When he was bringing the Independence back to Earth, Rozes received the information Yu Lian had sent him about the Bharat System. He knew of the system. It lay on the fringes of the Central Star Zone, far from the main trade routes and densely populated areas. He had never heard of any important resources there, and in the thousand-plus years since explorers had discovered it, there had been no significant development or further exploration.
Still, if there really were a lot of hollow dwarf planets there, they could certainly put them to use.
After all, it was part of the home star zone, with routes leading toward the Spiral Arm, Earth, New Chang'an, and New Baghdad. It seemed to have all the conditions they needed to play hide-and-seek.
In any case, now that they had decided on a direction they could take, everyone's morale visibly began to recover.
Rozes pumped his fist and shouted, "It is our generation's bounden duty to overthrow the Empire's tyranny! Down with the Empire's tyranny! Down with the vile imperial invaders!"
The officers present immediately joined in the shouting, even the airborne troops. Major General Langner, already in his sixties, shouted with especially fervent enthusiasm.
Belmont felt that if he didn't join in with a couple of shouts, he would lose face. He could only pump his fist and shout twice in a not-too-loud voice.
Then he realized there was a camera pointed at him.
Needless to say, his shouts just now had surely been recorded. They might even have broken down his lip movements and added subtitles.
Fine. Whatever. Belmont sighed heavily to himself and decided to give up.
It was bad enough taking a loss at Yu Lian's hands. Now he was getting the short end of the stick even from Yu