The Mech Touch

The meeting with Master Ginevra Hubert-Colmain ultimately ended without the result that Ves desired.

Though he learned a lot about energy conversion and the properties of E energy in general, he failed to gain her agreement to collaborate on the Montebra design.

He did not blame her. She already taught him plenty of insights, and she was preoccupied with her own affairs.

The biggest regret was that he could not get her to exchange the principles of her TEMP mechanism to him. The experimental tech had a lot of potential, but it was too immature and posed too much of a threat to the mech and mech pilot in its current form. It was not responsible to hand it over to another mech designer who did not possess the technological qualifications to harness it correctly.

By the end of the lengthy exchange, both Ves and Master Ginevra stood up and shook hands yet again.

"I have great respect for your work." The older woman said in a more familiar tone. "It is a great honor to meet with a rising star in the industry such as yourself. I would not be surprised if you will catch up to my level in a few decades, and completely overtake my progress in a century or two. I feel more reassured with leaving the future of the mech industry and human civilization in the hands of the younger generation. The Great Severing may have cut us off from the old galaxy, but we have gathered so many of our best and brightest in the Red Ocean that I think we should be able to persevere."

Ves smiled back at her. "It will take a lot of time before we can step up and take charge of matters. We will have to count on our elders for quite a while, especially given how long you people are able to live."

"We may remain present in our society for longer than that. Longevity has become a much more active topic as of late. E energy radiation is changing all of us. There is increasing speculation that the previous limitations have already been broken. Many philosophers and ethicists have begun to ponder how our society will change if the older generations continue to remain present in people's lives for centuries to come. This will put an increasingly greater burden on the younger generations who will find that many channels for upward promotion remain closed due to the prevalence of highly qualified seniors."

That was an interesting debate, but not one that bothered Ves too much at the moment.

Cultivation had become a lot more accessible now that red humanity entered a medium-energy environment. It had already started to spread in disguised forms such as the release of the Hunter's Code.

Sooner or later, people would realize that all of these weird methods enabled people to retain their youth and longevity without paying for expensive life-prolonging treatments. That would give a lot of old people hope, but also make it so that they refused to pass on their wealth and positions to their descendants.

If Ves was in their shoes, he would also feel reluctant to pass everything he built over the course of his life to his children. He really couldn't blame either side for acting on their own self-interests.

The best way to relieve this potential time bomb was to expand the territories of red humanity and open up a lot of new opportunities for development. Yet that required a lot of fighting. Since many mech pilots tended to be under a century old, that effectively meant that the younger generations had to pay for these opportunities with their own blood and flesh.

How tragic!

It was good that the New Elites Program came to life. The empowerment of warlords granted the members of the younger generation a more direct pathway to power.

If everything proceeded as anticipated, then a lot of old and stagnant players would slowly make way for a vigorous new wave of courageous and dynamic warlords!

The only issue was that it would probably take a decade or two for these initiatives to produce the desired results.

All of the old geezers who owned a lot of property and held all of the reins of power still held a lot of sway at this time. There were plenty of ways for them to utilize their existing means to build lifelines for themselves. Many military fleets that had recently been mobilized and sent to the frontlines did so at the behest of their old masters.

Of course, Ves was essentially no different as his expeditionary fleet continued to fight the aliens while he remained safely in the rear, but oh well.

"If you ever make a breakthrough in your research involving the conversion of electrical energy to E energy, please give me a heads up." Ves cheekily requested. "My work is highly dependent on E energy, but it is also limited by it. Having more of it on hand can make all of my mechs more powerful."

"The same applies to every other hyper mech. I will take your request into account, but I cannot make any promises. High-level research is usually locked behind confidentiality. It is not my place to reveal the results of a major collaborative project. However, you are already a tier 3 galactic citizen. You should be able to gain insider access through your own channels within the Red Association."

She had made a good point. His status was a lot different now. If not for the fact that his schedule was already packed, Ves would have felt tempted to ask Jovy whether he could get involved in one of the Red Association's many secret research initiatives.

Master Ginevra finally ended her visit and departed from the branch headquarters of the Larkinson Clan.

Ves reflected on his extensive exchange and discussion with the female Master for a time.

A priority event interrupted his musings.

"Ves!" Gavin barged into the office in a hurry. "Isthmus Manufacturing has just gotten back to us. The company's board of directors and major stakeholders have been deliberating over our counter-offer throughout the night and all the way up to this hour."

That was remarkably quick. The Rubarthans possessed a much more proactive attitude than the Terrans.

So long as they did not get hung up over difficult political disputes, the Rubarthans generally preferred to solve their problems sooner rather than later.

Still, a matter as big as handing up to 20 percent ownership of a massive mech manufacturer to an upstart foreign party shouldn't have been decided so quickly!

Ves expected the people behind Isthmus Manufacturing to make the most out of the time available to them and conduct as many analyses as possible. There was no certainty that this enormous deal would work out as well as everyone hoped.

"So what is their answer?"

"The Rubarthans did not say yes. Not yet, at least." Gavin responded as he reined in a bit of his excitement. "That said, they are this close to agreeing in principle. The only reason why they have yet to make their move is because the Impresario Prince himself wants to have a talk with you in person."

"So the ultimate decisionmaker has finally decided to come out of the shadows."

Neither Ves nor Gavin got caught off-guard by this move.

The Impresario Principality officially owned a 17.2 percent stake of Isthmus Manufacturing in the Red Ocean, and happened to be the largest shareholder of the company.

It had the most active voice by far among all of the other institutional shareholders. Pension funds, investment companies and other boring financial groups generally tended to be passive as long as their shares did not lose a lot of value all of a sudden.

It also wasn't a good idea to stand in the way of any member of the Rubarthan Imperial Household. A lot of people and organizations were willing to give way to a Rubarthan prince so long as their core interests remained unaffected.

All of this meant that Ves really only had to persuade the Impresario Prince in order to gain a powerful foothold in the Rubarthan Pact.

Gavin handed over a data pad that contained updated notes on what Ves should know about the eccentric prince.

"Prince Casevir is 5733rd Prince, so he is so far behind compared to the older princes that he doesn't really have a chance to ascend to the new throne. However, these princes are really good at hiding and obfuscating their true intentions, so do not take this as a given. The Impresario Prince may use Isthmus Manufacturing as bait to pull you over to his side. You will need to make your boundaries clear and express your lack of interest in getting involved in the succession battle."

Ves quickly skimmed through all of the analyses and summaries that painted a more detailed picture of the prince that had become famed for becoming a patron of the arts.

"I get it. How soon until the prince comes calling?"

"The Impresario Principality will establish an enhanced encrypted connection with us in 20 minutes. The local consulate of the Rubarthan Pact even shipped over a special single-use decryption device to make it extra secure."

"I see."

The effort put into this call made it clear that the Rubarthans were being utterly serious this time.

Ves used the remaining time to fix up his appearance and absorb more relevant data.

Once the time had come, Ves stood ready in his straightened outfit and waited for his entire environment to change.

He initially expected to meet with the physical projection of the Impresario Prince in his own little throne room or whatever.

Instead, the prince decided to bring Ves over to a virtual representation of his private atelier.

It was most definitely his personal art workshop because Ves saw a lot of incomplete and scrapped projects that should never be exposed to the public.

The works in the workshop made it clear that the Impresario Prince was a bit of a scatter-brained artist.

His artwork encompassed paintings, wood carvings, stone carvings, alloy castings and even projected virtual motion art!

However, many of his recent works appeared to be made out of scrap metal pieces that the prince had personally welded together.

The fairly crude and low-tech means to create bizarre artworks such as a metal bull that possessed the contours of a hoverbike resulted in a distinctive art style that resonated with Ves.

Even if the prince had not yet said anything, Ves could already tell from these works that they were attempts to create beauty from industrial castoffs.

The purple-haired man smiled as he witnessed his guest appreciate his work.

The century-old Rubarthan prince was dressed in a magnificent ensemble of white that looked way too delicate and formal to be worn in this atelier.

However, the prince was so comfortable in his own space that he somehow made it fit.

"Professor Larkinson. I have heard much about you as of late. I have been admiring your beautiful and dynamic mechs for a longer period than that. It is frustrating that your work is still limited to second-class mech designs. I look forward to the day when you are ready to debut a proper first-class mech."

Ves blinked. This was not how he expected to be greeted. He expected to meet with a dignified direct descendant of the renowned Seventh Star Emperor, not a fellow artist who held a lot of appreciation for his living mechs.

That was not the only surprise. When Ves started to pick up certain clues in the prince's most recent pieces of scrap metal art, his eyes minutely widened as he detected additional elements that caused the artworks to gain additional properties.

When Ves shifted his full attention to the physical projection of the Impresario Prince, he made an important realization.

Prince Casevir was a cultivator, and not an ordinary one either.

It turned out that he had become a creation cultivator!