Elder brother's garrison

The crowd then dispersed and returned to their seats.

This time, however, everyone sitting in their seats secretly looked at Xiaobai with the eyes of someone looking at a monster.

Barbatos left like a ball.

The dining area has returned to a quiet and peaceful state.

"Admiral, that person is so strange." Fubuki tugged at Shiro's sleeve, her big red eyes full of laughter.

"Hmm..." Xiaobai smiled and patted Fubuki's head.

Mr. Barbatos must know his place.

Xiao Bai looked at the black card in his hand.

Veneto sat back down next to Little White, still wanting more: "Don't mind accepting his things. He'll be even happier if you do."

"Why?" Xiaobai asked, puzzled.

"You'll understand when you grow up." Veneto looked around at all the people, and it wasn't appropriate to tell Xiaobai that he was the world's number one admiral and that people who wanted to ride on his coattails could stretch from the Pacific Ocean to the Arctic Ocean. So he could only use this standard elder-like statement to brush it off.

Shiro placed the black card in her hand into Fubuki's hand: "Fubuki, use this to buy whatever you and your sisters want."

"Ah! Really? Thank you, Admiral!" Fubuki held up the black card with a happy smile.

The three younger sisters also jumped for joy.

Destroyer salaries are quite low, so 10,000 merit points are a considerable amount of pocket money for them.

Besides, this was given to us by the Admiral; we're spending it on imperial orders!

Thinking of this, the four destroyers, who looked similar but had very different personalities, were overjoyed.

Cleveland sat across the table watching Little White and the five ship girls beside her.

If you assault someone in the guild, call the guild manager out to clean up your mess.

He even took the protection money offered by the general manager and directly rewarded his subordinate destroyers, showing no regard for his merits.

Who exactly is the person I'm teaming up with?

Could it really be some kind of organized crime or mafia...?

Was the reason they teamed up with me because they were targeting me...?

Cleveland then realized that he might be in a very dangerous situation.

“Cleveland, I have something to ask you.” Just as Cleveland was pondering whether to make an excuse to slip away, Veneto spoke up to him, “Cleveland, your admiral seems to be quite unpopular with others?”

Mutual respect among admirals is essential, but Cleveland, the ship girl who is admiral of Nia, does not receive the respect of other admirals.

Something definitely happened during that time.

Veneto hadn't asked before because everyone has their own secrets, just like the deep-sea ship equipment inside her admiral's body. But now, it was time to ask.

—Because she was very curious, extremely curious, about what heinous thing that admiral named Nia had done.

—Once a woman's curiosity is ignited, she doesn't care about secrets anymore; only the truth matters!

—Veneto's gossip-loving spirit is burning brightly.

Cleveland pursed his lips.

She was also very conflicted.

The things that happened to the admirals themselves are not things that can't be talked about; in fact, most of the admirals here already know about them.

Cleveland wasn't planning to keep it from Xiaobai and the others, but she still felt it was best to delay telling them for as long as possible.

After all, she was worried that once she finished speaking, Xiaobai and his group might give up on forming a team and turn around and leave.

Cleveland looked up at Veneto.

Veneto looked at himself with a serious expression.

Cleveland felt immense pressure whenever she thought about how sharp-tongued this ship girl had been.

“Cleveland.” Just when Cleveland was suffering greatly, Nia’s voice rang out behind Xiaobai.

Everyone turned around.

Nia, dressed in a chef's uniform, had already entered the dining area and came up behind the group with a friendly smile.

"Nia, aren't you still working?" Xiaobai asked Nia in surprise.

"Oh, the general manager just came by and said I can rest today." Nia smiled and walked to the other side of the table, sitting down next to Cleveland.

She raised her hand and took off the chef's hat from her head.

In an instant, her dazzling red hair, as bright as flames, cascaded down Nia's body like a stream of water.

Nia looked at Xiaobai and Veneto, and finally gave a wry smile: "Well, let me talk about my matter."

Although Nia was at work and didn't know what had happened, Barbatos gave her an afternoon off and briefly explained what had happened.

As they arrived, they happened to see Veneto asking Cleveland about his situation.

—It seems like this team formation is not going to work out.

Nia's eyes couldn't help but look dejected.

“…Well, it’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it,” Xiaobai said.

“It’s alright, you’ll find out about this sooner or later anyway.” Nia shook her head, but still firmly expressed her position. “Besides, there are no secrets between teammates, are there?”

"Uh." Xiaobai nodded stiffly.

She was shot.

Chapter 212 Deep-Sea Supply Ship

Nia placed her hand on Cleveland's tightly closed thighs beside her, trying to find some sense of security in Cleveland's skin.

Cleveland also lowered his head and reached out both hands to tightly grasp Nia's palms.

“It must have happened when I first arrived here,” Nia said softly, recalling the event. “It must have been about two months ago.”

Veneto suppressed the urge to pull out a bag of popcorn from her ship's storage space and carefully looked at the admiral and ship girl in front of her.

It wasn't that Veneto was heartless, cruel, or lacked compassion.

However, she really couldn't bring herself to have such feelings for someone she had only known for a few minutes.

So at this moment, Veneto could only become a dutiful listener.

So she pulled a plate of peanuts from the table in front of her, reached in with two fingers, picked up a peanut, and quietly put it in her mouth.

Nia slowly began to recount her experiences.

Nia lived in an orphanage as a child and was able to attend school thanks to the help of kind people. Later, she received further assistance because of her excellent grades, which enabled her to attend a naval high school and then a naval university.

Leaving aside what happened during her time at the Naval Academy, in short, Nia had good academic performance and received a lot of attention and guidance from her mentors at that place that trained admirals, and was eventually fortunate enough to become an admiral.

During her graduation construction, Nia was also fortunate enough to create Cleveland, making her her ship girl and giving her her own naval base.

Although the naval base was in a remote place with little danger and little development, Nia, who had grown up alone, enjoyed the life where she could earn money to support herself. She considered Cleveland her family and lived a happy life there for a while.

Then came the things that an admiral had to do: go on an expedition. Because in that small place, there were few opportunities for training, and Nia didn't have many resources to build and develop. Cleveland's training level also remained low. So when Nia arrived at the first chapter of the sea, she realized that she seemed to be developing much slower than her classmates.

I graduated from the Naval Academy with one of the top grades, but now it seems I've become a mid-to-lower rank admiral.

It wasn't until that time, after talking with other admirals, that Nia learned that the naval base she was assigned to upon graduation was a dead zone.

It offers no resources, no opportunities for growth, and is a place that everyone eventually forgets about.

Nia still doesn't know why she was assigned to such a place.

To catch up with others, Nia and Cleveland agreed to improve themselves in the first chapter of the sea. So she teamed up with some admirals day and night. Cleveland understood her admiral's thoughts and worked very hard. At the beginning, Cleveland became one of the top-level ship girls in the first chapter of the sea.

At that time, Nia also gradually came into contact with her former classmates who were teaming up here, including Ian, the one who had previously provoked her.

It wasn't until then that Nia realized that all of her classmates, except for herself, had connections; their families were either well-off or had some influence. In the eyes of some, she, a person from a "slum," was nothing more than a useless person who would plunder their resources.

However, she didn't care about other people's opinions. In Nia's mind, becoming stronger quickly was the only important thing.

—Until that night.

No matter the sea area, nighttime is the most dangerous time because the visibility is extremely dark, making it impossible for aircraft carriers and light carriers to launch aircraft to search for enemies. Destroyers, on the other hand, unleash their greatest power at this time. Even the most harmless deep-sea destroyers are among the most dangerous reapers at night.

Ninety-nine percent of admirals dislike setting sail at night.

Only Cleveland, with his high level of training and his dedication to becoming stronger, was able to fight alone in this sea area without being severely damaged or even sunk in a matter of minutes.

Then, that very night, Cleveland captured a deep-sea supply ship.

Upon learning of this, Nia rushed to the beach and saw the deep-sea supply ship that had been towed onto the sand.

It was a being with white twin tails, indistinguishable from a human. The small whale-shaped ship beneath it, which had no offensive capabilities, had been destroyed by Cleveland, leaving only the unharmed human body on top.

Deep-sea replenishment ships are not lethal; some even say they represent the only remaining conscience in the deep sea.

The Admiral's Guild offers extremely high bounties for deep-sea supply ships, whether in terms of merit, resources, or even money from human society.

Nia felt like she had reached the pinnacle of her life before she even got to the beach.

—Until she reached the beach.

When she saw the deep-sea supply ship sitting on the beach, crying and hugging the whale-shaped ship armor beside it, her heart softened.

Nia even had the illusion that she was the bad guy.

Cleveland picked up the deep-sea supply ship and walked to his side. Nia watched as Cleveland lifted the deep-sea ship like a chick, her heart filled with increasingly intense reluctance.

—Deep-sea supply ships are not lethal, and they are the only type of ship that does not harbor any ill will toward humans. Even if they encounter humans at sea, they will not attack them proactively.

Nia touched the tear-streaked face of the deep-sea supply ship. After weighing the pros and cons, she decided to give up on taking them back to the Admiral's Guild.

The deep-sea supply ship has entered the Admiral's Guild, but it will definitely not return unscathed.

So Nia let her go.

I don’t know why, perhaps because Nia, as an orphan, had never been taught that “the deep sea must be exterminated,” or perhaps because her nerves, which only trembled once every twenty years, finally twitched, Nia ultimately chose to do what she was ordered to do as the admiral.

She released a deep-sea creature, allowing it to return to the ocean.

It's as if Cleveland never caught a deep-sea supply ship.

However, secrets can't stay hidden forever. On the beach in the first chapter, no matter what you do, you can't do it without anyone noticing.

The Admiral's Guild learned of the release of Abyssal Fleet the very next day—no, late that very night.

This is a very, very serious matter, as it involves Nia's position as admiral. Therefore, her admiral status and salary were stripped away, and the naval base was confiscated.

In an instant, Nia was left with only Cleveland, the ship girl she had relied on for so long.

The Admiral's Guild didn't go too far. Because Nia released a non-lethal supply ship, she wasn't imprisoned for it.

However, if we let one Deep Sea creature go, we have to kill ten thousand to make up for it.

Therefore, in order to atone for her sins, Nia must conquer the seas here like an ordinary admiral.

Having lost her salary, Nia had to find a job. Because she had grown up alone and had good culinary skills, the Admiral's Guild gave her a position as an assistant to the cook.

Apart from that, although life remained the same in the first chapter of the sea, Nia was ostracized by all the admirals there.

After all, no one would team up with an admiral who let the Deep Sea go.

This went on for two months, and Cleveland fought alone here for two months.

—Until the day Xiaobai arrives.

After Nia finished speaking, she let out a soft breath.

She gripped Cleveland's hand tightly and closed her eyes.

Next, the admiral in front of him will probably just say something and turn around and leave.

Cleveland took Nia's hand in return, giving her the courage to open her eyes.

Veneto habitually stuffed peanuts into his mouth.

The four Fubuki sisters were still gathered together, quietly discussing how to spend the money that Shiro had given them.

Xiao Bai still looked at Nia with that same kind expression.

"Huh?" Nia was a little stunned.

"Hmm? Are you done talking?" Xiaobai asked curiously.