Steel and Mana

Chapter 180 – Quarrel

"Awww, we missed it?" Yuri asked with a moan, chuckling and hugging me from behind after Luna brought my breakfast to my office.

"What?" Luna flinched, looking at me as I stood before my open window, enjoying the wind and the warmth of the early summer. "No fair! Sacchy hogged all the fun again! No wonder she is still asleep!"

"She is the queen of our harem; it is her right." Yuri shrugged, sniffing my body.

"Are you a dog?" I questioned after it became ticklish, finally turning around and facing them, taking the coffee from Luna's hands.

"Woof! I can smell Mikki on you! Well? How was it?"

"Great!" I grinned, "She is slippery."

"More than us?" Luna asked with a hand raised, "How slippery on a scale of ten?"

"Eleven."

"Woah!" They exclaimed, looking at each other with some dangerous light in their eyes.

"Stop! Don't bother her about it. Also… weren't you peeping at her?"

"She did nothing. She always started but then stopped because she was afraid." Yuri shrugged, making Luna nod her head.

"Yeah! She was too reserved. But now, we can get her dressed up; she needs some toys, too, when Leocchy is out of rotation!"

"Wait, what?" I grunted, pinching Luna's butt, "What am I, the fleshy flute that you can play with? Need a replacement when I'm in the drawer?"

“Nyaaaah~ Noooh~?” She giggled, playfighting, making me restrain her.

"Yeah, yeah." I rolled my eyes, biting her earlobes before letting her go. "We will play after work is done."

“Uuu… unfair…”

"I will play with you!" Yuri stepped in at once, picking her up and throwing Luna over her shoulder, kneading her buttocks, "Come on, I saw Mikki leave early, going to the temple to hold a sermon; we will wait for her and check her out! She should rest after her first night."

"Be easy on her!" I yelled after them as the duo left my office, leaving me there with my breakfast and an already prepared pile of documents, signed and stamped by Merlin. "Let's see how yesterday's test went…"

…
….
……

It was already a week after we had our first talk show, and we determined to make it a monthly occurrence. We had already decided that the next guests were going to be my parents, and while probably the first half would be discussing me from their perspective, the second half would be about the Lion and my Father's experience piloting it and fighting the monsters. I didn't make it into a secret; it was a blatant propaganda piece to make my people excited and make it into a recruitment ad for the army. While Sasha and Mikan, who now officially became my fourth and last wife, were writing the outline for the show, Merlin and I were working on something different.

With the radio's success, we worked with Dorian and designed the Mark II helmets for our soldiers. This time around, they would be sealed helmets, leaving only their eyes free. The mouthpiece would house the microphone, while we were going to implement the magical speakers and transmitters over the ears, making them capable of communicating without needing to carry any secondary tools.

We were still in the prototype phase, trying to figure out how many could connect at once or if it was without a limit. We also had to come up with a frequency changer so they could talk with their squad mates without interrupting the line, connecting them to the commanding officers.

"I also made the first markers." Merlin spoke up while we were having a break, and I invited Dorian out with us for lunch. We were not back at the palace but instead in one of the city's family restaurants, occupying the top floor while a crowd was already gathering outside, trying to remain quiet, just here to look at us. I won't lie; it was funny and gratifying at the same time, making me feel like some kind of rockstar.

"Are the tests going as we expected?" I asked before taking a bite from my roasted chicken.

"Yes." Merlin nodded, wiping the grease from his fingers, "Works as I… well, remembered. Khm. The hard part will be shrinking it down and implementing it into the helmets."

"Into the helmets?" Dorian flinched, looking at us, finally understanding why he was invited to the lunch.

"Yes." I nodded, looking at him. "It would greatly enhance our soldiers' capabilities if they could use it through their helmets. Of course, we can't expect everyone to have it, so it wouldn't be a standard-issue helmet but a variant of the Mark IIs."

"At first," Merlin interjected, "I am thinking of further improving it later, giving our soldiers a better vision, especially if we are talking about operations conducted at night."

"I can think of ideas for implementing it into the armor, but I also need to know its dimensions first." Dorian explained after a brief silence, thinking about it, "If it matches how glasses look, I can do some early mock-ups. It would give me time to experiment and prepare for the moment when it needs to be implemented."

"That isn't a bad idea." I agreed while Merlin also nodded his head.

"I will try to match it. I will send you the progress, Dorian, and you can keep altering and modifying it while I work on it so we can match our progress. How's our resources for the armor?"

"Scarce." He shrugged, "We are running out of our monster materials. We managed to outfit the whole army, but replacement units were impossible to make in the same quantity. Or quality. So, we stopped and put the remaining materials in storage, keeping them to fix damaged units if needed. But, if the damage is beyond repair, we won't be able to replace the set, and it has to be decommissioned, My Sovereign."

"What a weird situation!" I sighed, leaning back on my chair, "If I wish for a monster attack, I wish to put ourselves in danger. Yet, without them, we aren't going to advance further."

"It is a conundrum, My Sovereign."

"Well…" Merlin hummed, leaning forward for his juice, "With the second mech soon finishing and the howitzers' testing phase ending, I think we can take on them when winter comes!"

…
….
……

"Hmph!"

“…”

"Hmph!"

“…”

"Hmph!"

"Can't we talk…?" Merlin asked, but Elena just turned her head away from him, continuing to ignore him, looking out of their carriage's window.

Not that long ago, Merlin was ordered by Leon to come to the borders with a squad of soldiers and meet up with Elena's convoy, escorting her straight to Avalon. The moment they met up, Elena was acting like this, turning the inside of the carriage from summer to winter.

"Not a letter, not one in the past months, hmph! It seems we have nothing to talk about."

"I was busy with–"

"Yeah, yeah, Mr. Prime Minister of Avalon, Merlin the Busybody."

"It wasn't like that…" He mumbled, unable to deal with the situation, not knowing what to do at all, falling silent for hours before finally trying again, breaking the silence.

"What is in the carriage?"

"Stuff."

"It is pretty big…" He continued, looking towards the carriage following theirs, "If it needs a whole carriage for itself."

"It is a big stuff."

“…”

Of course, Merlin knew perfectly well what it was, but he tried his best to just begin talking with her. Being a wizard, he could already tell that a massive CC was sitting in the second carriage just by walking close to the caravan. The feeling was unmistakable. By working with CC day in and day out, he realized that he got so used to it that neither he nor Sasha noticed the presence of normal-sized variants, only the massive ones, the type they also found within the giant monsters.

"Elena…"

"It's Lady Kustov, kiddo." She grunted, not bothering to turn towards him at all, making Merlin snort the same way.

"Just so you know, I am already an adult, not a kid! Hmph! Even by Imperial standards, I count as a man! If I were a noble, I would be looking to marry, and if I were a peasant, I would be out in the fields, working!"

"Then go, marry someone or whatever."

"Maybe I will!"

"Good luck. I am rooting for you!"

"Good! Good! Hmph!"

"Hmph!"

"Hmph!"

"HHHHMPH!"

…
….
……

I was welcoming the caravan with Sasha on my right, exchanging a glance with him. Her one look already informed me what Elena had delivered to us. No wonder she was asking for more guards.

"Welcome again!" I chuckled, smiling at her, suddenly hit by a chilly wind rushing past us as the two got out of their carriage. It seems they were arguing? Oh boy.

"It is good to be back." She smiled at me, and as I glanced at Merlin, I saw that he was asking for help with his eyes while trying to remain unbothered and calm on the surface. Geez… A lovers' quarrel. I have no idea how to handle that! "We should unpack my item before anything."

"Only one item?" I asked, happy that I don't need to deal with their issue right now, right here.

"Yes." She nodded with a smile, leading us to the second carriage and opening up the closed flaps covering it. "I thought this was something you would want to see as soon as possible."

"That is for sure a God's Tear…" Sasha whistled, "It is… yeah, I think this one is bigger than our largest CC so far!"

"Um." I agreed, watching the giant, boulder-sized, jagged crystal. "It is massive… But, unlike the ones we got from within a beast, this seems to be uncharged."

"Yes." Sasha agreed, "It is empty of mana. I do wonder…"

"Hm?" We all asked, looking at her.

"Do you think they eat it? Are they trying to come over to find CC to eat it?"

"Eating CC?" I chuckled, "I don't think their teeth can handle chewing it. We can put the theory into our Books of Theories, I won't deny its plausibility, but I doubt it."

"Well, I didn't say I was sure." She giggled, sticking her tongue out before turning towards Elena. "Our people will take care of it now! I bet you are tired from the long road; let's go in, take a bath, have dinner, and just relax; we can talk about the rest tomorrow!"

"I would really appreciate it." She nodded with a tired smile, "I do feel battered."

"Is this a new find?" I asked, unable to hold it back as we walked into my palace.

"Yes." She answered, looking at me proudly, "All those devices you sent us? They worked. We found a new vein, a rich one, because after we pulled this thing out, hundreds if not thousands of others were embedded into the mountain wall, going who knows how far and deep. They range from pebbles to human-sized ones, and we are working to get them all out."

"Woah!" Both Merlin and I exclaimed.

"I didn't report the find." She continued, glancing back and forth between me and Sasha. "It can be all yours."

"What is the price?"

"Me moving into Avalon."

"What?!" Her entourage clamored as one, including Borbossa, who almost fell over.

"I want my mom out of the capital." She continued, "My Dad is preparing to fight another Duke… It will get dangerous. Mom and a few of my younger cousins would come to Greyback and take my place. I would then move here and work with you. Think of me as an Ambassador, if you will."

"I'm not against it." I answered with a smile, my eyes quickly looking over Merlin before nodding at Elena. "We can talk about it tomorrow, though. As my wife said, it was a long trip… Let's enjoy the night and do business with a clear head on a new day!"