Elder brother's garrison

The ship girls who had been watching the conflict between Xiaobai and the three others and the woman in red nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, yeah, the Fire Blaze Mercenary Group is unreasonable. They might come looking for trouble at any time!"

"Let's repair the ship's equipment first, so that we'll have some confidence when something happens!"

"Go quickly, go quickly, you just helped us get revenge..."

"That's it!"

"..."

The surrounding ship girls seemed to have no objection to Shiro cutting in line; in fact, they all raised their hands in approval.

Xiaobai smiled at the ship girls.

"Thank you everyone, but... never mind." Little White said to Hancock, "We can just use it normally. Anyway, we only have minor injuries, which won't affect our combat ability."

“In that case, that’s fine.” Hancock nodded, her gaze sweeping over the mercenary group members beside her. The other members nodded in agreement and then returned to their respective corners of the courtyard to continue their duties. Hancock remained where she was and said to Xiaobai, “You’re not ordinary ship girls, but if you need any help, feel free to come to me.”

"Thank you for the compliment," Xiaobai smiled.

Hancock saw Little White smile and respond, so he nodded slightly and returned to the yard, quietly continuing to act as the doorman.

Xiao Bai stared at Hancock's profile with great interest.

This ship girl named Hancock has a lukewarm attitude and a meticulous appearance, but she is surprisingly flexible and adaptable, which is quite interesting.

Xiao Bai looked away.

Speaking of which... Xiaobai is still a little curious about those people from earlier.

Xiaobai waved to a ship girl who was constantly peeking at her.

The ship girl watching was stunned for a moment. She pointed to herself, and after Xiaobai nodded with a smile, she looked awkwardly at the two sides around her, and then walked over with her head down.

"Hello, sister," Xiaobai greeted with a smile.

"Um...you, hello..." The ship girl lowered her head awkwardly, clutching her waist warily and glancing left and right as if afraid of being seen with Xiaobai. "Why did you call me here..."

"I want to ask you something," Xiaobai said.

"I...I...I don't know anything, don't ask me..." The ship girl quickly waved her hands, "I...I'm just a member of a small mercenary group, I can't get involved in the affairs of your big mercenary groups...I..."

"Don't worry, sister, I just want to ask you something simple." Xiaobai said with a smile, as she leaned in and lightly nestled into the ship girl's arms.

The ship girl was stunned for a moment.

The ship girl was puzzled by Xiaobai's actions when, in the next second, she clearly felt Xiaobai secretly slip a palm-sized piece of iron into her arms.

heavy.

Cool.

It feels surprisingly good.

The ship girl subconsciously looked down at her hands, and then her eyes widened, and she was speechless.

“Hiss—this is…”

The ship girl is holding a piece of high-quality deep-sea metal!

This... size, this weight, this pure deep-sea aura... it's almost comparable to the deep-sea metal produced by the military, isn't it?

Just as the ship girl was in a daze, a pair of delicate and slender hands gently covered her palms, affectionately holding her fingers to cover the deep-sea metal.

"Sister, nice to meet you. This is a small gift; I hope you won't find it offensive," Xiaobai said with a smile, adding at the end, "Please don't let anyone else see it!"

"...!"

The ship girl snapped out of her daze and felt much more at ease.

So the ship girl quickly stuffed the ship equipment metal in her hand into her ship equipment space. Then, still in shock, she looked around at the people. After a while, she wiped away her sweat and looked at Xiaobai in surprise.

"You...you guys are so rich..."

"It's alright," Xiaobai smiled.

What Xiaobai just gave to this ship girl was actually just a piece of ordinary deep-sea metal produced in the second chapter, which wasn't anything particularly precious to Xiaobai.

The ship girl, who had received a gift from Xiaobai, clutched her stomach. She bit her lip, struggled with her thoughts for a while, and then took a deep breath before speaking to Xiaobai.

"Alright, I've taken your offer, and I'm beholden to your kindness. I understand your sincerity." The ship girl said with an air of righteous indignation, "Ask me anything you want. As long as I know the answer, I'll tell you!"

"I see, thank you very much then, sister." Xiaobai said with a smile, "Those people just now, you said they were from the Blazing Fire Mercenary Group, right?"

"Oh, yes."

"What level of mercenary group is the Li Huo Mercenary Group?" Xiao Bai asked with a smile.

"You don't even know this?" The ship girl suddenly frowned, seemingly disappointed by Xiaobai's question, but she still continued, "The Li Huo Mercenary Group is one of the three largest mercenary groups among civilian ship girl organizations. It's an existence that ordinary ship girls like us can't afford to offend."

“One of the largest mercenary groups…” Xiaobai murmured, then asked again, “Were those people their main force?”

"No way, they're a top-tier mercenary group, they have tons of people," the ship girl replied. "That was just a scouting party, their main force hasn't arrived yet."

"I see." Xiaobai smiled.

"Sigh... Let me tell you something." Seeing Xiaobai smile, the ship girl who was asked the question seemed to feel a little sorry for her, and also seemed to feel that she was in the wrong for taking the gift, so she continued, "The Fire Mercenary Group's base is a bit far from here, in the South City area. Now that you have offended them, they will not let you off easily. You should stay away from there as much as possible... Even if you seem to be quite strong, you can't compete with a proper mercenary group on your own. They have ten or a hundred times more people than you. If they really want to do something to you, you can't fight back."

As the ship girl spoke, her gaze couldn't help but drift towards the super-sized ship.

"Thanks for the reminder," Xiaobai said with a smile.

"Sigh... Is this lady a battleship? Her aura is very prominent, which is rare in our civilian ship girl circle." The ship girl looked at Super Yamato and said, intending to remind her, "If she were a battleship from a top mercenary group, we would all be familiar with each other, but this lady's appearance is very unfamiliar. She must have been built recently... Battleships are very powerful ship girls. Perhaps your ship equipment is of high grade, your training level is good, and your equipment is good enough, but no matter how powerful you are, you are still just a ship girl. You can't fight against the overwhelming force of others."

The ship girl kept saying "hide," "hide," and "run," as if she was afraid that Xiaobai and the other two would get caught.

Super Big blinked and pointed to himself.

It's really strange that the ship girl in front of me would say that she can't beat those people.

In Yamato's perception, those ship girls were as fragile as destroyers on the sea... Not to mention herself and the admiral, even if Miss Changchun took action, it would only be a matter of time before she dealt with those people.

"Super large" indicates I don't understand.

Chapter 3421 The Body of Contradiction Transfer

"I see, I understand now, thank you for reminding me."

Xiaobai smiled and raised her hand to soothe the back of Chao Yamato's hand, thanking the ship girl in front of her.

"Is there anything else you want to ask?" the ship girl asked again.

"Hmm..." Xiaobai thought for a moment, as if she remembered something, and asked the ship girl, "What size mercenary group is Pure White Wings?"

“Pure White Wings…” The ship girl’s expression relaxed considerably when she talked about this. “Pure White Wings is also one of the largest mercenary groups in the civilian ship girl community… However, compared to established mercenary groups like the Blazing Fire Mercenary Group, Pure White Wings is a mercenary group that has only risen in the last two years.”

"Oh? In the last two years?"

"Yes, since this repair pool was built, more and more civilian ship girls from all over the world have come to use the free repair pool. The Pure White Wings Mercenary Group is an organization that appeared along with this repair pool. At that time, Pure White Wings was already a fairly large group. With the repair pool, the reputation of Pure White Wings grew, and in the past two years, with the help of many powerful ship girls, it became the largest mercenary group at lightning speed." The ship girl explained, a hint of pride appearing on her face. "Many of the ship girls who joined Pure White Wings were moved by the admiral who built this repair pool. They wanted to follow in his footsteps and let his compassionate dream remain pure and noble, unpolluted by worldly affairs and evil. They are much better than those selfish people in the Blazing Fire Mercenary Group!"

"...You're publicly criticizing the Li Huo Mercenary Group like this...aren't you afraid of getting into trouble?" Xiao Bai laughed.

"Sigh, I've already accepted your gift, so I might as well just go for it." The ship girl muttered, "Anyway, you'll be there to hold the sky up if it falls... I'm going to run away from Kyoto after I finish repairing my ship equipment today... They won't hold a grudge against someone as insignificant as me, right?"

“That makes sense.” Xiaobai smiled, glancing around at the ship girls. “However… I think I know what kind of people the Pure White Mercenary Group are now.”

"Hmm... is there anything else you want to ask?" the ship girl said, clutching her stomach. "Don't always ask me things that everyone knows... it makes me feel awkward accepting your gifts."

"Let's ask some gossip then," Xiaobai said with a smile. "The Blazing Fire Mercenary Group only arrived about a month ago, right? Before that, things seemed peaceful. Do they have some kind of grudge against the Pure White Mercenary Group?"

“Uh… this…” The ship girl was speechless. She scratched her cheek awkwardly. “This has stumped me… We don’t know why the Fire Mercenary Group, which was fine before, suddenly started causing trouble last month… However… the rumors say that there seems to be a conflict between the leaders of the two mercenary groups.”

"A contradiction?" Xiaobai stroked his chin, intrigued. "Tell me more about it?"

"Ugh...that seems pretty melodramatic." The ship girl shook her head. "It seems that Pure White Wings stole the main ship girl of the Blazing Fire Mercenary Group, a battleship or something, which has caused a lot of trouble between the two leaders..."

"Um...that is indeed a bit..." Xiaobai said with deep feeling.

"I can't do this problem, you should try another one," the ship girl said.

"Okay, then. I remember you just mentioned that the Blazing Fire Mercenary Group is stationed in the southern part of Kyoto?" Xiaobai asked with a smile. "Could you be more specific?"

"Why do you ask?"

"The more refined, the better, right?" Xiaobai laughed innocently. "Do you think I can just storm in all by myself?"

“That makes sense.” The ship girl nodded and said to Xiaobai, “Mercenary groups of that size have many members, so they can’t hide. In fact, many people in Kyoto know where they are. It’s in an abandoned pharmaceutical factory in the South City factory district. Many large mercenary groups rent similar locations…”

"Hmm, the abandoned pharmaceutical factory in the south of the city, right... Thanks." Xiaobai nodded in satisfaction. "I have no further questions."

"Even if I didn't answer any of your questions properly, I'm not giving you back the gift you just gave me!" The ship girl quickly clutched her stomach, looking wary. "I already went against the Blazing Fire Mercenary Group to answer your questions, so from now on I'll just have to hide wherever they are! If you want it back, I'll be at a huge loss!"

"I don't need it, thank you, big sister." Seeing the ship girl's nervous expression, Xiaobai smiled and leaned closer, secretly handing her a piece of deep-sea metal from Chapter 8.

When the ship girl first saw the deep-sea metal handed over by Shiro, she thought it was of the same quality as the last one.

But the moment the ship girl grasped the deep-sea metal of Chapter 8, she seemed to sense something. Then, looking down at the smooth, shiny deep-sea metal in her hand, which resembled a gemstone, she suddenly opened her mouth wide.

This ship girl has never seen deep-sea metal of this shape, purity, or size in her life.

This is this...

This thing is probably worth dozens of times more than the deep-sea metals we've dealt with before...

Is this really something that civilian ship girls would pull out?

The ship girl swallowed hard.

Suddenly.

A sense of enlightenment flashed through her mind.

The ship girl stared wide-eyed at Xiaobai, at the pure and innocent smile on Xiaobai's face.

The ship girl's mouth dropped open.

"You...you are...?" the ship girl stammered.

"Shh." Xiaobai gestured for the ship girl to be quiet, and smiled slightly. "Leave this to me."

"..." The ship girl stared blankly at Xiaobai. Suddenly, her eyes filled with surprise and excitement, but the next moment, she was bewildered and at a loss. Finally, she hurriedly stuffed the deep-sea metal into her ship rigging, grabbed Xiaobai's hands, and waved them up and down, panting, "Thank you... thank you... thank you so much... so this is what you are like... I... I... I'm so excited... I... I..."

The ship girl bowed repeatedly to Xiaobai, looking as if she wanted to kneel down and kowtow in gratitude.

The ship girls standing nearby frowned, looking at Xiaobai with a puzzled expression.

……

The ship girl who received Xiaobai's second gift didn't even bother to continue queuing and left the courtyard immediately.

The ship girl euphemistically said, "A common man is innocent, but he is guilty of possessing a treasure." Previously, the Li Huo Mercenary Group didn't bother targeting her because she was a nobody, but now the deep-sea metal she holds in her hands has given the Li Huo Mercenary Group a reason to target her.

Therefore, in order to avoid any accidents, this ship girl chose to leave Kyoto as soon as possible.

—Anyway, the damage to her ship equipment is only minor, so it won't matter if it's not repaired for a while. Otherwise, how could she be paired with Xiaobai?

Watching the ship girl quickly leave the courtyard, Xiaobai breathed a sigh of relief.

Through that ship girl, Xiaobai has managed to get a general overview of the situation regarding ship girls in the civilian market.

If the first piece of deep-sea metal was a gift to elicit information, then the second piece of deep-sea metal was simply a gift from Xiaobai because he found her pleasing to the eye.

After all, Xiaobai is considered a wealthy woman.

Rich women are very generous.

Xiao Bai turned around and smiled at Changchun and Chaoda.

After the Fire Mercenary Group left, peace finally returned to the Vestal Goddess's clinic.

As time went by, the light in the sky was gradually replaced by the darkness of night.

The ship girl in front of Xiaobai finished repairing her ship equipment, bowed to Xiaobai, and left the courtyard.

Before they knew it, only Xiaobai and the other two were left in the courtyard.

Hancock walked into the yard.

“You can go in too,” Hancock said.

“Actually, our ship equipment wasn’t damaged,” Xiaobai said to Hancock with a smile. “We’re here today to observe.”

“Hmm…” Hancock wasn’t surprised. She nodded and continued to Little White, “Do you belong to a mercenary group? If so, you don’t need to say the name.”

Hancock seems to be worried about the three of them, including Xiaobai.

Xiaobai shook his head.