"What’s going on?" Bettie asked carefully, her gaze moving between Ethan’s hardened expression and Lucy’s trembling figure.

She was trying to understand their varying reactions.

But tears had already begun forming at the corner of Lucy’s eyes and her face had gone red.

Her breath came in short, uneven gasps as she stared at the screen.

Before Bettie or Ethan could get a word in, Lucy said in a broken voice, "E-excuse me a moment."

Then she quickly turned away, taking her arcphone with her as she left the main workshop and hurried toward the private section that served as her office.

"Wait, Lucy," Bettie began, her voice filled with concern as she started following right behind her.

Ethan however had a different plan. His hands curled into fists and without another word, he left the workshop.

In about ten minutes or so, he arrived at the main company’s building and made his way up the stairs.

"Great, you both are here," Ethan said as he walked into the boardroom to find Valerie and Eduardo seated by corners of the long table, each doing some work.

Valerie had a stack of documents in front of her, while Eduardo was reviewing what looked like expense reports.

They both looked up at his entrance and exchanged greetings with him, but Ethan barely paid any attention.

He simply went to why he was here.

"Eduardo, I need you to call Oswald and get him to reach the Court Warden. I need an injunction order against Crypco. They need to stop everything concerning that mecha build."

Eduardo quickly dropped his pen and pulled his arcphone from his coat pocket. He looked up at Ethan with genuine concern in his eyes. "I will do just that, Master Ethan, but what happened?"

It was then Ethan went on to explain the incident happening on livestream.

Valerie, who had been listening quietly, quickly pulled out her own arcphone and began searching for the livestream to see it for herself.

Her eyes widened as the feed loaded and she saw the towering white mecha standing on the stage.

Without Eduardo needing further explanation of what had to be done, he adjusted his seat backward and stood up to carry on with the call.

Then Ethan turned to Valerie, who was still staring at the screen in disbelief. She looked up at him, waiting for instruction.

"Val, I need you to get copies of patent and lucy’s employment. We’ll need those."

She nodded sharply, setting her arcphone down and rising from her seat. "Yes, Master Ethan."

Now ethan waited on Eduardo to finish the call. After about two minutes, the butler lowered the arcphone and turned to him. "He’s on it."

"Good, good," Ethan said, before letting out an exhausted sigh.

He pulled out one of the chairs and took a seat, leaning forward as he placed his hand over his forehead in frustration.

"This family keeps making this shit difficult."

Eduardo walked back toward the table, pulling out the chair across from Ethan and sitting down.

He had a concerned look on his face. "Is there anything I can help with, Master Ethan?"

"No, it’s just..." Ethan exhaled again, lifting his head slightly to look at Eduardo. "I mean, look at this shit, Eduardo. How do they even go on to build the exact same thing? This is obviously not coincidence."

Eduardo replied. "Master Ethan, I understand the frustration. But from what I understand, most of Isaac Hargreeves’ designs were public knowledge already."

"Yes, I know," Ethan said. "Mecha-part constructs exist because of those same designs. And it’s true I pitched the idea to some people in the past, but what’s on the market now is just variations, different designs, built in parts."

He paused for a moment.

"Before we got into this, I had very detailed discussions with Lucy. According to her, even as Isaac pitched them to men for funding, he had a patent on his work already and got everyone to sign NDAs before he pitched. Valerie’s going to get a copy of this patent"

A patent was a legal document from the government that gave one an exclusive ownership of his invention. It meant that for a specific number of years, only he could legally build or sell the mecha design, and no one else could copy it without permission.

Without that protection, anyone who figured out how it worked could simply reproduce it and face no consequences.

"With all of that, which Lucy inherited after his death, no one else is allowed to make them," Ethan continued. "But this is just the simple part on paper. For the construction itself, there aren’t many magi-engineers with the talent to understand and reproduce that mecha the exact same way."

He began gesturing as he spoke.

"It requires at least S-tier talent, and in the magi-engineer class, that’s the rarest there is, even rarer than the Grand Class as a whole. I’m out of the question, and unless Crypco is willing to bleed money to hire Forgemaster Sylvester, there isn’t another S-tier just lying around to take this on."

Eduardo nodded slowly and in a thoughtful expression. He was beginning to understand what was going on. "So you believe someone with access to Isaac’s original work gave it to Crypco."

Ethan said flatly. "There’s no other explanation."

An NDA, or Non-Disclosure Agreement, was a contract that said "I’m showing you my secret idea, and you promise not to tell anyone or use it yourself."

It was protection before you showed your work to potential investors or partners. And If they broke the promise, you could sue them. Isaac had been smart enough to secure these before pitching to anyone.

And perhaps, someone had just broken that promise.

Ethan sighed again and flipped his head backward until he was staring at the ceiling.

For a moment, he stayed like that, focusing on it as he willed the reward screens from his sight, the ones that had appeared earlier, granting him 6,000 experience points for successfully recruiting Elizabeth.

The rest of the day at work was pretty much not fun at all.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

——

Towards evening...

Ethan’s car came to a halt along a road path that wasn’t far from the palace. Bella sat in the passenger seat, still in the dress she had worn today to the academy.

He had picked her up from Belsorth earlier, and had just explained the situation with Crypco, though the conversation was still ongoing.

—-

A/N:

An Injuction: A court order that forces someone to stop doing something (or start doing something) immediately. It’s temporary, meant to freeze things in place until the full trial can happen and determine who’s actually right.

Trial: The full legal battle where the entire case is decided. This is where everything gets argued in detail: "Did Crypco actually violate the patent? Who owns what? What damages are owed?"