Northern hive line · Reverse Scale ace fleet group.
"Marshal, it's time you rested." A medical petty officer came to Charlotte's side and reminded her.
"It's nothing; I feel very lively just now," Charlotte said calmly.
The medical petty officer went on: "As agreed, at this stage you may work only three hours at a time, and then you must rest three hours. Please cooperate with us."
"Work three hours, then rest three hours. Not even a pig is that lazy!" Charlotte could not help grumbling.
The moment she said it, several boar-folk women at work on the bridge looked up at the Marshal without thinking, their innocent little eyes seeming to say.
We… aren't lazy, are we?
She seemed to sense she had said the wrong thing.
Charlotte at once went on: "My condition is very good right now. Let me work three more hours! No, two will do!"
With that, Charlotte looked at her medical staff with pleading eyes.
By rights she ought not to have been afraid of the other woman.
But the other took her orders straight from Zhao Chen, so even she could do nothing about it.
"Marshal, please don't make things hard for me," the medical petty officer said again.
At this, several staff officers spoke up one after another: "Marshal, you really should rest. Leave things here to us. The Order hive-race still struggling between the northern hive line and the Angel Line number only ten million or so now. They can't stir up any more waves. As for His Majesty's side, Marshal Chu Xuan and Marshal Xue Xiaoxiao are there, and it's your battle plan they're carrying out. Nothing will go wrong. Right now, you keeping well is the greatest reassurance to His Majesty."
Under the staff officers' constant urging, Charlotte could only set her work down, helpless.
She gave her medical petty officer a somewhat disgruntled glare.
But the medical petty officer looked away, as though she had seen nothing at all.
She knew very well this job was no easy one.
But His Majesty the Emperor had entrusted it to her in person, saying plainly that whatever attitude Charlotte took, she was simply to hold her to the requirements.
And if Charlotte would not listen, to tell him.
He would deal with that one himself!
"Keep a close watch on every battlefield. If anything sudden happens, notify me at once!" Charlotte reminded her staff officers.
"Yes."
Only now did Charlotte truly set everything down.
She looked at the medical petty officer and said crossly, "There. Satisfied?"
"Please rest," the medical petty officer said.
Charlotte went to the temporary captain's rest room beside the bridge.
The captain's quarters were more comfortable.
But this was nearer, and Charlotte naturally liked to rest here; if anything sudden happened, she could get back to the bridge to command in time.
Charlotte went into the room.
The medical petty officer stood outside the door.
The door closed.
Charlotte lay on the bed, helpless, and stroked her rounded belly.
"You two little brats, hurry up and come out. Your old man really does treat you like treasure. He won't let your mom do this, won't let your mom do that," Charlotte could not help grumbling to the children in her belly.
In truth, as she saw it, having children was about as simple as dropping one's trousers to relieve oneself.
Why make such a fuss about it?
She truly could not understand what those humans were thinking.
It was simpler for the beast-folk.
Charlotte looked around the room.
The medical petty officer had long since cleared out every piece of equipment in this room that had anything to do with the battlefield.
Even if she wanted to work here on the quiet, she had no chance.
And a care-robot monitoring unit had been installed in the room besides.
Charlotte had to rest like a good girl for three hours before it would let her out.
Fortunately, this three hours of rest,
only required that Charlotte not be working.
Sitting, lying, sleeping, any of it was fine.
As for sleep, Charlotte could not sleep now; she was not the least bit drowsy.
She simply opened her contacts and looked for someone she could chat with.
Pinned at the top of the contacts was, naturally, Zhao Chen.
But Zhao Chen was on the front-line battlefield now; there was naturally no contacting him.
Further down were the relatives Charlotte was closest to.
Charlotte's eyes fell on her half-sister, Midai.
Midai was now commander of the Fourth Legion fleet of Chu Xuan's Owl Dragon Second Fleet Group, and just now on the expedition against the two Hive Nests with Zhao Chen.
Contacting Zhao Chen would not quite do.
But contacting this sister of hers might be all right.
She put the call straight through.
"I wonder whether they're in combat right now, and whether the signal will get through," Charlotte muttered.
Fortunately none of her worries came true.
The other side answered quickly.
It was a video image.
It showed the bridge Midai was on; she was sitting in her captain's chair.
"Sis." Midai waved at Charlotte, showing, for once, the sweet side of a young girl.
"Are you busy over there? If you've got a lot going on, I won't bother you," Charlotte asked straight out.
"It's fine; my part isn't busy right now. We're not engaged," Midai said with a smile.
"So how are things over there?" Charlotte asked at once about the fighting.
At the same time she glanced at the care-and-monitoring robot.
Fortunately it gave no warning.
It seemed this state of hers counted as 'resting'.
But Midai, on the other side, wore a rather odd look.
"What is it? Has something gone wrong?" Charlotte sat up at once.
Pregnant with boy-girl twins though she was, her belly did not hinder Charlotte's nimble agility in the least.
"Nothing's gone wrong, as such. It's just that His Majesty the Emperor sent me a message earlier. If you, Sis, called us on video to chat, idle chat is fine. But the battlefield, we're not to tell you about. So that you rest properly," Midai said, unable to keep from laughing.
That fellow had even seen this idea of hers coming!
Charlotte ground her back teeth in fury until they creaked,
as if she wanted something to gnaw on.
All right then, once I've unloaded this cargo, you just wait!
Charlotte silently chalked up one more score in her heart.
"Midai, this counts as idle chat too. Just give me the rough outline." Charlotte glared at Midai.
That put Midai in a real fix.
On one side was her brother-in-law, Emperor of the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire.
On the other, her own sister, her idol, the one who had shown her the way.
She could afford to cross neither of them.
Had she known, she would never have answered her sister's video call.
"If you dare cut the call on me now, the next time I see you I'll shave every hair off your body!" Charlotte did not forget to add a ferocious threat.
That put an end to any such thought of Midai's once and for all.