The video comm opened.
The background on the other side was the bridge of that Little Skeleton.
At the sight of it, President Guiji could not help thinking of the scene a short while ago in which this Little Skeleton had butchered 300 ships of the Qian fleet.
That array, and that power… were no small thing indeed.
Zhao Chen sat in the captain's chair, and behind him stood that secretary-officer Chu Xuan, with Xue Xiaoxiao and Gu Xiaoxiao besides.
"President."
"Mother."
Gu Xiaoxiao and Xue Xiaoxiao, seeing the picture from President Guiji's end, waved to her in delight.
There was gladness in President Guiji's eyes, but she said all the same, with a show of gravity, "Grown women, the both of you — what sort of behavior is that? Mind you keep your feelings in hand."
With that, President Guiji looked to Zhao Chen.
"My lord, forgive the intrusion; there are some matters I should like to ask you about."
"Not at all. I was wanting a longer talk with Elder Sister Guiji, as it happens — for at our meeting and talk before, there was still some reserve on both our sides." Zhao Chen said it with a smile.
Xue Xiaoxiao, hearing the Commander-in-Chief call her mother elder sister again, could only shake a fist at his back and put out her tongue.
But under the warning in President Guiji's eyes, Xue Xiaoxiao could do no more than stand there meekly.
"My lord makes a joke of it. Our Star-Shark Guild is most willing to be my lord's most faithful partner. There will be no reserve of any kind in our cooperation." President Guiji said it with her face all smiles.
That is a notion you came to after seeing my reach and my strength, no doubt.
Zhao Chen naturally had no thought of puncturing any of it, and looked at President Guiji with a smile. "Just so, just so. We shall be the best of partners. And I wonder whether Elder Sister Guiji is satisfied with my showing this time."
"Very satisfied. The Owl Dragon Legion's warships are worthy of an existence that could beat the Sacred Angel Legion in a Sacred-War Duel! A single one sent out, and the Qian family's 300 warships annihilated entire. It is hard to imagine what the scene would be, should the Owl Dragon Legion come in person." President Guiji said it smiling.
This woman's words carried words within them.
And something of a sounding-out besides.
Zhao Chen said with a light laugh, "The Owl Dragon Legion will not be coming to the Stellar Alliance in person. And I'll not hide it from President Guiji: apart from this Little Skeleton, the warships we came with this time are no more than another dozen-odd. Toward the Stellar Alliance I have a mind to cooperate, and not to overawe by force."
What lay beneath President Guiji's words just now was a wish to ask whether Zhao Chen had any notion of controlling the Stellar Alliance by force.
To speak plainly, if the Owl Dragon Legion were truly brought up to the Stellar Alliance, then going by the Stellar Alliance's military strength it would be no match for Zhao Chen at all.
But at that point — would the Stellar Alliance Zhao Chen controlled still be the Stellar Alliance as it was?
The Stellar Alliance, grown to what it now was, no longer had its true importance in this middle ground of a region, nor in that magnificent Stellar City.
It lay rather in these webs of connection within the Stellar Alliance, in the trade resources, and in the free-trade system of the place!
Zhao Chen could imagine it well enough: if he took the Stellar Alliance by force, he might come to possess this place.
But before long, somewhere else, a new 'Stellar Alliance' would appear all over again.
So Zhao Chen would not take the Stellar Alliance by compulsion, but would control it from within the rules of the game as they stood here.
And so win more profit for the Owl Dragon Legion!
Once President Guiji had his thinking out of Zhao Chen's words, she let out a breath too.
That worry she had indeed carried: if the Owl Dragon Legion should one day mean to do such a thing, how was their Star-Shark Guild to hold its own place?
It would be an awkward pass in which one was neither inside nor out!
And as to Zhao Chen's saying he had brought several dozen warships along—
President Guiji did not think much on it, and supposed unconsciously that these were merely some ordinary warships in attendance, T3-grade at the estimate.
For Zhao Chen's standing was that of the Owl Dragon Legion's Commander-in-Chief, and to travel with several dozen warships in attendance was the most ordinary thing in the world.
Had there truly been only this one Little Skeleton, that would have been the strange thing.
"Then as to those trade arrangements of ours…" And after this, President Guiji began to talk over the matters of cooperation with Zhao Chen, and openly.
Before, Zhao Chen had only set these out before President Guiji as counters in the scale.
And now President Guiji truly did wish to take hold of them; for they might very well amount to the Star-Shark Guild's future.
After a while of talk—
both Zhao Chen and President Guiji were well satisfied, and a preliminary agreement of cooperation was reached.
President Guiji was very confident: with these trade resources in hand, the Star-Shark Guild could become, inside three months, the most closely watched existence in the Stellar Alliance.
There was even hope of its changing form from an interstellar adventurers' guild into an interstellar trade guild of a comprehensive sort!
And of its snatching away no little of the trade map that had belonged to the Qian family besides.
For what the Owl Dragon Legion held was, in sober truth, far too much.
"Then let us leave the business of the day there. I wonder how long my lord will be staying in the Stellar Alliance. During that time, should there be anything at all in which you need our Star-Shark Guild's help, we are willing to give it with all our strength! When you came to our Star-Shark Guild's headquarters before, my hospitality was somewhat wanting; if you were willing, I should like to receive you again, and properly." President Guiji asked it with expectation.
Zhao Chen shook his head. "Let receptions and the like go. We'll be staying in the Stellar Alliance a while longer yet; there's one more matter to be done. But in that matter your Star-Shark Guild can be of no help, nor do I wish you to have any part in it. Elder Sister Guiji, I hope word of the cooperation between us can be kept in a state of secrecy — that outside the two of us, as few others as possible should know of it. For the present, what works with your Star-Shark Guild is only those five interstellar traders, and not the Owl Dragon Legion."
Zhao Chen's tone in that last was very grave indeed.
Because what Zhao Chen meant to do next would shake the whole Stellar Alliance enormously — enough, indeed, to overshadow this humiliating wedding of the Qian family's.
And in such a case, were the Star-Shark Guild to make its relation with the Owl Dragon Legion public, it would leave them in a very bad position indeed.
"Very well, I understand. Our Star-Shark Guild will do as my lord says. But it remains as I said: whenever you have need of us, our Star-Shark Guild is your most faithful partner." President Guiji rose and made Zhao Chen the most honorable courtesy there was.
Zhao Chen seemed to be looking upon the summits of the five great mountains.
Zhao Chen was brought up short a moment, and then returned the courtesy, and the two of them closed the connection.
Zhao Chen sat in the captain's chair, muttering to himself, "How is it I feel… as though we've forgotten to talk of something?"
And in the midst of the muttering, Zhao Chen caught sight of a figure, and knew what it was he had forgotten.
The Gu Xiaoxiao standing beside Xue Xiaoxiao.
Just so!
This betrothed of another man's that he had carried off!