At the square of one of the slave settlements, Chu Xuan stood upon a hovering disc, floating above the heads of the crowd.
Which let all the several hundred thousand gathered in this square see her.
This settlement held more people of the Chu River Star Region than any other; of those several hundred thousand below, near eight in 10 had been taken from the Chu River Star Region.
Chu Xuan looked at the state of these subjects of the Chu River Star Region: every one of them thin to the bone, grimed from head to foot, with clothing that did not cover them.
And some with marks plainly upon them of having been tormented.
"Forgive me. I have come late." Chu Xuan bit lightly at her red lip, and made them all a deep bow.
A few plain words — yet they carried the whole square past holding its feelings; men and women, old and young, all of them broke down and wept aloud.
"Let everyone rest easy. My coming here today, I, Chu Xuan, is to take you all home. I have arranged interstellar transports, and they will come for you before long. And then, once aboard the transports, you can return to the Chu River Star Region, return to your own homes," Chu Xuan said.
No few were glad past bearing.
But there were those with grief in their faces too.
One man cried out in pain, "What home have we left…! This pack of beasts attacked our towns and burned every one of them to the ground. Any who resisted, they slaughtered them all. We… we have no home to go back to."
Chu Xuan clenched her fists, and her eyes were steady as she said, "Let everyone rest easy. So long as you are alive, so long as my Chu family stands— a home destroyed can be built again, and we will meet every want of your living. And at the same time, our Chu family's fleet swears it to you here: those bastards who set foot in our homeland — this account I, Chu Xuan, will settle with them piece by piece! Not to end until they are dead!"
With Chu Xuan's promise, the feelings of those people from the Chu River Star Region came under some control.
But those who were not from the Chu River Star Region grew anxious at this hour, and some of them knelt on the ground and prayed to heaven.
"We beg you, my lady, take us away as well."
"We stay here and we simply cannot live; that pack of beasts do not regard us as people at all."
"Only take us out of this hellish place, and we will do anything you ask."
Chu Xuan looked at these people who were not of the Chu River Star Region; and in truth, as to these, Chu Xuan had long since had her orders for their settlement.
"Let everyone rest easy. Every soul upon this planet today we shall take away. Though where you go will not be the Chu River Star Region, but the Owl Dragon System; and there is a lord there who will take charge of your care and settlement. So long as you keep to that lord's arrangements, I believe you will come to live in comfort. And at the same time this Owl Dragon lord promises that if, when the time comes, you wish to leave, you will not be hindered; you may go as you please." Chu Xuan read out the order Zhao Chen had given earlier.
So many slaves — and for all the many planets in the Chu River Star Region, to take them in and settle them wanted more manpower and material and money than it had.
Whereas the Owl Dragon System had all of that.
And as it happened, what Zhao Chen lacked just now was people.
Not only was the Owl Dragon System short of people, but so were those five resource star regions out beyond.
Bring these Qian family slaves back, and so long as their basic living was secured, the great bulk of them would be willing to stay in the Owl Dragon System!
Hearing this from Chu Xuan, those people's minds were set at rest as well, and they waited meekly for their settlement.
Chu Xuan went on to several more of the Chu River Star Region's slave settlements; and seeing the state of those people, her fury at the Qian family was near to lifting the cap from her head.
Had the Chu family's legion been here, Chu Xuan would have set out against the Qian family without another word!
Only a pity that this was the Stellar Alliance, and not the Starlight Empire.
Having made her round, Chu Xuan returned to the bridge of the T4 Skeleton-King-class Heavy Interstellar Armored Destroyer.
Chu Xuan walked onto the bridge, came before the captain's chair, and looked at Commander-in-Chief Zhao Chen; she made her courtesy and reported, "Our tally is complete. Upon this planet there are a full 30 billion slaves. Of whom 5 billion are subjects from the Chu River Star Region — mostly from the small planets on the Chu River Star Region's borders, which, lying remote as they do, had little contact with the Chu River Star Region's core areas to begin with. And with this pack of bastards keeping their movements hidden besides, that is how they were able to plunder the subjects of these planets for slaves."
"30 billion?" Zhao Chen was greatly astonished; he had not thought so small and barren a planet could hold 30 billion people.
Zhao Chen had reckoned that this planet, in the ordinary way, would do well to house 1 billion, the living conditions being as wretched as they were.
But 30 billion, past all expectation.
And thinking it over now, he saw the sense of it.
The Qian family had not put these people on this planet to live and work in peace; it was only that they should work for the family. So the conditions of living were likely very bad indeed, and every one of them crowded into packed settlements.
And there was a great mortality among the slaves every day besides.
Set 30 billion people down, and naturally one need not worry over wastage. They die, and one simply replaces them.
"And beyond that, at several of the slave transports we came by another piece of intelligence. These slave transports are charged with escorting the bodies of certain slaves, or slaves who fail to meet the standard of labor, to a designated place. Every carrying task is exceedingly secret, and once each is complete the voyage data is deleted entire. But our luck was good: one slave transport had just begun a carrying task and entered its voyage coordinates, and had not yet had time to delete them!" As she spoke, a voyage chart appeared before the two of them.
And Chu Xuan looked round at the Saint Cana beside them.
Feeling Chu Xuan's gaze, Saint Cana was brought up short, and then came at a quick step to stand before her.
Looking at that voyage chart of Chu Xuan's, Saint Cana wore an expression of disbelief — and more than that… of terror.
"Is this the territory of the family power standing behind that Sacred Lancer Legion?" Zhao Chen asked it mildly.
That was roughly the answer he reckoned on, or that Sacred Lancer Legion would not be setting out into the Stellar Alliance at such a time.
"No…" Saint Cana said in a low voice.
Zhao Chen showed his surprise. "Not the territory of the family power behind the Sacred Lancer Legion? Then where is this place?"
Saint Cana said nothing; her expression was that of one unwilling to believe the evidence.
Chu Xuan took her meaning and set about looking into the coordinates, and soon had it.
"This position lies within the territory of the Saint-Disciple family… in a military restricted zone…" And Chu Xuan too wore an expression of astonishment now.
"The Saint-Disciple family? That name… I seem to have heard it somewhere…" Zhao Chen's face turned thoughtful.
Saint Cana spoke now. "The Saint-Disciple family is the strongest family in the Holy Radiance Empire; and of the five present Imperial Consuls, two of them come out of the Saint-Disciple family. And another had his teacher from the Saint-Disciple family besides. Above half the seats in the Imperial Council of Elders come under the Saint-Disciple family's influence. And the Sacred Lancer Legion… is in fact something the Saint-Disciple family reared up as well. It bears the Sacred Lancer name, true — but within our Holy Radiance Empire's upper ranks everyone knows that it is no more than a hound of the Saint-Disciple family's."