Chapter 1568. Mild Side Effects (1/2)
Once Ves and Gloriana reached the Mech Nursery, they stopped by the infirmary to check up on William.
The Urbesh clansman still hadn't woken up, but there were some encouraging signs. His brain activity began to normalize. The doctors predicted that he would wake up within two or three days.
If William still hadn't woken up by that time, then he needed to be moved to a better-equipped hospital in Bentheim.
Ves preferred it if they didn't have to resort to this cumbersome movement. Not only would it take time to get William back to Cloudy Curtain, there was a chance that William would find some way to escape his clutches.
No test subject was allowed to run from Ves before he was done with his experiments!
”I think William will be fine.” Gloriana remarked and gestured at some of the doctors wearing different uniforms. ”I've assigned some of my own men to facilitate his care.”
Ves noticed that. Some of the medical equipment in the infirmary looked very different.
While he didn't mind the changes, it rankled Ves a bit that she didn't ask for his permission.
”Gloriana… I thought we talked about this. Don't make any unilateral decisions when it concerns us both. The Mech Nursery is still my property.”
”Ah, I'm sorry. It slipped my mind.”
Ves could already tell that this would be a recurring habit of his girlfriend. Whenever she saw something imperfect that she could address, she would go ahead and fix the problem in her own way.
The root problem with Gloriana was that she was far too used to acting decisively that asking for his approval was still something alien to her. Perhaps she was capable of deferring to others, but the only people she answered to was her mother or other authoritative women.
Even Gloriana stated that she didn't see Ves as a boy, she was very much a Hexer. Her unconscious bias against men and boys still affected her conduct while she stayed with him on Cloudy Curtain.
He foresaw a need to have another serious talk with Gloriana. Not now, though. He wasn't in the mood right now.
Once Ves and Gloriana headed down to their lab, they convened together with the four Larkinson seeds.
They hadn't been staying idle all this time. Ketis had been attentive in guiding their studies while the others were preoccupied with other matters.
”How are the kids, Ketis?” He asked.
”They're all very bright.” She replied with a smile. ”Not as smart as me, but at their age they're already quite impressive.”
Ves turned towards the four Larkinson teenagers and studied them with a scrutinizing gaze.
As expected, none of them could keep their composure when their idol studied them in this manner.
He didn't stare at them because he wanted to intimidate them. Instead, he was looking out for certain abnormal signs.
He finally managed to spot something abnormal. Maikel Larkinson's neck featured a very faint blue mottled pattern.
No normal human possessed skin that looked like this. Unless it was a bruise, it was very likely that Ves detected a disconcerting sign!
”Did any of you undergo genetic modification?”
All four Larkinsons nodded.
”Yes, sir.” Rennie Larkinson answered. ”Before we got sent to Cloudy Curtain, our family sent us all to an exclusive gene clinic at Rittersberg. The clinic is very renowned there for selling genetic mod templates that increases intelligence when applied to someone's genes.”
”I see.” Ves said flatly. ”How much did it cost?”
”Around 80 million credits per operation.”
”That's a very significant amount of money to invest in a person.”
Zanthar Larkinson confidently smiled. ”Our family is very hopeful about us. We were all doing very well at school before we've been selected to study under you. Now that our genes have improved, I have no problem with keeping up with my studies while spending lots of time here!”
The other three Larkinsons nodded in agreement.
Ves sighed and placed his hands against his hips. ”What about the side effects? There's always a catch.”
The four of them exchanged awkward glances.
”Tell me now, or I'll ask your parents. Either way, I'll find out.”
”You don't have to, sir. We'll tell you. There's a bunch of side effects, but the main one is that we need to hydrate ourselves more often. The gene mod template was derived from an aquatic species.”
”Well, that doesn't sound so bad. What else?”
A bunch of other quirks and warnings followed. None of the potential side effects sounded very serious to Ves. No wonder it cost 80 million bright credits per operation at pre-inflation levels.
The side effects were severe enough to make them a bit bothersome, but not so cumbersome to require a reduction in price.
It wasn't really that expensive to apply a gene mod template to someone. The main reason why the price was jacked up so much was that the templates were often licensed from biotech companies at exorbitant prices.