"My lady, is it… is it all right for us to sit here?"
"So many great personages! Will we get to see Marshal Charlotte this time!"
"Look, isn't that Lady Chitong over there! They call her 'the Slaughter Queen of the Demon Race'!"
"Wow, that's Marshal Su Lan over there. She's my idol; the way she fights with carrier starships is the textbook of carrier doctrine now!"
Several snake-woman officers sat in their places, some tense and stiff, some looking about in excitement.
"Mind your bearing; keep your tails still." General Qingman, the snake-woman, glared at these juniors of her own race.
At once the snake-woman officers sat there and behaved themselves.
This table was in the main all beast-folk:
half of them snake-folk, and the rest dragon-folk.
"Are these the juniors Marshal Medusa means to bring on?" Princess Blanche, sitting beside Marshal Medusa, asked with a smile.
Medusa nodded, looking at those young juniors.
"Yes. These children have good gifts; there's room for them to show them in the Owl Dragon Legion," Medusa said frankly.
Princess Blanche nodded and ran her eye over the few young snake-woman officers; every one was of field rank, but by their looks they were likely no more than twenty or so at most.
That Medusa had brought them to such an occasion meant that their stepping up to general rank in future was only a question of time.
In future they would be of legion-commander rank at the least, and might even hope to become fleet group commanders.
As for whether they could climb one step further, that would depend on their own luck and ability.
"Isn't it the same with you dragon-folk?" Medusa looked at the dragon-folk officers on Blanche's side.
Compared with the snake-woman officers, these dragon-folk officers seemed steadier, with a finer air about them too.
For the dragon-folk tribe was itself the nobility among the beast-folk, and those who became officers and came this far were in the main all of noble birth.
The snake-folk, a small race that had once only knocked about the Reef Star Region, were a whole world apart from them.
To close that gap was not something the birth of one Marshal Medusa could do; it would take at least a hundred years and more for the snake-folk to settle.
That was why Medusa had begun bringing on the juniors of her own race.
"Ha ha ha ha. Everyone has the same thing in mind: to let their own race's juniors have a use in the Owl Dragon Legion. True, it's to win standing for our own races. But it's building up the Owl Dragon Legion too."
Princess Blanche took a sip of her drink, and her gaze went to the foremost table, on the stone steps raised above the level of the square, and to that still more lavish and solemn chair.
"But to tell the truth, His Majesty has such largeness of mind. He doesn't mind at all this bringing on of juniors by every race, and slipping them into the Owl Dragon Legion. He's even told every noble house that gifted juniors of their clans are welcome to be sent to the Owl Dragon Legion."
The second half of her thought Princess Blanche did not say aloud.
Had it been the Warhammer Interstellar Empire of old,
the dragon-folk tribe holding the leadership would never have allowed such a thing.
They would bring on their own trusted people first; even if a side branch had more gifted juniors, unless there were no other choice, they would still bring on their own direct line.
Not to suppress those gifted juniors of the side branches was already counted quite merciful.
In some other races, the heads of the direct line would even clear away the gifted juniors of the side branches in private, to make sure their own direct line was not threatened by the side branches.
Of course, families of that kind would never get far.
Reverence appeared in Medusa's eyes, and then she said gravely, "His Majesty doesn't care what blood is in you, or what family you're from. He looks only at your ability. So long as they can pass the Goddess Military Academy's assessments, they can join the Owl Dragon Legion. Then climb step by step on the strength of their own ability and gifts. So long as you keep the Owl Dragon Legion's rules, the Owl Dragon Legion will give you your due in return. You see four juniors of our snake-folk sitting here. But what you don't know is that I've sent in fully several hundred thousand. And of those, only a handful can truly come this far. But even if they can't join the army, so long as they have gifts in some other direction, the Empire will give them a great deal of help: war industry, civilian light industry, production, trade, grain, the management of domains and so on. Letting every creature have a use of its own in the Owl Dragon Empire."
Princess Blanche nodded in agreement; she knew this too.
Within the whole vast thing that was the Owl Dragon Empire now, though humans still made up the largest share by number, other races joining were not shut out.
Some races even had fine gifts by nature, the Angel Race for one.
Whenever the Angel Race joined the Owl Dragon Empire, their pass rate was very high, and they rose very quickly too, often reaching high places in the shortest time.
Even so, the Empire did not shut out these angels,
even though an Angel Queen among the Angel Race had lately raised the greatest rebellion since the Owl Dragon Empire's founding.
"Blanche, Medusa. Chatting, are you?" At this point a figure came out and sat down, easy and careless, straight in the empty place beside Blanche.
It was the Owl Dragon Legion's newly raised Imperial fleet group commander:
Leona.
Seeing her sister like this, Blanche could not help reminding her, "Sister. You're a commander of an Owl Dragon Empire legion fleet group now, after all; you should mind your appearance and bearing. You stand not only for the standing of one of our Empire's supreme commanders, a marshal, but for our dragon-folk tribe too."
As she spoke, Blanche pointed at the several buttons undone on Leona's uniform, and some creased places too.
Leona glanced at them a few times and curled her lip, and said as she did up the buttons, "We fight wars; we're not models. What's the point of minding these things? Winning battles, that's what counts. Senior Medusa, how well do you hold your drink? Let's have a few in a while."
"Apart from a few kinds of drink, I can manage any," Medusa said with a smile.
"Right, then in a while we won't stop till we're drunk. How about we pull in Chitong and Baixue too? They can both hold their drink. Only that Baixue has bad drinking manners. She often howls, and strips off at the drop of a hat," Leona grumbled, easy and careless.
Blanche could not help covering her face.
This sister of hers truly did not understand the rules of the 'workplace' at all.
On an occasion like this, she was openly grumbling about a fellow officer of the same rank, who had even been made marshal a step ahead of her,
and was supreme commander of an ace fleet group besides.
She truly had no grasp at all of how the world works.
Medusa, if anything, did not mind; compared with the deep-minded Blanche, in truth she liked the easy, careless Leona better.
For with someone like that, there was no need to be complicated.
"Who says my drinking manners are bad! That was me playing below my form. This time I'll drink you all under the table for sure!" The wolf-girl Baixue stuck her head out from the next table and issued the challenge outright.
The corner of Chitong's mouth lifted slightly, but she said nothing.
The wolf-girl Baixue happened to see it.
At once she jumped up on her chair, one foot on its back, pointing at Chitong. "Chitong, did you just laugh! I saw it; what's that supposed to mean! Looking down on how I hold my drink. This time I'll drink you under the table for sure, and you'll call me Mama!"
Beside her, Baixue's half-sister by the same father, the wolf-girl Baiyue, at once seized her sister round the waist and pressed her down into her chair.
At the same time she kept looking apologetically at the guests around them.
Mortifying!
Mortifying!
It was far too mortifying.
The wolf-girl Baiyue, not so bold as the wolf-girl Baixue, wished at this moment she could find a crack in the floor and crawl into it.
What she disliked most was going out to banquets with her sister; every time she had to clean up her sister's messes, and even carry her home drunk.
And on a few worse occasions, her sister had even dragged her into drinking along with her, and poured drink down her throat.
This made the wolf-girl Baiyue[1] press a hand to her brow in spite of herself, as though some unpleasant memories had come back.
No few of those present were watching the scene.
Everyone talked and laughed.
There was nothing of a heavy atmosphere about it at all.
If anything, the atmosphere was better than over in the gold and purple banquet halls,
more like a family gathering.
"Sister. We haven't eaten together in ages." Zhao Waner blinked at Zhao Ruyue before her, very excited.
"Everyone's been very busy this while. Chen… His Majesty hasn't even had time to spend with his children." There was a touch of pity in Zhao Ruyue's eyes.
Zhao Waner pouted too, and said somewhat resentfully, "That's true. Ever since Big Brother became the Owl Dragon Empire's Emperor, I haven't even seen him in person more times than I can count on one hand. It's all video calls normally, and most of the time video meetings about official business at that."
"Your brother is the Empire's Emperor now, after all; the load on his shoulders is very heavy." Zhao Ruyue's tone was somewhat low as she said it.
Before, she had hoped this brother of hers would amount to something, would be able to carry the burden of the Owl Dragon family then, or at least keep the Owl Dragon System going.
But what came after had gone far beyond anything she had imagined.
The Owl Dragon System had leaped to become the most vital place of all in the Starlight Empire of the time, and Zhao Chen had become the Starlight Empire's Regent,
below one man and above ten thousand.
At the time she had already felt proud of what her brother had done.
But who could have thought that, before a few years were out,
her brother would actually unite the whole universe and become Emperor of the Owl Dragon Empire of now?
Zhao Ruyue even, in her own heart, had somewhat not wished for such a thing to happen; not that she did not wish her brother well.
It was truly that Zhao Ruyue knew very well what the seat of the Emperor's throne stood for.
Now, when she saw her brother, she found something in him was gone.
Perhaps it had been left to the past from the moment he sat on the Emperor's throne.
"Come to think of it, when we first came to Chang'an City, there were no few people outside calling me the little princess. And calling you, Sister, the eldest princess." Zhao Waner blinked and looked at Zhao Ruyue.
The Owl Dragon Empire now bore the name Zhao, and in the Zhao family's direct line
there were only three for now:
the eldest sister, Zhao Ruyue; the second, Zhao Chen; the third, Zhao Waner.
Naturally, then, Zhao Ruyue had the nickname of Eldest Princess,
and Zhao Waner had become the Little Princess.
Zhao Ruyue frowned slightly, looked at her sister, and charged her, "What people say out there is their affair. But Waner, remember well: don't forget your roots because of your present rank and standing. We're His Majesty's weak spot now too; who knows how many people are watching us. If we make fools of ourselves, it's His Majesty making a fool of himself."
Zhao Waner nodded obediently.
At this point Zhao Waner looked at Jiang Hong beside them, who had said nothing.
Jiang Hong sat here seeming somewhat ill at ease,
with nothing at all of the calm manner with which she usually ran the Owl Dragon System.
"Sister Jiang, aren't you feeling well?" Zhao Ruyue noticed something amiss in Jiang Hong, and asked with concern.
In the Owl Dragon System, Zhao Ruyue and Jiang Hong had been on the best of terms, the closest of friends.
That was why, when Zhao Ruyue left the Owl Dragon System back then, she could entrust the Owl Dragon System and her younger brother and sister to Jiang Hong with an easy mind.
"Am I… is it wrong for me to sit here? Shall I sit at the next table?" As she spoke, Jiang Hong made to rise.
For with Zhao Ruyue and Zhao Waner at this table, it meant this table stood for the Zhao royal house.
So Jiang Hong, a star-system administrator, sitting here felt out of place to herself.
"Sister Jiang. The seating here isn't arranged by rank, but by people's ties to one another. That way everyone sits comfortably. Sister Jiang, you've been with our Zhao family all along, helping our Zhao family. Now you're the Owl Dragon System's governor besides, helping His Majesty run the Owl Dragon System. You are our family. We've long thought of you as our sister. And sitting here was specially allowed by His Majesty too." Zhao Ruyue pressed Jiang Hong's hand and said it earnestly.
Jiang Hong stopped short, and her eyes glistened a little.
Jiang Hong was an orphan by birth, raised by the Zhao family from childhood; so even when the Zhao family was at its poorest and weakest, and was to be handed to Zhao Chen, then thought the most useless of them all,
she had never left the Zhao family.
That showed well enough Jiang Hong's loyalty to the Zhao family.
"That's right, Sister Jiang. Don't you think of us as family? When I was little, you even looked after me." Zhao Waner pouted and looked at Jiang Hong.
"I……" Jiang Hong felt she could not speak; some feeling swirled in her mind.
"Don't think such things; you are our family." Zhao Ruyue looked at this friend who was a sister to her.
Jiang Hong drew a deep breath and nodded hard.
She could not help looking at the several empty places at this table.
She knew whom those empty places were kept for.
Having sat at one table with them,
from now on no one would dare look down on this star-system governor.
In a way it declared, to everyone within the Owl Dragon Empire's system, Jiang Hong's special standing in the Empire.
Jiang Hong, by ability, could run only one star system, true.
But that was enough!