I gently cupped Ayaka's face with one hand, and she bit her lip as she looked up at me with misty eyes.
A small smile crossed my face before I said softly. "If you are sure. Then let me welcome you as my wife then."
I bent down to the shorter girl, and her eyes widened as I dominantly kissed her with my other arm pulling her petite form into my chest as we kissed.
My hand squeezed her tight waist before I broke the kiss with her looking at me with hazy eye's but then she squeaked as my hand on her waist drifted downwards and squeezed a soft ass cheek.
"Even if you are ready, Ayaka... I however, want to know you for literally more than a day before we get into such things. We have time to make this work to say the least."
She gave me a long searching look at hearing my words before she smiled softly with her hand that was on my chest drawing downwards until she took my hand that was previously on her ass, into her own hand.
Our fingers intertwined with her, bringing both of our hands close to her face, with her kissing the back of my hand before she rested her cheek on the back of my hand as she spoke softly.
"I... I appreciate that Jake. Thank you."
We shared a long gaze before I took a deep breath and said quietly. "Good, then please excuse me, Ayaka. I am sure you and Kuki have much to talk about then."
I then made my way into my own room, and after throwing myself face first into said bed... I screamed into the pillow to get out all the stress that remained inside of myself after the escape from Inazuma.
Once I was done with my drama and freak-out session. I groaned with annoyance as Cloud Retainer/Xianyun truly had cleaned out my house of all my previous work's designs and such. But thankfully, she didn't literally steal all my writing tools and paper.
'Hmm it's time to upgrade the Titan and Pelican ships that are being used to protect Liyue's abyss... Beyond just physically upgrading the machines themselves, maybe I should branch out as well.' I mused to myself.
I hummed with thought before I began writing down my idea's. First writing down some lighter titan models that were meant for speed and even melee.
But then as I considered how to upgrade the main Ogre pattern Titan that was being printed, I realized I was going the wrong way in scaling it upwards to make it more powerful.
Instead I pivoted into making the Ogre itself stronger with better materials, in cultivation/spiritual materials to enhance the baseline strength and durability of the titan.
Then I wrote up a hard light shield that would then also cover the titan to protect it from damage from the get go up to a certain point.
"Now, as for weapons... Hmm, no smart tracking tech isn't worth it when the cultivators and martial artists already have enhanced senses. Wait this could work as well."
See the most important part of my automation process and tech base was that so long as I got the assembly line done, and materials being fed to it. Then I would have no issue getting theoretically infinite of whatever I wanted.
So although making special bullets themselves was annoying. Once I got the assembly line done, it would be smooth sailing.
"Hmm, for sniper titan units. Railgun-based bolter rounds that would fire almost silently, and once they impact the target, the spirit stone core bolter round would burrow through the typical spiritual energy shields cultivators and martial artists have, which includes abyssal monsters." I mused to myself.
Basically, it was a sabot round. The spirit stone tip at the front of the bullet would crash into the shields and defenses of the target and then explode, allowing the hardened core of Thousand Refined Star Steel to then burrow into the flesh of the target with the aid of the gyrojet that would be at the back of the bullet.
"Jake... Didn't I say not to be working." Keqing's exasperated voice rang out softly bringing me out of my crafting mental fog and making me jump slightly.
"Ah, you scared me, Keqing," I said a bit sheepishly.
"Maybe I should do a bit more than just scare you." Keqing retorted rolling her eyes as she strolled over and then she stood behind me and wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled the back of my head into her stomach as she stood behind me and looked at my work.
"Hmm, hmm, yes that is indeed more designs... Now why are you and Ayaka not together right now?" Keqing asked bluntly.
To which I smiled wryly and answered honestly. "I want to know the young woman for more than a single day before I get intimate with her. Even if this is clearly an arranged marriage, I still want to try to make it work."
I sighed and leaned more into Keqing before I said quietly. "I just need to focus on my work right now... I just go stir crazy staring at a wall with nothing to do."
Keqing paused before she sighed and said with love, clear in her voice. "Yes, I understand, Jake. I am not mad or anything, now, how about we relax together in the cultivation chamber?"
Knowing all too well that we would be stripping naked to be as physically touching as possible, and would inevitably lead to intimacy. I grinned before my face twitched as Keqing leaned down to whisper into the back of my head.
"It's a little exciting to be the one to be with you on this night that is supposed to be your honeymoon with Ayaka... Do you feel this special kind of excitement as well?"
'Wow, that's certainly something, Keqing!' I thought before I chuckled and nodded as I stood up and made my way towards the very cultivation chamber.