Upon hearing Lin Lan's words, Bismarck immediately understood what he was holding.
After all, every time the Iron-Blooded shipgirls went out on a mission, they wrote battle reports.
She had already learned what this item was from the wolf pack, so she didn't press for further details.
The three of them descended the stairs together.
As soon as they walked out the main door of the attic, Lin Lan noticed that everything outside was covered by a thin layer of white.
It was still early in the morning, and the sky hadn't brightened yet.
Through the soft yellow light of the streetlamp at the entrance of the courtyard, he could see tiny white snowflakes still drifting down from the sky.
Being from the southern part of China on Blue Star, Lin Lan had only seen snow a handful of times.
Last year, at the Red Leaf Naval Academy in the Eastern Continent, he had been preoccupied with evading the Tianou Group's persecution, and had little time to appreciate the snowfall.
"Commander, I won't be going to the dock today. I hope you all enjoy yourselves."
After leaving the courtyard, Bismarck suddenly took out a Meta Crystallization and handed it to Lin Lan.
"What is this?"
Taking the Meta Crystallization, Lin Lan looked at Bismarck with confusion, wondering why she was giving it to him.
"You might stay overnight in Lihu County tonight, just in case."
After hearing Bismarck's words, Lin Lan couldn't help but smile. It wouldn't take long to return from Lihu County, and Bismarck was being overly cautious.
After placing the Meta Crystallization into his pocket, he embraced Bismarck and bid her farewell.
After watching Bismarck leave, Lin Lan took Suí Qióng's hand and started walking toward the dock in the harbor district.
He looked at the cute girl in her thin white combat uniform and asked, "Suí Qióng, aren't you cold in that?"
The petite girl with white hair shook her head. "Commander, Suí Qióng doesn't feel cold."
Lin Lan shrugged, letting out a puff of white mist.
He knew that neither Suí Qióng nor the shipgirls feared the cold.
But as their mentalities gradually became more human, they too would choose suitable clothing according to the season.
"Suí Qióng, when the outside temperature is low, you can also wear thicker clothes like I do."
Lin Lan said, deciding that today he would go to Lihu County to buy some winter clothes for Suí Qióng.
Of course, apart from Suí Qióng, he would also buy some winter clothes for his Iron-Blooded shipgirls.
Just yesterday, the harbor district still had an autumn atmosphere, but in just one night, Lin Lan noticed that snow had already accumulated on the trees and green belts along the roads.
However, this was probably temporary. If the snow stopped after sunrise, it would melt, since it wasn't officially winter yet.
When winter truly sets in, the snow in the harbor district would probably be thick enough to build snowmen.
Walking in the drifting snowflakes, the two soon arrived at the harbor dock.
There, several Iron-Blooded shipgirls were already waiting for him.
Under the dock's lights, Lin Lan saw the shipgirls who would be accompanying him to Lihu County today.
August, Tirpitz, Rupprecht, Emden, Leipzig, Nurnberg, Z16, U1206, and U110.
To Lin Lan's surprise, his shipgirls had already changed into winter clothes and were not wearing their usual battle attire.
"At last, it's my turn to be your secretary ship, Demon~ Come, come to my side."
As the secretary ship for the day, the Iron-Blooded witch August von Parseval, upon seeing him arrive, displayed an elegant and charming smile that was hard to look away from, and approached him.
Even in winter attire, August still paired it with black stockings and high heels.
Her perfect, tall figure and breathtakingly beautiful face, combined with her incredibly indulgent tone, made Lin Lan involuntarily gasp in awe.
A seductive witch was indeed terrifying.
"Ahem, you don't need to be the secretary ship to come find me. I haven't seen you these past few days since that night."
As August gently took his free hand, Lin Lan coughed twice and said this, while walking side by side with her and Suí Qióng toward the main group at the dock.
Watching August's smooth, grayish-purple hair fluttering as she walked, the faint scent reminded Lin Lan of when August had found him on the passenger ship earlier.
"Having a witch actively seek you out isn't exactly a good thing, my dear demon."
August's bangs covered one of her eyes, and with a sweet tone, she spoke softly, smiling.
After greeting his shipgirls, August waved her hand, and a white yacht appeared on the river.
It must have been returned by Aegir from the previous day.
Boarding the yacht, the boat slowly started, and Lin Lan sat on the sofa inside the cabin, turning on the yacht's built-in air conditioning.
Though he had already grown accustomed to being around his shipgirls, the proximity of Emden and August on either side with their constant clinginess was still hard to endure.
Moreover, there was a pink-haired evil dragon girl glaring at him from the opposite sofa with an expression full of dissatisfaction.
"I say, Rupp... Rupprecht, your gaze is like you're about to eat me up. It's a bit scary," Lin Lan finally found a topic to joke about.
However, before Rupprecht could say anything, Emden, who was leaning on his shoulder wearing a white coat, smiled and spoke up.
"After all, everyone wants to monopolize 'Human-sama,' but there's only one Human-sama."
"Hmph, he's mine anyway, he can't escape my grasp. I'll let you all enjoy him for a bit,"
Rupprecht said forcefully, but anyone could hear that she was gritting her teeth while saying it.
Well, compared to Rupprecht, the other Iron-Blooded shipgirls were still able to control their possessiveness.
Aside from Tirpitz, who was busy looking at the river with Z16, the lively little girl with the red pigtails, and U1206 on the deck, Lin Lan couldn't help but look at the two weaker sisters.
Leipzig and Nurnberg, both light cruisers of the Leipzig class, were among the rare soft-spoken shipgirls in the Iron-Blooded faction.
Leipzig, the older sister, was a slender, short-haired, red-eyed girl who had collided with Prinz Eugen in the fog in history.
At that time, she had retired after several battles but had to return to the frontlines because the war situation was critical.
Sadly, she returned to the battlefield, and in less than a year, she collided with Prinz Eugen.
Prinz Eugen was fine, but she was severely injured and later turned into a floating artillery platform and post-war dormitory ship.
Her ability to reduce damage from collisions with teammates and enemies, "Safety First!" in the game, came from this event.
Noticing that she had been spotted by the Commander, the cute Leipzig immediately stiffened and lowered her head, too shy to look at Lin Lan.
Lin Lan couldn't help but sigh inwardly. Even after the oath, Leipzig was still too timid.
In the game, Leipzig would become stammering when she saw him, and when overly nervous, she would faint.
Only when summoned with her ship-mounted fish would this poor, timid girl manage to be a bit braver.
On the other hand, Nurnberg, the younger sister with long gray hair and red eyes, had a slightly better temperament than her sister. She wouldn't faint when startled or nervous.
However, she still stammered when faced with unexpected situations.
Nurnberg's appearance and figure were vastly different from her sister Leipzig's.
This was because when Nurnberg was built, the tonnage limitations from the "Versailles Treaty" had already been surpassed.
At the time, Nurnberg was larger in displacement, longer, wider, and with deeper drafts than Leipzig, which was reflected in her impressive physique.
Meanwhile, Nurnberg was also the Iron-Blooded faction's longest-serving warship—although her post-war service was under the Northern Union Fleet.
For most of her service time, this gray-haired light cruiser had been used as a training ship, which explained her gentle personality. She was also very skilled at making sausages.
Lin Lan had seen Nurnberg assisting Ron in the cafeteria multiple times in recent days, and as a result, the cafeteria had many delicious grilled sausages.
However, every time Lin Lan tried to start a conversation with Nurnberg in the cafeteria, she would shyly turn red and avoid him.
He understood that Nurnberg wasn't deliberately avoiding him; it was just her personality.
From her lines in the game, Lin Lan knew that this equally timid light cruiser had some degree of "paranoia."
For instance, now, as she stood close to Leipzig, Nurnberg blushed when his gaze turned toward her.
She immediately lowered her head and tightly grasped her sister's hand.
These two timid sisters seemed so out of place in the notoriously brutal and war-hungry Iron-Blooded faction.
At this moment, Lin Lan suddenly realized that one of the shipgirls was missing from his sight.
Where had the silver-haired, garlic-headed little shark, U110, gone?
As he looked around the cabin, he suddenly felt a weight on his back.
"Commander—play with me~"
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50 advanced chapters on p@t re on (.) com/SenatusTheta
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