Several hours later
Beep beep beep beep.
The message alert successfully delivered the great white cat.
"There's… there's… there's a message come in!" Charlotte lay panting on the floor, pointing a finger at the blinking message window.
Zhao Chen rose slowly, took up at random some scrap of his uniform from somewhere or other and tied it about his waist.
And then looked over the content of the message.
Though there was some sense of a thing left unfinished, there was nothing to be done: this being a time of campaign, there truly was not much time for Zhao Chen and Charlotte to go on with a hearty and thoroughgoing 'duel.'
Even if one of the parties had, over the latter half of it, begged for quarter several times.
"A Dragon-folk fleet group has been detected outside, along with relief forces come in support from other tribes. They are expected to reach the space about the Black Tiger home star within half an hour." Zhao Chen looked at Charlotte, sprawled limp on the floor with her clothing in disarray. "I'll let you off this once. Get ready; we're going out."
"What… what do you mean, let me off? It was plainly I who let you off!" Charlotte retorted, refusing to concede.
"Then shall we continue? The business outside I can hand over to Lilith with full authority." Zhao Chen made as if to undo the scrap of cloth tied at his waist.
Displaying his readiness to bare the blade.
Charlotte at once shrank into the corner, a thread of fear in her eyes. "This… this… next time! We'll speak of it next time. Next time I shall certainly make you lose so thoroughly you'll admit it with your whole heart! Besides, the fighting outside is important; I… I need to get back to my post!"
Zhao Chen did not go on teasing Charlotte, and used the room's intelligent system to run up two uniforms in a hurry.
Both their uniforms having just now been declared retired in the course of the struggle.
Several mechanical arms extended from the corner and shot out thread after thread, and two uniforms took shape at a speed the naked eye could follow.
When Charlotte had pushed Zhao Chen down a while ago, he had considered her present emotional state: if it were not vented, it might well become a demon in her heart.
Add to that that Zhao Chen himself had feelings for Charlotte.
And so he had pushed the boat along with the current.
And Charlotte at the outset, though it was her first time, truly had superb physical qualities, and like a warrior had kept trying to seize the initiative.
Had Zhao Chen been merely an ordinary human, he could naturally have been no match for Charlotte, a beast-folk and of the White-Tiger tribe besides.
But—
Zhao Chen had been injected with the T4 super-soldier serum, which had brought his body's strength in every respect to the topmost level of any known species.
Over several hours of contention, Charlotte had come off the worse.
And ended as a great white cat to be handled and disposed of at Zhao Chen's pleasure, without the strength in her body for any resistance, able only to call out pleas for quarter without cease.
Though by the look of it now.
This great white cat Charlotte was soft everywhere — it was only her mouth that was particularly hard.
"Do you need my help?" Zhao Chen, changed into a brand-new uniform, looked at Charlotte dressing herself unsteadily, and put out a hand to help.
But Charlotte started as though electrified, and drew back several steps at once, looking at Zhao Chen for all the world as at a flood or a savage beast.
"That… that is, I can manage on my own… you go out first. The business outside is more important." Charlotte said it with a guilty conscience.
Her body at this hour was still steeped in a deep fear of Zhao Chen, as though a seal of dread had been stamped upon it.
Though Charlotte's mouth would not concede, her body knew very well that this man before her was far too terrible — for all the world like a walking tyrannosaur.
No… a tyrannosaur was no longer any comparison for his capacities.
At the thought of it Charlotte's tail curled in between her haunches, not daring to make the least show of itself.
Without any of that awe-inspiring bearing the great cat had worn before.
"Then I shall go out first. I shall go straight back to my own flagship shortly," Zhao Chen said.
"Ah, right — did you use a T4 Lucent-class Interstellar Jump Ship to send your flagship over?" Charlotte suddenly asked this question.
"I did." Zhao Chen nodded.
Charlotte said with distaste, "That's far too wasteful of you! One T4 Lucent-class Interstellar Jump Ship can send a great many T4-grade interstellar warships. And you brought only the one."
Though her mouth said this, Charlotte's heart was warm within her.
Because she knew it was all on her own account.
Sensing Charlotte's mouth saying one thing and her heart another.
Zhao Chen, when he reached the doorway, turned his head and looked at Charlotte.
And thought back to the wretched state she had been in when he first saw her some years ago, the fur standing up all over her, for all the world like a great white cat with its hackles blown.
"So long as you need me, then to the ends of this universe— whatever the price, I will come to your side." Zhao Chen left this behind him and walked out of the room.
A few minutes later, Charlotte, restored to order, came slowly out of the room with a hand against the wall.
She looked at the bridge going about its business in good order, and at the thought of what had happened just now on the other side of a single wall—
her cheeks burned.
She could not but marvel at how good this bridge wall's soundproofing truly was.
Or else she would have had no cat's face left to show anyone.
"Commander." The adjutant came before her commander at this point and asked curiously, "What did the Commander-in-Chief and you talk over in that room just now? You were several hours about it."
Hearing the question, the tail behind Charlotte stood straight up.
She answered with something of a guilty conscience, "Nothing much. We were discussing the present course of the war, and our… strategy for dealing with the other great tribes in future."
"I see. Ah, right — when the Commander-in-Chief left just now he expressly instructed that some fruit be prepared for you. This fruit is all blood-replenishing. The Commander-in-Chief said it would do your feelings and your body good." The adjutant pointed at a fruit basket to one side.
At the words 'blood-replenishing,' Charlotte knew the Commander-in-Chief had done it on purpose.
"Set it aside for now. Report to me on the present situation." Charlotte sat back down in her captain's chair without changing color.
As she sat, her gaze caught on something, and she quietly tugged at the hem of her skirt to cover her knees as far as she might.
Because there were plain red marks there.
Happily, the gesture drew no one else's notice.
The adjutant went on, conscientious in her duty as ever, making her report.
...
T4 Blue-Eyes White Dragon-class Heavy Interstellar Armored Battleship — the Commander-in-Chief's flagship
At this hour this interstellar warship hung outside the Black Tiger home star, and the feelings of the guests in the VIP spectators' gallery might fairly be called complex indeed.
One of the twenty great tribes, ranked in the top three by strength — the Black Tiger tribe — and it had been handled just so by the Owl Dragon Legion.
In the space of a bare few hours from first to last!
That speed truly was hard to credit.
They had seen too the scene of the Owl Dragon First Legion's seven rounds of bombardment upon the Black Tiger Sacred Mountain with three T4 Gorgon-class Heavy Interstellar Heavy-Artillery Ships.
Each of those rounds had seemed to strike upon their own chests.
And made them feel a terrible weight of presence.
At this point the sound of a military boot striking the floor came from above.
Every gaze went over to it.
That was the Owl Dragon lord, gone these several hours.
At this moment he came walking in with a ruddy glow upon him and his spirits high.
"Is General Charlotte well?" Hu Xin'er came over at a quick step and asked it with concern.
Zhao Chen nodded with a face full of smiles. "Under a certain amount of guidance and comforting from me, Charlotte's feelings are now stabilized. Her spirits are very good at present."
Hearing this, Hu Xin'er was a good deal easier in her mind.