"So far, quite a few powers have made offers to us, but only one of them is truly worth your consideration at the moment." Calabast explained.

She waved her hand. A projection appeared that displayed a broad map of the Yeina Star Cluster.

Ves was very familiar with this map, though he never really paid too much attention to what lay beyond Komodo, Vicious Mountain and Majestic Tael.

A single point shone somewhere in Vicious Mountain.

"First up is the Cross Clan. As you know, the massive Garlen Empire is not very cohesive. Warlords in the form of ace pilots carve out their own territories and occasionally fight against each other in order to earn glory. You can consider the tribes of Garlen to be the actual states of this star sector."

"I know that. I think it's stupid. People who spend all of their lives trying to improve their fighting skills are in no way qualified statesmen. Even if these warlords usually delegate the decision-making to competent officials, they're still prone to irrational decision-making."

Ace pilots could be just as bad as expert pilots when it came to sticking to their guns. The thought of letting extreme personalities such as Venerable Ghanso be in charge of a territory sounded awful!

It was too bad that Vicious Mountainers worshipped martial strength. While scholars and intellectuals still had their place in this star sector, their status and regard were considerably more muted.

Calabast poked at the projection, causing it to zoom in on a group of stars that appeared to be governed by the Becker Tribe.

"The Cross Clan used to hold a prominent position in the Becker Tribe. In fact, the warlord who led this tribe was actually a Cross clansman."

That sounded quite impressive! Ves had never come in touch with an ace pilot before. To think that the Cross Clan managed to nurture one while the old Larkinson Family never succeeded.

"It sounds like the situation of the Cross Clan isn't as optimistic as before."

She nodded. "Lord Hemmington Cross led the Becker Tribe to prosperity by picking fights against neighboring tribes. For a long time, the Becker Tribe continually grew as Lord Cross proved himself to be an excellent duelist. Hardly any other ace pilot wished to faced him in battle."

"Do you know what kind of mech he piloted?"

"A versatile lancer mech. It carries multiple weapons, but most of the time it's capable of winning challenges after performing a single charge."

Ves looked quite impressed. "I can't imagine anyone wanting to stare down a lancer mech empowered by an ace pilot."

"The good times didn't last for the Cross Clan. Lord Cross achieved so many wins that he grew arrogant. After initiating one aggressive expansion too many, two neighboring tribes decided to band together and attack the Becker Tribe in unison. The conflict not only resulted in heavy losses for the Beckers, but also caused Lord Cross to lose his life when he had to fend off against two enemy ace pilots at once."

This sounded quite alarming to Ves!

"The Garlen Empire actually allows their ace pilots to die like this? Such a death is too cheap for mech pilots of their stature!"

Calabast didn't hide her contempt for this practice either. "I don't disagree with you, but the ace pilots of the Garlen Empire aren't content with peace. Since Vicious Mountain doesn't have any state that can contend against the Empire, the warlords mostly turn against each other. While fatalities are actually rare, they can't be avoided."

How barbaric! Ace pilots were extremely difficult to come by, and the loss of each and every single one of them presented a massive loss to the state in question.

"Since Lord Hemmington Cross abruptly died, the Becker Tribe and the Cross Clan must have lost a lot of strength, right?"

Correct." Calabast nodded. "The fall of Lord Cross immediately allowed the enemy tribes to conquer large swathes of the Becker Tribe's territory. Eventually, the Becker Tribe is only a shadow of its former self. The clans and other groups that make up the tribe have suffered enormous losses."

"Let me guess, the Cross Clan attracted a lot of animosity from them, right?"

"Hehe. You are getting better at politics. You're right. Though the Cross Clan under the leadership of Lord Hemmington enriched the entire Becker Tribe, the clans only remember all of the losses they suffered after their warlord sparked a disaster. After suffering heavy losses, the Cross Clan eventually decided to abandon all of its territory and most of its people and depart."

A hasty evacuation under these circumstances doubtlessly caused the Cross Clan to suffer stupendous losses. What was left of the rag-tag refugee fleet probably amounted to less than 1 percent of the clan's original strength!

Even so, the remnant of a second-class ruling power was still considerable! As long as the Cross Clan successfully brought out some of their most valuable possessions, this homeless and exiled clan probably held onto some very fancy toys!

"What is the current state of the Cross Clan?"

"Their strength is better than ours. The Cross fleet is considerably powerful. The exiles are also able to field tens of thousands of mechs piloted by veterans."

"How are they able to fund such a massive fleet when they have lost all of their territories? Do they have a mech designer that is keeping them afloat?"

:"No." She shook his head. "The Crossers used to employ some talented mech designers. They even enjoyed the services of a Master Mech Designer. All of this ended at the death of Lord Hemmington. The high-ranking mech designers affiliated with the clan were some of the first to jump ship."

Ves sneered. "What gutless cowards."

"They made a smart decision. They would have suffered considerably if they stayed. This is not the first time this has happened."

The immense brain drain that took place as soon as one of the tribe fell into decline exacerbated rise and fall of many tribes.

"This Cross Clan took the initiative to propose a partnership with us, right? What do they have then that makes you think they are worthy partners? Do they even have enough MTA merits to enter our sights?"

"They do, Ves. In the heyday of the Cross Clan, several prominent clan members took the initiative to earn a large amount of merits. Patriarch Reginald Cross, the son of Lord Hemmington Cross, is willing to commit at least 25 million MTA merits to a potential partnership."

That was quite a sizable amount of merits. While that wasn't enough to allow the Larkinson Clan and Cross Clan to enter the Red Ocean by themselves, they only needed to find at least one more partner.

Of course, Ves could also follow his original plan and work hard to accumulate more merits by himself.

"Okay. They have enough merits to enter our sights. What do we get by joining hands with these foreigners, then?"

"The Cross Clan has retained at least some of the foundation of a complete state. It is much more developed than the Larkinson Clan in almost every area. The Cross Clan's military, governance, diplomacy and intelligence gathering are much further ahead."

"We can learn that as well. We're doing fine on our own so far. I don't see the need to look at other clans."

Calabast shook her head. "I don't agree. The way we run our clan is still very much rough. It would do us a lot of good to study the model of the Cross Clan up close."

"No thanks. Is there anything else?"

"Yes. Another reason why you should contemplate partnering up with the Crossers is because they are quite accomplished in raising expert pilots. Just the fact that they once succeeded in producing an ace pilot is certainly of great value to us. The Cross Clan can teach our expert pilots what they should focus on in order to take the next step."

While Ves was a little more convinced of this argument, he didn't consider it a necessity.

"Our clan is in no hurry to produce ace pilots. We haven't even begun to equip our expert pilots with proper expert mechs."

"You need to learn this sooner or later. Look, even if the Cross Clan isn't able to hand over any useful information to you, there is still another benefit. You can be a little more open about your ability to facilitate the breakthroughs of mech pilots if you pretend that the insights of the Cross Clan played a pivotal role in any success. Isn't this good?"

Now he was beginning to see why Calabast pushed the Cross Clan forward. It was because she was eying its ace pilot heritage!

Ves seriously doubted whether he would be able to partner up with another power that once produced an ace pilot. This opportunity was exceedingly rare and exceptional as organizations associated with ace pilots rarely ever left!

He began to consider the matter more seriously.

"How are they holding out in terms of funding? They lost most if not all of their revenue sources."

"They still have access to various income streams such as stocks and other miscellaneous investments. It's not enough, even if only a fraction of the Cross Clan is left. From what I can gather, the clan mostly subsides off a very sizable cash reserves. In the short time, they aren't at risk of running out of funds."

This was an unsustainable strategy that would eventually deplete the remnants of the Cross Clan.

"They don't have any mech designers who can stem the bleeding?" Ves asked.

"Nope. Well, I suppose there are still a few loyal Apprentices and maybe Journeymen, but competition is very fierce. They can't come close to earning money."

This was one of the main benefits the Larkinson Clan could provide to its possible partner. It was terrible for any major power of this scale to lose so many capable mech designers.

Money was the root modern society. Everything cost money. This meant that even if the Larkinson Clan was inferior to the Cross Clan in many aspects, Ves could still dominate this partnership by virtue of his earning capabilities!

Ves saw an opportunity to absorb the Cross Clan in its entirety. Forget about partnering up. He wanted to annex these defeated Garlaners! Not only would he be able to obtain a large number of powerful second-class mech pilots, he might also gain effective control over the 25 million MTA merits held by Reginald Cross!

As he shared his ambitious idea with Calabast, she did not immediately react.

"This… is quite greedy, Ves. While it is possible to pull this off, we will have to convince the Cross clansmen that their current identity and heritage is not worth keeping. Do you think that is likely to happen? The Cross Clan is much older, much more established and immensely proud for producing an ace pilot. The Larkinson Clan simply can't compare."

"I don't know. We have some points of pride as well, though I admit that the clan's short existence will likely work against us. While I think the Cross Clan is worth looking into, I'm not entirely willing to partner up with these beaten dogs. They don't bring anything truly beneficial aside from their martial strength and traditions. This is something the Larkinson Clan is already cultivating on its own. I would rather partner up with a power that excels in some other area. Teaming up makes more sense in that case since there are more reasons to cooperate than to compete."

Calabast acknowledged his point. "This is why partnering up with the Cross Clan is just an option. We will receive more offers in the future. Depending on the development of our clan, those offers might be better. If we do even better than now, we'll attract the attention of stronger and more useful organizations. It's possible that some of them are already at Cinach, but are taking a wait and see approach."

"I see. As long as we prove ourselves, we'll attract much better offers, is that right?"

She nodded. "Correct. Just remember that they may not be as good as you think. If we partner up with stronger organizations, we risk becoming subordinate to them. They may be eying to take us over just like you are thinking about absorbing the Cross Clan."