Murphy's taking-charge attitude left Master Minx at a loss.
Good grief.
You strange vampire!
You stole my things and used them for almost a year without even sending me a message. Now that I've called you out, not only are you unrepentant, you're acting so brazenly that you've made me, the old halfling, doubt myself. You've got me feeling like I really am some unscrupulous merchant who doesn't care about after-sales service.
But on second thought, the stolen goods business really couldn't be blamed on Murphy.
After all, this fourth-generation core computation orb had originally been stolen by a Plantagenet Kingdom spy. It was supposed to be delivered to Loren, that short marshal, but Murphy and the young lady had intercepted it along the way.
If you had to put it one way, this was practically a Robin Hood act.
Of course, both men were people of standing. They simply laughed off the awkward matter, which had happened in the past and would only be embarrassing to discuss now. There was no need to quibble over the details. At Murphy's insistence—or, rather, request—Master Minx grinned and took the core orb, then pulled a set of highly precise engineering instruments, somewhat like a microscope, from his desk drawer. He began carefully examining the arrangement of the psionic factors inside the orb.
Murphy waited patiently, sneaking a few glances at the blueprints Master Minx had just been modifying.
He realized they were designs for a walking machine. Minx had altered it into something like a walking tank, a weapon of war equipped with a real cannon barrel and a more efficient power system.
Most importantly, this thing also had no crew compartment!
Murphy raised an eyebrow. He suspected Master Minx had drawn inspiration from the dragoons, which were about to be used