Within a conference room at a certain star port,
a company of the Demon Race's upper ranks were waiting here.
Not a few among them had even begun to talk it over under their breath.
"What do you say… will my lord Commander make good the promise he gave before?" one of the Demons said in his worry.
The words were scarcely out when a Demon beside him stepped up and planted a kick upon his backside.
"What nonsense are you talking here! A thing my lord Commander has agreed to, how should it ever fail to hold good? If you dare speak one word more here to slander my lord Commander, I will take you outside and fight you for it!" said this young Demon, filled with righteous indignation.
Looking at those angry eyes, one could see that he was in earnest.
Hearing this, not a few round about fell somewhat silent.
But though they did not say it with their mouths, in their hearts they were anxious still.
"I meant no slander upon my lord Commander; I too carry the highest respect for the Commander. But… I cannot help fretting over our own interests and our own misgivings, can I! We of the Demon Race, after all… and the Commander's Owl Dragon… have stood upon opposite sides all along. And we have had our quarrels with the Angel Race besides. I hear that the Angel Race and the Owl Dragon are upon very close terms now. And we have a thousand years of war with the Angel Race behind us… this… who can say for certain what comes after this…" said another Demon, in his worry too.
Yet within his words he set forth his respect for the Commander beforehand all the same, and did no more than lay out his own misgiving.
Nor did the young Demon rail at him this time, but said in earnest: "Upon this point there is no need for any of you to worry at all. Our Owl Dragon Commander is another thing altogether! He does not care for what has gone before; he looks only at what we do now. You know of the Owl Dragon Star System! Within the Owl Dragon Star System there is not the Human Race alone, but a great many other interstellar races besides. So long as one can serve my lord Commander, never mind what interstellar race you are, you will have respect and a reward to match it. The beast-folk, for instance, and the dwarves, and even the succubi, who come of our own Demon Race! You all know of the lady Lilith! She is of the succubus kind! And the lady Chitong, who now holds command in the Owl Dragon Legion's Second Legion, comes of our Demon Race as well! If my lord Commander truly held a prejudice against us, how should he ever have set so many of Demon stock in high place within his own Owl Dragon Legion! As for the matter of the Angel Race that troubles you. I have heard of late that the Owl Dragon Group is even now in contact with the Machine Race. In this present punitive war against the tyrant Demon King, legions of the Machine Race have appeared! If even the Machine Race can become an ally. Why can we not? In short, I believe in my lord the Owl Dragon Commander!"
Outside the door, before he had yet walked into the conference room, Zhao Chen heard the voices within.
"I had not thought I had a diehard admirer of this sort." Zhao Chen could not keep from laughing.
"Within these Demons at present there are chiefly two parties. The one is the younger sort, who from all they have heard and learned of the Owl Dragon Legion's record in war naturally hold you in the highest esteem. And with Chitong there before them for a model besides. Their worship of you runs the deeper. The other party, though outwardly they support you — and they are the revolutionary faction within the Demon Race, who took part in the rising before — yet within their hearts they hold some misgivings about the Owl Dragon; those few who spoke just now are of this sort. Of this sort there are a good many. But so long as the sweets that follow are given them in full measure, they will, I believe, come wholly under our Owl Dragon's obedience." Lilith spoke beside him, propping herself against the wall all the while.
"I told you just now that you could not be on top. You would have your own way and play the strong one. Now see where we are. You have wrenched your back!" Zhao Chen said in banter, looking at Lilith walking there with the wall for a prop.
Perhaps it was Charlotte's being with child that had put such notions into Lilith's head as well.
After the three of them had finished their meeting earlier,
Lilith had dragged Zhao Chen off for a bout of SOLO.
He had borne one round of Lilith's retaliatory firepower.
But this assault of Lilith's might be called fifty of the enemy hurt, and a thousand of her own lost.[1]
"That is no business of yours. I please myself!" Lilith gave a cold snort, with all the air of one who will not own herself beaten.
Lilith's temper in this matter was much like Charlotte's.
Before the battle she was forever the one clamoring; in the course of it she was in sorry plight indeed, and came even to begging quarter again and again.
But after the battle, there was that look again of refusing to be beaten, of having it back next time.
"Can you still go in?" Zhao Chen looked into the conference room, and looked again at Lilith in this state.
"Who is it you make light of? If it were not that the time just now… ran short. Your old lady could give you three hundred rounds yet! Don't you have a saying among your Human Race? No field was ever ruined by the plowing; it is only the ox that is worked to death![2]" Lilith threw Zhao Chen another look of challenge.
Then she drew a deep breath, and straightened her body.
And walked toward the conference room, her bearing straight as a rod.
And say what you will, so seen, there was no telling at all that a moment before she had been walking with the wall for a prop.
Zhao Chen barely held back his laughter, and followed Lilith into the conference room.
"The Commander has come!"
"It is my lord Commander."
"We attend the Commander!"
The Demons within the conference room, seeing Zhao Chen appear, went at once one and all upon one knee and made their salute.
"Rise, all of you. We of the Owl Dragon do not keep this custom," said Zhao Chen; but he said it with his mouth only, and these Demons held to their posture upon one knee still, and dared not in the least overstep.
Zhao Chen, helpless, could only pass through the Demons kneeling upon the ground and come to the chief seat within the conference room.
Only when Zhao Chen had sat down did these upper ranks of the Demon Race dare to rise.
"Do not stand about. Be seated." Zhao Chen signed to them all to sit.
At this, and not before, they sat.
Zhao Chen cast his eyes round the many Demons within the conference room.
Lilith stood at Zhao Chen's side and said, bowing: "Sixty-nine in all. All of them the chief Demon houses that worked with us in this action."
Zhao Chen looked at these Demon upper ranks.
It must be said that the racial makeup within the Demon Race was various indeed.
In this the beast-folk themselves must yield a little.
"First of all, here and now. I, upon behalf of the Owl Dragon, thank you all for your help within this war. That you were willing to stand forth and face the Demon King, whose cruelty is now past all measure, your courage is worthy of respect and of admiration. Without your help, our campaign upon this quarter, the Demon Race's eastern territory, would not have gone forward so smoothly." So saying, Zhao Chen began to applaud.
The many Demon upper ranks applauded as well, one after another.
The applause went on a long while before it stopped.
Zhao Chen said slowly: "When I was outside the door just now, I heard something of what you were all saying. You are anxious about how you will be treated once the war is ended. And about what is to be done with the Demon Race, and the rest of it. You fret that I, Zhao Chen, will kill the donkey once the milling is done, and turn my face and know you no more."
Zhao Chen gave a slight smile.
In that instant, the temperature of the whole conference room seemed to fall below zero.