The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1007

Ves still hadn’t recovered from the explosive news. Both Cordwraith and Xelven found his shock to be amusing.

"This is.. incredibly ambitious, sir!" He uttered.

He didn’t say this without a reason! Both sides accumulated an incredible amount of grievances, and while both sides started to tire from the fighting, they hadn’t bottomed out their reserves yet!

As long as either side could still fight on, they would definitely continue to press on! Only until attrition sapped the strength and fighting will of both Mech Corps and the Mech Legion did the war finally end.

In every previous war, it usually took at least four years to reach that point. While both sides could still fight a while longer with what reserves they still managed to muster, it wouldn’t be good for either of them to exhaust all of their fighting forces. That only left them vulnerable to the preying of the neighboring states.

While many people yearned for the war to be cut short, nobody actually thought that it could be accomplished. Too many people wanted to fight. Powerful interest groups in both states eagerly wished to gain accomplishments in the war to fuel their domestic ambitions. This was especially egregious among the Vesian nobles!

Therefore, Ves could not figure out how the Vesians would ever agree to an early peace.

Mr. Cordwraith laid out some of the calculus behind the seemingly impossibly early peace talks pioneered by Senator Tovar.

"The highest authorities of the Bright Republic and the Vesia Kingdom recently came in the possession of alarming information that makes it detrimental for us to continue to fight against each other. To our surprise, the royal family of the Kingdom has responded positively to our overtures and are willing to come to the negotiating table to explore the possibility to end the war within the year."

The royal family? Wasn’t that a joke in the Kingdom? "Will the royal family be able to represent the entire state?"

"Good question." Cordwraith smirked. "I understand your skepticism, but we all have to start somewhere. Despite what the common people believe, the Vesian royals aren’t toothless. We believe that they are capable enough to sway some of the powerful duchies on their side."

This sounded like a contentious matter. If the royals wanted to negotiate an early end to the war, they needed to offer something attractive enough to the nobles to get them to agree with the early peace.

If the Vesians didn’t receive enough concessions, then an early peace would be too hard to swallow for them. They’d rather continue the fight if that was the case! Vesian nobles were so disunited that the only way to get them on the same page was to offer them rich rewards!

On the other hand, if the Bright Republic bled too much to obtain this peace, Senator Tovar and all the other advocates of peace would lose all of their support and credibility! The Bright Republic did not spend countless lives over the centuries to defend against Vesian aggression only to succumb and concede a large amount of territory to the scum!

All in all, Ves currently saw no hope that these talks would ever be able to succeed, yet what did he know? Mr. Cordwraith and Senator Tovar probably knew a lot of secrets and other information that might have led them to believe this deal had a chance to actually go through.

Someone as small as Ves wouldn’t be privileged to know that sort of information. No, his job was merely to look impressive and pretty at the sides while the real adults held their discussions.

Still, this might be an interesting and unique experience for him. Unfortunately, it also came with some risks according to Colonel Xelven.

"Make no mistake, Mr. Larkinson. Part of the reason for the confidentiality is because various influences and factions in both states deeply wish to keep fighting. They are not above playing tricks if that is what it takes to end Senator Tovar’s initiative. While I’m not able to estimate the danger level, this will not be a problem-free assignment, do you understand?"

Ves nodded. "I understand, sir."

It seemed like he wouldn’t be getting the cushy rear assignment he hoped for. Still, to be part of a bold initiative to end the war sooner than everyone else expected was a noble cause. Even if Senator Tovar of all people tried to accomplish it, that did not set aside his own desire to end the senseless bloodshed.

"While we do not expect too much from you, we do not intend for you to remain idle while we are holding the talks." Mr. Cordwraith said. "An important aspect about any negotiation of this nature is to charm our counterparts and attempt to reach a common understanding. Someone with a colorful background as yours will attract quite some attention."

This made Ves feel a little nervous. "I’m supposed to woo the Vesian delegation?"

"Not so strongly, but we do hope you can hit it off with a Vesian or two. By befriending some the Vesians, we might be able to employ you as a backchannel to conduct some secret talks, or we might be able to add some clauses to the peace treaty that contains some cooperative aspects."

Ves didn’t quite understand how that worked. "Is that really possible?"

"The best deals are made when both sides hit it off. It’s easier to agree to terms with friends rather than enemies. By doing your part in befriending the Vesians, the odds of success grow slightly more optimistic. Even then, the probability that our talks end well enough to agree to the terms of a peace treaty is only fifty percent at most."

In other words, nobody knew if what they attempted would ever bear fruit.

"Is that all my role extends to?" Ves frowned. He hardly knew how to approach such a strange demand.

"For now, we do not expect anything else from you, Mr. Larkinson." Colonel Xelven shrugged apologetically. "The upcoming talks are highly controversial and if anyone gets wind of it, the chance they might attack is very real. We cannot afford to bring along too many critical individuals to the peace talks, but neither can we bring along a hollow delegation. The Vesians might suspect our sincerity. It is already enough of a risk for us to invite a crucially important Senior Mech Designer. Sending you in place of a second Senior will not do our delegation too much of a disservice."

Because Ves earned a lot of prestigious awards. This was what Ves amounted to. A poor replacement for a second Senior Mech Designer.