100 beast-folk sat on the floor, cradling the meal boxes set before them and eating straight out of them with their hands.
Bland, savorless artificial food though it was, the beast-folk fell on it and wolfed it down all the same.
For, fallen to slavery as they were, they had scarcely once eaten their fill in all the time behind them — the slave merchants, after all, had never shown their wares an ounce of mercy.
"Once they've eaten, arrange for them to bathe and change into fresh things; then they can board the ship and get a feel for the posts they'll be working." Zhao Chen sat beside Charlotte, cradling a meal box of the same fare.
Having once been a fleet commander, Charlotte set more store by her own bearing than the rest of the beast-folk soldiers did; even eating, she chewed slowly and with care.
She looked at the identical food in Zhao Chen's hands, and was a little taken aback. "You're eating this too?"
"What else would I be eating? I don't mind telling you plainly — this captain of yours is a very poor man right now. The rations I've laid in are enough to feed us for half a month at the outside. As for whether we'll have anything to eat after that — well, that'll come down to how the lot of you perform from here on out." Zhao Chen played up his hard luck at her side.
Seeing that Zhao Chen put on no airs whatever, Charlotte warmed to him considerably. Still, she narrowed her eyes at him. "Why is it that everyone you've recruited is a female beast-folk? By rights, for war and fighting, people lean toward males. I'm warning you — if you make so much as one improper move on any of them, the bargain I struck with you is void! I will not, for the sake of freedom, have them sell their dignity and their bo—"
Zhao Chen waved his hands again and again, and said helplessly, "On that score you can set your mind at ease. I won't be harboring any crooked designs on them. It's only that, for certain reasons, this time I could recruit none but female soldiers. As for the reason… it isn't convenient for me to explain just now."
On this point Zhao Chen felt rather put-upon himself. Whose fault was it the System came with such a restriction?
"The reason I can leave unasked. But should I ever find you've been up to no good with them… hmph…" Charlotte shot him a glare.
Say what you would — the way this white-furred beast-folk warned him off carried a touch of the endearing about it.
Though those wounds and scars all over her did rather spoil the picture.
"Those scars on you — you gave them to yourself, didn't you?" Zhao Chen ventured.
Charlotte made no attempt to hide it, and nodded. "Yes. When my resistance army was undone by a traitor and wiped out to the last, had I not done this — had that lot recognized me — there is no way I'd have ended up here. They'd hardly have shown a resistance general the mercy of selling her off like any common slave."
Zhao Chen understood the reasoning well enough. Had Charlotte been recognized by the enemy and taken alive, no good end awaited her.
And even unrecognized — with the looks she'd had before — her fate would surely have been no better.
"That you managed to recognize me, though — that comes as quite a surprise." Charlotte looked at Zhao Chen with some curiosity.
That Zhao Chen had known her at a glance was proof enough that it was for her sake he'd come.
"Back when I was studying at the academy, I looked into some of your campaigns, and I'd seen a few images and photographs of you. In truth, when I first saw your face on the slave roster, I still couldn't be sure. The you of now is worlds apart from the you of that time… the old you… was rather like the light of dawn… It wasn't until I bluffed you just now that I knew for certain you were General Charlotte." Zhao Chen laughed.
In truth, for this he had the body's memories to thank — its owner had been a bookish sort, who'd loved nothing better than to pore over the campaign records of the various races.
Charlotte rolled her eyes. So it was she who'd given her own identity away.
"As it happens, with medical technology as it is today, mending those scars and wounds of yours would be no trouble at all," said Zhao Chen. He'd seen the earlier images of Charlotte.
She had been, without a doubt, cut out for beauty — and that by the human standard, no less. Set down here at the academy, she'd have counted among its reigning beauties.
"No need. A warrior does not fret over the skin she wears." Coldly, Charlotte turned the offer down.
Seeing Charlotte so resolute, Zhao Chen said no more on it; there were no means for such a thing at present in any case. That sort of medical restoration ran to a good deal of money.
The meal finished, Zhao Chen said, "Let's go and have a look at your future workplace first."
He pointed at that ship of steel.
Charlotte didn't refuse, and boarded Blizzard Zero alongside Zhao Chen. "This is the ship you assembled?" she said, walking the passageway within the hull.
Zhao Chen nodded. "That's right. I put her together out of some of the modules from the T2 Hyena-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer, the T2 Grey Wolf-class Light Interstellar Cruiser, and the T2 Devil-Croc-class Medium Interstellar Battleship. I named her Blizzard Zero."
"Those three classes I'm not much acquainted with, but from the state of things inside the hull, this is a fairly old ship, aged in a great many places. A ship like this — its combat power isn't a thing to feel easy about." Charlotte spoke without the least softening.
"No, no, no. I'm confident you'll soon take back what you've just said. You're going to fall in love with this ship." Zhao Chen gave a mysterious little smile.
Charlotte, for her part, didn't take it to heart. Since she was here, she'd make her peace with it; whatever sort of ship this fellow's was, she had no choice in the matter now.
At the very least, this fellow had so far let slip no quality of the kind that turns the stomach.
Though the fact that everyone he'd recruited was a female beast-folk did raise no small suspicion.
Before long the two of them reached the bridge of this Blizzard Zero — Charlotte's first time there, and Zhao Chen's second. The first had been when he'd come with his little sister, Zhao Wan'er.
Charlotte swept her gaze once round the bridge. A perfectly conventional layout; nothing of note.
"Next, I'll leave it to you to see to assigning the beast-folk crew their posts. I need them formed into an effective fighting force in the shortest time possible," Zhao Chen instructed.
Charlotte looked to Zhao Chen and laid out a requirement of her own. "If that's the case, then I'll need to acquaint myself with some of this ship's performance modules—"
Before Charlotte could finish, Zhao Chen held a handheld terminal out to her.
"I've already registered your information in it. You now hold the highest authority over this ship, after myself. You may view the great majority of this ship's data. From this moment on, you are this ship's deputy captain."
Charlotte looked at Zhao Chen in some astonishment. She took the handheld terminal, and eyed him dubiously. "You trust me this much? Aren't you afraid I'll betray you?"
Zhao Chen wore a faint smile. In truth, from the very moment Charlotte had set foot aboard this ship, he'd turned the system skill "Eye of Insight" upon her.
Because the captain of this ship was Zhao Chen, the conditions for using the "Eye of Insight" were met.
Under the watch of the "Eye of Insight," Charlotte at present bore Zhao Chen neither killing intent nor hostility. As for whether she was loyal, that there was no telling.
But that was enough. Zhao Chen hardly expected that in so brief a span Charlotte would come to swear him her devotion; that she was willing to work for him was quite enough.
Even so, the outward posture was one Zhao Chen still meant to strike. With an air of perfect ease, he seated himself in the captain's chair. "I trust the people I choose. My dear deputy captain — you have work to do."