The Mech Touch

Although his stay in the latter yielded much greater benefits to him, he did not forget about all of the feedback he collected from a diverse sample of customers of his mech company.

He needed to make various changes to his plans and add new items to his agenda if he wanted to act on the new information.

As he entered his mansion and headed into the dining room, his wife along with Lucky appeared to be waiting for his arrival.

"Meow…" The overstuffed cat greeted as he casually laid on the dining table.

"Have you finally returned to reality, Ves?"

He sighed. "Give me a break, Gloriana. I am aware that I interrupted a family moment, but I can make up for it. I saw an opportunity to improve myself and improve the circumstances of one of my daughter organizations, and I took it. You should know as well as I do that we can't always decide when we can achieve a breakthrough or take advantage of a fortuitous set of circumstances."

His wife still didn't look pleased. She crossed her legs and tapped her finger against her other arm while expression continued to express her profound disappointment at his antics.

"You are too whimsical, Ves. This has always been a bad habit of yours, but I have noticed that it has gotten worse in the last few years. It does not take much time and effort to plan your schedule properly and ahead of time. I do not begrudge you for pursuing any opportunities that can advance your work and design philosophy, but is it too much to ask for you to restrict your work to your work hours and devote your leisure time to your family? You are setting an awful example to our children!"

"That's not fair, Gloriana. I am doing my best to show that hard work pays off. Don't forget that it is through my efforts that we can enroll our kids into first-class virtual schools once our refitted Spirit of Bentheim returns from the Vulit Central Star Node."

"That is not relevant to our current discussion! What I am trying to bring to your attention is that your lack of proper planning and impulsive control is disrupting our family time! Sometimes, I have the impression that you are more of a child than Aurelia, Andraste and Marvaine! I have at least done my best to raise them properly and respect the rules that we have set. As for you, Ves, you seem to enjoy breaking the rules whenever you are swayed by your own temptations!"

She was right. Ves did not act like the father today. He lowered his head and accepted her complaints.

Even though he was convinced that all of the gains and improvements he secured during his extensive visit to the Creation Association's association would ultimately improve the circumstances of his lovely little kids, that should not excuse his conduct.

As a father, he should be more mindful of how he spent his time with his children. They grew up so quickly and once they started to study alongside first-raters, they would become so busy with virtual classes and demanding homework that they would have even less time to enjoy their childhood with their mother and father!

Ves slowly approached his wife and sat down on the dining chair next to her own position. He reached out and grasped her small and delicate hand. The warm touch of skin soothed both of their nerves.

"I promise I will do better next time. Our children should never take a backseat. I will make sure to free up extra time in my schedule for the week so that we can go on another fun excursion."

His wife accepted his contrition. "Make certain that you do. I will hold you accountable if you break your promise again. Our children deserve better from you. I deserve better from you. From the moment you chose to become a father, you need to do your utmost to balance your professional responsibilities with your parental responsibilities. I cannot keep cleaning up your messes all of the time."

Once his wife finished admonishing him, she finally gave in to her curiosity and asked about his latest results.

"What did you accomplish earlier today?"

"It's a lot. I never expected to gain so much from working together with a dwarven blacksmith."

He quickly summarized what he had done and also presented his new Hammer of Melody to his wife.

She dubiously picked it up. Though she could tell it was special in a sense, its shape was far too strange and unsuitable for actual metalworking.

"This hammer of yours is dense, but also small. What is it for, exactly? It looks more suitable to be used as a gavel in a courtroom than a smithing hammer in a forge."

Ves grinned and took the hammer back from her grasp. He then proceeded to slam the head of his new hammer against Lucky's back!

Dingggggggg~~~

A surprisingly long and beautiful-sounding metallic chord rang from Lucky's metallic body. The sudden attack along with the strange vibrations coursing through his body spooked the cat out of his wits!

"MEEEOOOW!"

The tired cat practically jumped from the table and floated just out of the range of Ves' odd hammer. The aggrieved expression on the cat's face showed that Lucky did not appreciate being turned into a drum!

"Meow meow meow meow meow!"

"Oh come on, Lucky. It's not that bad! There's no freaky magic behind it or anything. The fact your body produced such a pleasant sound is good news! It indicates that you are not only intricately put together, but also particularly well-constructed. Would you like me to strike you again at a different angle to see whether you can produce a different tone?"

"Meeeoow!"

The cat flew up to the ceiling and phased through it in order to get away from this utter madman! Right now, Lucky wanted to do nothing more than to head to Andraste's bedroom and cuddle against her warm body.

Gloriana in the meantime looked at the small and slender hammer with a notable degree of shock.

"That's impossible. How could Lucky's body produce such an amazing sound? All the notes produced by his body were even perfectly in tune! There is no way that Lucky's body was designed with this purpose in mind."

"You are correct, honey, but just because a product wasn't designed with a specific purpose in mind does not mean it can never happen. One of the valuable trade secrets that I've learned from the old dwarf is that everything can produce a harmonic tone when hit in a certain way. This also includes metal objects such as tools, mechanical hammers and even mechs."

"I know that, but this goes far more than producing a simple impact noise that happens whenever an object gets hit. Not only did you manage to produce a chord that is perfectly in tune, but the sound volume was much louder than normal!"

"That's the power of resonance." Ves grinned in reply. "Acoustic resonance, to be more precise. It is not a complicated concept, but Master Dunnerholm has delved so deep in this topic that he has developed a set of formulas as well as additional rules that can help him determine how to strike any object to produce the strongest possible sound through leveraging the power of resonance."

He expected his wife to mock such a banal specialty. After all, the practical uses of this specialization weren't that impressive. Perhaps Master Dunnerholm may be able to produce fantastic musical instruments, but that was hardly relevant to mechs!

However, his wife displayed genuine respect for this odd specialty.

"I cannot claim to understand the ins and outs of this strange theory, but I can understand how it can enrich the world of blacksmithing. I even suspect that acoustic resonance may share a relation to the phenomenon of generating true resonance in high-ranking mechs."

Now that certainly caught Ves' attention. He already considered this notion beforehand, but he understood so little on how mechs could be designed in a way that enabled them to resonate with their expert pilots that he could not continue his train of thought.

"Do you… understand how Senior Mech Designers and higher are able to satisfy the most important requirement of designing an expert mech?"

The grin on his wife's expression showed that she was exulting over her superiority over him! She couldn't look more smug even if she tried!

"Wouldn't you like to know, hihi!"

"What?! You actually know?! I thought you would have to advance to Senior in order to join the secret club of mech designers that have earned the right to learn this secret!"

Gloriana crossed her arms and shook her head. "That is indeed the case, but that is not enough to stop a remarkably intelligent mech designer whose expertise happens to center around high-quality mechs. Look, you have your strengths and I have mine. I know much more about how expert mechs work than you ever will, and that is because I almost exclusively focus my efforts on them. Meanwhile, you continue to follow every whim and keep bouncing around expert mechs and mass production mechs without any sense of order of cohesion."

"My expertise is a lot broader and more versatile because of that." Ves defended himself. "I can design a lot more mechs that would leave you stumped or feeling sick."

"I do not deny your own strengths. I am just reminding you that I have studied expert mechs to a much greater depth than you. Collaborating with the likes of Master Benedict Cortez on numerous tasks just as implementing incremental improvements onto the Mars has especially helped me decipher how resonance is presumably formed by the cooperation between an ace pilot and ace mech. This pair is so much more powerful than what we normally work with that their traits are especially obvious."

It sounded a lot more plausible for Gloriana to figure out the key to designing high-ranking mechs in advance.

Getting her to share that secret was another matter, though.

"Can you tell me the truth?"

"No." Gloriana shook her head again. "I cannot. The MTA's rules are clear, and I will not violate them and incur punishment as a consequence. It wouldn't help you much anyway. You should focus on what you can accomplish at your current rank."

She may be right. Ves may not be able to make effective use of this secret once he learned it. There was no need to force his wife to break a rule just to satisfy his curiosity.

"I guess I will do my best to hurry up and advance to Senior first."

"About that, Ves…"

"I am not spending 120 million MTA merits on a single first-class implant!" Ves immediately replied.

"I deserve compensation for the negligence that you have shown my children and I today!"

"That has nothing to do with your blasted implant!"

"Look, Ves, if you find it so hard to stomach the thought of spending 120 million MTA merits at once, then can you at least support your dearest wife and give me 60 million MTA merits instead?"

"Huh? You are actually willing to cut your demand in half? What are you going to do instead? Are you going for a budget version of your chosen implant?"

"I would never skimp out on the quality of my most important augment!" Gloriana replied. "I have secured an additional source of merits. After a long talk with my mother and Marshal Ariadne Wodin, the Glory Seekers have reluctantly agreed to contribute 60 million MTA merits to fund my upgrade."

"That's nice, honey. Why won't they go a step further and cover the full amount?"

"Because my brother Brutus needs a boost as well! Because the Wodin Dynasty could sorely use those precious merits to increase its strength and improve its standing within the Hex Federation!"

"I think the Wodins are better off if they invest all of their MTA merits into improving the Glory Seekers. This way, they can contribute more in future expeditions that can earn us a lot of rewards from the Association. Don't you think this is a more viable way for you to get what you want?"

"JUST GIVE ME THE 60 MILLION MTA MERITS ALREADY, VES!"