The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1153

As ’Master Axelar’ began to make decisions that fell firmly outside the mold of the real Master Axelar, Benny naturally grew a bit suspicious.

While Axelar often flirted with dubious pursuits, that was when he was in the middle of a drug-fueled haze.

This time was different! Axelar went by for hours without asking Benny for an injection, which was practically a galactic record!

Ves, who momentarily hijacked Axelar’s body, knew he was arousing more and more suspicions from Axelar’s erstwhile bodyguard, minder and personal attendant. Even the rest of his staff felt there was something amiss about their uncharacteristically sober master!

The relationship between Axelar and Benny resembled the one between Ves and Gavin.

There was a very major difference, however.

In his capacity as the boss of the LMC, Ves firmly held on to his power and authority. Gavin only executed the decisions that Ves had made. At best, Gavin only provided some advice and selected a range of options to influence the decision-making process.

After more than a week of riding in Axelar’s mind, Ves gradually realized that Benny acted beyond those constraints.

In his role as Axelar’s gatekeeper, Benny exercised a lot of power in seeing which decisions went through and which ones were conveniently thrown away and forgotten.

There wasn’t anything malicious about Benny’s conduct. To the old Axelar, a sane and sober gatekeeper who second-guessed anything his drug-addled charge came up with was a very necessary presence!

Who knew how much money Axelar would waste or how far he’d drag down the reputation of the Streon Clan without a human sanity check in place!

The big issue that Ves faced was that now that Axelar’s body had been taken over by a saner person, Benny still decided whether Axelar’s orders should be obeyed!

Ves could not get rid of this perpetually present attendant. The only times when Benny left Axelar alone was when his charge visited the bathroom or went to sleep!

Even then, Ves could forget about sneaking any commands past his bodyguard!

"Do you ever sleep, Benny?" Axelar’s body idly asked.

"My gene treatments removed my dependence on sleep. Haven’t I told you this before? You ordered me to undergo these procedures yourself so you would always have me on hand to inject more stimulants in your body!"

Ves mentally puked. What the hell?! Axelar turned his own gatekeeper into a perpetually active golem who stood ready to interpret every decision whether it was day or night!

Any hopes Ves held towards getting rid of Benny disappeared. After several attempts at giving Benny a day off or a vacation, it became clear that Axelar wasn’t even in control of his own household.

Instead, it was Benny who held the final say!

Ves also realized that Benny didn’t truly serve Axelar. Instead, he and the rest of Axelar’s staff were loyal retainers of the Streon Clan. They acted on the interests of the ancient clan and had probably been sent to Axelar to keep a leash on the wastrel of the clan.

Now that Ves took over Axelar’s body, he took over the Streon Clan’s leash as well!

He developed a bunch of ideas on how he could take advantage of his control over the body of a Terran clansman. The sheer amount of wealth at Axelar’s disposal tempted Ves enormously. If he set up some sort of development fund oriented towards the galactic rim and tweaked the conditions so that it fit the LMC, then Ves could become insanely rich after he got back from this abnormal Mastery experience.

Yet such an un-Axelar decision would never pass through Benny’s inspection! For his entire life, Axelar had never been generous enough to set up a charity or an investment fund meant to benefit the galactic rim.

To Terrans like Axelar, the galactic rim was a complete backwater! They did not even waste a single second of thought in the vast but poor and sparsely-populated expanse.

If Ves set up anything that benefited a company or individual in the galactic rim, then alarms would immediately ring in Benny’s head!

Even now, Ves already drew plenty of suspicion. His decision to sell the pharmaceutical company and get rid of all their existing formulas put Benny on high alert.

The jerky movements of Axelar’s body didn’t help either. Ves’ consciousness simply hadn’t been wired to puppet a vastly different body. All the sensations he received were distorted and his reaction speed was abysmally slow.

The lack of control was so bad in fact that Ves had to order Benny to seat himself on a souped-up hover chair!

To cover up for his invalid state, Ves offered the best excuse he came up with to his increasingly-concerned attendant.

"I’ve never spent this long without a fix." Axelar’s body jerkily gritted its teeth. "I’m stronger than this! I won’t give in! If I can’t get past this hurdle, I can forget about experiencing the ultimate high!"

Fortunately, Benny seemed to buy the act. "Master Axelar, one does not simply quit taking stimulants. Your physiological parameters are highly unstable."

"Don’t think about offering me another fix! It’s not the same anymore! In fact, it should be your job to stop me from taking any drugs from now on! No matter how much I moan or cry, I will never go back to the same stale old highs!"

Everything the old Axelar did was to pursue extreme highs. Ves had no choice but to work around this obsession. It would be far too suspicious for Benny to hear that his charge quit taking stimulants entirely.