Chapter 52: Renewed Hope (Part 11)

"Is this to your liking, your highness?"

Not bothering to hide his eye roll as he delivered a cup of steaming tea to Elizabeth the monarch met his gaze with complete and utter cheer in seeming defiance of his wry tone.

"Quite so. I see the head maid's lessons have paid in dividends."

Giving a private thanks to the booklet Belfast had provided that was easily worth its weight in gold when it came to scheduling and preparation Alexander returned to where he'd been sitting between Amagi and Shinano-

-only for Eugen to plop herself down in his lap in a clear staking of territory, crossing one leg over the other as her hands elegantly played with a pint he wasn't entirely sure she'd gotten from.

Elizabeth looked none too happy at the display as one cheek briefly puffed itself outwards before she quickly mastered herself, turning to the pair of foxes before asking, "Would the pair of you perhaps feel up to a number of inquiries? I find myself curious about events and how they may affect future decisions we will have to make."

While there was an uneasy shifting from the duo - no doubt in preparation as their time spent in activity would be the topic of conversation - all present aside from Warspite were pleasantly surprised as the blonde asked, "Empress Nagato was satisfied with vague responses surrounding your future place in the grand scheme of things - no doubt due to your trying captivity by the Sirens - but I am not. Not when our world will be different moving forward and we need to consider such a state of affairs."

While bluntly put Alexander couldn't help but start to consider what the battleship was getting at, belatedly realizing that it was actually an extremely pertinent topic.

"The Sakura Empire as we all knew it is gone."

A bitter smile twisted the queen's lips as she continued with, "As is our cherished Royal Isles. And the Eagle Union. And the Ironblood and every other sovereign peoples across this globe."

Warspite took up the narrative, stating, "The Union has seen more refugees from every culture flood its shores than the past five decades combined, many of the Settlements - with additional input from his majesty - already forming entirely unique communities with differing values and customs. And it's entirely impossible to know how many will return to their homes when the war is over."

Alexander tried to hide his embarrassed expression at Warspite's mention of his status with little success, Eugen smirking at him.

"The Royal Isles have almost the opposite problem. With the shuttered oceans many territories that once fell under our watch were isolated or made to survive on their own. Reintegration would prove…difficult. And the Sakura were scattered across the world, the situation of the communities that fled further inland only now being properly investigated and ascertained."

Elizabeth set her tea aside, steepling her fingers before speaking with a gravitas that contrasted sharply with her youthful appearance but didn't diminish it in the slightest.

"Things will not be the same. And if we do not wish for things to change for the worse then we need to plan for the better. Like it or not, regardless if you feel this way or not…the two of you hold great influence within the Sakura. And that means you will shape the course of the Empire after the war."

Both Amagi and Shinano didn't immediately respond to the proclamation, instead appearing lost in thought until Amagi quietly asked, "You speak the truth, Queen Elizabeth…but do matters of the Sakura Empire fall under your jurisdiction? Should this not be a topic we speak of with Empress Nagato?"

Rather than seem offended Elizabeth appeared delighted, replying, "You have regained your spirit, excellent! And in response to your inquiry, who is to say there will be that much of a difference between Royal and Sakura in the future? Between any of our people?"

"...I beg your pardon?"

Shinano's bewildered words caused Eugen to vaguely gesture with her pint, drawling, "To reiterate, the world has changed. For the first time humanity has a common foe. More importantly, we have a common foe that transcends borders and allegiances. An enemy that we must fight not for ideology or an autocrat's fancy but for the right to survive. And more to the point, with Alexander's arrival that enemy has been proven to be one we can feasibly defeat. Morale and hope across the world have never been higher."

The man weathered the cruiser's peck on the cheek with serene grace, less so with her playful twist of his ear.

"All thanks to this doof."

"Yes, and we are immensely thankful that his aid has improved all of our stations, not just the Ironblood's."

Elizabeth's clear jealousy as she balefully glared at Eugen was brought to an end by Warspite awkwardly clearing her throat, moving the conversation along with, "Regardless, the world order will be one of unification and comradery with Azur Lane at its center. Regardless of what others have to say on the matter."

The phrasing of that sentence caused the Aloadae to perk up and listen real closely to what would be said next, belatedly remembering that the Commander and shipgirls hadn't exactly been on the best of terms with the current governments of the world…but this was basically an open admission of changing the way the world worked despite the many competing powers and groups that would feel otherwise.

He didn't particularly disagree but the man couldn't help but wonder what plots were in the works when he was busy getting shot at or figuring out how the Bakunawa worked. He'd seen the clear discord between the individuals Elizabeth and Nagato had deemed capable to rule while they were off to war and the Commander hadn't exactly been subtle about his frustration with the current leadership either.

Amagi and Shinano had also clued in to the implication, ears and tails bristling as Amagi softly asked, "Has it at last come to this? Tensions had always been present, yet…"

Elizabeth looked genuinely apologetic as she said, "Much time has passed. And matters had become much, much worse before they got better with the coming of Alexander."

To the Aloadae's surprise - although he reflected that he really shouldn't have been - both foxes turned his way, expressions silently asking for his take on matters.

…Not that he had much of a take to give.

"I trust them and the Commander. If they think we need to take action in this matter then we need to take action. Global politics and matters of leadership aren't my strong suite."

"That may not be the case for long, Alexander. We have a few ideas on your future contribution to the world order…"

Elizabeth's smug words had the man freezing in place, Eugen silently laughing at his reaction as even Warspite tried to hide a smile, Amagi and Shinano giving him a perplexed look as the Aloadae warily asked, "Do I even want to know what those ideas are?"

"Have no fear, you'll know soon enough."

Resisting the urge to shiver he was saved - surprisingly enough - by Shinano, the carrier seeming to regain what he imagined was her usual confidence and regality as she stated, "If there is need of my presence and abilities in this new world order…then I will provide it."

She bowed her head.

"It is the least I can do, to atone for past failures."

"I shall do the same. While no immediate course presents itself perhaps, given time, one will become evident. There-"

Wracking coughs suddenly beset Amagi, Alexander instinctively rubbing her back as the shipgirl nodded her thanks, recovering fairly quickly as Elizabeth merely nodded, stating, "And that is all that we can ask of you. I will freely admit, you have surprised me with how swiftly and decisively you are rebounding from your dreadful captivity. You do the Sakura proud."

Both foxes accepted the compliment with grace, Elizabeth hopping off her chair before stating, "Then with that settled I'm afraid I must take my leave. Matters aplenty await my attention and I'm certain the head maid has categorized and prepped all of them for my review."

The latter part was said with no small amount of wry resignation, Amagi and Shinano bowing in respect as the monarch said, "Come, Warspite! I shall have need of your diligence and astute acumen when attempting to conquer the myriad of administrative minutiae that hounds the steps of the queen."

"As you command, your highness."

Sending the ever dutiful battleship a nod and smile as she passed - that she returned before hurrying after Elizabeth - Alexander turned to the pair of foxes and Ironblood before asking, "Feel up to tracking down our wayward engineers? I've got a bunch of questions I need to ask."

"Oh? Am I perhaps not smart enough to aid you in whatever it is you desire, Alexander?"

"As if I would ever say that."

"Would you perhaps think it~?"

Not one to shy away from danger - at least not when it was the feisty cruiser offering it - the Aloadae smirked, replying, "Oh, I don't know…don't you have a way of checking to see what my thoughts are?"

"Your head is rather dense at times, not at all easy to extract the contents within."

"Really? You seemed to do a perfectly fine job of it when the mood was properly set."

Swatting him on the chest Eugen hopped off her lap, happily smiling at the interplay while Amagi quietly murmured, "Oh my…" while Shinano had a slight tinge of pink to her cheeks, the cruiser predictably spotting the moment of weakness as she teased, "Is the pure and incorruptible seer of the Sakura having lewd thoughts?"

Both foxes froze at the accusation, Alexander taking pity on the duo as he pushed Eugen towards the exit, stating, "Now now, you're the last one to go accusing others of having less than chaste proclivities. C'mon, let's go find the others."

"Did one of your planes decide to eat I-13?"

"You know, it does kinda look like that now that I think about it…"

"Nonsense! As if a plane would ever devour a believer in their wondrous power!"

The sub's muffled words sounded less than convincing when she was up to her waist inside one of Essex's interceptors, even less so when she began fruitlessly squirming about before coming to a stop, legs dangling.

"Can someone get me out? I'm stuck."

Shaking her head Essex gave the sub a hard tug, I-13 being freed with a dull thunk as the sub shook her head to clear it, both shipgirls garbed in hardy and simple aprons or coats so as to avoid getting their usual attire dirty.

"Whew! Thanks!"

"While I'm admittedly afraid to ask I can't help but wonder what the two of you were up to in-oh my god."

Sticking his head inside the interceptor the Aloadae found a serpent's nest of recently installed wires and - unless his knowledge of such things way way off - what was almost certainly a bomb. Not actually hooked up to anything but seriously, what the fuck?

"Now what are you two up to? Less destructive than nuclear energy, sure, but the applications are a bit more, well…applicable."

Proudly puffing out her chest in an act that was only slightly marred by the soot and dust that coated her head I-13 explained, "Well my weapons of choice are pretty destructive but they rely on stealth and surprise to get the job done, I brought it up with Essex and we decided to branch out when it came to suicide attacks~!"

Feeling a sense of unstoppable resignation overtake him Alexander defeatedly asked, "Why?"

"Well for one thing all of our planes are remote controlled, so we don't have to worry about loss of life. Secondly we thought back to the initial siege on Azur Lane by the Sirens and how we could have handled things better."

Mood turning briefly melancholic Essex gently patted the nose of the altered interceptor, stating, "I-13's suicide planes were incredibly powerful, even as our own bombers were forced to stay away from the main fleet due to all the AA and other craft…hindsight being what it is, if we'd outfitted some of our interceptors with suicide kits they might have been able to break through and damage or destroy the Wisdom Cube enhanced ships, the final tally of the battle not being as brutal as it was."

Shaking her head free of those thoughts Essex merely smiled as she gave the plane one last pat, stating, "So, we're making plans and alterations for the future. One can never have too many weapons, after all."

Releasing a sigh he favored the duo with a fond smile, joking, "I'm starting to wonder what they feed you engineering types. Battlesuits, nukes, suicide craft, attempting to kill the president…"

Essex coughed in mild embarrassment as I-13 merely chirped, "But that's why we're the best, now isn't it~?"

"Your sisters would be jealous if I replied to that with complete honesty."

"Eh heh heh~!"

Briefly diverting his gaze from the latest and greatest in shipgirl jury-rigging he glanced to the side where I-25 and 26 were animatedly chatting with Amagi and Shinano, Prinz Eugen watching the whole thing with clear amusement and no doubt waiting to offer her own commentary when it would cause the most misunderstanding.

"Woah, so he's actually been really nice to you? That's funny, the head maid was saying he was really beastlike with shipgirls, that he'd probably devour you…"

"Wait, what?"

I-25 quickly nodded her head, ears flopping about as she agreed with I-26's words before adding, "Apparently he not only conquered Lady Nagato but also Queen Elizabeth…even miss Kawakaze!"

Shoulders quaking in mirth Eugen had to avert her gaze while Alexander felt his eye twitch, making a mental note to have a little chat with Belfast first chance he got about the rumors she was spreading. Seriously, he wasn't sure if that woman was a saint or secretly a cruel mastermind.

Probably both.

Matters were made only worse by both Amagi and Shinano yet again flushing at the two sub's words, Amagi coughing as Shinano delicately responded, "That…is a perfectly normal male response? And if our sisters were accepting of such an arrangement I…see no reason to be worried? Alexander-sama has been naught but a gentleman."

Never one to miss the chance to pour fuel onto the fire Prinz added, "If you find the prospect enticing there is always the option to become one of mistresses. Alexander has proven himself to be quite resilient in bed…"

A wicked smile pulled at the Ironblood's lips.

"Then again I hear nothing but good things about a rabbit's stamina. Perhaps you would be the ones to finally exhaust him?"

"W-w-w-what?!"

I-25's face went as pink as her hair, I-26 just kicking her back leg slightly in embarrassment as she mumbled, "That's a little much to assume, don't you think?" as Amagi and Shinano just gave the Ironblood admonishing expressions, which were obviously returned with complete innocence.

"Well at least they're acting more and more composed and confident as the hours go by. I'll take that over the alternative any day of the week."

"Alright, quit teasing the others, Eugen. I actually wanted to ask all of you something, I-13 and Essex in particular."

The foxes were immediately standing at attention while everyone else seemed curious, quickly finding seats around the inside of Essex's inner launch bay, Alexander unable to help a smirk from forming as I-25 and I-26 hesitated only for a moment before hopping into Amagi's lap, the battleship blinking in surprise before slowly - as if she was handling something infinitely delicate and precious - began to pet their ears, both subs preening under the attention in their own unique ways, I-25 closing her eyes in enjoyment while I-26's tail began to audibly twitch back and forth with soft swishes of fabric.

"So what do you want to know?"

Snapping out of his ruminations at Essex's question the Aloadae posed, "It's about Wisdom Cubes, actually. Namely a few experiments I'm going to run with the ones we got from that Siren base."

I-13 cocked an eyebrow, asking, "Shouldn't you know more about that stuff since you have all that data in your head?"

Awkwardly coughing into his fist the male hesitantly replied, "Yeah, well, about that…turns out the data dump upon my creation was a huge mess and there's gaps here and there that we don't really know about and are still trying to piece together."

No shortage of blank stares were sent his way.

"Look, moving past my horrifically mangled mental state can you tell me what you know about how you were manifested? Materials, circumstances and the like?"

Thankfully moving past the depressing subject of his messed up 'birth' Essex cupped her chin, recalling, "While we never really got a complete picture of how things worked ourselves there were a few constants. If a Wisdom Cube was used to manifest a shipgirl in the Eagle Union territory then it was an Eagle Union ship that showed up, not from one of the other factions. The only exception to this was Azur Lane, where a whole slew of other factors were observed."

Prinz took up the thread of conversation, relaying, "From what we gathered in a territory that held no particular allegiance the shipgirl manifested from the Cube would be a result of observation, of those in close proximity. When I and Hipper traveled there as a part of a good will gesture during the initial days of our alliance it was none other than Graf Spree that manifested."

The Union carrier was quick to pull out a weathered notebook she flipped through, nodding as she added, "Yup. Illustrious and Unicorn brought out Formidable, Nagato and Kaga manifested Mutsu…if we hadn't run out of Wisdom Cubes to really nail down the results it seems likely that incarnations are based on surrounding Wisdom Cube emanations and the place they're used in."

Alexander listened to the explanation with rapt attention, a slow and potentially wonderful idea spreading within his brain as he realized what he could do with this.

More to the point, what he could do for someone with this.

"Are all your days as interesting as this, Alexander-sama?"

"I occasionally get the dull one…but even then those are mostly just me hunched over a console or something else equally as boring, desperately trying to figure out what the hell I'm doing."

"...Then not as boring as you say?"

Shrugging at Shinano's question he glibly responded, "Depends on how you define boring."

The fox looked as if she wished to respond to that but ultimately failed, a yawn escaping her lips as a mildly ashamed expression appeared on the shipgirl's features.

"Ahh, my apologies…I am used to taking more naps during the day…"

Just thankful that the shipgirl was willing to admit to difficult things Alexander said, "I hear you. A nap does sound pretty good right now."

Amagi tilted her head, inquiring, "I don't believe we've seen you rest yet, Alexander-sama. Should you not also take a repose?"

"Nah, I'm fine. I've worked longer and harsher hours than this."

While both foxes seemed doubtful of that Prinz Eugen airily waved a hand from where she walked alongside them, stating, "He speaks the truth. He has an unusual amount of stamina, in many more ways than you might imagine~!"

Rolling his eyes as they passed by Essex's sleeping quarters the Aloadae made to reply-

-and came up short as he found Warspite standing outside of it at rapt attention, her expression clearing as soon as she saw him.

"Ah, your majesty! I was just beginning to wonder where you were."

"Well, I'm here now. What's up, did you need anything?"

The battleship's eyes briefly flicked over to where Eugen, Amagi and Shinano we standing, much of her momentum faltering as she began to twirl a strand of hair around her finger, bashfully stating, "Well, her majesty suggested that I take some time off my duties to relax and spend time with, well…you, obviously!"

Equal parts amused and touched at the response the Aloadae turned to his three other companions, blinking as Eugen was already shooing the foxes away as she said, "If you don't mind we would like a moment alone with your precious 'Dragon-sama'. I'm certain you can find some other activity to keep you busy in the meantime?"

While he was more than ready to put his foot down that they didn't need to go anywhere - not when the duo were so clearly ill at ease with their recent escape from captivity - the man was left flatfooted yet again as the Sakura duo seemed to gather their courage, bowing low as Amagi stated, "That is acceptable. And we have much to consider…you have our utmost thanks for your continued understanding and patience, Alexander-sama."

"Err…right. And don't be strangers, if you feel the need to head back or talk to us then don't hesitate."

Another set of bows before both foxes gracefully strode away, already lowly conversing with one another as Eugen dragged both Warspite and Alexander into the sleeping area, the Aloadae giving the cruiser a resigned look.

"If I didn't know you were such a sweetheart underneath that iron exterior I might think you were being inconsiderate of them."

"Your faith is reassuring. And they are made of sterner stuff than you believe, affording them the chance to exhibit that newfound independence and confidence away from your presence will no doubt be greatly reassuring."

"If you say so…"

Warspite cleared her throat, pointedly remarking, "While I don't mean to sound rude, Eugen, I was hoping that this would be a more private moment…"

Irreverently shrugging as she kicked off her heels and allowed her hair to fall loosely down her back in a silver and crimson wave the Ironblood promptly responded, "I would prefer much the same, but time is short as of now and I find you acceptable company to share this rare respite with."

"That is hardly the-"

Gently putting a hand on Warspite's shoulder the Royal Navy shipgirl quickly let out a breath, calming herself as she no doubt remembered that Eugen got off on things like this, instead taking a different approach as she merely molded herself to Alexander's side, pushing him to sit at a nearby bunk away from Eugen, the cruiser offering an amused raising of her brow before sauntering over and gracefully sitting next to the Aloadae while Warspite said, "Have you been well, my liege? Ever since the start of this latest campaign you've been extremely busy. And the head maid stated that you didn't sleep even when Lady Amagi and Shinano did."

Shrugging at that admission the male replied, "I can handle it. What about all of you, your hours have been just as hectic."

Eugen merely shrugged, stating, "Much like yourself, we're used to such difficult schedules."

"Well speaking of yourself…things are alright still?"

Grimacing at his blunt and embarrassingly crude question Alexander was glad that their telepathic link allowed him - and Warspite, the shipgirl setting aside her annoyance in favor of concern - to get what he really meant across, the Ironblood's expression softening at their dual inquiries.

"I am as well as can be expected. Especially when such busybodies like yourselves are always so worried I may break like glass."

Crossing her arms with a huff the Royal Navy shipgirl bluntly responded, "Well can we be blamed when you are such a-eep!"

Blinking in surprise as Eugen grabbed Warspite and dragged her into her grip the cruiser grinned like a predator that had caught its prey, primly shifting the battleship so that she was straddling her lap and facing Alexander facefirst, a rosy tint appearing on the blonde's face as she cried, "Why is it always me that gets teased by my sisters?! Am I not dignified enough-hyaa~?!"

A breathy yelp escaped Warspite as Eugen both nipped at her ear and pinched her inner thigh, a hungry light dancing in the cruiser's eye as she gave Alexander a knowing smirk.

"Oh don't pretend as if you weren't looking forward to a bit of physical intimacy…can you not see how excited your precious liege is at seeing you so~?"

Indeed becoming extremely interested in the way the Ironblood teased and fondled the protesting Royal the Aoadae languidly murmured, "Well…a little bit of a break never hurt anyone."

"Indeed. Now stop pretending and get to performing the man's duty."

"With pleasure."