During these several days while Leona was preparing the 'ransom.'
Zhao Chen's side received several guests as well.
Within a private room of the starship canteen.
An abundant spread of food had been made ready long since.
"Is this what you eat here?" The Siren chieftainess looked in astonishment at the harpy Avina beside her, to whom it was all a matter of course by now.
The harpy Avina nodded, and said with some pride, "It is. Most of these dishes can be ordered at the ordering counter of the canteen outside. Only that some of them are rather costly; the overwhelming majority of shipboard women soldiers, by their meal standard, may perhaps eat such a thing once a week. But ordinarily their basic needs for three meals a day are met. And all of it is natural foodstuff."
"Natural foodstuff? How can that be… an entire interstellar warship on nothing but natural foodstuff — the logistical outlay alone would be no small figure." The Frost-Wolf chieftain said it incredulously.
"If it were purchased, that would be no small outlay. But the natural foodstuff we use is all produced by ourselves, so that it not only meets our own needs but can be sold outside besides." The wolf-girl Baixue put her hands on her hips and said it confidently.
At these words both these chieftains, come from far off, showed looks of astonishment.
"Let me make the introductions. This is our Owl Dragon Legion's Commander-in-Chief, lord of the Owl Dragon star system, His Excellency Zhao Chen." Chieftainess Hu Ya, attending them, stood at Zhao Chen's side and introduced the parties.
Chieftainess Hu Ya then indicated the two chieftains opposite.
"The Siren tribe's chieftainess, Haina; and this is the Frost-Wolf tribe's chieftain, Drake."
The two chieftains saluted Zhao Chen, and Zhao Chen returned a slight salute.
Zhao Chen's gaze did rest a while longer upon the Siren chieftainess Haina — though not, of course, on account of Haina's figure.
Chiefly it was that Haina could, astonishingly, hover above the floor; and though she had a fish's tail, it did not hinder her movement in the least.
Which Zhao Chen found wonderful indeed.
"My lord, you are curious about the Siren chieftainess's power of hovering," Chieftainess Hu Ya explained from beside him. "This is a particular product of the Siren tribe, called the sea-spirit pearl. A siren creature carrying a sea-spirit pearl can hover upon land by means of the water molecules in the air — though only a few centimeters from the ground — and can then breathe freely besides."
So that was it.
This was indeed of great help to the Siren tribe, and furnished the Siren tribe considerable room to develop.
"Besides which, the Siren tribe is unlike single-race tribes such as ours; the Siren tribe is in fact a multi-race tribe — there are naga sirens, there are fishfolk sirens, there are mermaid sirens, and so on and so forth. The number of races within the tribe not even they themselves have settled. As of now, the mermaids, fishfolk and naga are the three principal races at the Siren tribe's core."
"Yes, the Siren tribe is a most peace-loving tribe," the harpy Avina praised from beside them.
From the close relations between the harpy Avina and this mermaid chieftainess Haina, one could see that the Siren tribe was in all likelihood no warlike race.
The harpy Avina, unusually, bore no timid, shrinking manner before another tribe.
When the drawing-in of the Siren tribe had been raised earlier, the harpy Avina had even volunteered, saying she had a way to persuade them.
She herself stood in a bosom-friendship with the mermaid chieftainess Haina.
Zhao Chen's gaze shifted to the Frost-Wolf tribe's chieftain Drake. "Since Chieftain Drake has been willing to come to this meeting. You must presumably be willing to join our camp as well?"
Chieftain Drake sized up the man before him with a curious gaze.
To speak honestly, he had never thought much of the human race, the Frost-Wolf tribe being a tribe that reveres force and strength; and the human race gave one the impression of something a single claw could crush.
Were it not for the astonishing strength the Owl Dragon Legion had displayed in the Black Tiger Star Region, he would never have come to this meeting at all.
And there was, of course, the further connection of the wolf-girl Baixue's part in it.
"We of the Frost-Wolf tribe join the Hundred Beasts Alliance led by the White-Tiger tribe's General Charlotte — not to become subordinates of your Owl Dragon Legion," the Frost-Wolf chieftain Drake stressed.
This great white wolf is not yet thoroughly tamed. Though that was understandable enough; who submits readily to another?
"Commander-in-Chief, do not go by this uncle of mine's manner. If you will let him join my special fleet, I guarantee that within three days I shall have his tail wagging like a kite." The wolf-girl Baixue pulled Chieftain Drake's stage out from under him without the least ceremony.
Zhao Chen smiled and said nothing.
He knew the relation between the two.
Originally the several wolf tribes of the Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth had all been one unified wolf race.
But afterward, owing to internal division — the chief cause being the Black Wolf tribe's rise, which defeated the White Wolf line that had once led the wolf race — the White Wolf line departed.
And the tribe on best terms with the White Wolf line was the Frost-Wolf tribe.
Whereupon the Frost-Wolf tribe too chose independence.
The splitting of the three great wolf tribes led directly to the wolf race's strength falling away sharply; and now the wolf-race power headed by the Black Wolf tribe had become an existence at the bottom of the twenty great tribes.
And the wolf-girl Baixue's mother came from the Frost-Wolf tribe — being, in fact, this Chieftain Drake's own elder sister.
In her childhood Chieftain Drake had even held the infant wolf-girl Baixue in his arms.
This time, the business of persuading Chieftain Drake had naturally been given to the wolf-girl Baixue.
And by the look of things at present it was going very smoothly.
As for winning his heart at the last, Zhao Chen had every confidence.
As for what the wolf-girl Baixue had said about recruiting Chieftain Drake into the Owl Dragon Legion, that was impossible.
Zhao Chen would have liked to; but the System would not allow it.
Still, the Frost-Wolf tribe was one of the few tribes in the Warhammer interstellar legions with a strong gift for fighting, and Zhao Chen would naturally not give up so fine a source of troops.
Female Frost-Wolf tribespeople could join the Owl Dragon Legion; male Frost-Wolf tribespeople would join Charlotte's Dragon-Tiger Legion.
Zhao Chen had already had the notion of making the Dragon-Tiger Legion his own second-line main combat legion in future.
It was, in any case, a legion fleet belonging to Charlotte, and not to his own Owl Dragon.
Nor did the System give any warning — which might be reckoned tacit consent to this exploiting of the loophole.
Chieftain Drake doted greatly upon this niece of his — perhaps because at the time of the White Wolf tribe's misfortune he had been unable to help in any way.
Toward his niece there was still some guilt in him.
"Now we should speak of business. I hear the Dragon-folk tribe's side has already successfully made contact with the Holy Radiance Empire, and that the Holy Radiance Empire may support them with 300,000 interstellar warships, forming a combined fleet to open a general offensive against you. And when that time comes, Your Excellency the Owl Dragon lord. How do you propose to meet an enemy interstellar legion fleet possibly totaling above 500,000, with the bare fewer-than-20,000 interstellar warships in your hands?" Chieftain Drake threw the real question out directly, and put it to the man before him.
If the deadlock could not be broken, all this talk of joining and cooperating was so much wind.