The Mech Touch

The Minerva had returned to the Spirit of Bentheim by this time.

Though Commander Casella Ingvar preferred to berth her expert mech at one of the fleet carriers most of the time, the factory ship was able to provide the best care to the machine.

Ves was not too worried about the Minerva's condition. Casella's breakthrough and forced resonance state was not that strong. On top of that, her command specialization meant that her machine did not suddenly gain the power to punch phase lords in the head or anything.

The Saint Commander remained in the cockpit as she continued to discuss her gains with the patriarch of the Larkinson Clan.

The two had been trying to figure out the reason why Casella somehow became reasonably good at both commanding massive armies and super-empowering a small group of mechs.

So far, they had not come up with a more solid answer than chalking it all up to E energy radiation.

"The Red Ocean is what I call a medium energy environment." The spiritual manifestation of Ves explained. "It is already a known phenomenon that high-ranking mech pilots have become more powerful compared to their old galaxy counterparts, and it is not just due to differences in technology. There is just a lot more energy floating around in space that is entirely absent in the Milky Way. Those ace commanders in our former homes have to power everything by themselves, while you can borrow from the power of heaven."

"The power of heaven?"

"It's another way to refer to E energy radiation. Anyway, my theory is that one of the driving reasons why your Command Field has grown so ridiculously large at your current level of strength is because E energy radiation is passively supporting its existence. Do you think that is the case?"

Casella furrowed her brows. "I have not consciously thought about it, but your theory has merit. I cannot give you a definite answer as my Command Field is highly dependent on the tech integrated in the Minerva. Perhaps I previously ignored this factor because I thought it was filtered through technology."

"It is too soon to make a profound decision on this matter." Casella said. "I have only just attained my current rank. I still have much to learn and discover about my changes and improvements. I also need time to rethink my development trajectory. My brother's death… has prompted me to make changes in my life."

"Whatever the case, I think you have a choice on how you want to develop your Command Field in the future. Will you try to develop both directions as equally as possible, thereby risking the outcome that you will merely become mediocre in both, or will you favor one direction over the other?"

That was a very important question, and one that Casella did not wish to answer right away.

"It is too soon to make a profound decision on this matter." Casella said. "I have only just attained my current rank. I still have much to learn and discover about my changes and improvements. I also need time to rethink my development trajectory. My brother's death… has prompted me to make changes in my life."

She wordlessly reminded Ves that he still owed her a full explanation about that. His spiritual projection raised his hand.

"Soon. Be patient. I think a face-to-face meeting isn't necessary. We will just have to wait until Saint Tusa returns from the field and becomes available to us. We can borrow his Saint Kingdom to hold a remote conversation in absolute confidence so long as you do not mind if he listens in on our discussion."

"If you think that it is not a problem for Tusa to receive this information, then I agree with your proposal. He should be out in the field for at least several more hours, though. Even if our defenses have repelled the latest offensive push, his Dark Zephyr is still expected to shadow the enemy and scout for any hidden movements."

"Then we will wait for his return." Ves smiled. "In the meantime, let's talk about your new ability to super-empower a small amount of mechs. It is clear that this is a distinctly different ability that deserves its own consideration. In fact, I think we should distinguish it from your regular Commandeering ability by calling it in a different way."

Casella looked pointed at Ves.

"Your tone suggests that you already have a proposal in mind."

"I do. You do not have to take over my suggestion, but I find it rather easy to understand and communicate. That is important as you will need to gain people's trust and acceptance if you want to super-empower them one day."

"What do you suggest?"

"Well, this act clearly goes beyond regular Commandeering. It should be labeled with a word that conveys a more extreme exchange of power and control. After a bit of thought, I settled on the word Enfeoffment."

Enfeoffment. That was not a word that Casella heard every day, but as a former member of House Ingvar, she was quite familiar with the concept.

"Enfeoffment is a term used to describe the transfer of ownership and possession of territory from a liegelord to a vassal." The female ace pilot said. "It is usually used in the context of heads of state bestowing territory as well as noble titles to their ostensive vassals."

Ves nodded. "Yes. I know the word doesn't exactly match what you do, but the symbolism is a very good match. The advantage of referring to your super-empowerment ability as enfeoffment is that you can borrow people's existing associations and understanding to gain people's cooperation and reduce their fear of the unknown. It should also make the procedure more exciting to them, as we can use noble titles to denote their degree of empowerment."

That caused Casella to look intrigued. Her clever mind already figured out his scheme.

"I see. You want to make the recipients of my super-empowerment more proud and satisfied by wrapping up my actions in ceremony. Instead of bestowing them with the power of a pseudo-expert pilot, I am 'Enfeoffing' them to the noble rank of Baron or higher."

Ves grinned. "Exactly! You can dress it up however you want! I think that as your resonance strength grows, it should become possible to make your Enfeoffed mechs a lot more powerful, though probably in exchange for limiting the amount of machines that can benefit from this treatment. There will be times where you want to go for quantity, and other times where you prize quality. This is where adopting an existing and easy-to-understand noble rank system can convey immediate understanding and other beneficial associations."

The Saint Commander did not entirely feel comfortable with this approach. There was a rather strong sense of deliberate manipulation through wordplay in Ves' proposal.

However, Casella was realistic enough to understand that resorting to more obscure or convoluted terminology would only spread greater confusion.

The greatest advantage of using Enfeoffment to describe her powerful new capability was that it gave the recipients and those that desired to enjoy this power strong desires. Everyone wanted to become a noble, even those that hated stuck-up aristocrats.

"We can use titles such as Baron, Viscount, Count, Marquis, Duke and maybe even Prince to denote successive levels of Enfeoffment." Casella fleshed out his plan. "Baron will correspond to the power of a low-tier expert mech. For now, elevating mechs to Baron is the limit of what I can do, but once I develop Enfeoffment further, I am confident I can bestow greater power to my Enfeoffed mechs."

"You can also use the title of Knight to denote all of the Commandeered mechs if you want to adopt a more unified theme. If you think about it, from the moment you broke through, you pretty much became the Queen of your own Saint Kingdom. The difference between you and other ace pilots is that your control over your Kingdom is not comparable to that of your peers. This is why you have no choice but to project your power through your vassals."

"Vassalization implies surrendering control."

"Any mortal kingdom is never completely centralized, Casella. The sovereign must always rely on vassalization and delegation in order to manage everything better. While Commandeering allows you to directly lead your massive army of Knights, Enfeoffment should not only be more about bestowing power to powerful candidates, but also giving them the space to exercise their power in a manner of their choosing. I mean, what is the point of controlling human-controlled mechs if you always take away all of their control? You may as well follow the example of the Army of One if you want to control every variable. Don't forget that living mechs are all unique and can think for themselves. Don't waste their advantages."

Ves had to stand up for his living mechs and at least persuade Casella Ingvar to give his products enough room to express themselves.

Casella looked thoughtful. "I shall consider it. Your argument is valid. I have not made a decision on whether to adopt your Enfeoffment scheme, but it is a good option. I have never truly seen myself as the Queen of my own Saint Kingdom. It sounds… overly dramatic."

"Ace pilots are all dramatic one way or another. You are so far removed from normal humans that you simply don't think like them anymore. This is a blessing as well as a curse. Just embrace it. This is your true nature. Trying to repress your eccentricities will probably hinder your growth. Doing the opposite and expressing your urges more freely will probably be better for your development in the long run. Just think about all of the people who eventually made it to god pilot. There is absolutely no normal human among them. They all rank at the top in terms of eccentricity and weirdness."

He made another good argument.

Casella was not the sort of pilot who liked to express everything in the open. Her nature as a commander encouraged her to keep much of her thoughts and feelings to herself. She preferred to present a restrained and carefully cultivated image of herself to the public.

However, now that she had reached a stage of her development where she needed to become more powerful and high-profile in order to realize her ambitions, perhaps a radical switch was in order.

The Saint Commander actually began to adopt a more favorable attitude towards Enfeoffment. Dressing up the tiers of empowerment in noble titles could do much to distinguish herself from other ace commanders, not that there were that many of them in the first place.

She even had a candidate for the only pilot who deserved to be crowned King.

No one else but her brother deserved to reign as a co-ruler of her own Saint Kingdom.

As long as Imon remained absent, then the crown of the King would always remain unused.

"I think I shall take up the mantle of Queen of my own Saint Kingdom." She decided.

"Good. Please think more about your development direction going forward. Whether you want to field a vast army of Knights, build up a thriving court of Aristocrats or find a balance between both, it is better to make up your mind sooner rather than later. My wife and I can precisely plan, configure and design the Minerva Mark II according to your choices. It is very troublesome to change this later. I can think of multiple different ways to enhance your machine's effectiveness in all of those possible scenarios."

"Can you give an example, sir?"

"Well, one of the major advancements of my sixth-generation living mechs is the Ultimate Module. If you intend to invest heavily in Commandeering, I can probably figure out a way to make the Ultimate Module detachable. It may be possible to use it as a beacon to extend your Command Field beyond its usual range. Maybe you can even deploy your Command Field in two different locations at once!"

That certainly sounded a lot more intriguing to Casella!

The tactical and strategic value of being able to deploy her Command Field beyond the radius of her Minerva opened up a lot of interesting possibilities, such as empowering a flanking force that attacked from a completely different direction!

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