The Mech Touch

After Ves observed William's physical, mental and spiritual state the next day, he judged that the mech pilot might be out for a short while.

After the doctors flushed out the chemicals from William's body, there shouldn't be anything wrong with his physical state.

The main problems lay in his mental and spiritual state. Both experienced a fair amount of turmoil. Though Ves found it difficult to describe what was going on, he had the impression that a very deep transformation was taking place.

"Good." Ves smiled.

This was exactly what he wanted to see. Ves welcomed any change regardless of the outcome because anything was better than what William was like before.

Once Ves patted William's unconscious head and moved up to his office, Gavin immediately brought something disconcerting to his attention.

"Did you know what your girlfriend just did?"

"What?"

"It's better if I show you."

Gavin activated his comm and visited a Commbook page. He played a recording that had just been put up yesterday.

Ves immediately recognized the footage and turned grave.

"Right now, my boyfriend is engaged in a groundbreaking experiment…"

"GHR—BEEEEEEEEEEEEEP."

"Wow! Our volunteer is already showing improvement!…"

"BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP."

"Just look at how handsome he is when he's so serious!…"

The recording lasted for a couple more minutes before it ended.

Ves waved his hand, silently ordering Gavin to shut off the projection.

"Boss?"

"Let me think." Ves replied and went still.

Anger coursed through his mind. However, this was not the time to act impulsively! If he acted impulsively, he might make a decision that strained his relationship with Gloriana without achieving anything in return.

In a situation like this, Ves needed to think with his mind instead of his heart.

He patiently waited for an entire minute for his anger to mellow out a bit. Now that he calmed down somewhat, Ves began to consider seriously what Gavin had just displayed.

Apparently, Gloriana recorded a very sensitive experiment that Ves was engaged in yesterday. He never intended to bring her along, but she requested to observe his treatment.

Since Ves trusted Gloriana quite a bit, he gave in to her request and let her into the observation room while he performed his experiment.

Instead of standing still and watching William turn into a lunatic, she recorded a portion of what was happening and even slipped in some self-promotion along the way!

Ves did not mind the self-promotion, but he deeply objected to publicizing something which wasn't meant to be published!

Gloriana pretty much aired some of his dirty laundry in public!

The one saving grace about what she had done was that she censored William's ravings. The footage came across as much less severe, since Ves said very little and mostly stood still like a rock.

As a result, the recording largely centered around Gloriana's words. Though she said plenty of discomfiting stuff, she hadn't actually said anything too alarming. Only a follower of hexism would take her words seriously. Everyone else would probably dismiss her claims as the ravings of a religious nut.

Did that make the situation better? Somewhat. At the very least, Gloriana shouldn't have said anything that the MTA already knew.

That still didn't make this right. Ves felt incredibly violated by her actions. What possessed her to cross such a line?

Perhaps it was best to ask her himself. Now that he thought over the situation, his anger had fully mellowed out into a smouldering simmer.

While he was still angry, he believed he regained enough rationality that he wouldn't be doing anything stupid anytime soon.

Ves breathed deeply and sat down behind his desk. He placed his fingers together and looked at Gavin.

"Please summon Gloriana to my office. Tell her that she better be here in ten minutes."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure."

Once Gavin relayed the message, he observed his boss in order to figure out what might happen.

"Are you okay, Ves?"

"I think so. I'm still pissed. She posted something that she shouldn't have posted."

"I think it's okay, Ves." Gavin reassured him. "The footage didn't show off anything interesting aside from you standing in front of an observation chamber. I didn't even get to catch a glimpse of the 'volunteer' that you were busy with. Was it William, by the way?"

Ves nodded.

"I thought so. The scream I just heard at the start sounds like his voice before the beeping sounds blocked out the rest."

From the way Gavin reacted to the footage, Ves understood that the true nature of his experiment hadn't been revealed.

Gloriana might make some strange decisions every once in a while, but she wasn't stupid. Ves never underestimated her smarts.

It took some time for Gloriana to arrive. Once she entered, she quickly read the atmosphere.

"Is there something wrong, Ves?"

Ves waved in front of his desk. "Please take a seat. I want everyone out, including your bodyguards."

By now, the Glory Battalion was quite familiar with Ves, so they did not put up much of an objection.

Of course, part of the reason why they did so was that Clixie remained at Gloriana's side. While Ves had never seen a Rubarthan Sentinel Cat in action, he knew that they served as powerful protectors.

As for Lucky, Ves had no idea where his cat went off too. The little bastard frequently went on unannounced excursions.

Oh well. Ves would just have to conduct his meeting without his pet distracting Clixie.

"Gloriana." He began. "Can you please explain what you just uploaded on your Commbook page?"

"Hmph?" She tilted her head while twirling a lock of her dark hair. "Oh that? You looked so handsome back then. The way you became so intense and focused on your experiment was so awesome that I simply had to record it for posterity!"

BANG!

"Be serious with me!" Ves shouted while leaning forward with his fist pressed against his desk. "If you wanted to record something, that's one thing, but publishing it onto your Commbook where the entire galaxy is another thing!"

"I didn't publish anything sensitive!" Gloriana pouted at him and crossed her arms. "I made sure to censor William's words and fade out the readings in the background."

"Who knows whether you were thorough enough! Do you still have the full footage stashed somewhere? Delete it as quickly as possible! In fact, take the entire data chip or storage unit and melt it down!"

"What?!"

Ves glared at her. "Do you know how much I care about secrets? A lot! I trusted you with some of my secrets. That does not give you a license to air them on Commbook!"

"But I didn't, Ves! My recording was mostly about you and me, not about your experiment!"

BANG!

This time, Ves used both of his fists to slam against his desk!

"That doesn't excuse your actions! Even if you think you've been thorough in cleaning up the footage, what if you miss something?"

Gloriana grinned. "I never make mistakes."

"EVERYONE MAKES MISTAKES! You're still human! You aren't perfect! If you wanted to publish a moment, then why not make one while we are relaxing at the Cloud Estate or something?"

"That's boring." The woman replied flatly. "I already uploaded plenty of moments like that on my Commbook. My friends and cousins are all bored of seeing us cuddling up together. I wanted to publish something fresher!"

This woman!

Ves wanted to tear his hair out!

He forcibly paused in order to calm himself down.

"What you want isn't necessarily what I want." He spoke with forced calmness. "Did you ever consider my opinion when you recorded me yesterday?"

"I did. I thought you'd approve. I didn't upload anything sensitive, at least I think so. How could I know you'd make such a big fuss out of this? I never make a mistake, Ves!"

"You! Urgh! If this recording is just meant to show something fresh, then what about all of the self-promotion? That doesn't sound like you're appealing to your friends!"

"I'm not lying, Ves! Do you know who my friends are? They're all part of powerful dynasties! Many of them are either mech pilots or are related to mech pilots! Do you remember my mother's challenge? I was just scouting around for potential customers!"

"What does it matter?!"

"It matters a lot, Ves! We can't design a custom mech for a low-tier mech pilot from my state! If we really want to demonstrate our value, then we need to be capable of designing high-performing custom mechs! Those are really expensive machines, you know? Finding a skilled mech pilot that is willing to pay a lot of hex credits for a high-performing machine isn't as easy as you think! We're just Journeymen in a state where many Seniors are more than willing to design custom mechs for distinguished clients!"

Ves knew that nothing could be gained from further arguing. He understood his girlfriend well enough that she believed in her reasoning. At most, she only regretted that Ves did not agree with her on this point.

The two of them weren't normal people. Even if they weren't as stubborn and intractable as expert pilots, as Journeymen they weren't used to conceding.

As the uncomfortable silence stretched on, Gloriana began to show a bit more remorse.

"Ves.. please don't stay angry. I'm sorry, okay? I'll delete the recording if you want."

"Please do so right away." Ves sighed.

She quickly activated her comm and wiped away the recording.

"It's done."

"How many people watched the recording?"

"According to Commbook… 135,343 people."

"What?! How many friends do you have?!"

"My Commbook is public! A lot of strangers are following my Commbook page. I think most of them are bots and AIs that are merely logging and aggregating what people are doing on Commbook!"

"That means that all of those bots and AIs have probably downloaded the recordings and stored it into their databanks." Ves darkly concluded.

Even if Gloriana deleted the recording, more than a hundred thousand copies still existed! It was impossible for Ves to track them all down and erase them from existence!

As Ves became more and more angry, Gloriana seemed to sense that he was upset.

"Ves.. I'm really sorry. I won't do something like this again, okay?"

Tears began to well in her eyes, making her appear extraordinarily vulnerable. She looked so lost and forlorn that Ves simply couldn't maintain his anger.

It was as if her tears doused his fire.

However, even if Ves couldn't remain angry at her, that didn't mean that he forgave her. Ves needed more time to process what had happened.

"Please leave me alone, Gloriana." Ves waved her away. "I don't want to deal with you right now."

"Ves!"

"Leave." He said more firmly. "I can't guarantee I'll remain polite if you stay. It is taking me a lot to hold back my words."

Although his anger had subsided, his resentment hadn't faded at all. His inner Devil Tongue eagerly wanted to lash out at Gloriana, but Ves forcefully suppressed this impulse.

He could not subject Gloriana to this treatment. She was not his enemy. She was just a crazy woman who did something crazy.

Ves had let down his guard, he realized. He knew that Gloriana didn't think and act normally, but in the month they had been together, she rarely exhibited any oddities.

In fact, Ves had been charmed by how well she accommodated him. If not for her Hexer beliefs, then she was little different from a Brighter girlfriend!

Unfortunately, how could there be anything perfect in the galaxy? Gloriana wasn't perfect, and so wasn't Ves.

Though Gloriana looked as if she wanted to say something, she held herself back. She stood up, wiped away her tears and brought Clixie out of the office.

Once the doors closed, Ves remained alone.

"Where is Lucky?" He muttered. "I could really use some company right now."