Since Ves wanted to fully dedicate himself to creating his own companion spirit, he made a difficult request to Gloriana.

"Why do you want to delay the start of our new expert mech design projects?" Gloriana frowned as she sat elegantly behind her terminal in the design lab. "Do you know how long I've waited to begin our work on them? I have already tried to be patient when you were stuck on Prosperous Hill VI for a month. Now you want us to delay the next round of design projects by three more weeks? ARE YOU CRAZY!?"

Ves innocently raised his hands. "Honey, please don't be mad! Look, there are way too many issues that require my attention at the moment. I won't be able to concentrate on my mech design work as long as I keep getting distracted by all of the fires I have to put out. Our clan has changed considerably and our member roster has more than doubled in a very short amount of time. Do you think we can just absorb all of the clansmen without any worries? If I don't nip all of the potential problems in the bud, we might get into a lot of trouble in the future!"

All of these worries were legitimate, but he was not quite honest about how much time it would take to address them. He just had to meet with a handful of key leaders and make sure they pursued the right policies to assuage his concerns.

Unfortunately, Gloriana wasn't that easy to fool.

"Haven't you delegated all these tedious matters to General Verle and so on? There is no need for you to take action in person!"

"You don't understand, Gloriana. None of the Larkinsons understand the former Lifers that have just joined our clan. They're weirdos to the rest of us. General Verle is a wise and thoughtful leader, but he hasn't spent weeks living among these people like I did. I have to take charge of their integration into the rest of the clan. It is pivotal that the tens of thousands of Lifers we've absorbed become more than Larkinsons-in-name like they are now. It is too easy for them to retain their stubborn old identities if they keep isolating themselves in their bioships."

His wife softened her expression a bit. This was indeed a thorny and delicate issue that could easily plunge the Larkinson Clan into a major crisis if handled poorly. Ves already intended to pay a visit to the Dragon's Den in order to tour the bioresearch vessel and make sure Commander Rivington and his new staff were on the right track.

"Okay, I can grant you that, but do you really need to spend weeks holding their hands?"

Ves let out a tired breath and pretended to be swamped with work. "There are many other issues I need to deal with. Integrating the former Heavensworders that Ketis has brought back is another major challenge. Then there are numerous other priorities such as accelerating the production of LMC mechs, commissioning our next batch of capital ships at a distant shipyard along our route, keeping my eye out on any promising diplomats, trying to find an opportunity to earn more MTA merits, the list goes on and on. I promise I won't suggest any further delays after this. Three weeks is enough to solve or address all of the issues that have piled up while I was absent from the fleet."

All of this sounded reasonable, though that did not diminish Gloriana's annoyance at having to wait for him yet another time.

She briefly recalled something. "Didn't you make a deal with a local LRA Master Mech Designer about obtaining 5 million MTA merits?"

He glowered at this mention. "I did. While I upheld my end of the deal, Master Leehay Brixton never managed to send his disciple who possesses all of those merits to us. I guess the civil war along with everything that followed such as the biojuggernaut's destructive rampage has completely put it out of his mind."

"Master Mech Designers aren't known to be forgetful. You got scammed by Master Brixon, am I right?"

"Erm, I wouldn't call it that…."

Gloriana snarled. "YOU DUMMY! Next time, don't make deals with shifty Masters who have ulterior motives in mind. At least make sure they are women! Master Willix and even Master Olson possess a lot more integrity than someone who directly pulled you into a civil war."

"What does their gender have to do with this?!" He spluttered. "Whether they are men or women is completely irrelevant!"

"Hmph!"

Though this argument sounded ridiculous to Ves, Gloriana no longer questioned his need to spend time on other matters. She resigned herself to continuing her preparations on her own. This wasn't as bad as it sounded as she could already do a lot of work such as researching and gathering suitable exotics without formally starting the expert mech design projects.

Doing all of this prep work beforehand would save valuable time and effort later on, though there was always a risk that Gloriana might prepare for something that wouldn't be used.

Once Ves secured his wife's permission, he did indeed perform the duties he described, if only at first.

He met with a range of people including General Verle and Calabast to talk about important matters.

When Ves met his spymaster for the first time since he last saw her on the surface of Prosperous Hill VI, he encountered an unexpected sight.

"Is that Arnold?" He bluntly asked after he entered her office aboard the Spirit of Bentheim.

"Squeak!"

The roughly cat-sized exobeast became alarmed at his presence and quickly waddled its eight limbs towards the black-clad uniformed woman who was working calmly behind her desk.

Calabast smiled indulgently at the arganid clisenta as she picked the alien creature up and treated him like a baby.

"Oh, poor Arnold. Are you afraid? Don't worry. Momma Calabast will protect you. Ves won't be able to touch you or perform dangerous experiments on you as long as I am around."

"Squeak squeak squeak!"

Ves did not look amused. He crossed his arms and glowered at the display.

"Arnold shouldn't be in your possession. He is a valuable biological research asset who serves a greater purpose to me. Why is he not with Dr. Ranya aboard the Dragon's Den? And why is he able to tolerate standard human environmental conditions?"

Calabast petted the grey-furred exobeast like a cat. "Adopting pets has become a very popular Larkinson custom. I have been looking to pick one up for some time, but I'm not satisfied with average cats and dogs. When I visited Dr. Ranya's lab on business some time ago, I happened to catch sight of this cute and chubby fellow. I immediately knew I had to have him. After a bit of persuasion, Dr. Ranya agreed to my requests. She rounded up some Lifer specialists to modify his genes so that he can live aboard the Spirit of Bentheim without issue before handing him over to my care. I'm quite content with my decision so far. I can't fully explain why I like having him around, but he makes all of my days a little brighter."

"I see."

This situation was not ideal for him. Ves intended to perform some experiments on Arnold in order to further his understanding of spirituality and design spirits. Now that Calabast claimed him as her pet, he probably wouldn't be able to go through with his original plans.

Mutated beasts who developed spiritual potential like Arnold were quite rare! Now that Ves and his fleet had left the Life Research Association in a hurry, he didn't have access to a huge and highly-developed market for exobeasts and designer beasts anymore.

While he could still pick up all kinds of beasts in other states, there was no way he'd be able to enjoy the same conveniences as he once did in the LRA.

Oh well. Calabast seems happy and Arnold was not an indispensable asset. Ves was confident he could get his hands on more mutated beasts in the future.

Besides, it wasn't as if Arnold became useless now that he had become her pet. He was rather surprised that he was tame and harmless enough for Calabast to let him crawl around. He was anything but a domestic animal, but as a sentient exobeast he possessed enough intelligence to know what he needed to do to survive.

He no longer paid any attention to Arnold. Instead, he proceeded to discuss the matters he originally wished to talk about.

"What do you think about the tens of thousands of Lifers and Heavensworders we've absorbed?"

"They're quite the handful, as I'm sure you are aware of." Calabast said as she switched back to work mode. She put Arnold down on the ground and allowed him to sniff her boots while she continued to explain her views. "Both of them have the potential to change the Larkinson Clan in ways that we couldn't have imagined. Even if we do our best to minimize the impact they have on the rest of our clan, I still foresee a great increase in swordsmanship and biotechnology."

"Those are my thoughts as well. I don't reject all of the changes, though. It is good for the Larkinson Clan to develop an excellence in swordsman mechs. In addition, as long as the Lifers settle down and set up an advanced biotech industry in our fleet, we don't have to rely on external doctors or implant surgeons or other related specialists anymore."

"I welcome those changes as well, but we should keep up our guard as well."

"That is a given. Do you have any more specific concerns?"

"Hmmm. Maybe." She said. "Let me show you two different people?"

She manipulated her terminal and projected an image of a trio of familiar-looking clansmen.

One of them was Taon Melin, the current representative of the Ylvainans. The other one was Samandra Avikon, the former priestess of Spiritus Sancti. The final one was Commander Valerie Chancy of the Penitent Sisters.

Three different Larkinsons happened to meet together. This didn't sound abnormal at first, but the Larkinsons in question all happened to hold very different beliefs!

Ves narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "The three of them shouldn't be meeting together. As far as I am aware of, their beliefs shouldn't have anything in common. They even contradict each other on various doctrines."

"You are right that it is customary for different faiths to clash over conflicting beliefs. A lot of wars in human space are being waged because of this. That doesn't mean they can't get along, though. The Ylvainans and the followers of hexism have already learned how to coexist with each other. Now, they have taken the initiative to foster the same degree of tolerance and coexistence with the Lifers who believe in another faith."

"Why?"

Calabast smiled. "Though their respective beliefs do not match, that has never been much of an impediment in our clan. The faiths share enough common ground to cooperate with each other and form a united front. Each of them are rather marginal existences by themselves. They all know that they can gain greater voice in the clan by pooling their strengths. By forming a single religious interest group to unite all of their adherents, they can make sure that their voices will be heard and their approval means something among the upper leadership."

He had to admit that made a lot of sense. The Ylvainans, Penitent Sisters and religious Lifers were each too small for Ves to bother with most of the time, but it would be a different story if they banded together.

"Did they discuss anything specific that I should know about or did they just agree to work together?"

"The latter is the case at the moment, but that doesn't rule out the possibility for more changes. For now, my men are monitoring their movements and communications. It helps that the religious clansmen aren't trying very hard to hide what they are doing. In their perspective, they aren't committing any crimes. Their overall goals are quite obvious. They want to convert more Larkinsons to their respective causes."

Ves sighed. He wasn't ignorant of their priorities. He already accounted for this at some level. "I'm willing to tolerate them as long as they don't go too far. The Ylvainans and Penitent Sisters both offer something unique to the Larkinson Clan. I hope that these religious Lifers can provide something useful to us as well. If they do nothing but lead Larkinsons astray, then they don't deserve to exist. Each of these faiths need to understand this truth if they wish to maintain their existence. The interests of the clan always come first."

"That's a good lesson to teach to them." Calabast smiled as she tapped the tip of her foot onto Arnold's plushy body. "I'll be sure to quietly remind them of this priority."

"Squeak." Arnold happily licked his new owner's boot.