The shuttle.
Zhao Ruyue looked out through the porthole at that huge, vast star gate outside, and at those interstellar warships drifting about around it.
Further off there was, besides, a busy group of interstellar industrial ships.
Had she not seen it with her own eyes, she truly would have found it very hard to believe that these, of all things, all belonged to the Owl Dragon System.
Even though, in her younger sister's company, she'd already seen no small amount, up to now she still, within, could not for a long while digest all these things.
She did know that this younger brother of hers had, over these past two years, gotten up to no small number of things.
Repeatedly establishing extraordinary merit, beginning to build up the Owl Dragon System, and possessing advanced interstellar warships besides.
But who could have thought that this younger brother of hers would, of all things, secretly possess so terrifying an estate as this?
"Wan'er… are these really all things that Zhao Chen forged up single-handedly?" Zhao Ruyue looked at her little sister.
Zhao Wan'er rolled her eyes.
"Sis, you've asked this question no fewer than 10 times these past few days. This star gate, these interstellar warships, are indeed, truly, all built up under Second Brother's arrangement. Though this is, of course, also on account of others' help. That Lilith you met — she's Second Brother's right arm and left; don't look down on her for being a succubus, her ability is truly, super-terribly formidable. Nearly the whole Owl Dragon Legion system is under her management. I can put it this way: without Lilith, my Second Brother probably couldn't even sleep at night. And there are, besides, military-officer geniuses like Charlotte, and industrial-tech geniuses like Annie. These few years, at Second Brother's side, a great many such talents have gathered. I know that you, Big Sis, may still be unwilling to believe it. But I can guarantee to you that these are, truly, all things that Zhao Chen — your younger brother — built." As Zhao Wan'er spoke these words, an expression of pride brimmed upon her face.
For all the world as though these were things she herself had done.
Zhao Ruyue drew a deep breath, and said with a self-mocking laugh, "I… perhaps in my heart I still can't quite accept this fact."
"Indeed — were it me, I might well not be able to digest it in a short span of time either. But whatever the case, this is a good thing. Now that the Owl Dragon System's been built up so well, you, Sis, needn't toil hard out there anymore. Our whole family can be reunited together!" Zhao Wan'er tugged at her elder sister's wrist, and said happily.
Zhao Ruyue looked at her younger sister, and, doting, stroked her head.
"Arrived at the target starship's hangar; you may disembark." A mechanical voice sounded at this point.
Thereupon, the shuttle's hatch opened.
As the hatch slowly lowered, a man dressed in a black military uniform appeared before them.
Zhao Ruyue looked at the man before her, wearing a faint, slight smile.
Some years unseen — she felt, of all things, a touch of strangeness.
Zhao Ruyue and Zhao Wan'er walked down from the shuttle.
Zhao Ruyue and this man before her stood facing each other; for a moment, Zhao Ruyue — this woman who'd been through no small number of great storms and towering waves — of all things, didn't know what to say.
She'd imagined the scene of meeting this younger brother of hers many times over.
But she'd never, never imagined it would, of all things, be under a situation such as this one before her.
In the end, it was still Zhao Chen who was the first to speak; looking at this elder sister before him, a beauty to make the fish sink and the wild geese fall, he said, "Welcome home."
Simple words.
And yet they jabbed straight at the soft, tender spot in Zhao Ruyue's heart.
Back then, she hadn't understood their father's arrangement — she who was plainly the more gifted, plainly the more suited to become the Owl Dragon lord; why, of all things, had he arranged for the then-good-for-nothing younger brother to inherit the title?
She had been angry; she had been unreconciled to it.
And in the end, she'd still chosen to leave her home and her native soil, and flee this place.
But now, facing this younger brother before her — at once familiar and strange — she was at peace.
The heart-knots of all these many years, in this instant, seemed all to loosen and be at peace.
She gently lifted a hand and stroked across Zhao Chen's cheek.
"You've grown up."
……
Some 10-odd minutes later, within the starship dining hall of the T3 Phoenix.
In a private booth, the three of them — Zhao Chen, Zhao Ruyue, and Zhao Wan'er — sat together; upon the table were laid out sumptuous foods, and they enjoyed these fine and delicious dishes.
Zhao Ruyue looked at these foods; apart from the astonishment of the first day of her coming, she had, by now, gradually come to accept them.
Back when she'd first heard that the meal-treatment of every last woman-soldier, high and low, in the Owl Dragon Legion was of this kind, she'd found it inconceivable.
For one must know, within the Princess's royal fleet, even ordinary women-soldiers hadn't so fine a treatment as this.
Afterward, she'd been to the T2 Bronze Eden and the T3 Silver Eden, and she'd come, one might say, to understand just what the confidence behind Zhao Chen's arranging things this way was.
It truly was inconceivable interstellar-warship technology.
…………
"The situation over at the Starlight Empire's Capital Star just now is thus. When I went for the conferral, one could very plainly feel it: the Prince Faction, headed by Consort Zhen and the Second Prince Qin Ming, has already grasped the Starlight Empire's political power. Though I don't know the true attitudes of those star-region governors, imperial marshals, and the various forces — at the least, on the surface, they're all supporting the Prince Faction. And the Starlight Emperor never appeared, from beginning to end. Governor Chu of Chu River has already been placed under house arrest at the Capital Star, but at present there's no danger to his life; it's only that he can't leave his own residence. It's heard that when the little Princess's royal-bloodline scandal broke, Governor Chu of Chu River took the Empress in to his own residence; by the look of it, Governor Chu of Chu River means to protect the Empress. And so, at least for the present, the Empress is still safe." Zhao Chen looked toward Zhao Ruyue, sharing the Starlight Empire's situation as it now stood.
Zhao Ruyue sighed.
"Who'd have thought — that in this bare span of a few days, so many things would, of all things, have occurred. The little Princess, on account of coming by relevant leads on the investigation of the First Prince incident, went to the Grey Moon Star Region — and was intercepted and set upon to be killed. Looked at this way, this was something done deliberately by someone — precisely with the thought of, taking advantage of this crucial joint, directly wiping out the little Princess. And by then, no matter what the truth of the matter was, everything would already be a boat made of the timber[1], and no one else would have any means to do a thing about it."
Zhao Chen nodded.
A very clumsy plan, with a great many flaws.
But it was, on the contrary, a plan of just this direct kind that was, at this juncture, exceedingly effective.
Those within the game all knew full well in their hearts — they saw through it, but did not say through it.
And yet they had no means to do anything at all.
"What's the little Princess's situation been these past few days? Does she have any thought on how to deal with this matter?" Zhao Chen inquired.
Originally, Zhao Chen had had no wish to meddle in this sort of royal-house strife.
But there was nothing to be done — now this scalding-hot potato was in his hands, and he could only inquire into it a bit.
"The little Princess's emotions are very much in disorder now. Upon learning of the matter of her mother-empress being falsely slandered, she at one point wanted to return to the Capital Star to verify her own royal bloodline; then Consort Zhen's rumor would shatter without needing to be attacked," Zhao Ruyue said.
"Return to the Capital Star, verify the royal bloodline?" Zhao Chen said with a light laugh and a shake of his head.
"That's easy to say; it seems an exceedingly simple means of breaking the deadlock. But now the whole regime is within the Prince Faction's control. Never mind whether the little Princess, once her whereabouts are exposed, could even smoothly return to the Capital Star. Even were it, in the end, to reach the road of bloodline-verification — who dares guarantee that, right under the Prince Faction's eyes, this bloodline… would verify to what sort of conclusion."
Zhao Ruyue, too, understood the principle within, and her face showed a look of difficulty.
"Sis, let me ask you a question. What do you make of this little Princess, Qin Xiaolei?" Zhao Chen fixed a narrowed gaze upon Zhao Ruyue.
Zhao Ruyue looked at her younger brother in astonishment; she'd caught that these words of his brother's carried no small number of meanings within them.