I noticed some errors in this chapter, an updated version will be uploaded with new chapters. Sorry for any misunderstanding.
Chapter 28: In the Meantime, Papers!
Arthur is making plans for the next few weeks.
Since he does not know when the Royal Navy will contact him to resume his work, he needs to find something to do in the meantime. Usually the waiting time for a job will take several business days, if not weeks.
He imagines himself as the official commander of the Royal Navy. What should a commander know? What tasks does he need to fulfill to earn benefit for the Royal Navy?
After an hour of planning and analyzing, he hears a doorbell ring. He opens the door but there is no one at the door.
He sees a small envelope on the floor. The person who rang the doorbell must have dropped this package.
The envelope does not show the sender's address and the receiver's address. It only shows a brief message: "For the Royal Navy."
Arthur carefully opens the envelope in his room.
The envelope includes a standard ID card, a black credit card, and the ID card of the commander. These must have been from the Council, or at least something issued by the wolf-masked man.
Given their military power at that base, they should have some connections to government agencies. Yes, such an organization must have some shady secrets, but Queen Elizabeth should have her reasons to choose them. Arthur decides to utilize their resources for now. He does not have another connection to rely on anyway.
With these two items, he can purchase most ordinary items such as groceries or clothes.
Finishing wearing his outdoor clothing, he heads out to the town of his current residence, London.
Based on his planning, he has much to do even before he resumes his duties as a commander.
First, he needs more information.
He goes to a bookstore and purchases a book of geography that includes the world map. He needs to understand the world map and the relations between each country.
Next, he purchased and subscribed to "Weekly Royal Navy," a major weekly newspaper series that has been publishing a new edition every Saturday. The weekly newspaper can give him the idea of major events happening around the world.
Now that he has enough papers for now, he needs a suitable tea set and tea leaves to spice up his reading. Perhaps a breakfast brand with milk and sugar would be nice for him.
He purchased a tea set and tea leaves that fit his needs since he will likely host several afternoon tea parties to invite special guests or just relax with the Kansens.
Finally, to add a finishing touch, he ordered a bagel with peanut butter and two over-medium eggs for his breakfast.
Bringing back everything he purchased to his guest room, he enjoys his breakfast while reading newspapers and studying the world map.
As he looks at the major headline of the first page of the newspaper, a shocking news that is worthy to be the first headline presents to him.
Three days ago, Sakura Empire, an ally of Azur Lane, launched a sudden assault on a naval base of Eagle Union. The attack was led by Kaga and Akagi, the First Carrier Division and followed by Zuikaku and Shoukaku, the Fifth Carrier Division.
To support the ally in need, Queen Elizabeth sent Hood and Prince of Wales who led a number of Kansens and royal maids to support Eagle Union. They still have not returned yet as the battle still rages.
This explains their lack of communication despite Arthur having arrived back from his exam. It is unfortunate that he cannot help them as a commander in this battle.
Looks like he needs to focus up and prepare all he can so he can issue effective orders on day 1. Fortunately, this task has been his plan since the beginning so he does not need to alter much of his plan.
After two hours, Arthur finishes his notes on the world's current situation right now.
The battle between Eagle Union and Sakura Empire shifts to the open sea battle in the west of Hawaii. With the assistance of the Royal Navy, Eagle Union was able to quickly regain their commanding system and pursue Sakura Empire fleets to seek revenge from the attacks.
The Royal Navy, however, only helped with repelling the Sakura Empire fleet from the naval base, not pursuing them. They mainly focused on scavenging the remains of the base and rescuing the injured or trapped personnel. However, with the large-scale destruction that the Sakura Empire caused, it will take a while to fully clean afterwards.
It seems the Royal Navy did not want to pursue the Sakura Empire, who just threatened their former allies. Did they not trust Eagle Union for some reason? Perhaps they did not wish to steal the battle achievements, for whatever that was worth.
Besides the battle on the Pacific Ocean, the countries in Europe have their share of warfare as well.
It goes without saying regarding hostilities between the Royal Navy and Ironblood, the center of the Crimson Axis.
At the far north, a faction named Northern Parliament has been a core member of Azur Lane, but they mostly remained silent regarding their current circumstance. They apparently have been engaging Sirens and Ironblood's northern fleets.
Near the Royal Navy, a civil war between Iris Libre and Vichya Dominion divides the country into two. Iris Libre joins Azur Lane while Vichya Dominion chooses the Crimson Axis. In other words, Iris Libre is an ally to the Royal Navy and Vichya Dominion is the opposite.
Given the close geography location and their common enemy, Arthur believes he should earn Iris Libre's full support on the Royal Navy's future operations in Europe, especially the ones against Ironblood and Sirens.
There are other factions in the world, but Arthur decides to put them into future considerations since the Royal Navy has too many pressing issues they need to solve.
Arthur takes a short break from his reading. He misses the days when Hood and the royal maids helped him to solve the piles of papers and documents.
After 15 minutes of break, he then evaluates what he should be doing regarding the Royal Navy as a whole.
Unlike his time as an emergency commander, being a real deal means everyone expects him to act professionally from day one. However, he does not have much military information. All of the information he has are only the ones that are visible in the public platforms such as newspapers or radio broadcasts.
Arthur lists the objectives for the Royal Navy:
The ultimate goal is to defeat Sirens and force them out of Earth.
Defeating Sirens requires unification of humanity. However, their previous attempt by forming Azur Lane has failed since members continue to withdraw to form Crimson Axis. With warfares all over the world and the unknown source of Azur Lane's discrimination toward Kansens, unifying humanity would be extremely difficult.
Arthur mentally stimulates several ways to resolve this problem.
The Royal Navy becomes the greatest power in Azur Lane, making them the greatest power so they can order countries to cease their conflict and fight Sirens. While this approach takes the shortest time. It assumes the Royal Navy does have superior powers compared to the rest of the world. However, they cannot even defeat the Ironblood, let alone the Sirens.
Ironblood apparently intends to follow this direction by applying Sirens' technology they obtained. Given Sirens' powerful performance, it is natural for humans to desire such massive power.
Next, the Royal Navy attempts to resolve all major conflicts and issues in the world by peaceful or pacifist methods. This idealist approach does not require the Royal Navy to hold the strongest military power in the world, but those conflicts won't be easily stopped by telling them to stop. Trading profits, non-aggression pacts, alliances will be necessary and they require the Royal Navy's high ranking of military power and honorable reputation. Furthermore, undercover actions of spies and agents will be necessary to understand what other countries need. Therefore, following this approach requires the Royal Navy to establish a spy network and submarines who can conduct covert operations. These actions require a massive amount of time, resource, and budget to accomplish, something that the current Royal Navy does not have.
Arthur estimates this approach will require heavy investment of resources and personnel and even then the success rate is roughly about 60%. Perhaps actively requesting the Council to fully cooperate with Arthur can raise the success rate, but he still thinks it is too low for the investments and risks. Perhaps the rates may rise depending on his orders and policies.
These two major directions have their advantages and disadvantages. What should Arthur choose when he can resume his commander duties?