6: Survey

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It's been about 30 minutes since Caster was on the floor smiling at the girls happy about the recent victory against the enemy. But now he's in a hospital bed again and he's getting chewed out by Belfast. She's very angry at Caster. So early in his tenure as Azur Lane Commander.

Caster just chuckled slightly and remembered on the days that he would get also lectured and screamed at by Drill Sergeants at his cadet days. But Belfast was calmer, but she could destroy any person's confidence with words alone. Caster is getting that treatment right now. But again, he didn't pay any mind. 

"Are you listening to me?" Belfast questioned Caster still very angry.

"Yes, I get what you mean." Caster said in defense. And also lying since he didn't listen prior to this.

"Belfast, he got attacked by submarines. There's no way we could have known unless they fire on something. And they went to the Commander's submarine." Enterprise said effectively saving Caster from any more banter from Belfast.

'Thank you, Enterprise... My god...' Caster thought. Also sighing in relief. 

Before Belfast can say her apologizes and one more warning to Caster, Vestal came in the picture with an X-ray photo and some papers... 

"You're getting incredibly lucky. Your hip injury, we X-rayed it, and it came off negative. It is a minor injury." Vestal breathed a sigh of relief. 

"But," Vestal's tone turned into an almost demonic mode. "If you keep getting injured day by day, I'm forced to..."

"We're not gonna like it. An injured Commander isn't a good one." Illustrious interrupted before Vestal gets more passive-super aggressive with Caster. In which Belfast was holding her to calm her down.

"Yeah. You're not being careful enough. We could just take care of it." Cleveland spoke up. 

Caster groaned thinking in the fact that he's not gonna join the action anymore. In which in hindsight, or even in common sense, it would be the better solution since longevity is key in commanding troops. And losing a Commander is devastating in any form. But to his unrelenting stubbornness, he's still not changing one bit.

"Yeah, no." Caster shook his head. Much to the girl's surprise. "If we have victory, I should be there, if we lose, I should be there. I'm not gonna stay in the sidelines seeing you all in danger. If you all are risking your lives out there, I should be doing that too." Caster explained his reason for being a stubborn Commander. 

The girls nodded. And some were downright impressed by him. And they're happy to know that a Commander is always joining them till the end. Particularly Enterprise and Illustrious. They weren't expecting that from Caster. Or from any other Commander.

"We understand, Master. Well, are you gonna rest just like you promised yourself yesterday?" Belfast spoke up. Asking him in the process also. 

"If you say so. And by the way, thank you all for being so worried about my well-being. Anyway, you can all go now. I'm gonna rest a bit more." Caster said to the girls.

They all nodded and most of the ladies went out of the room and Belfast also bowed her way out of the room. As for Vestal, she also went out to repair some ships. Though Caster doesn't know that yet. 

The girls left and Caster is ready to relax. But he didn't account for one thing. The 4 girls, Javelin, Laffey, Z23 and surprisingly Ayanami stayed behind to accompany the Commander. He didn't ask for the company, but he doesn't mind it. So he let them stay.

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