Miss Brunhild sighed. "Lucky for you, I'm the only Grand Elector with a broad, forgiving heart. If you'd run into that old dog instead... Ostana, he would've scattered your bones to the winds."
"I rather think he might have treated me as an honored guest," the chief of staff said.
Of course, although Major General Ostana Barr was a smiling, scheming woman who loved to provoke her sovereign with her words, she was, at heart, Brunhild's right hand and trusted strategist, a top military mind with both planning and execution skills. Before her sovereign returned to the shuttle, she had already set preparations in motion for the entire army to march out. Now, even the soldiers doing maintenance on the planet's surface would be back at their posts within two hours.
Besides, although the fleet had been stationed in this star system for a week, all the warships had remained on regular combat alert, with at least half the posts on every ship continuously manned. If they mobilized at once, even the Dawn Angel, the largest vessel with the most complex structure and longest launch procedures, could complete all preparations for departure and combat within 150 minutes.
"You've certainly thought this through," King Sulwika said sincerely. "We rushed here to the Iris Cross system, and many of the soldiers are exhausted. They were all hoping to get a good rest. When they heard you wanted to keep them on combat alert, quite a few grumbled that they'd put a bullet in you. Jilly even caught them at it herself. She took them into custody on the spot and prepared to have them executed."
"Yes, but the Imperial Army has no grounds to sentence someone to death for their words. Besides, they weren't insulting you, so it doesn't constitute disrespect toward