the looks of it, every single maid had gathered in the kitchen right now, save for a few exceptions.

「Bel, it looks like more or less everyone is here. Except for Sirius, that is.」

Edinburgh reported to Belfast after quickly assessing who was present and who was not.

「When it comes to Sirius, she is currently out of the Home Port island. She was sent on an escort mission this morning.」

While such a conversation was being exchanged between Edinburgh and Belfast, Kent hurriedly brought two spare chairs for herself and Suffolk, and the two maids sat down on them without a moment’s delay.

「Here you go, Suffolk. Help yourself.」

Once Kent was back with those chairs, Suffolk quickly got up from her chair and bowed her head down a little bit to Kent as a sign of appreciation. She then started to rub her eyes for some reason.

「Thank you Kent… Uuuhhh, oh gosh, I am so sleepy right about now.」

「Wow, what is this? And here you were, being all excited just a moment ago!」

「I guess it is all the spring sunshine’s fault. It is so nice that it is actually quite overwhelming, I am not going to lie…… Uwaaaaaahhhhhh~.」

Even though Suffolk was just about done opening her mouth and yawning, mere seconds later she opened her mouth once more and let out another yawn, but this one even greater than the previous one.

Kent sat right behind Suffolk, ready to support her or prevent her body from falling off of her chair, seeing that she was about ready to fall asleep on the spot, even though the meeting was still in progress here. In the worst case, even if she was to doze off here, Belfast and the others should not be able to find out about it, because Kent chose a sort of a blind spot for them to sit at.

「I’m sure that dozing off like that would usually only attract people’s attention to you, but come on! You are way too sleepy for your own good! More like, how can a person be so sleepy!?」」

「Oh, stop it, you~. You are going to make me blush~!」

「I was not actually praising you!」

Suffolk sat down, and within a dozen seconds her eyes began to close completely on their own.

I really needed to fix that habit of falling asleep so easily like that of hers.

The meeting finally started when Kent while Kent was busy being both impressed and annoyed at the same time.

「This time, everyone gathered in here to talk about the flowers that our Maid Corps grows.」

Belfast then began to address everyone.

「Actually, the maid who was in charge of the flower bed in the courtyard has been out on a long-term military consignment since the beginning of this month, and the maintenance of the flower bed that is being raised by her has become unmanageable as a result of that.」