The Mech Touch

With the sandman calamity looming over the rimward side of the star sector, Ves temporarily forgot about the Wodins.

It turned out that the Hexers hadn't been keeping to themselves anymore. Initially, the Wodins largely treated others like air. It was as if interacting with third-raters was beneath them. Why should they spare any attention to their lessers?

The change in attitude came as a surprise. Various Wodins began to show up more often at the organizations affiliated with Ves and the Clan.

Dr. Ranya began to cooperate more extensively with Dr. Lupo and other medical specialists.

Venerable Brutus and a number of mech pilots from the Glory Battalion tutored the Avatars and the Larkinsons on how to pilot a second-class mech.

Even Gloriana showed up at the Friedhold Estate and began to mingle with the Larkinsons!

All of these movements did not escape the attention of the watchful. The Hexers didn't hide their movements, and their intentions were clear.

For some reason, the Wodins wanted to improve their relations with their group.

This made Ves all the more suspicious about their motives. While he knew that Gloriana always wanted her family to accept Ves, it was anything but easy to convince her arrogant and stuck-up brother and cousin to accept their lessers!

The Glory Battalion was likewise outside of her control. Aside from obeying some small requests, they mainly kept to themselves while performing their primary duty of protecting the Wodins.

For some of their mech pilots to join Venerable Brutus in providing assistance to inferior mech pilots was rather astounding. There was no reason for the Hexers to lend a hand to the Avatars and the Larkinsons!

None of them had shown any willingness to adopt Hexer values. This meant that the Hexers were out for something else. What Gavin had told Ves made the most sense.

The Wodins were attempting to charm Ves' people. They not only focused their efforts on the Larkinson Clan, but also the people working for the LMC and other organizations.

This told Ves that the target of this operation was him. The Hexers were only being helpful because of him. At some point, their opinions of him changed.

Ves smelled something fishy was going. Regardless of what happened, Gloriana was definitely at the center of this change!

"It seems I can't avoid her any longer."

The reason he didn't seek her out sooner was because he was afraid that they would only intensify their contradictions. As far as Ves was concerned, it wasn't easy to change their respective viewpoints.

Ves abhorred the Hexadric Hegemony. He didn't even really root for them to win the Komodo War.

Gloriana was the opposite. She possessed a strong affection for her state and wanted Ves to support her views. She always encouraged Ves to change his mindset and accept that women were naturally superior to males!

Not only that, but Gloriana always expressed her desire to bring Ves back to the Hegemony in order to introduce him to her mother and relatives and gain their acceptance.

While Ves was fine with trying to win over the Wodin Dynasty, he very much objected to the need to travel to the Hegemony!

Though he tried to avoid saying that to Gloriana, the cat was out of the bag now. Perhaps she always suspected that Ves was less than enthusiastic at the idea of traveling to her home state, but saying it in the open made it impossible for her to ignore this contradiction!

To be honest, Ves had become rather apprehensive towards her reaction ever since they separated after that disastrous evening.

Would she stew by herself? Would she erupt and go crazy? Or would she simply decide to pack up her bags and leave?

Ves considered the latter to be extremely unlikely. He knew that his girlfriend was too attached to him to dump him. She needed his design philosophy in order to advance her career!

What Ves feared the most was the possibility that Gloriana attempted to drag him back to the Hegemony by force.

Suffice to say, Ves would not go down without a fight.

Fortunately, the worst-case scenario hadn't taken place. Instead, the Wodins were engaged in a charm offensive that indirectly signalled to Ves that Gloriana had a change of mind that was favorable to him. Otherwise, why bother with all of these superfluous actions that didn't benefit the Wodins at all aside from earning his favor?

Though Ves was aware that the Wodins had ulterior motives in mind, he wasn't ungrateful. His people could genuinely use the help.

Since Gloriana appeared to have mellowed out since their argument, Ves straightforwardly scheduled a meeting with her after hearing his assistant's report.

Later that day, Ves greeted her in a closed office at the design labs.

Both of them were mech designers, so they were most comfortable in a design environment.

In the main labs, the two design teams were quietly busy at work in developing two different upgraded variants of the Aurora Titan design. The Larkinson seeds were around as well.

In this productive design environment, the two lovers met each other after almost a week of tense avoidance.

Gloriana stepped forward with a smile. It was as if hardly anything had changed!

"Hello Ves."

"Hello Gloriana."

While the two mech designers greeted each other, Clixie squirmed out of her grasp and jumped onto the desk. The organic cat nonchalantly sauntered over to Lucky and bit his metallic cheek before placing her paws on the Larkinson Mandate.

"Hihihi." Gloriana burst out in a giggle. "Clixie missed you all so much. She wanted to go back to you so badly, you know!"

"I think she's more interested in my book than me." Ves offered her a brief smile.

It was difficult to remain impassive in her presence. The moment her scent wafted over to his nose, Ves was reminded of the good times. He didn't want their relationship to remain so awkward.

After their cats broke the ice, their owners relaxed in each other's company. Gloriana eagerly sat down next to Ves and faced him with a smile.

"How have you been, Ves?"

"I'm.. okay. I'm almost ready to begin my next design project."

"You're talking about the modular mech platform for the Larkinsons, right?"

Ves nodded. "It's going to be a big project. This mech is very important to my group. The future of the Larkinson Clan is at stake."

"You'll need my help."

"Yes."

"Then let me. I'm almost done with my errands. While it will take some more time for my mental exhaustion to fade, I'm still capable of performing many tasks."

"I know. It's not that simple, though. I didn't call you here to design a mech right away. I called you here for other reasons."

She sighed. "Do we really have to, Ves?"

Ves tried to look determined. "We can't ignore our problems forever. Let's settle our differences now rather than later."

"Okay.."

"First, let's talk about myself. I'm not a Hexer. I will never become a Hexer. I was raised as a Brighter and a Larkinson and that will never change. I'm very content with who I am. I don't want to do anything with Hexers, and I especially don't want to embrace the Hexer way of life. I can accept that you have different attitudes and beliefs, but that stops the moment they infringe upon my values. I'm a man, not a boy. Can you accept that?"

"You're a man." Gloriana readily said.

Her frank response surprised Ves.

She never said those words! In the past, she was too much of a Hexer to acknowledge that Ves was more than a boy! The implication was that she always considered him to belong to the inferior gender!

For her to turn around and plainly contract her culture and religion was an incredibly huge divergence! Her fellow Hexers would definitely be outraged if they could hear her now! Acknowledging a male as an equal clashed against everything they believed in! Some Hexers were even willing to kill themselves rather than admit that men were equal to women!

Ves always thought that Gloriana was far too immersed in the values and principles she grew up with to change her mind.

Yet as Ves studied his girlfriend through multiple means, he didn't sense that she was lying!

"How come you have a change of heart?" Ves frowned.

"I always thought that you were different from other boys. I wouldn't have loved you so earnestly if that wasn't the case. In my heart, I never treated you as just a boy. It took this long for me to recognize and express this truth."

"You're still a Hexer, though. Besides me, you don't acknowledge any other boy as a man."

"That's.. true." She reluctantly replied, knowing that Ves didn't take that very well. "I won't say I've abandoned my roots. Just like you are still committed to your identity as a Larkinson and a Brighter, I will always be a Hexer."

"Has anything changed at all, then?"

"I'm not the same anymore, Ves." She placed her small and delicate palm over his hand. "I won't let anything get in the way of our relationship again. I was truly afraid that we would break up over this issue! I don't want to repeat this experience again. Therefore, after a lot of thought, I decided to do my best to ease any possible sources of tension between us. Can you blame a woman for doing everything she can to secure her boy—, I mean man?"

Her silky touch and her warm body temperature quickly sent a surge of pleasure through his body!

Ves tried his best to stick to his priorities.

"Is that why your relatives are moving about lately? What's up with that? The Wodins and the Glory Battalion have made it abundantly clear that they don't like me. What did you do to change their mind?"

She grinned and started to lean in his direction. "I persuaded them. They're willing to give us more chances now."

"I find that hard to believe. They still regard me as a boy, right?"

"It doesn't matter." She stated. "They don't have to agree with me to support me. As long as we promise enough benefits, they're willing to close an eye."

Ves still wasn't convinced. Ranya had always treated him with disdain, and Brutus was insanely overprotective towards his sister!

It was impossible for them to casually ignore some troubling details!

"Tell me the truth. What is going on? Why are you and the Wodins so accommodating all of a sudden? It is completely outside your nature as Hexers."

She sighed. "It's nothing complicated, Ves. Both Ranya and Brutus weren't exactly nice to you before, but they were only looking out for me. I had a lot of time on my hands lately, so I decided to seek them out. Once I convinced them that I am only happy when I'm with you, they became open to compromise. I managed to make a deal with them to bless my relationship with you in exchange for some promises."

"What kind of promises."

"Oh, it's no big deal. I only promised to give our Wodin Dynasty a place on our grand expedition."

"How much?"

"Nothing much! Just a couple of ships is fine! It'll still be our fleet, assuming we can scrounge enough MTA merits by ourselves."

Though this sounded like a reasonable concession, Ves sensed it was anything but simple!

One question stood out.

"What does your mother think?"

Gloriana released a nervous laugh. "We didn't contact her yet. She is.. a bit more difficult to convince. Let's just follow our original plan and earn her approval through our excellent design work. Is that alright?"

So only the Wodins around Gloriana had a change of heart.

"What's the point, then?"

"It's very helpful, Ves! It shows that we can win over the rest of my dynasty! We just need more time to prove our worth as a couple! Once we get over this hurdle, you don't have to get involved with the Hegemony ever again! My relatives are willing to let me join your expedition and leave the Milky Way Galaxy in order to explore an entirely new dwarf galaxy. Doesn't that sound great? We can start an entirely new life that's completely divorced from our old lives. It's perfect!"

Was it? Ves couldn't help but feel that there was something fishy about all of these changes…