Ves smirked as the aspirants who wanted to take over his position tried to weasel their way out of a design duel.
He had to admit that he worried about the issue before he came up with the idea of a duel. He anticipated some of the reasons that others might bring up, and he couldn't completely retort them all.
The main sticking point lay in the seniority argument. Though the oldest and most experienced mech designer wasn't necessarily the most qualified one for the job, they offered a lot more assurances to everyone compared to an external mech designer that had been drafted into the Mech Corps.
Ves spent hours wracking his head on this issue when he first got the news. He came up with various arguments, lies, schemes and tricks before he metaphorically smacked himself on the head.
