The head of the Jiang family, Jiang Xiong, was, at this moment, walking slowly into the Zhao residence with his son and daughter.
"Father, that news you spoke of earlier — that two ships annihilated the whole pirate fleet — is it true?" Jiang Xiong's son, Jiang Shasha's younger brother, Jiang Ziwen, asked in a low voice.
Off to the side, Jiang Shasha's face was drawn tight; she bit lightly at her lip, as though turning over some worry of her own.
"The battle was at Dragon-Tail Planet, and we have a branch line at Dragon-Tail; the news is true past all doubt. The wreckage of those pirate ships is still adrift out beyond Dragon-Tail Planet," Jiang Xiong said in a low, heavy voice.
"Sis, were both those ships Zhao Chen's? Where did Zhao Chen come by ships as fearsome as that?" Jiang Ziwen asked, curious.
Jiang Shasha thought back on the two ship-images her father had shown her earlier — one of which was that very carrier starship hanging 20,000 kilometers above their heads.
"One is called Blizzard Zero; it's the ship Zhao Chen used to win the starship duel at the Northstar Starship Military Academy. The other, that carrier starship, I've never seen; I don't know anything about it," Jiang Shasha said quietly.
Suddenly a wave of the stench of blood rolled over them.
And just as they wondered where such a reek of blood at the Zhao residence could come from, the scene before them made the pupils of all three go wide.
Stone pillars stood upright throughout the Zhao courtyard, and to each was bound a person — some alive, some barely so, some already corpses, having breathed their last.
The identities of these people they knew as well.
Two of them, one dead and one living, they knew better still.
Two of the Owl Dragon Star System's three great families — the Bao family patriarch and the Cui family patriarch!
Passing through this "forest of stone pillars," the three of the Jiang family came before the Zhao family.
Jiang Shasha looked at that man before her.
A stranger…
His face was familiar, yes — but the look in his eyes, the cast of his expression, the very aura about him—
—left her feeling that the Zhao Chen she'd known these 20-odd years and the Zhao Chen before her now were, quite simply, two different men.
"The Jiang family's Jiang Xiong, leading my children Jiang Ziwen and Jiang Shasha, come by command to pay respects to the baron." Jiang Xiong was the first to bow to Zhao Chen.
Jiang Ziwen and Jiang Shasha bowed after him.
"Uncle Jiang has come quite early," Zhao Chen said, eyeing Jiang Xiong with a smiling squint.
"The moment I received the baron's word, I hurried straight here, not daring to delay." Jiang Xiong kept his head bowed, the very picture of a humble, honest man.
"The matter of the Bao and Cui families' treachery — do you know of it?" Zhao Chen came straight out with the crux of it.
Jiang Ziwen and Jiang Shasha's hearts lurched; they felt for all the world like men with a blade laid to the throat.
"I know of it," Jiang Xiong said.
"So you took part?" Zhao Chen asked, flatly.
"I did not," Jiang Xiong said.
"You didn't take part — then what were you doing all this while?" Zhao Chen fixed his eyes on Jiang Xiong.
"The Bao and Cui families' treachery I learned of only a month ago, but by that time Owl Dragon Prime was already under those two's control. The ships under my command were conscripted away by them. I had no wish to make common cause with them, yet no power to stop them either — so I could do nothing but watch it all unfold before my eyes. Thank heaven the baron is safe and sound, and has broken the crisis."
Jiang Xiong turned the thread of his words then, and went down on one knee. "But I know — as a vassal, to have done nothing in the face of the Bao and Cui families' revolt is as good as aiding them. I, Jiang Xiong, am willing to accept any punishment the baron sees fit. I ask only that the baron spare the women, children, and elders of my Jiang family!"
Jiang Shasha looked with worry to her father, and then to that stranger of a man.
"You've done no wrong; in this matter I lay no blame on you. Take your children and step aside for now; shortly I mean to convene an assembly of the Owl Dragon Star System's nobility." Zhao Chen turned the subject aside outright.
He did not, then and there, mete out any punishment to the Jiang family.
Time slipped by, moment by moment.
The corpses and captives in the Zhao courtyard grew ever more numerous, and so too did the family heads arriving at the summons; every one of them, on seeing the blood-soaked scene of the Zhao courtyard, went pale with shock.
"Everyone's here," Jiang Hong came to Zhao Chen's side and murmured.
Zhao Chen swept a look around the Zhao courtyard. Beyond the living and the dead bound to the pillars, every noble of the Owl Dragon Star System, great and small, had arrived — 20 or 30 of them, all told.
The most powerful among them was, without question, the Jiang family, the sole survivor of the three great houses.
"The matter of the Bao and Cui families' treachery, I have already dealt with cleanly. Any who took part in it are likewise bound to those stone pillars." Zhao Chen pointed at the blood-drenched pillars.
"I know that many of you, in the past, would not submit to me as your lord. You thought me a good-for-nothing." Zhao Chen spread his hands. "It's of no matter; on that score I truly don't care. However you gossip about me behind my back, that's fine. If you feel I'm not fit to be your lord, you're perfectly free to choose to leave the Owl Dragon Star System and seek your fortunes elsewhere. I, Zhao Chen, won't stop you."
Then Zhao Chen's expression shifted, and without anger there was authority in it. "But I detest, above all, one thing: people who show one face to the front and another behind. Since they chose this road, they must pay the price for their choice. Jiang Hong."
"Your servant is here." Jiang Hong stepped forward.
Zhao Chen produced a list. "The families on this list — every one of them still living, take them all into custody. Behead the ringleaders; the remaining family members, all of them, are to be sent to the mining region for labor without end."
Looking at that list of Zhao Chen's, everyone present wore a look of horror.
For it was, quite simply, a death list.
"As for the families not on the list — how many of you are truly clean, you know well enough in your own hearts. In the past, whatever petty games you played, I let pass. From this day forward, remember this: the Owl Dragon Star System bears the name Zhao! If you don't like it, then you may clear off out of here. Otherwise — I rather fear that one day you too might turn up on one of these stone pillars." Zhao Chen turned, putting his back to the crowd. "All right. The assembly ends here."
"Second Grandma, it's getting late; we should go and eat. I've had dinner prepared for you — you're sure to like it." Zhao Chen, smiling, helped the old madam up and walked with her into the main house — a wholly different man now from the Yama-king he'd been a moment before.
And the crowd left standing in the courtyard looked at one another, at a loss.
No one knew who moved first, but one after another they lowered their heads and left the Zhao residence.
Aboard the Jiang family shuttle.
"Make ready — we're relocating the whole clan," Jiang Xiong said in a low, heavy voice.
"Relocate the whole clan? Why? We have a great many enterprises in the Owl Dragon Star System!" Jiang Ziwen was surprised.
Jiang Xiong heaved a sigh. "You didn't catch the meaning in what Zhao Chen said just now. That was a warning to us. If we don't hand over these enterprises nice and obedient, our Jiang family will become a third Bao family, a third Cui family! Without our enterprises, we can start over from nothing. And besides, I've long since laid groundwork in other star systems. As an interstellar merchant, one must understand the principle of the cunning hare and its three burrows."
"But… must we truly go? Shasha is Zhao Chen's fiancée; given the ties between our two families, we could well throw our whole hearts behind supporting Zhao Chen — perhaps we might even stand as second only to the lord himself in the Owl Dragon Star System!" Jiang Ziwen said, spinning out the fantasy.
Hearing this, Jiang Shasha's head bowed lower still.
Jiang Xiong looked at his daughter and said coldly, "The things your sister did at the Northstar Starship Military Academy — do you not know of them? The bond of feeling between us and the Zhao family ended long ago. Had we too taken part in the Bao and Cui families' revolt this time, then Zhao Chen would, without the least hesitation, have bound us to those stone pillars as well. While we still have a choice, let's have the good sense to leave this place."
Jiang Xiong looked, through the shuttle's viewport, toward the direction of the Zhao residence. "The Zhao family has a son come of age."