The Mech Touch novel Chapter 2966

Chapter 2966: Hey Arnold

Since Ves wanted to fully dedicate himself to creating his own companion spirit, he made a difficult request to Gloriana.

"Why do you want to delay the start of our new expert mech design projects?" Gloriana frowned as she sat elegantly behind her terminal in the design lab. "Do you know how long I've waited to begin our work on them? I have already tried to be patient when you were stuck on Prosperous Hill VI for a month. Now you want us to delay the next round of design projects by three more weeks? ARE YOU CRAZY!?"

Ves innocently raised his hands. "Honey, please don't be mad! Look, there are way too many issues that require my attention at the moment. I won't be able to concentrate on my mech design work as long as I keep getting distracted by all of the fires I have to put out. Our clan has changed considerably and our member roster has more than doubled in a very short amount of time. Do you think we can just absorb all of the clansmen without any worries? If I don't nip all of the potential problems in the bud, we might get into a lot of trouble in the future!"

All of these worries were legitimate, but he was not quite honest about how much time it would take to address them. He just had to meet with a handful of key leaders and make sure they pursued the right policies to assuage his concerns.

Unfortunately, Gloriana wasn't that easy to fool.

"Haven't you delegated all these tedious matters to General Verle and so on? There is no need for you to take action in person!"

"You don't understand, Gloriana. None of the Larkinsons understand the former Lifers that have just joined our clan. They're weirdos to the rest of us. General Verle is a wise and thoughtful leader, but he hasn't spent weeks living among these people like I did. I have to take charge of their integration into the rest of the clan. It is pivotal that the tens of thousands of Lifers we've absorbed become more than Larkinsons-in-name like they are now. It is too easy for them to retain their stubborn old identities if they keep isolating themselves in their bioships."

His wife softened her expression a bit. This was indeed a thorny and delicate issue that could easily plunge the Larkinson Clan into a major crisis if handled poorly. Ves already intended to pay a visit to the Dragon's Den in order to tour the bioresearch vessel and make sure Commander Rivington and his new staff were on the right track.

"Okay, I can grant you that, but do you really need to spend weeks holding their hands?"

Ves let out a tired breath and pretended to be swamped with work. "There are many other issues I need to deal with. Integrating the former Heavensworders that Ketis has brought back is another major challenge. Then there are numerous other priorities such as accelerating the production of LMC mechs, commissioning our next batch of capital ships at a distant shipyard along our route, keeping my eye out on any promising diplomats, trying to find an opportunity to earn more MTA merits, the list goes on and on. I promise I won't suggest any further delays after this. Three weeks is enough to solve or address all of the issues that have piled up while I was absent from the fleet."

All of this sounded reasonable, though that did not diminish Gloriana's annoyance at having to wait for him yet another time.

She briefly recalled something. "Didn't you make a deal with a local LRA Master Mech Designer about obtaining 5 million MTA merits?"

He glowered at this mention. "I did. While I upheld my end of the deal, Master Leehay Brixton never managed to send his disciple who possesses all of those merits to us. I guess the civil war along with everything that followed such as the biojuggernaut's destructive rampage has completely put it out of his mind." _{freēwēbηovel.c૦m}

"Master Mech Designers aren't known to be forgetful. You got scammed by Master Brixon, am I right?"

"Erm, I wouldn't call it that…"

Gloriana snarled. "YOU DUMMY! Next time, don't make deals with shifty Masters who have ulterior motives in mind. At least make sure they are women! Master Willix and even Master Olson possess a lot more integrity than someone who directly pulled you into a civil war."

"What does their gender have to do with this?!" He spluttered. "Whether they are men or women is completely irrelevant!"

"Hmph!"

Though this argument sounded ridiculous to Ves, Gloriana no longer questioned his need to spend time on other matters. She resigned herself to continuing her preparations on her own. This wasn't as bad as it sounded as she could already do a lot of work such as researching and gathering suitable exotics without formally starting the expert mech design projects.

Doing all of this prep work beforehand would save valuable time and effort later on, though there was always a risk that Gloriana might prepare for something that wouldn't be used.

Once Ves secured his wife's permission, he did indeed perform the duties he described, if only at first.

He met with a range of people including General Verle and Calabast to talk about important matters.

When Ves met his spymaster for the first time since he last saw her on the surface of Prosperous Hill VI, he encountered an unexpected sight.

"Is that Arnold?" He bluntly asked after he entered her office aboard the Spirit of Bentheim.

"Squeak!"

The roughly cat-sized exobeast became alarmed at his presence and quickly waddled its eight limbs towards the black-clad uniformed woman who was working calmly behind her desk.

Calabast smiled indulgently at the arganid clisenta as she picked the alien creature up and treated him like a baby.

"Oh, poor Arnold. Are you afraid? Don't worry. Momma Calabast will protect you. Ves won't be able to touch you or perform dangerous experiments on you as long as I am around."

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