The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1458

Eventually, Nitaa came and lifted his body from the bathroom and placed him on the bed. Though she knew little why he ended up in a debilitated condition, she unwaveringly remained alert and stood guard throughout the entire night.

Ves needed that much time in order to handle the overwhelming flow of knowledge. Though the System did its best to push the immensity of both Senior-level Mechanics and Senior-level Metallurgy into his mind, with effort and patience he managed to push away the integration and slow down the rate of absorption.

At the end of the tenuous night, he managed to construct an arrangement in his mind where a metaphorical dam blocked off most of the flow. Only a small opening in the dam allowed a controlled amount of knowledge to go through.

"Around four weeks until I’m done."

This was the most he could cope with while at the same time diverting a sufficient amount of attention to his daily life. While he wouldn’t be able to summon up the focus and energy to design a new mech during this period, he retained enough attention to speak with people or make decisions that didn’t require too much thinking.

Ves breathed deeply as he finally pulled his entire focus from the jumble of his mind.

"Are you okay now, sir?" Nitaa asked through her fully-sealed combat armor. She had been fearing the worst. "Were you under attack or something?"

Figuring that she deserved some frankness for all her loyalty she had shown so far, Ves decided to reveal a hint of the truth.

"No. Not exactly. I did it to myself. Let’s just say I augmented myself a bit too eagerly there. I’m fine now. After a couple of weeks of recovery, I’ll be as good as new. In fact, I’ll be even better as I get used to the changes."

"Does that mean you’ll be stronger after you recover?"

"Yes."

Ves left his answer at that. Though he trusted Nitaa’s loyalty, he always feared what would happen if she realized how happenstance he became a Holy Son. What if she stopped holding him in high regard? How eager would she serve a fake Holy Son who was nowhere close to matching the might and influence of a true Holy Son?

As Nitaa spent more time at his side, Ves wondered what she thought about him. Did she consider him to be a hidden dragon that still needed growing or a paper tiger who was much less impressive than he appeared?

For now, Ves could still depend on Nitaa’s mental programming to compel her to obey the will of a Holy Son. He also bought her out in the Kinner tradition, which meant that she had to display near-absolute obedience to him. Both of these compulsions working together gave him enough of a buffer to earn her genuine appreciation and loyalty.

If there was one thing Ves had learned from seeing many fanatical organizations at work, it was that genuine loyalty was a better guarantee than forced obedience!

True believers were some of the most loyal people out there! Though Ves found this means to be a bit distasteful, he couldn’t afford to let his misgivings hinder his safety and his ambition.

This was why he began to keep his eye out for loyalists. If he wanted to set off on his grand expedition without disrupting his existing routines, he needed to bring a lot of subordinates to keep things running.

Those who were willing to participate in an expeditionary fleet were always weirdos and deviants.

Hardly anyone wanted to disrupt their normal lives, leave their homes, abandon their friends and families just to go on an exploration tour in an extremely distant environment!

Expeditions that lasted for a couple of years were already bad enough. One that lasted for multiple decades that Ves envisioned meant that those who lived on the starships that made up the expeditionary fleet would effectively spend at least a third of their lives away from familiar soil!

This was too much to ask for most employees!

Since the decision to go on an extremely lengthy and life-changing expedition was so difficult to stomach, Ves needed to recruit a sufficient number of loyalists in advance.

Most of the people he recruited probably wouldn’t start out as loyalists. It was up to him and the LMC to indoctrinate them into becoming more pliable to his needs. He had to convince them that jumping on a starship and going on a generational trek to exotic destinations was a great adventure instead of an abrupt way to ruin their steady lives!

Ves also decided he needed to spend more effort convincing more Larkinsons to come along as well. While he didn’t trust every Larkinson, at least he could trust them a little bit more than complete strangers.

He planned to seed his grand expedition with a sufficient amount of Larkinsons in various leadership and supervisory positions. Spreading a hundred or so Larkinsons throughout his expeditionary fleet would do wonders to his grip on the men and women he brought along!

As long as the Larkinsons acted as his eyes and ears among the crews, Ves was willing to put up with the downsides of nepotism.

He sighed. "I used to believe that family has no place in my business."

There were definite downsides to involving his family even further. He knew the Larkinsons well enough that the biggest barrier to gaining their loyalty was to find a way to erode their patriotism.

The Larkinsons always served as the protectors of the Bright Republic. It was baked in their family’s values and traditions from their birth. Ves too loved his home state, though as his interests began to diverge, he no longer considered it to be the center of his reality.

He knew most Larkinsons probably wouldn’t be receptive to his suggestions, but he could probably get a few people over to his side as long as he chipped away at their resolve over the following decade.

"Some Larkinsons are content with their roles as cogs in the Bright Republic’s military machine. Other Larkinsons don’t want to put up with a steady but unfulfilling life."