Shipgirls and Salted Fish Commander, Port Survival Guide

"Really? That's great! I'll give the orders to the maid squad at the front right away. It's on the beach, right, Commander? Just a moment, the maid squad will be there in about ten minutes."

"And what about you? Aren't you coming?" Jing Su understood Belfast's unspoken meaning.

"Every performance needs backstage workers, right? Master, this arrangement is too sudden. I still need to study the plan later. Please rest assured, Master, I will do my best to make the swimsuit party a success."

After saying that, Belfast hung up the phone. Just as she said, time was of the essence. This matter was even more urgent than the banquet that Su had called for a few days ago. At least the banquet had given them a day to prepare, and the royal camp itself really liked to hold banquets. They had held many large banquets and had experience.

But this swimsuit party is different. The event has already started, and only now are we telling her that she is the organizer. Isn't that putting her in a difficult position?

Most importantly, Belfast has never organized a swimsuit party before, which doesn't seem to fit the Royal Navy's culture.

In other words, Belfast is now faced with the task of organizing a competition that has already taken place, but for which the venue, ingredients, and even judging criteria are still undecided.

Belfast was already overwhelmed just thinking about the manpower she needed to organize. The ingredients were not so bad, though. Longwu was indeed an experienced chef who could tell how much food was needed just by looking at the number of people. He sent over a food list, and all she had to do was prepare the ingredients according to the list.

But Belfast is really having a headache over things like finding the right venue and setting the evaluation criteria.

'Hmm, no, the judging criteria aren't my concern. The master initiated it, so let him evaluate. It's just that... um, where am I supposed to find a water park in just ten minutes?'

"Belfa, Belfa, come help me! Should I wear this bikini or this thong to attract my master?"

Just as Belfast was looking up, Sirius ran over with two swimsuits.

Belfast only glanced at it before her face flushed red. Was this really clothing? It was just a few pieces of cloth, right? No, that wasn't right. The thing on the back was just rope. How could someone wear something like this?

But seeing Sirius's confident demeanor, Belfast said, "I don't understand, but I'm deeply impressed."

Sirius, what is this?

"Oh, the swimsuits from Eagle Union and Sakura Empire are out! Isn't Master going to have a swimsuit party? I'm planning to go check it out. They're selling like hotcakes right now. I squeezed through the crowd for ages and only managed to snag two. Belfast, do you want one?"

"Cough cough cough, no, no need, I have my own swimsuit." Belfast quickly refused. Admittedly, when it came to Jing Su, Belfast was willing to wear some sexy and revealing clothes to attract him, but it didn't have to be this extreme. What could this kind of clothing cover up? It wouldn't cover anything at all!

Belfast originally wanted to teach Sirius a lesson for being so rude, but then she remembered that the other party was Sirius and silently withdrew her words. As an extreme Jing Su fan in the port area, she felt that it was not too much for this girl to do anything for her master.

Forget about wearing strips of cloth; if such clothing could attract Jing Su, believe it or not, the news spread in the morning, the ropes were all snatched up at noon, and the commander was dragged away in the afternoon.

Even Belfast, upon hearing that many ship girls were scrambling for these swimsuits, was somewhat tempted. If Jing Su really liked them, then she might as well consider them too.

To be precise, a considerable number of ship girls in the port area are willing to go to such lengths for Jing Su.

"Oh, I see. Okay then." Sirius didn't react much to Belfast's refusal. The Royal Navy was one of the more conservative factions in the port, and allowing them to show off their figures in formal attire was already a kind of ideological reform by the upper echelons in order to deal with the impact of other factions.

Sometimes, Sirius felt that his own faction was strangely contradictory. On the one hand, they were obsessed with etiquette and conservative in their thinking. The etiquette of the nobility was extremely complicated. On the other hand, they were extremely open. In order to seduce Jing Su, the Royal faction put a lot of effort into their favorite banquet. In the entire Hong Kong region, the Royal faction's banquet dresses were the largest. But, if you had to say, they were more charming and seductive than the two swimsuits in his hands.

If swimwear is a display of one's figure, like a storm that launches a direct visual impact on Jing Su, then the royal evening gown is like a gentle drizzle, silently nourishing and subtly captivating Jing Su's soul.

However, on another note, this swimsuit shopping spree revealed something quite interesting to Sirius: the best-selling style was the bikini from the Eagle Union faction. This faction is known for its unrestrained style, so using less fabric is normal. The other style was the most daring, with fewer ship girls purchased but placed in the most conspicuous spot: the rope swimsuit.

What surprised Sirius was that this rope swimsuit was actually produced by the Sakura Empire. It was quite a strange thing that the most conservative and rigid faction in the port had made the most daring clothes.

"Hmm, Sirius, don't go yet." Just as Sirius turned around to change his clothes, Belfast called out to him.

"What's wrong, Belfast?" Sirius shuddered upon hearing Belfast's tone. As the maid who was most likely to cause trouble in the royal maid corps, she knew this tone all too well. Whenever she heard this tone, nothing good was going to happen to her; she would either be scolded or punished by being made to clean.

Please, please, anything is fine at other times, but not today, absolutely not!

I'm going to seduce my proud master!

Sirius cried out in its heart, "It can't be what I think it is."

Unfortunately, there's a saying: the more you worry about something, the more likely it is to happen.

"Before you arrived, the Commander called me. This swimsuit party is being organized by our Royal Maid Corps, and I am the head of the organization."

Sirius, I need your help transporting some ingredients, just the ones on the list.

Considering everyone is having a great time and will consume a lot of food, Sirius, you might need to make several more trips.

"This is a mission personally assigned by the commander, Sirius. You won't let your master down, will you?" Belfast said to Sirius with a smile.

"Yes~~~"

Since Belfast has said so, what can Sirius do? She should just hurry up and leave. Now she realizes that she has offended Belfast. She shouldn't have come to Belfast with her swimsuit to ask for her opinion.

I'm so stupid, really~

When she heard that her master was going to throw a swimsuit party, she was so excited that she only thought about showing off her figure and attracting her master, forgetting that Belfast could also be jealous.

Making your boss jealous, especially when the other party has a legitimate reason, is really...

In short, Sirius went to prepare the ingredients with tears in her eyes. This was no easy task. On a small scale, it was a test of her personal abilities. On a larger scale, it concerned whether the swimsuit party could be held normally. If she messed it up, even if Curaçao intervened, she wouldn't be able to save her. In that case, she would definitely be separated from Jing Su for various reasons.

'Separation from my master? No way!'

'Phew~ It seems the food situation is mostly resolved.' Belfast breathed a sigh of relief as she looked at the anxious Sirius and began to consider her next steps.

Although Sirius is clumsy when it comes to work, and it would be impossible to clean up without breaking a few flower pots and smashing a few paintings, this time it was a task personally assigned by Jing Su, and the work involved transportation. Even if Sirius is a bit dim-witted, she will still do her job seriously and diligently.

Of course, the most crucial reason is that Belfast doesn't really have many ship girls she can be proud of at the moment. Due to the trouble caused by Miss Illustrious, the boomerang has finally hit her on the head.

The powerful or capable ship girls in the Royal Navy faction were heavily guarded and eliminated before the game even started. Meanwhile, the ship girls on the front lines were mostly outstanding in combat, but there weren't many who could actually do the work.

To be precise, there aren't many ship girls who can figure things out in such a short time.

Take transporting food, for example. It seems like the simplest thing, just a matter of making a phone call, but in reality, there are many intricacies involved.

It's important to know that many ingredients cannot be placed together; some are even still lying in the ground. Longwu is an Eastern Huang ship girl, and whenever she receives foreign guests, the ingredients from the Eastern Huang camp are always the most troublesome, and this time is no exception.

Not to mention the live chickens, ducks, and fish, Longwu specifically instructed that many ingredients must be freshly picked from the ground and absolutely fresh. Beifa even saw some medicinal herbs on the food list.

For example, there's something called yam. Belfast said she'd never even seen it before, let alone looked for it. The information she found online said it's a medicinal herb. Why would she put a medicinal herb in lunch? Is the Commander feeling unwell again?

In general, many of the food items that Longwu needs are not yet available on the front lines and need to be urgently transported from other places. Belfast has already applied to Queen Elizabeth for supersonic aircraft to transport these ingredients.

In other words, Sirius's next task is not just transporting food, but more importantly, finding reliable food suppliers, communicating with them, and completing a series of steps from procurement to packaging to transportation in a very short time.

Just thinking about it tells you how much is involved.

Even though Queen Elizabeth said she had mobilized the entire royal family to fully support the swimsuit party, Belfast was still unsure and genuinely worried about messing it up.

‘Dingling bell~’

Just when Belfast was at her wit's end, a crisp sound rang out. It was a phone call from a dedicated internal port number.

"Hello, this is Belfast from the Royal Maid Service. May I ask who you are?"

Belfast's office has many telephones, each corresponding to a different level of authority. The caller ID indicates that the caller is at least a leader in the faction. A ship girl of this rank requires Belfast to treat her with the utmost courtesy.

"Hello, this is Yixian. I heard from the Commander that the Royal Navy is in charge of this swimsuit party. I was wondering if there's anything I can help with?"

"How could that be!" Belfast was overjoyed. It was so good to have someone to help at a time like this. Belfast herself was short-handed. "Miss Yixian, it's so good that you're willing to help. Master is indeed a bit troubled that he suddenly dumped this matter on me."

"Ahem, please feel free to give your instructions. This matter came up suddenly and is somewhat related to us, which has caused you some trouble." Yi Xian's tone revealed a hint of embarrassment.

"Huh?" Belfast was a little confused. Wasn't the swimsuit party something Jing Su came up with on a whim? How did it have anything to do with the Eastern Huang camp?

"Anyway, if there's anything urgent, just leave it to us. I'll personally lead the team, and we'll definitely do our best to get things done." Yi Xian didn't seem to want to explain too much, after all, it would be quite embarrassing to spread this around.

The ship girls from other factions might not know what's going on, but as one of the instigators, how could she not know?

However, this matter is not easy to explain. From the beginning, Changchun wanted to have a common mark with Jingsu, to the fact that he himself broke into the house and intercepted the ornaments that Changchun had prepared, and then to the fact that Jingsu ran away after being scared and went to comfort Changchun.

To be honest, when Yixian heard that what was supposed to be a nice all-fish banquet had suddenly turned into a swimsuit party, she was completely stunned. The leap from lunch to an all-faction game was a bit too big.

Although she didn't know exactly what was going on, Belfast was naturally happy that someone was willing to help take on the heavy responsibility. After some back and forth, Belfast finally decided to hand over the task of setting up the swimsuit party venue to Yat-sen.

Putting everything else aside, in terms of construction capabilities alone, the East Glory faction is currently the most powerful in the entire Hong Kong region. All other factions combined may not be as strong as the East Glory.

After ending the phone call with the Donghuang camp, Belfast sat down in her chair and let out a long sigh of relief. She had originally thought there would be a lot of trouble, but after looking at it from the previous perspective, it wasn't as difficult as she had imagined.

Not only did her own queen express her full support, but her allies from other factions also stepped forward to help her. This was something Belfast would never have dared to imagine before.

'Phew, as expected of our master, with you here, the port area truly feels like one big family~'

Chapter 252 You've Been Fired

After hanging up the phone with Yi Xian, Belfast breathed a sigh of relief. What she thought would be a difficult task now seemed not so difficult after careful consideration. Based on past experience, such a large gathering would not be able to be organized without at least ten days to half a month's notice, and the debate over where to hold it would last for several days.

Even if a plan is finalized, there will be many difficulties. Although the ship girls from other factions will not obstruct the plan after it is confirmed, they will not help either; they will just watch from the sidelines.

Different factions in the port area have different strengths. For example, the Royal faction, influenced by their Queen, is very good at building houses and handling noble interests, but they are really bad at cooking. Their food and snacks are passable, but their main meals are really hard to describe.

The food made by the Eastern Empire faction is highly praised throughout the port area, the Northern Alliance, located in the north, has a natural talent for mineral exploration, and the White Eagles are very wealthy.

Therefore, theoretically, the ideal scenario for a large-scale event is for the Royal Family to build the event venue, the White Eagle faction to provide funding, the Northern Alliance to find the most suitable venue, and the Eastern Empire faction to provide logistics.

As for factions like Sardinia, the two mages, and Sakura Empire, they are perfect for decorating the facade.

It can be said that as long as the entire port area works together and exerts its strength in the same direction, they are invincible. However, because each faction has its own strengths, the port area has always been in a state of no one giving in to the others. Without Jing Su, no ship girl or even a faction can unite the entire port area.

This is why Belfast was so troubled when she received Jing Su's call. Based on past experience, such a large-scale event covering the entire Hong Kong region cannot be completed independently by a single camp. Perhaps with enough time and careful communication, it might be possible to get it done, but it is simply impossible to do it in a mere half-day.

But now, not only is Her Majesty the Queen of their own faction and the entire Royal Faction giving their full support, but other factions, from the Eastern Empire faction to the White Eagle faction, have mobilized the entire port area.

Everyone was preparing for the competitions, helping to build the platforms, and Belfast didn't even need to think about the plans. The Royal Army hadn't done many swimsuit parties or events that showed off one's figure, but the Eagle Union had done them quite a few times. The Garden called directly and sent over the previous event plans, which didn't need any changes; they could just copy them.

The port area belongs to Jing Su. As long as he gives an order, the entire port area will operate according to his will.

After a short rest, Belfast felt an unprecedented sense of peace and ease. Since moving into the frontline command office, Belfast had never experienced anything like this. She realized that managing port affairs could be so easy!

After dealing with the internal affairs of the port area, the next step is to deal with external matters.

To be precise, it's a matter of materials. After all, the frontline rest area is the largest rest area in the port area on the front line, and it is also the White Eagle camp's base. Who would prepare a bunch of building materials at home? In other words, there are currently no materials available in the entire rest area that can be used to build a swimsuit party, and they have to be brought in from other places.

Although the Eagle Union has indeed built a lot of amusement parks, including a water park, no ship girls go there to play on a regular basis, so no one maintains them. Now that Belfast has sent people over to take a look, well, they've become dangerous buildings. Forget about using them, they might even have to be demolished urgently to avoid any future trouble.

Fortunately, this problem is not too difficult to handle. As mentioned before, with the help of other factions, Belfast is quite at ease and relaxed. The most urgent food problem can be solved by the Eastern Huang faction. Now, the building materials problem that is causing her the most headache can also be solved by the Eastern Huang faction.

After communicating with Yat-Sen, Belfast was shocked. It turned out that the Donghuang camp had stockpiled a massive amount of supplies at the front line without the knowledge of anyone in the entire Hong Kong region, including the person in charge at the front line. There were all kinds of supplies.

This includes the materials used to build the marine park, all of which have been processed and can be used directly upon delivery, ensuring top-notch quality.

As mentioned earlier, the Royal Faction, influenced by Her Majesty the Queen, is very good at building mansions. However, in fact, the Eastern Faction is the most prolific house builder in the entire port area. It is rumored that the largest construction company in the outside world is controlled by the Eastern Faction.

Although Belfast couldn't understand why the Eastern Empire camp was stockpiling so many supplies on the front lines, oil resources, ammunition and equipment were understandable, at least they could be used to justify fighting the Sirens, but what about all those farmlands, oil fields and even factories?

Now Belfast knows where all that fresh produce on the front lines came from—it turns out it was all produced by the Eastern Empire's forces.

After seeing that the Eastern Huang camp had stockpiled a huge amount of building materials, she was speechless. Good heavens, Belfast thought, "I'm really speechless." After a quick estimate of the list that Yi Xian handed over, she was truly shocked. The items on the list were enough to dismantle and rebuild the entire front line more than twice.

This is just what's on the list. Who knows how many more treasures the Eastern Empire has hidden? Based on Belfast's understanding of the Eastern Empire, multiplying this number by three would give us the real figure, and it might not even be enough.

'Perhaps we should persuade Her Majesty the Queen to stockpile some resources as well.'

Belfast wiped away her cold sweat as she silently thought to herself after seeing the list of supplies.

In fact, the royal faction was also stockpiling supplies, or rather, every faction in the entire port area had been stockpiling supplies since the split, because the feeling of wanting to find Jing Su but being restricted by resources was really too frustrating.

However, who could have imagined that the usually low-profile Donghuang camp would suddenly pull off such a huge feat, which really shocked Belfast. Three years! Just three years! The huge frontline position had only been built for a little over a year. How did they manage to do that?

At this moment, Belfast was also genuinely relieved. Fortunately, although they were divided, they still considered each other as their own. Otherwise, if they really started fighting internally, based on the data currently on paper, the Eastern Empire faction could drag the other factions down.

Although resources are not entirely equivalent to combat power in the port area, having enough resources can indeed solve many problems.

'That's not right either. No matter how much the Donghuang camp hoards supplies, it's for the sake of the port area. I'm the one overthinking things. The master has returned, and we're still having these disunited thoughts. That's really not right. I suppose Yixian was willing to share the list because of that.'

Now, the most important thing is to quickly resolve the venue issue. This is the first task the owner personally assigned us, and we can't afford to mess it up.

Now that resources, plans, and food have been taken care of, there's only one last problem left—how to get the supplies over here?

All of the White Eagle's transport ships have been reassigned to transport food supplies, and there are indeed no ships left for building materials. At this point, they can only seek external assistance.

‘Ring ring ring~’

"Hello, this is the Maritime Safety Administration Operations Command. Miss Belfast, how can I help you?"

"Yes, this is Belfast. There is an urgent mission that requires your attention."

"You said that the Maritime Safety Administration would give its full support, whether it's reconnaissance or battlefield cleanup!"

Upon hearing that the renowned Dawn Port District had a mission to contact them, the operator became excited. Before Belfast could even say anything, a commotion erupted on the other end of the line, followed by a change in the voice.

“No need for such a complicated process.” Belfast didn’t care what the other side did; the matter needed to be handled quickly. “I have some things that need to be transported. According to the supplementary agreement to Article 7 of the Frontline Management Act, I am now urgently requisitioning all of your transport ships for this purpose. The specific order will be delivered to you shortly. Please cooperate as soon as possible.”

"Yes, Miss Belfast, I'll arrange it right away, but..." The other person's tone was firm, but a fawning voice quickly followed, "But, does Miss Enterprise know about this? Should we inform her?"

Due to the internal divisions within the port, the different factions are unwilling to submit to each other, and even within the Eagle Union, there are numerous factions. Of course, these factions do not mean that the ship girls within the Eagle Union have bad relationships, but rather that they each have their own opinions on the frontline strategy.

Different ship girls always feel they should act according to their own ideas. However, under Jing Su's leadership, almost every ship girl on the front line had maxed-out training levels. With such training levels, they could easily crush the mass-produced Sirens.

With absolute strength, any way of fighting is justified.

In response, the White Eagle camp adopted a very characteristic approach – everyone took turns governing, and before any fighting, they held a major internal debate, with the winner implementing the proposed plan.

After the winner is determined, the ship girl who takes the lead will select a group of staff members within the Maritime Bureau who she likes to be in charge of the post-war cleanup work. This makes the Maritime Bureau on the front line, in fact, full of factions.