A Deal with the Royal Palace
The grand name I'd planned for it fell through, replaced by a fantasy-drenched label—or more accurately, just named after its looks. I stowed the prototype in the warehouse.
Stepping out of the cockpit, I spotted Mina waving casually and immediately pointed right at my nemesis.
"Mina, you tricked me, Mina!!"
"Your fault for letting your guard down against a merchant."
Mina's hand held a crystal orb recording the whole scene. I'd believed she had nothing on her when we first met—where the hell had she been hiding this? She replayed the footage, grinning coolly as she spoke.
"I bought the rights to your prototype's failure logs and initial blueprints. In exchange for splitting profits 60-40, I took the trademark and naming rights. You got greedy on the profit split and lost your nose for it, huh?"
Thinking back, she'd only mentioned it once at the start and never brought it up again. Total carelessness on my part. There was a contract later, too—signed when I was knee-deep in golem work. Noel had been there, but she hadn't flagged it...
"She probably figured the deal favored you overall, so the duke's lady didn't say a word."
True enough—she was bankrolling everything and giving me the lion's share of profits. On the big picture, it was a win for me. But the guilt of failing to honor the spirit of the space federation gnawed deep.
In the end, yeah, we'd been the idiots. I sighed and admitted, "Fine. My bad for dropping my guard with you."
My slightly icy tone made Mina saunter over. She hooked her arm through mine and flashed a smirk.
"To make up for pissing you off, I'll handle the annoying stuff. You just do what you love under my support."
"Can I switch business partners?"
"There's one way to make sure you can't. Wanna hear it?"
"What's that?"
I was half-curious, and she grinned wider before leaning in.
"An age-old noble tradition: marri—"
"Lord Aizen? Lady Mina?"
Whirling around, I saw Noel standing there with a smile. Mina playfully disentangled herself.
"Aw, busted."
"I don't know what you two were scheming, but pull any nonsense and I'll get mad."
A faint shadow crossed Noel's smile. Mina backed off smoothly.
"Can't mess with the duke's house. Anyway, enough joking—I've got good news."
"Good news?" I grumbled, still a bit prickly.
Mina whipped out more papers.
"Cyclops: sold four units."
"Wait, you had four more?" Noel blurted, surprised.
Mina shook her head, cueing me to explain.
"Pre-orders. Only one's real so far, but it's not like I couldn't make more."
"You designed it for mass production from the start, right, Aizen?"
I nodded at Mina's prompt.
"That was the royal palace's condition."
The whole reason I'd ended up at this academy in the first place.
Noel paused, then said, "Developing a rideable golem for palace deployment, wasn't it?"
"As expected from the duke's daughter—you knew."
Mina's smile faded.
"You sure that's okay? It's classified; only you know the details here."
"By now, anyone who needs to know probably does. With knight order malcontents acting so bold..."
Noel sighed, noting the kingdom wasn't fully unified. I chuckled dryly.
"I can just say I don't have any of that."
"You've been too active for that. Professors already know, so they've turned a blind eye plenty. If you think about it, the royals sent you here—easy research environment, no real support capacity—as their mistake."
Noel added a playful smirk.
"Speaking of, you brought that sealed royal letter, right? Isn't the contract in there?"
"You remember."
Thanks to Noel retrieving it from the golem wreckage, I'd cleared the inquiry unscathed. I'd been too focused on tests to notice, but the royal contract was inside. Without her, Professor Reina would've smacked me silly. The profs took it after.
"Wonder where it is now."
"Probably with the dean. Keeps randos from meddling."
Noel assured no mishaps—academy faculty had palace ties, likely confirmed it. Tampering with a royal seal was high treason or whatever. In a way, the palace had been considerate amid the overkill.
'Handing top-secret stuff to a nobody like me—what'd they expect?'
I was basically naked without my golems by academy arrival. Entrusting it outright made sense. Now I couldn't access it easily, but I remembered the terms fine.
"I hate politics."
So many tangled threads. This mess had blown up thanks to it.
Noel smiled wryly.
"Can't be helped. Like it or not, you're the disruptor, Lord Aizen—to old powers and rising ones alike."
"Like the Abatus count family. Palace eyed their research first, threw support at 'em."
First I'd heard of them, but Noel and Mina flowed right into it. Worry creased Noel's brow.
"Not a fan of theirs, personally..."
"Me neither—too uptight. Still, if they'd pushed hard, it could've been dicey."
Had I been in real hot water under the surface? As unease stirred, Mina smirked arrogantly.
"On the flip, a no-name rural noble popping up caught 'em off-guard. Figured they could flip you to their side if needed."
"Less guarded? The prince's faction clustered tight around you."
"...That's too flashy; basically means nothing."
Noel murmured quietly. What the hell made that "nothing" in Vespa politics?
"Anyway, kingdom's prepping for empire war, paranoid about traitors. They've trusted you but not fully—till now. You've changed the game completely."
"Results speak."
I glanced at the Cyclops, its mono-eye dark.
"Feed back this battle data, build one more for delivery—the palace deal's done."
"Mass production viable?"
I nodded at Noel's question. I'd racked my brain to make it so, despite the looks. Space federation soul demanded scalability.
"Time to get back to work?"
Mina grinned.
"Finalize with artisans and techs, but yeah—set up equipped facilities for ongoing production. You planned for that, right?"
"Obviously."
Everything documented. Standardize for techs, and done—as Mina said. Her crew had handled Cyclops armor and frames already. I'd train the fine details; framework set.
"Just facility R&D, tech transfer, blueprint cleanup, copies, sorting left."
"Still a lot," Noel noted, but this was cleanup. Core—golem built.
"What else you plotting, Aizen? You won't stop here."
"Yeah, what more here?"
"Obviously."
Noel blinked; Mina knew.
"That's the start. Tons more I wanna build."
Brainstorming endless. Priority: perfect Cyclops, full mass-prod.
"If more, gotta be armament."
Cyclops was unarmed now—awkward to say, but naked. Size and speed made it scary, but lacking. Palace wanted military punch...
"Yeah, gotta make that."
Ideas wouldn't quit; body itched to sketch prep...
-Boom!
"Pardon the intrusion!"
Door flew off. Noel and Mina darted behind me. Irked at the interruption, I eyed the entrance as a redheaded woman beamed.
"I'm Erica! Erica of House Phoenix!"
Self-intro without asking.
"Here to see Aizen, Cyclops creator!"
Eyes sparkling, she charged forward.