The Mech Touch

Aurelia Wodin-Larkinson was the happiest and luckiest little girl on Davute.

It wasn't only her that felt this way. Her parents regularly reinforced this picture to her as they hugged her and kissed her every day.

Her other playmates conveyed this thought as well. When they saw how well Ves and Gloriana treated their little daughter, they grew jealous and wondered why they didn't have the fortune of being born into the 'royal family' of the Larkinson Clan!

There was not much Aurelia could do about that. She even had to push a few little boys and girls away from her because they grew too jealous of her fortune.

How was it her fault that she had such a fantastic mom and dad?!

Fortunately for Aurelia, Gloriana paid great care in choosing her friends and playmates. Many of them were children of high-status people who had little reason to grow jealous at the unofficial 'princess' of the Larkinson Clan.

Among the many little friends she made, she only considered one of them to be her closest life-and-death companion.

"Clixie!"

"Miaow~"

The little girl giggled as the calico cat padded up to her and pressed her furry head forward.

A strong bond of love and warmth had already formed between them a long time ago. Aurelia never questioned how this could come into being. To her, developing such a strong bond was as natural as breathing.

The spiritual bond not only allowed Aurelia to share a portion of her thoughts and emotions to her cat friend, but also enabled her to be aware of Clixie's location at all times.

The Rubarthan Sentinel Cat was never too far away from her, though. Clixie took on her protective duties seriously and rarely wandered off, unlike Lucky.

"Hihihihi!"

Aurelia giggled as she became drowned by fur. Now that Gloriana had essentially discarded Clixie, the cat became determined to never encourage the daughter to do the same!

Fortunately, the strong bond between them gave Clixie a lot of assurances that Aurelia would not follow in her mother's footsteps. Their mutual love and trust was both genuine and strong.

"Chase, Clixie, Chase!"

One of their favorite games was letting Clixie chase after stuff. Instead of throwing out a toy ball or other convenient object, Aurelia ejected an even better target.

Mana!

As soon as the small but fluffy white translucent kitten emerged from Aurelia's head, the companion spirit immediately flew away!

After experiencing a substantial amount of growth, Mana was no longer as small and weak as before. She no longer needed to sleep most of the time and possessed more than enough energy to manifest outside for longer periods of time.

Mew mew mew!

"Miaow miaow!"

Mana's flight speed wasn't all that impressive compared to the older and more mature spiritual cats, but she was still fast enough to give Clixie a substantial workout.

Aurelia giggled and clapped as her other self led Clixie on an exciting chase!

Since they were sitting in the expansive backyard of the Royal Mansion, there were plenty of benches, bushes, trees and other interesting obstacles to give the Rubarthan Sentinel Cat a substantial workout.

Clixie displayed a remarkable degree of agility and reaction speed as she skillfully navigated the familiar terrain.

However, she couldn't quite catch up to the vigorous spiritual kitten who was able to use her intangible nature to her advantage by phasing right through anything in her way.

Mew mew mew~!

Mana even had time to look back and tease her pursuer!

"MIAOW!"

Clixie's patience only extended up to a point. Now that Mana had the temerity to mock her, the older cat began to take out the big guns!

Clixie's body abruptly shone in gold before she made a powerful leap that rapidly closed the distance between the two. Mana became so shocked that she attempted to juke to the side.

It was a pity that it was too late!

MEW!

Clixie finally managed to trap Mana in her paws!

As the Rubarthan Sentinel Cat landed back on the ground, she lowered her body and began to give Mana a completely unnecessary bath.

Mew! Mew! Mew!

"Clixie, stop it! Your tongue feels so funny!"

"Miaow miaow~"

The relationship between Aurelia and her cat was quite odd. Though Clixie saw Aurelia as a friend as well as a protection target, the furry animal completely treated Mana as her own kitten!

It didn't matter that they were two substantially different life forms. To Clixie, a cat was a cat. Her developing spiritual power easily enabled her to touch and interact with spiritual entities.

As Aurelia continued to play and cuddle with Clixie, she suddenly stopped and turned her head.

She could already sense the approach of her parents from afar!

Just as with Clixie, Aurelia had already formed spiritual bonds with her mom and dad as well.

"Mama! Papa!"

Lucky floated in first. The gem cat flew to Aurelia's side and gently brushed his side against her leg before closing in on Clixie and Mana.

"Meow meow."

"Miaow."

Mew! Mew!

As the cats all kept each other company, Ves and Gloriana strode into the idyllic yard with an extra passenger in their midst.

Gloriana held a baby in her arms. Her second daughter was already a few months old at this time and already bore a small tuft of red hair on her delicate head.

"Waaaaa!"

As soon as they came closer, the youngest daughter happily reached out to her big sister!

Despite her extremely young age, the tiny baby was already able to recognize Aurelia from a distance. The new but deepening spiritual bond between the two helped a lot with that. Both daughters of Ves and Gloriana had already developed a high degree of trust and dependency on these bonds.

As Gloriana settled down on a chair, Aurelia walked up and climbed on her mother's lap.

"Andraste."

"Mwaaa?"

"Andraste!"

"Aaaa!"

Their mother happily watched on as Aurelia planted a gentle kiss on Andraste's forehead before she attempted to embrace her younger sister.

Upon their second child's birth, Ves and Gloriana had agreed to call her Andraste.

They considered many different names before this point. Since their second-born daughter received a package that was geared towards growing designer babies into future mech pilots, soldiers or athletes, Ves initially set his mind on calling his newest baby Victoria.

Though the name was fairly common and frequently used throughout human space, Ves did not feel too bothered by that. There may be a huge number of people who carried the same name, but he was confident that Victoria Larkinson would eventually be able to make enough accomplishments to make herself stand out from her namesakes!

Unfortunately, Gloriana completely resisted his initial suggestion back when she was still pregnant.

"No! Absolutely not! Our strong and legendary daughter deserves to carry a more imposing name!"

"What's wrong with Victoria? This is a great name for a future winner!"

Gloriana looked at Ves as if he was stupid. "Our new baby deserves a more sophisticated name than that. I will not have her bear a name that only an uncreative parent could think of. It's too lazy!"

"Then what do you suggest, honey?" Ves asked with a frown.

"How about Artemisia?"

"No. That name is a bit too complicated. It's uncommon, I will grant you that, but I can't imagine giving our daughter such an unwieldy name."

"If you aren't satisfied with Artemesia, then what of Morrigan?"

"That's a villain's name, Gloriana. Do you want our daughter to grow up into a mass murderer who would not hesitate to sacrifice the lives of millions of innocent civilians in order to fuel her own lust for power? Because that is exactly what you get if you stick her with such a loaded name."

Gloriana looked even more stupefied at her husband. "That is the most idiodic reason to reject a name that I have ever heard! Morrigan is not an evil name! It is a dignified name that suitable for a future queen on the battlefield!"

"Let us consider other alternatives."

They entertained a lot of options before they eventually settled on Gloriana's latest suggestion.

"No more indecisiveness! We will settle for Andraste or we will settle for my initial choice!"

Though Ves was not entirely comfortable with the mythological allusions of this particular name, he was quite charmed by this suggestion.

Andraste was a relatively sophisticated name while also being fairly short and succinct. What was even better was that it was highly uncommon in human society, which made it easier for their second daughter to make a name for herself.

Of course, these considerations were so far in the future. For now, Andraste Wodin-Larkinson was just a cute red-headed baby that already showed a hint of accelerated physical development.

As a designer baby that had been derived from Withshaw & Seneca's Formula K-356666-EKT, Andraste was born as a remarkably healthy baby from the start.

Her body cells and her bones were not only supple and pliable, but also happened to be tougher and easier to regenerate.

As the initial months passed by, Andraste drank more nutrient solution and grew a little faster than Aurelia when she was younger.

Of course, Andraste's growth deviated quite significantly from the trajectory calculated by the biotech experts working for Withshaw & Seneca.

This was due to the 'upgrades' that numerous entities bestowed upon Andraste back when she was an unborn baby.

Ves had enhanced her tiny spirituality in advance and implanted her spirit with a companion spirit seed.

The Superior Mother had descended and transformed her 'granddaughter' so that Andraste was able to absorb spiritual energy to fuel her body's growth in various aspects.

Gaia had also made an appearance in order to shower the lucky baby with an extra life blessing.

It took quite a bit of effort for Ves to get Gaia to help. The unfathomably powerful design spirit did not exactly agree to be at the Larkinson Clan's beck and call.

Ves actually had to make a concession to his own design spirit before Gaia deigned to provide her blessing!

It was worth it though as Gaia's beneficial influence not only optimized Andraste's growth, but also bolstered the baby's physical health beyond what the geneticists and other medical experts of Witshaw & Yeneca could accomplish.

All of this ensured that Andraste became one of the healthiest and most resilient baby girls of her age!

Ves could even drop Andraste to the ground and attempt to bounce her body like an organic basketball without causing too much harm to his baby's body! That was how absurd her physical state had grown!

Of course, he would never do such a thing to his precious daughter. He had only ever carried her with the gentlest embrace that he could manage.

"Whaaaaa!"

As little Andraste thoroughly enjoyed the pampering from her older sister and her mother, Ves felt an intense feeling of satisfaction.

The only concern he held for his daughter was whether she would be able to develop the right genetic aptitude to be able to interface with a mech.

She was literally born for this purpose. If it turned out that she was as talentless in this aspect as Ves, then that would be such a crushing disappointment that it would be difficult to console her after learning the truth!

Could he do something about this? Was there a way for him to develop a method to ensure his daughter would be able to choose this option if she really wanted to pilot mechs in the future?

As much as he had broken many rules and defied many impossibilities in the past, he had no confidence in his ability to overcome this particular issue.

That was because genetic aptitude was not a spiritual phenomenon, but a purely biological phenomenon. The brains of humans simply had to be wired in a very specific way that did not occur too often.

Though Andraste had better chances of developing a good genetic aptitude than normal due to her Larkinson bloodline and her designer baby genes, objectively the chances were greater that she would end up as a norm like the vast majority of people.

Ves didn't want to rely on hope to see whether Andraste would be able to become a mech pilot or not. He had to find another solution, one that could guarantee his desired outcome!

"Where can I find this solution, though?"

That was a good question.