Perhaps Jaeger Sobek himself hadn't realized it, but the moment he figured this out, his loyalty to Her Highness King Sulika shot up by a huge margin.
"Your Highness." Sobek stood at attention and gave a flawless military salute.
Brunhild looked up with a faint smile. "Lord Sobek, there's no need to be so formal. Sit wherever you like, help yourself to anything."
She pointed at the refreshments on the table beside the chairs, then continued watering the plants.
Even though Sobek relaxed as much as he could, he didn't dare actually "sit wherever he liked." He carefully perched on the edge of the chair, keeping his back ramrod straight.
"You're so stiff," Brunhild said with a smile. "You should start getting used to this place now. I'll be leaving the imperial capital within a week, and I expect I won't be back for a year. If things get really dangerous, you might even have to protect my Sacred Tree Palace and my rose garden."
"Th-this... Your Highness, I..."
"Of course I'm only joking," Brunhild said with a smile. "Also, having you leave your loyal fleet to sit behind a desk was a compromise between me and some of my opponents. I hope you don't mind."
"Well, I'm doing my best to get used to a life surrounded by data and reports," he said sincerely.
Still, it had to be better than living surrounded by energy beams and missiles, right?
Sitting in an office with stable artificial gravity and a comfortable temperature, with endless coffee, tea, and pastries, and a luxurious restaurant just downstairs, staring blankly at the budgets, supply lists, and project progress reports flickering across a viewscreen... Wasn't that exactly the life I'd always dreamed of?
How was this a compromise? It was clearly a reward for my