Surprisingly, they stayed that way even after hearing several of the biggest revelations in history, each one more absurd than the last.
As expected, for Xavier and Luca to be that familiar with biochas ant they had personal involvent with such builds.
Marshal Julian had been right in his assumption, but even when he had that gut feeling, it was impossible to feel stable once the fresh-faced child before him confird he had personally made all the chas under the hidden profile people had been trying to uncover.
But worse—far worse—was the discovery that all seventeen of them had been biochas.
They were obviously amazed, but the Empress was quick to strike at the heart of it, her voice rising with disbelief. "Have you been making these since childhood?!"
"Oh no, Your Majesty!" Luca flailed his hands, horrified at the thought. "I couldn’t have possibly done that. I only made them in the last two months!"
Two. Months.
The words dropped like teors, and every single listener staggered under the impact.
Uno, the silent operative whose ears were trained to endure all things, actually felt his eardrums bleed a little.
"Two months?!" The voices of the Emperor, the Empress, and the Marshal overlapped like a catastrophic choir.
They had a feeling he made them, but they thought he made them over ti and just decided to register the chas once his license was approved. But apparently not.
Xavier bit his lip so hard it nearly broke skin. Because, thankfully, Luca didn’t say the part he was clearly thinking.
If Xavier’s reading of those trembling golden eyes was correct, his little chipmunk probably wanted to ask if they were reacting like this because they thought he was too slow.
If he had voiced that, they would have had another dical ergency on top of the one still dangling in midair, wrapped up like a sack of potatoes. The eting would have ended right there.
By now, the rulers of the Empire silently agreed: they would need to erase all expectations from their minds, or else they’d collapse earlier than expected.
And so they listened.
Listened as Xavier and Luca casually ntioned how Sid had been upgraded again recently, now standing shoulder to shoulder with the Duke’s cha.
Listened and tried not to choke when they heard that Luca’s own cha was of the sa type. Which, for them, revealed far too much—that Luca was not only a genius chanic but also a genius pilot, one whose ability was either equal to or greater than anything they had ever recorded. Because who could have made such chas in such a short period of ti?
They barely held themselves together when they realized even the cadet pilots of DG, were sporting biochas and could likely fight toe to toe with the Empire’s best soldiers.
However, Xavier, ever composed, clearly had no interest in letting them leave with their spirits intact. His next words were delivered with the calm of a man announcing the weather.
"The biochas are only a small part of the upgrades we’ve made to House Kyros."
The silence that followed could have swallowed galaxies.
Because apparently, biochas took longer to make, and so, Luca had also decided to change the base cha models used by the troops of House Kyros.
The Marshal’s jaw moved like it wanted to dislocate itself. "What? Did he change the design for those, too?"
"Changed and built, Uncle," Xavier confird without even blinking.
"!!!"
The response was obviously expected, because it was one thing to say you had made a design for it, but to say that you had built it too was sothing else entirely.
"Wait! For that one, I had the entire cha manufacturing departnt of our house helping!" Luca blurted quickly, as if terrified they might think he had been single-handedly forging armies in his sleep.
"Luca, are you saying the other chanics are capable of making chas like you?"
"Yes, Your Majesty! We have fewer rejects now!" Luca said proudly, golden eyes bright, his excitent genuine because they had all worked so hard to get to this point.
Only, Xavier had to explain Luca’s definition of a "reject" and the type of training they had to go through to be able to reach the "acceptable" point.
And when he did, the people in front of them shook.
Not taphorically. Physically.
A personal quake.
Marshal Julian, for one, was absolutely convinced the ground had shifted beneath only him, as he gawked at the values Luca had casually dismissed. Those very sa values practically mirrored the cha he had been entrusted to safeguard.
"That’s the statistic of every acceptable cha," Xavier clarified with the calm of a man announcing rain. "Anything else is marked as a reject."
Emperor Xavian had to pat his chest, just to check if his heart was still in there and not splattered on the dical bay floor.
Because what were they seriously saying? That such chas were ant to be base models?
"By any chance, how many of these have already been made?" asked the Empress, who risked her blood pressure but figured it was necessary to know.
Everyone stared, trembling with disbelief, as Xavier turned to Luca for confirmation.
Luca nodded earnestly. "Your Majesty, we have a bit over one hundred units that have already finished their personal calibration."
"Hmm... Right now, everyone is busy preparing the components for the next batch before assembly begins. We discovered it’s much easier to do it like this, because changing into different components every day increases the chances for errors!"
Silence.
The kind of silence that rang louder than any alarm.
A dozen. At most, they had been expecting a dozen. Because unless House Kyros had secretly built its own planet-sized factory, how could they possibly be talking about one hundred chas of that caliber?
What were custom chas, if base models could blow them off the map?
Marshal Julian, still trying to breathe, knew one of these things would be enough to fend off an entire squadron. And yet, as soone who had piloted one, he knew the jump in demand for better piloting skills would also be massive. He felt it was his duty to ask the question.
"Would there be enough pilots from House Kyros capable of piloting such chas?"
The ruling couple leaned forward, eyes sharp with the sa question.
Marshal Julian explained, voice tight, "If it’s anything like the cha I piloted, the jump is massive. More so for those using biochas. But if that’s the case, then how many pilots could realistically manage it?"
But maybe he shouldn’t have asked.
Because the answer was worse.
"In truth, all of them, in ti," Xavier said, utterly unfazed.
"???"
"Since this started, we’ve been training the pilots non-stop, and the response has been greater than expected."
He continued with terrifying ease: "In fact, we have more pilots than chas because everyone has been working tirelessly to qualify for the new models."
And then, as though the world wasn’t already crumbling, Xavier dropped another boulder.
"There has also been a surge of breakthroughs, so pilots who began from the lower spiritual levels have already advanced to A-rank faster than expected..."
He trailed off when he realized that even breathing in the room had stopped.
"...What?"
"..."
"..."
Before Xavier and Luca, the four people who had been desperately holding themselves together finally broke.
What kind of alien language were they even hearing?
The biochas were already one thing. But now the Imperial Crown Prince was casually talking about things like pilot breakthroughs.
And then, as if it were just another fact of life, Xavier Theron Solaris had the gall to say, "Ah, apologies. Breakthroughs happen when a spiritual ability user cultivates enough to break into the next rank."
As though he hadn’t just upended centuries of history.
As though he hadn’t just trampled the line between myth and reality.
The Emperor’s eyes nearly bulged from his sockets. The Empress gripped her husband’s arm so tightly he nearly winced.
And then Xavier delivered the finishing blow.
"About that, I think Uncle would know a bit about it."
Luca even nodded in agreent, the picture of innocent sincerity.
The room swiveled.
Every gaze turned and locked onto Marshal Julian.
The two rulers stared like he had been hoarding the galaxy’s greatest secret under his coat. Even Uno looked at him, dark eyes gleaming as if this was the mont of truth.
Marshal Julian’s head snapped up, his voice cracking. "WAIT! What do you an, I know a bit about it?! Do I look like I know a bit about it?!"
Oh, but apparently, he did.
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