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Azur Lane: Episode of Belfast Volume 4 Chapter 3 Part 10

She said so while pointing her finger above her.

Following the tip of that finger, Sirius slowly raised her head.

Usually, the stage has a kind of a separate curtain that separates the audience seats from the backstage, and even an additional curtain that is there for the sole purpose of hiding the section with the lights that are used to illuminate the stage.

Also, there was also a scaffolding hung above the stage, almost up at the ceiling level, which could be used to hang various lights, reflectors and props from there. As a matter of fact, there was a single Manjuu up there right now, responsible for operating all the lights and devices.

「I didn’t know that Manjuus can go up to such high places on their own like that.」

As Sirius stared blankly upwards, King George V began to wave at the Manjuu above them, apparently wanting to get its attention.

「…Hey, you there! We are going to have a blackout soon, so prepare yourself for that!」

In response to King George V’s command, one other Manjuu saluted her and began to climb up the scaffolding above the stage to let the other Manjuu out there know what’s what.

「By the way, is it really okay to send someone like Manjuus out there so high? Especially with how wobbly and unsteady their steps seem to be?」

King George V shook her head when Sirius asked her that question.

「Oh, don’t worry about it, they do that kind of work all the time, so there is nothing for you to —— Oh my, looks like it’s about time for the scene to change. I’m sorry, but can we discuss that some other time?」

It would seem that it was best not to bother King George V anymore now.

Sirius stopped talking any further and looked around the ceiling of the room.

She could see something like a steel frame out there, the likes of which you could often see on construction sites. According to what she was told beforehand, that was called an introduction, and Sirius, the Sound and Lighting Team’s auditor, used this introduction to change the lights before the play began.

While thinking that the highest point of that frame was more than five meters up in the air, she suddenly looked at the Manjuu from earlier.

「……! I knew it!」

As if it had lost his footing, the Manjuu was hanging on its head until just now.

「At this rate, this is going to end up really bad……!!」

Now, even though Manjuu’s hands looked pretty much like wings, said wings were resembling those of a little chick rather than a normal bird, so there was no way Manjuu would be able to fly with those.

No, but more importantly, the stage play was still in full swing out there.

Even if it was able to fly, it would be completely out of place for a lone Manjuu to appear on the stage right in the middle of the play.

Sirius looked at the Manjuu that was about to fall from the scaffolding, and thought of a way to save it.

There, she was able to see a metal rod hanging on the wall.

It was quite long because it was a tool used to change the direction of lighting in a high position.

「If I hold this metal stick and bring it closer to the Manjuu, it might be able to help……」

Then, once Sirius would get to the rod, all that was left for her to do was to slowly move the metal rod and allow the Manjuu to hang onto it.

Immediately, Sirius grabbed the stick and jumped onto the metal scaffolding.

Holding the rod in one hand, she climbed up the scaffolding like an acrobat.

After all, if there was one thing that Sirius was proud of, it was her flexibility and physical prowess.

「Fuh.」

When she reached the top of the scaffolding, Sirius slowly guided the rod to the Manjuu hanging from the metal catwalks.

The play was just shifting into the middle of the Siren fight scene.

「Please hold on to this……」

When the rod was moved closer, the Manju properly understood Sirius’ intentions and tried to transfer itself onto the metal rod.

Somewhat confused by its clumsy movements, the Manju somehow managed to cling onto the stick nonetheless.

Sirius could breathe a sigh of relief at that time.

All that was left for her to do was to collect the rod and the stick from which Manjuu was previously hanging by alternating between them.

At that moment when she thought that the Manju could finally move back to the catwalks,

「—— Now! Shoot!」

At the same time someone on stage shouted that, a heavy low-pitched sound of gunfire resounded from the loudspeakers placed on both sides of the stage.

Surprised by the sudden powerful sound, the Manjuu let go of the rod it was holding onto. the stick.

「Ahh!」

A pale Sirius held out her head in order to support the falling Manjuu.

Even though she had pulled it all the way here, it was still dangerous for it to do something like that, especially at this height.

「A-Are you okay……?」

She hurriedly tried to put the Manjuu that was about to fall down head-first back onto the top of the catwalks, only to see that it already fell down quite a bit. However ——

「…… Haah, what a blessing in misfortune.」

Luckily enough, the place where the Manjuu fell down was right behind the picture of the mass-produced Siren ships painted on top of a large plywood.

And as luck would have it, there was also an open sunshade parasol meant for the Coast Watcher from the deserted island, which was supposed to be used in the next scene, and it seemed that this exact prop managed to soften the impact of the Manjuu’s fall by quite a lot.

Now, it would be ideal if the Manjuu happened to fall down there without anyone from the audience being able to notice that.

However, even though it was right behind the plywood board, that place was above the stage, so on one hand it was good that the view of this place was fairly obstructed.

But on the other hand, from her current position there was very little that Sirius could do in order to go and try to rescue the poor Manjuu.

Just as she was thinking really hard as to what to do here, Sirius could see the Manjuu standing back up on its feet, its eyes all swirly and rolling back from the impact of its fall.

「Ah! Please, for the time being just stay there! Just try to stay quiet there until the play comes to an end, and……」

When Sirius turned her head back towards the stage, she could see that it was already at the scene where Boo-san and the Grand Fleet that was sent after Rei-san had been defeated by the overwhelming force of the Siren’s ambush……

However, even though everyone has already fallen, there was no reversal of the scene change for a while.

「……Ahh! That’s it!」

Sirius held her head again.

In the first place, she remembered that the Manju behind the plywood had the role of informing the other Manjuu on the left side of the stage when it would be time for the scene to go dark.

Not only the audience, but also the cast members on stage seemed to find it strange that the timing of the blackout was getting so late now.

「W-What should I do now……!?」

The flustered Sirius looked down at the wobbling Manjuu behind the plywood board.

In the next moment, the Manjuu got caught in the stand at its feet and fell over once more.

That particular stand was a lighting stand that illuminated the stage from the backstage, and when the stand was pulled by the Manjuu, it would wobble and topple, and the other stands that were leaning against it were also knocked down one after another, like pieces of dominos.

「O-Oh no……! You have got to be kidding me……!」

By the time Sirius thought how bad this situation was, it was already to late to try and do anything about it.

A large number of lighting stands leaned all at once, and the scaffolding, unable to withstand the weight from one of its sides, creaked loudly and fell onto the stage.

Sirius made a split-second decision and jumped to the baton from the top of the crumbling steel frame.

And in this way, the steel scaffolding crushed all the plywood Siren ships on top of the stage at the current moment.

「——— Huh?」

Javelin, who was pretending to be defeated by Siren and lying down on top of the stage, unintentionally let out a voice like that.

Even Cygnet, who was closest to the fallen plywood board, had a hardened expression on her face, wondering what had happened.