After dealing with the pirate designers captured by the Battle Criers, Ves returned to his headquarters and resumed his duties.

It took several more days to wrap up his appointments and put his organizations on the right track.

He directed some attention to the Ves Larkinson Foundation for Wounded Veterans, which had lost its hospitals and most of its doctors. Only a few were willing to accept Director Clinton Larkinson's offer to accompany what had now become the Larkinson Clan.

"We need these doctors." Clinton stated. "I'd like your permission to offer them to become our retainers."

Ves idly rested the Larkinson Mandate on his lap while Lucky was dozing on its surface for whatever reason.

"You don't need to ask me for permission."

"The Larkinson Assembly is still discussing the details of our clan's retainership program. It will take too much time to hammer out a consensus, and I can't afford to wait that long. Some of the doctors haven't been adjusting well to life in the Ylvaine Protectorate. If I don't offer them something solid, they're bound to leave. I don't want to lose these doctors, especially since they have proven to possess the right heart and motivation to work for the Foundation."

Ves couldn't be bothered to evaluate the doctors in person. If Director Clinton said they were alright, then that was already good enough.

"Fine. I'll give you permission to do so. Just remember that as their guarantor you're also responsible for their good behavior."

"I'll keep the docs, nurses and other personnel in line. We have our own doctors now. As long as I seek a couple more specialists, we don't have to depend on our hosts states to deal with any medical emergencies!"

After departing from Cloudy Curtain, the Foundation turned into a homeless charity. While it lost much of its doctors and personnel, it still retained all of its medical equipment and other sophisticated hardware. As long as Clinton managed to attract new doctors, the Foundation could get back on track.

To adjust to the new situation, Clinton proposed to base the Foundation on a ship and operate from there. This way, the clan would be able to receive advanced medical treatment regardless of where they traveled!

Ves approved Clinton's proposal. The expeditionary fleet he intended to build would certainly require a robust health service that could take care of many patients and treat many different ills.

After meeting with Director Clinton, Ves quickly wrapped up his remaining meetings and finally cleared his agenda.

"Is there nothing else that requires my attention, Benny?"

"Well, there's always something that could use your attention." His assistant dutifully responded as he glanced at his data pad. "If you ask me, though, you already did enough. For now, you can trust Mr. Raymond to run the LMC, Speaker Ovrin to run the Larkinson Assembly, Commander Melkor to lead the Avatars and so on. They don't require any further direction as far as I know."

"Good!" Ves let out a deep breath. "Then I can finally return to designing mechs!"

"There is one thing though…"

"Spit it out."

"The Ylvainans want to meet with you and discuss certain proposals regarding your.. integration in the Ylvaine Protectorate."

Ves grimaced. "I already made my stance clear. I oppose greater entanglement with the Ylvainans. No offense, but the LMC and our Larkinson Clan will never become Ylvainans."

"The Ylvainans know that, but they're not giving up. They really want the Bright Martyr to stay here on a permanent basis."

"Urgh. They're acting as clingy as my girlfriend."

"How do you wish to respond?"

"Just refuse their requests. I've already met with Madame Cecily Curin and the other representatives of the government. I made my opinions very clear back then. There shouldn't be any need to meet with them again if I'm just going to regurgitate the exact same answers.

There might be trouble if he continued to rebuff the Ylvainans, but Ves did not expect them to push too hard. He was the Bright Martyr, after all, and his mech designs had practically saved the Protectorate.

The three leading dynasties all respected him and knew better than to mess with him. The Ylvainan people would eat them alive if they did anything towards a Martyred Follower that supposedly received the Great Prophet's blessing!

After dealing with these matters, Ves left the headquarters and returned to the Austen Estate where he enjoyed supper with Gloriana and kept her company for the rest of the evening.

As they sat on a bench in the back garden of the estate grounds, they both watched the darkening skies and the local star dipping below the horizon.

The Larkinson Mandate rested next to Ves, attracting the attention of both Clixie and Lucky.

"Miaow!"

"Meow meow."

"Miaow."

Nyaaa?

Ves watched on with interest as Clixie attempted to groom the Golden Cat, only for her tongue and head to pass right through!

"Miaooooow!"

"They're so cute." Gloriana smiled at their antics. "It's so strange. I can definitely feel a connection to the proto-god you've made. This.. Golden Cat of yours is much more to my liking than your other proto-gods. You should make all of your proto-gods female next time!"

"I'll keep that in mind." Ves vaguely replied, having no intentions to abide by this request. "How are you, by the way? Are you still able to remain productive in your exhausted state?"

"You don't have to worry about me. I took your advice in stride and tried to find a way to cope with this state. While I don't feel inspired, it hasn't affected my other capabilities. As long as I don't have to do anything too imaginative, I can still solve lots of problems."

Since Gloriana said she was okay, Ves dropped the matter. It was actually genuine good for Gloriana to undergo these situations from time to time. Ves believed that she would definitely be able to elevate her mental toughness through these ordeals.

This was important because mental fortitude was very important in performing draining spiritual techniques. The improved method that Gloriana utilized before was too crude and inefficient, causing her to endure an excessive amount of strain due to her lack of control.

"How is your brother and your cousin faring here?"

"They're fine." Gloriana replied. "They're not glad to be here, but you don't have to worry about them leaving. Ranya at least has plenty of work to do. According to her, your physique is making her life a lot harder."

"What about your brother? I can't imagine that the Hegemony will let an expert pilot like him roam around outside the Hegemony."

"Brutus is more than willing to protect me, but he can only stay with us for so long. Once he's recalled, I'd like for us to accompany him back to Hegemony space. Would you like to visit my home state? I can introduce you to my mother and my relatives!"

Ves coughed. "AHEM, let's not be so hasty. Before we manage to complete your mother's challenge, I think it's best for me to keep some distance. Who knows what an awful impression I'll make when I meet her in person? It's better to reconsider this matter after I have a chance to leave a better impression."

"I.. guess you're right." Gloriana nodded thoughtfully. "My mother rarely changes her mind. I don't know how she'll react to a boy like you in your current state. Before we design and build a suitable masterwork mech, you're not much different from anyone else who hails from a lesser state."

He objected to her evaluation. "I'm already standing out a lot from my peers! None of the other Journeymen I know of has managed to swing the Sand War with their mech designs! It took an entire team of Seniors to introduce the Dawnbreaker line and steal some of my thunder!"

"Hehe.. I know that, Ves. That doesn't mean the others know. Our Wodin Dynasty doesn't have a tradition of raising mech designers, it doesn't really understand the nuances of mech design, especially at the higher levels."

"You'd think they would take the advice of someone knowledgeable in this field.. such as you."

She shrugged. "I'm not enough."

They paused for a moment and enjoyed each other's body warmth. Gloriana's lavender scent continued to tickle Ves' nose, causing him to bask in her presence.

In the meantime, the three cats each attempted to interact with each other, to mixed results. All of them existed in different forms and phases!

"Meow!"

Lucky finally had the bright idea of turning himself intangible. Once he did so, he actually managed to touch the Golden Cat's spiritual body!

"Meow meow meow!"

He immediately grew excited and pounced on the Golden Cat, much to her distress! Lucky soon gave the juvenile spiritual entity her very first bath!

Nyaaaa! Nyaaaa! Nyaaaaa!

"Miaooow."

Clixie practically begged Lucky to teach her how to turn intangible, but it was not to be. The circumstances where the mechanical cat gained this ability couldn't be replicated!

"You wanted to use the Golden Cat you made to design a mech exclusive to the Larkinsons, right?" Gloriana spoke up again. "What have you come with so far?"

"I've developed some ideas." Ves carefully replied as he organized his recent deliberations. "The mech I wanted to design has to serve several different purposes. First, it has to remain relevant for at least a couple of years. I don't want to spend all of this time designing a mech that will grow redundant just a year later."

"Understandable."

"Second, I want it to play a useful role in my attempt to elevate the Avatars, Battle Criers, Sentinel and other Larkinsons into second-class mech pilots. I think I can make the transition easier if I design a mech that straddles the line between the two classes. A two-and-a-half-class mech, as it were. It will basically have some of the capabilities of a second-class mech without the accompanying complexity."

"How will you do that?"

"I have some ideas."

Breyer alloy played an essential role in that. Ves wasn't ready to reveal this, though.

"What else do you have?"

"The third priority is to design something that can suit most of my mech pilots. I've recently ordered Benny to perform a survey, and he listed out all of the piloting specialties my warriors possess. They run the gamut, but most of them specialize in either light mechs, swordsman mechs, knight mechs or rifleman mechs."

"There are huge differences in their underlying designs. You'd have to design at least three mechs to cover most of the bases."

"I can't afford to waste too much time on this project." Ves stated. "I only want to spend two or three months at most on this project before I move on. That's not enough to design an entire suite of mechs for my mech pilots, so I decided to take a different approach."

Gloriana was smart enough to guess his solution. "You're designing a modular mech platform? That's.. bold."

She didn't sound too enthused by the idea, and for good reason. A modular mech platform was basically a mech designed to accommodate different roles from the ground up. It did so by incorporating a certain degree of modularity in their designs.

This enabled customers to swap the loadouts of the mech in the field. For example, to convert a knight mech into a rifleman mech, the arms as well as the weapon had to be changed.

Though this sounded incredibly useful, in practice a modular mech platform consisted of a huge amount of compromises!

What it gained in versatility, it lost in many performance aspects! The core structure of the mech had to accommodate way too many roles, which prevented it from excelling in any single area!

This stood in stark contrast to specialized mechs, who weren't nearly as good in adopting different loadouts and fighting methods.

For Ves to state that he would take three months at most to design a fully-featured modular mech platform sounded crazy!

A modular mech platform design was an incredibly burdensome investment that didn't always pay off.

An ordinary mech designer took at least a year to design such a formidable project! What gave Ves the confidence he could complete it in three months?

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