The Mech Touch novel Chapter 2446

Chapter 2446: Life Mates

As a mech designer, Ketis followed a very unusual development trajectory. Having been raised by a pirate mech designer, the moment Ves came into her life, she gained a tremendous amount of help.

Aside from stuffing her with Attribute Candies, Ves also filled up the gaps in her knowledge due to her lack of structural learning.

What caused him to feel a bit of regret was that no matter how much he instructed her, he could not adequately replace a proper educational institution.

This caused her upbringing as a mech designer to remain crooked. Her determination to concentrate solely on designing sword-wielding mechs was not just a personal choice, but also a necessity.

If she wanted to design something other than a swordsman mech, her shortcomings would soon become obvious.

Yet because she decisively specialized in a narrow field, those issues largely became irrelevant. Her strong dedication and passion towards her design philosophy gave her the potential to design unique swordsman mechs with traits that Ves could never possibly replicate.

The Yandra Blocker piloted by Lieutenant Sendra showcased a glimpse of the future. The large and slightly unwieldy mech performed like a hybrid between a swordsman mech and a knight mech.

When set against some practice targets, the Yandra Blocker's twin swords struck slow but hard. Their considerable mass also enabled the swords to be used as adequate shields, though their coverage was not ideal.

As a number of rifleman mechs carefully fired at the Yandra Blocker, its swords appeared to cope well against laser beams but poorly against kinetic rounds.

"One of the main flaws of this mech is that its main means of blocking damage also happens to be its only weapons." Ves noted as he studied the live footage and telemetry of the mech in action.

"It has a backup blade."

"The powerful arms necessary to wield these heavy swords aren't very fast or agile. Pairing this mech with a short sword or knife leads to a severe mismatch."

"It's better than nothing." Ketis pouted.

That was true. He should not expect too much from a third-class mech. The budget, tech and material constraints forced every mech designer to make some hard choices.

Once the test run came to an end, Lieutenant Sendra piloted the slightly beat-up Yandra Blocker back to the Scarlet Rose and emerged from the cockpit with a satisfied smile.

"Good first attempt!" She gave a thumbs up to Ketis.

"What do you think about my mech? Be honest."

"It could be better. I would say the mech is too rough for my liking. Compared to Mayra's work, your mech has a lot of minor elements that trouble me a bit. I'll tell you about them later. What I do like is that your mech comes closest to complimenting our swordsmanship style. I see the potential in your work. Keep them up, and soon you'll have every sister of ours begging to pilot your mechs!"

Ketis looked both happy and disappointed. Ves gently clapped her back.

"No one gets it completely right the first time. Just be happy that she thinks you're on the right track. That's more important than anything."

"I.. you're right. I should be happy that I've made it this far. If the Swordsmaidens like my work, then I'm definitely getting closer to achieving my goals!"

Overall, this was a happy moment for Ketis. Ves noted with satisfaction that Lieutenant Sendra spoke quite thoughtfully and took care not to damage the younger mech designer's confidence.

Now that Ketis completed her first original mech design without any serious complications, she finally gained the confidence that a mech designer ought to possess. Even if she botched her subsequent mech designs, her belief in her design ability should see her through.

Aside from spending time with Ketis, Ves also made sure to keep in touch with a number of other people.

One of the people he cared about the most was Venerable Joshua. Ves just heard that the young prodigy had just broken up with Venerable Jannzi.

Though Ves predicted that this would happen, the depression rolling off Joshua as he sat in his new cabin aboard another ship was palpable.

That changed as soon as Ves entered the compartment.

"Patriarch!" Joshua shockingly uttered and jumped to his feet. "Why are you here, sir?!"

Ves smiled. "I wanted to see how our expert pilots are doing. You look like you could use some company."

"I… I'm sorry. I'm not very presentable right now."

"That's okay. This is not a formal inspection or anything. Don't force yourself to be someone you're not. Just behave naturally. That's your prerogative as an expert pilot."

"Thank you, sir."

As the two tentatively chatted a little, Ves noticed that Venerable Joshua lacked the distinct sense of arrogance and alienation that he was used to seeing in other expert pilots.

Of the five expert pilots of the Larkinson Clan, Venerable Jannzi exhibited the most drastic shift in personality. Ves wasn't really sure why that was the cause. He remembered what she was like from the start. The current version of Jannzi was practically unrecognizable from the shy and deferential space knight specialist in the past.

In contrast, Venerable Joshua came across as friendly, casual and even intimate. He was an expressive young man, and Ves found it hard to dislike him. If not for his strong and vigorous force of will, the mech pilot would have been no different from a random person on the street.

It was as if Joshua still retained much of his humanity.

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