Interstellar Age

With Yumi having concluded her negotiations with the Germanic Navy regarding the imprisonment of her great nephew. The Germanic and Oni fleets were ready to march off to war once more. Although the Great Oni Empire had mustered several reserve fleets to send to the front lines alongside the 13th Fleet of the Germanic Navy. It was abundantly clear by the sheer scale of the ships within both fleets that the Germanic Fleet was perhaps by itself capable of taking on the force that their allies had mustered.

A Germanic Carrier was roughly five kilometers in length, while their battleships were four kilometers in length, and their cruisers three kilometers in length. Each classification of the ship scaled down from there.

However, the largest ship in the Great Oni Fleet was roughly half the size of the Germanic Carrier. The reason for this was simple: although the Germanic Star Empire was classified as a tier I Regional Power, their military technology was on par with sub-galactic powers. While the Great Oni Empire was a tier II regional Power. One who, for the last thousand years, focused more on internal development than military expansion.

The ongoing remilitarization of the Great Oni Empire was a sign that they had just recently restarted their imperial ambitions, but this was not enough to catch up to the GSE whose entire society revolved around a martial culture.

This was just another reason that Yumi was so fond of her German allies. She admired their willingness to sacrifice luxury and comfort for ruthless utilitarianism, all for the sake of a powerful military that was capable of defending their borders from larger and older civilizations.

Few Germanic citizens were as lucky as Erich, who possessed a massive luxury mansion as his personal home. Most citizens lived in large, but utilitarian houses that could house and sustain a large family, but completely lacked in luxury items and comforts that were deemed unecessary by the party's architectural planning committee.

The Great Oni Empire, on the other hand, valued luxury and comfort above most other things. Because of this, its most wealthy citizens lived in giant palaces, with all the modern luxuries one could dream of. While their poorest citizens lived in much smaller homes, that still contained these luxury items.

None of this was really important at the moment aside from the fact that it explained the Empire's substantial military prowess in comparison to much older civilizations like their allies in the Great Oni Empire.

At the moment Erich was briefing his Air Group about their responsibilities in the upcoming battle that was planned to take place once they jumped out of quantum.

"Alright, to put it simply, our objective is to escort the heavy bombers to the hostile ships, which will then launch their high yield torpedos at the enemy. Naturally, the batteries on board our battleships will soften up the enemy's energy shields, allowing us to drop our payloads without fear of them being reflected.

It should not take much effort from these heavy bombers to eliminate a single Lutharian Carrier, let alone their battleships, cruisers, destroyers, frigates, et cetera. So for you fighter pilots, and you know who you are, I don't want you wandering off and doing your own thing. Stick close to the bombers and protect their asses from the enemy, understood?"

The other pilots raised their arms in salute as they responded in the affirmative to Erich's question.

"Yes, sir!"

It was a unique experience from Erich's perspective to be giving his soldiers the combat briefing, rather than being on the receiving end. But he could not help but admit that he enjoyed the respect that came with his position. Thus, he smiled and shook his head before giving out some following information.

"Alright, well, now feel free to lounge about and do your own thing, but the moment that siren goes off I want your asses here on the flight deck getting prepped for take off, dismissed!"

With that said, the pilots of the newly reformed black sun squadron began to undertake various tasks. While Erich himself headed towards the brig. He had made a habit of trying to approach the Crown Prince of the Great Oni Empire since Yumi had demanded he stay on board the ship throughout the rest of the conflict.

Thus, Erich made a slight detour to the mess hall, where he picked up some beers before entering the brig. Once he did so, the guards saluted Erich before departing leaving him alone with the prisoner.

Ryu growled like a beast when he saw Erich, up until now he had always cursed out the man whenever he showed his face. But Erich did not mind, he enjoyed the game of trying to get the man to warm up to him. Thus, he placed the beer through the slot in the energy field which was used to transfer food and water to the prisoner.

But Ryu did not dare accept the beer, which caused Erich to chuckle and shake his head before taking a sip of his own.

"Don't worry, it's not poisoned. Yumi would have my hide if I dared to lay a hand on her beloved but idiotic great nephew..."

Ryu glared at Erich for some time, while watching the man drink his fill from his own beer. Evidently, this made the prince thirsty as he silently and slowly grabbed hold of the beer that was sitting on his tray before sniffing it. After confirming it indeed was not poisoned, the man took a sip. Erich smiled when he saw this happen, before asking the man a question.

"Do you mind if I ask you a question? I know you're angry at me, but I am genuinely curious... How did you know about Yumi and me?"

The Oni prince gnashed his teeth when he heard this and averted his gaze. As if deliberately avoiding the question. When Erich saw this, he sighed heavily in defeat and got up. He was just about to leave the brig when Ryu finally spoke to him for the first time since their first encounter.

"My father told me about her... fetish... I don't think he meant to, but he was drunk, and we were talking about your Empire. It just seemed to have slipped from his mouth. It is my understanding that as a part of her job, aunt Yumi only interacts with the highest ranking members of your society. So there is really only one way a lowly commander like yourself would know her.,. And you know better than I how that happened!"

Erich was not surprised to hear these words. At least not the part about Yumi fetishizing Germanic men. He had always kind of suspected that was her deal. After all, the way she spoke about his people was abnormal, to say the least. But he obviously did not dare ask her what her deal was. But after hearing it so blatantly said out loud, Erich simply chuckled with a defeated tone in his voice before expressing his thoughts aloud.

"And here I thought I was special..."

This statement elicited a snort from the Oni Prince, who quickly responded to Erich's words with a particularly hate filled tone.

"Pffft... Special? You? No! I don't know how many of your kind she has slept with, but you're definitely not the first, and you won't be the last either!"

Erich chuckled when he heard this, and shook his head with a particularly defeated look in his silver eyes, as if everything he experienced suddenly seemed so meaningless. And just when Ryu had thought he had crushed Erich, the man revealed something astonishing.

"I see... So if what you say is true, then this means that Yumi has offered to take at least half a dozen other men home with her to keep as her concubine...."

Ryu's amber eyes widened in disbelief as he heard these words. Such a thing was simply outrageous, and could absolutely not be true, but his voice cracked while he screamed at Erich. Revealing that at least on some level, he believed there was some truth behind them.

"You lie! Yumi may enjoy her little flings with you barbarians, but she would never disgrace the sacred ground of our palace by keeping one of your lot as a pet!"

A devilish sneer appeared on Erich's face, which in many ways reminded Ryu about the woman in question, as the silver-haired man taunted the Great Oni Prince with his words.

"Oh? So I am special then? I must admit I was quite surprised when Yumi offered to take me away from all of this. In fact, she seemed quite excited to introduce me to her great niece. What was her name again? Oh right, Ayumi! Yeah, that was her name..."

As much as Ryu did not want to admit it, there was only one way that Erich would know the name of his precious little sister, and that was if Yumi had actually done something so unspeakable egregious. He nearly broke his teeth by clenching them so hard. Before he finally voiced his rage with a violent shout. But his hatred was not intended towards Erich, but instead his great aunt who had dared to even think about defiling his beloved little sister.

"That fucking harlot! If she thinks that she is just going to corrupt Ayumi with her twisted fetishes, then she has another thing coming! I will never allow that to happen! Gods dammit! Why the hell am I in this fucking cage? I need to get back home, before that vile witch does more damage than I can possibly undo!"

Erich chuckled when he heard this, before finishing his beer with one last gulp. He then stood up and approached the door. And as it opened, he said his parting words to the Crown Prince of the Great Oni Empire.

"Not to worry, little Ryu, I declined your great aunt's offer. She might be fun to play around with, but I would never condemn myself to the life as humiliating as that of a male concubine. You have nothing to worry about. But I do enjoy these little chats of ours, so after we have won your battle for you, and I have celebrated with my pilots, I will be sure to visit you again..."

After saying this, Erich stepped out of the brig and returned to the mess hall to interact with several of the pilots in his unit. Leaving Ryu in a state of total anxiety, as he thought about just what kind of twisted things his great aunt was teaching his precious little sister while he rotted away in this cell.

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