How do I start a romantic relationship with a ship girl?

Page 170

They never expected that they would encounter the Siren team, who were happy to help them fill in the missing parts of their experiment, so they could perfectly achieve their goal of this voyage.

But since he was already there, Xu Huan decided to continue sailing on the sea, thinking that it would be a waste not to collect more.

“I have a question…” After listening to Tirpitz’s explanation, Xu Huan looked at the nautical chart and some doubts arose in his heart.

"Commander, please speak."

"Why does the nautical chart show that our current location... is the boundary of the sea area under Ironblood's jurisdiction?"

Xu Huan looked up at the sea area where they were sailing and asked.

As Tirpitz said, this sea area is considered near-shore. Whether for reasons such as expanding their sphere of influence or for ease of administration, given the Ironblood's nature, they should expand their territory further afield.

Could it be that we don't have enough manpower?

But the seas under the Royal Court's jurisdiction are so vast...

“The reason is quite simple…” Tirpitz smiled slightly and explained, “Because from here onwards, we enter the waters under the jurisdiction of the Northern Alliance…”

The distance between Beilian and Tiexue in the port area is not strictly speaking.

"This sea area is considered the border between Ironblood and Northern Alliance. Both sides usually send ship girls to patrol here, which is one of the reasons why there are few sirens in this sea area and it is relatively safe."

"The waters of the Northern Alliance...?"

Xu Huan frowned: "Are you close to them?"

"Uh...not very good..."

"Then why is the border drawn right up to your near-shore waters? I think there should be quite a distance between here and the Northern Alliance..."

"In this case..."

Tirpitz didn't know how to answer for a moment.

You can't just say you had a conflict with them before and then couldn't beat them...

Chapter 236 Factional Conflict

Compared to Tirpitz, who seemed unsure how to respond, Z23 was quite direct.

Having listened in for a while, she stepped forward and very 'thoughtfully' helped Tirpitz take over the task of replying to Xu Huan.

"It's because of the agreement signed with the Northern Alliance back then, so the border was drawn in this area, Commander," the girl replied earnestly.

"...Sign an agreement? That doesn't seem very fair, does it?"

“Indeed…” Z23 sighed softly, then continued, “Because there were some irreconcilable conflicts between the port area and the Northern Alliance at the beginning, we made some concessions after some clashes…”

"Hmm... they made concessions..."

Xu Huan repeated Z23's words, then suddenly asked, "Is it because you can't beat them?"

He encountered far too many similar selective reporting or reporting only good news while working at the People's Federation.

In times of chaos, wars happen every day, and the media sometimes needs a way of communication that can save face while still conveying the facts to the public.

It's quite obvious that Z23's words just now were of this type.

After a brief moment of thought, things turned out exactly as Xu Huan had guessed: the border was drawn to this point simply because Ironblood couldn't defeat the Northern Alliance...

After a brief silence, Z23 slowly nodded: "In the previous skirmish... Sangvis Ferri was indeed at a disadvantage..."

"Hmm...that's pretty much what I thought."

The young man nodded, then frowned, saying with great confusion, "Something doesn't seem right..."

"Commander... something's not right?"

"I had a basic understanding of the Northern Alliance and Iron Blood when I was in the Royal Family. Based on my assessment of the combat strength of your Iron Blood and Northern Alliance, you should have the upper hand, right?"

Putting aside the fact that Ironblood's ship girls are far more numerous than those of the Northern Alliance, just in terms of legendary-level combat power at sea, the Northern Alliance only has two, while Ironblood boasts a full four (not counting Bismarck for now)...

The number of ship girls is already significantly greater, and the number of legendary ship girls is more than twice that of their opponents, making it a very disparate comparison of combat power.

Furthermore, aside from Egil, whom he hadn't met yet, Xu Huan had personally sparred with the other three, Frederick Hutten Hindenburg, and had a deep understanding of the varying strengths of the ship girls.

The three are definitely not just paper tigers with empty titles, but genuinely powerful combat forces.

So why can't they beat Beilian?

Xu Huan looked at Tirpitz and Z23 with a puzzled expression. After exchanging glances, Tirpitz took the initiative to step forward and answer the young man's question.

Now that they've already lost, there's no need to keep it a secret any longer. Their commander doesn't seem like the type to look down on or belittle people in this way.

“Actually, at that time, there were not only some frictions with the Northern Alliance, but also with the Royal Family... or rather, the entire region's factions were involved to some extent, including Sardinian Iris and the others…” Tirpitz explained.

This description of a so-called festival reminded the young man of a world war in a page of history books, but also of a great deal of restraint due to the existence of a common enemy, the Sirens.

"Does that mean you not only have to deal with the Northern Alliance, but also have to spare resources to fight against the Royal Family?"

"That's roughly the idea... Commander."

Tirpitz continued, "At first we had the upper hand, but as you know, Commander, Ironblood is very prone to fatigue in prolonged battles when it lacks healing ship girls."

"Leaving aside the Royal Navy, which boasts one of the strongest healing ship girls, Perseus, the Northern Alliance also has equally excellent healing ship girls..."

So, they can't hold out any longer?

Seeing that Tirpitz was starting to elaborate, Xu Huan quickly raised his hand to interrupt, saying, "The result is already known, and I'm not particularly interested in why you lost..."

"The main question I'm most concerned about right now is, as ship girls, what key issues will lead to a large-scale conflict when you all face the common enemy of the Sirens?"

"Commander... this is a difficult question for me to explain clearly, but ultimately, without the Commander's mediation, disputes will still arise between ship girl factions due to interests. Often, small grievances accumulate and lead to friction. Not to mention that many factions and ship girls are also influenced by the prototype ships..."

Tirpitz's meaning was quite clear.

Due to factors such as historical prototype ships, the factions are basically in a state of mutual distrust and lack a lubricant that is recognized by all factions—the commander. As a result, small frictions will continue to escalate and eventually evolve into conflict.

This demonstrates the importance of commanders in improving faction relations.

“And there are many wars even among humankind… don’t they?” Tirpitz added after finishing his sentence.

Xu Huan also strongly agreed with the ship girl's explanation.

He also knew that regardless of whether they were of the same race or had a common enemy, there would still be disputes. After all, even within the Human Alliance, which was dominated by xenophobic sentiments, there were still a considerable number of traitors.

But now he's interested in the final spark.

After all, unless the stakes involved are significant enough, it wouldn't be enough to cause the ship girls from different factions to directly overturn the table...

So the young man asked directly and clearly:

"What I want to know is what the most crucial trigger was for your actions..."

"The most crucial trigger..."

After hearing the question, Tirpitz lowered his head slightly and suddenly fell silent.

When she raised her head again, her gaze was hesitant, clearly unsure whether to answer or not.

Seeing this, Xu Huan looked at Z23 beside him, trying to get the answer from the girl.

But unlike before when he proactively stepped forward to answer, this time Z23's eyes also flashed with a hint of hesitation.

The young man raised an eyebrow, somewhat puzzled.

He was curious about what unspeakable reason could make the two ship girls remain silent in tacit agreement.

"Actually, the reason is very simple... Xu Huan." Finally, while the two remained silent, Hu Teng, who was with them, walked in from outside the door.

The three of them hadn't lowered their voices during their discussion, so Hu Teng, who was enjoying the sea breeze outside the door, heard their conversation clearly.

"Hmm? So the reason is..."

“I have already said it, Xu Huan.”

"Um....?"

Chapter 237 Personal Desires?

When Hu Teng first called out his name, Xu Huan thought it was just a simple way of addressing him.

It wasn't until Hu Teng repeated his name again that the young man suddenly realized what was happening.

He looked at Z23 and Tirpitz beside him, and saw that the two ship girls, who had been silent just now, nodded in unison.

"Yes, Commander... The final spark between the various factions was you, Commander..."

"That's it..."

I never imagined that after all the questioning, the real culprit would be myself?

Xu Huan swallowed hard. Although he was somewhat surprised by the answer, after thinking about it carefully, it did seem to make sense.

That makes sense. For ship girls, what constitutes a sufficiently significant core interest?

Equipment and supplies can be researched and earned, but you only have one commander from beginning to end...

Seeing his commander surprised by this unexpected yet reasonable fact, and with Hutten having already started, Tirpitz continued:

"The reason for the conflict was actually quite simple. At the time, almost every faction was searching for the commander's whereabouts... but they searched almost the entire planet and couldn't find any relevant information..."

"It was around this time that some people thought that one of the factions might have found the commander and secretly hidden him away... I can't quite remember who brought this up first, but then—"