3 bar menu

Azur Lane: Episode of Belfast Volume 4 Chapter 4 Part 6

「The play is not over yet! I won’t allow you to slip away now and badmouth it later just because you were not there to witness the ending!」

「…… And what are you even saying now? Can you even hear yourself?」

Saying that, Bismarck laughed through her nose in a mocking way.

It would seem that at the current moment Elizabeth was being so delusional that she would even refuse to admit that her great endeavor had failed quite spectacularly. But such denial was also amazing to a certain extent.

「Ah, that expression on your face! I see what’s going on here! You think that the play is now finished, and that there is nothing else for you to see here any longer, huh!? And instead of wasting your time here, you might as well go somewhere else and kill some time until the evening part of the School Festival, huh!? —— But that’s just a guess on my end!」

Seeing Bismarck looking all shocked and surprised at just how accurate Elizabeth’s guess was here, Her Majesty’s expression became even more boastful.

「Fufufufu. I have hit the nail right to the proverbial head, haven’t I? It was totally just a guess, but you are so predictable in what you think that it was a piece of cake for me! SO just sit back and wait patiently! And watch as the rest of the play unfolds!」

Bismarck then looked up at the Sound Room once again.

She had no idea if Elizabeth would be able to hear her words coming from all the way down here, but,

「……Well, look at you being all talk. But you know what they say, right? Actions speak louder than words.」

Having said that, Bismarck started to walk towards the exit of the theater once again.

「Ah! Yeah, I admit that! That happening just now was completely unexpected on our part! SO I only ask you to wait just a little bit longer! As we speak, Bel and the rest of the maids should be putting the finishing touches to the cleaning process, and —— Hey! I’m not done talking, Bismarck! Hey! Come back here, I said!」

At that moment, the sound of the buzzer spread out across the entire theater, and all the lights went off once again.

「A-Ahh, it looks like they made it in time after all! …… Hehehe, Bismarck! You may not be saying that out loud, but I know that you are looking down on us because you think that we failed! But that’s naive! Oh, so naive of you! What you are about to witness is the full power and potential of the Royal Navy! We have excellent people and wonderful maids who can overcome any adversity as long as we stay and work together! And as I said earlier! The story is not over yet ——」

Then, for some reason, a static noise ran through the microphone that Elizabeth was holding onto, and instead of Elizabeth’s voice, Amazon’s voice resounded throughout the hall once again.

「—— Umm, everyone, thank you for waiting all this time. Well then…… At the current moment, the play is going to pick up where it left. We would like to sincerely apologize for taking so long to get everything ready and in place. Now, without any further ado, please enjoy yourselves~.」

In response to those words, a thunderous round of applause erupted throughout the dark theater.

「…… Good grief.」

Bismarck then leaned her back against the wall, pulled her hat over her eyes, and gazed at the top of the stage once more.

「If you are going to go that far with your persuasions, then you’d better show me the real power of what the Royal Navy can do once they put their mind to something.」

As the curtains slowly rose up, a dazzling light shone into the pitch-black audience seats.

The final stage of the Royal Navy’s stage play was about to begin.

* * *

When the curtain rose up again, the stage that appeared in front of the audience was as if nothing had happened earlier, and everything had been neatly put away. What’s more, everything seemed to be even more orderly than before, with only downside being that there were way less decorations than before.

To everyone’s eyes, the space above the stage seemed to be strangely wide, but this was the only thing that could not be helped at that time, so everyone decided to just roll with it for the time being.

「…… But how can you recover from a tragedy like that in such a short amount of time? And to this extent?」

Bismarck was frankly impressed by this sight before her eyes, if nothing else.

On top of the stage, Boo-san, played by Cygnet, stood in the center with her head hung down.

Her maid outfit, which should have been torn before the curtain came down, was blackened in certain places as if it had been covered in soot, and has been damaged to some extent, making it look as if she had imagined this situation from the very beginning.

The audience was stunned upon seeing that, wondering what the hell happened here and what was currently going on.

In front of everyone in the audience, Cygnet slowly lifted her head.

「…the Elite Siren has been defeated, but what about Rei-san? Rei-san? Where are you, Rei-san!?」

Boo’s seniors, played by Emile Bertin and Javelin respectively, appeared from the left side of the stage and approached her.

「Boo. We would like you to calm down for the time being and listen to what we have to say, alright?」

With a severely depressed expression, Emile Bertin said so, and continued to speak after a brief moment of pause.

But when she was about to say something to Boo, she swallowed her words. Perhaps it was because she could easily imagine how Boo-san would be deeply saddened by the words she was about to say.

As Emile Bertin turned away and pulled back from Boo-san a little bit, this time around it was Javelin who stood in front of Cygnet.

「Boo-san, listen to me. Actually, you see…… This is what came out of the Elite Siren that we have defeated just now.」

Saying that, Javelin handed out to Cygnet the pendant that Belfast borrowed from Erebus earlier, which was supposed to be worn by Rei-san. It was the pendant with a clear blue stone in its center.

「…… Huh? Why……? Why would an Elite Siren have this on her……?」

Saying so, Cygnet took the pendant from Javelin’s hands and stared at it for a long moment.

And then, as she continued to stare at the pendant, his whole body started to shake in an uncontrollable manner, and eventually Cygnet crumbled onto her knees.

The audience was also stunned quite visibly to see Cygnet fall to the floor of the stage so hard like that.

Ever since the curtain rose up, there was a certain dampness to Cygnet’s words, and some of her words were also articulated in a strange and erratic way, as if her throat was shaking the whole time, as if she was trying so hard to not burst into tears.

Rather, Cygnet’s current acting was spot on, accurately representing Boo-san’s current mental state, and it was a powerful conduit, indeed. Cygnet seemed to be a completely different person from her usual self right about now, as if she was really possessed by the character she was portraying.

「No……」

Tears started to overflow from Cygnet’s eyes.

「No…… This can’t be true…… It has to be a lie……」

She hoarsely prayed through her tears, her trembling legs barely being able to support her body’s weight at the current moment.

「Rei-san is alive…… Rei-san MUST be alive…… Ahh, if she were to see me crying like that, she would surely scold me for being an unsightly mess once again…… And then she would smile at me….. .and she would say…… and she would say……」

Squeezing Rei-san’s pendant with both of her hands, Cygnet hugged it closely to her chest.

「“I am right here, so it’s okay. You don’t have to cry, or feel sad or lonely anymore.” …… She would surely say something like that, wouldn’t she……!?」

After that desperate shout, Cygnet’s sobs echoed throughout the theater.

By the way, this sobbing of Cygnet’s was not an act, it was a genuine thing.

—— Uuuhhh…… I knew it, this script…… Is WAY too sad for me to handle……

As a matter of fact, Cygnet had already been on the verge of crying for a while now, and now she pretty much reached her limit.

During the rehearsals, and especially in front of Belfast and Hood, she tried her best to keep her eyes from getting all wet and swollen, but during the actual performance there was no respected figure right next to her who would inhibit her from doing so.