Azur Lane Under the Stars

Page 544

"This is the activity room where the commander and the children tell stories."

"This is the flagpole in the square, specially used to hang ship girls."

The empire was giving its presentation, but Rome found the way it looked at them increasingly strange.

I'm numb. I promised the Empire I'd let her introduce me alone without interrupting, so I have to watch this whole mess, even if it means kneeling down.

"This is the port's prison, specifically used to detain ship girls..." the Empire explained.

Rome, unable to hold back any longer, finally interrupted the empire, saying, "While I have no right to interfere in other people's domestic affairs, but..."

"Commander Ren Shuo, this is really strange. What port would hang ship girls on its flagpole and set up a prison?"

If this is used to imprison ship girls, then it's a bit too much; but if it's not used to imprison ship girls... then it's a bit perverted.

“Actually, in our port area, we have a lot of destroyers, and then there’s the Royal Ark, you get it…” Ren Shuo said.

Rome immediately realized: "Oh, I see. Then there's no problem."

It seems that no matter when, the name of Royal Ark remains as renowned as ever.

"Speaking of which, this flagpole has been used to fly more than just the Royal Ark," the Empire suddenly said.

Ren Shuo's smile froze. No, Empire, you've really screwed over the Commander... But how could the obedient Empire have turned out like this? It must be Littorio who spoiled the Empire! It must be!

Rome's expression turned strange again.

"There's nothing we can do. There are too many unruly kids in the port area, and Helena and the others sometimes can't control them. So this is the only way we can manage. I've tried my best to rescue them, but little ones still get caught every now and then."

Ren Shuo felt apologetic towards Helena in his heart. There was nothing he could do but let her take the blame for now.

"I see. But what did those brats in your port do to make Helena, who is known for being very gentle and good-tempered, act like this?" Roma was now curious.

Ren Shuo paused for a moment, then said in a voice still filled with lingering fear, "Abercrombie buried the food prepared by the Royal Navy ship girls under the normal food to trick her companions into eating it; Big Bluefin Flounder scared Taihou to tears every day; and then there's Saratoga, who stole Lexington's clothes while her sister was taking a bath, leaving her with nothing but a bath towel, not even her dirty clothes..."

Rome was also rendered speechless by Ren Shuo's words. Wow, that's really impressive, in a sense...

Just hearing about the mischief these kids had done made me hard to punch them.

Is this kid not going to hang the flagpole? Is he saving it for the New Year?

At this moment, Rome also thought of the lazy and mischievous kids in his group, and couldn't help but feel a sense of kinship with Ren Shuo.

"You've had it tough too, haven't you? The kids in my group are all a handful," Roma remarked.

"Does the drama troupe have naughty kids too?" Ren Shuo laughed.

Rome nodded, a hint of helplessness flickering in his heterochromatic eyes, which resembled those of a Persian cat: "Some families send their children to the drama troupe from a young age for training, so there are well-behaved kids and there are also unruly kids. You have no idea how terrible an unruly kid can be."

"Last time, a naughty kid replaced the ketchup with chili sauce, and the kids who ate with him were in a terrible state. The scene was horrific because of the spiciness."

"Indeed, children need to be properly disciplined," Ren Shuo wholeheartedly agreed.

It's only because Helena and the others are strict; if they weren't, these guys would probably have set my hair on fire.

As they chatted, the two felt the distance between them shrink rapidly, transforming them from strangers into companions who could communicate amicably.

The Empire, on the other hand, stood aside with a puzzled look on their face. Wait a minute, wasn't I in charge of receiving them? Why is it now the Commander in charge?

Meanwhile, Veneto and Littorio, who had secretly made an excuse to leave, were somewhat surprised.

Their original plan was to let the idiot in the Empire cause some trouble, and then have the Commander save the day and gain favor with them, or to put it another way, to let the Commander become familiar to the Romans.

As a result, the empire began to be marginalized, while the commander and Rome became very close, and their common topic was... taking care of children?

It feels a bit outrageous.

However, Veneto quickly composed himself, clapped his hands, and said cheerfully, "Isn't this good too? At least it skipped the intermediate steps and improved the relationship between the commander and Rome."

"That being said, I still feel like... we two went through all that trouble just like clowns."

Littorio smiled wryly.

“Isn’t it good that the result is good?” Veneto said.

"Should we follow them?" Littorio gestured with his chin. "They're going far away."

“Sure, but I’m still a little worried,” Veneto readily agreed.

Over the next few hours, Ren Shuo chatted with Roma about everything under the sun. Roma was surprised to find that this seemingly young man actually knew a little about all the topics he was talking about.

Some can even delve deeper into their own thoughts.

This surprised her greatly. To be honest, the commanders' group already spent a lot of time with their ship girls or working, so in their spare time they mostly relaxed and rarely went back to read books or learn about these things.

Things like art, Rome, history, and so on.

But Ren Shuo was actually able to say a few words about it, which just goes to show how capable this commander is.

Rome chuckled, "Commander Ren Shuo is actually interested in these things?"

Ren Shuo humbly replied, "I know a little bit."

Then she breathed a sigh of relief. It was alright. When she was with Glorious, Hude, and Veneto, they would talk about these kinds of topics. Although she didn't deliberately try to learn about them, she could still use them as conversation topics through exposure.

As for the time issue... the ship girls in the port area are really capable, and with their own abilities, they have more than enough time.

"By the way, since we're on the topic of paintings, I remember Bismarck had a collection of some famous paintings. Would you like to go take a look together?" Ren Shuo invited.

Rome's face lit up with joy: "Great!"

Then the two walked and talked as they left, leaving the Empire deep in thought.

No, Veneto, Littorio, what exactly did you call me here for? To be a third wheel?

He shook his head slightly, and Empire followed them. After all, his task was to follow them... Wait, wasn't his initial task to be the tour guide?

The Empire of Tools has once again fallen into confusion.

…………

Leaving aside the fact that Ren Shuo is using Bismarck's items to win over other women while he's trying to salvage the ship, Binjiang and Zhenhai are already colluding to deceive their companions.

The first one to come to mind is Brest, whom I had met once before—yes, that gentle and delicate elf lady.

"A very gentle elf girl with a delicate mind, but she especially loves heroic epics and stories..."

Zhenhai carefully examined the report in front of him, making the final confirmation.

"What girl? Let me tell you, don't be fooled by that guy's appearance. He's lived for who knows how many decades." Binjiang didn't give Brest any face in private.

"If you ask me, this guy just likes to act young, and he's always daydreaming about heroes and epics," Binjiang continued. "Although he's meticulous in battle, I'd say he's pretty clueless most of the time."

Zhenhai, however, looked delighted: "If what you say is true, then our success rate will increase significantly."

Like heroes? Our port has lots of ship girls, including a huge number of hero ships and meritorious ships.

Like history and epics? We have plenty in our port too. Look at Mikasa, Enterprise, and Warspite—aren't they all full of stories?

It's great to have a vivid imagination; our port area can fulfill all your fantasies.

Moreover, our commander is young, rich, and powerful, and has accomplished an epic hero feat (meaning he defeated humanity's greatest adversary and can make the Sirens 'kill me' with a look of humiliation at any time; this is humanity's epic).

So, to put it simply, Brest likes our commander, and she wants to have his baby.

"So what are you planning to do? Let's make our move before the others come back, otherwise, when that guy returns, the three of us will be on our guard." Binjiang casually picked up his small wine glass and took a sip.

"How to say?"

“I’m cunning, and then there’s Brest, so the two of us are completely guileless.”

"Who is this guy you're talking about? Is he a one-man army with ten different minds? And you're really not giving Brest any face at all."

Zhenhai was both amused and exasperated.

If Brest knew you called her stupid, she'd probably cry.

"Who else could it be? Plymouth, that guy. She's a Royal Navy light cruiser, very powerful, and to be honest, she's quite shrewd. Sometimes it's hard to know where to start with her. And how should I put it? I think she's a bit cunning. She likes to play tricks on people and often bullies two of the honest guys out of the five of us: Brest and Prince Rupprecht."

Binjiang said.

"Well, let's hurry up then. I'll have Richelieu and Dunkirk come over later. You take Brest out on the street and pretend it's a chance encounter."

Zhenhai said.

It's a rather simple and crude method, but for this clueless little elf, it's the simplest, most direct, and most effective method.

“Okay, see you this afternoon. I need to call her back to let her know I’m off work. Brest shouldn’t have any work scheduled this afternoon,” Binjiang said.

"But are you sure Richelieu will be useful?" Binjiang asked, somewhat uncertain.

Zhenhai smiled confidently: "Don't worry, even if Richelieu is useless, there's still Dunkirk, right? Although it's not a Dunkirk-class battleship... it's still a cousin of Atsuko, isn't it?"

"Since you're so confident, I'll be going now." Binjiang finished the last bit of rice wine in his cup and stood up.

Zhenhai also stood up: "Looking forward to your great success!"

Chapter 591 Binjiang: You're the one who's up to no good

"Hi~ Did you miss me? A beautiful day begins with a wonderful encounter with Binjiang~"

"...What's wrong with you again?"

Binjiang's eyes twitched as he looked at Brest, who was dressed in a maid's dress, and wondered if the guy had taken the wrong medicine at noon.

Brest circled around in front of Binjiang and then said, "Is it strange? I read this in a story about thirteen heroes, and that's how the female protagonist spoke."

"And I also like all kinds of beautiful clothes."

"I told you to read fewer storybooks..." Binjiang was speechless. "I brought guests here."

Brest also noticed Richelieu and Dunkirk behind Binjiang. He had seen them before, and Brest was quite interested in an archbishop from the Free Iris and a ship girl who could be considered his cousin.

“We meet again, Miss Richelieu, Miss Dunkirk.” Brest also slightly restrained himself.

“Long time no see. I happened to run into Binjiang on the street, so I thought I’d come over and have some fun. I hope I haven’t bothered you?” Richelieu said with a smile.

Brest slowly shook his head: "No, I just happen to be on vacation today."

"Haha, that's perfect. Dunkirk and her group wanted to tour the city, but they needed a guide, so they came to me."

Binjiang said.

"Why don't you join us? Otherwise, are you going to spend the whole afternoon just reading? Don't you find it boring?"

“Alright, I’ve almost finished reading all the storybooks I’ve read recently, so I might as well go shopping to buy some more.” Brest suddenly said, “By the way, Miss Richelieu, do you have any interesting storybooks in your world?”

After thinking for a moment, he added, "I can buy it."

Because she needed to keep the fact that the ship girls here could travel between the two worlds at any time a secret from them for the time being, Richelieu apologized and said, "I'm sorry, I only have religious books with me. These storybooks are available in the port area of ​​our world, but I can't get them for the time being."

“That’s a real shame,” Brest said.

Richelieu said at the right moment, "However, there are quite a few little ones coming, so the Commander has quite a lot of storybooks in stock."

Brest's eyes lit up: "Do you have any books about heroic epics?"

"Yes, after all, there are many little ones in the family, so there are quite a few books of all kinds."

“Then I must visit your commander again another day,” Brest said.

Richelieu greeted him with a gentle, all-encompassing smile: "We welcome you warmly."

Well, regarding the curse of our port, if you don't already have a ship with the same name in our port, then once you come to our port, you will inevitably stay... It's a curse! A curse!

Poor Brest, however, was unaware of this and instead looked on with longing and curiosity about what the story of another world would be like.

Binjiang and Dunkirk exchanged glances.

'I knew this silly girl was easy to fool!'

'I didn't realize it before; he was acting like a riddle-solving connoisseur, going back and forth in their discussion.'

'That's work mode. This is my usual vacation mode, so I'm just being a goofball.'

As the ship girl with the best relationship with Brest, Binjiang is like a bad friend, ruining her best friend's reputation.

"Alright, we've been talking for so long, and I even prepared a souvenir. How much longer are you going to chat?" Dunkirk said, clearly annoyed.

Brest was taken aback, then smiled apologetically: "Please come in. It's so rude of me to have my guest waiting at the door."

The girls entered the double dormitory in Binjiang and Brest. It was neither too big nor too small, with two bedrooms and a living room. The decorations were not luxurious, but they were very simple and cozy, which suited Richelieu's taste quite well.