The Disqualified Commander of the Abandoned Shipgirl

Nevada glanced at the serious expression on the young face of the big dog, smiled and reached out to help her comb her hair.

"It's too early to think about this now. With that guy's strength, even a thousand Sirens can't threaten him."

"...Even though it's someone you haven't met many times?"

"This is a warrior's intuition."

Nevada said confidently.

That guy is very strong.

So...if there comes a day when I am trapped in a desperate situation, it will definitely be a situation of certain death.

If she happened to know about this.

We will definitely not take no action.

But it's too early to say that now.

It is more practical to think about how to overcome the current difficulties.

44. A mountain-like barrier

Finally, all the dust and dirt on their bodies were washed off, and several ship girls walked along the corridor and entered the bathhouse.

"Is this the 'bathhouse'..."

Tangs looked at the huge pool in front of him and the hot steam coming out of it, and suddenly felt mixed emotions.

"We have no food to eat outside, and we can't even fight, but those clones can enjoy such a hot spring bath every time after fighting. It makes me so angry. Those guys should all go to the wilderness to experience it."

After muttering something, Towns carefully put his foot in.

The warm pool water slowly wrapped around her fingertips.

Very warm feeling.

This feeling made Towns unable to help but slowly immerse his whole body in it.

"Wow..."

The feeling of having his entire body wrapped in warm repair fluid made Towns unable to help but let out a cry of surprise.

“Isn’t this too comfortable…?”

Several other ship girls followed closely and walked into the pool.

The expressions on his face all changed.

"I can feel an inexplicable sense of security just by soaking in it," Curacao said in amazement.

"And the healing fluid is slowly repairing the wound." Nevada scooped up the pool water with one hand and watched the crystal liquid slide down through the gaps between his fingers. "According to this healing speed, even an injury like mine can be completely healed in four hours at most."

"I really owe that commander a huge favor." At this time, he said with a smile, but that smile was more of a helplessness and bitterness.

Nevada is a person who values ​​friendship and loyalty...a ship girl.

Having received such a huge favor from others, I will definitely return it if I have the chance.

However, this favor has existed since the very beginning.

Even if Lin Shen did nothing after that, Nevada would find a way to repay the favor.

Although there is no such opportunity.

And he didn't express that intention at all.

But Curacao knew that was what Nevada thought.

But later on, not only did he not find an opportunity to repay the favor, but he ended up owing a few favors of the same amount again.

Curacao slowly immersed his entire body in the water, leaving only his eyes exposed and letting his hair flow behind him.

"So what? I owe you a lot anyway." Downs muttered underwater, with a few bubbles appearing on the surface of the water in front of him. "What's the difference between owing a few more favors and a few less?"

"You have to pay it back." said the big fighting dog.

"We don't have anything to repay the favor. We can't really sign a soul contract with that guy, right?"

"Towns."

"what happened?"

"Fool."

"Why are you scolding me again?"

Towns was speechless.

The big bulldog rarely spoke, and when he finally spoke, at least one sentence out of ten was scolding her.

"Because you're stupid."

The big bulldog slowly lowered its head into the pool of water.

Until there was no more human figure visible on the water.

The bathhouse suddenly became quiet.

I don’t know if it’s because there are so few ship girls in the Hiino Command, so there hasn’t been a single copy coming in for such a long time.

However, it may also be because the bathhouse they chose is located in a relatively remote area.

Taking advantage of this hard-won opportunity, several ship girls put their entire bodies underwater and waited quietly for their injuries to recover.

Nevada's eyes fell on Rafi and Glasgow.

The injuries on both of them are not serious, so they will probably be out soon.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Nevada said, "If it's convenient, can I ask you a few questions?"

"...What's the problem?" Rafi had no intention of speaking, so Glasgow had to respond.

After all, we are all mutants.

Lin Shen’s current behavior is already very dangerous in the safe zone.

After that, they will most likely go down the path of "mutation" and never return.

In this case, the relationship between them and the mutants is definitely not hostile.

It cannot be a hostile relationship either.

It's always good if we can maintain some friendship.

So the tone in Glasgow was very peaceful.

"You are also mutants, why did you sign a soul contract with Lin Shen?"

This is a sensitive issue, but it's nothing special for Glasgow.

"I chose this because of my own choice. As for Lafei, she just has nowhere else to go for the time being, so she will stay at the commander's—"

“It’s my own choice.”

Rafi, who had been silent all this time, suddenly interrupted Glasgow and said so.

"No reason."

Glasgow glanced at her and felt that Lafite was a little serious at the moment.

"So, that's pretty much it, there's no particular reason."

Without correcting Rafi's words, Glasgow turned to Nevada.

"That's it..."

Nevada moved the corners of his mouth, trying to smile, but it always felt forced.

If only there weren't so many things going on.

If time had gone back a few years, she would probably have had the opportunity to make her own choice.

"But it's very strange." Tang Si, who was listening, asked, "Aren't you wanted and expelled... No, Lafei is wanted, right? Although he escaped last time, if he is discovered, he will definitely be wanted and expelled again. Aren't you afraid of being stabbed in the back by following that Lin Shen?"

"No -" Glasgow replied casually, but then he paused and changed his answer to "Not afraid."

"..." Those two words silenced Tang Si. After a while, he asked again, "Aren't you afraid of sinking?"

"If it weren't for the commander, I would have sunk long ago." Glasgow replied nonchalantly, "Just consider it as having died once. How can someone who has died once be afraid of dying again?"

"..." Towns felt that this made sense and wanted to refute it, but he couldn't find any point to refute.

Because the mentality of both sides is fundamentally different.

There is a subtle but clear difference.

It's like a layer of window paper. Although it will break if you poke it, it still doesn't break in the end, so it's always blocked in the middle.

"I also have a question for you." Glasgow said.

"Excuse me." Nevada nodded.

"From what you just said, it seems that you were also rescued by the commander. If it weren't for the commander, you would have died too, right? Then, since you have all died once, why are you still... wary of someone who rescued you?"

"..."

This question once again silenced the opposing ship girls.

How to answer?

As soon as this kind of problem is raised, you will find that it is somewhat wrong both morally and logically.

No, if it's about emotion, it does make sense.

"Because mutants can't trust humans." Nevada replied.

"Even someone who is trustworthy?"

"We have no way of judging whether that person is trustworthy or not. At the same time, we don't know if the situation will get better if we trust him. So we can't make a choice easily. Besides... since mutants were defined until now, there has been no evidence that trusting humans will have any good results. Not even one."

Nevada replied in a calm tone.

"There is a saying that history should be used as a mirror. Humans do not learn lessons from history, but the ship girl is just the opposite. We will learn lessons from what has happened and avoid the same thing from happening again. Even you can't guarantee that he will always respond to your trust, right?"

"..." Glasgow was silent for a while, and then said, "I don't believe it, but I choose to believe it."

"'Belief' is a very luxurious thing. For us, human credit has been overdrawn. From this perspective, both you and Lafite are actually quite stupid and made a wrong choice." Nevada's eyes flashed with a transparent light, and she said slowly: "Not every mutant can ignore the cost of making a wrong choice. Even if the cost of making a wrong choice becomes zero, we will still stubbornly choose another option, as if we can't let ourselves go at all."

"…Can't we just 'reconcile'?" Glasgow realized what Nevada meant and asked.

"We are not qualified to 'reconcile'." Nevada paused and changed his words: "Or to put it another way, we are not qualified to 'reconcile' on behalf of others. People who have died will never consider this option."

"..."

Then there is really no other way.

Glasgow sighed and gave up trying to recruit them.

There is no window paper in between.

It was simply a mountain of corpses.

At the same time, Tang Si, who finally understood what they were saying, immediately said, "That's right, they killed many of us! How can we forgive them so easily! Even if it is a great favor, we will never become the ship girl of a human commander!"

45. Unavoidable issues

Listening to Towns' roar, Glasgow sighed.

Sure enough, it is still too difficult to gain the recognition of mutants.

Even if it is approved, the other party may not agree to sign the contract due to one's own position.

Perhaps for the mutant ship girls, the mere fact of having to work for humans is enough to be worth resisting.

"Alright, alright, if you don't want to be the commander's ship girl, then don't be the commander's ship girl." Glasgow waved his hand, "Anyway, my commander has never forced you, so we will go our separate ways. I just hope that you won't become the commander's enemy in the future, and I won't expect much else."

"Uh..." Hearing what Glasgow said, Towns' firm attitude suddenly became soft as if it was hitting cotton. "As long as he doesn't stand on the opposite side of us, we won't become enemies no matter what..."

"That's fine." Glasgow leaned comfortably against the wall of the bathtub and murmured in a low voice: "The commander doesn't need so many ship girls anyway. It's hard to keep track of too many people..."

It's tiring enough just to keep an eye on Laffey, let alone a few more ship girls who might turn against us at any time.

God knows if Lin Shen will be chopped into pieces one day.