"Happy birthday, Marvaine!"
"You're one step closer to growing into a big boy!"
"Nyaaaaaa~"
"Meuw meuw!"
"Meow meow meow!
"Here is your present!"
During the days where Ves and his fellow mech designers frantically analyzed the Superpublished design of the Dullahan Project, a single event briefly caused them to pause their efforts.
Marvaine celebrated his fourth birthday!
The lucky boy was surrounded by both Larkinsons and cats. A nearby dinner table struggled to hold an entire pile of presents.
Gloriana had taken charge of the birthday party from beginning to end. Much of the ground floor of the Royal Mansion as well as its extensive back garden had been transformed into a festive playground themed around dragons.
All of the children had changed into different dragon-themed outfits. The birthday boy himself wore a cute little outfit that made him look as if he turned into a humanoid golden dragon.
With the help of his companion spirit Denny and the Golden Cat, Marvaine literally turned into the golden boy of the Larkinson Clan on this special day!
Of course, the other brats also enjoyed the custom party.
"Mraw! I am a dragon! Hear me roar!" Andraste shouted as she hopped around with her red dragon-themed outfit.
Aurelia initially thought she was too old and mature to play around like this, but she quickly succumbed once her father forced her to wear a metallic silvery dragon custume.
With Mana helping to activate a special effect, Aurelia managed to turn herself into a dragon queen of sorts.
The firstborn daughter of Ves and Gloriana did not need to do anything else to gather a following of admiring young dragons!
The children laughed and giggled as they took part in several organized activities. From using a toy prop that allowed them to pretend they were breathing dragon fire to letting loose an army of plushy bots for them to defeat, the kids completely let go of all of the pressure and expectations set by their parents and their school teachers!
Many prominent members of the Larkinson Clan and its allies had been invited to the Royal Mansion as well.
Marvaine's birthday party was not only an excellent opportunity for their own brats to get closer to the heirs of the Larkinson Clan, but also served as a convenient gathering to socialize with each other on a more direct basis.
Venerable Brutus Larkinson smiled as he stood next to his younger sister. Both of them stared lovingly at their children as they played with each other without concern.
His own two children were among the swarm of pretend dragons. Both of them possessed noticeably different demeanors.
Ever since he married Commander Sendra Larkinson, he and his wife initially agreed to raise their son Wexel as a Larkinson and their daughter Terina as a Hexer.
In practice, the differences weren't so clear cut. The two children spent most of their time among the Larkinsons in practice. It was just that Terina paid more visits to the Glory Seekers than usual in order to make sure she retained a connection to her other heritage.
It didn't matter too much to Brutus. He had left the Hexadric Hegemony for many years just like Gloriana. The Glory Seekers had already started to diverge from their old Hexer ways due to their continued separation from their 'motherland'.
If it wasn't for the fact that the Wodin Dynasty still supported and controlled the Glory Seekers in various ways, it would not have been unthinkable for them to merge into the Larkinson Clan by this time!
"They grow up so fast." Gloriana gently sighed.
"Thank you again for convincing your husband to bestow my children and I with companion spirits."
"Hm. It is only right for Ves to share his bounty. He has been sitting on this invention for such a long time that it is criminal for him to withhold it from family such as you and your children."
"I am sure that he had his reasons."
Gloriana rolled her eyes.
It had been a few months since Ves quietly gathered a bunch of prominent friends and family members from the Larkinson Clan and the Glory Seekers.
The Larkinson Patriarch took time off his schedule in order to grant each of them their own individual companion spirits.
Right now, many expert pilots, military officers and children received their own companion spirits!
Of course, Ves did not put too much effort into customizing and strengthening these companion spirits. Their initial capabilities were heavily correlated to the strength of their origins.
To expert pilots such as Brutus and Venerable Joshua, their companion spirits started off on a much stronger footing than any other spirits of their kind!
Brutus for example gained a black-and-white tuxedo cat that he decided to call Julius.
The extraordinary willpower infused in Julius allowed the cat to pick up simple objects such as pens or buttons.
This was just the start.
The companion spirit had almost certainly grown stronger since then. Julius also gained greater mastery of the intrinsic ability that he derived from his origin, though Brutus still struggled to effectively make use of it when piloting his expert mech.
In any case, many other expert pilots received similar boosts that directly affected their growth pattern and combat power!
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