Even with the magic-boosted air circulation, the scent of red-hot metal and pouring oil and grease always hit Galahad every time he walked around the buzzing workshop. At the moment, he stood at the entrance of the primary assembly chamber, deep beneath the mountains, lit up brightly, making sure that it didn''t matter if it was night or day down here.

    The workers assigned to him moved like clockwork, lifting and emptying crates of arriving materials, welding support joints, and following his schematics to the letter without needing constant supervision. This was to be expected, as they were all skilled workers who had gained ample experience by building the very first mech in Avalon.

    By the end of the first week, in the center of the room stood the skeleton of his own design, for now, supported by multiple cranes and railings. If the workflow didn''t change, soon enough, it could stand and walk on its own. Right now, he was here, watching as the last two of the six legs were being mounted on the main hip ring and the thorax was being riveted into place. Soon, they would use the present machinery to crank it so they could start moving the legs and give it its first test of motion.

    “Lord Galahad,” one of the engineers called from below, her voice rough from shouting over the machinery''s noise all day long. As Galahad met with everyone personally before starting, he immediately recalled that her name was Mira, one of the few female engineers of Avalon, now the leading figure under his command. "We''re ready to anchor the second rotation ring, but your schematic for the load distribution is... well, we went over it twice, but it seems off.”

    "Let me see!"

    Galahad didn’t hesitate, taking the stairs two at a time as he wove between workers, ducked under power arms and enhanced cranes, and reached the marked platform to take a look for himself. He glanced at the diagram she held in her hand, comparing it to his memories. They were right... The first anchor point would overload the stabilizers during stride pivots. He even found out why, after looking at the material reports, he realized that not every meld came out identical, having, even if a marginal but still different thickness, something that was inevitable to happen.

    “I see it. Not a big issue; just shift the anchor mounts inward by three millimeters and reinforce the left tibial servo with a second bracket,” he said quickly, finding the solution to the minor issue they had run into. “That’ll let it redistribute during rotation. If the control delay is still too sharp, we’ll modify the oscillation later. I guess there will be more unexpected changes when we start the walking tests...”

    "Understood!" Mira nodded at once, following his words with her eyes, not only hearing but understanding his instructions before she barked at her team. “You heard him! Three millimeters in, bracket up!” As her crew began moving, she nodded at Galahad, a bit of wonder in her eyes, watching the child, who was the smallest amongst everyone present, yet still noticeable from everywhere. “I worked under the Sovereign and Lady Sasha... It felt just the same.”

    "Oh..." He blushed, feeling a bit self-conscious all of a sudden, “Is... is that good...? I guess...”

    "It is." Mira smiled, suddenly remembering that Galahad was still the youngest son of her Sovereign.

    And yet, he was the most like him, at least as far as Mira was concerned. They were building something new, and Galahad was hands-on with it, leading from the front, just like how the Sovereign was when Avalon got built, barely even older than Galahad was now. To be present at both generations'' first works... she felt lucky. Not to mention, she was there when the first humanoid mech was built, and now she will be there when the first non-human variant takes its first steps.

    Looking at the more beast-inspired, six-legged command walker with a heavily reinforced spine and low profile, she could tell that Galahad was maybe inspired by the same monsters the Avalonian Knights were fighting against every winter. Glancing at the plans in her hands, the walker''s main strength would be its heavy anti-magic disturbance arrays, six of them in total, more than any mech ever built. They were being etched by Galahad himself, taking care to make it perfect. When he finishes, they would be attached to retractable pylons that the machine could deploy once the walker reached the designated position. In theory, it could create an actual disturbance field, which could be a great asset, something that, if working, would also be used in building the new fortress behind the Gods'' Formation.

    "I''ll take a look at the rest of the joints, too." Galahad suddenly said, walking around the machine, Mira following him closely.

    “I will do that, of course. You don’t have to be down here every minute,” she exclaimed, knowing Galahad was the one responsible for applying the formations as his hand and mind were like a printing machine, never making any mistakes. “I don''t want this to throw us off schedule.”

    “I’m not worried about that,” Galahad answered. “Plus," He smiled faintly," We are also ahead of schedule, even with the changes I put in after we began.”

    Since his siblings'' experience, the retelling of the monsters, he has implemented multiple changes to his walker. While there will be other Knights to fight the beasts, they will need one who can be more than a brawler. If they have a base in the air with their airship, they will have one that walks with the regular army. The soldiers may be able to cancel the spells of smaller variants, but they still need protection.

    Three hours later, the last leg had been mounted, and all the others had been checked and rechecked, and they were ready to begin testing the joint tension. Dozens of eyes followed Galahad as he stood beneath the frame, inspecting each mounting bracket one by one for the last time. Then, after only a minute or so, when the test began and the cranks began moving the suspended mech''s six legs, he raised a hand, signaling to stop, immediately bringing the whole operation to a halt.

    "What is it?" Mira asked, being the first to speak up. She couldn''t tell what went wrong, but she and none of the others doubted Galahad at that moment.

    "Something sounded off," he muttered, closing his eyes, replaying the scene in his mind, trying to find the source of the discrepancy his mind noticed. "It was a vibration issue in the sub-spinal rod." After finding it, he explained, opening one eye, "There is too much strain in the front left leg’s railing, and the alloy we used can''t take it. It is not an issue now, but I guess, in a year or less, it will start cracking and cause issues... We will need to replace it with a sturdier one. On all of the legs."

    “Damn it... That will set us back with a week or so...” Mira grunted, biting her lip. "Did we use sub-par materials?"

    "No, it wasn''t your fault." He sighed, already knowing the source of the issue. "It was my oversight. I had calculated the tolerance for a perfectly even step-by-step distribution, but I hadn’t accounted for torque bias when turning under speed."

    "Oh." Mira blinked her eyes, suddenly finding herself smiling, "Well... even with a perfect memory, humans can still make errors, huh?"

    "I will fix it," he answered without looking up, but even his ears went red at that moment. "Everyone can take lunch early! I need to revise the midline compensator anyway..."

    They did it without further teasing, knowing that the youngest son may even take it too seriously, and who would want to hurt the feelings of their Sovereign''s son? Not anyone amongst them, that was for sure. They watched as he spent the following lunch break alone, seated cross-legged under the walker, scribbling furiously onto his own blueprint, muttering under his breath. By the time everyone returned, he had a revised version ready, just as Mira peered over his shoulder and gave a low whistle.

    "I can''t even calculate the first half without filling a full-sized paper first... I feel envious of your gift, Lord Galahad."

    "Don''t; sometimes, it can be hard living with it..." he answered with a soft sigh. "Anyway, I have memorized the stress curves for single-side rotation and then extrapolated the strain jump based on the torque delay.”

    "..." She looked at him without saying anything and only listened to his rapid explanation, which continued on for ten minutes. “You really are his son.”

    "..." Stopping, Galahad once again felt his face blushing and burning up. Looking away, he got really nervous as a group of engineers surrounded him, nodding their heads, feeling the same way as Mira. "Let''s... let''s just keep working..."

    Followed by a unison of chuckles, people began dispersing, continuing to work on the massive walker. By the end of the day, even with the issues they found, they had finished all the testing and were ready to produce the replacement parts, so they would be prepared to continue from where they had left off. Looking at it before heading home to rest, the walker looked like some giant metal beetle now, sleeping under the heavy scaffolding.

    As the workers were leaving, Galahad was still busy, climbing the scaffolding to the primary viewing platform. From there, he could see nearly the whole structure, and his mind could compare it to the wooden prototypes he had made with his father. He could envision where it would be filled with compartments and ports later, where the modular arrays would one day host the anti-magic pylons, and where he would install the defense turrets and stabilizers for the main gun.

    Right now, the command bridge, the heart of the walker, was nothing more than a hollow steel rib cage, and it had yet to be ready to house the monster cores he would need to operate it all... But one day, it would be his machine. This would also mean he would have a mech for himself first of his siblings...

    “You gonna sleep here again?” A voice asked, interrupting his thoughts, coming from behind him, making him turn around in a hurry.

    ...

    ....

    .....

    “No,” Galahad replied to my question, rubbing his nose. “I’ll just take a last look so I can sort my thoughts better today.”

    "Don''t overwork yourself," I chuckled, walking up next to my son, rubbing his head, and watching the machine take shape. "You still have at least a year."

    "Do I?" He asked, looking up at me, "Aren''t we already building the fortress?"

    "Only doing the groundwork." I shook my head, "I will wait for Sasha to return from Markoth before planning out everything. This winter, we will only see the outposts we built along the Pass to be completed and operational."

    "Dad," He asked, turning deadly serious, "Are you sure we should build anything on their side? You saw them... they will for sure attack us! I think they believe we are trying to invade them!"

    "I don''t think so," I muttered, furrowing my brows. "I think they want us to come... anyway, it has to be done. It is better to have multiple defenses than just one. I am not only doing this because of my own curiosity... I am preparing Avalon for future generations, too, not only for my rule."

    "That is still far away..."

    "Yes, son, it is. But, as their ruler, I am obligated to plan for generations ahead and not only for the few years right before my eyes. That''s shortsighted. Thinking in terms is not how to lead a nation; it is to think in generations."

    "I... understand."

    "Come!" I nudged him gently. "It''s time to go home, have a bath, and eat something good! I got news from Sasha, and Lancelot also said hi!"

    "Oh? Did something happen?" He asked, his body flinching under my hands as I was holding his shoulders from behind.

    "You could say that. But nothing bad, even though he broke a rib. We made contact with a new Empire; he fought their Emperor and faced off against a God''s artifact, the usual."

    "That does not sound usual, Dad..."

    "Lancy is my son; of course, it is just a regular Monday for him!" I giggled. "Yuri also agreed."

    "She wasn''t angry?"

    "Nope. She said she already had two dozen scars at his age, so he needs to step up. Anyway, we have a new envoy from the Khulman Empire ready to visit us."

    "Dad, please, don''t make me meet him..."

    "Ahaha, you are busy with your project; I won''t!" I giggled, messing up his hair a second time, "I''ll be the one doing it. Still, with the news, Mirian also sends an envoy to be present; I do need you to accompany her, though."

    "Her...?" He stopped, looking up at me, already knowing who I was talking about. "Dad..."

    "It is what it is, Son!" I laughed, forcing him to start moving again, "I like the Young Princess. Maybe, one day, she will be family~!"