The rest of the journey took Prinz Eugen and the young engineer another week. They traveled escorted by the Eagle Union fleet through the north Atlantic and the Caribbean sea to Guiana.
The Pilot entered the mouth of the river Mahury in the early morning. North Carolina and the rest of her fleet escorted the ship of the Prinz Eugen and the young engineer up the stream until they passed Fort Diamond. From there on out the pilot made its way up the river to the industrial harbor south of Cayenne. A small motorboat passed them and signaled to the young engineer that it was the harbor pilot and that he was to follow the small vessel to a spot to moor. The young engineer turned the pilot around and followed the harbor pilot back down the stream away from the old cargo ships mooring spots to a pier east of it. There he was already signaled with semaphore flags to moor the pilot next to an older looking river patrol vessel. The young engineer obliged and reduced the speed of the ship and slowly moved it adjacent to the pier. Prinz Eugen meanwhile walked outside of the bridge and started to throw mooring lines over the ship's railing to the pier. The dockworkers reached for them and quickly started to attach the Pilot to the pier. Without an issue the old Pilot was secured to the pier and the two citizens from Ironblood disembarked from their ship. The young engineer thanked the dockworkers for their help, while they waited for someone to greet them.
Looking down the long pier they saw a group already walking up towards them from the land side. By the looks of it they seemed to be all Shipgirls from Iris Libre. At least their clothing looked like a combination of traditional Iris fashion from in between the 16th to early 19th century, mixed with more modern fashion. Soon the young engineer made out Richelieu in the group that was closing in. The tall woman had changed from her formal dress uniform into a cream colored summer dress and stood out between the smaller Shipgirls surrounding her. The young engineer smiled and started to walk towards the group of Iris ships. Prinz Eugen meanwhile remained in her place next to the gangway to their ship.
When the young engineer and the Iris ships met, he was about to greet them when he was overtaken by Richelieu greeting him in the language of the Royal Islands. "Welcome, it is a pleasure to have you here. I hope your journey to our current headquarters was without any troubles. Please let me welcome you to our headquarters and the capital of Iris Libre." She opened up and presented the view of the mainland with an elegant wave of her right arm. The young engineer thought to understand the signal he assumed she was sending him immediately. Richelieu knew that he spoke Iris. Addressing him in a different language meant to him that she intended to keep others oblivious to that fact. The formal greeting also told him that he had to behave more formally as well in this situation to not let anything the battleship had planned slip. He therefore saluted the delegation of Shipgirls and greeted them back. "It is a pleasure to be here. Thank you for the warm welcome." Stopping the salute he walked closer and shook the hand of Richelieu and the other Shipgirls, even though they all had presented a kiss hand. "I take it Prinz Eugen is staying at your boat and awaits our formal greeting to her?"One of the shipgirls asked the young engineer. Letting the jab the Shipgirl made against their ship slide, the young engineer answered her respectfully. "I assume so, at least she seemed to be unwilling to come your way."
Richelieu nodded and with a gesture of her hand a tall, red haired Iris ship walked up next to her. "Surcouf, would you be so kind and show our guest his room and afterwards our headquarters? We will meet at 12 in our conference room." Richelieu ordered the other Shipgirl. Surcouf nodded and motioned the young engineer to follow her.
The latter did as he was told and Surcouf and he separated from the group and made their way down the pier. "It is a pleasure to meet you Surcouf." The young engineer greeted her personally while they walked towards the large white building in the middle of the base. "Thank you." The submarine answered with a few words. The young engineer realised that the cruiser submarine seemed to feel about him like most of the other Iris Libre ships. He as a sailor of the Ironblood Navy was their sworn enemy and it seems that they had little interest in seeing past the uniforms. The young engineer resigned in trying to be friendly, since he guessed that he would manage to do little about their dislike towards him with just his words. Nonetheless, the young engineer was amazed at the sight of the person next to him. Surcouf completely broke with everything he had known about submarines so far. Her physical appearance was closer to that of a heavy cruiser. Apparently when she was turned into a living being, whatever decided to shape her the way she was, made her appearance that of a grown young woman instead of a child, like all the other Ironblood submarines the young engineer had met so far. He supposed that was because of Surcouf's special role as a cruiser submarine. There was afterall no other ship like her. A submarine armed with the weapons of a cruiser and the displacement of an destroyer. Not wanting to stare or inconvenience her, the young engineer focused back on the surroundings they walked past. One of the large docks caught his interest. In it he could see the massive hulk of a battleship that was partially constructed. The big rust patches on the superstructure also told him that it seemed that this was one of the ships that was under construction during the time when all other ships were turned into sentient and living beings and has been left to rot since then. Walking past the dock, the two headed towards the big white building that looked like a town capitol. Over its entrance he could see golden letters spelling out the purpose the building served. "Quartier général de la Marine nationale". Entering the building it looked like a palace from the inside. The floors were held in cream colored marble while the finest cloth in the colors of the Iris flag served as curtains. Between the large windows exotic plants and pictures of notable individuals were placed, while the furniture was made out of dark tropical wood with cream colored padding contrasting it. Surcouf showed the young engineer his room and all the other places important for him. Such as the dining room, the conference room of Iris Libre and the conference room where all the delegations would meet. All of it reminded the young engineer of his stay at the Royal Islands and the great meeting there. But luckily this time he was included right from the beginning and not forced into mind numbing inactivity for almost five weeks.
This time it would be different, he thought.
After being shown around the young engineer got his belongings from the Pilot and made his room ready to be inhabited by him. Afterwards he went out and looked up the meeting room of the Iris delegation. Remembering what Richelieu had said, he was there 10 minutes before they were supposed to meet. Shortly after he saw two of the Iris cruisers coming down the hallway, as well as Richelieu. He nodded and let the three ships enter the room before he entered after them. The room itself was what was to be expected. A typical meeting room, held in the same style as the rest of the building. In the middle one could find a dozen chairs surrounding a table. On said table were different forms of prepared papers to write on as well as different pencils and pens next to different beverages and glasses to refresh. The walls were decorated with portraits and hip high cabinets made out of the same shining dark wood as the rest of the furniture. The ships took their seats at the head of one of the small table sides to sit over one of its corners to see each other properly. The young engineer joined them and sat down next to one of the cruisers.
"Now that we all are here we can begin planning in detail on how to behave in this coming set of negotiations." Richelieu opened. "I suppose I should introduce our latest addition. My two knights here already know who you are but I suppose a proper introduction would be courteous. These two cruisers are Jeanne d'Arc and Émil Bertin." Richelieu introduced the two light cruisers to the young engineer. "You and Jeanne have met before in Portsmouth." She added. "Now shall we continue on. The reason for these upcoming negotiations is that Iris Libre and Vichiya are trying to come to a peaceful resolution to our division after the invasion of Ironblood split our home in three. Vichiya has sent a delegation and letters from their government, that they would like to start corporations and peace between us by joining our forces together once more to fight the greatest threat to all of humanity and all of us. The Sirens. From there on they want to come closer to mend the wounds the separation, war and fall of Iris has caused between us and them." Richelieu explained. "For that reason we have come together here to find a solution on how we can reunite with our former sisters. The Azur Lane and Crimson Axis have sent a representative each as well to oversee the negotiations and to represent the interests of both alliances. In that matter the Ironblood cruiser Prinz Eugen and the Royal Navy battlecruiser Hood have arrived here." She elaborated. "To answer the most obvious question right away, I asked our fourth member to join our delegation as a non affiliated advisor. He is here due to my personal request and I expect that you will be as courteous to him as you would be to any other guest of mine. After all, do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." Richelieu explained the presence of the young engineer. "Hebrews 13 verse 2." Jeanne d'Arc whispered and confirmed the words from the old religious texts Richelieu had quoted. "He will be here to assist us in our understanding of the goals of the Crimson Axis and that of Ironblood in particular. His affiliation with the Ironblood representative will also be to our advantage." Richelieu continued on. The young engineer now politely raised a hand, indicating that he would like to make a comment to what the battleship had said. "Please feel free to speak." Offered the battleship the word to the young engineer. "I feel very much so humbled to receive such honors and praise from you. But as you said yourself, I am not here as a member of the navy of Ironblood but as a private person on my own volition. I therefore have to say that I am free to serve you as an advisor as much as I can, but I do not want nor can use my personal relation to an official delegate to influence their decisions based on my personal connection to them. That would be dishonorable in many ways." He explained his point of view and decision he had made with Prinz Eugen, not to let their friendship influence them. The thought of being asked to do so by the Iris ships was an uncomfortable one to the young engineer. "Why are you even here then? To listen to us and just supply your Ironblood cronies with information about our situations and goals?" Jeanne d'Arc questioned the young engineer angrily. "I do not intend to offer any sensitive information, should I be witness to them, without Richelieus permission. And I am prepared to take a vow on that matter as I did for my home." The young engineer countered her attack. Richelieu interrupted any further arguments with her slightly raised voice. "I understand and respect your point. I will be sure to not soil your reputation as I would not want mine to be soiled. As to the truth that your words speak, a vow in front of the Lord will suffice for me that your trustworthiness will extend to our matters as much as they will to those you already have sworn to protect." With these words the battleship disarmed both points.
"It is in our interest to convince our sisters from the Vichiya Dominion to see that their point of view is one of falsehood and that it is not the Royal Navy that betrayed our home and our navy but that it was the Ironblood that deceived them. We need to bring them back onto the right path. To that matter, I have decided to have you two as representatives next to me. Jeanne d'Arc and Emil. You two are held in high regard by both sides of our former navy and I hope that you can convince the other Vichiya Girls to see things your way. That is our main objective, to bring the others back in our fold and make them understand that the Ironblood is not their ally." Richelieu explained their objectives and changed the topic back to the reason why they were here. "The details of how we are to unite is of less importance than the fact that we convince the others to join the rightful cause once again." She ended.
The young engineer had no longer time to reflect on what he just learned.
"I suppose we head over to the larger meeting room and start our first conversation with our misguided sisters." Emil Bertin reminded the others of the timetable. "You are right. It would be an insult to let them wait." Richelieu agreed. With that the Iris Libre delegation and the young engineer headed over to the larger conference room, in which they met with the representatives of the Vichiya Dominion and Prinz Eugen and the representative of the Azur Lane, HMS Hood.