After the agreement with Qin Xiaolei had been nailed down, Zhao Chen took his leave.
Zhao Ruyue saw Zhao Chen off.
The two of them didn't take the hovering elevator, but rather walked at a slow pace along the long corridor within this T4 Boreas-class Heavy Interstellar Battleship.
"10 billion star coins can procure a whole interstellar legion fleet — just what abacus is it, exactly, that you're clicking away at?" Zhao Ruyue looked at her younger brother suspiciously.
At the price of 10 billion star coins, though Zhao Chen might still turn a profit, the margin of profit ought not to be very large.
Could it be that her younger brother truly, sincerely and in earnest, wished to prop up Princess Qin Xiaolei?
"What abacus could I be clicking? Of course, it's all for the good of us all. This piece of business — the Princess is pleased, and I'm satisfied too. It's a beauty that serves both sides." The smile on Zhao Chen's face was very thick.
Perhaps in Zhao Ruyue's and Qin Xiaolei's minds, the build cost of so powerful an interstellar legion fleet would, beyond doubt, far exceed the normal price — at the least 30 or 40 billion star coins, or even higher still.
But—!
They would absolutely never imagine that, for an interstellar legion fleet built to this standard, Zhao Chen needed no more than 10 billion star coins!
And so, even at a procurement price of 10 billion for one interstellar legion fleet, Zhao Chen still had 91% profit.
400 billion star coins — Zhao Chen could directly bank 360 billion star coins!
Perhaps some might wonder: this Zhao Chen doesn't know how to do business — the normal procurement price is 40 billion, and here you've cheapened it fourfold.
You could have built fewer interstellar warships and earned more money.
But what Zhao Chen was thinking wasn't so simple.
Qin Xiaolei's chief aim in building up the fleet was the future war with the Prince Faction.
And Zhao Chen stood on the Prince Faction's opposing side; sooner or later there'd be a battle for him too.
Building up the interstellar legion fleets for Qin Xiaolei now — these interstellar warships could, too, be seen as a future boost to Zhao Chen's own strength.
And so, as for the quantity — of course, the more the better.
To put it more directly: a large-scale campaign, in the end, needs some cannon-fodder; on the strength of a scanty-numbered elite fleet alone, it's very hard to win a large-scale campaign, and even if one won, one would more than likely pay an exceedingly grievous price.
These 120,000 interstellar warships Zhao Chen was preparing for Qin Xiaolei were, precisely, the cannon-fodder of the interstellar wars to come!
It counted, too, as a kind of investment on Zhao Chen's part.
Naturally, one couldn't look only at one's own profit before one's eyes.
And as for the 360 billion star coins going into Zhao Chen's own pocket — that, when the time came, he'd use to build up an elite fleet for Zhao Chen himself; and why not, indeed?
"Why is it I've heard the sound of an abacus clicking?" Zhao Ruyue still looked at her younger brother suspiciously.
Zhao Chen shifted the topic and asked, "Sis, what plans do you have for the future? Is it to go on staying in the Princess's fleet, or to return to our Owl Dragon Legion fleet? If it's the latter, I can directly give you the post of the Owl Dragon Legion fleet's Deputy Commander-in-Chief. Didn't you, before, want to govern the Owl Dragon System? Jiang Hong is now in the post of acting lord; you could go and take it over."
Zhao Ruyue shook her head, and said with a smile, "In the past, my eyes held only the Owl Dragon System; but I've knocked about out there for so many years. In truth, the Owl Dragon System is too small — small to the point of insignificance. And, what's more, the Owl Dragon System, now under your governance, is orderly and in good array; there's no need for me to stick a hand in either. As for returning to the Owl Dragon Legion fleet… in the present situation, the Princess's fleet's side has more need of me. I still want to stay over here." Having said this, Zhao Ruyue looked at her younger brother with some apology.
By rights, being one family, she ought to be helping her younger brother; but this side was, too, the enterprise she'd held to and persisted in all this while.
As for his eldest sister's thinking, Zhao Chen had, in fact, long been prepared in his heart; this was, too, an arrangement he could accept.
Once the Princess's fleet grew strong in the future, there'd surely need to be someone to command it.
By the look of it now, the little Princess, though a decent sort, was not an excellent fleet commander.
And now the little Princess trusted Zhao Ruyue greatly — and, adding to that, a slight bit of "pressure" from Zhao Chen down the line — for Zhao Ruyue to command the Princess's fleet was fitting beyond compare.
Though this legion fleet was, in Zhao Chen's eyes, cannon-fodder, even cannon-fodder needed an excellent commander at its head to bring out its greatest use.
"I respect your choice. And conveniently, matters connected to the Princess's fleet down the line, I can interface directly with you — that'll save no small amount of trouble," Zhao Chen said with a laugh.
Zhao Ruyue put on a show of earnestness.
"Don't you go thinking that because we're brother and sister, I'll open a back door for you. Cheating the Princess — that I won't do."
"Do I look like that sort of person?" Zhao Chen couldn't help a laugh.
Zhao Ruyue looked at her younger brother, and nodded gravely.
The two siblings, chatting idly thus, walked at a slow pace through the T4 Boreas; they walked the whole way for over an hour before they reached the position of the hangar.
Zhao Chen took a shuttle back to his own T3 Phoenix; at the same time, he got in contact with his own Lilith, Annie, and Charlotte.
He was to convene an internal high-level summit of the Owl Dragon Legion.
On the one hand, it was the matter of building up the Princess's fleet this time; on the other, it was to nail down the Owl Dragon Legion's future direction of construction.
By now, Zhao Chen had already led the Owl Dragon Legion onto this grand game of chess that was the Starlight Empire; he had, from an originally obscure, unremarked chess piece, become a chess player situated within the darkness.
Within the Starlight Empire, in the future, there would surely be a battle!
He had to begin making ready.
…………
T3 Phoenix-class Heavy Carrier Starship · meeting room.
Lilith was the first to arrive; having learned in advance the main content of this meeting, she was helping the Commander put in order the relevant meeting materials.
After that, Annie and Charlotte arrived at the same time.
Annie, a lollipop in her mouth, walked over to the round table, and looked at the hovering chair, whose height came up to her very neck.
She, with practiced skill, worked the controls, and the hovering chair slowly descended; after Annie had sat up onto it, the chair then slowly rose back up.
Lilith, sitting opposite, could see a big head slowly rising up from across the table.
Watching Annie licking her lollipop, swinging her two legs in her happy way — Lilith thought that she'd best not, for the moment, speak of one item of this meeting's content; otherwise, by all estimates, Annie wouldn't be in such a fine mood as she was now. (For the item = the building-up of the Princess's fleet = more work for Annie.)
Lilith's nose gave a slight twitch; she'd caught a whiff of a fishy smell.
She looked toward Charlotte, who was walking past behind her — and in Charlotte's mouth was, just then, a grilled fish clamped between her teeth.
Perhaps it was that, back in the rebel-army days, she'd been through hunger, and that, added to the awakening of her foodie-attribute, meant that now, the moment Charlotte had a spare moment, she'd have a fish clamped in her teeth.
Indeed — when conducting starship combat, whereas other starship commanders might be in the habit of, say, a cigarette clamped in their teeth, this Charlotte of theirs liked to clamp a fish in her mouth, and with a mere flick of the hand could command the interstellar fleet to annihilate an enemy several times its number.
By all estimates, the enemy would find it very hard to believe that their opponent, in the very act of wiping them out, was, of all things, in such a manner and mode.
"Have one?" Charlotte's gaze met Lilith's; Charlotte, from who-knew-where, fished out another little dried fish, and held it out before Lilith.
Looking at the little dried fish before her, Lilith wondered why this scene felt as though she'd seen it somewhere before.
"No need. Sit down first; the Lord Commander will arrive soon." Lilith declined Charlotte's little dried fish.
Charlotte, then, sat down in her own seat with the little dried fish clamped in her teeth.
At this point, Zhao Chen arrived; he looked at these three able and trusted generals of his before him.
It was very hard to believe that this was the Owl Dragon Legion's high-level summit — why was it, somehow, a touch comical?