Crossing the azure as a black dragon

"Five of us from Ironblood are participating, but I can't tell you exactly who they are right now."

Bismarck turned around, holding a document in his hand, covered in iron-blooded script, recording the exercise that had just taken place.

"That's enough. Will anyone from Sakura Empire participate?"

Black Dragon wasn't greedy and changed the subject.

"The Sakura Empire hasn't participated in any expeditions in recent years, so barring any unforeseen circumstances, you'll be the only one participating this year."

Bismarck walked to the side, poured himself a cup of tea, and sat down in the main seat.

"I see."

Black Dragon had guessed it before, but he still felt a little disappointed.

“Going to the deep sea is an extremely dangerous thing. Last year, 25 people set off, but most of them were lost and they had to escape back.”

Tirpitz tapped his fingers on the table and said.

"Any results?"

"Black Flying Dragon asked curiously."

"It seems that destroying a few of the Sirens' sea fortresses has had no impact on the overall situation."

Tirpitz gave Eugen a wink as he spoke.

"This document records the discoveries made during our expeditions over the years; you can take a look."

Prince Eugen stood up somewhat helplessly, walked to the bookshelf to the side, pulled out a record file, and placed it in front of the black dragon.

"grateful."

Black Flying Dragon picked up the document with both hands and opened the first page. Yuudachi next to him also leaned his head in.

The first page records an expedition in 2021, which was twenty years ago. The pages are already yellowed, so it doesn't look like something from recent years.

"The first few pages contain records left by the members who established this port area. We came to this port area five years ago."

Eugen offered a reminder.

"oh oh."

Black Flying Dragon responded and then looked on.

This page contains only a few lines of text, and the order after removing the time is as follows.

One hundred and thirty people participated in the war, and thirty returned to the battlefield.

After destroying twenty-three Siren fortresses and approaching the deepest part of the ocean, they were attacked by multiple powerful Sirens.

A Pyrrhic victory, forcing a evacuation.

Note: The Sirens have already deciphered the technology of the mirror sea.

"One hundred and thirty people..."

Putting aside other factors, the sheer number of people involved is a huge difference from what we have now.

Back then, more than a hundred ship girls from the Free Port participated in a single expedition. How powerful must the Free Port have been back then?

"Don't overthink it. Back then, the situation wasn't so passive. We could have directly attacked from the front lines into the deep sea."

A friendly reminder from Prince Eugen.

She was shocked when she saw the record, because before the port where she was born was destroyed, the number of ship girls was less than a hundred.

"Then, this one?"

The black dragon pointed to the spot.

"The original inventors of the Mirror Sea were humans, who made several contributions before it was stolen by the Sirens."

Bismarck answered from a distance.

She had heard similar questions before, and she knew what they were talking about without even looking at them.

"So, what are humans using the mirror-like sea area for now?"

There are questions about the Black Dragon.

"I don't know."

Bismarck answered.

"..."

Black Dragon stopped asking questions and turned to the second page. The number of people who went on the expedition was much larger than the first time, exceeding two hundred, but only ten returned in the end.

Nearly two hundred ship girls were lost in this battle?

Black Flying Dragon was somewhat bewildered.

"That year was the year the Sirens launched their fiercest offensive, and many people died."

Eugen said, frowning.

This page doesn't record the results of the battle, nor does it explain what happened.

Black Dragon continued turning the page. From this page onward, the number of people participating in the expedition decreased sharply. In ten years, the number of participants dropped from three digits to two digits, and it continued to decrease. Last year, only twenty-five people participated.

This isn't the most terrifying part. What's truly terrifying is that aside from the first page, there were virtually no significant achievements afterward. The only major disruption was the destruction of the Sirens' operational base, but this had absolutely no impact on the overall battle situation.

Black Dragon still remembers the near-sea history he read back then. Twenty years ago, a huge explosion occurred in the deep sea. Since then, the Sirens' invasion has intensified. Is there any connection between these events?

Twenty years of uninterrupted expeditions have resulted in the loss of over a thousand ship girls, yet they have failed to gauge the true strength of the Sirens—this is a terrifying prospect.

Are you scared?

Prince Eugen asked from the side.

Why be afraid?

Black Flying Dragon glanced at her, remaining calm.

"Because you're going to participate in an expedition next."

Eugen said with a smile.

"So what? At most, it drifted back from the sea. But you, I remember you tried to fool me by saying that the expedition was just the higher-ups collecting data?"

Black Flying Dragon raised an eyebrow.

"The details of the expedition were classified. At that time, you had not yet demonstrated such strong combat capabilities, so naturally I would not tell you the truth."

Prince Eugen reached out and twirled his hair.

"Oh, secrecy, huh? That's good."

After hearing this, Black Dragon pondered for a moment, then suddenly seemed to understand something and drew out his voice.

"Eugen?"

Bismarck was somewhat displeased; she had reminded Eugen many times, but he still spoke without restraint.

"Does that mean I'll have to join the expedition?"

suddenly

"..." Yuudachi, standing next to the black dragon, asked cautiously.

"Uh, you don't need to. Black Dragon can participate by himself."

Bismarck was speechless for a moment, wishing he could smash a document on Eugen's head.

"oh oh."

Yuudachi nodded repeatedly.

"Yuudachi can just wait for me to come home."

Black Flying Dragon smiled and patted Yuudachi's head.

Chapter Seventy-Eight: Close-Combat Aircraft Carrier Theory

After the discussion, twenty light cruiser ship girls appeared on the exercise field and confronted each other.

The exercise procedures for destroyers and light cruisers were similar, with a series of tests such as speed conducted before engaging in combat. The battle was a foregone conclusion, with the Freeport area overwhelming the ship girls brought by the commander.

Soon after, the heavy cruiser ship girls appeared, fifteen on each side as before. Black Dragon spotted several familiar faces among them, including Minneapolis.

The heavy cruiser side was straightforward; after comparing speeds, the battle commenced immediately.

Is Minneapolis in a bad state?

Black Dragon watched Xiaoming's performance on the screen. His reaction speed and shelling accuracy were significantly different from when he fought the Sirens.

What do you think of the commander's ship girls' strength?

Prince Eugen asked from the side.

"It's just so-so, nothing particularly outstanding."

Black Flying Dragon frowned. She was also watching the battle very seriously, hoping to deepen her understanding of different types of ship girls.

However, the ship girls brought by this commander were really not strong, and were not even in the same league as the two commanders, Kong Ping and Xiao Tianran.

"So, our side went easy on us."

Eugen drew a horizontal line on the conference table with his finger and said.

"But didn't that old commander say that we should manufacture ship equipment based on this competition?"

Black Dragon was somewhat puzzled.

"You believe this nonsense? If you continue to rely on them, you'll be defeated by the Sirens sooner or later."

Prince Eugen snorted coldly, his dissatisfaction with the human leadership evident in his tone.

"That's true. Only ship girls can develop ship equipment suitable for ship girls."

Black Flying Dragon deeply agreed.

As they chatted, the battle on the training field ended, and even with some leniency, the Free Port area still won an overwhelming victory.

Unfortunately, the screen doesn't show the commander's perspective, so we can only imagine what his expression was like after three consecutive defeats.