"Rest assured, Commander… sir! The task you've set me… I'll be sure to complete. Never dreamed the great — hic~ — the great Lord Commander would even go and develop… a T4 interstellar battleship! Annie's reverence for you… flows on without end…" Annie's mouth was stuffed full like a hamster's, and yet she rattled off flattery all the while.
At this moment Annie, Zhao Chen, and Lilith were seated within a small private room, dish upon dish of delicious fare laid out on the table.
And this was no ordinary fine fare.
Every ingredient was drawn from the very highest grade of the T3 Silver Eden-class Ship's produce — of exceedingly low yield, at present supplied exclusively for Zhao Chen himself, or for the entertaining of honored guests.
And the chefs in charge of the cooking were, one and all, the finest to be had — skilled, besides, in the signature dishes of every interstellar race.
For this, Zhao Chen had even put together a 'chef corps' of near 300.
One might put it this way: even the Starlight Empire's royal house, in the matter of eating, didn't know how to enjoy itself so well as Zhao Chen.
Lilith watched the ravenously gorging Annie, then glanced at the faintly smiling Commander beside her.
Seeing Lilith look his way, Zhao Chen made, with forefinger and thumb, a little pinching gesture.
Lilith couldn't help a laugh — this darling Annie had truly been pinched wholly in the Commander's grip.
She still recalled how Annie had worn a face full of grievance when first summoned.
And now, look — Annie all but knelt before Zhao Chen, clutching his leg and singing hymns of surrender.
In all the interstellar civilizations, it was likely there were few who invested such heavy coin in eating as their Commander did.
"Commander… this… how is this beef so delicious? Even more fragrant than what I have Big Sister Bull cook… and this beef shank — it's springier to the touch than Big Sister Bull's own thigh; the feel of it's marvelous." Annie clutched a beef shank the size of her own head, showing it off, praising away without cease.
Within the Owl Dragon Legion she'd sampled no small amount of fine food, and had thought the fare of the starship canteens already the very ceiling.
But set against the food to be enjoyed here at the Commander's, it was, quite simply, a world apart.
So this was how well a Commander got to live?
When would she get herself a Commander's post too?
"Ahem, ahem…" Zhao Chen somehow felt there was something not-quite-right about the comparisons in Annie's words — and that gaze of hers upon him was distinctly odd, too.
"These are all ingredients I've hand-picked, then cooked up by top-tier chefs — the flavor's bound to be different. Only crew members who've contributed to the Owl Dragon Legion get to enjoy fine fare like this!" Zhao Chen began instilling the notion in Annie.
In fact, ever since the count of T3 Silver Eden-class Ships had begun to grow, and the 'Eden Grain Trade Group' had been set up, Zhao Chen had deliberately begun grading the raw ingredients from it.
At present there were chiefly four grades: third-grade, second-grade, first-grade, and special-supply.
As a rule, the T2 Bronze Eden produced at lowest a third-grade, with a chance of a second-grade, and a very low chance of a first-grade.
But with the T3 Silver Eden-class Ship it was another matter: the yield of second-grade ingredients rose greatly, the count of first-grade rose along with it, and there even appeared ingredients finer than first-grade.
This last sort was called special-supply ingredients.
Their quantity was exceedingly scarce.
And so Annie, used to the ingredients of the starship canteens, on now tasting the fine fare made from these top-grade ingredients, felt for all the world as though she'd arrived in another, still more wonderful paradise.
Zhao Chen — perhaps by a habit of his former life — set great store by fine food, and was especially fond of talking business at the table.
Gradually, in others' eyes, this Commander Zhao Chen took on the attribute of a 'gourmand.'
"As for the build plan for the T4 Blue-Eyes White Dragon-class Heavy Interstellar Armored Battleship — do you have a rough idea on your end?" Zhao Chen asked.
Annie, at this, was not the least bit vague; she said straight out: "Our T3 Furnace-class Heavy Interstellar Industrial Ships have some spare capacity going; we can slowly build one T4 Blue-Eyes White Dragon first. It's projected it can be finished and delivered by early next year."
Zhao Chen nodded in satisfaction — early next year.
That should be just about the tail end of the civil war; it ought to be in time.
"Then let's do that; I'll leave this matter to you to arrange," Zhao Chen said.
"Heh heh… Lord Commander, can I still — hic — come cadge a meal off you next time?" Annie looked at Zhao Chen with a smiling squint, one hand pressed to a belly that looked for all the world as though it were carrying twins.
Zhao Chen, all smiles, spread his hands and said generously: "Of course — so long as you complete the task I've set you. From now on, every time you come to report your work to me, I'll lay on a banquet like this for you. Eat your fill!"
Annie nodded again and again — the Lord Commander was reliable after all, even fixing her up a little private spread.
Watching Annie feel her way out of the room one step at a time along the wall, Zhao Chen wiped his mouth and let show a thoroughly contented smile.
"Lord Commander, Princess Qin Xiaolei's side has been asking all this while when she can send her Princess's fleet to the battlefield!" Lilith asked at this point.
Zhao Chen shook his head: "It's still too soon to be in a hurry. Though the Princess's legion fleet is fitted, one and all, with our interstellar warships, its combat experience is, after all, wanting. To haul it onto the battlefield for a war of attrition — that simply won't do. These interstellar warships must serve as a surprise force, playing the part that settles the matter with a single stroke."
Lilith nodded: "Then I'll pass word to Princess Qin Xiaolei and the others, and have them wait a while longer."
"Mm. Tell them — it won't be too long a wait," Zhao Chen said mildly.
"Yes."
The whole of the ensuing October, it seemed, passed with nothing out of the ordinary.
Where there was fighting, they fought; where there was mining, they mined; where there were ships blowing up, ships blew up.
Everything seemed to have reached a kind of balanced state.
But there are always some who, at such a time, appear to shatter the calm.
Galactic Star Calendar 3033, early November.
The Holy Radiance Empire directly dispatched 100,000 interstellar warships, setting course for the five resource star regions the Starlight Empire held on its outer ring!
As for so sudden a military action from the Holy Radiance Empire — this was within everyone's expectations.
In one stroke it filled the whole of the in-name-only 'Galactic Alliance' with the reek of gunpowder.
Earlier the Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth had declared it would campaign against the Starlight Empire, but had put it off on account of the revolutionary army at home.
Now the Holy Radiance Empire took the stage — making the situation, straight off, all the more complicated.
And this matter, moreover, involved Zhao Chen directly.
For at this very moment, a message lay before Zhao Chen.
It was a message that had originally been sent to Governor Chu of Chu River — one that, a moment ago, Governor Chu had forwarded on to him.
The sender was the Holy Radiance Empire.
The content was simple.
The Holy Radiance Empire's side hoped they might sit down and talk with Governor Chu of Chu River.