Chapter 54: Surprised or Not
Scirocco had a very uncomfortable feeling, as if someone had tried his hand at the edge of his perception and waved past where he was about to see but could not. But this is not scientific, even if the NT's ability is unable to do it, and he decisively treated it as a delusion.
"Then Sir, as the biggest patron of TITANS, is there something you want to do by bypassing Brigadier Hymem and going directly to me?" Scirocco sat down across from Rhineford without condescension, "I have to declare it first, I am loyal to Brigadier Hymem and I will relay everything that happens here to him afterward."
"Ha ha, Major Scirocco is trusted by the Brigadier, and in my mind, it is the same to seek the Major as to seek the Brigadier." Rhineford picked up a stack of papers from his side and handed them to Scirocco, "You might want to look at this first."
Scirocco took the papers and began to look through them, the room passed several minutes in silence, "The Brigadier gave you directly what he asked for from Amuro Ray … an MS that can expand the possibilities of New Type? Am I going to be the guinea pig?"
"Don't joke, how can we be so wasteful?" Rhineford took out another document and handed it out, on it was a teenager's profile, "We've already found the guinea pig, both in terms of NT quality and pilot quality are impeccable. What we need is your talent as a top developer, of course, if you are willing to give advice in the field of New Type, I would welcome it to the fullest."
"Is he Captain Bidan's son? Shameless man." Scirocco sneered, "I have no problem with that as long as Brigadier Hymem agrees, helping important patrons is part of TITANS' duty."
"Major Scirocco, as long as you give your nod, I will explain it to the Brigadier. At least this time, we can go ahead of the Moon, ahead of Anaheim, ahead of Lingus." Rhineford relaxed after getting the promise, and his tone was much lighter, "By the way, I wonder if you have seen the latest news? Britannia rejected the Orb Union government-in-exile's application for political asylum."
"Although the old emperor is old, he is not stupid and will not go through this muddy water. Even if he is really stupid, Schneizel is not stupid." Scirocco put the information in his hand back on the low table in front of him, "Yamato is not stupid neither. He knows that if he stays any longer, he will not be able to protect his wife, so he runs away quite fast."
"But there is no place for them even though the earth is big, right?" Rhineford casually leaned back on the sofa, "Maybe the Federation's losers will finally get what they want this time? The last time Lacus was saved by Lingus, and the 'last last' time, they almost forced Princess Marina Ismail to commit suicide. The big shots can't afford to lose face so much."
"Can't they go to the sky?" Scirocco raised his eyebrows, "Prince Loran is a decent person, and not afraid of the Federation's losers. Do we still want to go to war with the monsters on the moon for the disgusting desires of the losers?"
"Ro… Prince Loran." Rhineford's body stiffened for a moment, "Yes, the Prince is a decent person, a gentle and kind person. Unlike the losers of the Federation, he might accept political asylum."
With Scirocco's keen intuition, it was immediately obvious that there was a big problem between Rhineford and Loran. But there was no need to say it, he just remembered this useful information silently.
"Is there anything else?" He deliberately acted as if he couldn't wait to leave, "Once again, I need to see Brigadier Hymem for a report on the content of the conversation just now."
"No problem, if it makes you comfortable." Rhineford watched Scirocco get up and suddenly called out to him as he was about to walk to the door, "Actually, Hymem is too old to do everything himself, as the Brigadier's right hand man, someone should take the initiative to carry more of the burden, right?"
Scirocco looked at him expressionlessly, did not reply, and left the room with big strides.
…
"Dr. Lingus, this Jegan is the latest achievement of you, right?" Bright pointed to Anaheim's latest catalog, which was part of the Moon side's goodwill, "But there is no price or configuration. May I ask what the benefits are if we buy it?"
The Londo Bell team's budget is pitifully small, and the previously promised trial machine, even if it is sold to them at cost, it is a considerable expense. Therefore, Captain Bright must personally take care of the procurement of MSs, and try not to spend any unnecessary money.
Captain Bright is the youngest colonel in the Federation, and is in charge of military and financial affairs, and occasionally has to take care of internal affairs. Ade thinks he is obviously less than thirty but has an old face of forty, most likely because of worrying too much.
"There are two different prices and configurations for Jegan." Ade took out another promotional material to show, "This is a brand new design that you have not seen. Spend less money, its configuration will be only equal to an RGM-79GMⅡ; spend more money, you can regard it as a half Gundam. There are a number of grades in between for you to choose freely. The body is also equipped with a number of universal external interfaces, and you can combinate it with dozens of different equipment. What's more, the difficulty of upgrading and modifying is extremely low. As long as you add money, the poor man's version will be immediately upgraded to the rich man's version, eliminating the cost of re-purchasing."
Ade had wanted to design this upgradeable, easy to modify, once and for all MS for a long time. The Gundams he designed before was just for accumulating experience. Even Inle, to put it bluntly, is just the result of a heap of patents and money. Of course, there are many technical highlights, but the bill is the most important role in its design. And this time, he successfully designed Jegan, which even had a better performance than the Jegan he remembered, which made him feel cheerful.
"Wonderful, wonderful." Bright obviously understood what it meant. He nodded repeatedly, "So, where can I buy it?"
"Sorry, this is not for sale at the moment." Ade put Jegan's pamphlet away silently, "After a period of time, we will consider opening the purchase to partners with a good reputation on a priority basis."
When the words came to this point, Bright understood and did not pursue the matter further.
Today is the last day of the visit, they have already set the schedule of cooperation in the first two days, and today's goal is to look ahead. In fact, the main thing is to advertise by Ade, telling Londo Bell that we have so many good things that can not be bought with money. By the way, let Bright again realize how poor they are, and he generated the idea to earn extra money by taking private work in the future.
As for if taking private work against military discipline? Of course, no one cares. If TITANS only receives money but did nothing, they won't have so many sponsors.
After lunch on Akama, Ade and his team will go back to the moon. They can probably even catch up with the dinner in the afternoon.
Amuro was still worried about him. Although Ade hated to process without a plan, this time there was really no choice for him.
Although Mu is quite easy-going, Ade still did not get acquainted with him in only two or three days.
And Uraki, at first he wanted to look for Graham's troubles because he crashed his V2, but in the end, they became good friends. In addition to Gundam, complaining about the Torrington base is also a common topic between them. Now when the time comes to part, the two are still a bit reluctant to leave.
"Dr. Lingus, there's something I'd like to trouble you with." On the occasion of parting, Bright came over with a big pile of stuff, "The Londo Bell team has a lot of fans of you, can you help to sign the poster?"
"No problem, this is also something I want to do for everyone." Ade took a closer look at the poster, "Wait, my poster? And there are several other non-repeat ones?!"
"Of course there are. They're from Anaheim, and their sales are very good in the army." Uraki took it for granted, "There are five regular editions and one limited edition. The limited edition is hard to find. Not to mention the posters, there's even - uh, there are all kinds of stuff online."
Ade signed on the posters with an overwhelmingly mixed feeling. He remembered that he seemed to have licensed his portrait rights to Anaheim, and he had some annual royalty income. But he had too many patents, copyrights, and so on, and had never looked at the details of each one of them. He didn't expect to have his own poster, and felt inexplicably ashamed.
On the way back, Ade looked at Uraki seriously in the cabin, "Kou, I hope you tell the truth. Besides the poster, what else is on the Internet?"
Uraki looked around and scratched his ears for a long time, but he could not beat Ade's eyes and finally whispered, "Doctor, you probably don't read manga, right? But do you know there is a manga type called MS Girl?"
"…I know." He has a very bad feeling. Very bad.
"The earliest is RX-78-2 Gundam's MS Girl figure became hot, and later, almost all MSs have corresponding MS Girls. Everyone knows that there are a lot of MSs are designed by you. So, doctor, you and these MS Girls… there are… many… "Uraki closed his eyes and shouted, "there are many r18 mangas about you and these MS girls."
Ade almost spurted out blood after hearing this.
"It's a very popular topic about the weak young designer and the MS Girls, but you have a good image in most of the mangas, doctor. I promise!" Uraki still closed his eyes, muttering to himself, "The vast majority are pure love mangas, but occasionally, there will be NTR mangas about ZAFT's MS Boy interfere in and-"
"Stop!" Ade held his chest tight and felt breathless, "Enough! Do not say more, I do not need to know more details."
The atmosphere suddenly became somewhat awkward and no one spoke afterwards.
Ghingham was afraid of further changes on the road, so he drove the ship at full speed, and soon arrived at the moon. After disembarking, Ade thanked Ghingham and sent Alice back to the hangar first, after which Uraki drove him home. He had planned to invite Uraki to dinner at home today, but he arrived home too early, and there was still a long time before dinner, so he gave up the plan.
Besides the need to report to Loran and Diana about the past few days, there was something else he needed to take care of. Cagalli applied for political asylum to the lunar government, and after Loran accepted it, she and her party ran away overnight from the cosmic port of Britannia, and arrived at the moon in the early hours of that day, but haven't been received by any officials so far.
The Loran couple is inconvenient to come out personally, so they hope Ade contacts them on behalf of the lunar government. The external announcement is that Minister Lingus will take full charge of the contact with Orb Union, discussing the introduction of technical personnel and other matters. Although Loran has a kind heart, he is after all responsible for the moon, and he has the consciousness of being the ruler. Ade feels that he has been more and more like a foreign minister.
By the way, I said I would thank Lacus, should I buy a gift? Ade hesitated for a while and finally decided to give up. He simply did not know what to buy, so verbal thanks would be ok.
At this point, there was not much traffic on the road, and the way was unobstructed. Almost home, Ade keenly aware of a person seems to come out of his home then hurriedly left in another direction? Uraki's vision is not as good as his, so Uraki did not see it.
By the time the car drove to the front of the house, the person had already gone far away. Looking from the person's back, he is a thin male, brown hair, 1.7-meter tall …Kira Yamato?
Nothing to panic about. He knows clearly about all kinds of Korean dramas. It must be a misunderstanding just like in these dramas. But somehow, his heart was beating fast, and he felt a little chest tightness.
After saying goodbye to Uraki, Ade opened the door and went in, there were clearly signs that someone had come into the living room. No, it should be signs that a guest is in the house. Nothing I should feel suspectable.
He looked at the living room for a moment, trying to reason out a conclusion that would be more favorable to him, when his bedroom door - now Lacus's - suddenly opened. Lacus came out of it and gave a surprised look when she saw him, "Why are you back so early today?"
What do you mean? What do you mean "so early"?!
At that moment, another person appeared at the door, "Lacus, what's wrong? Ah, Dr. Lingus, you're back. I'm so sorry to have come to disturb you without saying hello beforehand."
"… hey?" He looked at Cagalli's sudden appearance and felt his smart brain stuck all of a sudden, "Oh, hello …"
"Ade, I happen to have something to say." Lacus pulled him to the side while whispering in a voice that only them two could hear, "There are guests here, don't be dumb."
"But, you can't-"
"I texted you this morning." Lacus's voice sounded with a hint of joy, "Your phone is out of power?"
"Oh? Oh, yes, it is…"
"Go wash your face." The young girl pushed him into the bathroom and finally couldn't help but laugh happily, "Your face is as dark as Prince Loran's~"
