Chapter 48 – On the Way Home
Two days later, the fleets will go back to NY Harbour. Richelieu and Queen Elizabeth seeing them off on the port with the rest of Royal Navy members. Especially Unicorn who he have been seeing more often during his stay in Royal Navy.
"Onii-chan, you will be... leaving soon?" Unicorn looked at him with a sad expression.
Greynar sighed and smiled slightly, "I have some work to do, but i will see you soon when i visit this place again." He crouched and patted the lavender-haired girl.
"So we will see... each other again?" The girl nervously ask.
The commander nodded, assuring her. "We will, i promise you."
"...Unn! I will trust you, Onii-chan." Unicorn looked at him with expectant eyes.
"Good girl." He patted her one more time and got up. He looked at the fleets that was ready to depart. "Is it the time already?" Checking that was on his hand, he bid farewell to Unicorn, and before he turned his head.
"Onii-chan..." Unicorn called out to him.
He suddenly felt a pair of arm enveloped his waist, he found the small carrier hugging him. "Unicorn?"
"Thank you for playing with Yuni..." Unicorn hugged him for a few minutes until she let it go.
Greynar smiled and nodded at her. He lowered himself to Unicorn's level and gently stroked the doll-like unicorn's head. Yuni kindly accepted it and placed its head on Greynar's palm.
"I should be the one saying that. Yuni is a special friend to have," Greynar reminiscing of the past he had, even though that past is no longer possible. "You should hold that relation in your heart."
"Unn... Unicorn knows it... Onii-chan also should treasure your relation with the big sisters in the port." Unicorn replied back.
"Yeah, i will do my best to make the port a fun place for everyone."
The two step-sibling said their last final goodbye. Greynar went into the dockyard to check if everything was done and ready to go. He met with Richelieu and Queen Elizabeth who is explaining how does a Manjuu work to the cardinal. In the corner, he could see Warspite ordering the Manjuu to take care of the remnants and shell leftover from the mass-produced ship that got destroyed in the battle with Sardegna Empire.
"Commander! There you are." Saratoga just got back from testing her rigging, she runs up to Greynar with a cheerful tone.
"Hey there, are we ready to set sail?" Greynar asked.
"Not yet, but we'll be ready to go in about ten minutes," the pink-haired carrier explained. "Memphis and the others still testing their rigging in the exercise area, we want to be in the best of our condition when sailing through the atlantic ocean."
"Alright, just call me through the comms when you guys are ready. I will be staying in the command fleets to check up on the radar." The commander waved her a goodbye while walking towards his ship.
Saratoga sighed, "That guy always do what he liked. Sister sara gonna play a prank on him once we get back from our visit." She had a slight scary face plastered on her. Little did she know that Greynar was prepared for that.
Greynar opened the door to the cabin, and inside, he found a Manjuu still cleaning the floor. It suddenly jolted when it noticed that a person had entered the room. The Manjuu finished its job and quickly ran past Greynar's feet. The commander chuckled a little and let the Manjuu go about its business. He took a peek into the room, and the sight deeply ingrained itself in his mind. The room was immaculate, with no dust in the corners, and the flower vase on the table looked exceptionally beautiful with the colourful patterns decorated on its outer layer.
After he inspected each location on the ship and satisfied with their result on managing the interior of the ship, Greynar went to the bridge. He lay on one of the seat, checking the status of the system, the commander sighed to himself.
"Alright i've done everything i needed, let's wait for the girls to message me." He muttered.
Not long after, he got an incoming notice. The girls seems to be ready to sail right now, the fleets has formed a formation, and they have awaited for the Commander's order. With giving his farewell to Richelieu and Queen Elizabeth for the last time, the fleets weighed anchor from the dockyard.
Shortly, after the fleets had set sail, Queen Elizabeth was informed of Iron Blood's movements. Her expression soured upon hearing that Bismarck and her allies were heading towards the North Sea, which was in close proximity to the Royal Navy's border. Although the news was likely a false alarm, she ordered the Royal Knights to reinforce the border within the territory in the event that something did occur.
Richelieu that has been silently watching it unfold, closed her eyes and hope something won't happen anytime soon. She eventually had enough of the scene and begun to arrange a plan to take one of their territory while walking back to her cottage.
"O' Holy Iris, may you guide us through these narrow path."Richelieu silently muttered.
※ ※ ※
Around roughly nine hours after his sailing, Greynar was woken up by a thunderstorm. The girls are resting on their perspective transformed rigging, with no one to talk to, Greynar moved to the cabin inside. He was cotemplanting about the next event that will occur in the next few week. The fall of Bismarck and Hood's destruction. With this world progress almost coherent according to the game's story, he had no doubt that the event will eventually happen soon.
He looked at the book on the table in his room, it was a diary he have written ever since the timeline reset happened. He had a guilt, overwritting the timeline to make the existence of the original commander gone, and replaced him with his existence was a mistake he made as a clueless person who clearly lacks of knowledge about the world. That's why, he took initiate to write down everything he have experienced in the form of book.
As the elite Sirens still has yet to appear in front of him directly, he will know when he sees one. Observer Alpha and Tester Beta, the two Sirens that keeps the timeline in check. When they are aware that the timeline has been resetted, it will be the day where he's pretty damned and need to somehow erase their memories before anything bad happened. There's many possibility using his command power to shut their memory and erase it, but to what extent that the current power could do? This was his question.
While contemplanting about his future, a lightning hit his ship which got absorbed by a conductor that was placed above the command ship to shield every fleets around it. It was pretty useful because the conductor will channel the electricity to the sea in a shape of lightning stream that not just scatter the heat below underwater, but also temporary jammed the weapon, making it almost submarine-proof conductor.
"Shit, that was loud as fuck." Greynar cursed to the lightning.
He went back to the ship's bridge to check their current situation with everyone else. Since its dark and the weather outside was bad, the sea surface isn't very stable right now. He could feel a slight shake inside the ship but it wasn't too severe.
After half an hour has passed, the weather turned into the beautiful starry night with the cresent moon accompanying it. Greynar noticed the outside was clear, since he was already getting bored, he wanted to take a fresh air outside. When he opened the door, his eyes frozed in fear, his hand was shaking to the core, and his eyes locked into the sight in front of him.
"T-THE FUCK IS THIS!???" He was terrified on what's in front of him.
The commander did not encounter their fleets, rather a towering black structure accompanied by various structures. In its central point lies a red core, serving as its primary power source. The absence of fleets was conspicuous, with only the commander's ship present. To avoid remaining stagnant, the vessel circled around the tower, examining it closely.
[Hey Commander, look who's behind you~] A chilling voice was heard behind him, causing his skin to crawl and his instincts to scream at him to run away.
His vision began to blur as he tried to turn back to the voice of the mysterious person. He gasped loudly as he opened his eyes wide, he was still on the command room. The fleet is still at sea and it will be another day before they return to the port. Greynar hold his face high with his hand and rubbed his forehead.
'What are these dreams hinting at?' The commander silently muttered.
Although every dream sequences have been the same, this time it's a bit different from the usual. A black tower of a slightly greenish hue with a red core situated at its centre. Despite the previous backgrounds of maps seen, the only logical explanation deduced is that of a Siren's mainframe. The commander remember clearly about the last battle happened in the event. Compiler's mainframe was exposed on Scapa Flow by Friedrich, due to that, the poor Siren got shutdowned by one of the META shipgirl after the huge battle.
And also, the only shipgirl he knows that has connection to dreamworld is Shinano of the Sakura Empire. The commander sighed.
"What are you pondering about, Commander?" A carrier girl appeared behind him, hugging him from the back.
"Oh hey Volga, it's nothing. I'm just thinking about the possible future of the war with the Siren." Greynar grabbed her hand and slowly caress it.
"I see... If you have something in your mind, just consult to me! I might be able to give you advice or a thing!" She proudly nodding to herself while having a smug expression on her face.
"Haha... Sure, i will." Greynar smiled at his lover.
Volga changed her expression as soon she sensed something, "Commander, we got a Siren fleets ahead." She pointed to the east of the ship.
"Alright, time for some action, all fleets aim at those Siren on your 3 o'clock." He ordered.
After he issued a command, the fleets slowly turned their turrets to the right side. They slowly raised the turrets above.
"Fire!"
The fleets shoot their salvos and destroyed some part of the Siren fleets that was on the frontline of the formation. He noticed there was several humanoid Siren that was also inside the formation. He glanced at Volga and nodded to her. She left him a peck on his cheek and went to the swarm of enemies. Not want to get left behind, Washington transformed her rigging and chased after Volga. The humanoid Sirens detected a presence and suddenly increased their speed to clash with the two shipgirls.
"Volga! Please!" Washington shouted.
"Im on it!" The carrier launched her plane.
Washington avoided the Siren's laser attack and leaped away before they could collide with each other. She targeted the Siren's head with her rigging, causing it to explode. One of the Siren started to charge their weapon, but it was interrupted by a bomber plane crashing into their rigging.
She gave her thanks to Volga and prepared her another salvo. The battleship dashed through countless of bullets while tanking some of it with her rigging. Washington shoot some of her salvo, raining bullets that pierce through the Siren's fleet and exploding them. Without giving them a rest, Washington used a Siren's ship to be her stepping and jumped to the air. She aimed at the Siren's plane quickly and shoot through their body.
The plane got destroyed while Washington landed on both of her feet. Volga's rigging roared and gathered a small energy on their mouths and shoot a beam to the Siren fleets. It pierced through their bodies but instead of them exploding, it shutdown their whole program, making them couldn't move for an inch. This gives Washington more space to move in-between the fleets, she targetted the carrier first because its a troublesome opponent.
"You are finished!" Washington smirked and aimed her rigging at the flight deck of the Siren.
The Siren's carrier exploded from inside, knocking back Washington but she regained her foot in a second. Volga finished their tiny fight with dropping countless of bomber planes to the Siren fleets, they ended their small battle with a victory. Washington cleaned up some of her clothes, while Volga got back with no dust on her clothes.
"Good work you both." Greynar through his comms gave them a word of praise.
"Thanks, Commander, the fight was boring but at least this will give me another day to hold my urge to fight." Washington smiled.
"Thank you Commander, it's just a normal fight, and its natural for me to protect you~" The carrier replied.
"Haha, well thank you for the good job, now lets go back and hasten up our pace. Since we're pretty late from our estimated arrival, i don't want a certain person to be upset again." Greynar jokingly said.