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

Belfast muttered those words to herself as she looked at everyone gathered in front of her.

「Everyone, please listen to me for a moment. Last night, Erebus-sama showed me an old white prim that she happened to find in the basement of the hut where she is currently living. So I think it is safe to assume that what is written in this picture book can be taken as truth.」

Inside of the very silent library, the voice of Belfast echoes all over the place.

「I’m sure…… I’m sure that whatever end they have met, they must have been as happy in real life as they are in this picture book.」

Belfast did not want the fate of these senpais of theirs, who might have been in this Home Port as the same maids who thought so from the bottom of their hearts, to be so sad and unfortunate.

「I don’t know what happened next, but…… I’m sure that everything managed to end just fine and that they both lived happily ever after. As they should be.」

「…… That’s actually a very nice thing of you to say, Belfast.」

Elizabeth said so after she opened her mouth and slowly came towards the Head Maid.

「It is exactly as you say, Bel. The two of them lived happily ever after that incident —— What else is there to say about it? And if you don’t know what happens next, that is also not a problem! You just have to make the continuation by yourself!」

With that being said, Elizabeth snatched the picture book from Belfast’s hands, and then she shouted at everyone present while holding it up high.

「Do you all get it!? We are going to prove it with a stage play! After spending a happy time together in this Home Port, the rumored Ghost Maid safely completed her mission and returned to the main Royal Island alongside her beloved Rei-san!! Any objections!?」

Then, Elizabeth snorted and flipped through the pages of the picture book.

「In general, picture books should be something that give children dreams that they can look forward to in the future! And we are going to have Boo-san meet Rei-san once again, because it is our collective dream to have them happily reunite, isn’t that right!? At least, if I was the author of this picture book, I know that it would be the kind of an ending I would have wanted! And I would not allow for anything else!」

After she said that, she shoved the picture book right back into Belfast’s hands, and said to her:

「Don’t worry about a thing, Bel. I am going to write that happy ending that we all want to witness with our own eyes! I promise you this!」

Elizabeth then grinned broadly, showing her teeth.

Seeing her wide smile, Belfast naturally burst into a smile as well.

「…… I guess that you smile really possesses the power to make everyone else smile as well, Your Majesty.」

「Well, duh! It’s only natural for someone like me!」

Saying that, Elizabeth turned towards everyone else and proclaimed out loud:

「Just you wait! Just watch and be amazed! I am going to make the greatest continuation of this story with the most wonderful script ever! That, I promise you right here and right now!」

When Elizabeth clenched her fist powerfully while raising it in the air, the other maids gave her a big round of applause.

Belfast was also very touched by Elizabeth’s words, and she clapped her hands as vigorously as everyone else in here.

Elizabeth must have realized what everyone else was thinking at the moment, and after she picked up on that she chose to act right away. For that, Belfast was really grateful to her.

「Now then, since our minds are all pretty much made up at this point, the only real thing left for us to do is to act! We are going to have a general meeting as the entire Royal Navy faction tonight right after dinner! I want to explain to everyone what we are going to do and what I want to achieve with that stage play of ours!」

「H-Huh!? T-Tonight, Y-Your Majesty?」

Warspite seemed to feel really astonished by the tempo that Elizabeth was trying to establish, and in response Elizabeth thrust her finger right in front of Warspite’s face.

「A stage play is a grand event where pretty much everyone needs to chip in if we are going to make our vision into a reality! And we need to start getting things done right away, so that we won’t be caught off-guard by running out of time. Because time is a luxury here that we cannot quite afford at this point.」

After explaining that much to Warspite, Elizabeth turned towards Belfast next.

「Bel. Tell everyone to wait in the dining hall right after dinner.」

「Yes, Your Majesty. But, while we are on that particular subject……」

Belfast spoke up right after a certain thought had come to her mind all of a sudden.

「…… Hypothetically speaking, if we were to disclose to everyone how the School Festival is going to proceed for this year, assuming that everyone is not already aware of the changes, would it not cause everyone to agree to help us right away?」

If the Beauty Pageant was to be held as usual, then only the shipgirls that would be the contestants and some of their assistants would be the ones who would be busy with the preparations, and the rest of the shipgirls would just go about their usual routine as if nothing ever changed.

But for this year’s activity, something quite like that would not be allowed if they were to succeed.

And in addition, unlike all the other factions out there, they would not have nearly as much time to prepare themselves with their stage play. So they had to make the time that they still had count.

「Not to mention, in this situation where there is almost no leeway in the preparation period, it seems likely that some children will feel pressed for time and would break under the stress and pressure as a result.」

「Uuuhhh~…… Yes, I can certainly see something end up happening for sure……」

While mumbling to herself like that right next to Elizabeth, Warspite folded her hands on her chest and cast her gaze down, as if she was trying to remember something desperately. She then opened her mouth after a moment.

「Which reminds me, Your Majesty. It would seem that all of the shipgirls will be participating in some way in this year’s School Festival. I have heard that the shipgirls of the Northern Parliament and Dragon Empery factions have each offered their cooperation in the production of the films made by the Eagle Union and the Sakura Empire respectively.」

「So, does that mean that they are going to make a live action movie and an anime respectively, perhaps? Now I wish that we really knew about this in advance, we could have prepared so much better, and maybe even asked someone else to give us a helping hand as well.」

Elizabeth let out a long and deep sigh and looked at Belfast with a look of resentment on her face, as envious of the fact that she had prepared in advance for something like this in case of emergency.

「…… The fact that we are being so pressed for time is entirely my fault, and no one else’s. So it should only be natural that I should be the one to properly explain things to everyone, so that everyone can understand the nature of the predicament that we are currently in. But still…… The most important factor for our success or failure here is going to be the motivation.」

「Motivation, Your Majesty?」

「In the end, no matter how much I try to explain things and how well everyone understands it, if everyone is not motivated enough to do this, there is nothing that we can do about it. Everyone must work together here to raise the efficiency in order for us to achieve success in such a short period of time. That’s the main premise of our plan right now.」

Hearing Elizabeth’s words, Belfast put her hand on her chin and thought for a moment.

Elizabeth was certainly right with what she was saying. It would do them no good if people started to oppose the idea of helping them out with making of the stage play, as they would need everyone’s help in order to make it in time. But the problem here was that if they were to force people to help, it would only serve to achieve a result that was the reverse of the thing that they were intending to do in the first place.

If they would continue to work while the overall motivation of everyone involved would be low, it’s quite possible that they would not be able to make it in time, or deliver a product of questionable quality at best.