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Azur Lane: Episode of Belfast Volume 4 Chapter 3 Part 9

The following “Right!” cry was so loud that, unbeknownst to everyone from the Casting Team, it could be heard all the way to the audience seats.

「Okay then, everyone! Let’s get out there and get this show on the road……!」

Wearing the maid outfit made by Illustrious, Cygnet went out on top of the stage.

Just like that, the stage play was about to begin.

With that in mind, Belfast headed towards the audience seats.

* * *

And just like that, the curtain slowly rose up.

Behind the stage, you could see the painted pier and the blue sea props. Amidst the perfect reimagining of the background of the Home Port, a lone girl in a maid’s outfit stood holding a large travel bag in her hands..

「Haah…… I finally managed to safely arrive at my destination.」

Boo-san, played by Cygnet, wiped the sweat off of her forehead and looked around her immediate surroundings.

「Is it okay if I simply wait here, or maybe……?」

While she was tilting her head in puzzlement, of of her shipgirl seniors, played by Emile Bertin, appeared from the wing of the stage.

「Oho? And who might you be, huh? I haven’t seen you around here.」

While blinking in surprise a couple of times, the senior shipgirl brought her face closer and peered into Boo-san’s round and adorable face.

「Could it be that you…… Are perhaps a new shipgirl who was assigned to be stationed here starting today?」

「Y-Yes! That’s right! My name is Boo!」

「Wow, as the name suggests, I don’t know if I should feel dazed or spooked by it……」

Hearing those words, the audience giggled and laughed in a noticeable manner.

While listening to various sound effects from her seat, Belfast looked up in the direction of the Sound Room.

In the end, thanks to the speaker check earlier, the acoustics were dramatically improved from what they were originally going to be.

On top of the stage, Boo-san was in the middle of the slapstick drama before she would meet Rei-san for the first time. Because it was meant to be a comical scene, the audience was completely absorbed in the acting that was taking place in front of their eyes.

Belfast took that opportunity to leave through the rear soundproof door, and Belfast connected with Amazon’s location via the receiver she got from her before.

「The sound is mostly fine now. It’s got a lot more power to it than before, and I think it’s a good sound.」

When Belfast told her so over the receiver, it did not even take Amazon a few seconds to deliver a reply filled with confidence.

「Well, of course it is, isn’t it? Because I am the one who calibrated it! isn’t it?”

It was a snarky response, but not something that was uncharacteristic for someone like Amazon.

Belfast smiled under her nose and then smiled at the receiver.

「All that’s left to do now is for the cast to perform their respective roles safely to the very end.」

They have come this far already, surely the most troubles were already behind them. And later on they will be able to laugh at all the little obstacles that they had to overcome in order to get here.

With that thought in her mind, Belfast opened the soundproof door to the theater and decided to enjoy her time watching the rest of the play as it would unfold.

—— Boo-san was not completely out of the woods yet.

But still, given just how nervous around everyone she initially was, she managed to get a whole lot better since that time.

And before long, yet another shipgirl has arrived at the Home Port.

「…… What a dull and uninteresting place this Home Port seems to be.」

Rei-san, played by none other than Hood, spat out those words while looking utterly bored out of her mind.

「It is really unbearable for someone such as myself to be assigned to a dull and boring place such as this. I wonder if I will even be able to get the desired results here fast and return to the main Royal Islands before long?」

She brushed her hair off of her shoulder while muttering that to herself, and was about to head towards the Royal Navy’s dormitory with her luggage in tow, when ——

「Uh… Uuuhhh…… Heavy~…… So heavy~~~……」

Boo-san entered the stage, holding in her hands what seemed to be a cartoonishly large pile of documents in both of her hands, constantly staggering from left to right because of the weight in her arms. However, by the time Rei-san was able to realize what was going on, it was already far too late to do anything to counteract the impending catastrophe.

「W-Whoa!? Oh, no! No, no, no, no!!! It’s going to fall…… WHOOOAAAHHH!!!」」

「H-Hey, you there! Stop fooling around and watch where you step! It’s dangerous!」

However, since Boo-san was unable to see in front of her because of the piles of documents, she ended up kicking Rei-san’s luggage and sending it flying right into the sea next to the pier.

While Rei-san was standing still while completely dumbfounded by this situation, Boo-san just realized what had happened.

「Oh my gosh…… Who put something in the middle of the road like that? It’s dangerous to do something like that! Someone might accidentally trip on it!」

The encounter between the two shipgirls began with such a situation that could be easily described as the worst situation possible ——

—— And unlike yesterday, Cygnet seemed to be working on her acting in a much more relaxed manner, coming as way more natural Boo-san that she was during the rehearsals.

But the one who seemed to be the most awe-struck by that change in Cygnet was Hood herself.

I could not believe that she could play such a role in such a natural way, especially that the role of Rei-san was that of a tsundere character, something that was far away from her usual calm and soft demeanor.

Her performance seemed to be even more polished than that she presented during yesterday’s practice.

She had a degree of perfection to her acting that was incomparable to what she had during practice during previous days.

After that, the play continued without any problems at all, and the story finally reached the scene where Rei-san disappeared from the Home Port.

Under orders from the headquarters, Boo-san joined the Grand Fleet in pursuit of Rei-san’s last known whereabouts.

It was here that the scene faded to black and there would be a scenery change.

In the coming darkness, the members of the Tool-Making team lined up the plywood boards with drawings of Siren’s mass-produced fleets on top of the stage.

Up to this point, everything seemed to be going just fine.

* * *

「—— Sirius. It’s time for a change.」

Sirius, who had turned off the lights and waited as instructed, turned around upon hearing that voice just now.

The owner of the voice was Curlew. At the scheduled shift time, Sirius passed the baton to her without any problems.

「……Is this the end of my role as a part of the Sound and Lighting team?」

「Yes, but if you still feel like helping us out for a little while longer, why don’t you go to the side of the stage and ask the leader of another group if there is something that you can do to help them?」

Sirius nodded her head and left in a hurry.

And once she went outside through the soundproof door, she decided to go around the area where the waiting room was and go to the other wing of the backstage.

By the time she reached the right-hand side of the stage as seen from the audience’s point of view, the stage had already gone completely dark.

「Fire as many bullets as you can at this Siren! Don’t give it any quarter to retaliate!」

When Sirius peered into the stage from the corner of the backstage Emile Bertin was in her full Rigging Mode and firing blank shots from her guns one after another at the imaginary Siren.

「…… Even for blank shots, this looks quite powerful.」

Sirius muttered quietly to herself, and then she suddenly saw King George V watching the progress of the play from the other side of the stage. She was the leader of the Casting team, so if she was to ask her for some work to do, she would surely be able to find it for her.

「…… King Goeorge V-sama, if there is anything I can do to help you, please do not hesitate to order this here Sirius around!」

When she whispered that right into her ear, King George V stared at Sirius and immediately shook his head in denial.

「…… I’m sorry, but there is nothing that you could possibly do to help us at the current moment. Everything like the curtains on the stage is left in the hands of other shipgirls, so it’s really okay. But thanks for asking.」