When Gloriana said she redecorated the lounge compartment of her ship, she wasn't kidding!
A cozy and expansive interior greeted them upon entry. The beige coating along with the warm-colored furniture made him feel as if he entered his old home's family room.
Various amenities such as high-quality projectors and a well-stocked bar occupied the compartment. Gloriana ignored them all in favor of dragging Ves to what clearly looked like a loveseat!
Despite the presence of larger sofas, Gloriana insisted on seating themselves on the cramped loveseat, thereby permanently pressing their warm bodies against each other.
"Hehehe." She grinned up at him while stroking the arm she had never let go. "I always dreamed about cuddling with you. Now, my dream has finally come true!"
Ves tried his best not to show how disturbed he felt. The eagerness she showed was just as bad as their first meeting back on Centerpoint! She hadn't changed at all!
As much as he wanted to put some distance between them, a part of him kind of liked her proximity. Her warm body and her alluring fragrance kept spinning his mind.
His attraction to her was very real. The more time he spent with her, the more he became enchanted by her beauty and surprisingly honest attitude towards him. He felt as if he could let down all of his masks and be frank with her without worrying about betrayal.
It took some effort to rein in his impulse to share his intimate secrets with her immediately. He didn't know her well enough yet. They still had months and years to learn about each other. He was in no hurry to rush their relationship.
"So.. you said your mother doesn't entirely approve of me, right? Is it okay for you to accompany me to the Bright Republic?"
"My mother doesn't control my life as closely as you think." She reassured him. "I'm not a direct descendant of the matriarchs of the Dynasty, so I am under much less pressure to marry into an established family or dynasty. That said, she can ask Matriarch Xiaphna, the current head of our dynasty, to hold our relationship if they believe it's not in my best interest. In the worst case, they might even present you to our Wodin Hexagram in order to be judged!"
Ves had already read up on the basic structure of the Wodin Dynasty. Answering to the Evern Matriarchal Dynasty, the Wodins controlled a single prosperous and densely populated star system as well as a small number of lesser ones.
Matriach Xiaphna was an old but vigorous woman. More than two centuries old, she was not the oldest matriarch of her dynasty.
Above her head, the so-called Wodin Hexagram consisting of six former matriarchs or elder stateswomen oversaw and advised the current matriarch. They were far older than Matriarch Xiaphna and no longer concerned themselves with the daily running of the Wodin Dynasty.
Nonetheless, no Wodin took their combined authority and wisdom lightly!
Ves shivered at the thought of standing before six old crones. There was no way Ves could get away with his usual antics in front of those shrewd and incredibly wise women!
"How much influence do you have, then?"
"Oh, I'm not a nobody. Ever since I advanced to Journeyman so early, my dynasty hopes that I can become a Senior or Master one day. As long as becoming a Master is still within reach, they don't dare to neglect me! They already invested a lot of resources in me to accelerate my advancement. I think you know just as well as I do how difficult it is to become a Journeyman at our age."
Ves curiously scanned her with his System vision for a second. He neglected to do so during their first meeting, which was a missed opportunity.
[Gloriana Wodin]
Intelligence: 2.4
Creativity: 1.2
Concentration: 1.5
What the hell?! Ves almost jumped out of the loveseat! Was the System blind?! Had it become defective all of a sudden?! How could his girlfriend be so much smarter than him?! His Intelligence only reached 2.1, and that was after he swallowed an incredibly precious Transcendence Pill!
"What's wrong, Ves?" She frowned as she observed his sudden change.
"I.. ehh.. I was just wondering how you managed to advance so fast. You'd have to be very smart to do so, right?"
She grinned proudly. "Uh huh! To be honest, this is the privilege of my birth. My genes are already superior upon conception. We Wodins employ our own geneticists and exobiologists who are continually managing our genetic progression. When I grew up, I never lacked for gene therapies. It wasn't until I started to study mech design that I became really smart!"
"What changed?"
"My mother is the Minister of Security of Scimitar II. She managed to procure a very good bioimplant for me. After a year of preparation and adjustment, our dynasty's best biotech specialists managed to perfectly integrate my bioimplant in my brain! The results speak for themselves."
Ves was speechless. He never expected that the reason the System evaluated her Intelligence so highly was due to a bioimplant!
He knew that bioimplants possessed the capability of boosting a person's mental prowess by leaps and bounds. Yet seeing how enormous an implant affected the cognitive functions of Gloriana made him realize that other mech designers couldn't be underestimated at all, especially if they possessed wealthy backgrounds!
"Your mother is.. very generous."
"Mhmm. I love her so much, even if she can be a little bit strict. I'm thankful for her strictness, though. I wouldn't have worked nearly as hard in my studies if she hadn't insisted for me to live up to our dynasty's expectations."
It sounded as if Gloriana's excess towards perfectionism originated from her mother.
"Have you ever buckled under your mother's demands?"
She shook her head. "Never! She never demands that I perform beyond what is possible. She also makes sure to give me the help I need to live up to her expectations. Arranging a bioimplant for me is just one of the ways in which she gave me the tools I needed to succeed."
Gloriana's circumstances were so different from that of Ves that he hardly understood her description of her upbringing.
The woman who sat next to him was different from a mech designer who grew up in a modest household.
Instead, she had been born into a prominent Hexer dynasty from one of the two most powerful states in the star sector!
"What does your implant do, exactly?"
"It's called the Erestal-015. It's a bioimplant developed by a famed biotech company in our state and specifically caters to mech designers. It combines many useful functions such as accelerating my thinking speed, recording or discarding a huge amount of data data, enhancing my mental processing power, shielding my mind from brainwashing attempts, neutralizing any poisons that affect my brains and so on. In short, it does a lot of things!"
Ves widened his eyes until they couldn't grow any larger. What was this perverse Erestal-015!? The implant came with such an extensive laundry list of functions that Ves could scarcely imagine how much room it took in her head!
"Such a bioimplant must be ludicrously expensive!"
She smiled modestly at him. "My Erestal-015 isn't as great as you think. It can do a lot, but its performance in a single aspect will never match the functions of a dedicated implant that specializes in only one function. Bioimplants also don't necessarily make you better in mech design. It just amplifies your existing strengths. I do have to admit that not every mech designer in the Hegemony possesses an implant as good as the Erestal-015."
That sounded a little bit reasonable, though Gloriana undoubtedly gained an extraordinary boost from her implant that supercharged her career progression!
Ves thought back on the old Archimedes Rubal implant he salvaged from the Starlight Megalodon. Though its only function was to expand someone's memory and data storage capabilities, any implant that was good enough to be used by the CFA had to be immensely powerful!
Even though several years had passed since he obtained the Archimedes Rubal, he never dared to implant it in his head. He didn't trust any biotech specialist to operate on his head and insert something foreign in his most vital organ!
Who knew if the Archimedes Rubal came with CFA backdoors, and who knew if the surgeons operating on his head couldn't resist tampering with his brains!
He eyed Gloriana warily. "I thought implant use isn't very widespread. How can you trust the developers of the Erestal-015 to refrain from adding backdoors to your bioimplant? How can you trust the surgeons to retrain from messing with your head?"
"Your concerns are very valid. We're not stupid, you know. Not only did my mother personally supervise the purchase of the Erestal-015 and the implanting operation in person, she also triple-checked every single step of the procedure with multiple biotech experts. She consulted both independent experts and the experts in retainer to our dynasty."
"And they are all able to judge that your insanely-complex implant is sound?"
"Perhaps you don't know this, but implant developers always make it easy for others to inspect their physical makeup and programming. It's the only way they can sell their products. Otherwise, my mother would have never given her approval for the operation."
"Your mother loves you very much."
"Hihi! Mothers are the best!" She suddenly pressed her palm over her lips. "Oh, I'm sorry! You lost your mother when you were young, right? That was insensitive of me! I didn't mean to remind you of your loss!"
Ves gave her a brittle smile. "It's okay, Gloriana. My mother… is with me, if not in body, then in spirit. She never left me. Just like you, I don't know how I'd be able to become so successful if not for my mother."
"That's so wonderful! I too believe our ancestors are watching us! Did you already convert to hexism?"
"No!" Ves immediately wanted to puke. "Let's not talk about beliefs, shall we? I'm.. kind of allergic to that topic."
"Why not?" She whined. "I understand it can be a bit overwhelming to understand hexism. You foreigners always make weird faces when I introduce them to the wonders of our beliefs. I thought you were different, Ves. Aren't you the Bright Martyr?! Aren't you the fearless mech designer who believed in creating gods in the form of mechs?!"
"That.. ehhh… you don't understand.. it's complicated.."
Gloriana glomped his arm even tighter and stared at him with an unnatural intensity in her gaze!
"You don't have to keep your design philosophy a secret from me." She whispered to him. "Part of the reason why I obtained your mechs and studied them was because I wanted to confirm the truth. After a lot of study, I believe that there is definitely something alive in your mechs! The newer the mech, the more powerful their vibe! Are they the prototypes of the gods you've mentioned to the MTA?"
Ves became aghast when she turned his old lies back to him. How extensively did she study his mechs to ascertain the existence of his design spirits?!
He tried to escape the situation. "As I've said before, let's not be so hasty in revealing our trade secrets to each other. Whatever you may believe about my mechs, they're still machines. My mechs aren't so different from other mechs. I just add something extra to them, that's all."
"Oh, you don't have to be modest. I'm sure you'll tell me your secrets soon enough, hihi! Isn't that what lovers do to each other?"
"Only if they trust each other."
Gloriana leaned over and pecked him on the cheek. "I'll be sure to earn your trust, then. Loving couples don't keep any secrets from each other, don't you agree?"
"I don't think it's that easy." Ves replied as his cheeks warmed up for some inexplicable reason.