"Commander of the Owl Dragon Empire Third Legion Fleet Group, Medusa: conferred the rank of marshal."
Medusa came slowly up onto the platform, her serpent's tail gliding beneath her.
Zhao Chen fastened upon Medusa the insignia that betokened a marshal.
Looking at this marshal's insignia, Medusa was stirred by a thousand feelings.
She had once been no more than the chief of some interstellar pirate band knocking about the Reef Star Region.
But now she could be a legion marshal, and command five hundred thousand interstellar warships galloping upon the interstellar field.
Her standing could be ranked among the foremost within this universe.
Would the self she had been then have dared imagine any of this?
She would not have dared dream it.
"Long live the Emperor. We shall be faithful to the Emperor for all ages!" Medusa cried aloud, made her salute, and walked down from the platform under the gaze of them all.
The three Owl Dragon legion fleet groups are the three establishments of the Owl Dragon Empire's regular fleets at present.
And because the interstellar warships now in hand are too few, these three legion fleet groups, which should hold 1,500,000 interstellar warships in all.
Have in fact not reached full establishment.
They can only wait upon warships to come.
"Of the Owl Dragon ace legions, commander of the Destroying Angel Fleet Group,[1] Baixue: conferred the rank of marshal." Lilith cried aloud.
The wolf-girl Baixue rose to her feet, the tail behind her swinging without cease.
"Ahem, ahem." Her younger sister Baiyue beside her coughed once or twice.
Only then did the wolf-girl Baixue come to herself, and govern her tail so far as she could, though it stood up high all the same.
She walked up onto the high platform and stood before Zhao Chen; and unlike those before her, the smile upon her face was past all governing.
The tail behind her was swinging on the sly.
Watching His Majesty the Emperor fasten upon her the rank that betokened a marshal, she grinned wide and cried aloud: "I shall be faithful to the Emperor forever. Whoever dares go against the Emperor shall be ground to powder beneath my guns!"
So saying, she walked down from the platform with her head high and her chest out, in a fine show of it.
Unlike the regular Owl Dragon fleet groups,
the ace legions have the right to apply for a designation of their own.
And the wolf-girl Baixue chose the name of her favorite class of interstellar missile ship.
The Hell-Angel.
And those words of hers became the motto of the Hell-Angel Ace Fleet Group besides.
— Where the angel's wings beat, the starry sky is a purgatory, and stillness is destruction!
"Of the Owl Dragon ace legions, commander of the Shadow Hunter Fleet Group, Zhao Waner: conferred the rank of marshal."
Zhao Waner's hands trembled; in the moment she heard her own name, her heart was beside itself.
"Go up," said Zhao Ruyue, seated beside her, and patted her younger sister's hand.
Zhao Waner nodded, and then walked up onto the high platform to receive her rank from Zhao Chen.
"Sister Ruyue, do you regret it?" Zhao Ruyue was watching this most glorious moment of her sister's when Qin Xiaolei's voice came from beside her.
Zhao Ruyue looked at Qin Xiaolei in her puzzlement.
Qin Xiaolei said with something of a rueful smile: "If in those days you had not stayed to help me, but had gone back to the Owl Dragon Star System as your sister Waner did, back to your brother's side. Then you too would now be a marshal of the Owl Dragon Empire."
Hearing these words of Qin Xiaolei's,
Zhao Ruyue snorted with laughter, pinched Qin Xiaolei's cheek, and then said: "A decision I, Zhao Ruyue, have made, I never repent of. Even were I to choose again this moment, I should still stay at your side. For at that time my brother Zhao Chen had a great many people to help him: Charlotte, Lilith, Chitong… But at your side there was only me."
Something bright seemed to stand in Qin Xiaolei's eyes, but she held it back and showed a smile: "Never mind what is past. I believe it! Sister Ruyue will certainly become a marshal of the Owl Dragon Empire. She certainly will!"
Zhao Ruyue stroked this Qin Xiaolei whom she looked upon as a younger sister.
There were words she did not say. When she left the Owl Dragon Star System, at what might be called the lowest point of her life, it was Qin Xiaolei who chose her.
And so, naturally, Zhao Ruyue afterward chose Qin Xiaolei with the same resolve.
Choosing goes both ways.
Once you chose me.
And now I shall stand at your side still,
until the day you have no more need of me.
Zhao Waner very soon had the marshal's rank fastened upon her, and walked down from the platform.
"Of the Owl Dragon ace legions, commander of the Queen of the Starry Sky Fleet Group, Su Lan: conferred the rank of marshal."
Su Lan walked up onto the high platform and received her rank.
That fleet designation, Queen of the Starry Sky, in truth had a small private thought hidden within it.
Zhao Chen was Emperor now.
Then this queen of hers would be none other than…
"Of the Owl Dragon ace legions, commander of the Blizzard Fleet Group, Chitong: conferred the rank of marshal."
Chitong received her rank as well.
As for the name Blizzard, any who know something of the Owl Dragon's history would know it.
The first interstellar warship to enter service in the Owl Dragon fleet was named the Blizzard Zero, and out of it came another class, the Blizzard-class Light Interstellar Battlecruiser!
And the Blizzard-class Light Interstellar Battlecruiser was the Owl Dragon fleet's first T3 interstellar warship of that time.
It stood for the very ground upon which the Owl Dragon fleet had planted its feet in the universe of those days!
And Chitong's ace fleet group is made up chiefly of interstellar cruisers and interstellar battlecruisers, and its tasks upon the field are piercing attack, harassment, pursuit and the like.
Which are exactly the field tasks the Blizzard-class Light Interstellar Battlecruiser carried out in those days.
After Chitong had gone down from the platform,
the eyes of all fell at this moment upon the middlemost seat of the first row.
There stood the woman the Owl Dragon Emperor trusted most, and the woman who had all along stood before that Emperor.
"Of the Owl Dragon ace legions, commander of the Reverse Scale Fleet Group, Charlotte: conferred…" Here Lilith paused on purpose.
And then cried aloud: "The rank of five-star marshal!"
A five-star marshal?
This was another thing altogether from the marshal's rank before.
And at this all marked besides that upon the marshal's insignia conferred before, there had been four stars.
Reckoning it so, a general should be three stars, a lieutenant general two, a major general one, and a brigadier general none.
A look of astonishment came over Charlotte's face at this moment.
It seemed she had not looked for this outcome herself.
For by what had been settled in discussion before this.
Only nine marshals' ranks were to be conferred at this ceremony.
Of any five-star marshal there had been no mention at all.
Charlotte walked up before Zhao Chen.
Zhao Chen gave Charlotte a broad grin, and took out a marshal's insignia of a very particular kind, upon which were five golden dragon-patterned stars,
altogether unlike the four-star insignia before.
"What you have given to the Owl Dragon, we have all seen with our own eyes. This is yours by right!" Zhao Chen said in a voice only the two of them could hear.
Charlotte threw Zhao Chen a rolled eye.
But looking at this five-star marshal's insignia, her heart was warm within her.