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

At the current moment Kent was irritated beyond belief, but she was sure that after a long and good night’s sleep, she should feel refreshed and positive the following morning.

But at that time Kent never would have thought just how bad of a turn the situation would take, not even in her wildest dreams and fantasies.

***

The next morning, While it was still dark outside, Kent descended down the ladder to the bunk bed and landed on the ground.

“Hey! It’s morning already! Good day, Suffolk! Wake up! Wakey, wakey!」

After shaking her roommate in her bed several times, Suffolk slowly rose up from her bed, rubbing her still sleepy eyelids.

「Uuugh…… Still so sleepy….. And it’s slightly cold here……」

Kent smiled when she heard that and gave her roommate an enthusiastic thumbs up as she rubbed her body all over her pajamas.

「Don’t worry about it! It might be slightly chilly now, but it is going to get warmer and warmer! Besides, once you get your body to move, it the cold won’t bother you any longer!」

「No, I think it’s just something that works for someone as crazy and unreasonable as you are, Kent……」

Suffolk let out a huge yawn while mumbling those words under her nose.

Apparently, she was in a much better mood than she last night,

While Kent was waiting for Suffolk to get out of her bed and to change her clothes, she opened the curtains to freshen herself up and made her bed all neat and tidy. The maid in charge of the laundry would come to collect the bed sheets later, so she made sure that her job would go as swiftly as possible.

「Alright, I’m all ready.」

「Good! Then let’s go to the courtyard right away!」

After Suffolk gave a moderately enthusiastic response to that statement, the two maids left their room and went down the stairs.

When the two reached the center of the corridor on the first floor and opened the glass door that was at the end of it, they were able to easily access the courtyard of the Royal Navy’s Dormitory.

If you were to walk straight alongside the stone pavement road filled with greenery to your left and right, you would eventually see a large green arch right in front of you, and if you were to pass through it, you would reach the terrace used for tea parties held on various occasions.

Looking at the round table and chairs in front of them, Kent and Suffolk remembered that they held a birthday party for both Belfast and Bel-chan in here just the other day.

This terrace was the center of the entire courtyard, and the paths leading from it were divided into north, east, and south sections.

「Umm, let’s see, if I remember this correctly, the block that the Maid Corps is in charge of should be somewhere…… Over there, I think?」

Kent proceeded forward while looking at the map of the courtyard she had been given from Belfast yesterday for reference.

After crossing an arched bridge over a large pond and walking even further, the Flower Tunnel came into view of the two maids.

「Ah, look at that, Kent. This is the rose garden that’s just ahead.」

After passing through the flower tunnel, the next space that the two happened to arrive at was the main Palace Garden.

When Kent saw the roses colored in various gradations, she let out a sigh of admiration and looked back at Suffolk.

「Beautiful! What a beautiful place this is! Just look at all those roses!」

Going forward even further, they saw a large flower bed that was managed by the Maid Corps.

“Ah, looking at this place again, it sure is big and wide.」

Suffolk slumped her shoulders when she saw the vast flower bed that looked just like a miniature botanical garden.

「O-Oh well, I mean, that’s why we have each other here! So how about that? Let’s try not to get too discouraged here, shall we?」

「Suffolk, that’s really rich coming from someone who did not hear a single thing about all of this yesterday, you know?」

「And don’t forget that we are actually in charge of yet another section besides this one. We also have to prune the trees over there while we are at it.」

「Huuuuuuuuuhhhhhh!? N-No way……!!」

While Suffolk was busy with dropping onto her knees in an ultimate gesture of despair, Kent spread out the map in front of them.

「Well, as for the next place we need to go, I am certain that it is supposed to be somewhere in the direction of……」

「—— I have been waiting for you, Kent-san. Suffolk-san.」

The two of them turned around when they suddenly heard a voice calling out to them from behind their backs.

There, a golden-haired shipgirl stood with a stance filled with confidence and with a bright smile on her face.

「My name is Aurora, a Light Cruiser of the Arethusa Class. I have heard all about you from Belfast-san. That being said, I myself am really inexperienced, so I am not very confident that I can teach you well, but I look forward to working with both of you.」

The scent of roses wafted through the air coming from Aurora’s hair as she delivered her greetings like that.

The two maids then bowed their heads tensely as their nostrils were tickled by the captivating aroma.

「Hey there, I’m Kent! Nice to meet you……」

「Nice to meet you, too…… I-I’m S-S-Suffolk!」

「Ufufu…… No need to be so tense here. You can relax some more.」

With a smile on her face, Aurora walked to the flower bed at the end of the rose garden.

「There’s another flower bed over there that the Maid Corps will be in charge of. Let’s go there and get you up to speed now, shall we?」

As the two maids followed right after Aurora, the three of them soon arrived at another flower bed that was one size smaller than the previous one. There were also a whole lot of different flowers there.

「Oh… Unfortunately, this here Kent only knows about tulips, and that’s about it.」

「As for me, I was afraid that this one might have been of the same size as the previous flower bed, so I’m a little bit relieved to see that this is not the case here……」

As the two maids said those things at roughly the same time, they both let out a sigh from their mouths, albeit of a very different kind.

「You see, the person who is in charge of this part of the courtyard said that she was drawing some blueprints for this particular flower bed for the time being.」

「What!? Blueprints?」

Aurora nodded at Kent’s surprised voice.

「Yes. Here you will find the map of what colored roses are in what part of the courtyard. It is also important to know what kind of flower should go where during each changing season. There are also places where there are some scars, rock gardens with waterfalls, and hedge mazes. There is quite a lot of variety to this place.」

「…… Now I’m beginning to understand why the Head Maid was worried about the people volunteering for this job having any experience with gardening at all.」

Even though it was only going to be a temporary job, the two maids were starting to think that they might have actually bit more than they could possibly chew.

And since neither of them knew how to do some proper gardening work, Kent thought that they had no choice but to take care of things here according to the instructions given to them for the time being.

「Fight! Aurora-san, we would really appreciate it if you could tell us how to take care of this flower bed right away in a proper way!」

「It’s really easy to understand, let’s start with some simple watering.」

According to Aurora, the watering hole was quite far away. Because of this, Kent and Suffolk repeatedly fetched water with watering cans and then they would return to their assigned post.

「Well, gardening is a whole lot more of a hard work than I could possibly imagine……」

Placing the water can on the ground, Suffolk whined out loud. She then slumped down looking all exhausted and spent.

Kent, who was actually good at all kinds of hard manual labor, was able to easily do any number of water trips that were necessary, but she seemed about to be hitting her limits now, just like Suffolk did.

「Hey… I’m already at my limit… I can’t move even one step.」

「Even though watering is the most basic of basics……」

Kent raised her voice as if she had some objections to that statement.

「B-but still, it’s way too hard…… At least you could give us something easier to handle, hm?」