"I understand what you mean: you're saying that, when the time comes, the supplies consumed by five million elf warships in battle will need to be provided by us for the time being." Zhao Chen looked at the Flame Elf Queen.
The Flame Elf Queen nodded.
Zhao Chen said, "You needn't worry about that. It's written plainly in the supplementary articles of our alliance agreement. True, the battle consumption of both sides' warships on the battlefield is borne by each. But within each interstellar empire, the use of star gates, starports, routine maintenance, interstellar transport and so on may, where needed, be provided by that interstellar empire. And if war breaks out before the universe star gate is built, then in that period the battlefield consumption of the five million elf warships stationed in the Owl Dragon Empire will be supplied by the Owl Dragon Empire first, and compensated afterward by the Sacred Elf Empire. We've settled all of this. So you needn't worry."
The Flame Elf Queen looked at Zhao Chen and said frankly, "I'm not worried your country won't keep to the agreement. It's that, when war comes, the war consumption of five million warships……"
So that was what she was worried about.
Zhao Chen smiled slightly. "I know the Owl Dragon Empire's warships haven't yet reached five million in number, even now. But the battle consumption of every campaign we fight is a very large figure. In our Owl Dragon Empire, logistics and supply will never run into any trouble. A month's battle consumption for your five million elf warships, we can well afford."
He was not joking.
What kind of wars had the Owl Dragon Legion fought before?
In numbers they might fall short of yours.
But in battlefield consumption, there was no one more at home with it than the Owl Dragon Empire's logistics department.
"Since you're so confident, then I'm at ease. Within a week, war with the Devourer Civilization will break out. The detailed battle plans I won't discuss with you. Those under us will settle them for us. But I need to set out some bottom lines of mine to you." The Flame Elf Queen's voice dropped in spite of herself, her face very grave.
"Go on," Zhao Chen said.
The Flame Elf Queen's face was complicated, but she spoke all the same. "In truth I oughtn't to tell you these things. But you: from knowing you this while, I respect you very much. I think you're a friend worth having, and I like this Owl Dragon Empire you've built too. I've seen with my own eyes a great many interstellar civilizations destroyed. I don't wish to see it happen to the Owl Dragon Empire."
Zhao Chen waited for what the Flame Elf Queen would say next.
"Before I set out, the High Council had a secret talk with me. They settled a few points, and though I don't much like them, the other Elf Sovereigns all agreed, so I can only keep to them. First: the elf legion fleets we send to fight in the Owl Dragon Empire may not exceed a total loss rate of 50%; once past that line, every legion fleet within the Owl Dragon Empire must be withdrawn at once."
As she said this one, the Flame Elf Queen paused and looked at Zhao Chen's face.
Zhao Chen's face did not change at all; everything was as usual, as though it had all been within his expectations long since.
So the Flame Elf Queen went on, "The number of warships lost in a single day may not exceed fifty thousand. Otherwise every legion fleet within the Owl Dragon Empire is withdrawn at once. On this one, as supreme commander, I have some room to maneuver, but if… the number is too large, I may not be able to intervene either. Besides that, from here on, without the High Council's leave, our Sacred Elf Empire won't send any more reinforcements to support the Owl Dragon Empire's battlefield. As for how they'll judge that, it depends on how well we fight."
When the Flame Elf Queen had finished, she looked quietly at Zhao Chen.
As a commander, the Flame Elf Queen in truth greatly disliked this kind of roundabout business.
And with her time with this Owl Dragon Emperor this while, and what she had learned of the Owl Dragon Empire,
and since she would fight shoulder to shoulder with them later, she greatly disliked the feeling of each side nursing its own schemes.
So she laid out here, in the open, what she herself judged could be told.
Zhao Chen's deep gaze rested on the Flame Elf Queen. "And you'd still tell me this?"
"Because in future we're comrades-in-arms," the Flame Elf Queen said calmly, and then said with the utmost seriousness, "And I'm doing this from the Sacred Elf Empire's standpoint too. As I see it, if the Owl Dragon Empire is defeated, and afterward the battlefield moves to the Sacred Elf Empire, facing the Devourer Civilization's invasion alone we'd be wiped out; it's only a question of time. Only together with you is there hope of defeating the Devourer Civilization. So all I'm doing is bringing the Sacred Elf Empire back onto the road I think is right."
Zhao Chen smiled slightly, and said, "Then what have you in mind?"
"You and I cooperate." The Flame Elf Queen leaned forward, closing the distance between herself and Zhao Chen, and gestured with a finger between the two of them.
"Cooperate? Aren't our two sides already cooperating?" Zhao Chen asked, rather as though he did not know the answer.
"Stop pretending. You know what I mean. I mean cooperation between you and me." The Flame Elf Queen narrowed her eyes.
Warlike as she was, and easy and careless as a rule, that did not mean she had no brains at all.
"For what?" Zhao Chen asked back.
"Our cooperation is very simple, and won't harm the interests of the Owl Dragon Empire or the Sacred Elf Empire. That would go against our basic principles, after all. On that footing, our aim is to defeat the Devourer Civilization, and seize every chance. In this, you alone, or I alone, could hardly bring it off. Only if we cooperate," the Flame Elf Queen said.
"Tell me what you're thinking," Zhao Chen said.
The Flame Elf Queen went on, "First, together we have to change the minds of the Sacred Elf Empire's High Council and the other Elf Sovereigns behind me. Make them give up their stubborn thinking of fighting only to hold our home territory, and put more of their stake on the Owl Dragon Empire's battlefield. You know that our Sacred Elf Empire has over thirty million warships, and this time only five million are in the Owl Dragon Empire. Less than a sixth. And as I see it, apart from some that must stay to guard the Sacred Elf Empire, thirty million warships must be sent and thrown wholly into the Owl Dragon Empire's battlefield, fighting the Devourer Civilization with everything we have; only then is there a sliver of a chance of winning!"
Zhao Chen folded his arms and shook his head. "If you held power in the Sacred Elf Empire, I wouldn't doubt it. But the High Council and the several Elf Sovereigns behind you won't agree to this idea of yours. Five or ten million more on top of the five million, perhaps there's a chance of that. Thirty million: they haven't the nerve. Or perhaps……"
Zhao Chen looked at the Flame Elf Queen with a half smile. "You want me to help you seize power, and make you the Sacred Elf Empire's only Elf Queen?"
The Flame Elf Queen flung Zhao Chen a roll of the eyes. "I have no such idea, and it couldn't be done anyway; don't even think of it. Hear me out properly first. I know getting to what I have in mind in one step is impossible. But we can do it bit by bit. It's like getting a cautious gambler to raise his stake at the table. If he stakes only a tenth, it doesn't hurt him, and he can leave the table any time. But when he's staked a quarter, a third, even half? Has he still any chance of pulling out?"
Zhao Chen had in the main caught the drift of the Flame Elf Queen's idea.
"How do you mean to do it?" Zhao Chen asked.
The Flame Elf Queen said, "To get the High Council and those Elf Sovereigns to agree to keep staking, the first campaign we fight against the Devourer Civilization here is very important. First, we mustn't touch any of the bottom lines I just set out. Within those, in this month we must fight a battle and win it! Give me something to stake when I speak before the High Council and those Elf Sovereigns, and win more legion fleets to be sent to the Owl Dragon Empire's battlefield. Suppose! This time, won't the Devourer Civilization send about fifteen million warships? So long as we can eat up a third of their warships within a month, I'm confident I can get another five million warships from the High Council and those Elf Sovereigns! In the next stage, we win another battle. Keep on by this method, and get the High Council to agree to send more and more interstellar fleets into the battlefield. That way our aim is reached! The Sacred Elf Empire will have no room left to maneuver either, only to find every way to win this campaign with the Devourer Civilization within the Owl Dragon Empire's universe!"
The Flame Elf Queen looked at Zhao Chen, her eyes shining.
It had to be said, this idea of hers was a good one.
It was as good as first setting up a good project and making a first round of funding, then, once there were good results, a second round of funding, and after that a third round, a fourth.
"If you do this, aren't you afraid the High Council and those Elf Sovereigns will find out, and turn on you?" Zhao Chen looked at the Flame Elf Queen.
The Flame Elf Queen shrugged. "And if I'm afraid? And if I'm not?"
Her gaze darkened, as though she saw some scene.
"Have you ever seen a universe destroyed completely? Not occupied, not fallen. Destroyed utterly. Places once familiar, perhaps a few familiar friends still there, simply vanishing entirely. I only don't want to see it happen to my home; I don't want to see my own people become… a page in a scene like that."
It seemed this Flame Elf Queen too had some story no one knew.
"I understand what you mean. As you've just said, I'm willing to cooperate with you." Zhao Chen held out his hand.
At once the Flame Elf Queen took Zhao Chen's hand and blinked. "I must tell you beforehand, though. In this first stage I have only five million warships in hand, with all those articles and clauses restricting me. Which means that in the fighting of this first stage, your Owl Dragon legion fleets will have to bear no small pressure, and even very heavy casualties!"
"I know. To tell you the truth, without your Sacred Elf Empire we'd still have to fight this war. Just as you said, this is our home," Zhao Chen said with a smile.
"Talking with you is a pleasure. Much better than talking with that High Council lot; those fellows can talk one matter over for ten days or half a month," the Flame Elf Queen could not help grumbling.
But at this point Zhao Chen looked at the Flame Elf Queen gravely. "Salaman, I know that in this cooperation, whether between empire and empire, or between you and me, it's in truth a matter of using each other. But I don't mind; people use each other anyway. But if the promises you give me can't be kept, then even going down to hell, I'll take someone down with me."
The Flame Elf Queen could hear that Zhao Chen was very grave this time, for he had called the Flame Elf Queen by her name outright: 'Salaman.'
"Zhao Chen, I swear to you by my honor and by the Elf God. In the cooperation between you and me, what I say I will certainly do!"
Zhao Chen smiled slightly, and the heavy air of a moment ago was gone entirely,
as though the two had only been chatting all along.
"Then, now that the business is done, and we're closer than before, may I ask you a question I'm privately rather curious about?" Zhao Chen looked at the Flame Elf Queen.
"Go on," the Flame Elf Queen said.
"Is there some secret about your World Tree?" Zhao Chen asked.
The Flame Elf Queen's expression stopped short.
She glanced at Zhao Chen; this time she did not change the subject, but her tone was very calm. "That I can't tell you now. And don't go asking about it either; you won't find out anything. If the other Elf Sovereigns or anyone of the High Council even learned you were curious about it, it would affect our cooperation. When… when I think I can tell you, I'll tell you of my own accord."
Zhao Chen frowned slightly; the woman was dangling a promise in front of him.
"Then here's what. When we've wiped out this first fifteen million warships the Devourer Civilization sends, if my Owl Dragon legion fleets have destroyed more of the enemy than the elf legion fleets under you, will you tell me the answer to this question then?" Zhao Chen said.
Enemy destroyed?
The Flame Elf Queen glanced at Zhao Chen suspiciously.
She did not deny that the Owl Dragon Empire's present Imperial legion fleet groups were fine, and those Owl Dragon-line warships quite strong.
But in her mind they were still a good way short of the Sacred Elf Empire's military strength.
So on the battlefield there was bound to be a gap in the number of enemy destroyed.
And for destroying these fifteen million Devourer Civilization warships, she estimated it would take at least three months to half a year of fighting.
"No problem," the Flame Elf Queen agreed coolly.
"Then it's settled." Zhao Chen smiled slightly.
Then he stood up. "Then I'll go back first and prepare for the war to come, comrade."
The Flame Elf Queen watched Zhao Chen's back and laughed. "See you later, comrade."