The Mech Touch novel Chapter 4652

"Lucky?" Andraste walked up to the couch where the gem cat was resting. "What's wrong?"

"Meoowwww…"

The red-haired girl walked up and poked the cat's stomach.

"MEOW!"

"It's so heavy! Did you overeat again, Lucky?"

"Meeooww… meeeoooww…"

"Papa told me that you evolve whenever you eat a lot of good exotics. Will you do that again?"

"Meow meow…"

"What part of you will become stronger?"

"Meow?"

"You don't know?"

"Meeooww…"

"Then hurry up and digest your food! I wanna see how much stronger you will become? Will you become fast enough to catch up with starships in space? Will you be able to warp space so that you can travel to other star systems? Oh, wait! I know! I bet you will grow laser eyes so that you can cut any mech in half! Yes, that's right! I can already see your bright green eyes beginning to glow!"

"Meooooow!"

"Andraste!" Ves called as he entered his grand stateroom shortly after he concluded another meeting about the matters he had discussed with Master Goldstein. "Stop bothering our cat. What Lucky needs the most right now is a nap so that his body can completely focus on processing all of the high-quality metallic exotics he has ingested. The thing about first-class exotics is that they tend to be a lot harder and more energy-intensive to digest."

"Meow."

"You see? Even Lucky says so. Come over here and sit on my lap instead."

"Okay, papa."

Ves never got tired of hugging and playing with his children. Andraste giggled as he tickled her body and planted lots of playful kisses on her face.

She reciprocated and kissed his cheek in turn!

"Tell me tell me tell me!" Andraste whined.

"Tell you what, honey?"

"I heard that we've become rich again! Rich enough to buy a lot of cool toys!"

"Oh, you heard that, didn't you? Who told you that news?"

A sly expression appeared on the little girl's face. "I won't tell. I promised not to tell."

Her father tapped her on the head. "Naughty girl. You're not supposed to keep secrets from your parents. We're family, remember?"

The girl stuck out her tongue. "I'm not going to tell!"

He sighed. "Oh well. It doesn't matter. It's not that important a secret anyway. Anyway, you're right. I just came off a meeting where we settled on an agreement on how to divide the MTA merits we have earned as of late. Do you know how much the Golden Skull Alliance received in total? The MTA awarded us with over 1.3 billion MTA merits in total. Do you know what a billion represents?"

"That's a 1 with nine zeroes, right?"

"That's right!" Ves grinned and kissed her cute little forehead. "The problem we have is that the MTA awarded it to our alliance as a whole. Our clan and our two allies had to decide how to divide the spoils among ourselves."

"Can't you just divide it equally, papa?"

Ves shook his head. "No. Not when you are talking about sums of this magnitude. Although we have all worked together to beat the alien warships and defeat the alien monsters, not all of us contributed equally to our victories. In general, our clan provided the most mechs and expert mechs and also offered a lot of unconventional support. The Cross Clan on the other hand brought forth the Mars, which is already a massive contribution in itself. As for the Glory Seekers, they have acted as our junior partner pretty much. They still played an important role as their DIVA infiltrator and commando teams are unmatched."

"DIVA is pretty cool!" The little girl affirmed! _{freёwebnoѵel.com}

"Now think carefully, Andraste. Given what the three of us have done to win the Battle of the Boryan Belt and the Second Battle of Ramage Repulsor, how do you think we should divide the spoils?"

"Uhhh…"

His daughter looked so cute when she struggled to come up with an answer to a difficult question. This matter was far more complicated for the little girl to solve.

Ves chuckled and ruffled his second daughter's red hair. "It's hard to come up with a fair answer that all three sides can accept, right?"

The skills, experience and perception of an extraordinary warrior was incomparably greater than that of an ordinary soldier.

From the moment Ketis started to guide Andraste on how to fight with a sword, his second daughter's preference towards swordsmanship had already been set in stone!

Though Ves did not object to his girl learning how to chop apart both enemies and nasty boys with a sword, he did not want her to become as fixated with the weapons like the Swordmaidens.

He leaned in to kiss her head once again.

"I am happy to hear that you are so pleased with your swordsmanship classes, but don't neglect your marksmanship lessons either. Learning how to be precise when wielding rifles and other firearms is important as well. We live in an age where battles in space are common. If you have watched our previous battles, have you noticed how little melee combat mattered most of the time?"

"..."

Ves adopted a serious expression. "Melee combat is rare for a reason. It has partially become outdated ever since firearms picked up more steam. It is only in very limited cases such as mech combat that fighting up close has become more relevant again, but even then it is merely an exception to the rule. You don't see the aliens deploying warships that go as far as ramming their prows against the hulls of our starships, do you? That's because it is stupid, wasteful and completely unnecessary. Even the nunsers and puelmers prefer to mount big cannons onto the hulls of their homeships. Do you understand what I am trying to convey to you, dear?"

His daughter crossed her arms in defiance. "I still want to become a swordmaster! That way, I can be strong even if I don't end up becoming a mech pilot!"

"Pumpkin…" Ves rubbed her head in concern. "Don't think about that too much. You're still young. Enjoy these carefree years of yours. No matter what you end up becoming, it is always helpful if you know how to handle a gun, even if you only use it for self-defense purposes. The frontier is dangerous and I can't guarantee that my men and I will always be there to protect you from the bad guys. I expect you to become proficient in handling a basic firearm by the end of the year."

"Papa! Training my marksmanship means I won't have enough time to learn a sword style!"

Ves patted his daughter's cute little head once again. "Don't disobey your father. I am doing what is best for you. Besides, if you ever become eligible to become a mech pilot, then I will do my best to put you into a first-class virtual mech academy. That means you will have to study and train really hard to pilot a first-class multipurpose mech. Do you know why people deliberately put the word 'multipurpose' in the name despite it being a mouthful? It's because it is supposed to be able to fight effectively in any environment and at any distance! Ranged weapons are a core part of first-class mechs, so I will not have you neglecting this aspect of combat!"

"It's so booooorrrrriiiingggg!"

"Don't whine to me about that. Even Ketis had to fire a gun every now and then. She didn't do so that often, but she made sure to train her marksmanship so that she can take down a distant enemy when she has to. How about this? If you do really well in your marksmanship training, I will craft your very own personal luminar crystal gun, doesn't that sound great?"

Andraste's mood suddenly turned around. "What?! Really?!"

Aside from making living mechs, Ves also excelled at making energy weapons. Iconic relic weapons such as the Gray Lotus and the Instrument of Doom clearly showed that he could make monstrously powerful guns if he had the right resources in place!

"I would do anything to keep my little girl safe." Ves grinned and kissed her head a few times. "With the huge amount of MTA merits and first-class salvage that I've obtained from our recent actions, I am sure I can whip up something great for you. However, I won't hand you a powerful gun unless you have proven your ability to wield one safely and responsibly, so take your classes seriously and earn your certificate!"

His daughter's eyes burned with determination. "It won't take long! You better have a design ready for me, papa, because I will definitely become a sharpshooter!"

"Good girl."