"And what's more, I've now begun to suspect that this matter of my elder brother being ambushed and killed may well be connected to the Prince Faction. This whole string of matters is too coincidental. My elder brother is ambushed and killed out there, and then my father-emperor falls gravely and irrecoverably ill — and thereupon their Prince Faction, riding the momentum, seizes the power. For them, this has surely gone all too smoothly!" Qin Xiaolei said in a low, grave voice.
Zhao Chen nodded; he'd suspected this point too.
The cause of this whole string of matters was, in fact, all the First Prince's murder.
Had the First Prince still been here, then that pack of the Prince Faction's simply couldn't have stirred up any wind or wave whatsoever.
"Then, as for the future, do you have any thought? I mean a substantive thought." Zhao Chen looked at Qin Xiaolei.
Qin Xiaolei's brows knit tight; she shook her head.
"None… these past few days I've been thinking all along, but just as you said, the present situation is far too unfavorable to us. I… I truly don't know what I ought to do…" As she spoke, Qin Xiaolei somewhat painfully clutched at her head.
Zhao Ruyue looked at Qin Xiaolei with some ache of heart, and turned, unable to bear it, to look at Zhao Chen.
By the look of it, this elder sister of his truly did have a fine relationship with this little Princess.
Since that was how it was, then he'd be truly straightforward about it, opening the door to see the mountain.
Zhao Chen tapped his fingers against the tabletop, his gaze like a blazing torch.
"Your Highness the Princess — what if I say that I'm willing to support and help you?"
"Truly?" Qin Xiaolei looked at Zhao Chen with delighted surprise.
Right now, what Qin Xiaolei most lacked was support.
"But I hope Your Highness the Princess can understand: in this world, there's no fine meal to be had for no rhyme or reason," Zhao Chen said with a faint smile.
Qin Xiaolei at once vowed with the most solemn assurance, "I know! So long as you're willing to help me, then once I've toppled the Prince Faction, whatever it is you want, I'll give it to you!"
What I want, you may well not be able to give yet. Still, to say all this now was empty; what he himself wanted was, too, merely this "chicken-feather arrow-token" of the little Princess — so that, when the time came, his army would march with a just and named cause, that was all.
"These things aren't important now; we'll speak of them when the time comes. Only, right now I have a three-article covenant to make with you!" Zhao Chen said in earnest.[1] He could prop up the little Princess — but he had no wish to prop up a fool.
"Speak!" Qin Xiaolei said.
Zhao Chen said gravely, "You must submit to my command, and trust me completely — your interstellar fleet included. Should any divergence of opinion arise between us, then, to carry on with what I said just now — everything centers on my ideas. And if I make some arrangements that you have doubts about, don't ask too much; just do them."
Qin Xiaolei was taken aback; the requirements Zhao Chen put forth were not complex — their core was two words: "be obedient."
"Then do you have some plan? You've seen it too — in the present situation, for us to turn the table over and take the power back anew from the Prince Faction's hands is far too hard," Qin Xiaolei inquired into Zhao Chen's plan.
Zhao Chen said, light and unhurried as a passing cloud, "For the present, to try to take back the power is, indeed, not easy. And so what I suggest is — wait!"
"Wait?" Qin Xiaolei was puzzled.
"Though on the surface it looks now as though the Starlight Empire's power and authority are within the Prince Faction's grasp — in fact, right now is the time of the most complex circumstances; the great majority of people are merely taking a stance for the sake of their own interests, that's all. On the strength of the Prince Faction alone, it's in fact very hard to truly control the Starlight Empire. And, what's more, the external environment now is very complex too; because of this matter of the Mechanical Race's withdrawal, the friction among the three powers — the Holy Radiance Empire, the Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth, and the Starlight Empire — intensifies. The smell of gunpowder grows thicker and heavier by the day; sooner or later, one day, this powder-keg is going to blow. And by then, it will be our chance! And so, what we must do now is — wait! Besides, you may perhaps be worried about your mother-empress's safety; by the look of it now, Governor Chu of Chu River will protect your mother-empress, and the two of them, at the Capital Star, will be safer than in any other place — this point you needn't worry over," Zhao Chen said in earnest.
"Then how long must I wait?" Qin Xiaolei inquired.
Zhao Chen thought a moment, then answered, "At the short end, a year; at the long end, three years."
"Very well! I'll listen to you." Qin Xiaolei looked at Zhao Chen and said resolutely.
In truth, this was, too, because she had no other choice; she had, now, no other person she could lean upon.
Even the Princess's fleet in her hands had suffered grievous losses — 3,000 interstellar warships, and now, of those in her hands, only 500 were fit to fight!
On the strength of her own ability alone, what talk could there be of taking the power back?
"Over this stretch of time, your Princess's fleet will, for now, garrison this Lion King System; afterward I'll arrange interstellar industrial ships to conduct repairs on your interstellar warships. To restore your combat power." Zhao Chen laid out.
"Thank you."
"Speaking of it — why were we in the Reef Star Region?" Qin Xiaolei put forth a doubt, and then, half-consciously, asked, "Why is there, within your territory, a star gate that can lead through to the Reef Star Region? Isn't the Owl Dragon System a single-star system, unable to build a star gate?"
Zhao Chen looked at Qin Xiaolei with a smile.
Qin Xiaolei caught on, covered her own mouth, and softly inquired, "Have I… asked about something I shouldn't have?"
"In fact this isn't quite anything that can't be told. Your coming here relied upon a T3 Radiant Moon-class Star Gate that we built ourselves; this class of star-gate technology is comparatively special, and one point of it is, precisely, that a star gate can be built within a single-star system's star system. As for why we're in the Reef Star Region — that's because this place belongs to me." Zhao Chen spread open his two arms, and said, light and unhurried as a passing cloud.
Qin Xiaolei and Zhao Ruyue were both taken aback; for a moment they hadn't grasped the meaning within Zhao Chen's words.
"The Reef Star Region belongs to you?" Zhao Ruyue looked at her younger brother in astonishment.
Zhao Chen said with a smile, by way of explanation, "You've seen it too — I have in hand some secrets that can't quite bear the light of day. It's not that I'm insufficiently loyal to the Starlight Empire; it's chiefly for the sake of protecting myself. And so, earlier I came to the Reef Star Region and occupied a star system, meaning to forge here another base of my own — for, as the common saying goes so well: a wily hare keeps three burrows. And the upshot was — who'd have thought it — in the end, blundering and stumbling into it, the whole Reef Star Region is now mine. The Snake-folk are now my proxy, managing the Reef Star Region on my behalf; the person responsible for the Reef Star Region on the surface is she. But in fact, the Reef Star Region already bears the surname 'Owl Dragon.'"
Hearing this that Zhao Chen said, Zhao Ruyue was given a fright; she had never, never imagined that this younger brother of hers would, of all things, have so great a secret.
He was, of all things, the master of a whole star region!
For one must know, the Starlight Empire had, all told, only eight star regions; this was the equal of a star-region governor's position.
"Just how many secrets, after all, do you still have?" Zhao Ruyue looked at her younger brother in curiosity; since her return, she'd discovered that the secrets upon this younger brother of hers were truly far too many.
That class of interstellar warship, for instance.
"Ah, right — I have a question too. Earlier, when we fled back to the Owl Dragon System, it was over in a single instant… at the time there was an interstellar warship that opened up something like a star gate… what was that interstellar warship?" Zhao Ruyue inquired in curiosity.
"The T4 Lucent-class Interstellar Jump Ship — a sort of interstellar warship that can open a star gate, the equal of being able to carry an interstellar fleet along for a group spatial jump. When I arranged for the Owl Dragon Legion to go lend you support, I equipped it with two T4 Lucent-class Interstellar Jump Ships. First, it jumped from the Owl Dragon System to the Grey Moon Star Region where you were; and after rescuing you, it then used the T4 Lucent-class Interstellar Jump Ship to return," Zhao Chen said blandly.
But his words left Zhao Ruyue and Qin Xiaolei staring dumbstruck, mouths agape.
Just what sort of immortal, deific interstellar warship was this!
It was, quite simply, a divine weapon of war!