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Azur Lane: Episode of Belfast Volume 4 Chapter 3 Part 7

「This sounds like the signal that announces the start of the School Festival.」

Said Newcastle while pulling her hair over her ear and looking up at her companions.

「If I remember correctly, the Iron Blood’s Orchestra should start playing in the auditorium soon after this signal……」

At it was at that precise moment, when Newcastle wanted to say something more,

「—— Bel! I heard that Bel is here! Where is she!?」

All of a sudden, Elizabeth opened the door to the dining room with great momentum and entered while asking for Belfast’s whereabouts.

As Belfast attached accessories made by the Tool-Making Team to each person’s costumes, she raised her head wondering what could it be that got Elizabeth so agitated like that.

「Your Majesty? What’s wrong? Why are you in a hurry like that?」

When she called out from behind the curtains like that, Elizabeth immediately pulled back the curtains and stood before Belfast.

「No time to explain! For the time being, you are going with me to the auditorium! Like, right now! On the double!」

「To the auditorium, Your Majesty?」

And then after she asked that question, Elizabeth put her hands on her waist, she puffed out her chest, and she proclaimed with pride in her voice out loud:

「I have decided! We are going to the auditorium to inspect what the enemy is doing!」

* * *

And just like that, once again Belfast found herself descending down the hill from the Royal Navy’s Dormitory and heading towards the Great Auditorium alongside Elizabeth.

「……A popularity poll, you say, Your Highness?」

「Yes, that’s right! I knew that it was going to be held in one way or another for this year as well, just like with the Beauty Pageant in recent years! It seems that the people watching each performance will be asked to vote for the best performance that was put up this year! And since apparently both the Manjuus and the Meowofficers will also have the right to vote, reading the enemy’s movements and their chances is going to be increasingly more difficult of a thing to do!」

「However, Your Majesty…… Even if we go and try to inspect what our “enemies” are doing, there is little to nothing that we can actually do about it……」

Belfast honestly thought so, but when she actually started to think some more about it, she was soon starting to think that the situation was not entirely all that hopeless as she thought it would be.

When she pushed open the soundproof door that led to the rearmost part of the audience seats, the beautiful tones of stringed instruments filled the air across the entire room.

On top of the stage, Bismarck was acting as the conductor for the entire Orchestra, and the melody that they were playing showed a calm and magnificent expanse, reminiscent of the vast blue sea that could be seen from the piers and shorelines of the Home Port.

「Well, I will be damned to admit this, but…… That melody is simply wonderful!」

Elizabeth muttered those words in frustration as she was biting on her nails.

Even the Meowofficers, who could be seen from the back of the audience seats where Belfast and Elizabeth currently were, had their eyes closed as they listened to the splendid performance, letting their small bodies be carried away by the flowing sound.

「…… Hmm, they all seem to be familiar with the sound effects in this theater.」

The walls and ceiling of this theater had a complex shape, and when sound would collide with it, it would cause a diffuse reflection. It would leave a special aftertaste in your ears, no matter if you were able to appreciate the sounds of music or not. And it could be seen in the audience that was listening to the performance.

In this situation, I felt that the Iron Blood faction, who had prepared much more carefully than the Royal Navy, whose arrangement of instruments in the Orchestra must have been well thought out and carefully crafted, was showing off their true strength through this performance.

「It looks like we can report back to Amazon about the arrangements of the instruments later.」

Belfast said so to herself, making a mental note as to not forget about it.

The total time in which Iron Blood was able to present their performance from start to finish was about fifty minutes or so.

After completing their symphony, Bismarck turned towards the audience seats and bowed down deeply.

And when she raised her face, she just so happened to meet the gaze of Belfast and Elizabeth at the back of the audience seats.

As for Bismark’s expression…… It was filled with confidence, and maybe just a little bit smug.

Looking back, Elizabeth snarled under her nose..

「Well, that was a challenging gaze if I have ever seen one. But I guess it’s only natural for her to feel so confident about their performance…… But! We are not going to lose here!」

At that moment the inside of the theater became brighter, and it was announced that the next performance would begin in about thirty minutes.

In the meantime, a portion of the audience left their seats and some of them remained open for the time being, an opportunity that Belfast used to secure two seats for Elizabeth and herself.

「The next performance is supposed to be the animation produced by the Sakura Empire.」

Almost at the same time that Elizabeth opened her mouth to say so, the white screen slowly descended from above the stage where the Iron Blood had performed their symphony not so long ago.

「I have heard that their animation is going to be modeled after the “Kansen!” of some sort, but truth to be told I have little to no idea as to what that thing could possibly be.」

「Since it means more or less “battleship!”, maybe it has something to do with naval warfare of some sorts……?」

While the two of them were actively discussing what the next performance was supposed to be all about, the lights in the theater started to become dim and went completely dark soon after that.

It looked like the Sakura Empire’s animation was about to start.

「I’ve never actually seen an animation before, but according to some literature I have read about that subject, it’s a strange kind of movie that uses moving pictures to tell its story instead of actual flesh and blood actors.」

While listening to Belfast’s words, Elizabeth let out a burst of laughter.

「What are you saying, Bel! There is no way that pictures can move! They are nothing but a static image!」

「But still, in the books I happened to read on that particular subject it clearly said that ——」

While Belfast was insisting on saying something still, all of a sudden music started to play from the white screen.

Unlike the classical music that the Iron Blood was playing not even an hour before, the music that started seeping from the screen was an electronic one, with a tinge of mystery to it.

When Belfast and Elizabeth stared at the screen to see what this animation was going to be all about,

「——— “Tensei Kuramichi Mecha Bulin!! This is a blockbuster animation in which the young hero Bulion fights with the use of her strongest shining golden weapon, Mecha Bulin, in order to defeat the mysterious enemy Siren who is attacking the Home Port time after time!」

Along with such courageous and boisterous narration, an illustration-style little girl started to freely move about the screen while piloting a huge robot.

Elizabeth, stunned by such a never-before-seen image, unintentionally raised her voice out loud.

「What the…… What the hell is this!?」

「What does that supposed to mean?」

That’s what Belfast wanted to say here, not knowing whether it was about the content of what was happening on screen, or maybe about something else entirely.

However, she never actually got any kind of answer from Elizabeth, as the two of them were simply overwhelmed by the technique of the moving pictures that was happening right before their very eyes on screen.

Unlike the show that the Iron Bloods decided to put on, the animation presented by the Sakura Empire ended in less than thirty minutes, but even though the theater brightened up, the afterglow of the events that happened to play out on the screen did not go away for a long while after that.

「They are moving…… The pictures really are moving.」」

After a while, Elizabeth said so in a daze.

The climax of the animation was a heated robot battle between the Golden Mecha Bulin and the Shiny Black Mecha Siren. From spewing lasers out of its mouth to firing missiles from its shoulders, it went without saying that all of this was beyond everyone’s wildest imagination.

But before Belfast was able to collect her thoughts properly, the theater hall went dark once again before she was even able to notice.