The Fleet Admiral flared up, and all the marshals fell silent like cicadas in the winter.
Marshal Heizou, however, was not convinced. Stiff-necked, he retorted, "Don't pretend there's only one! Gorou, I say you're acting out of personal bias!"
This was an extremely serious confrontation. Even Takeyama shrank back slightly, afraid of being caught up in the crossfire.
He was only a mid marshal—he couldn't afford to take the backlash from two such towering figures.
But Gorou wasn't angry. Or at least, not nearly as angry as Takeshi imagined.
He waved his hand. "Finding him is not for now. We'll wait until we've won a major victory, when we can straighten our backs and go ask him what he thinks. This matter need not be raised again."
Marshal Heizou opened his mouth, but in the end, he said nothing.
Gorou looked around at the marshals. "Stop pulling long faces. Do you have confidence in victory?"
"Yes!" they thundered.
The all-night conference finally came to an end. Takeyama walked out of the war room with the senior marshals.
His shipgirl, London, was waiting outside. Seeing him come out, she carried over a plate of black, gooey liquid.
"Commander, you must be hungry. I made this with love, just for you."
The senior marshals passing by took one whiff and turned green in the face, hurrying away while pinching their noses.
"What on earth did you make for me?" Takeshi asked.
"Five-spice broad beans. Pretty simple."
If London hadn't told him, Takeshi wouldn't have recognized them as beans. He would've believed her if she'd claimed it was black sesame paste.
Under her expectant gaze, he scooped up a spoonful of the black mush, put it in his mouth, shuddered all over, chewed for a while, forced it down, and gave her a thumbs up. "Delicious!"
London's face lit up with joy. "Then let me feed you."
"No rush." Takeshi's eyes caught a figure, and he pointed at the man. "That's the Fleet Admiral's new aide. Go dig into his records for me, especially his loyalty reports. I'll wait here."
Normally, investigating the people around high command was a bit taboo. But Takeshi prided himself on being upright. Besides, he was the kind of "reckless fool" who had publicly defended Hikaru in front of an entire ship of colleagues and superiors—only he would dare say something like this out loud.
Of course, the other marshals and admirals would also be having this aide investigated. They just wouldn't admit it in public, much less say it where the man could hear.
"Eat it while it's hot. I'll head to Internal Security and find someone," London said, handing him the plate before hurrying away.
Marshal Heizou strolled over, sniffed curiously at the black goo, and asked with interest, "What's it taste like?"
Expressionless, Takeshi opened his mouth, the paste sticking inside like glue.
"Like phlegm," he said flatly.
Heizou gave him a thumbs up. "You're something else. Among your entire generation, you're the toughest one!"
Takeshi knew he wasn't really here just to sniff the plate of black goo. Thinking back to what happened in the conference room, he asked, "Is this about Hikaru?"
"Smart." Heizou patted his shoulder and whispered, "Hikaru set up a naval district down south. We're planning to send in an observer."
Takeshi shook his head. "He won't like it."
A naval district was like a commander's home—no, even more private than a home. After all, it was where his shipgirls lived. Shipgirls were like his household's womenfolk; the naval district was equivalent to his inner chambers.
No one liked having another man camping out in their inner chambers.
And this observer probably wouldn't be leaving any time soon.
Not to mention, Hikaru was still officially a criminal. Why should he accept an observer from Navy High Command?
"Of course you can't go. But we can send one of your shipgirls."
Now it was Takeshi's turn to frown.
Having his own shipgirl live under another man's roof? No matter how he looked at it, it felt wrong.
"Isn't there anyone else in all of Navy High Command you could send?"
"You're the one with the best relationship with him. And this assignment will definitely benefit your shipgirl," Heizou said with a sly wink. "If I didn't like you, this task would never fall to you. You have fifteen minutes to give me an answer. Time is tight."
Takeshi was torn.
Meanwhile, the new aide the Fleet Admiral had dismissed earlier was alone in the waiting room.
It was only dawn; no one had come yet to seek an audience with the Fleet Admiral.
The aide sat upright, fists resting on his knees, eyes closed in meditation.
In the palm of his clenched right hand, lines of jet-black writing appeared and vanished, again and again.
[End of Chapter]
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