After a brief dizzy spell, Reuel finally felt the familiar ground beneath his feet.
He had returned to Terra Aeterna.
Looking up, he saw the bright blue sky stretching endlessly above. The colossal pillars of the Imperial Palace construction project towered majestically in the distance, while the shimmering ocean glistened under the sunlight.
Reuel's gaze swept across the scene. The Imperial Palace's capital felt far livelier than when he had left.
Many human children from various colonies and conquered universes were studying at the Imperium of Man's educational institutions in the Resident Evil sector.
Troops from the Warhammer 40K and StarCraft worlds were seen marching and patrolling, carrying out their duties around the palace.
Off in another corner, several shipgirls who had immigrated from Minato Harbor – Azur Lane were mingling with Universal Bulins, who were busy with their own activities.
---
"Commander!"
The moment they saw Reuel, a few small shipgirls sunbathing on the beach immediately ran toward him.
"How long were you gone this time, Commander? Was the other world fun?" one loli shipgirl asked, eyes sparkling.
"Hey, why are there so many new sisters I don't know?" another asked, glancing curiously at the newcomers.
"We were bored out of our minds while you were gone," one more complained, puffing out her cheeks.
---
Behind Reuel, the Heroic Spirits and Gudako from the Naruserve universe looked at the scene with eyes shining. Cute loli shipgirls—some even with animal ears.
"They're so cute! There's a cat one!!!" Gudako exclaimed, eyes wide like a kid in a toy store.
"Are those animal ears real or fake?" she asked innocently, reaching out toward Yukikaze's head.
But before she could touch them, Yukikaze swatted her hand away with lightning reflexes.
"Hey! Who the hell are you?!" Yukikaze instantly went on guard.
"Stop! Or I'll smack you with a torpedo!!!"
Gudako didn't even have time to answer before—SMAAACK!—Yukikaze's slap sent her flying into the sandy beach.
"BOOOOMMM!!!"
Everyone fell silent.
"…Are all cat lovers around here this strong?" Gudako groaned, still lying down, dizzy, as stars spun in her vision.
"You're a cat lover, and your whole family's cat lovers! Touch my ears again and I'll give you a real torpedo!" Yukikaze shouted, pouting afterward.
Before long, she sidled up to Reuel, nudging him affectionately like a child seeking attention.
"Commander, we've done a lot while you were gone.
Not only has the Imperial Palace capital been expanded, but Akashi says soon we'll be able to build a spaceship exclusively for shipgirls."
"Huh?" Reuel turned to follow her finger.
In the distance, near the Saturnine Ring, he saw the prototype of a nearly completed space station base. Towers, an airport, maintenance docks—they all stood tall and imposing. Thousands of workers and mechanics were bustling inside.
"That was fast…" Reuel murmured.
"Of course!" Yukikaze replied proudly. "With more Universal Bulins, everything gets done much faster. Now the entire shipgirl territory is maximizing Bulin production."
Reuel opened the population statistics interface from his System. The numbers made his eyebrows rise—over ten million Universal Bulins recorded.
It seemed that while he was gone, the Universal Bulin fusion process had still been running at the basic level. If it kept going… an army of one billion Bulins would no longer be just a dream.
Dozens of minutes passed.
The Heroic Spirits—Altria Pendragon, Jeanne d'Arc Alter, the white Jeanne d'Arc, and Gudazi—finally began to take in the grandeur of the Imperium of Man's capital on Terra Aeterna. At first, their attention had been completely stolen by the sight of the adorable, loli shipgirls. But once their curiosity kicked in, they started bombarding the adult shipgirls with all sorts of questions about everything they saw.
Most of the loli shipgirls had gathered at the naval port to welcome the expedition team's return. As the "big sisters" to these younger shipgirls, each expedition team had the tradition of sharing their adventures from other worlds with the little ones who had stayed behind at the base.
Usually, these sessions served two main purposes.
First, to review any shortcomings in the battle plan and fix them for the next mission.
Second, to entertain the bored shipgirls who were always hungry for exciting stories.
"All right, allow me to start from when we first arrived at Chaldea…" Reuel began.
But before he could continue, Dafeng stepped forward.
"Commander, you've worked so hard. How about I tell the story this time?" she said, her voice soft yet dripping with charm.
"Oh? Yeah, sure," Reuel replied, a little surprised but not refusing. For some reason, he felt Dafeng was being unusually attentive today.
Dafeng then began her tale before the circle of little shipgirls. She described how their team had first set foot in Chaldea, discovered the singularity, and pierced through it until they arrived in 15th-century France.
She painted vivid images of how they relied on a holy relic to summon the "Burger King"—Altria—fought against the Stabber, and faced various magical wonders and Noble Phantasms from the Moon World—leaving the little shipgirls utterly captivated, eyes glued to her every word.
"Changing key points in history to destroy the world? Whoa… that's a big move. But wouldn't it be faster to just use a Star Destroyer from Gundam?" one loli shipgirl piped up innocently.
"Summoning a Heroic Spirit sounds a lot like summoning shipgirls. The difference is, they use holy relics, we use ship hulls and the Cube of Wisdom," another loli shipgirl chimed in.
"If a Heroic Spirit dies, they return to the Throne of Heroes. But if we sink, where do we go? Has anyone tried it?" asked another, with a level of curiosity that was… concerning.
"If you want to try, go ahead. Just fire a torpedo into the ammo depot. If you sink, don't blame me," replied a loli destroyer with casual indifference.
Dafeng's story continued until the moment they arrived in Orleans and came face-to-face with Jeanne d'Arc Alter. All the little shipgirls listened with rapt attention… until Dafeng suddenly changed the subject.
"The night after the battle ended," she said dramatically, "we drove along the Atlantic Coast. The Commander and I stood atop a bridge, gazing at the stars. Then, he hugged me and said…"
"???"
Reuel immediately choked and spat out his drink.
"Dafeng! What the hell are you telling the little girls?! What does that have to do with the battle?!"
"Commander, don't be mad. I just wanted to announce our relationship to everyone," Dafeng replied sweetly.
With absolute confidence, she puffed out her chest.
"From now on, I am the Commander's First Oath Ship. Well… even if I don't have the ring yet."
"…"
The shipgirls—both the adults and the lolis—showed mixed reactions. They had been listening eagerly to the expedition team's otherworldly adventures when Dafeng suddenly slipped in her shocking announcement.
The relaxed atmosphere instantly turned tense.
"Oath ship… So Dafeng's the first? I thought it was big sis Richelieu…" Yukikaze asked, her tone brimming with curiosity.
Several cruiser-class girls exchanged glances and began whispering among themselves about the news.
"….."
Richelieu felt a wave of discomfort that was hard to put into words.
She was the one who had arrived first, who had contacted the Commander before anyone else, who had even become his secretary ship.
How could Dafeng possibly be the first oath ship?
Her thoughts spun, and suddenly—as if fate itself were mocking her—a sorrowful background song began to echo in her head.
"Who's the one with unrequited love?!" Cleveland shouted with a teasing grin.
BOOM! — Cleveland, who just so happened to be holding an audio device and a guitar, was immediately caught in a massive explosion from God knows where.
"Anyone else?! Anyone else who dares mock me?!" Richelieu roared, her eyes flashing.
"If you told him you liked him, what would happen next? I want details!" Cleveland shot back, still managing to tease her even as the smoke from the blast hadn't cleared.
Gudazi simply rubbed her hands together, face lighting up with glee at the escalating tension.
"Is there no other question?!" Reuel cut in, trying to steer the discussion back on track.
"Let's move on to the main topic!"
He was ready to fight tooth and nail to keep this meeting from turning into a massive shipgirl brawl born of misunderstanding—especially if it drifted into territory that would never survive review.
"Well, we learned a lot from Chaldea this time," Richelieu said once the situation calmed down.
She then began outlining what they had gained from the journey.
"First of all, we've made some new friends—four Heroic Spirits, and a teacher."
Gudazi and the Heroic Spirits gave a brief nod toward the shipgirls.
"Oh—" some of the loli ships replied, their expressions innocent yet enthusiastic.
"Welcome. We can talk about other things later if we have time," one of them added casually.
"You should be more excited than that," Richelieu muttered under her breath.
On the other side, Prinz Eugen gazed at the Heroic Spirits, her eyes glimmering with battle lust.
Her past experience in the Demon Slayer World had left her unsatisfied—the Oni she faced were far too weak. In the world of Kimetsu no Yaiba, Oni were supposed to be everywhere… yet they had all turned to ash instantly under bombardment from carrier-based aircraft.
That hungry stare was met by Black Jeanne, who immediately smirked.
"Oh? A challenge? Interesting."
Black Jeanne crossed her arms over her chest, looking at the shipgirl before her with absolute confidence. She was curious just how strong the shipgirls of the Azur Lane world really were.
A bitter memory flashed in her mind—back in 15th-century France, she had once been beaten into the ground by a full eight dozen shipgirls at once.
"So… who's the strongest you think you can take down?" Prinz Eugen asked in a taunting tone.
"..."
Black Jeanne didn't answer immediately, but the fire in her eyes never dimmed.
The shipgirl fell silent, as if unsure who exactly she should be addressing.
"Enterprise? Richelieu? Bismarck? Hmm… the carriers from each main fleet are indeed quite strong…" Black Jeanne replied, her tone tinged with uncertainty, yet somehow making the air feel even heavier.
"All right, my advice—start your challenge with a light cruiser first. Don't even think about messing around with a carrier or a major battleship…" Reuel said firmly.
"And one more thing—using fortress-buster artifacts anywhere near the Imperial Palace capital is strictly forbidden!"
Reuel sighed inwardly. Black Jeanne's knack for creating situations that could spiral into tragedy was almost on par with Gudazi's.
Still, a Heroic Spirit from Naruserve facing an Azur Lane shipgirl… truth be told, he was somewhat curious to see the "wives" clash.
Coincidentally, the Vanguard Fleet had been lounging around the docks lately. It was about time they got some adrenaline-pumping "exercise."
Once the introductions were over, it was time to tally the loot. There was no mission reward for a Singularity, so everything they had was either brought from Chaldea… or "secured" by other means.
"We've brought some information from Chaldea, and when we fought Fafnir, I obtained dragon blood and scales," Reuel reported.
He pulled out a hefty stack of thick books and handed them to Yat Sen.
"This is magical knowledge on the Naruserve world, gathered from Chaldea's library."
"Fujimaru Ritsuka, take some time to study this with me," he continued.
Reuel was already envisioning a grand library filled with magical wonders from countless worlds, alongside extraordinary technology and sciences collected from across the multiverse.
"Me? I thought I came here to pilot a Gundam with you! Why do I have to study too?" Gudazi asked innocently.
"Do you not realize you're the weakest one in the entire Imperium of Man?!" Reuel shot back without mercy.
"With your 100% adaptability, it'd be a waste not to learn some Naruserve magic skills."
Reuel rubbed his forehead. This woman used to be the protagonist of FGO—yet after meeting him, she had abandoned her original duties to spend her time joyriding in a Gundam.
"How could this happen?!" Gudazi cried.
"Also," Reuel went on, "this is the blueprint for a soul transfer device. Akashi, see if you can make a prototype."
"If you go to Mars, don't forget to give a copy to the Tech-Priest Mechanicus," he added.
"Nya~~~??" Akashi tilted her head.
"This thing is important. With it, we can freely choose the point in time to enter a given world," Reuel explained, handing her the design drafted by Dr. Roman.
"Meow~?" Akashi stared at him for a long moment. "Commander, this is insanely complicated… is this from another world?! You'd be better off giving this straight to Archmagos Belisarius Cawl~! Why are you dumping all this trouble on me, Commander~?!"
The device was essentially a time machine—transforming the human body into spirit form, then projecting it to any point in history to influence the past. Its complexity… was nearly unimaginable.
"Ahem, Akashi. You're the only one here right now. Cawl's on Mars building Gundams for the mass-production project," Reuel said.
"Just keep working hard. I trust your abilities. If you need something, speak up."
"Are you sure you don't want all of this done first?" Akashi muttered quietly.
Reuel simply patted her head, while the feline engineer began thinking hard. The Commander's assignments were always tough—being part of the Imperial Navy was already exhausting, and now there was yet another task piled on top.
Then, a mischievous idea flickered in her mind.
"Commander, why don't you just talk to the Sirens instead? Nya~~"