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Azur Lane: Episode of Belfast Volume 4 Chapter 1 Part 8

「Please let me do it! I will make sure to capture the daily lives of the maids as best as possible! This Echo right here swears!」

「E-Echo-chan!? Are you serious?」

Echo then snorted and puffed out her chest proudly against Edinburgh, who seemed to be really shocked and surprised by the little Destroyer’s sudden declaration.

「Yes, I am sure. Besides, this here Echo is very much interested in the work that you do and your daily life, Edinburgh-san.」

After saying that to her, Echo once again turned herself towards Elizabeth.

「Please, just leave this to me, Your Majesty! Echo will surely cover the daily life of Edinburgh-san and all the other members of the Maid Corps in the way that you will find worthy of a passing grade!! That, I can promise!」

And when Echo gave Elizabeth a comically big salute with a smile on her face, Elizabeth folded her arms on her chest in apparent satisfaction.

「Fufuhn, you, I see that you have quite a good eye for people and are a good judge of character. As the Queen of the Royal Navy, and as a fellow shipgirl, I can appreciate that, as I appreciate your honesty. —— Very well then, I understand. I shall appoint you to be the Chief of the Maid Corps Interview Team from now on!」

「Yay! Hooray! Thank you so very much, Your Majesty!」

Jumping on the spot from sheer joy and elation, Echo grinned at Edinburgh while looking all happy.

「I am looking forward to working with you from now on, Edinburgh-san!」

「I-I never would have expected that Echo would go that far! And certainly not for the sole purpose of holding an interview with me! Say, Bel?」

When Edinburgh turned her head towards her sister, Belfast was quietly thinking about something, not paying attention to what was going on.

「Bel?」

「Belfast-nee-sama?」

Belfast then raised her face in surprise when she noticed that both Edninburgh and Bel-chan were peering into her face with worried expressions.

「Is there something wrong, Nee-sama? Perhaps you are not feeling well? Is there anything I can do to help?」

「Ah, no…… It’s just that, you see, I felt as if there was something stuck in the corner of my memory just now.」

「Something stuck in the corner of your memory? What does that even mean, Nee-sama?」

Seeing how worried Bel-chan was about her, Belfast gently put her hand on top of Bel-chan’s head.

「It’s okay, Bel-chan. I am sorry for having worried you. It’s nothing, really. If I can’t actually recall that memory clearly, then it must mean that it is simply not all that important to begin with.」

Even though she tried to reassure Bel-chan that everything was fine with her, there was still some sort of strange feeling deep inside of her heart for some reason.

「For the maids to be the main leading role……」

There must have been something about that fact inside of her mind that made her think of such a thing, but for the time being Belfast was unable to actually remember what kind of thing that could have been.

* * *

The next morning.

「Good morning! Mr. Edinburgh!」

「…… Fueh? Huh? Ah, what the, that’s just you, Echo-chan……」

「For today, I shall be accompanying you throughout the entire day to see just how the Maid Corps’ members operate throughout their daily routine. Thank you very much for having me and I hope that our work together is going to be a fruitful one!」

「O-Oh, yeah, about that…… Looking forward to working with you as well. Fuwaaahhh~~!」

With her eyes looking as though she was clearly still half-asleep, Edinburgh, needless to say still in her pajamas, let out a big yawn as she looked at Echo’s enthusiastic face right at her bedside.

「By the way, Edinburgh-san! I just happened to realize that fact, but once you take your glasses off, you happen to look exactly like Belfast-san, the Head Maid!」

「…… Nnnhhh. People often say that to me, but I wonder if that is really the case here? I am not really so sure of that myself, but……」

Edinburgh, still being in the middle of a semi-awakened state, swayed her head from left to right while listening to Echo’s words.

Just then, some rays of early sunshine started to flood the room, as if someone had just opened the curtains all of a sudden.

「Nee-san, Echo has been here ever since I finished getting myself dressed. Please bear that in mind.」

「Hee… You really seem to be motivated to do this, huh, Echo-chan?」

Edinburgh murmured those words under her nose and she was rubbing her still half-asleep eyes with her hands, to which Echo only smiled brightly and laughed happily, looking as if she did not know what to say to that.

「Well, you see, Edinburgh-san…… It was just that I was so excited ever since last night that I had trouble falling asleep because of it!」

The way in which she put it made her sound just like an Elementary School student right before they would depart on a field trip.

「Aside from that, Nee-san, please change your clothes as soon as possible and go to the kitchen first.」

Edinburgh finally stretched out her arms as she got up on the bed and stood up while letting out another big yawn. It was so great that she almost missed hearing what Belfast said to her.

「Please don’t tell me, everything from now on is going to be a part of Is this going to be an interview from now on?」

「Yes! That’s right! And after I am going to finish writing about the Maid Corps’ work in the morning, I plan to go and have Her Majesty check up on it, to see if I am going in a good direction with it.」

Echo cheerfully nodded her head to Edinburgh’s question, looking all happy.

「Well, aren’t you one busy Destroyer so early in the morning? Fuwaaah~!」

Answering in a somewhat displeased tone of voice, Edinburgh went towards the bathroom to wash her face and get ready for the day to come.

That being said, Edinburgh on this day was more organized than usual, partly due to the presence of Echo by her side at all times.

Normally, when she would wake up, she would have been a little more sluggish than she was today, but for today she immediately got ready and changed into her maid outfit in a record time.

Just as she finished changing her clothes, Echo also spoke up loud enough so that she would know that Edinburgh actually heard her.

「And just like that, the first memo is ready! It will be something like this!」

「Huh? It’s already done? Talk about having an awfully fast writing pace, Echo-chan.」

Echo then immediately looked at both Edinburgh and Belfast, as if looking for their approval to read her memo out loud, and when they both nodded their heads to encourage her, Echo did just that.

「The Royal Navy’s Royal Maids Corps!

They are truly an elite team of shipgirls, easily being the pride and joy of the entire Royal Navy faction!

However —— They are by no means any plain and ordinary servants!

They are strong, elegant and beautiful just like flowers, and they are also excellent “shipgirls” on top of it all!

Among them, there are the Town Class Light Cruisers, Edinburgh Sub-Class, who serve as maids. That includes Belfast-san, the Head Maid of all Royal Maids, and her day starts early in the morning every single day.

The day in the life of the Royal Maids already starts before dawn, when the birds are still asleep and ——」

「I think I might have actually gotten way too enthusiastic with my writing out there…… Do you think that it is going to be alright if I were to do it like that?」

Immediately, Echo asked with an anxious voice.

「I feel like you are getting a little bit overly excited about our Maid Corps…… Like, you seem to be selling us at a way higher value than we really are. …… What do you think, Bel?」

Asked by Edinburgh like that, Belfast also thought for a moment before she proceeded to give Echo her honest impressions.

「It might seem overbearing right from the get go, but I also feel like Echo-chan also tried to include her honest feelings that might actually help Her Majesty with finding whatever it is that she is searching for with that story of hers. So a little bit of exaggeration may be helpful even if it’s just the prologue part.」

「So, does that mean it is OK for it to stay like that for now?」」

「Yes. I don’t really see any reason why it should not be left just like that.」

When Belfast nodded her head, Echo’s face brightened and she held the notepad under her arm really tight.