Shadow Emperor Chapter 3: Chapter II: Work-Life Balance Is A Myth

Read chapter 3 of Shadow Emperor by StarPrince on NovelPedia.

The tail end of the party went wild fast. Kane stayed on the couch as a service drone continuously brought him drinks. Just as I expected, he insisted on sorting through the daily reports and spreadsheets on his tablet. Kane was always a bit of a workaholic, so who was I to stop him without being a hypocrite here? After all, I shouldn’t be complaining, considering neglected paperwork wouldn’t stack on my desk overnight. Seras unsurprisingly wound up flirting with every woman in the room. When he showed me the list of contact information he’d racked up, I didn’t even bother reading it. It was pages long, and I was pretty sure he’d go down the entire list within the next five years. I spent the rest of the party trying to meet as many people as I could. Everyone there; except for Kane, Seras, and I, either worked with Tanaka directly or was a personal friend of his. I mentally filed that away as another entry in the rapidly growing list of suspicious festivity-related occurrences. Admittedly, it was rather unexpected considering how the partygoers reacted to my public grilling of the Raijin Sector Prefect. Either way, his absence let us actually enjoy ourselves. I ended up with a winning streak in eight consecutive drinking contests and two arm wrestling matches. One of the guests brought their family, which led to an awkward situation where I was challenged to an honor duel by a twelve-year-old boy with a katana. I swiftly disarmed him, helped him up, and signed the blade before returning it. Seras gave the boy a hug while delivering a boisterous speech about “fighting spirit.” After asking around a bit, I found out that Tanaka never left the bathroom. Again, another item for the list. It was around that time when the party came to a close, and I needed to return to my second home. The ILS Izanagi was an absolute beast of a vessel, designed to serve as a mobile self-sufficient fleet base. The main hull clocked in at thirty kilometers long, with gigantic, bird-of-prey style wings stretching out to thirty-two in span. Hundreds each of plasma lances, coil batteries, and point defense guns stood in ranks on meters thick nanolaminate hull plating. Rows of hangars and torpedo silos stretched across the sides of the main hull. The main event, though, was the paired primary weapons arrays mounted on the sides of the forward section. Each array held five absolutely enormous mass drivers, mounted to fire either straight forward or up to a one-hundred-twenty degree arc off to its respective side. Each barrel was one-sixth as long as the entire ship. As expected for such a large and unsubtle flagship, the design was courtesy of one Praetor Mira Ashburn, and I couldn’t thank her enough. Even a single hangar was absolutely massive. It was a cavernous, multi-level space that was always busy with some combination of drones and crew. Stacked docking tiers held ships, assorted vehicles, and maintenance equipment. The whole space was connected to the exterior of the ship by a giant array of magnetic launch tubes, which served as the only way in and out of the colossal chamber. Either way, there still wasn’t enough room to fit Prefect Tanaka’s massive ego. I looked back at Kane, who was glued to his tablet, and stepped out. The second my feet hit the deck, I was greeted by the simultaneous thumping of fists over chests by at least two dozen crew and a handful of legion warriors. I returned the gesture, and just as I was about to speak, I felt a presence behind me. My head snapped to the side as I looked over my shoulder, warrior instincts surging. Adrenaline and reflex boosters spiked. The world seemed to slow down. Everything sharpened. As it turns out, my warrior instincts weren’t needed, because the figure standing behind me was my daughter, Kiyana. Her slender arms had already pulled me into a hug before I even finished coming down from the reflex surge. I returned the favor, pulling her closer and patting her back for what, in hindsight, must