After a week of long classes with different shipgirls, Emir was finally ready to take over Azure's position as the commander of Azur Lane. However before he could even step foot in the office he had to look like a commander first. He was lucky that such a caring maid had pre-prepared a black commander's uniform, with gold finishes, for the boy and to top it all off, was a matching black hat with a golden strap and Azur Lane's insignia placed at the centre of it. Though Emir seemed to hate wearing it, therefore it was only ever on his head rarely.

Once two weeks had then passed, Emir now tried to devote his time to meeting and getting to know the shipgirls. He had already met a few, here and there, but never really familiarised with them, just the simple greetings. This wasn't good for the commander of the fleet, so he was heavily advised by both Belfast and Amazon to go out and meet with as many ships as possible. At first, Emir's plan was to use the secretary system, however the girls explained that would still take way too long. So being the good teacher that she was, Amazon had set up a day where her new commander can meet her faction leader, Queen Elizabeth, in a tea party.

Hearing this out of the blue broke Emir's mind, that he shortly fainted after being told. However, it was already approved by her majesty, so he had no choice but to go.

Waiting in front of the Royal Navy's dorms, Emir shook like a newborn deer while Belfast merely watched her young master with a concerned expression. She had already tried her best to comfort him, but his anxiety just wouldn't go away. Just the thought of meeting the higher echelon of a faction, made Emir's stomach twist and churn.

Amazon then walked out of the dorms with a bright smile. "Ah you're just in time, come in commander!"

Despite him not really wanting to be there, the young commander pushed on. Inside, he noticed that there were not as many people as he thought there was gonna be, but the ones that were there had their eyes fixated on him, whilst murmuring amongst one another.

"It's their first time seeing you, so they're very excited," Amazon informed.

"Right," Emir replied with a nervous smile. "The Royal Navy is about as glamorous as I thought it would be on the inside."

Looking at their commander, the girls noticed he was taking in the decor of the dorms: Its magenta carpet that ran along every inch of the halls, the grandeur designs that wrapped around the window frames and the lines of chandeliers that ran along the ceiling. Everything that was within the dorms, Emir took it in like a child in a new home.

After walking for some time with the two, Amazon left her commander with Belfast since she had other things to do.

"Are you ready young master?" the maid asked.

"Honestly I wanna turn back around and go back to the office, but how would that look?" the commander admitted, before continuing to walk to the garden.

When they arrived at the garden, the commander was speechless at the greenery and collection of flowers, which painted the garden in an array of colours. For Emir it was like the beauty of nature itself was taken from an artist's collection and pasted onto reality.

"Ah, Belfast you have arrived!" a voice boomed, tearing the young man's attention away from the garden.

Not too far from where they were, stood a snow white gazebo, made of stone. Under its shade, were four blonde haired females: one dressed as a maid, while the others sat around a small, circular table that matched the colour of the gazebo.

Walking over to the group, Belfast stole a couple of glances at her master, only to see him rather calm.

They soon found themselves in front of the group, where the youngest looking of girls then stood up with her arms folded. She had an obvious smirk on her face, yet she carried the aura of a true leader.

"I am Elizabeth, queen of the Royal Navy!" she announced with an arm outstretched.

Belfast gave a curtsy and greeted the queen as the head of the Royal Maids, announcing her return to port. She was then about to introduce Emir, but was taken by surprise when he went on one knee and lowered his head to her majesty when he gave his introduction.

"I am Emir Regis, the younger brother of Azure Regis and the current proxy commander. It is an honour to have gained an audience with you, your majesty."

Everyone was shocked by the scene the boy had just pulled, even Emir himself had to do his best to keep a straight face after what he had just done. There was then long awkward silence that befell the group, that Emir began to worry if he had come in too strong and had gained the ire of the group, or worse, that they had begun to see him as a weird person.

"Hmm, it seems this one knows how to act when in front of royalty," Elizabeth said, with her chest puffed up and a large grin on her face.

"It seems that the new commander is well aware of how to address her majesty," Said a woman wearing a blue dress and union jack shawl.

"Yes, he would be a fine knight," another blonde, twin tailed girl added, while also nodding in approval.

By this point, Emir had already returned to his two feet and was watching the group with a mixture of relief and confusion. The one with the blue dress then introduced herself as Hood, then pointed out that the twin tailed girl was named Warspite.

"It's a pleasure to meet the both of you," the commander replied.

Emir's eyes then glanced over to the pale woman who had a cold expression pasted on her face. The young Regis male wanted to know her name, but her cold stare kept his lips tightly shut.

"I see you are as silent as ever Sheffield," Belfast enounced, "care to introduce yourself to our master, you are a maid."

In response to her words, the blonde haired maid faced Emir and bowed her head. "Apologies, I am Sheffield, a member of the Royal maids."

"It's uh, nice to meet you too," Emir responded with a nervous bow.

Joining the group, Emir enjoyed himself a cup of tea and some cookies, while he discussed their current matters to the other ships. Elizabeth was impressed at the plans he had laid out for them: testing out equipment suitable for combating the current Sirens, as well as upgrading current ships to withstand stronger weapons. Despite the confidence he had in explaining them, by the end he became rather sheepish, telling the group that he wasn't planning on executing anything till he got the approval of all the major representatives. Curious about his hesitation, Elizabeth questioned the need to consult others when he was the commander. With a small smile, Emir explained that he still yearned to hear the opinions of others, so until then he will not do a thing to the girls' equipment.

As the discussions went on, Elizabeth then began to ask Emir questions about creating a fleet to combat the Sirens. To which she then offered Warspite to be a part of, bragging about how she is one of the most powerful ships in the home port, before smiling at her own genius.

"That would be most appreciated," Emir expressed, "however I must see her in an exercise first before I decide to add her into any fleet."

Upon hearing the end of his sentence, Elizabeth shot up from her seat and then slammed her hands unto the table, baffled.

"What?!" the queen exclaimed.

"Yes, while I am aware of Madame Warspite's skill, as a ship who had not seen combat in years, I would like to assess her in her current state," Emir explained, rendering Elizabeth speechless.

Easing herself back onto her seat, Elizabeth cleared her throat and acted like her outburst had not just occurred, and instead proceeded to praise Emir for his careful planning of taking into the current shipgirls' combat prowess. However despite her dignified persona, the blush that was spread across her face betrayed her, as she now looked like a spokesperson who just tripped on their way up to the podium and proceeded to muddle up their speech.

Despite her best to cover her tracks, the other ships still watched their flagship with forced expressions, clearly trying to hide the fact that they were somewhat embarrassed by their queen's sudden loss of composure. Which was not unusual for her.

"We-well it seems that you have carefully planned things out. Mhm as expected of the one that Amazon highly spoke of." Emir was pleasantly surprised by the queen's mention of Amazon. They had only met each other very recently, yet she was already commending him. This brought a warm feeling to the boy's chest, which was then evident for all to see due to the small smile that he had allowed to grace his visage as he thought about the Royal destroyer.

Whilst he was within his own thoughts, Elizabeth had made the decision to bring her new commander into a round of golf, much to his surprise. Even when he wanted to refuse the offer, the queen had already made her mind up and clearly had no intention at letting her honoured guest leave just yet.

Travelling to the vast golf course of the Royal Navy, Emir was impressed at the sheer size of the course: a luscious green field that spread out as far as the eye can see, several small rolling hills scattered along with pools of sand; and a winding path that connected everything to one another. Truly a golf course befitting her majesty, Queen Elizabeth.

Before they played, Elizabeth split the group into two teams: her and Warspite, Emir and Hood. The two maids weren't participating since they were there to cater to the others.

Watching the others play was nerve-racking for Emir, he had no idea how to play golf. In fact the only experience he ever got playing a sport like golf was when he and his sister knocked ping pong balls into a plastic cup. He doubted that was classified as a proper golf game though.

When it was finally his turn, Emir tried to recall any moments he had seen a gold game before so that he could at least emulate someone who knew what they were doing. So with his knees bent and club hovering just behind the ball, the commander tried to steady his breathing to ensure that he was calm for the shot. Regardless of how hard he tried to calm himself, the amount of shaking his body was doing, plus how his vision spiralled was more than enough indication that he had no confidence in what he was about to do. From what they could see, the girls thought that their new commander may collapse just from sheer anxiety.

"Have you ever played golf before commander?" suddenly hearing a voice snapped Emir out of his daze. Turning his head, the young man laid his eyes upon Hood who had approached him.

"No, not properly anyways," the boy admitted, scratching the back of his head while also giving a pained grin.

Walking behind him, Hood then took his arms and began to whisper instructions to Emir on how to properly position himself. Emir did as he was told, then once everything was in place, Hood left the boy alone, unaware of the massive blush that was now painted on his entire face.

Taking deep breaths, Emir calmed himself down first before he took a large swing of the club and struck the ball, sending flying across the field… only to end up in a nearby sand pool.

There was a long silence that immersed the group. When Emir turned back to the others, he saw that everyone had their heads turned away from him.

After a long, embarrassing game of golf, Emir was finally allowed to leave. Once gone from their sights, Warspite asked her queen what her opinion was on the new commander. Elizabeth went into a thinking pose before she allowed a smile to emerge on her lips.

"It's too early to truly give an accurate judgement. Though from the first impression, he seems competent enough."

Emir was walking back to the office along with Belfast. After his shameful show in the golf game with her majesty, the commander was sulking in disappointment. The cruiser beside him silently watched over her discouraged master, before her attention was grabbed by a blonde haired woman in front of them.

"Ah Belfast, it is good to see you again." Looking up, Emir saw the blonde woman and immediately recognised her faction just from the clothing, which were all black clothes with red accents.

"It is good to see you as well Madame Bismarck." the maid replied with a bow.

Bismarck's blue eyes then travelled to Emir, who was staring at her with wide eyes and an open mouth. She then gave him a polite bow before introducing herself. "A pleasure to meet you commander, I am Ironblood's flagship, Bismarck."

"Yes likewise," the commander replied, "are you heading over to the Royal Navy's dorms?"

With a nod Bismarck explained that she had been invited by Hood for a private tea party with her alone. This came as a shock to Emir, considering their history together but he held his tongue just in case it was a sensitive topic for the woman.

As the battleship continued to make her way to the dorms, Belfast heard Emir whisper, "So that's the Bismarck. What a stoic person."

Hey everyone a little message from me regarding the next 4 chapters. They won't have much on them apart from introducing characters and maybe some light exposition here and there. A good down time to the more hectic chapters we had previously. But after these are done it will pretty much be the main plot without any filler chapters like these, so prepare yourselves for that.

Also you may notice that dialogue formats may change throughout the course of the story and that's because I'm practising how to format proper dialogue, so apologies if it is bothersome.

Another thing that I discovered recently is that my story has been added to a community, I haven't had a story ever had to one so this was a pleasant surprise. Thank you so much to willilamotte for adding my story to your community, and I hope you enjoy the rest of the story. (Now I wonder if I'll get in trouble for doing this.)

Other than that I have nothing left to say, so as usual feel free to tell me all your thoughts about the chapter, positive and/or negative.

Thank you all so much for reading and I hope to see you all next chapter :D