Zhao Chen could see plainly that this business had worked upon Saint Cana's mind enormously.
For this was the Saint-Disciple family, after all… the mightiest family power within the Holy Radiance Empire, by Saint Cana's own account!
"You're afraid?" Zhao Chen looked at Saint Cana, whose face had gone somewhat blank.
Saint Cana made without thinking to refute it — but her throat could not, all at once, get out a sound.
Just so… she was afraid.
The Sacred Angel family power she belonged to was no weak thing, and held a Sacred Angel Legion besides, which shows what the Legion's standing amounted to.
But set beside the Saint-Disciple family… that came to nothing at all.
"Perhaps you don't know how mighty a thing the Saint-Disciple family is…" Saint Cana said in a low voice. "Of the Ten Great Sacred-Light Legions, five at the least have some open connection with the Saint-Disciple family; and how many they can call upon in private, nobody knows. Perhaps you've never heard the saying. In the Holy Radiance Empire there are only three sorts of family. The first sort: third-rate families. The second sort: existences such as my Sacred Angel family. The third sort: the Saint-Disciple family."
Zhao Chen knit his brows slightly.
A class of its own?
"There are even those who have said that the military strength the Saint-Disciple family holds exceeds the total of every other family put together!" Saint Cana stared at him and bit lightly at her red lip.
This was the first time Zhao Chen had seen an expression of the kind on this strong woman.
"So — you're afraid," Zhao Chen asked again.
There was some shame and anger in Saint Cana; this man had not yet grasped her meaning.
"Have you understood a word of what I've said? The Saint-Disciple family—"
"So you're afraid." This time Zhao Chen said the words in a tone that did not move.
And then Zhao Chen went on, "Before this, you said again and again that you would not allow the Holy Radiance Empire to harbor any filth or corruption. And now you find that this existence is the strongest family in your empire, the Saint-Disciple family — and you are afraid, and you draw back. If that is what your steadfast faith comes to— then I can only say… you are not fit to work with me. And now, I can let you and your people go."
Zhao Chen raised a hand and made a gesture of invitation.
Chu Xuan stood aside and watched Saint Cana coldly.
Saint Cana looked at the bridge's open door, and then at that man seated in the captain's chair with his back to her.
Before this she had cast about every way for a means of leaving.
And now, when this man said again and again that she should go, she… found herself wavering, of all things.
She clenched her fists, and it was as though two small figures were fighting it out inside her head.
While Zhao Chen at this hour was looking, easy as a passing cloud, at some material relayed before him — when the interstellar transports would arrive, and the like.
Considering that every slave upon this planet was to be sent away, a great many transports would be wanted.
Happily, those several people in charge for Zhao Chen in the Stellar Alliance had the means to call up a number of transports to see to carrying these slaves.
As for why Zhao Chen was 'driving' Saint Cana away—
that was a small calculation of Zhao Chen's. This business of the Saint-Disciple family, set before Saint Cana, was beyond doubt a mountain.
Had Zhao Chen pressed Saint Cana to come along with him, it might rather have made Saint Cana's heart turn toward drawing back.
Whereas now, Zhao Chen's pressing Saint Cana to leave might rather work as poison used to attack poison.
Zhao Chen had not let Saint Cana pass these days idly aboard his own starship for nothing; when he had leisure he had been studying this Sacred Angel Legion commander.
And Zhao Chen had found that this Saint Cana was a person of very heavy faith — with something like a fastidiousness about it, indeed.
And now that she knew the Saint-Disciple family lay as a hidden danger within the Holy Radiance Empire, there was no possibility of her not going to get to the bottom of it!
Her character and her pride would not allow her to leave it undone.
Zhao Chen appeared to have given Saint Cana a choice; in fact Saint Cana had only one road before her.
She might go back to her own family and tell them that she meant to investigate the Saint-Disciple family.
And there could be only one outcome: the elders of her family would think she had gone mad.
A Sacred-War Duel might be lost — they would put out their strength to protect Saint Cana, so that beyond some scolding she took no punishment of any substance.
But to provoke the Saint-Disciple family would beyond doubt be to stake the Sacred Angel family's whole fate upon a wager!
And the Sacred Angel family would absolutely never allow Saint Cana to do such a thing.
While leaning on herself alone, Saint Cana could never get to the bottom of anything within the Holy Radiance Empire; only lately, for instance, she had come near to being assassinated — and precisely because she had touched a field she ought not to have touched.
And in a case of that kind, Zhao Chen was beyond doubt the only road she could choose.
Zhao Chen had a fleet. Zhao Chen had the means of gathering intelligence.
And more important still, Zhao Chen was the man who had once beaten Saint Cana.
Apart from her faith, Saint Cana was a person with a very great respect for the strong.
Suddenly Saint Cana darted round in front of Zhao Chen and looked at him with a steady eye. "You cannot drive us away. We had already reached an agreement to cooperate. We are partners now, and you cannot go back on your word."
Zhao Chen looked at her in open mockery. "But you must understand that if you go on with this investigation, you'll be touching the Saint-Disciple family; and if… and I say if, the Saint-Disciple family truly is studying something past all reckoning, something that touches your Holy Radiance Empire's own lowest line— what will you do then? Or rather: what can one mere Sacred Angel family do?"
Saint Cana clenched her fists, and said with a steady eye, "If I truly do find that the Saint-Disciple family has done things that go against the faith of the Sacred Light— I will make those things public, and have the Saint-Disciple family stand the empire's judgment for its own wrongs! Even… even if the price I pay is death!"
Zhao Chen glanced inwardly at Saint Cana's trust value in the System task.
Saint Cana's trust value: 10
Oho. Into the positive at last.
And to have it rise further from here would be a far simpler business.
For this quarterly task ran to the end of June.
He had time enough yet to bring this Sacred Angel Legion commander along.
"Since you've decided, then we'll go on with our cooperation." Zhao Chen shrugged, with the air of one to whom it made no difference.
Saint Cana drew back to one side and said nothing more, but her mood just now was very bad.
She felt that this man beside her was like a demon with its fangs showing, luring her by degrees down a road from which there was no returning.
But she had no other choice now.
For the Sacred Light. For her faith!
"Commander-in-Chief, on the Qian family's other slave planets… there may well be a great many more subjects of the Chu River Star Region…" Chu Xuan looked at him, hard pressed.
"We have time yet. And since this Qian family is to be settled, then what we do is to leave nothing standing. They're in the slave trade, are they? Then I should rather like to see how that Qian family head does his trade with no slaves at all. The more so as you said it yourself before. What the Qian family has done, they are to pay the price for. Not to end until they are dead. Our Owl Dragon Legion stands upon good faith! What we say, we do! This time, the Qian family dies!" Zhao Chen showed a mocking smile.