Chapter 1113: Rapidly Deflating
Ollie suddenly sat upright, looking as though he’d just received divine inspiration.
His eyes widened.
His mouth opened.
But Killian, who had since developed a highly sensitive warning radar whenever dangerous thoughts entered someone’s brain, reacted immediately.
Bonk!
"Ow!"
"Hey!"
The blonde clutched his head in outrage. There was definitely no force behind the act, but still, his hair antenna was smushed!
"Absolutely not," the eldest son of House Nox cut in.
The rejection arrived so quickly that Ollie hadn’t even opened his mouth yet.
"But I didn’t even say anything yet!"
"Don’t even think about it."
"Traditional pregnancy... somehow assuming that’s even possible in your case, might get you excused from the licensure exam, sure—"
The Chief of Staff paused.
"But you’d better believe there’s a very real chance you’d find yourself in a laboratory somewhere being asked a lot of very uncomfortable questions."
Ollie rubbed the spot where he’d been bonked and puffed out his cheeks.
"Meanie!"
The blonde pouted.
"You don’t know that! What if—"
Naturally, Ollie wanted to say that Kyle would never allow such a thing to happen.
Unfortunately, he never got the opportunity.
"What about you run along now?" Killian interrupted smoothly.
"Huh?"
"They’re probably looking for you."
The reminder landed with devastating effectiveness. One moment he was shining like the sun, and the next his expression dropped so fast it could’ve set a record.
"Oh."
His shoulders slumped.
Looking down, the blonde stared at his fiddling fingers.
"But they said I should brainstorm ideas I’m interested in..." he mumbled.
"And?"
"And I still don’t have anything that’s new but safe..."
The pout deepened as those cheeks puffed up once again.
"So how can I even think of going back?"
Surprisingly, the older Nox simply stood straighter and said, "Well, you already made a wish, didn’t you?"
"?"
Ollie looked up in surprise.
Honestly, Killian himself wasn’t sure what possessed him to say it.
Perhaps it was because he had spent the last few days following increasingly absurd murmurings that were proving far too accurate when it came to someone’s wishes.
...If only he could prove the connection between those experiences without raising concerns about his own mental stability.
Either way, the surprisingly comforting words still came out.
"I don’t know about you... But since this whole wishing thing came from Luca, then there has to be something to it."
He shrugged.
"Who knows?"
"Maybe you’ll end up with something even better."
The words were casual.
Almost offhand.
Yet the moment they left his mouth, the Chief of Staff immediately regretted it.
Because the blonde blob suddenly looked like he was about to cry.
"?!"
"Hey!"
The flustered official straightened in alarm.
"What’s wrong with you?!"
Ollie’s lower lip trembled.
"I-I just didn’t think Big Brother could say things like that!"
"...What?"
His younger brother’s permanent barnacle looked deeply moved.
"If even someone as pessimistic as you can say something like that, then..."
Ollie’s eyes became watery.
"Huhuhuhu!"
"???"
Killian Nox stared in horror.
The blonde, meanwhile, looked like he’d just received life-changing wisdom.
Then, before anyone could stop him, Ollie shot to his feet and thrust a fist dramatically into the air.
"That’s it!"
The mop looked completely recharged.
A far cry from the gloomy blonde who’d entered the room earlier.
"I’ll go back now!"
"Wait—"
"I’ll manifest it!"
"Manifest—"
"I’ll make it happen!"
And just like that—
The blonde ran off.
"..."
"..."
Killian stood there dumbfounded.
Then he became even more dumbfounded when Jax nodded approvingly from the bed.
"That’s the spirit!"
The redhead gave a thumbs-up.
"I swear if you say it enough times, it’ll come true!"
The room fell silent.
The young official, who had been left standing in the room as Ollie ran out as though he’d just experienced a eureka moment, looked at the supposed patient on the bed and thought to himself... Of course, because saying it three times would magically result in receiving twin strawberries in a bowl?!
Not because someone had to leave in the middle of the night to search for ultra-specific berries while questioning everything that led to such circumstances.
Not because someone had spent an embarrassing amount of time crouched near bushes while hearing suspiciously repeated requests in the back of his mind.
No.
Clearly, it was magic.
Absolutely.
Naturally.
The Chief of Staff stared at the ceiling.
Then at Jax.
Then back at the ceiling.
If wishing really worked like that...
If saying things enough times actually made them happen...
Then what would happen if he desperately wished for a damn massage or a few days off?
The thought crossed his mind briefly.
Only briefly.
After all, Killian still didn’t yet understand a very important truth.
That people really ought to be careful of what they wish for.
__
Meanwhile, just as one newly recharged blonde was skipping toward his favorite people with all the confidence of someone who had just discovered the power of manifestation, said favorite people were in the middle of a serious brainstorming session for a realistic solution.
Or at least one that wouldn’t immediately send the blonde running for the hills.
Unfortunately, the more they learned about the ever-growing list of things they could and couldn’t do, the more cornered they found themselves.
In the end, they were so thoroughly stumped that they sought out Master Quinn, who had returned specifically to explain the scale of the problem they were dealing with.
"He’ll probably be able to build a custom mecha faster than most licensed mechanics," Xavier said, drumming his fingers lightly against the table.
"But expecting him to do it within a single day as my wife did would be unfair."
The Imperial Crown Prince paused.
"On the other hand, the longer the process takes, the more time those parties would have to observe."
The room fell briefly silent.
Really.
Who would have imagined that this would become the discussion?
Building a custom mecha in a single day wasn’t something most mechanics could accomplish in a lifetime, much less reproduce consistently. Even masters who had spent literal centuries refining their craft couldn’t simply wake up and decide to assemble one from scratch before dinner.
Yet here they were.
Discussing it as though the supposed impossibility was actually an inconvenience.
Then again, Master Quinn figured that to their Young Lord, it really could be.
The young Kyros simply had the knack for making the impossible feel routine.
Worse, the youngest licensed mechanic in the Empire seemed fully convinced that another young cadet could eventually accomplish something similar.
Such a sweet yet horrific sentiment, and yet Luca Kyros absolutely believed it.
"Well, depending on the mecha, it should be possible," said the golden-eyed prodigy.
Then he looked toward his husband with complete sincerity.
"And depending on the technique used, I think my brother could really do it. He’s really progressed a lot!"
There wasn’t even the slightest hint of doubt in his voice.
Xavier immediately sighed in resignation because, in true Luca fashion, if even the dead could rise again, then how impossible was it really for mechanics to manufacture a mecha in a single day if his diligent wife truly set his heart to it?
But thankfully, for now, they were still in the realm of possibility.
"Sure."
The Prince leaned back slightly.
"If he continuously replenished his spiritual energy the entire time... But we don’t exactly want to broadcast that information, do we?"
"..."
Fair.
That was extremely fair.
"At the same time," Kyle cut in, pinching the bridge of his nose, "because the Masters spent all this time talking about the Empire’s younger mechanics being revolutionary, he can’t just build an existing model faster."
The adjutant sounded tired.
Deeply tired.
Perhaps because this had stopped feeling like a political problem several discussions ago.
Had it been someone else’s issue, Kyle would’ve been invested, sure, but not to the point of wanting to commit crimes out of sheer frustration.
However, the cadet in question happened to be his little star. His wife.
Which meant this entire situation now felt like a personal attack.
Unfortunately, he was an adult and would be tried as one, which meant he couldn’t exactly march out there and root out the problem himself.
"Not to mention," Kyle continued, "the Masters and practically every major faction are hoping to get a glimpse of something new."
No need to even mention the dumpster fire that was Star Net.
Had his already trembling mop seen just how much he was trending on Star Net, he would’ve probably decided to hibernate under a rock.
"..."
"..."
The younger Nox was terribly annoyed. After all, who was supposed to answer for his little star rapidly deflating from distress?
