Ves enjoyed catching up with the developments of the clan. By reading about various proposals and developments that pertained to many different departments of his clan, he gained a much better understanding of where his people stood. There were hardly any mentions of setbacks and regressions. Many documents painted a rosy picture for his clan. Every department experienced growth in one form or another. From greater funding to access to better resources, hardly any part of the Larkinson Clan remained static. As much as Ves wanted to continue to sign off on documents or issue verbal orders on what must be done, he could not remain in his office all day. He refused to remain detached from the happenings of his own clan. Before he did anything else, he first decided to visit the extensive hospital built underneath the Cat Nest. This medical facility was much larger and more expansive than was strictly necessary. Many of the rooms remained empty and off-limits as the clan simply did not have as many injured clansmen to treat for the time being. That might change if the Larkinsons lost a major battle, but that had yet to happen. Right now, the Larkinson Clan only had a modest amount of sick and wounded people. Ves had come to check up on a single patient. "How is she?" Ves asked the resident doctor who was in charge of the relevant individual's treatment. "She is doing well, patriarch." The doctor replied. "Her wounds are severe, but none of them are insurmountable to heal. The injuries to the legs are the most serious, but her organs are mostly intact. Her highly protective combat armor along with her augmented resilience have done much to prevent her injuries from deteriorating right away when getting struck by transphasic attacks. The senior hospital directors working for Freewell Medical Services still know their craft and have done a marvelous job at keeping her stabilized under less-than-ideal conditions. All of these factors suggest that she will make a full recovery." Ves believed the woman. As a former citizen of the Life Research Association, she knew more about these matters than many other doctors! "That is great news. Can she receive visitors?" "It is not recommended, but it should be fine given her robust health." Once he knew it was okay to visit, Ves entered the recovery room and examined Nitaa's current state. His chief bodyguard was in a better condition than he expected. He expected her to look mangled and wrapped in lots of thick bandages, but the doctors had already addressed a lot of potentially serious injuries. Fe Nitaa was one of the earlier people that Ves recruited. This was because she was a Kinner. The former members of the Kinner Tribe had always remained a strange bunch in the clan. They inherited unusual notions of loyalty that made them absolutely reliable once they pledged their oaths to their new employers. Ves took a lot of reassurance in them. It was why he played favorites with the Battle Criers by allowing this odd mech legion to form the Nullifier Battalion. This was a fairly recent development, though. For all of the loyalty and commitment shown by the Kinners, Ves had neglected them for years. As the clan grew in strength and scope, Ves gained more confidence in the loyalty of his regular troops. There did not seem to be a need to put too much stock in the reliability of the Kinners as the Larkinson Network ensured that every clansmen was loyal by default. He knew better these days. Certain recent events had given him a much better appreciation of the Kinners within his clan. Separated from their tribe they may be, they had taken strong measures to ensure they could continue to practice their distinct cultural customs even if they were hundreds of thousands of light-years away from the third-rate state they once called home! Nitaa slowly opened up her eyes. Her eyes remained strong and alert as ever even when she was confined to her bed. "Sir…" "You did a good job, Nitaa." Ves shut her up by placing his hand on her strong shoulder. "I regret that you had to be put in a vanguard position in the first place. I also should have invested in better combat gear from the start." "You do not have to apologize for that, sir…" Ves did not know how much it helped, but he tried to soften the blow by not casting any blame. His honor guards had made the most out of an awful situation as far as he was concerned. "How many… have fallen?" "Five of your colleagues have perished while several more have sustained serious injuries. The good news is that the latter should be able to get back up sooner or later. This also goes for you, Nitaa." The woman minutely nodded. "Understood. The honor guards will need to draw from their pool of reservists. Elite infantry soldiers are not difficult to come by, so your security detail should never be compromised." "Our clan should have taken our guards and infantry units more seriously a lot sooner." Ves sighed. "While I cannot spare much personal attention to you all, I am not short on funding. I will make sure to increase the budgets and set more ambitious goals for the relevant units. Mechs may be the bread and butter for our clan, but our infantry must never fall too far behind." That put a smile on his head bodyguard's expression. "We shall be able to protect you much more effectively if that is the case." "That is not the extent of what I am offering to my most important guards. Starting with you, I will provide every honor guard with a companion spirit if possible." That truly startled her! Her tall body shifted on the bed. "We do not require any gifts. There is no need for you to go through such effort to form a precious companion spirit in my head." As his bodyguard who stuck with him in many different settings, Nitaa undoubtedly learned a lot of different secrets. She practically knew him better than Gloriana due to her constant shadowing! Still, much of the information that she learned was based on false or biased sources. She still lacked a thorough understanding of companion spirits if she thought that the cost was so great. Ves had other reasons to hold back the propagation of companion spirits. He did not want to get swamped by tedious work that was not directly related to mech design. He had already tasked the T Institute to work on a means of mass-producing special fruits that could plant companion spirit seeds inside everyone's inner self. This project was far from finished, however. This left Ves with the option to personal install companion spirits inside the heads of a relatively small and controllable group of individuals. It just so happened that the shock to the honor guards came at a good time. The offer to supply them with companion spirits did not sound sketchy at all after a serious incident. Right now, the act of implanting a companion spirit in a human with weak spirituality was highly troublesome. Ves was banking on another possible research project under the T Institute that could resolve this particular issue, but that was a matter for the future. He first swept the body of his new patient for anything negative or harmful. Of course, the doctors had been thorough enough to treat all manner of minor ailments. Ves just wanted to be sure that nothing could mess up the companion spirit creation process. He smiled at her. "Alright, everything seems fine, so let us proceed with the design stage. You've seen my companion spirit and that of others many times. Each one is unique. It all depends on the ingredients I use and the conceptual design I use. Each of them can grow over time so that they can adapt to your needs, so don't worry about whether your spirit is weak in the beginning. Sharpie for example synergizes so well with Ketis' swordsmanship that the combination of both has produced incredible power. It will be difficult for you to replicate those circumstances." "I am aware." Nitaa wearily said. "I have attended the swordsmanship classes organized by the Heavensworders in the past. I have discovered that I do not have the talent for it and that my foundation is already incompatible with this discipline." "That's a shame." Ves sighed. "I think it would be better if you can train in the marksmanship equivalent of traditional swordsmanship, but if any of it even exists, I haven't found it yet. Let's stop worrying about enhancing your direct combat power and look towards synergies instead. What do you think you are lacking in and what abilities would you like to obtain? Try not to ask for anything too extravagant because spirits cannot easily affect the material dimensions." As his chief bodyguard, Nitaa had witnessed many different companion spirits. She often fantasized about gaining her own one after seeing the likes of Blinky and Alexandria. "I have… an idea." She said as she became more animated despite her injured state. "I do not need a boost in combat power. Your gear and my skill can take care of that. I need to detect or foresee potential threats that cannot be discovered through ordinary means. You will meet many powerful people in the future and not all of them have good intentions in mind. If you can make a companion spirit for me that can help us obtain advance warning, we can avoid dangers such as what we experienced yesterday." "That… is a good idea." Ves admitted. "Let me think for a moment. You have an extraordinary ability, right? Since your nose has always been so sensitive, let me see if we can crank that up. I think it will become especially helpful when those cultist bastards finally manage to sneak into the Red Ocean in greater numbers. They have always been good at hiding themselves and they'll be able to slip past the strict security checks of the Big Two sooner or later." 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎 One of the main reasons he left the old galaxy with so much enthusiasm was because he wanted to get rid of the entanglement of the Five Scrolls Compact. Unfortunately, he knew in his heart that this was only a temporary solution. Though he managed to buy a lot of valuable time in which he used to propel his Larkinson Clan into the big leagues, the chances of bumping into hidden Compact cultists became increasingly greater. Ves needed to prepare a lot of countermeasures in order to avoid their pursuit! Sticking to a mobile fleet that could move to distant and highly obscure places helped a lot, but he could not avoid the necessity of interacting with human society. He already had an appointment to attend an important conference organized by the Survivalist Faction, for example. Ves and Nitaa exchanged a few ideas and slowly formulated a concept that fit well with Nitaa's personality and special talent. The projected sketch displayed a bloodhound. She was dark red in color and resembled a scent hound in shape and proportions. This was a deliberate design choice as the dog was all about detecting danger, possibly by scent. Naturally, Ves did not expect this companion spirit to perceive material scents, but rather more esoteric ones. In order to realize and empower the detection capabilities of this special hound, he needed to make it out of suitable resources. "Aside from relying on my own spiritual energy, I should also make use of ingredients taken from the Solemn Guardian and Ylvaine." Ves decided. "The former doesn't sound very useful at first, but he fits extremely well with your character and will possibly allow you to attune yourself to me even better. The latter can gather future information. He should be able to provide your hound with the key ability she needs to perceive threats that aren't obvious on the surface." His bodyguard had no expertise in this matter and straightforwardly agreed to Ves' proposal. Ves grinned. "Great! I will make your companion spirit right away. You'll be able to acclimatize with it as you recover from your injuries."