The Holy Radiance Kingdom · Central Star Region · Royal Capital System
Here stood the Holy Radiance Kingdom's greatest star gate, which had also been built on contract by the Owl Dragon Empire, and was administered and controlled from the Owl Dragon Empire's side.
Though completed less than a year ago, it had already become the star gate with the most starship sailings in the Royal Capital System.
Only today this star gate had gone under emergency military control.
Every route was halted, and every sailing booked beforehand was put back.
The news naturally startled the Holy Radiance Kingdom's upper circles.
And after it, the warships of the Owl Dragon Empire's First Legion Fleet Group pouring in here gave the Holy Radiance Kingdom a feeling of thorns at its back.
Guesses welled up in their minds past their controlling.
Could it be that, over the family rebellions lately seen within the Holy Radiance Kingdom's borders, the Owl Dragon Empire meant to move against the Holy Radiance Kingdom?
And if so, would their own family powers be touched by it?
Just as these great families and the Kingdom's upper circles were thrown into alarm,
the Holy Radiance Kingdom's queen, Saint Cana, issued a notice.
From this moment the Central Star Region was at second-grade combat readiness, and an area of first-grade combat readiness had been marked out; every warship within that area would come under Owl Dragon Empire control.
No warship might sail without leave.
Any who disobeyed the order would be severely punished.
On receiving this ordinance of the Queen's, those family heads were on the contrary a good deal relieved.
It showed that this military operation of the Owl Dragon Empire's First Legion Fleet Group was not aimed at the Holy Radiance Kingdom.
They did not know what it was for, but at least it had nothing to do with them.
They dared not provoke the Owl Dragon Empire now, for that man had come back.
"I have issued the orders concerned. Is there anything else in which we can be of help?" Saint Cana looked at the hologram before her; it was Zhao Chen, seated upon the throne of the Dragon Emperor.
"That will do. What comes next, leave to the Imperial fleets," Zhao Chen said coolly.
Saint Cana drew a deep breath and bowed slightly. "As to the acts of rebellion that arose this time within the Holy Radiance Empire's[1] borders, though they have now been checked, that such a thing should happen at all is, as queen, necessarily in some part my responsibility, and I cannot excuse myself of the blame. I ask His Majesty the Emperor to hand down punishment."
Zhao Chen was silent a moment.
He looked at Saint Cana and said slowly, "Since you say so, then I will afterward issue a statement. Saint Cana, Queen of the Holy Radiance Empire, was lax in governing those under her, which led to acts of family rebellion, and bears responsibility. Queen Saint Cana is punished with one week of facing the wall to reflect on her faults."
With that, Zhao Chen's image dispersed.
Queen Saint Cana was taken aback for a moment, looking at the empty space before her and hearing over again that punishment, fit for a game of children.
She could not help laughing.
She knew it was no punishment at all.
It was the Emperor stating his position to the world outside: he trusted Queen Saint Cana and would not call Queen Saint Cana to account, and as for everyone else, let them not let their thoughts run wild, and go on following Queen Saint Cana's lead.
An order that looked like a punishment could in fact ease at a stroke the tension this affair had caused within the Holy Radiance Kingdom.
After that, this order of punishment spread very quickly.
And people also saw the Owl Dragon Emperor's own ship and the Emperor's Guard Fleet,
appearing at that star gate, and then leaving the system together with the Owl Dragon Empire's First Legion Fleet Group.
The Dragon Emperor Interstellar Command Ship · the bridge
"Report: five minutes' sailing to spatial anomaly fluctuation point No. 1. The enemy's appearance at the spatial anomaly fluctuation point we predicted is expected in eight minutes," a staff officer reported, coming up before Zhao Chen.
"Good. Keep watching," Zhao Chen said.
"Yes."
Though Zhao Chen had T6 Emerald-Dream-class Interstellar Jump Ships in hand, which could deliver warships in great batches straight to their destination,
that too consumed a great deal of resources; when there was time enough and the star-gate network was convenient, the most cost-effective way was naturally the one chosen.
On Zhao Chen's bridge every department was busy.
Not for this battlefield alone,
for the other four battlefields as well, special staff departments had been set up to give remote guidance and assistance, and to hand Zhao Chen firsthand data.
The Dragon Emperor Interstellar Command Ship was a brain; it could control any legion fleet of the Owl Dragon Empire.
"Your Majesty, a request for a comm has just come in from the Angel Race's Holy Angel Queen, Angelia." Secretary-Officer Lilith, beside him, reported the news.
Zhao Chen had long expected this Angel Queen to be in touch.
Zhao Chen glanced at the time.
"Command on the battlefield goes entire to Shen Bing of the First Legion Fleet Group, on her own responsibility. We are here chiefly to oversee and assist," Zhao Chen instructed.
Then he said, "Arrange my meeting with her right here. It's nothing very important anyway."
A matter not very important on Zhao Chen's lips,
but in the eyes of the Angel Race opposite, one that touched the Angel Race's destiny.
The Holy Angel System · the Holy Temple Mount
The light of a hologram appeared within the Holy Temple.
The Holy Angel Queen Angelia, seeing him appear, at once made her obeisance, and with the most honored courtesy of the Angel Race at that.
Zhao Chen looked at the Angel Queen before him, head bowed and body bent; she was also now the Angel Race's only king.
"Raise your head," Zhao Chen said.
"A guilty subject dare not," the Holy Angel Queen said.
The corner of Zhao Chen's mouth lifted slightly; this woman, simple and pure by outside report, had in truth no small share of calculation in her.
With her first sentence she had set her own place very low.
Not an Angel Queen, but a guilty subject.
"I told you to raise your head." There was a majesty in Zhao Chen's voice that needed no anger.
Only then did the Holy Angel Queen Angelia raise her head.
Though he had seen her many times already, it had to be said this beauty was lovely past all description.
"I hear you wished to see me," Zhao Chen said.
The Holy Angel Queen Angelia suddenly went down on one knee, so that even the pure-white holy feathers at her back lay close against the floor.
"What are you doing? You are the Angel Queen of the Angel Race," Zhao Chen said coldly, but showed no intention of letting her rise.
The Holy Angel Queen Angelia said with her head bowed, "The courtesy just now was for receiving His Majesty the Emperor, to show the Angel Race's highest courtesy. This kneeling now is to beg Your Majesty to pardon the Angel Race its guilt this time. I, Angelia, am willing to take the punishment in the Angel Race's stead, without complaint and without regret."
Zhao Chen said nothing, but walked slowly up the steps of the Holy Temple.
There stood the throne of the Angel Queen; Zhao Chen turned and slowly sat down.
Though it was only the light of a hologram, it was as though someone truly sat there.
And it was thanks to its being in this Holy Temple, or it could not have given so fine an effect.
"By the word I have had, this rebellion among the Angel Race was led by the War Angel King Wells, and before it he had you shut away. Through the whole of that time you knew nothing whatever of the affair. It was only after the War Angel King Wells killed himself that angel warriors got you out." Zhao Chen narrowed his eyes at the Holy Angel Queen Angelia, who had turned and was still kneeling toward him.
"Y… yes."
Zhao Chen's voice was very cold. "But how is it I feel that Wells fellow was not imprisoning you, but protecting you?"
The Holy Angel Queen Angelia's heart sank.
"He was leaving the Angel Race a chance. If his plan of rebellion failed, you could come forward and attach yourselves to the Owl Dragon Empire once more. So he could not let you die. Because once you were dead, if his rebellion failed, then the Angel Race would have no hope left at all," Zhao Chen said coldly.
"Your guilty subject… your guilty subject does not know." The Holy Angel Queen Angelia kept her head bowed, and her voice shook a little.
"You would not have known it. For he could not have told you such things; in the course of his action, even some of the stubbornly resisting people under you were killed by him. Those who did not resist stubbornly, of course, were only imprisoned. That too shows it, indirectly. He was protecting the strength of your trusted followers. So you could surely have guessed as much. For you, after all, are an Angel Queen as well. I'm not wrong, am I? My lady Angel Queen Angelia." Zhao Chen rubbed at his chin, staring at Angelia, whose head hung lower still.
"Or say that you guessed it from the very start. You went along with Wells on purpose. Made ready for both ways. If the rebellion succeeded, you of the Angel Race, as the main force that overthrew the Owl Dragon Empire, would have earned great merit whether the Angel Race rose on its own or stood before your new masters. From the very start, you people put your eggs in two baskets."
The Holy Angel Queen Angelia's forehead was all beads of sweat.
She had not thought this Emperor's mind could be so formidable.
"Speak. How much do you know? You have one chance to speak now," Zhao Chen said indifferently.
The Holy Angel Queen Angelia was silent a moment; then she slowly raised her head and said, "In truth, I had heard something before of Wells's doings. At the time, because… Your Majesty had long not shown yourself, and because of those rumors, a current of thought that had always been there within the Angel Race began to blaze up again from the ashes. The Angel Race had a proud cast of mind to begin with, and joining the system of the Owl Dragon Empire had left no few of them discontented at heart. But because everyone had seen the combat power of the Owl Dragon Legion's fleets at the time, though discontented, there was no very fierce protest against the decision. Yet because Your Majesty… this thinking began to surge up. It was most common on the War Angel King's side. For most of the War Angel King's subordinates are warlike, and long to show their own superiority through war. It has always been so. And now it was the Owl Dragon Empire's armed strength that had made them submit instead. For them that has always been a stone pressing on the chest. Now at last there was a chance to push the stone over, and naturally the reaction was very fierce. As that current of thought spread, it even threatened to pass out of control. It was then that the War Angel King Wells began reaching out to these people himself, forming this faction with himself at its core. When I went to see him at the time, it was in truth because I feared he would do something that crossed the line, and I meant to dissuade him. I never thought he had long since laid his plans. I was even imprisoned for it. And after that came what followed."
The Holy Angel Queen Angelia looked at Zhao Chen and said in entreaty, "Your Majesty the Emperor. I know the Angel Race cannot excuse itself of the blame for this rebellion. But the Angel Race can change; not everyone longs for war. I can make them keep themselves quietly and dutifully as the Angel Race under the Owl Dragon Empire! I promise that such a thing will never happen again."
There was true pleading in her voice.
For she knew very well that the Owl Dragon Empire's military strength now was nothing the Angel Race could stand against.
And the more so with this man here.
Zhao Chen narrowed his eyes.
He felt there must surely be a connection with Order behind this; those warlike elements of the Angel Race could not be ruled out as having been disturbed by Order's thought.
For mind, back in the time of the Mechanical Race, Order had been able to disturb a batch of mechanical lifeforms into becoming Order's believers.
Even mechanical lifeforms could be.
How much more these angels.
As to this War Angel King Wells, whether he had truly raised this rebellion from his own heart,
Zhao Chen thought there was no saying.
Perhaps he had only been protecting the Angel Race in his own way.
He had not wished to see the Angel Race fall into strife within.
And that being so, he had let that fury out,
even though it faced the Owl Dragon Empire.
But on knowing it was a dead end, he had used his own death to press out a flame that should never have been lit.
"Your Majesty, I have here a list. It is a list of the diehard elements who followed Wells in raising the rebellion this time. If only you wish it, I will deal cleanly with these rebel angels in the shortest time." The Holy Angel Queen Angelia brought out an electronic list.
The electronic list appeared before Zhao Chen's eyes.
There were over a thousand names upon it.
All without exception held high places within the Angel Race, and three-quarters came from the War Angel King's line.
"I can pardon the Angel Race this once," Zhao Chen said.
Hearing it, the Holy Angel Queen Angelia was overjoyed.
"But from this day on, the Angel Race's military armed forces will come under the Owl Dragon Empire's direct command. And the Angel Race will be permitted only one Angel Sovereign. As for who is to be that Angel Sovereign, the Empire has the say," Zhao Chen said in a deep voice.
The Holy Angel Queen Angelia was taken aback; in that moment she felt as though an iron chain had been fastened about her neck.
She knew very well that, if things were done this way,
from then on the Angel Race would be a dog on the Owl Dragon Empire's leash, with no other possibility of growth.
For with even its military fleets controlled by the Empire, never mind anything else.
Yet did she have any choice now?
"Yes. I will obey Your Majesty's command." The Holy Angel Queen Angelia lowered her head.
"Rest easy. Beyond the people on the list, I will call no other angel to account. So long as you obey, you will always remain the Angel Queen of the Angel Race," Zhao Chen said coolly.