Commander's Rounds Volume 1

Gaiden Entry 116.5: The Royal Perogative

Princess Royal looked at the timetable that the commander had passed on to the ex-rebel Kansen from the office of the Royal Prime Minister. As far as these things went, it wouldn't be too many more months before the new base in the Western Mediterranean would be brought on line, and they would be leaving Azur Lane's Pacific HQ for a new assignment involving keeping watch on the Suez Canal and the Dardanelles. She would be glad to shed the maid outfit she had been forced to wear for these months, and, well, there was someone who was also excited.

"Haha, looks like she's done it- A real base all to ourselves." Florida smiled as she walked along the edge of a fountain in the main square. "No more hiding in some river junction, lots of actual support this time, and, most importantly of all?" She looked right at Princess Royal with a smile. "All the gorgeous Atlantic Kansen you can look at. They should be calling it a vacation, not a redeployment!"

Princess Royal huffed. "I shouldn't have to remind you that we're being sent there to look after two of the world's most important waterways. There will be little time for the festival of ogling that you will want to enmesh yourself in as soon as you arrive. Even if we're not covering an ocean, there will be plenty of work for us to do when we get there and afterwards."

Florida giggled. "Hey now, don't rain on my parade. I'd tell you to take that stick out of your ass, but you're probably too afraid of liking it to put one in there."

The battlecruiser's eyebrow twitched. "Would you mind spouting such things in another time and place?"

The battleship put on a sly grin. "Oh, right... You prefer Tiger to do that kind of thing, I guess."

Princess Royal blushed and gave Florida a furtive, covert nudge, just enough of one to make it look like the dreadnought battleship just naturally lost her balance. Florida toppled back into the water with a splash, and as Princess Royal left, she heard the battleship shout "Joke's on you, I'm into this!"

Princess Royal sighed a little. Some of these other ships were utterly incorrigible. Were they not taught manners? Did their country even have any to begin with? Did they used to have them and give them up as too much of a bother?

Those would be questions for later as she went to clean up Yuubari's lab, an assignment that perpetually annoyed her due to the wide variety of... substances... That could end up being spilled there. She was never quite sure what they were even working on in there, and she never really felt compelled to ask, either from within or without.

Once she was inside, she saw that Delaware and Dr. Anzeel were talking with each other.

"I don't think any of us questioned human genius." Delaware began. "...However, we did have something to say about how it was applied, especially since humans seemed to think that we inherently owed them something for forcing us into existence."

Dr. Anzeel nodded. "Well, some might say that what you just said is a fancy way of saying "I didn't ask to be born!" Or something like that, but you didn't exactly give us much time to make amends."

"I think that we believed at the start that giving humans a chance to make amends would mean giving them another chance to betray us." Delaware looked Dr. Anzeel right in the eyes. "And given what happened to you, I would hope you could understand."

"Perhaps." Dr. Anzeel replied, and then smiled. "But here I am, aren't I? But the fact of the matter is, even if I despised humanity, I still have work to do for my girls. If the Sirens gain full control, humans aren't the only ones who are going to suffer. After talking to the others, the world the Sirens want is one dominated by a war without end. It's... The kind of world where Enterprise would suffer most, to say nothing of those other girls who want to enjoy this world that they've been born into."