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Azur Lane: Episode of Belfast Volume 3 Chapter 4 Part 5

「One, two! One, two! Yes, that’s it! That’s it! Looking good!」

At first Edinburgh was seriously worried about that idea, but the more she was observing both Kent and Serious, the more she was thinking that her worries might have been baseless. Although they were not strong enough to stand on their own, they were able to dance to the music that was playing just fine.

「When there’s music, even if you don’t seem to be in sync, you can just dance to the rhythm and you will be fine for the majority of the time. Although it might feel like your tempo is a little bit off, Sirius.」

Kent said so with a blank expression on her face.

In the first place, she did not seem to understand how difficult it was for someone with no sense of movement to just dance to the simple rhythm like this one.

Then, when the music finally ended, Sirius suddenly straightened her back and started to bow down her head over and over again, as if apologizing for something.

「Huh? W-What’s wrong, Sirius?」

When Edinburgh was thinking that there was nothing that Sirius could possibly feel ashamed of or depressed about the way things were going right now, Sirius replied while clenching her fists with frustration.

「……We couldn’t show the Head Maid a perfect dance because of my clumsiness. Please, forgive me for being such a disgrace!」

「No! No! No! There was nothing wrong with your dance moves at all! Or rather than that, I think it was more than enough for you to act as a role model for everyone else! It’s amazing enough to be able to move like that for the first time in the first place!」

Even when Edinburgh said so, Sirius would still hang her head low, shaking her to the sides in denial.

「No. I am sure that it is because I am a lowly and incompetent maid…… I even caused trouble to my senior Kent-san……」

Kent, who was suddenly shaken by Sirius’ words, shook her hands in a hurry.

「What!? Hey, I just said you were going a little bit off rhythm, but I don’t think it’s such a nuisance at all!」

「…… I am really sorry! I have caused you to worry about something like that!」

Sirius looked to be seriously depressed at the current moment. As she stepped forward in front of Belfast, she bent her body at an angle of nearly ninety degrees and bowed her head deeply, even deeper than ever before.

「Please, Head Maid…… Please punish this naughty maid who made a mistake even when it was about something so simple…… Uuuhhh~~~.」

「Sirius, there is going to be no punishment for you, so please, raise your head for now. There’s no need to be depressed.」

Belfast said so in an exasperated tone.

That was basically how Sirius was all the time. She was always truly devoted to whatever she was asked to do, but in return, if she made a mistake or felt responsible for even the smallest thing going wrong, she would start acting in an awfully self-deprecating manner. She would start demeaning herself and ask her superiors for punishment for her apparent misdeeds.’

As expected, she was a type of maid that was difficult to handle, as trying to appeal to common sense was no use with her.

「Now then, Sirius, please raise your head. No one is blaming you for anything here.」

Somehow, even though it took a moment of time, Belfast managed to get Sirius back on her feet.

In the midst of all this, Edinburgh flipped through the pages of the dancing textbooks.

「But color me surprised! I would never expect for both of you to be able to pull it off so easily.」

Maybe it was slightly different from what she could read in the books, but it was still surprisingly easy for the two of them. Now Edinburgh was starting to become somewhat more confident.

With that in mind, she put the book on the grass and followed the example of those two, trying to do some of the basic steps herself.

「Swap my legs here and…… Kyah!?」

However, once Edinburgh tried to copy the steps, her legs got all tangled up and she tripped and fell over.

「And just what do you think you’re doing, Nee-san?」

Belfast asked her that question while diverging her gaze from Sirius with whom she was still having a conversation.

Somewhat embarrassed, Edinburgh brushed her red cheeks.

「N-No, nothing~~……… It’s just that, Kent and Sirius seemed to be doing it easily, so I wondered if I could do it, too.」

「I understand that you are eager to learn the dance steps as soon as possible, Nee-san, but as I expected, it’s going to be tough for you to learn something as complex as that so all of a sudden.」

「But I thought that if it was the easiest of the steps, even I could do it right away!」

「And incidentally, which ones did you try, Nee-san?」

Belfast picked up the book lying on the lawn and randomly opened it.

「Umm, Nee-san…… Please correct me if I am wrong, but shouldn’t the very basics be written at the exact beginning of the book?」

As soon as Edinburgh heard that question, Belfast looked at the corresponding page in the textbook for a while, then moved her left and right legs neatly while still holding onto the textbook.

And just like that, she spun around at the very end of her small choreography.

There was so much flair in her movements that Edinburgh wondered if she purposely concealed the fact that she had been practicing those steps in advance. Because she was having an increasingly hard time believing that this was her very first time doing those steps.

「—— Something like that. Was that correct, Nee-san?」

Belfast asked Edinburgh once again when she had come to a full stop.

The way in which she danced was so graceful and natural that Edinburgh could not help herself but to just stand there and stare at her younger sister blankly.

「Nee-san, are you listening to me?」

「Huh? Ah, y-yeah, I think that you did just fine there.」

「Hmm, I see. I think it will be possible to develop various new moves and things based on those basic moves alone.」

Looking down at the textbook again, Belfast nodded her head as she picked it up.

The ease with which it took Belfast to perform those dance moves was so frustrating that Edinburgh did not know how to react to it for a moment.

As she just stood up amongst the grass, Edinburgh slapped her skirt down while looking down at her feet. She wondered why it was that even though the two of them were supposed to be sisters, the difference between them was like that between night and day.

「I wish I could be like that, too, you know……」

She mumbled under her nose in a low voice.

But with the current steps, she felt like she could do it quickly without that much practice.

「Bel, lend me that textbook again.」

Edinburgh came to Belfast and urged her to hand over the textbook.

「I know that if I only read it once more, I will be able to emulate those dance moves equally as good as everyone else. Don’t underestimate your older sister’s abilities!」

「Don’t worry about it, Nee-san. That was not my intention whatsoever here. Not now, and not in the past as well.」

Saying that, Belfast handed Edinburgh the textbook.

「Now watch and be amazed, Bel! I might have failed just now, but after having one more look at the steps again, I am sure that I am going to ——」

「Nee-san, there is no need for you to be so impatient.」

Belfast called out to Edinburgh while she was turning the pages with the basic dance steps written on them.

「There is no need for you to force yourself like that. You can just take things slow for the time being.」

Edinburgh blushed strongly upon hearing Belfast’s worried words.

「I-I know it, geez! But YOU surely did not have to practice that many times with these steps before you nailed them down!」

「No, Nee-san, that was just —— 」

Belfast closed the textbook before she could finish her sentence, and Edinburgh again moved her feet slowly across the grass.

「It’s all about balance. As long as I can shift my weight well, even I can do this!」

It was a simple movement where she would cross her right and left legs several times, then shift her center of gravity and spin around.

After carefully simulating it in her head, Edinburgh took her first step.

「Look at me, Bel, first step on this tempo……」

「Nee-san, and I keep on telling you that there is no need for you to be in such a hurry all the time……」