After spending half a day aboard the Ubiquitous Force, a familiar shuttle launched from her hangar bay.

Ves sat in his seat as he contemplated how much changed as a result of his pivotal meeting with Master Willix.

For the first time in his life, he had laid bare much of the core tenets of his design philosophy. He never exposed so many of his self-developed mechanics to anyone else, including his soon-to-be wife!

He even explained how he worked without adding any misleading elements. It took a lot for him to be so forthcoming about his design philosophy. He was so used to hiding his secrets that he had to force himself to teach Master Willix earnestly.

It turned out that he shouldn't have been so worried. His life domain played such a great role in his design philosophy that other mech designers simply couldn't get their foot in their door if they attempted to copy his methods.

While Ves passed on his teachings, he paid close attention to Master Willix while she worked.

It was challenging for him to observe her. Looking straight at her mind with his spiritual vision only blinded him. He had to resort to indirect means of observations in order to track what she was doing.

Apparently, while Master Willix was quite good at emulating other domains by leveraging the power of her mind, she never managed to come close to reconstructing his life domain.

To imitate a domain, she needed to understand its principles. In fact, she needed to understand life at a much deeper level than Ves! This was one of the essential conditions that rational mech designers had to meet in order to make use of multiple design philosophies.

No wonder the requirements of rational mech designers were so high. In order for them to reach their full potential, they couldn't lean on their passion like ordinary mech designers. They needed to draw on the power of their rational thoughts to a much greater degree just to reach parity with passionate mech designers.

However, once rational mech designers reached this level, they were able to call up and channel any design philosophy they deciphered. With the passing of time, these individuals accrued more and more design philosophies. They could draw upon each of them by switching some mental gears.

This meant that at the later stages, a rational mech designer was able to design much more comprehensive mech than any passionate mech designer!

Though Ves felt jealous that rational mech designers gained so much capability, he respected them as well. They had to work incredibly hard to grasp the essence of other people's design philosophies. That was something that he would never be able to accomplish. He might be brilliant when it came to his own specialty, but he completely lost his advantage with the design philosophies of other people such as Gloriana or Ketis.

He didn't mind too much. He was already content with his own specialty. To believe in his work meant having the confidence that his mechs were already good enough by themselves.

Certainly, his mechs may be even better if he was able to collaborate with other mech designers, but it didn't mean his solo products were defective.

The Devil Tiger and evidently the Ouroboros proved that Ves could already rely on himself to design great mechs.

In fact, the intrinsic value of his design philosophy was so great that Master Willix saw fit to cooperate with him on the matters that they previously discussed. Of course, her misconceptions of Mr. S. also played a great role in her willingness to accommodate his demands.

As promised, Master Willix would do her best to keep the MTA at bay. She may have to ask a favor from a Star Designer in order to accomplish this, but once that happened, the outcome was absolute. There were few people within the MTA who dared to make light of a Star Designer's prerogative!

Though Ves felt very uncomfortable about coming in touch with one of the top authorities of the MTA so soon, the chance was small that a Star Designer would even pay attention to a small figure like him. He was just a Journeyman in her eyes.

"The story might be different once I reach Master, but I'll worry about that in the future." He whispered.

Aside from that, Master Willix also promised to collaborate with him to design his expert mechs. She readily agreed to let Gloriana and him take the lead in the projects so that they retained as much ownership in the designs as possible.

She even approved of this approach. Her time was precious and she needed to take on a lot more responsibilities in order to repay the favors she owed. Ves and Gloriana also gained more from their design projects if they did most of the work.

This was the extent of what she promised. As Ves was not a part of the MTA, anything that Master Willix to assist him attracted more scrutiny and pushback. In order to avoid ruffling too many feathers within the Association, she needed to make sure to keep an appropriate amount of distance.

This meant that Ves was pretty much on his own most of the time. He couldn't count on the MTA to bail him out. That was fine. He never asked for its protection in the first place.

Overall, his meeting with Master Willix was a success in his book. He successfully established an alliance of sorts with a powerful authority figure within the MTA. With the cover she was able to provide, Ves no longer had to worry about the rest of the Association looking over his shoulder all of the time.

The only price he had to pay was to occasionally keep Master Willix apprised of his latest advancements. He had to offer her detailed explanations of all of his innovations so that she could archive his valuable knowledge for safe keeping.

Ves didn't quite understand why she insisted on this when she had no hope of replicating his methods.

"Knowledge is valuable regardless of its applicability." She replied to him back then. "Just because I am unable to apply your methods does not mean I can leverage them in other ways. One of the best ways a mech designer is able to advance is by studying different approaches."

He agreed with her. Ves owed much to Master Huron's work on neural networks. While he couldn't steal the Fridayman Master's methods, he became inspired by them to put his own spin on networks.

Ves realized that 'borrowing' the work of other mech designers was a pretty good way of developing new applications!

He just had to be careful not to develop a dependence for relying on other people's work.

In any case, Master Willix did not demand anything further from him. She did not foist him with a difficult mission or prohibit him from traveling to the Red Ocean or anything.

She didn't want to encroach on the supposed master plan set by Mr. S. In her eyes, since this mysterious Star Designer provided no structure to Ves, she had no right to impose any demands on him. There must be a reason behind every decision.

Ves simply rolled with the punches. He never thought that one of his casual lies would balloon so much. The Ouroboros that Ves had casually designed in the past had become his strongest dependency in keeping him safe from the MTA's clutches!

This was a precarious situation. Once someone managed to pop this bubble, there was nothing stopping the MTA from bringing him into custody!

He needed to remedy this fragile circumstance as much as possible!

"It's been a long time since I last went on 'vacation'..."

While it cost a lot of merits to obtain another Mastery from the System, too much was at stake.

"The only problem is that I can't disappear right now. I can't shirk my responsibilities!"

It used to be simpler in the past. Now, with the wedding and many other important developments taking place, there was no way he could excuse taking a week-long leave of absence.

"Ultimately, not a lot has changed." He concluded as he recalled the entire meeting.

He may have been forced to cough up the secrets of his design philosophy, but this was an acceptable price to pay for what he obtained in return.

What truly reassured him was that Master Willix never strayed close to the System or his ties with the Five Scrolls Compact. He knew that she would have been much less generous about her treatment of him if she discovered that he held the Metal Scroll.

As far as Ves knew, of the Five Sacred Scrolls, the MTA and the CFA only managed to obtain the Fire Scroll!

The chance of doubling the amount of Sacred Scrolls in the Big Two's possession was such a big temptation that Master Willix would not hesitate to spit Mr. S. in the face!

Therefore, despite feeling cross that he had to reveal so many secrets, Ves never felt ungrateful about the entire ordeal.

"From now on, I don't have to be so careful about design philosophy anymore." He muttered. "As long as my work isn't too outrageous, I can continue to benefit from Master Willix's cover."

Securing such an important ally within the MTA was his most important gain! Ves definitely planned to leverage it. The MTA no longer loomed so tall over him now that its threat to him was no longer as acute.

As his shuttle returned to the Scarlet Rose, he acted as if nothing special had happened. His clansmen weren't suspicious at all. They all thought that Master Willix summoned him to debrief her about the captured warships and the recent battles he fought.

When Ves entered his stateroom, Calabast was already waiting for him. She idly laid on a couch while holding Lucky between her bosom.

"Meow~"

The cat glinted his eyes with pleasure as the woman comfortably massaged his darkening metallic exterior.

Ever since Lucky digested a bunch of Unending alloy and B-stone with great difficulty, his appearance had morphed even further. His exterior became a bit more defined as some strange reliefs appeared on his face. His appearance also darkened to an extent as the high-grade Rorach's Bone he ate so long ago no longer dominated his material composition.

"How did you fare up there?" Calabast asked.

"I survived. I'm pretty happy with that. While I've made some concessions, they're not a big deal. All I care about is that our plan succeeded."

"That's good to hear." She smiled. "With the burden you carry, managing your relationship with the MTA is of utmost importance."

"At least the CFA isn't at our doorsteps." Ves joked. "Right?"

"Don't worry. While the CFA definitely wants to confiscate the captured pirate warships, the MTA already called dibs. Maintaining internal order is the MTA's mandate. The only problem is that the CFA is also responsible for regulating warships. How the Big Two will resolve their turf is none of our business."

The combined fleet moved on after the ships cycled their FTL drives. As the Larkinsons and the Wodin Warriors traveled back to the Cinach System, the Ubiquitous Force and her companion vessels accompanied them as well.

This was a welcome surprise to Ves. The MTA delegation would stay until he concluded his wedding. Once the Larkinsons no longer needed to show off their battle prizes, the mechers would bring the pirate warships to Centerpoint.

Until then, the MTA would continue to maintain an active presence. Master Willix even promised to attend his wedding in person!

This not only enhanced the prestige of the Larkinson Clan, but also served as a powerful form of deterrence against any potential troublemakers.

"There is no way that someone will crash my wedding!"

As far as Ves was concerned, Master Willix alone provided much more security to his wedding than an entire mech division of Wodin Warriors!