After two years, Ves finally mustered up the courage to propose to Gloriana.

A lot of Larkinsons thought it was too soon. Ves didn't think so, and neither did his girlfriend.

As far as Gloriana was concerned, she was already to tie the knot the day after she met him at Centerpoint! The moment she laid her sights on her was the moment that she was never going to let him go no matter what obstacles stood in her way. Even his prior affiliation with the Friday Coalition fell victim to her conviction.

Therefore, from her perspective, Ves was actually two years too late!

Ves was well aware of Gloriana's inclinations. It took two years for him to finally reconcile himself with spending the rest of his life with the woman who derailed his life but also became someone worthy of his trust.

Perhaps he should have waited more. Perhaps he should have spent an additional year to see whether Gloriana truly fit in his life

He didn't want to wait anymore.

For one, Ves felt he had truly gotten Gloriana's measure. He had thought deeply of their relationship and found that it was acceptable even if she was a Hexer who believed in hexism.

The trust they shared towards each other and the synergies they achieved in their work remained strong despite their occasional fights.

Their love exceeded the obstacles that could break apart their relationship. Once Ves made this realization, there was nothing holding him back from taking the next step.

Therefore, the only question that Ves had to struggle with was the timing of his marriage proposal.

Ves planned to leave the Komodo Star Sector within the year. So long as they left their home star system, everyone in the Larkinson Fleet would truly be making a break with all of their prior attachments to home.

While Ves couldn't care less about the people he planned to leave behind, Gloriana was different. She still held a lot of affection towards the Wodin Dynasty.

It was a must to hold their wedding in this star sector. He wanted to give Gloriana an opportunity to invite her relatives to attend the wedding.

She deserved at least this much! Gloriana would probably be sad if none of her relatives could make it to their wedding!

Gloriana probably understood that as well. She appreciated him even more.

She also appreciated the ring he made.

"What an amazing ring."

His girlfriend felt incredibly touched and she didn't comment on the tiny flaws of the engagement ring.

He had infused it with his entire love and devotion towards her. He meant every word he said when he presented the pretty ring during the celebration.

Though many people in the clan still harbored a lot of misgivings about Ves marrying a Hexer, most of them were confident they weren't about to start worshipping women.

Ves had already made clear that his clan would form its own sovereign identity! Neither the Bright Republic, the Hexadric Hegemony or any state would hold dominion over the Larkinsons. The clan had already grown strong to stand on its own in the galaxy!

When Gloriana joyfully slipped the ring onto her finger, Ves rose to his feet and held her waist.

"I love you, Ves."

"I love you too, Gloriana."

Under the cheers of every Larkinson, they kissed each other passionately!

It served as the perfect ending to the celebration.

After a very enthusiastic and energetic night, the couple woke up and calmly prepared for the day.

Happiness continued to bubble inside Gloriana as she continually admired the engagement ring that Ves had made for her. She also closed her eyes in order to feel the glow that Ves imparted to it. The spiritual foundation of the ring centered almost completely about his love towards her. He even experimented with his new ability to create spiritual constructs by accentuating the aspects about her that he liked the most!

"It's as if you are constantly by my side." She giggled. "I truly do love what you've made. As for this gem…"

"It's not what you think. Not exactly." He quickly replied.

Even so, Gloriana still appreciated it! There was just something about its luster that seemed alive. She could spend hours staring at her new ring!

While Ves was happy with his fiancé's reaction towards his handicraft, an even heavier weight pressed on his heart.

When it was time for them to hold their wedding, he needed to present even better rings.

He still carried the plain wedding bands gifted by his mother in one of his pockets. He had been trying to infuse them with his presence through constant proximity. All the while, he continued to puzzle over how he wanted to shape their final appearances.

If possible, he wanted to turn them into masterworks! That would be the ultimate gift to Gloriana and himself!

To any other mech designer, the difficulty of accomplishing this was immense. Even Ves did not have much hope because Lucky's gems only elevated the quality of mechs, not other objects.

Therefore, if Ves wanted to turn the wedding bands into masterworks, he needed to find a chance and employ unconventional methods to achieve this objective before the wedding ceremony!

Maybe he could fix something up during his expedition to the Nyxian Gap.

Task Force Predator was scheduled to depart at the end of the day. This gave Ves and Gloriana plenty of time together.

The rented base exhibited a huge amount of activity as mechs and supplies were being loaded onto ships that subsequently departed into orbit.

The clan had already prepared for this expedition, so not a lot of war materiel needed to be moved. It was mainly the mech pilots and other people that had to reach orbit.

After so much time spent on solid ground, the members of Task Force Predator would soon be spending several months in the most inhospitable region of space of the star sector.

This was no pleasure cruise.

Due to the abundance of danger lurking within the endless fields of asteroids, the entire fleet would operate in the same manner as Ves had once experienced when the Flagrant Swordmaidens traveled all the way to the deep frontier.

No one was allowed to relax. Everyone already enjoyed a six-month vacation of sorts. Starting from today, many Larkinsons were expected to prove they had what it took to be a part of the clan.

Ves was determined to weed out any cowards within the ranks of Task Force Predator!

It was better if they popped out early on when they were just venturing into a known danger zone than later when the clan entered the Red Ocean!

"Don't worry, Gloriana." He told her. "The periphery of the Nyxian Gap isn't nearly as dangerous as you think. Just consider this excursion to be a practice run for what is ahead of us in a decade."

She leaned her head against his shoulder. "I know, but I'm concerned you'll go deeper for whatever reason. I know you, Ves. As soon as you smell a bone, you always get obsessed and lose control."

"I'm not that bad!" He defended himself. "I know my responsibilities! I can't possibly disregard the bigger picture and ruin my entire schedule just because I yearn to explore the heart of the Nyxian Gap."

She looked up at him with suspicious eyes.

"Trust me! I'm engaged to you now. We have already set the date for our wedding. There is no way that I will miss the most significant moment of my life!"

Gloriana softened up after hearing that. "You better remember than when I'm not there to warm your bed anymore."

"I will miss the opportunity to discharge my energy. I only have Lucky to keep me company at night, and he is far too cold and hard to hug to sleep."

"Meow!"

Lucky took offense to that!

Ves ignored his cat's protests. He just wanted to spend one final afternoon with his lover before he went off to earn a lot of merits.

"Have you already accepted a mission?" She asked.

"Not yet."

"Shouldn't you have taken care of that by now?"

"I'm not in a hurry. Many of the lucrative missions that I'm eying are open missions that are open to anyone. No one seems to have fulfilled them for a time, so the Rim Guardians just let any associate try their luck at them in the hopes that one of them can actually succeed."

There were other missions that demanded Ves to make a prior commitment. Most of them were supposed to be completed in a group or contained too many conditions.

Ves did not wish to make any reckless promises and commitments. Part of what allowed successful pirates to survive in the Nyxian Gap was that they were highly adaptable. The truly clever pirate commander never proceeded with a plan the moment something seemed wrong. As long as his purpose or his route were leaked, there was a considerable chance that Task Force Predator might fall victim to an ambush!

This was one of the valuable advice provided by Calabast.

"Ves."

"Yes, honey?"

"We should talk about starting some new mech design projects. Now that we have hired a considerable cohort of mech designers, we can probably triple the amount of projects we can work on concurrently."

"I'm aware. It's just that I have been trying to come up with some good ideas for a while now. One of the reasons why I'm so eager to depart for the Nyxian Gap is to gain a lot of inspiration from my travels. I won't be able to figure out anything good if I remain stuck in Cinach all the time."

"Silly Ves." She softly giggled at him. She reached out and poked her finger against his forehead. "We aren't the only mech designers in the Design Department. We've added 50 mech designers, many of which possess different backgrounds. Why not make use of them for once and task them with coming up with their own proposals?"

Ves raised his eyebrows. "This.. this is a very interesting idea. I think.. it can actually work!"

Certainly, none of their assistant mech designers were as bright as Ves and Gloriana. They were all different and filled with unique ideas. Even if 48 out of the 50 suggestions were too awful to be taken seriously, as long as the remaining two sounded decent, it was still worth it in the end!

"We can obtain a good glimpse of our new assistants." Gloriana added. "We already know that many of them have what it takes to be useful, but we don't want all of them to remain this way, do we?"

Ves nodded. "There are a number of promising people who I'll be keeping an eye on. I feel quite good about their chances to advance to Journeyman."

As long as just one of them advanced to Journeyman, Ves and Gloriana would be able to incorporate another powerful specialty in their mech designs!

Right now, just the two of them weren't enough. There was plenty room for additional design philosophies in their collaborative works!

Just as Ves began to imagine what it would be like to design a swordsman mech with Ketis advancing to Journeyman, his girlfriend presented her own idea.

"We promised to design 8 mechs for DIVA. We should start with designing at least two for now. I already have a suggestion in mind."

"Do tell."

She activated her comm and projected some sketches. They depicted a variety of male and female Hexer mech designs.

Ves had come up with most of their mech design projects so far. While he wasn't used to Gloriana taking the initiative this time, he welcomed it anyway.

His girlfriend was incredibly passionate about Hexer mech designs, and she possessed a much deeper understanding how the Hex Army worked than him. Already she impressed him with a familiar-looking mech concept.

"A.. valkyrie?"