The Mech Touch novel Chapter 4014

Chapter 4014 Negotiation Strategies

With all of the excitement triggered by Helena's birth, it took a bit of time before Ves turned his attention back to his more immediate priorities.

He was scheduled to create a new companion spirit for Jovy Armalon quite soon.

He needed to get to work on his many design projects.

He also had to convince the Aduc Family to accept his terms and pass on the secret for developing spiritual potential!

While Ves prepared for his next meeting with Matriarch Erexi Aduc, his wife confronted him about his sister.

"Ves! Why didn't you introduce me to your sister?!"

"I wanted to talk to her first." He replied. "No offense, Gloriana, but I don't think my sister needs to hear your notions about gods." _{fɾēewebnσveℓ.com}

"What do you mean by that?! She's the daughter of the Superior Mother! She is a born proto-god! In fact, with how powerful she appears to be, she is already a goddess in truth! She's the best sister-in-law that I could have!"

Ves wanted to palm his face. This was exactly the kind of talk that he wanted to keep away from Helena!

Gloriana smirked at him. "Fortunately, I already introduced myself to Helena, no thanks to you. There are so many Valkyrie mechs in our fleet that her glow is everywhere. We already had a little chat, though I didn't get a hold of her for long."

"What? You talked to her already?"

He shouldn't be surprised at this. Helena could reach out to anyone close to the Valkyrie mechs.

Usually, she shouldn't have any reason to make contact with ordinary people, but Gloriana's was different.

As her brother's wife, Helena had many reasons to pay extra attention to Gloriana!

What was worse was that Gloriana's fanatical devotion to hexism and the Superior Mother would undoubtedly extend towards Helena!

He knew better than to persuade his wife to stop worshiping Helena as a goddess. Gloriana couldn't be persuaded when it came to matters of faith and the fact that Helena was powerful enough to moonlight as a deity did not help matters either!

He instead approached his daughter and picked her up in his arms.

His baby girl had been playing with a big plushy tiger before her father lifted her up. She turned and gazed at him in confusion.

"Papa…?"

"I have great news for you. You've got a new aunt, Aurelia. She's family!"

"Aunt?"

"That is what you call the sister of papa or mama. She's family, just like you and me. When she shows up, she won't be present in her physical body. She will come in a form that is similar to that of Mana and Blinky."

Mew!

As soon as Ves called her name, Mana popped out of Aurelia's head and cutely floated in the air. The spiritual kitten radiated a sense of pure and warm energy that reminded Ves of a mix between Lufa and the Golden Cat.

"When you meet your aunt in the future, don't mistake her as a god. She's still human like you and I. She's just a bit special. Don't listen to your mother when she claims that your aunt is a goddess. There are no gods in our family. We are just a perfectly normal human family, do you get that, Aurelia?"

His daughter had already stopped paying attention to him. She had gone back to playing with her plushy tiger!

"...I'll wait until you've grown a bit older."

Once Ves said goodbye to his wife and daughter, he met up with Minister Shederin in his office.

The foreign minister had taken charge of the negotiations after Ves dealt with all of the Helena business. From what he heard, the Aduc Family hadn't budged at all when it came to the most serious and controversial demand of the Larkinson Clan.

"What you are asking is nothing less than betrayal." Shederin told Ves once they both settled in the office. "You are essentially asking the Aduc Family to violate its morals, its traditions and its honor for material gain. Do you see why this sounds like a devil's deal?"

"There's no point in clinging to useless traditions." Ves retorted. "Besides, morals and honor do not necessarily bring the Aduc Family back to its former height. Centuries have passed since they were exiled from the Terran Confederation. What have they done since then? They devolved into second-raters and never made much progress in getting back! If I was in their position, then I would have reached the pinnacle of the terraforming industry by now! These guys are so passive and unwilling to break from their routine that they won't amount to anything if they maintain this attitude."

Ves slowly nodded. "I think that can work, but a hard sell can easily backfire. What if the Aducs dig in and remain stubborn?"

"Then we need to resort to other ploys." The old man replied. "To be more precise, we need to increase the heat and add more pressure to them. One of the biggest reasons why the Aducs do not feel much pressure to accept our deal is because their Old Lady is still in decent shape. While she has already started to show signs of deterioration, trees are highly resilient organisms by nature, especially when the Aducs take good care of her. It will take a couple of decades to a century before their tree reaches the point of no return."

"Are you suggesting that we push the Old Lady to this point in advance, minister?"

"That is correct, sir. It sounds ruthless, and it is not an ideal way to start a friendship with the Aduc Family, but as long as we can reverse the Old Lady's malaise and make her stronger and healthier than ever, then the recency bias and the contrast effect will help with clearing the foul air. However, the premise of making this work is if we are the only party that is capable of healing the Old Lady. If we are not the sole saviors that the Aducs can turn to, then we will be shooting ourselves in the foot."

Ves fell into thought. The plan that Shederin had introduced to him sounded like a fast but risky way to resolve the current impasse.

It shouldn't be too difficult to sabotage the Old Lady. The Aducs may have implemented a lot of security measures in their Green Sanctum, and they might be familiar enough with spiritual engineering to stop any sneaky spiritual intruders, but Ves did not get stumped by these obstacles.

Just recently, Helena showed off her ability to project her death energy at a huge distance with impressive accuracy!

As long as she controlled her power output, it should be possible for her or another skilled wielder of a spiritual firearm to sabotage the Old Lady despite the fact that she was rooted in the middle of the Aduc Family's flagship!

Ves rubbed his smooth-shaven chin. "I can take care of the tree if we need to encourage the Aducs to make a quick decision, but I'm not sure whether we should resort to such an extreme solution."

"Are you having second thoughts?" Shederin raised his eyebrow.

"I get why you told me that the Aduc Family are not in our camp yet, but I can't help but treat them like this. It is one thing to encourage them into making a decision that we believe will ultimately benefit them. It is another thing to force them into making a decision in our favor by relying on coercion, blackmail and extortion. Do we really need to tarnish our honor to such an extent in order to achieve a favorable result?"

Minister Shederin gazed steadily at Ves. "You have no problem in encouraging the Aducs to do the same. What if I tell you that as long as you sabotage the Old Lady, I can close a deal with the Aduc Family within 24 hours? You do not even need to step forward yourself. I can be the 'villain' who will exert all of the pressure and attract their animosity. You can come in after we have made an agreement and personally bring their Old Lady back from the brink of destruction."

"Are you serious?!"

"I have already grasped the mentality and the rhythm of the Aduc Family." The diplomat confidently smiled. "Just because they are stubborn doesn't mean they are unassailable. We only need to make a single opening to overcome their defenses."

"If that's the case, then wait for my news! I will make sure their stupid tree will start to rot within a couple of days!"