The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1309

The group took a break from their hunt for Kinners to hire. Kelandra took them to an exclusive restaurant adjacent to Ornament Halls and guided them to a private room to eat lunch.

As Ves chewed some sort of crunchy insect that happened to be a highly-prized delicacy on Bloodstone II, he continued to contemplate the plan he formed in his mind.

Commander Oryn Mair was valuable. Not only was he a mech pilot trained according to the standards of an elite tribal corps, his spirituality also signified great potential.

From what he knew about mech pilots, Ves guessed that as long as Commander Mair adjusted his mentality, there was a strong chance he could break through to expert candidate without requiring too much help!

This would be very convenient to Ves, especially if he succeeded in buying out the mercenary commander and the rest of his outfit! With a near-unbreakable loyalty to Ves, nobody could take the newly-emerged expert candidate from him, not even the Kinner Tribe themselves!

Even if the Kinner Tribe was willing to rehabilitate Commander Mair due to his risen status, they could never openly act in conflict with their own principles!

The Kinners relied so much on their credibility. Their loyalty was absolute, and their promises could always be relied upon!

Once a Kinner was sold, they remained with their new owners forever, barring some exceptional circumstances!

He did not foresee any problems on this end. The only challenge on his part was that Ves needed to overcome Commander Mair’s resistance to being sold before he advanced to expert candidate.

"Even if he doesn’t agree to my offer to buy out his mercenary corps, I still have an entire year to do so." Ves softly muttered.

"Meow."

For some reason, Lucky hopped away from Ves and adopted a wary attitude. The cat seemed to detect that his owner was contemplating something awful again!

"Oh, come on, Lucky! I’m just thinking about it! Who can blame me for contemplating a solution? I’m a mech designer! Solving problems is in my nature!"

"Meow meow!"

Ves looked despondent. "Yeah, you’re right. Even if I can, it doesn’t mean I should."

On one hand, he was really greedy to obtain the services of Commander Mair. Ves had met a lot of mech pilots in his life and developed a pretty good sense of what they were capable of. Commander Mair absolutely held promise, both as a regular mech pilot and a potential expert!

To let such a human treasure slip past his fingers left a very sour taste in his mouth. It was like walking past a shining treasure in the mud. As long as Ves wasn’t afraid of getting his hands dirty, he’d be able to obtain a valuable asset!

Yet.. Lucky’s disapproving glance made Ves hesitate. Should he really sink to such a depth to secure the loyalty of a promising mech pilot?

"It would be so much easier if Commander Mair was a pirate or some other scum." He softly muttered.

Yet despite his earlier failings, Oryn Mair had gone above and beyond to obtain redemption. Such behavior and drive was worthy of respect and admiration. It reminded Ves of some of the greater Larkinsons in his family, those who took their duty and integrity seriously.

Should Ves give in to his more honorable side and afford Commander Mair the respect he deserved?

Or should he set aside his misgivings and enact his plan, leading to a result that in the end provided a lot of benefits to both Ves and the mercenary commander?

Ves did not necessarily intend any ill towards Commander Mair. To Ves, the Kinner was still suffering from a disgrace that should have been forgiven years ago. The man was fighting an uphill battle for redemption, not knowing that the hill he was climbing was endless.

One of the complicating factors was that Ves truly believed that Commander Mair would be better off under his care. Who in the galaxy possessed a deeper glimpse in the creation of expert pilots than him? Hardly anyone could match his unique advantages!

So why was Ves still hesitating?

He turned to Gavin and asked a sudden question. "Does the end justify the means?"

"Uh, what?"

"If I can achieve a great result by doing something awful, is it worth it to do so?"

"What brought this about?" Gavin frowned.

"Just humor me for a moment."

"Hmmm.. I think humanity is better than that."

"Our civilization’s long history says otherwise."

"That’s because it was necessary for our survival." Gavin flicked his hand. "Our race acted like two-faced, backstabbing bastards during the Age of Space and Age of Conquest, but so what? The pompous alien races who terrorized the galaxy were all worse. They deserved everything we unleashed upon them. In this way, the end indeed justified the means back then. It all depends on who will pay the price."

"In other words, the end only justifies the means if the victim had it coming?"

"Yeah. Nowadays, I think we’ve outgrown that period in our civilization. Do we really need to revisit our darker sides? Look where that has gotten us. As soon as we stopped targeting the aliens, we turned our darkness against ourselves."

Ves had to admit that his assistant had a good point.

If Ves indeed decided to enact his plan, he might be able to achieve his desired result, but at what cost? Would he be more inclined to make a dirty move towards people who really didn’t deserve to be subjected to this kind of treatment?

Perhaps.. he needed to rethink his priorities. At the very least, if Ves was facing some kind of criminal or a bastard, he would have no scruples getting his hands dirty.

Yet that wasn’t the case here. Neither Commander Mair or his retired father deserved to be subjected to dishonorable means.

"You were asking me this because of Commander Mair and his Edge of Redemption, right?" Gavin asked.

"Hmm? What is it, Lucky?" _{fɾēewebnσveℓ.com}