The Flame Elf Queen's own ship slowly came to rest in a berth prepared especially for receiving foreign guests.
Zhao Chen had been waiting here since early on.
He looked at the Flame Elf Queen as she came down, and greeted her with a smile. "Welcome, Your Excellency the Elf Queen."
"This is an interstellar city-state your Owl Dragon Empire has built?" the Flame Elf Queen asked curiously. "I'd seen the words 'Chang'an City' in some information before, but I thought it was only a large starport. I never thought it would be so enormous."
At least in the Sacred Elf Empire, the Flame Elf Queen had never seen so enormous an interstellar building!
Of course, the World Tree did not count.
"Chang'an City is our Owl Dragon Empire's present political center. A great many of the Empire's affairs, and the governing bodies concerned, are all set up here. It uses the T6 Divine Palace-class Interstellar Complex technology. There isn't only this one within the Owl Dragon Empire; there are several others, each with a name of its own, and different styles of architecture according to different needs," Zhao Chen explained.
The Flame Elf Queen nodded and said with a smile, "It seems I'll have no few surprises in the Owl Dragon Empire this time."
"Then let's not stand about here. We'll have a look around Chang'an City first, and after that I've prepared a welcoming banquet for you all as well. You can enjoy our Owl Dragon Empire's fine food too," Zhao Chen said with a smile.
At the words "fine food," the faces of the Flame Elf Queen and the elves who had come along behind her showed a subtle change.
But the Flame Elf Queen still agreed with a smile.
The elves could not very well say anything at this point either,
and could only follow the Flame Elf Queen and this Owl Dragon Emperor to explore Chang'an City.
It had to be said the inner construction of this Chang'an City truly was formidable,
lavish, yet not lacking in practical worth.
And every area had a different style besides.
When they had gone around it once,
the elves were of one mind that this Chang'an City was fine; to make these elves, their eyes above the tops of their heads, all call it fine:
one could imagine how excellent Chang'an City was; at least in beauty and art alone, it had won these elves' little hearts.
After that, naturally, came the welcoming banquet.
The place for the welcoming banquet was very simple:
an open-air private room in the middle of a lake; below, it was transparent, so that the clear lake water and the creatures in it could be seen directly.
And in the private room there was a large round table seating about twenty.
It just met the needs of both sides' people dining this time.
"With me, eating is a very important thing. And if everyone can sit at one table and eat, it means we're friends," Zhao Chen said with a smile, leading the Flame Elf Queen to her seat.
Zhao Chen's attendants, and the Flame Elf Queen and her retinue, each took half of the great round table.
"Many thanks for Your Excellency the Owl Dragon Emperor's hospitality." The Flame Elf Queen squeezed out a smile, then swept her eyes once over her retinue,
her look reminding them that, whatever food came up in a while,
at least the show on the surface must be put on in full; when in Rome, give the hosts face enough.
However ill it fit their standards of diet, they must eat some of it.
The elf retinue's faces were every one of them somewhat stiff, with the air of being ready to go into battle.
But very soon the dishes that rose up onto the round table surprised them somewhat.
Half were every kind of fruit and vegetable, and the other half looked like meat dishes, but all were very beautifully plated, giving a feeling of good appetite.
Above all, among the fruits and vegetables there were actually some specialties of their Sacred Elf Empire!
"These are ingredients I had prepared with great care. With me, food is heaven to the people. Nothing matters more than eating. With the eating tastes of our elf friends in mind, we've specially prepared special fruits of the Sacred Elf Empire, and some fruit specialties of our Owl Dragon Empire. And some special dishes besides; if they suit you, eat more of them," Zhao Chen said with a smile.
"This is our Sacred Elf Empire's Moonwater Honey Peach?" The Flame Elf Queen looked at the familiar fruit, cut into pieces before her, and said in astonishment.
"Yes. When I came back from the Sacred Elf Empire before, I specially brought back some seeds and had them bred and grown. This happens to be the first crop to ripen," Zhao Chen said.
With the T6 Purple-Gold Eden-class Starships, a crop's growing time could be greatly shortened.
The Flame Elf Queen picked up a piece with her chopsticks and put it in her mouth.
The next second, the Flame Elf Queen's eyes lit up.
This taste!
The Moonwater Honey Peach could be counted a rather well-selling kind of fruit among the Sacred Elf Empire's high elves.
And what could be brought before her, an Elf Queen, was naturally the best of every season.
But before these Moonwater Honey Peaches grown in the Owl Dragon Empire, those were simply not in the same class.
"You've truly only just bred this?" The Flame Elf Queen looked at Zhao Chen in surprise.
Zhao Chen nodded. "Yes; we have technological facilities especially for raising crops, where fruit of rather high grade can be raised, and the growing cycle greatly shortened as well. I wonder whether what's been raised is still to your liking."
"This taste… it's much better than what I eat in our Elf Empire!"
"My goodness, this little fish-fruit is my favorite! But it's so expensive, and only the size of a thumb; you can never eat your fill of it. And you've actually bred them the size of a fist! This is so satisfying to eat!"
The elves too now began, one after another, to take up their chopsticks; what they tried first was naturally the fruit grown in the Owl Dragon Empire, and without exception there was surprise, astonishment, and praise.
Seeing these high elves' verdicts, Zhao Chen was well satisfied at heart.
It seemed that in future he could open up a market in another universe, and so open trade with the Sacred Elf Empire too.
As far as he knew, those elves were every one of them people with money, and especially fond of enjoying themselves.
When she had enjoyed her own Empire's specialties once through, the Flame Elf Queen looked to some of the Owl Dragon Empire's fruit specialties.
Having tasted them, she gave them very high praise too.
"I never thought your Owl Dragon Empire had such abundant, delicious specialties of fruit and vegetable as well," the Flame Elf Queen exclaimed sincerely.
At this point Zhao Chen pointed at the dishes that looked very beautiful but whose ingredients looked like meat. "I know the elves have some aversion to these foods. But why not try them?"
The Flame Elf Queen looked at the food Zhao Chen pointed to; she hesitated a moment, but still decided to try it.
When she picked up that dish with her chopsticks and put it in her mouth, her eyes went wide again.
"This……"
"In truth these are all vegetable dishes; only they're cooked a different way," Zhao Chen said with a smile.
Everything here could in the main be called vegetable dishes.
When Zhao Chen was in the Sacred Elf Empire before, he had found that most of their dishes prized the original, natural taste:
fruit platters, vegetable salads and the like, without much in the way of cooking.
And this time Zhao Chen had had these dishes prepared with great care; the ingredients were in the main all vegetable, but by masterly cooking these dishes showed a wholly different deliciousness.
The high elves, seeing such an expression on their Elf Queen's face, all began tasting those foods curiously too.
Every one of their eyes went wide.
This taste……
The welcoming banquet came to an end.
Zhao Chen looked at the Flame Elf Queen. "Your Excellency the Elf Queen, I wonder whether you were satisfied with this hospitality."
"Very satisfied. I never thought the Owl Dragon Empire had not only advanced warship technology but such fine food too," the Flame Elf Queen said with feeling.
"Above all your technology for planting and raising: not only can you raise our Sacred Elf Empire's fruits and vegetables in a short time, you can raise them so well."
"If Your Excellency the Elf Queen thinks well of these things, our side can sell these goods to the crews aboard the five million elf warships to be stationed in our Owl Dragon Empire later," Zhao Chen said with a smile.
Hearing this, the Flame Elf Queen and the high elves all showed delight in their eyes.
They were people who cared a great deal for experiences of this kind, and having tasted still better ingredients, naturally hoped for more such experiences.
"That's wonderful." The Flame Elf Queen did not even forget to thank him. "Truly, many thanks to Your Excellency the Emperor for these comforts provided for our expeditionary legion fleets."
"We're allies; it's only right," Zhao Chen said with a smile.
But Zhao Ruyue, who had sat beside Zhao Chen at the same table all along watching all this, saw it as clear as a mirror: this brother of hers had no few little schemes these days.
When this fine meal was done,
Zhao Chen had people take the Flame Elf Queen and the elves of her retinue to where they would stay.
And Zhao Chen and Zhao Ruyue had, naturally, finished the day's task.
"Your hospitality this time was rather out of the ordinary, wasn't it? You even specially prepared such a special welcoming banquet. You're nothing like an Empire's Emperor; you're more like a merchant pushing his own goods," Zhao Ruyue said, looking at Zhao Chen.
Zhao Chen stretched and said, "If it can make my own country rich, what's wrong with being a merchant? Besides, my aim isn't so simple. It looks like simple fruit and vegetables. But by what we know of the Sacred Elf Empire, the character of the high elves who run the Sacred Elf Empire is this: besides pursuing some things of the spirit, it's the enjoyment of natural fruit and vegetables like these. In their country there's even a saying: an elf who loses fruit faces death. A patch of land that can't grow fruit is hell. One can imagine how important these things are to them."
Zhao Ruyue was somewhat astonished. "They're really so fond of such things?"
"Perhaps you can't understand it. It's bound up closely with the local culture and surroundings. Some interstellar races are fond of useless but beautiful gems; some interstellar races are fond of spending great sums building houses on every kind of asteroid, just so their own family of a few can live alone there. And so on and so forth. And if we can grasp these interstellar races' traits, then in dealing with them we can hold the upper hand. Now we've succeeded in the first step. The way the Flame Elf Queen and those high elves behaved is the best verdict of all. Next comes the second step: selling goods of this kind to the five million elf warships stationed in our Empire. Five million warships means at least ten billion elves. To these ten billion elves we can sell fruit products of every grade, low, middle and high. That way, whether their crews at the bottom or the officers above, all can enjoy these goods of ours. And when in future they go back to the Sacred Elf Empire, they'll become the promoters of our goods as well. By then we'll be able to open up the Sacred Elf Empire's market without lifting a finger. That way, on one hand we can widen our grain-trade market. On the other, we get into the Sacred Elf Empire's map of interstellar trade. For mind: what's the fastest channel for getting to know a country? Trade. Trade lets you learn every side of a country in the shortest time, and even gain a network of connections. Then we can use it to build up our intelligence network in the Sacred Elf Empire too. Many birds with one stone," Zhao Chen said, his gaze keen.
Zhao Ruyue looked at Zhao Chen, somewhat astonished.
She had not thought her brother had already laid his plans so far ahead.
"But all that is for later, in truth. What matters most right now is meeting the Devourer Civilization's invasion, which may happen at any moment. The Devourer Civilization is eyeing us like a tiger. Before, we beat off the claws their master reached in; they're bound to strike at us hard. Even with the Sacred Elf Empire's five million warships stationed here as reinforcements for now, we still need to be ready ourselves to meet anything. Don't pin all our hopes on others," Zhao Chen said in a deep voice.
Zhao Ruyue nodded hard, then said gravely, "The Owl Dragon Sixth Legion Fleet Group, after this time of refitting and training, is now fully fit for battle. It's ready at any moment to draw its sword on any enemy for the Empire!"
Zhao Chen looked at Zhao Ruyue and nodded, and at the same time said with feeling, "Sigh. Come to think of it, it's a little strange. I only meant to give you all an easy life, and step by step I came to where I am now. But who'd have thought that, without meaning to, I'd found an Empire, and become its Emperor too, and found a royal house of Zhao. Waner is supreme commander of the Shadow Hunter ace fleet group now, and you're supreme commander of the Owl Dragon Sixth Legion Fleet Group. And Charlotte, needless to say: after giving birth she went back to her post at once, without even time to be with the children."
Zhao Chen clasped his hands behind his back, his gaze somewhat complicated. "I often wonder whether the road I'm walking… is truly right?"
Zhao Ruyue looked at her brother and laid her hand straight on his shoulder.
"Why so soft-hearted all of a sudden? That's not like you. Since we've chosen this road now, don't think of anything else. We're all walking it together. Don't be afraid!"