Chapter 3005 - Misapplied Logic (1/2)

Selling a spiritual network to his allies was a major decision. It was not something to be decided on a whim.

After discussing this option with Calabast, Ves decided to put her in charge of laying the groundwork of a potential deal.

Properly speaking, a trusted diplomat should be doing this job, but  a spy usually acted as a decent substitute. Calabast was the sort of person who excelled at seeking advantages for herself. She should know how to maximize the Larkinson Clan's bargaining power and persuade their business partners into opening up their wallets.

As Ves reluctantly continued to stay on top of the ongoing developments while trying to resume his design work, he received a surprising request from Master Willix.

He looked at the notification on his comm with a mild surprise. He never spoke directly to her for quite some time.

Ves didn't take the initiative to talk to her because he didn't want to get confronted on what he had been doing back on Prosperous Hill VI. What kind of criminal was stupid enough to approach the authorities on his own initiative?

Another reason was that it simply wasn't necessary. Gloriana was in charge of the design projects this time, so it was natural for her to coordinate with the Master who supervised them. The nature of designing expert mechs was extremely technical, which fully conformed to Gloriana's specialty.

Ves even thought that he would be able to spend months without ever speaking with his reluctant patron within the MTA. The longer this went on, the lower the likelihood that Master Willix would confront him on stealing five precious vials of high-grade life-prolonging treatment serum!

This was why he became quite nervous after receiving Master Willix's summons. While the timing of this message suggested that the topic she had in mind was likely related to the ongoing terror campaign, Ves still worried whether she would mention some of his misdeeds on the last planet he visited.

”I need to control myself.” He muttered.

He tried to suppress all of his nervous tension before leaving the design lab. Various thoughts swirled through his mind as he moved down to the hangar bay and boarded his shuttle.

While Gloriana probably didn't care about discussing expert mech design over the galactic net, Ves was different. The topics that he sometimes discussed with Willix demanded greater precautions.

This was why he had to travel all the way back to his former flagship, the Scarlet Rose.

He still left the Darkbreak module in the mobile supply carrier because Ves simply didn't trust it enough to install it on the Spirit of Bentheim. While it was rather inconvenient for Ves to travel all the way back to his old ship, it was a small price to pay in order to gain a lot of peace of mind.

”Wait in my shuttle, Lucky. I don't want you to get too close.”

”Meow.”

Lucky lazily flipped his tail while resting on top of a shuttle seat. Ves threw a viable exotic towards his cat in order to keep the pet happy.

”Meow~”

Though Ves hadn't stepped aboard the Scarlet Rose for many months, he was still familiar with her layout. He entered the dedicated communication chamber and approached the dark metal slab that rested in the center.

After inputting a few commands, he waited until the Darkbreak module established a highly secure connection to Master Willix.

The woman looked the same as ever. Ves had met her enough times by now to shake off his instinctual fawning and worship towards Master Mech Designer. Though he respected their formidable design ability, they were human in some respects.

That didn't mean he underestimated her. Ves only possessed a partial glimpse of her role within the Association. He didn't know how much power she wielded, but he could definitely make some guesses.

”Master Willix!” Ves pasted on a sincere-looking smile on his face. ”I've missed you quite a lot. I was wondering if you forgot about me or something. You seem to have grown very chummy with Gloriana lately.”

The great mech designer remained calm and collected. The projection of her lab-coated body barely showed any sign of tension despite the severe crisis the MTA faced.

A modest smile appeared on her face. ”Miss Gloriana is quite devoted towards her work. It is a pleasure to feed her passion and guide her into developing her own solutions. She is a fantastic young women to work with. You are lucky to have her as your partner.”

Ves briefly coughed. ”Yes. I'm very lucky, yes. I couldn't ask for a better collaborator.”

”Perhaps you might not be aware of her brilliance at the moment, but you will assuredly find out once you have moved past the preliminary phases and proceed with the main design work. She has developed some new methods that will surely play well with the expert mechs that we are developing.”