Alaska noticed Saint George's suspicion, but Saint George didn't bother to explain. She just said flatly:
"Don't waste time. Old K wants you to take me to Hikaru."
With Saint George making such a scene, Alaska knew full well her cover as a long-buried mole was blown. She was already on the radar of the intelligence services. But that was always going to happen sooner or later.
Even so, she couldn't agree to Saint George's demand.
"I don't know where Hikaru is," Alaska shrugged helplessly. "I don't even know what really happened between him and the military."
"Useless," Saint George sneered. "Good thing I wasn't relying on you. Hikaru's whereabouts—I know them myself."
Alaska's eyes widened. "How could you possibly know that?"
"Some shipgirls told me," Saint George said casually. "Not long ago, his shipgirls clashed with the authorities."
Alaska could hardly believe it. "And they just handed you that kind of classified information?!"
In times like these, even provincial governors traveled under heavy security. Hikaru, who carried the hopes of an entire nation? His location should've been the most tightly guarded secret of all.
"Some people cling to national loyalties," Saint George said dismissively. "Others prefer international cooperation." She pulled a folded silk map from the pocket of her platinum uniform and handed it to Alaska. "Here. A description of where his base is."
International cooperation? Just call it what it is: a traitor—no, a traitress.
For someone to leak this—the exact location of Hikaru's base—they had to hold very high authority. Perhaps even one of the regional leaders.
But who?
The question was too big. Alaska shook her head and unfolded the map.
Her brow furrowed deeper the longer she studied it.
"Is it that difficult?" Saint George asked.
The seas were vast. The map only marked Yamato's rough notes. Hikaru's base was thousands of miles away, and even a deviation of a few degrees would make it impossible to find.
"It's not impossible," Alaska said at last, folding the map. Then she asked with suspicion, "What do you want with Hikaru?"
Alaska herself had her orders. Saint George showing up with intel from Old K was one thing. But why was she going herself? She had come all the way from the Hawaiian front—surely not just to play messenger.
"I'm going to expose the lie of this so-called 'strongest shipgirl,'" Saint George's lips curled in a cold smile. "Splashing around in some little bay and calling herself invincible? They don't understand true power."
Alaska rolled her eyes, completely speechless.
Who could tell her why Saint George had to be such a chuuni?
Saint George noticed her look and scoffed, "You're just another frog in a well."
Alaska bristled immediately. "You paper ship!"
Saint George's eyes narrowed, her hand resting on her sword. "You're wasting your life."
"You paper ship!"
"You can't even defeat me!"
"You paper ship!"
Saint George's mouth snapped shut.
She was a six-star shipgirl, hailed as one of the strongest battleship candidates of her nation. But she had a fatal weakness: her class, the N3 design, had never been built. Saint George was nothing more than a paper battleship.
Alaska had found her soft spot and jabbed it without mercy.
Saint George's hand clenched her sword hilt before she finally released it. Coldly, she said:
"We leave for Hikaru's base. Now."
Then she added, "That's Old K's order."
"Don't think you can wave Old K's name to push me around," Alaska rolled her eyes again. Then, after a moment's thought, she added, "You'll follow my lead. And under no circumstances do you act on your own. The last thing we want is to anger Hikaru."
Her mission was to win Hikaru over. If Saint George came storming in with her fight-picking attitude, she'd wreck everything.
Though reluctant, Saint George had no choice. She didn't know the seas, and without Alaska, she couldn't possibly find Hikaru's base.
With a sharp grunt, she yielded. "Fine. Then let's see what you can do."
[End of Chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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