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Azur Lane: Episode of Belfast Volume 4 Chapter 2 Part 13

「Everything is for the sake of successfully completing the stage play in time…… even if it means becoming a demon.」

「Becoming a demon, huh……?」

The words that Warspite also spoke, reverberate inside of Belfast’s head.

「Honestly, I wish that we wouldn’t have to resort to a solution like that.」

Belfast was still worried and was having a hard time deciding.

She could then hear the sound of Elizabeth’s pencil writing, and occasional curse as she would crunch the paper and throw it away.

「…… Bel, by the way, what time is it now?」

Belfast quietly checked the pocket watch she brought with her here.

「It hasn’t even been an hour yet.」

Hearing this, Elizabeth rested her back on the chair’s backrest.

「Say, by the way, why isn’t there a clock here?」

「The cardinal rule of Confinement Work is to eliminate all of the unnecessary distractions.」

She was very careful not to let Elizabeth know what time it actually was right now.

「Rest assured, Your Majesty. I will let you know when it’s the time for you to get well, so could you please continue with your work until then?」

「Okay, okay, I get it…… Goodness gracious.」

Even as she muttered those words, Elizabeth began to make the sound of her pencil crunching against the paper once again.

In this way, her writing work, which had been going smoothly for a while, began to come to almost a complete stop little by little after the span of more or less three hours.

Eventually Elizabeth began to turn her neck and rub her shoulders with her hands more and more often, even rolling her pencil around and moving her chair as she was becoming increasingly more restless.

And at last there was a point where she was clearly unable to stand it anymore and,

「B-Bel? Umm…… I was wondering, can I have a little distraction? Just a teensy-weensy little bit?

She spoke to Belfast in a sweet and appealing tone.

At that time, Belfast was checking what she had written with a red pen in her hand, seeing if there was anything that needed redaction or being cut out. It was a scene where Rei-san was just about to arrive at the Home Port, and it did not seem to have the heavy atmosphere that the previous manuscripts did, so for the time being it was a reassuringly good scene.

—— However, it was still lacking that warm atmosphere that the picture book was giving off.

With that thought in her mind, Belfast returned that part of the manuscript to Elizabeth, cleared her throat and announced to her:

「Your Majesty, once you are done with correcting the parts in red, we can have a little break time for some tea.」

「H-Huh!? So, does that mean that it is no good the way it is now!?」

「Just a little bit more, Your Majesty. I get a feeling that you are almost there.」

「No! I want to have my break right now! My arm starts to hurt, and I’m already at my limit! Get ready for some tea right this instant, Bel!」

Belfast then responded to Elizabeth’s temper tantrum in a calm and collected manner, not letting herself be dragged into Her Majesty’s pace.

「I am afraid that we cannot do that right now, Your Majesty. Not until you are going to correct all the parts that are in the red. We cannot allow ourselves to fall behind schedule like that.」

「…… Tsk! Demon! Bel, you are a demon! The worst kind of demon of them all!」

Elizabeth reluctantly began her work anew with teary eyes after cursing Belfast like that.

As she listened to her words, especially that part about being called a demon, Belfast thought in her mind.

—— I have made up my mind that I would play a part of a demon for the sake of the Royal Navy’s success…… and this is also for Her Majesty’s sake, even if she fails to see it that way for now.

Elizabeth wanted for this stage play to be a success no matter what.

Now, given her emotional outburst just now, Belfast was sure that there must have been a whole lot of things on her mind at the current moment, so she might have actually forgotten all about it, but she was sure that if she was to give in to Elizabeth’s pressure, Elizabeth would be the one who would come to regret it in the long run.

—— That’s why if I don’t become a demon here, nothing will be able to push forward.

That was the reason that Belfast was constantly telling herself inside of her mind.

「……Yes, that’s right, Your Majesty. Right now I am nothing more but a demon who is going to supervise all of your work. So please continue working hard, preferably without getting distracted all the time.」

「F-Fuhn! I hate you, Bel! And I’m going to do it! Just so that I can spite you even more!」

Elizabeth sat wildly in her chair, puffing out her cheeks in apparent dissatisfaction.

When this Confinement Work was going to finally be all over, Belfast thought to herself that she would have to treat Elizabeth for some tea and high quality sweets as an apology.

But even so, Belfast felt that all she could do now was to watch over the unbalanced efforts that Elizabeth was putting into her work all the time.

* * *

Then, just when it was about time for a meal, Elizabeth continued working frantically even after complaining to Edinburgh who brought her her food into the Confinement office.

From the outside perspective, Belfast could see that she was aiming for a full completion of the manuscript, and as the time went on the amount of red marks and things to be rewritten gradually started to decrease, and before long she was sitting longer and working harder on it.

And each time she was handling Belfast a fresh portion of the new manuscript, she would try to sweet-talk her into letting her go or having an early break.

However, at each such time Belfast’s will would stay unbent and she would answer in the following ways only:

「No, it’s useless to try, Your Majesty.」

「Please be a little more patient.」

「Just a little while longer.」

She continued to answer with only three patterns of lines over and over again, and in the end, Elizabeth sarcastically said, “Oh, I see how it is. Bel has finally turned into a robot!”

In such a way, she repeatedly asked for corrections of the highlighted red parts, and with thorough management ability of Belfast, the script was being completed with an amazing speed.

「Haah…… Haah…… H-How about that? Is that good enough for you?」

It was the night of the third day.

Belfast would then receive the full manuscript written by Elizabeth.

The script finally came to the part where the picture book was torn and could not be read any further.

「So this means that this is the original story written by you, Your Majesty.」

With anticipation causing her heart to beat faster and faster, Belfast began to read the script carefully line after line.

—— Many Sirens have recently been sighted in the area where Rei was said to have disappeared.

According to the survey done by the Reconnaissance Team, the fleet led by Rei encountered Siren patrol while on their way and engaged it in combat.

The Azur Lane forces fired first in an attempt at preemptive strike, but the Siren forces immediately reversed course towards the southeast. In pursuit, Rei’s fleet also steered southwest and gave chase.

However, this turned out to be nothing more but a Siren trap. It was said that when the Azur Lane patrol pursued the Sirens, they were surrounded and bombarded with concentrated fire from all sides.

「You have also received a sortie order, effective immediately.」

And thus, Boo-san, who was also a shipgirl working in the Home Port as a Maid, also threw herself into the feverish flames of warfare.

Being assigned as a part of a large fleet, Boo came to a sea area inhabited by the evil Sirens, the same part where Rei’s squad fell into a Siren ambush..

The Siren forces comprised a huge part of Chasers and Smashers, and their numbers were larger than any other forces that the Azur Lane shipgirls had ever seen. Then, the large fleet was surrounded by Scavenger and Executor Sirens as well and became exposed to the concentrated fire from every possible direction. Soon enough, Boo-san’s companions started to fall one after another and ——

After reading that far into the manuscript, Belfast once again started to have a really bad feeling about this entire situation.

「Your Majesty…… Is it not that the story is once again shifting into the territory of a tragedy? Are you sure about this?」