It's time to give out the rings, Admiral!

Even though his own garrison was large and wealthy, lacking nothing, he wasn't so arrogant as to deliver vegetables to the shopkeeper. With that, the boy withdrew his steps, which he had originally intended to take a stroll in the store, and then turned back, holding the hand of the unicorn sister. However, as he watched the two of them walk away to the other side, the girl with long green hair and cat ears, who was selling her technology box in the crowd, suddenly looked up as if she had noticed something.

"Meow? That person is..."

………………

After leaving Akashi's convenience store, the boy and Unicorn walked a little further in. Compared to the crowds and hustle and bustle near the entrance area, the atmosphere here was more like a normal shopping trip. Although there were still street stalls that could be set up anywhere with just a rug, there were quite a few decent-looking shops on both sides of the road. In front of a café not far away, several ship girls could be seen leisurely drinking afternoon tea together.

Choosing a direction at random, the boy continued to stroll around with the unicorn, looking at the goods on the roadside stalls. Although Wisconsin had told him before coming that he could just buy whatever he wanted, after wandering around for a long time, he realized that there was nothing here that his own naval base could use.

In terms of equipment, he still had quite a few B25s in his own warehouse that he couldn't use. As for resources, according to his wife, the naval base's warehouses had been expanded many times since its construction began, and in a while, the accumulated resources would probably overflow again, forcing further expansion. The only things that could interest the young man were the exquisite merchandise related to the ship girls at a few stalls.

"Boss, how much is this firefly keychain?"

"Oh, that keychain costs five yuan."

"Then give me one."

The boy took the keychain from the shopkeeper across the street and put it in his pocket. He turned around and looked at the obedient unicorn holding his hand. He gently stroked the girl's cute, light purple hair.

"By the way, you've been looking at the unicorn for so long, is there anything you want? I'll go buy it for you."

"No, brother. I'm already very happy to be able to come out and play with you, but thank you anyway!"

The little girl gently shook her head, then smiled adorably at the boy. Unicorn was a good girl. Compared to having her brother spend money to buy her those pretty but useless trinkets, she was already satisfied with just being able to go shopping and have fun with her brother. But... she glanced again at the older girls who were having afternoon tea not far away and carrying things on the other side, and she frowned and gently tugged at the boy's sleeve.

"Brother, those older sisters seem to be secretly observing you."

The boy was a little surprised when Unicorn gently tugged at his sleeve. He followed Unicorn's gaze to the ship girls drinking afternoon tea outside the coffee shop. Noticing his gaze, just as Unicorn had said, the ship girls immediately lowered their heads and pretended to continue chatting.

The boy was a little confused. He hadn't done anything strange, and he didn't even know them. But when he turned around and looked at the admiral behind him, who was screaming miserably and seemed to have lost all ten bets on the ship, he immediately understood.

"They're not looking at me, Unicorn. They're definitely looking at that admiral behind us. He's probably attracting the attention of those ladies because he looks so pathetic. Alright, let's keep looking ahead. Wisconsin probably won't be out for a while."

The girl tilted her head slightly. Although that was her brother's explanation, she still felt that the ship girl sisters must have been observing him. Otherwise, why would they quietly look away when she and her brother glanced at them? But since her brother had said so, she could only accept it as such.

The boy continued moving with the unicorn. As a trade fair held by the Governor's Mansion, the original purpose of the exchange was not to allow admirals to sell goods they didn't need, but to provide a platform for many admirals to communicate. Whether you are an admiral or a free ship girl, there are always various benefits to interacting with other colleagues.

The brother and sister left the vendor's stall and continued walking to a corner. But as they walked, the boy was suddenly stopped by a warm male voice.

"Hey! You over there, buddy, you haven't bought anything along the way, so you're probably just browsing around with your ship girls, right? How about checking out my Nendoroid figures? They're all handmade by my legion! We even accept pre-orders for specific ship girls! Order now for only 9.8 merit points, how about it? Interested in getting a few?"

Volume 1, Chapter 283: Love

The figure who called out to the boy was a young man of about twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old, wearing a loose white shirt, with very ordinary short hair, and a face that looked weathered beyond his years.

He greeted the boy warmly, causing the boy, who was holding the unicorn's hand and preparing to pass him to the next stall, to subconsciously stop in his tracks.

Behind the young man stood a petite and lively girl with short, curly blonde hair. Seeing that her admiral had successfully greeted the customer, the quick-witted girl immediately placed a list of goods on the two folding tables in front of her, which were put together to display clay figurines.

"Did you make all these clay figures yourselves?"

The boy who had been paying attention glanced at the painted clay figures and was indeed somewhat amazed. Although they were clay figures, the various ship girl dolls sold at the stall were no less exquisite or of inferior quality than those produced by some reputable manufacturers, which instantly piqued his interest.

"of course!"

The young man patted his chest enthusiastically, giving the boy a thumbs-up as if he were making a guarantee.

"Young man, I can guarantee that all these figures are handmade by my legion. Go ask any figure collectors in the Exorcist Club, and you'll find one who doesn't know about the figures made by our legion. And if you don't like clay, I also have authentic ship girl figures from the factory in Andian, authorized by the Governor's Office, and even limited edition figures of Yixian and Fubuki! First come, first served!"

"...Oh, right, I almost forgot to introduce myself after saying so much. My name is Lian Hao, and I am the admiral of the Daxu Garrison next door."

"Hello, senior, my name is Su Yuchen." The boy nodded. After listening to Lian Hao's series of words, the boy, who had become slightly interested, lowered his head to admire the exquisite clay figures. He had always liked figurines, but unfortunately, due to financial reasons, the only figurine he owned was his wife's wedding dress figurine, which he had bought by saving up.

He touched the ship equipment of a Fusō figure, examined the details, and then looked up.

"How much are these figures? Senior? I heard you can pre-order figures of specific ship girls?"

"Ha! All the Nendoroid figures are 9.8 merit points each! You won't regret it at this price! Compared to the elusive gambling ship, these figures that you can play with anytime, anywhere are definitely worth having!"

"Ahem... I'm getting off topic. So, Brother Su, you want to pre-order a Nendoroid? You mean the one for the destroyer girl next to you? No problem, just wait for the Legion to take a picture of this little sister, and then you can come and pick it up from me at the exchange meeting next week."

"Don't worry, I'll return the photos to you later. If you want to change the clay figures' appearance, I have a catalog here. Just pick one you like, and I guarantee they'll be just as exquisite as the ones on display!"

Ah... the unicorn isn't a banishment, it's a light mother.

However, the boy, who didn't want to show off his ship, was too lazy to explain Lian Hao's misunderstanding. He continued to look at the figurines on another table, but suddenly found something strange. There were no five-star ship girl figurines like Mrs. and Jiajia among these clay figurines. The highest star rating seemed to be only four stars.

Why are five-star ship girls like Mrs. Ming and Jiajia so famous in the Governor's Mansion, but not available for sale here?

"By the way, senior, why don't you have any five-star ship girl figures like Lexington and Saratoga here? They're so famous in the Governor's Mansion, wouldn't figures of them sell better?"

The boy asked, puzzled, but when he finished speaking, he found that the young man opposite him was staring at him with a surprised look.

"Brother Su, you must be a newbie who hasn't been an admiral for long, right? Or maybe you're still a trainee admiral in school?"

"Hmm? Yes, how did you guess that, senior?"

The boy was somewhat surprised, and he nodded.

"No need to call me senior, just call me Lian Hao. Actually, I only became an admiral not long ago. I'm afraid you don't know, Brother Su, it's not that I don't want to make those five-star ship girl figures, it's just that I simply can't!"

"Well, how should I put it?"

"Hmm... If I put it this way, it might be easier for you to understand, Brother Su. You know that the Governor's Office has put a lot of effort into protecting the ship girls, right? Just like we humans have portrait laws, the ship girls also have their own portrait rights."

"When the military police come to inspect ship girl figures below five stars, they can usually get away with it by saying that there is more than one of these ship girls. But there is only one five-star ship girl in the whole world. It is impossible to get away with it! Take Mrs. Lek, for example. You can't even find her. So where would you get her authorization? And even if you did find her, how could she possibly authorize someone other than her own admiral to make their figures?"

"Ah, I see."

The boy nodded in realization. No wonder he hadn't seen any ship girl merchandise related to his wife along the way; it turned out it was simply impossible to make!

"Then doesn't anyone do it secretly? If what you're saying is true, Senior Lian Hao, why not just do it privately and then trade it secretly?"

"Young Master Su, you're still too young. Do you think no one has done this before? If you're after Madam's figure, I advise you to give up now. The military police are very strict about cracking down on these underground transactions, and..."

"According to reliable sources, a few years ago someone put up a bounty in the military police, saying that if anyone secretly made merchandise of five-star ship girls, the informant would receive a reward of 100 units of each resource! Figurines are nice, but they can't compare to a reward of 100 units of each resource! Compared to figurines that you can only look at but not touch, the living ship girl girls are much more appealing, so in the end, no one was willing to make merchandise of five-star ship girls anymore, which is really a pity."

"Ah... I see." A few fine beads of sweat rolled down the boy's forehead. Hearing what his senior said, he suddenly remembered that the person who put up a bounty at the military police station was none other than himself. To be precise, it should be the ship girls of his family who put up the bounty in their own name. His wife had mentioned it before.

Therefore, ship girls are truly a kind of life that can perfectly satisfy men's vanity. They are beautiful and kind, and they are loyal and devoted. No matter when or where, the only person who can appreciate their beauty and enjoy their tenderness and love is the admiral they trust and depend on.

Humans have all sorts of hobbies and obsessions, but ship girls only ever have one obsession: the admiral obsession. For the admiral, they can even give up their freedom, their dignity, and everything else.

They wear the most conservative clothes when they go out, but in the naval base, they spare no effort to show off their beauty and figure to their admiral; they will ignore any men other than the admiral who try to flirt with them, but they will be obedient to their own admiral; they will not allow their appearance and posture to be made into merchandise and sold on the market, but they will allow their own admiral to make figures of their appearance, and they will even be jealous that the figures have stolen the admiral's affection for them.

The lady had told her all this before. After she joined her naval base amidst much fanfare, she soon offered this bounty to the military police. However, the so-called resources were not provided by her own naval base, but by the governor's office. Five-star ship girls are the jewels among ship girls, and they possess far greater combat power. Thinking about it this way, it's not hard to understand why the governor's office agreed to Lexington's request.

"Hmm... alright then, in that case, I'd like to ask you and the little sister from the legion to make a clay figure of my unicorn for me. It's a rare opportunity to visit the Governor's Mansion, and I'd like to buy one as a souvenir..."

Volume 1, Chapter 284: The Minotaur (Biss)

"Hmm... In that case, I'd like to ask you and the Legion Girls to make a clay figure of my unicorn for me. I'd like to buy one as a souvenir..."

Looking at the girl in front of him, who showed a hint of shyness and joy as the boy stroked her head, Lian Hao nodded to the legion beside him, and then took out a camera from his pocket and took a full-body photo of the unicorn.

"Alright! A beautifully crafted ship girl figure! Don't worry, Su, just leave it to our legion. We'll guarantee to bring you the most exquisite Nendoroid figure you've ever seen at the next exchange event! Of course, we'll also give you this photo later, so don't worry about us keeping anything secret! Haha, Su, you're really lucky. We rarely have stock today. For customers who have bought figures from us, I have some other even better and more exciting things to show you..."

Wearing a pure white gauze dress, small white shoes, and clean white silk, Unicorn's cute and delicate face made even Lian Hao, who had seen many beautiful ship girls, unable to help but take a few more glances.

Envious of Su Xiaoge's good fortune, whose initial ship was such a lovely and docile destroyer girl, he put away his camera, looked at the legion that was already preparing to draft the drawings, and suddenly revealed an indescribable smile. He gently touched the legion's short, golden curly hair beside him.

"Legion, why don't you take Su's little sister to play somewhere else for a while?"

Lian Hao winked at his ship girl, patted his pocket, took out a banknote, and handed it to her.

"Why don't you take her with you to buy ice cream? I need to talk to Brother Su alone for a bit."

The blonde girl took the banknotes from her admiral, but after looking around, she glanced at her admiral and then at the puzzled boy standing across the stall. Knowing what her admiral was planning to do, she frowned and paused. After a slight hesitation, she finally obediently took the soft palm of the somewhat surprised unicorn.

"Let's go play somewhere else for a while. The admiral gave me some money, how about we go buy some ice cream together?"

"elder brother?"

The unicorn, feeling lost and embarrassed, looked shyly at her brother beside her as the more lively legion member took her hand. Seeing her brother gently nod at her, she slowly followed the legion member to the side.

Although I don't know why Senior Lian Hao deliberately had the Legion Sister take the unicorn to the side, let's listen to what he has to say for now.

"Hey! These things are a bit heavy. Wait a minute, Brother Su! I'll take them out right away. The military police just came by for a patrol, and it took me a lot of effort to hide them."

"Heh, that's all. Since we're all on the same side, I won't hold back. Let me show you, Brother Su, what we actually sell in our shop besides the figurines. I went to great lengths to get these goods through my private channels!"

"It took me a lot of effort to bring these things into the meeting, but let me make this clear beforehand: after I show them to you, you're not allowed to report me to the military police! I'm only showing you these things because I trust you!"

He forcefully pulled a cardboard box out from under the table, clapped his hands, and then Lian Hao, who was next to him, suddenly patted the boy's shoulder in a sneaky manner.

He rattled off a long string of nonsensical words to the boy, and seeing the boy's bewildered expression as he had expected, he furtively glanced around to make sure there were no military police inspectors disguised as ordinary customers waiting to take advantage of the situation. With a strange smile, he lifted the blanket covering the box.

"Ta-da!! Real men should really look at these! Figurines are just too much for us adults! Don't you think so, Su-ge?"

With a wave of his hand, he lifted the blanket covering the cardboard box, revealing rows of exquisite, brand-new books inside. He picked up a thin booklet, weighed it in front of the boy, and then winked at him.

Looking at the knowing smile on the face of the senior who was about ten years older than him, the man, who was not a novice, immediately guessed what Senior Lian Hao wanted to show him.

To bring those items safely into the venue without them being confiscated by the patrolling military police, it seems that the senior in front of me really went to great lengths. Men really do always find ways to put in effort in strange places.

Curiosity overcame reason in an instant, and the boy nodded in agreement. He leaned over to take a look, but the covers seemed normal. They were mostly professional books such as "Ship Equipment Maintenance Manual" and "The Self-Cultivation of an Excellent Admiral." He raised an eyebrow, then looked up at Lian Hao, whose expression was becoming increasingly cunning and strange.

"You don't actually think I'm going to show you these technical books, do you? Try flipping through them and taking a look."

He grinned slyly at the boy. Having already guessed what would happen next after hearing Lian Hao's words, Su Yuchen reached out and casually flipped open the cover of a book. Looking at the bright colors and intriguing illustrations under the cover, it was indeed a collection of doujinshi featuring ship girls as the main characters.

"How about it? It was my idea to put the covers of other books on the doujinshi, so that when other comrades buy them, they won't have to worry about their ship girls finding out. Thanks to this, I was able to bring these doujinshi in safely! Comrade Su, these days, doujinshi are no easy business. The military police are cracking down on the underground doujinshi trade more and more severely. We're all men, we all know what I mean! To support our great cause, shouldn't we buy a few?"

Faced with the senior's missionary-like enthusiasm, the young man remained silent for a moment. If it were before, he might have bought the book, especially back in Tianshui Town where entertainment was scarce. But now, he was already exhausted from dealing with his own wives, so where would he find the energy to buy any books as spellcasting materials?

Besides... although these books look like they have pretty good artwork, what if my wife and the others find out after I buy them? Not to mention there are so many younger sisters in my own naval base!

The boy had nothing to say and could only continue flipping through these doujinshi with their various styles, some youthful and some mature, until he couldn't find a single doujinshi featuring five-star ship girls or even modified ship girls. But then he suddenly noticed that all of these doujinshi seemed to be pure love stories.

Although he himself was a pure-love warrior, and the Minotaur Hunter was nice—the short storyline depicted a sweet romance between the admiral and the ship girl—he couldn't help but feel surprised by this outcome, considering the many bizarre fetishes of humanity. Just reading a couple of posts online made him involuntarily shout, "Damn, buddy, your fetish is so weird!" Could it be that those damned Minotaur heretics had finally repented and decided to embark on the righteous path of pure love? And… no way, no way? Could there really be anyone in this world who likes Minos?

"By the way, Senior, why are all the doujinshi here pure love doujinshi? Doesn't anyone want to draw other kinds of doujinshi?"

"Huh?! You mean NTR doujinshi? Get lost, all NTR doujinshi! Ever since the most famous NTR ship girl doujinshi artist got a severe beating from the admirals who owned that ship girl, nobody wants to draw NTR doujinshi anymore! Drawing 2D NTR doujinshi is fine, since those are all fictional, but who would want someone to draw a NTR doujinshi of their waifu?!"

Default volume

Volume 1, Chapter 285: Salvaging the Ship

"Brother Su, look at this book! This is a book by the famous Japanese fan, drawn by Teacher Nanshan. Although Teacher Nanshan hasn't created the Japanese he's been dreaming of yet, the Japanese he draws are top-notch! Look at that huge, towering bridge, look at that long, straight hull. It would be a shame not to buy a few copies to collect!"

Well, Lian Hao, who was always so unserious and would let loose whenever the topic of notebooks came up, eagerly promoted the notebooks. Unable to resist his persistent pleading, the boy eventually held his nose and bought a few.

After instructing his senior to wrap the "teaching materials" in a thick bag, the boy handed Lian Hao the card she had given him earlier in Wisconsin. Lian Hao skillfully took the card and swiped it a few times on the machine provided by the governor's mansion, thus completing the transaction.

"That's great. Just swipe a few times on this machine, and our transaction information will be sent back to the Governor's Office Trade Center. Then, the merit points will be deducted from your account according to the price I entered. With this machine, it's much more convenient for us sellers. I remember a few years ago we were still using cumbersome merit vouchers to exchange for things. Technological progress is really fast."

"Ah, we've gone off on a tangent. By the way, Brother Su, this must be your first time visiting the Governor's Mansion, right? You seem completely unaware of all the rules and regulations here. Did you bring your initial ship here specifically to show it off this afternoon?"

Glancing at the machine, which resembled a card reader on Earth but lacked a display screen, the boy put away his merit card and nodded honestly.

"Yes, I've wanted to visit the Governor's Mansion for a long time. I heard there's a trade fair there today, and since I had some free time, I decided to come and take a look. Senior, judging from your words, you must have been an admiral for quite some time now."

"Yes, it's been quite a few years. But I'm not like you guys who got into the Naval Academy through the proper channels. I used to work at the docks. I met Kawauchi when I came to the Governor's Mansion to sell goods. She recognized me as an admiral, and that's how I got the chance to become a proper admiral. Kawauchi is the Kawauchi-class light cruiser, the first ship of the Kawauchi class. She was my first ship. Being able to salvage her is probably the luckiest thing that ever happened to me."

"By the way, Brother Su, I've already arranged to teach a junior like you how to salvage ships in the Governor's Mansion. Do you want to come with me? As the saying goes, an admiral who doesn't want to salvage ships isn't a good admiral! It's a rare opportunity to come to the Governor's Mansion, it would be a disservice to your admiral status not to try salvaging those beautiful ship girls!"

"And, I'm not bragging, Brother Su, I'm known as a ship-harvesting master in the Governor's Mansion! My Kawauchi and Legion were both salvaged from my stall there, and I'm on good terms with many of the free agent ship girls there! See that ship girl having afternoon tea under the parasol over there? Her name is Königsberg, a three-star light cruiser. My relationship with her has been progressing really fast lately! I feel like it won't be long before I'm an admiral with three ship girls! Haha!"

The senior was genuinely enthusiastic and kind-hearted. He started by chatting idly and then tried to teach the young man how to salvage a ship in the governor's mansion. Listening to his "eloquent talk," the young man actually showed a hint of interest.

If it were anyone else, they might have been genuinely taken aback by Lian Hao's words. Two Freedom shipgirls salvaged—that achievement alone would make many admirals envious. But being a young man, with such a large naval base and hundreds of shipgirls, he failed to detect the strong hint of smugness in Lian Hao's words.

Although I question whether the ship salvage technique he described is really as amazing as he claims, as a senior, he must have some experience. It's true that the young man doesn't want to or has the time to mess with new ship girls now, but it's never a bad thing to learn a little. What if you suddenly need it someday?

Moreover, he could hear some interesting gossip about the Governor's Mansion from Senior Lian, which was undoubtedly a good thing for him, who had always lacked knowledge about the Governor's Mansion.

"Is it alright? You must have already spoken to someone else, right? Will it be inconvenient for me to carry you like this?"

"No, no! It's a rare opportunity to show the newcomers my old-timer skills, why would I bother? Besides, Brother Su is a customer who sold me something. Your sister is with my army, so don't worry. Come on, let's go over there. I'll teach you guys what it means to salvage a ship!"

………………

"You have to be careful when dealing with those free-spirited ship girls. They don't have to be handsome or stylish, but neat clothes and a gentlemanly attitude are very important. Confident and eloquent talk can certainly attract the curiosity of the ship girl ladies, but if you are too confident and become arrogant, it will backfire."

"In my opinion, when salvaging ships, you must not show your eagerness to salvage them on your face, but you should also show a little bit of desire for them. There are different ways to deal with ship girls with different personalities, so you can't generalize."