The Mech Touch novel Chapter 478

Ves experienced too many crises since the Flagrant Vandals arrived in the Detemen System.

Taking part in a monumental operation, escaping from a disintegrating ship and dropping onto Detemen IV with nothing but a crash pad wracked his nerves.

Roaming the streets of Neron City by himself, threatening a pathetic Novice Mech Designer to use his equipment, getting picked up by Captain Orfan only to flee again under Lieutenant Burke really set him off.

What was he doing here?

He wanted nothing more than to go back to orbit, but the Vandals and the rebels had other ideas in store. Ves looked at Commander Breskin with a weary gaze. Even though his body could keep him awake for days at a time, his mental exhaustion almost pushed him to the breaking point.

He needed time to think and decompress. He needed to reflect on his mistakes and figure out a better approach to problems.

Yet the rebel commander stayed firm. "Nine hours. No more. We have until then to track down our elusive goal."

His words made it clear that he brooked no compromise on this matter. Breskin didn’t even stick around. After exchanging some words with Addy, he left the conference room, leaving Ves alone with the young rebel woman.

"This sounds crazy." Ves wearily said as clapped his hand on his beaten combat armor. The fall dented it really badly, causing him to feel a bit uncomfortable as the plates pressed into him. "How am I supposed to pinpoint the location of a single mech out of potentially thousands in the city? I’m not a bloodhound, for heaven’s sake!"

Addy retrieved a data pad from her rebel uniform jacket and pressed it onto the table before sliding it up to Ves. "Please read the brief before concluding it can’t be done."

Ves picked up the pad and turned it on. He read the brief inside and started to become engrossed.

"What?"

House Eneqqin was a very significant force in the Imodris Duchy. It enjoyed a storied history as well, and the House encompassed many branch families. Lord Javier may be the only son of Count Loqer, who was the head of the House, but in the background countless nephews schemed against him. Once Loqer died or retired, it wasn’t a given that Javier would come into power.

"Count Loqer is an exceptional noble within the court of the Duchess of Imodris, and has even served as her chief of staff for one time." Addy explained. "He has single-handedly elevated House Eneqqin to its current heights. Many argue that he might be the most powerful count in the Duchy at this time."

"How come his son is such a craven bastard?"

Addy sighed and bent her head. "I don’t know. The high nobility is not something commoners like us can understand. For some reason, Count Loqer doesn’t have any natural offspring besides Lord Javier, and he dotes upon his only child to an excessive degree."

"Is the count infertile? Even if that’s so, there are many ways to get another heir."

"You obviously don’t understand Vesian succession laws." She said with a rueful smile. "Think about it. If a noble resorts to cloning or other artificial means of generating offspring, what stops their rivals from doing the same? An old trick is to steal a DNA sample from someone, splice an offspring and secretly raise the child to be loyal to your cause. When the time was right, the secret offspring would contend with the legitimate heirs to inherit the title of their parents."

That did make some sense. These days, many people didn’t bother with pregnancy and bringing a child to term inside the belly of a mother. As long as someone paid a sufficient amount of money, they could effortlessly offload the gestation and birthing process to an artificial womb.

Though many humans took this technology for granted, many others feared the use of artificial wombs would harm their children. The topic was very divisive, but it had nothing to do with Ves so he never looked into it until now.

"Even if Count Loqer is... less than fertile, how come he hasn’t fixed that yet?"

"The matter isn’t so simple." Addy said while shaking her head. "There are ways to remedy his infertility, but they are all rather extreme to the point where they run up to the limits of the succession laws. Will a child birthed from the ’new’ him still be his own child, or someone else’s?"

All of this started to make his head spin so Ves just accepted the argument and moved on. "Alright, let’s say that Lord Javier won’t be getting little brothers and sisters anytime soon. What does that have to do with tracking down his mech?"

"Well, as I said earlier, Count Loqer spoils his son rotten. Javier can pretty much do what he wants. No matter how much of a mess he makes, his father will always come and wipe his butt. However, there is one area in Javier’s upbringing where the count is extremely strict in. Can you make a guess?"

Ves only needed a second to come up with an answer. "His mech pilot training. Every noble in the Vesia Kingdom is either a mech pilot or a descendant of a mech pilot who performed meritorious services. Strength is power in this state, and there’s nothing worse than an heir that doesn’t know how to pilot mechs."

"Exactly! You can say what you will about Lord Javier, but he is a fairly impressive mech pilot, if only because of his strict tutoring and exacting physical training regime. We believe the pressure he’s enduring from his constant training has led to much of the excesses that he has become known. It’s his way of venting his frustration."

To Count Loqer and Lord Javier, acting like a complete bastard to their own people was worth it if the heir continued to make a lot of progress in his training.

The people of Detemen IV saw it very differently, however. With the rising amount of abuses and the deteriorating economy, Lord has long taken the place of the planet’s bogeyman. No one wanted to live under a frivolous tyrant.