Elder brother's garrison

So it was Akagi from the Deep Sea who tricked the Empire into coming here...?

What mischief is Akagi up to now...?

"Sigh." Xiaobai sighed, then asked the Empire, "What about that really fragrant older sister you were chatting with earlier? Didn't she come along?"

"She went back."

"……All right."

"..."

Empire picked up Little White's water cup and took a sip.

The atmosphere fell silent for a moment.

The quiet atmosphere lasted for a few breaths.

Xiao Bai felt he should talk to the Empire about something.

“…Um.” Suddenly, the Empire spoke up.

"Ok?"

"I heard from the commander that there's another version of myself in Admiral Lu Lin's garrison," Empire said, looking at the water glass.

"Ah... yes, there is." Xiaobai nodded.

"What do I look like in Admiral Lu Lin's garrison?" Empire looked up at Xiaobai and asked.

"Hmm..." Xiaobai thought for a moment, then said thoughtfully, "You look quite a bit like me."

"Appearance?"

"No, I mean the part about being a heavy sleeper."

The level of sleepiness in Xiaobai's empire is even more outrageous than that of Nia's. Nia's person is at most someone who reverses day and night, but Xiaobai's person is someone who can sleep anytime, anywhere, 24 hours a day.

The Empire nodded silently upon hearing Xiaobai's words.

"Then... what about Sister Rome?" the Empire asked again.

"Huh?" Xiaobai was taken aback.

"What is Sister Roma like in Admiral Lu Lin's garrison?"

Rome?

"Ah."

"You care a lot about Rome?"

"..." Empire put down his water glass, looked up and met Xiaobai's gaze. "There's something I haven't told anyone else."

"What is it?"

"I think I've met Sister Rome before," Empire said, looking at his palm.

"Hmm?" Little White subconsciously pricked up its ears upon hearing Empire's words.

“It seems I was once drifting in a very, very long river,” Empire said to Little White. “It was a river where there was nothing, no concept of time, no sense of self. And besides me, there were many, many people like me in that river. We stood together at that distance, not speaking, not communicating, drifting along with the current. Suddenly one day, a light shone on someone next to me, as if someone from somewhere in the world was calling her, but that person did not leave. She chose to stay where she was and instead pushed me into the light behind her.”

After finishing speaking, the Empire stared blankly at Little White.

"When the beam of light shone down, I saw what that person looked like. That person... I didn't know her, and I'd never seen her before... but I think I knew that she was Sister Rome."

Chapter 2644 Methods of Preserving Memories

That concludes the discussion of empires.

In Xiaobai's memory, this was the first time in Empire's life that he had spoken so much in one go. It was obvious that speaking such a large amount of information in one go had made the taciturn Empire feel very tired. So after Empire finished speaking, he let out a long sigh and took a couple of sips of water from his cup.

Little White sat there, blinking, staring at the Empire.

As a super admiral with four-digit ship girls, Xiaobai has seen all kinds of ship girls: obedient, mischievous, clumsy, capable, and even one that gave the admiral a headbutt at birth. She believes she is quite good at helping all sorts of ship girls solve their problems in her two years in the industry.

But what the Empire just said... to be honest, it did touch on some of the newbie's blind spots.

"Uh... a river?"

"Ah."

"Light column?"

"Ah."

"Rome?"

"Ah."

A question-and-answer session between Xiaobai and the Empire.

After a brief exchange of confirmation, the two fell silent.

Xiao Bai lowered his head, his mind racing as he tried to process the information provided by the Empire.

Generally speaking, ship girls' memories only begin to function from the moment they step out of the construction device—or, to be slightly more precise, from the point after they are conceived and formed within the device. However, if the Empire's statement is true, then her memories seem to predate those within the construction device by a considerable margin.

The Empire's symptoms are somewhat similar to those of "forgetting to drink the Meng Po soup before reincarnation" that Xiao Bai used to see when reading various strange and interesting stories about people on the internet.

The past lives of ship girls...

Thinking about this, Xiao Bai's interest was piqued.

A river filled with ship girls...

Boundless...

densely packed...

All the ship girls stood there hand in hand, waiting for the construction device to summon them.

That would require so many ship girls...

If we could find that river, wouldn't that be...

Xiao Bai suddenly felt an urge to drool.

In short...

We need to confirm what the Empire is saying first!

"...Empire, you said you've seen Rome, do you remember what Rome looked like?" Thinking of this, Xiaobai quickly looked up at Empire and asked.

Upon hearing Xiaobai's words, the Empire was slightly taken aback, and she clearly thought about it for a while.

"Yeah, a woman who's a bit like a cat."

"Like a cat...?"

Xiao Bai subconsciously raised her gaze and glanced at the moon outside the window.

Speaking of cats... Bismarck's face flashed through Xiaobai's mind first.

In Bismarck's naval base, it's safe to say that no one is more suited to the word "cat" than Bismarck. Bismarck has large, bright eyes, delicate and beautiful features, and possesses both the cuteness of a cat and the charm of a mature woman. Moreover, she has long, lithe limbs, is agile, and moves swiftly. In particular, her peculiar cat-ear-like hairstyle and her temperament, which always seems to be in sync with that of a cat...

Could the Rome that the empire speaks of look exactly like Bismarck?

Thinking of this, Xiao Bai smiled subconsciously, but then shook his head.

Forget it, it's impossible.

I must be overthinking things.

"Empire, you only said she's like a cat, but I can't imagine what Rome looks like. Could you describe her in a little more detail?" Thinking of this, Xiaobai smiled and suggested to Empire, "For example, describe her facial features, or her clothing and appearance, or something?"

"Hmm..." Upon hearing Xiaobai's suggestion, Empire closed his eyes, frowned, and looked quite troubled.

"...Is Rome's appearance really that hard to describe?"

"No..." Empire opened her eyes, shook her head, thought for a moment, and then said to Little White, "I just suddenly realized that I seem to have forgotten what Sister Rome looks like."

"what?"

"I think I've seen Sister Rome before. I could clearly remember what she looked like this afternoon." Empire looked down at his hands. "But even though only an afternoon has passed, I can't quite recall what Sister Rome looks like now."

"You mean...you've forgotten, Your Majesty?"

“It’s not that I’ve forgotten, it’s that I’m forgetting.” Empire corrected Xiaobai’s statement. She stared at her hands in confusion and said slowly, “It’s like the feeling of slowly forgetting what you saw in your dream after you wake up.”

Wow!

Upon hearing the Empire's statement, Xiaobai immediately became restless.

"So, does that mean you, the Emperor, are going to forget your past life?" Xiaobai asked nervously.

"...Past life?" The Empire looked at Xiaobai strangely.

"Uh... wait, wait a minute." Xiaobai patted his chest and took a couple of breaths, then suppressed his nervousness and said to the Empire, "Empire, let's confirm again. Your current state is that although you still remember about that river and your Roman sister, those memories are being forgotten at a very fast pace? Is that right?"

"Yes." The Empire nodded.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner about something so important!" Xiaobai said with heartache.

"...Because...no one would believe it." Empire was startled by Xiaobai's reaction, and she stared at Xiaobai blankly as she spoke.

"I believe it, I believe it!" Xiaobai patted her chest and nodded quickly.

"..." The empire opened its eyes.

"What you're talking about, Empire, might be something very important!" Little White cupped Empire's hands and said earnestly, "It would be a huge loss if this were forgotten! No, we have to find a way to prevent you from forgetting this memory! Or... or we can use some kind of stimulus to make you recall that memory immediately!"

At this point, Xiao Bai immediately jumped off the chair and paced back and forth in front of the Empire while pondering the matter.

The Empire watched Little White in silence.

What the Empire just said, she hadn't actually planned to tell anyone if the atmosphere hadn't been just right and she and Xiaobai hadn't been so bored.

After all, even the Empire itself wasn't sure whether those memories were things she had actually experienced or just a dream.

From a rational perspective, it seems more likely to be a delirium.

Seeing Xiaobai's anxious and nervous expression, as if he had lost a million, Empire, after a long moment of stunned silence, slowly revealed a relieved expression, and the corners of his mouth turned up slightly.

—So it turns out that no matter how fantastical what I say is, there are still people in the world who are willing to believe me.

The Empire suddenly understood why the commander and the others in the garrison trusted Admiral Lu Lin so much.

"Ah, I've got an idea!" Just then, Xiaobai, who was pacing and thinking, also came up with a solution. She quickly returned to Empire and said earnestly, "Empire, I've thought of a way to help you preserve your memories! My family used to have a ship girl who, in order not to forget certain things, would carefully write down precious things in her diary and review them every morning—according to her, this method is very effective. Although it cannot completely prevent the memory from fading, it can greatly extend the duration of the memory! Why don't you try it?"

As Xiao Bai finished speaking, he took out paper and pen from behind his back and handed them to the Empire.

Empire took the pen and paper. She looked at the things in her hand, then at Little White, who was squatting by the table with his hands on the surface, looking expectant.

"...Admiral Lu Lin, thank you for your method." The Empire put down the pen and paper and said to Xiao Bai, "But this method should not work for me."

"Eh? Why?"

“Because I can feel that the loss of that memory is beyond my control.” Empire raised a hand and touched the side of his head. “I can feel that it’s not a memory I should have had. The reason that memory is fading away is probably because my body is rejecting it now, and besides…”

"Besides?"

"Writing a diary is too much trouble, and it's impossible for me to get up early every day to read it," the Empire said very sincerely.

"……"noob.

Ok.

It seems that using a reading diary to strengthen memory is not suitable for everyone.

Is the memory of the empire destined to be slowly forgotten by her...?

Thinking of this, Xiaobai sighed helplessly.

As a human with the passive ability to remember everything she sees, Xiaobai finds it very difficult to experience the feeling of "forgetting". For her, whether it is a dream, reality, or a fleeting fantasy, these things will be accurately remembered by her and will never be forgotten.

However, when Xiaobai thinks of Missouri, North Carolina, and Sukhbaatar's condition, especially when chatting with Missouri about the period of discontinuity, and seeing Missouri struggling to respond with her remaining fragments of memory, a helpless bitter smile on her face, Xiaobai can deeply feel the sadness emanating from Missouri.

Ugh……

Forgetting is truly a helpless and sad thing.

If only they could be like me, never forgetting.

Little White looked at the Empire and thought to himself.

……

……