If Yamato had truly set her heart on escaping, she only needed to wait for the right moment—Bismarck and the others would never actually sink her.
"Run? Why would I run?" Yamato shot Bismarck a fierce glare. "I want to go back with you—just to see how Hikaru punishes you."
"The Commander won't punish us for this. He might even reward us," Helena tucked back her long hair, her tone carrying a hint of anticipation. "The sooner we finish things here, the sooner I can return to his side."
She still remembered her romance with Hikaru—and she would never allow him to deny it.
Yamato shook her head. "I don't understand why things had to come this far. Was it really worth it?"
Helena laughed.
"The first thing the Commander told us was never to wrong ourselves. The world is vast—there's always somewhere to belong. Yamato, as head of the East Asia Division, of course you believed cooperating with him meant both gaining a powerful backer and indirectly reconciling with the Country. You thought that was the optimal path. But…"
Helena trailed off, smiling faintly as if recalling some warm memory.
Yamato frowned. "But what?"
"He said that if a person always chooses the 'most correct' option, then what's the point of living? Where's the fun in that? If he were like that, he wouldn't love drinking so much, and he wouldn't even be himself. He told us life is meant to be lived happily and freely. Forgiving you, Yamato, was already the biggest concession he was willing to make. But if some people insist on digging their own grave… what else can be done?"
Yamato snorted, not bothering to hide her scorn. "If it weren't for you shipgirls, with his reckless temperament he'd either drink himself to death in a gutter or get stabbed by an enemy one of these days."
"But he is our Commander," Helena's smile bloomed like a flower. "The best Commander."
Yamato had no reply. She took three quick drags from her cigarette, then flicked the butt into the sea.
"Then let's see where he leads you all in the end!"
Bismarck's actions, of course, had already caused an uproar in both the shipgirl divisions and the military.
Detaining Yamato as a captive, brazenly killing a member of the envoy, and openly declaring a state of war—this was naked hostility.
Voices rose in unison to condemn Bismarck and Hikaru.
Most of the curses were aimed at Hikaru. Everyone assumed it had been his orders. Otherwise, how could the situation have escalated so suddenly?
Clearly, he was holding a grudge and had sent his shipgirls to exact vengeance.
But open war?
The moment the word was raised, not a soul dared to respond.
Making the wrong stance on that question could mean standing trial before a military court in the future.
Or worse—being cut down on the spot by Bismarck and her kind.
The latter might even be preferable—at least then one could preserve the honor of a soldier.
At such a delicate moment, anyone foolish enough to endorse war against beings on the same level as Tirpitz would be branded a traitor to the nation.
And yet, even if they wanted to swallow their pride, it didn't seem Bismarck was offering peace as an option.
Money, resources—they could have asked for anything. Instead, Bismarck had merely declared that after twenty-one hundred hours, she would come ashore to "make a statement."
But who knew if that statement would be a declaration of war, followed by a massacre?
The military and the shipgirl divisions alike dissolved into shouting chaos.
Warspite felt utterly exhausted. After forcing herself to endure dozens of minutes of analysis and debate, she finally waved her hand.
"In any case, concentrate our forces and maintain strict surveillance of their side. Report any abnormalities immediately. But unless it is absolutely unavoidable, no one is permitted to fire back. Even if they open fire first, without my direct order, no retaliation is allowed." She closed her eyes, thinking carefully for a moment. "Activate Contingency Plan Three. If full-scale war breaks out, use the coordinates Yamato provided and sink the naval district where Kuramoto Hikaru is stationed."
At that, Goeben shivered, unable even to imagine the consequences.
[End of Chapter]
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