Tristan felt quite a bit of pressure as he finally exchanged words with the renowned patriarch of the Larkinson Clan. The Ves who he met in the past presented himself in a completely different manner today. It started with his appearance. While the Ves in the past not only looked and behaved in a casual manner, the Ves in the ceremonial meeting room stood as if he owned the very air that Tristan breathed! The ornate caped uniform along with the confidence built from achieving incredible successes in multiple domains had transformed Ves into a leader that exuded the demeanor of an actual head of state. The tone and words adopted by Ves further cemented his dominant position. This was a man that did not forgive past grievances and always maintained his hostility towards the Friday Coalition. Even Lucky gave him a sense of pressure. The mechanical cat looked as if he was lounging casually in the same room, but the Fridaymen had collected enough intelligence about the cat to know that it was quite formidable in battle! Tristan needed to respond carefully in order to maintain the hope of holding a fruitful conversation with the resentful patriarch. "What is done is done." He said carefully. "We cannot undo the mistakes of the past. The only way we can proceed is to look towards the future and make sure that neither of us will continue to make more people suffer regardless of the side that they are on. Let's bury the hatchet. We barely have anything to do with each other anyway. We should agree to keep our weapons cool if we ever bump into each other again. We would also like you to use your influence among the Hexer colonists to ease up on their animosity. If they no longer make use of your mechs to attack our settlements, we can all live in harmony so that we can focus on the other threats of the Red Ocean. Don't you want to provide a safer and more carefree life for your children?" Ves erupted in laughter. "Hahahaha! What a joke. Is this the sincerity of the Friday Coalition? Do you think it is so easy to forgive all of the Larkinsons that you have killed during the Battle of Reckoning?! If I was in a weaker position, I might be open to your offer, but since this is not the case, I am not inclined to lighten my stance at all. The Friday Coalition is still on my list of targets, and my children will most definitely inherit my hatred. Their mother will make sure of it I think." The obstinacy shown by Ves made it clear to Tristan that he could not continue to rely on aspirational words to make any meaningful progress. He needed to show a more concrete willingness to achieve reconciliation. The Fridayman raised his palm. "Please hear me out, patriarch. Our state is willing to make significant reparations to earn your forgiveness." "What sort of reparations are you talking about?" "For one, we are ready to transfer back a significant amount of shares in your Living Mech Corporation." Tristan had started with the biggest and most profound concession that he was allowed to present! He knew that he needed to start this off on a firmer footing in order to maintain the interest of his counterpart. Though Ves already expected the Fridayman to put the shares under discussion, he did not expect that Tristan would be that straightforward. "How much?" "12 percent." Tristan responded. That was a lot! With the continued rise of the Living Mech Corporation, the value of owning 12 percent of a booming mech company that was based in the Red Ocean had skyrocketed to an amazing height! Any sane investor would never be willing to give up so many shares without obtaining a massive prize in return. It appeared that the Friday Coalition regarded Ves as such an enormous threat to their interests that the state would rather give up a whopping 12 percent of the outstanding shares of the LMC! "If I recall correctly, that does not encompass all of the shares held by the Friday Coalition. You still owe me 4 percent." "I have already quoted our bottom line to you." Tristan replied. "Your former Master has generously agreed to put up most of the shares that are in her name, leaving her with 2 percent which we view as a guarantee for our new and more productive relationship with you. Master Toqueman Huron has not agreed to put his own 2 percent stake in the LMC at our disposal. He has already conveyed his desire to continue to hold onto his shares." That was a weird message if Ves didn't know better. He had already been briefed about the internal divisions within the Friday Coalition. Master Carmin Olson belonged to the Vermeer Group, which was much more eager to reconcile with Ves. Master Toqueman Huron belonged to the Gauge Dynasty, which actually had a vested interest in the current status quo. Ves slowly frowned. "I don't care about guarantees and continued relationships. The shares don't really belong to those Masters and your state to begin with. You guys stole the ownership stakes from the Bright Republic. Either you surrender your stolen goods or else I will put an end to this discussion." "Don't be in such a hurry to close the door to further talks. My state is also willing to revoke the ban on selling your products in our markets. As long as we sign a new agreement, the Friday Coalition will not only lift this ban, but actively encourage our customers, particularly those who reside in our colonies, to purchase your mechs. There are many groups that have been waiting to purchase the Pacifiers, the Hymenopteras and the other popular models that have won over many fans over the years." This concession did not impress Ves in the slightest. "I don't care." He flatly said. "It makes no difference for me whether I can sell my products to your Fridaymen or not. Most of my products are exclusive to the Red Ocean so being able to service the needs of an entire star sector in the old galaxy is not that relevant. As for opening up my mechs for sale to your colonies, that sounds even less attractive to me considering I have serviced many larger customers." "The Friday Coalition is willing to give your mech company privileged access to our mech markets in the Red Ocean. This might not sound like much at the moment, but you will be able to sell a lot more mechs in our colonial state once it has reached a much more impressive scale in the future. On top of that, we are even willing to talk with you about commissioning specialized mechs from you in order to enrich our military forces." Now that was a peculiar concession! "I have armed and empowered the Hex Army for years." Ves said as he raised his eyebrow. "Why would you entrust me with doing the same for your troops?" "Why not? Although our relationship is not the best, we have seen how much you have managed to strengthen the Hexers and prolong their participation in the Komodo War. We genuinely respect and appreciate your living mechs. We shouldn't have banned them in our space at all. As long as we can start over with a clean slate, we have no objection to allowing you to do the same for our armed forces." Ves did not believe that the Fridaymen veterans who had fought against so many Valkyrie Redeemers and other living mechs were willing to see this happen. Of course, the leaders of the Friday Coalition would force the decision onto them anyway. As long as their interests got ahead, who cared about offending their own troops? "I am not enthused about designing mechs for you Fridaymen at all." Ves shook his head. "No matter how interesting the projects can be and no matter how much money I can earn from this deal, you can't bribe away the harm that you have done to me and my clan. We have our principles, and one of them is that we abide by our friendships and remember our enemies." The talks continued even though Tristan did not have much else to give. He was not a professional negotiator so he did not handle this increasingly more awkward situation in the best possible manner. Ves eventually received a message from Minister Shederin Purnesse that it was best to end this session at this time. "Stop." He said as he raised his palm. "Nothing you have said earlier is enough. While I admit that your state has put up numerous attractive concessions, they are not enough for me to feel moved. I suggest you go back and tell your bosses to be serious. I don't want to hear any further jokes from you. If you cannot give me a serious offer, then I will continue on my day while enthusiastic Hexer raiders continue to degrade your colonial ambitions." The first session had clearly come to an end. Tristan had failed to attain the breakthrough that he had been tasked with securing. At this point, Tristan should be saying his goodbyes. Instead, he lingered and opened up a different line of discussion. "I knew you wouldn't let go of your hatred of us so easily." Tristan sighed. "Since this is your stance, I'm allowed to present an alternative offer to you that is smaller but perhaps more attractive to you. I seriously urge you to hear me out before you pass any judgment." Ves narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "Are you speaking on behalf of the Friday Coalition as a whole at the moment, or are you only representing a part of your great and victorious state?" The Fridayman mech designer shrugged. "I guess you know about that already. My advisor did tell me that your clan is pretty good at figuring out this kind of stuff. I won't dance around the truth, then. Your remark is correct. I have already done my duty as a representative of the Coalition. I am now speaking as an unofficial envoy of Vermeer Group, Carnegie Group, the Vanguard Group and the Puffer Clan." "My two favorite coalition partners along with two other losers from the Friday Coalition. What a surprise." "Since you know about our state's internal contradictions, I don't think I need to explain why the coalition partners that I represent at the moment are not that pleased with the Gauge Dynasty and the Konsu Clan. Leaving aside the latter, it is the Gaugers that are truly presenting a threat to the continuation of the Friday Coalition." Ves crossed his arms. "All of that sounds interesting and all, but what does that have to do with me? I have no interest in fixing the problems that plague your state." "I am not asking that of you, patriarch. I am not asking you to bury the hatchet or persuade the Hexers to cease their raids on our colonies. In fact, I was about to request you do the opposite. We want to invite you to attack certain colonies that belong to a certain coalition partner that has been annoying the rest of us lately." Now that was a surprising development! Ves never expected that Tristan would blatantly request Ves and the Hexers to launch an open attack on the colonies of the Gauge Dynasty! "That sounds crazy. As inviting as your offer sounds, we're not stupid, Mr. Wesseling. How will I be able to know that your suggestion isn't a trap? It would be too easy to hide a lot of forces at a Gauger colony and spring the trap once an attacking force has arrived." Tristan Wesseling did not answer immediately. Instead, he took a deep breath before pulling out a large but flexible information sheet from his white dress uniform and offering it up to the Larkinson Patriarch. Ves did not sense much of a threat from this printed sheet, so he grabbed it and quickly scanned the contents. His eyes widened. "These are detailed defensive plans of several major Gauger settlements!" The sheet contained a surprising amount of details. They not only showed a complete map of all of the defensive turrets, fortifications and bases of numerous key settlements, but also mentioned the amount and models of mechs tasked with defending the colonies. Not only that, the sheet also showed a hint of the designs of the prevailing mech models of the Sundered Phalanx. The document explicitly mentioned their weaknesses as well as how to best exploit them all as if its creator was afraid that the Larkinsons couldn't figure this out themselves. If that wasn't shocking enough, the extremely information-dense sheet also contained the full designs of most if not all of the expert mechs that were assigned to the defensive garrisons! The full details of their expert pilots were also mentioned! This critical sheet pretty much exposed almost all of the defensive layouts of the most prominent Gauger strongholds in the Magair Middle Zone! Anyone who made use of this information could launch an extremely effective attack on the most critical and most strategic assets of the Gauge Dynasty in the Red Ocean! Ves' expression grew a lot graver after taking in this information. "What is the meaning of this, Tristan?" "It's exactly what it looks like, Ves. We want you to pass this on to the Hexer colonists and encourage them to redirect their firepower towards the Gauger settlements that we have exposed with this leak. We are inviting, no, begging your Hexer friends to ruin the Gauge Dynasty's day. I can unequivocally promise that no forces hailing from the Vermeer Group, the Carnegie Group, the Vanguard Group and the Puffer Clan will ever move to come to the aid of the Gaugers. They are completely on their own as far as we are concerned." Ves was truly aback at this point, but Minister Shederin who had been listening in the background remained sharp. The old man urgently gave the patriarch a recommendation. "We will need time to verify the authenticity of this generous package of information that you have given to us." Ves eventually said as he carefully rolled up the flexible sheet. "We will require a bit of time before we are ready to hold another round of talks." "That is understandable." Tristan politely nodded as if he hadn't stabbed the Gaugers in the back. "Let me warn you that we have still withheld a certain amount of information. In addition, the content on the sheet that you are holding will become increasingly out of date as time passes by. While we have sources that can continue to supply you with information about ongoing developments, we are only willing to do so if you and the Hexers have agreed to act." "Understood. Please wait until we call you up again."