"I don't know why... All of a sudden, I've started feeling a little despairing about the current situation. We have fewer and fewer allies, while our enemies haven't even committed their full strength." Yu Lian shook his head, making his sigh sound all the heavier.
"But if you were truly despairing, you wouldn't be making that face, would you?" Tan Jize smiled.
Yu Lian felt that he ought to be wearing a proper bitter-melon expression right now.
"Anyway, back to the point. If the Cherk Kingdom really does switch sides, what do you think they'll do?"
Isn't that something you, the leader, should be thinking about? That might have been what an ordinary wage earner would say.
But Tan Jize was an exceptional young man with a strong sense of ownership, and he seriously analyzed the situation. "We can't reach a conclusion yet. We shouldn't assume the Cherk have changed sides just because of a few arms deals."
There you go, saying both the right thing and its opposite. People who never put a foot wrong when they speak have the makings of a prime minister.
"Still, given how the situation is changing, it wouldn't be surprising if they made some kind of move. So we need to stay alert in the Atlantis Sector."
"The bulk of the Eighth Fleet, which used to be stationed in the Atlantis Sector, has already been transferred to the Far Shore Theater," Yu Lian said, starting to count the pennies, too. "But several fleets have been left behind, their garrison forces intact, to defend the border. And newly formed fleets from the Home Theater have been making long-range patrol training runs back and forth between Earth and Solitary Night. In terms of pure military strength, the Cherk Kingdom doesn't have the power to attack