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

Page 47

Seeing the girl hesitate, Xu Huan offered a suggestion: "How about I take it off for you first? Then you can put it back on after the mission is over? Otherwise, it might be inconvenient later."

"This is the symbol of my status. As the highest flagship of the royal family, how can I easily take off my crown?!" The girl immediately shook her head frantically, expressing her refusal.

"It's just you and me here, no one will know if we pick them for now..." Xu Huan said with a smile, trying to persuade him again.

"Besides, I promised you before that no one else in the port area would know what happened here, right? And besides, this is all for the sake of carrying out a mission..."

He had no interest in the crown on Elizabeth's head. The reason he made the suggestion was simply because seeing Elizabeth open her mouth reminded him of his own childhood, and he just wanted to make it easier for him to tease her later.

Kids are more responsive to gentle persuasion than force; they're easy to coax if you give them a good chance to win you over.

Seeing that the young man's attitude had suddenly softened, Elizabeth's childish temper dissipated considerably, and she gradually began to be more interested in Xu Huan's suggestions.

"Since you've put it that way, then I'll reluctantly take it off..."

Elizabeth muttered something under her breath, then made up her mind to take off the crown from her head first.

No matter how hard she tried, the crown on her head was as if it were tied there, it wouldn't budge and she couldn't pull it off.

Elizabeth tilted her head, her voice urgent: "You...you must come and help me!"

Xu Huan suppressed a laugh and gently removed the crown and the hair ribbon that was attached to it.

No wonder the crown doesn't fall off no matter how much it shakes; it's connected to the headband!

"Alright, alright, it's down now. Let me hold it for you..." Xu Huan said, taking off the crown.

"Hmm? Is it ready now?"

The girl didn't react at first, but as her hair, which had been neatly bound by a headband, began to fall apart in the wind, a strange feeling began to grow in her heart.

She reached out and tucked some of her disheveled hair into her hands, which was flying wildly in the wind, and suddenly felt a strange sense of relaxation.

If Belfast and Warspite saw me like this, they would definitely criticize me again, right?

However, Xu Huan's words...

Elizabeth looked at the young man again and saw that he was looking at her with a smile on his lips, showing no intention of blaming her for lecturing him.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

As the girl spoke, she unintentionally changed her pronoun from "this king" to the simple word "I".

"The child has been cooped up for too long... They need to get out and about more often in the future."

"You—huh?!?"

Elizabeth was about to retort with something, but Xu Huan, who had already planned to tease Elizabeth, took advantage of the moment and floored the speedboat's accelerator.

The engine suddenly started, and the wind became fierce, forcibly shoving all the words in Elizabeth's mouth back down.

The girl had to quickly grab the handrail next to her to maintain her balance.

"Once you get used to it, you don't need to be so strict..."

"I command you to stop immediately!!!"

The ship girl shouted loudly, her long golden hair wildly dancing in the fierce wind.

Chapter Sixty-Four: The Harpies

The speedboat sped up, creating a long wave on the sea.

After the initial abrupt attack, Elizabeth gradually became accustomed to the increasingly fierce sea winds.

She was standing on the chair, stretching out her arms, fully enjoying the sea breeze, and occasionally letting out cheerful cheers.

Only when her smiling face was slightly flushed by the wind did Elizabeth sit back down, gently pat her cheeks, and sigh:

"I've never felt anything like this before... the feeling of the wind..."

"I've never seen anyone get so excited about a breeze like you." Seeing the girl sit back down, Xu Huan slowed down a bit: "How long have you been cooped up in the port? When was the last time you came out?"

"The last time I came out... it seems it was back when I joined forces with the Ironblood and Ironblood ports to conquer a deep abyss sea area..."

"I've heard Belfast mention this before, but it's been more than half a year already. I really don't know how you've managed to hold back."

Staying in a small place for more than half a year without going out would be unbearable even for Xu Huan himself, let alone a ship girl with a childlike personality like Elizabeth.

"Actually, I don't think it's a big deal, and I've gotten used to it!"

Elizabeth heard a hint of admiration in Xu Huan's words, and immediately puffed out her flat chest with a touch of pride, completely forgetting that, besides Belfast's war-weariness, half of the reason she had stayed in the port was due to her own actions.

Being able to live a very comfortable life without having to go to work, and having the royal maid corps of ship girls take care of your daily life, anyone would develop the habit of being too lazy to go out.

The only price to pay is the opportunity to learn from your peers and develop good manners and etiquette.

It looks a bit like a living display.

In short, after the little incident on the road, the two no longer felt the awkwardness they had when they first met, and they became much more familiar with each other.

Xu Huan has his own insights into how to get along with children.

An hour later, the speedboat the two were on finally arrived at the target sea area.

The sea was calm as usual, with no sign of sirens or even seabirds.

Following the pre-arranged mission plan, Xu Huan first circled the area a few times to confirm that there were no abnormalities, and then began searching for the mental energy detectors that the royal family had deployed in the sea.

"I'm suddenly feeling so bored... Commoner, do you have any fun ideas or anything?"

Having experienced the initial thrill of speeding across the ship, Elizabeth now found the routine tasks rather dull.

"Let me reiterate, we're here on a mission... not for a day trip..."

Xu Huan sighed and said with a hint of helplessness, "When carrying out a risky mission, no matter how tedious the process is, the best outcome is to complete the mission smoothly and safely. Do we really have to deal with a swarm of Sirens appearing at this moment and having to fight them, risking injury?"

Unlike Elizabeth, the young man had carried out many dangerous missions. When a person has walked back and forth between life and death many times, he can realize the value of peace and ordinariness.

"I understand... really, I'm not the kind of person who can't tell the situation apart..."

Xu Huan didn't bother to reply. Following the coordinates, he drove the speedboat to the Royal Navy's maritime mind detection base station.

Each sea area within the Royal Navy's sphere of influence is basically equipped with a corresponding mind detection base station, which is essentially a frontline radar. It is specifically used to detect the movements of the Sirens invading the sea area. Every certain period of time, it will transmit the mind status of the sea area to the port area. The port area will also have the ship girls responsible for the sortie patrol check the operation of the instruments every once in a while.

Of course, the ship girls have corresponding reconnaissance stations, and the sirens naturally have counter-reconnaissance methods as well; otherwise, the last attack wouldn't have come so suddenly.

Looking at the detection base station, which was about the size of a lighthouse, Xu Huan parked the speedboat to the side and asked, "According to the plan, one person stays down here, and one person goes up to inspect and maintain the detectors. Which one do you choose?"

"Inspection and maintenance? That kind of thing doesn't sound like something I should be doing. It's already an immense favor that I'm allowed to go to sea with you on this mission!"

Elizabeth shook her head.

"Okay, wait downstairs for a bit..."

Just then, a dark cloud drifted over the sea where the two were, obscuring the rising sun and making the warm weather suddenly turn cold. It cast a gloomy hue over the entire sea, which was too quiet, without even a ripple, and the seabirds that had inexplicably disappeared.

The world was blank as far as the eye could see, as if only the ship girl and the young man remained.

Suddenly, Elizabeth remembered the few scary stories Belfast had told her during their casual chat the day before.

What they all had in common was that the companions suddenly separated and went on separate journeys, the weather changed abruptly, and terrifying elements began to accumulate.

Thinking about it carefully, it feels exactly the same as what I'm experiencing now?

At the time, she listened to Belfast's story without a care in the world, never imagining that such a situation would one day happen to her.

Having left the familiar, safe, and warm port area, and meeting Xu Huan for the first time, the unfamiliar people and environment, coupled with the terrifying story she had heard yesterday, made the girl suddenly feel a chill down her spine, and she felt somewhat uncomfortable.

You should know that she usually sleeps with the lights on at night, and this matter is top secret in the port area, known only to a few ship girls in the Royal Maid Corps.

"and many more!"

Elizabeth suddenly spoke.

"Hmm? You changed your mind? Why don't you go up and I'll stay here and keep watch?" Xu Huan, who had already reached the testing tower, turned around and asked when he heard the voice.

"Should I...should I go up?"

The girl glanced at the equally dark interior of the testing tower, hesitated for a moment, then immediately shook her head: "No, no... What I mean is, why don't you come up with me?"

"Why do we all have to go up together? According to the latest regulations in the port area, isn't it forbidden for anyone to be keeping watch nearby? After all, inspection and maintenance can't be completed in a short time..."

Hearing the young man's perfectly reasonable explanation, Elizabeth wanted to say something more, but before she could utter a word, she was immediately silenced by another sentence from him:

"I want to be with you... But in broad daylight, you won't be scared to be alone, will you?"

Chapter Sixty-Five!

"Who's scared?!"

The girl was furious that Xu Huan had hit the nail on the head, and she said directly, "I would also say such fabricated things. You go in right now, or you're just scared!"

"Tsk..."

Xu Huan didn't bother with anything else, so he climbed up the detection tower, opened the valve, and went inside.

As the young man gradually disappeared from sight, Elizabeth's initial surge of anger began to subside.

Looking at the calm sea and gloomy weather around her, Elizabeth sat in the co-pilot's seat of the speedboat, her eyes unable to resist looking down into the deep seabed, her mind starting to wander.

The water was equally still both underwater and on the surface, with no living creature in sight. The once azure sea seemed to gradually darken over time, as if some giant monster was lurking beneath the surface, inspiring awe and fear.

"It seems like the underwater ghost Belfast was talking about yesterday is just like this... It hides on the seabed and is said to drag people and ships down to the seabed and eat them when they're not paying attention."