The Mech Touch

With all of the excitement triggered by Helena's birth, it took a bit of time before Ves turned his attention back to his more immediate priorities.

He was scheduled to create a new companion spirit for Jovy Armalon quite soon.

He needed to get to work on his many design projects.

He also had to convince the Aduc Family to accept his terms and pass on the secret for developing spiritual potential!

While Ves prepared for his next meeting with Matriarch Erexi Aduc, his wife confronted him about his sister.

"Ves! Why didn't you introduce me to your sister?!"

"I wanted to talk to her first." He replied. "No offense, Gloriana, but I don't think my sister needs to hear your notions about gods."

"What do you mean by that?! She's the daughter of the Superior Mother! She is a born proto-god! In fact, with how powerful she appears to be, she is already a goddess in truth! She's the best sister-in-law that I could have!"

Ves wanted to palm his face. This was exactly the kind of talk that he wanted to keep away from Helena!

Gloriana smirked at him. "Fortunately, I already introduced myself to Helena, no thanks to you. There are so many Valkyrie mechs in our fleet that her glow is everywhere. We already had a little chat, though I didn't get a hold of her for long."

"What? You talked to her already?"

He shouldn't be surprised at this. Helena could reach out to anyone close to the Valkyrie mechs.

Usually, she shouldn't have any reason to make contact with ordinary people, but Gloriana's was different.

As her brother's wife, Helena had many reasons to pay extra attention to Gloriana!

What was worse was that Gloriana's fanatical devotion to hexism and the Superior Mother would undoubtedly extend towards Helena!

He knew better than to persuade his wife to stop worshiping Helena as a goddess. Gloriana couldn't be persuaded when it came to matters of faith and the fact that Helena was powerful enough to moonlight as a deity did not help matters either!

He instead approached his daughter and picked her up in his arms.

His baby girl had been playing with a big plushy tiger before her father lifted her up. She turned and gazed at him in confusion.

"Papa…?"

"I have great news for you. You've got a new aunt, Aurelia. She's family!"

"Aunt?"

"That is what you call the sister of papa or mama. She's family, just like you and me. When she shows up, she won't be present in her physical body. She will come in a form that is similar to that of Mana and Blinky."

Mew!

As soon as Ves called her name, Mana popped out of Aurelia's head and cutely floated in the air. The spiritual kitten radiated a sense of pure and warm energy that reminded Ves of a mix between Lufa and the Golden Cat.

"When you meet your aunt in the future, don't mistake her as a god. She's still human like you and I. She's just a bit special. Don't listen to your mother when she claims that your aunt is a goddess. There are no gods in our family. We are just a perfectly normal human family, do you get that, Aurelia?"

His daughter had already stopped paying attention to him. She had gone back to playing with her plushy tiger!

"...I'll wait until you've grown a bit older."

Once Ves said goodbye to his wife and daughter, he met up with Minister Shederin in his office.

The foreign minister had taken charge of the negotiations after Ves dealt with all of the Helena business. From what he heard, the Aduc Family hadn't budged at all when it came to the most serious and controversial demand of the Larkinson Clan.

"What you are asking is nothing less than betrayal." Shederin told Ves once they both settled in the office. "You are essentially asking the Aduc Family to violate its morals, its traditions and its honor for material gain. Do you see why this sounds like a devil's deal?"

"There's no point in clinging to useless traditions." Ves retorted. "Besides, morals and honor do not necessarily bring the Aduc Family back to its former height. Centuries have passed since they were exiled from the Terran Confederation. What have they done since then? They devolved into second-raters and never made much progress in getting back! If I was in their position, then I would have reached the pinnacle of the terraforming industry by now! These guys are so passive and unwilling to break from their routine that they won't amount to anything if they maintain this attitude."

"The problems and faults of the Aduc Family are not our concern. Not yet, at least. They are not on our side yet, and they may not end up cooperating as closely as you anticipate. It is up to them to choose whether to accept our push or resist our efforts to change their attitudes."

Not everyone was willing to take risks in order to achieve a better life for themselves and their descendants.

A lot of people who were born in less-than-ideal circumstances were perfectly happy with their current lot in lives. They might not be as wealthy as first-raters, but they weren't as poor and destitute as dwarven mining slaves.

In fact, Ves used to be in their position as well. Though average third-class citizens were looked down upon by a lot of people, people like the Larkinsons in the past were perfectly happy with their place in society.

The Bright Republic wasn't a bad place to live either, though a lot of other third-raters in the same star sector couldn't say the same.

Even a weak alien race like the sandmen managed to wipe out trillions of people! They had been able to overrun so many states because none of them possessed the strength to resist the sandman invasion.

Therefore, Ves was not fooled by the relative prosperity the Larkinson Clan had attained in the past few years. Though it was undoubtedly true that he and his clan had risen remarkably quickly, he still had a lot to go before he reached his ultimate destination!

The Aduc Family had the potential to accelerate his rise, but in order for that to happen, he had to sway the careful Aducs to make bolder decisions!

Breaking traditions and violating rules for personal gain were second nature to Ves. As long as leaking an important secret resulted in a profitable transaction without inviting disaster, he would do so in a heartbeat!

He was quite disappointed that a supposedly good leader like Matriarch Erexi Aduc was unwilling to make the decision that provided the greatest benefits to her family.

"What is your advice?" Ves plainly asked.

Minister Shederin leaned forward. "I suggest you choose between two different negotiation strategies. We can adopt a slow and steady strategy that entails holding frequent talks and exchanges with the Aducs. If we cannot persuade them into making the desired concessions right away, then we should persuade them why it is best for them to do so over time. Invite their members to our fleet. We should especially focus on deepening our friendship with their younger and more impressionable heirs."

Ves recalled that the reason why they succeeded in convincing the Murphy Family to join the Open Consortium was by subverting the heirs of Madame Gelly Murphy.

What Shederin suggested was the same approach but strung out over time in order to alter the mindsets of the Aducs over time.

The success rate of this strategy should not be low. Ves believed that the Aduc Family would probably develop a much greater appreciation of what he could offer if its members became more familiar with the benefits of obtaining an ancestral spirit.

"This strategy is too slow to produce results." Ves shook his head. "I don't want to waste months or years of our time on slowly boiling a frog alive. I want to throw the frog over a grill and munch on its legs shortly afterwards."

"That is why we have also devised a faster strategy, sir. Instead of trying to change the minds of the Aducs over time, we can shock them into making the desired decisions through multiple ways. One of the more direct moves we can make is to show off our strongest 'spirits' and tell them that we can turn their Old Lady into one as well."

Ves slowly nodded. "I think that can work, but a hard sell can easily backfire. What if the Aducs dig in and remain stubborn?"

"Then we need to resort to other ploys." The old man replied. "To be more precise, we need to increase the heat and add more pressure to them. One of the biggest reasons why the Aducs do not feel much pressure to accept our deal is because their Old Lady is still in decent shape. While she has already started to show signs of deterioration, trees are highly resilient organisms by nature, especially when the Aducs take good care of her. It will take a couple of decades to a century before their tree reaches the point of no return."

"Are you suggesting that we push the Old Lady to this point in advance, minister?"

"That is correct, sir. It sounds ruthless, and it is not an ideal way to start a friendship with the Aduc Family, but as long as we can reverse the Old Lady's malaise and make her stronger and healthier than ever, then the recency bias and the contrast effect will help with clearing the foul air. However, the premise of making this work is if we are the only party that is capable of healing the Old Lady. If we are not the sole saviors that the Aducs can turn to, then we will be shooting ourselves in the foot."

Ves fell into thought. The plan that Shederin had introduced to him sounded like a fast but risky way to resolve the current impasse.

It shouldn't be too difficult to sabotage the Old Lady. The Aducs may have implemented a lot of security measures in their Green Sanctum, and they might be familiar enough with spiritual engineering to stop any sneaky spiritual intruders, but Ves did not get stumped by these obstacles.

Just recently, Helena showed off her ability to project her death energy at a huge distance with impressive accuracy!

As long as she controlled her power output, it should be possible for her or another skilled wielder of a spiritual firearm to sabotage the Old Lady despite the fact that she was rooted in the middle of the Aduc Family's flagship!

Ves rubbed his smooth-shaven chin. "I can take care of the tree if we need to encourage the Aducs to make a quick decision, but I'm not sure whether we should resort to such an extreme solution."

"Are you having second thoughts?" Shederin raised his eyebrow.

"I get why you told me that the Aduc Family are not in our camp yet, but I can't help but treat them like this. It is one thing to encourage them into making a decision that we believe will ultimately benefit them. It is another thing to force them into making a decision in our favor by relying on coercion, blackmail and extortion. Do we really need to tarnish our honor to such an extent in order to achieve a favorable result?"

Minister Shederin gazed steadily at Ves. "You have no problem in encouraging the Aducs to do the same. What if I tell you that as long as you sabotage the Old Lady, I can close a deal with the Aduc Family within 24 hours? You do not even need to step forward yourself. I can be the 'villain' who will exert all of the pressure and attract their animosity. You can come in after we have made an agreement and personally bring their Old Lady back from the brink of destruction."

"Are you serious?!"

"I have already grasped the mentality and the rhythm of the Aduc Family." The diplomat confidently smiled. "Just because they are stubborn doesn't mean they are unassailable. We only need to make a single opening to overcome their defenses."

"If that's the case, then wait for my news! I will make sure their stupid tree will start to rot within a couple of days!"