The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1833

Chapter 1833 The Protectors

Venerable Brutus Wodin never expected to mingle with the lesser beings of the galaxy.

He looked down on the third-raters not just because they were inferior, but also because they were ignorant.

It was too difficult for him to get used to the sight of boys issuing orders to women, and women deferring to the weaker gender.

Society outside the sacred Hegemony was upside-down! Either people believed that boys were equal to women, or they thought that boys were actually better!

What a travesty!

Nonetheless, his sister ordered him to smile and make nice with the aboriginals.

Since she had been living among the unenlightened beings for years at Centerpoint and in the Bright Republic, she had long become accustomed to their heretical behavior.

She freely shared her methods with him and gave him some tips to keep his disgust bottled up and out of sight.

Right now, regardless of how much he wanted to throttle the necks of the arrogant boys and force them to treat women like princesses, he had to stand aside and pretend there was nothing wrong!

Sometimes, the expert pilot wished he could just hole up in his Serendipity and quietly wait until it was time to return to the familiar embrace of his home state.

Alas, Gloriana wanted him to be out and about, so Brutus had to do what she asked regardless of his preferences.

He soon became more uncomfortable than he had even been in battle!

There had even been a handful of times where precocious women tried to order him around. They possessed a shallow understanding of Hexer culture and thought that men were universally conditioned to follow the instructions of any woman!

Brutus wasn't offended by their attempts to extract favors from him. Instead, he was amused.

"I am sorry, madame, but I am already in the service of the Glory Battalion. I only obey the instructions of my designed superiors."

Just because he was a male Hexer didn't mean that any random woman could boss him around. He was a uniformed soldier, which meant he was already obliged to follow the orders of someone who had the right to command him. Civilians and bystanders only deserved his respect, not his devotion!

Even if he wasn't in active service, he still wouldn't listen to the lesser women. As a boy, Brutus was always in the care of female Hexer.

At home, that would be his mother.

Here, Brutus followed the arrangements of his sister and to a lesser degree his cousin.

If a local woman wanted to gain control over him, then she should ask Gloriana's permission, not his own! He didn't have the right to make this decision!

Fortunately, once he cleared up this misunderstanding, the local women no longer pestered him with inane requests for 'massages' or 'private tutoring sessions.'

Once he gently taught the locals how to address him and what they were allowed to do, Brutus no longer found his daily instruction sessions to be a chore.

Despite their inferior piloting qualifications, their skill level was higher than he expected of third-raters. The Larkinson clan members impressed him the most. Each of them possessed a solid if basic foundation that made it easier for him to teach some of the more advanced piloting concepts.

The Larkinsons were also a bit more well-behaved and disciplined than others. Their military-oriented background and heritage allowed Brutus to communicate with them in a way that was both efficient and curt.

In the week since he started to volunteer his time, he did something he never expected at the start.

He began to develop a closer bond with a couple of aboriginals.

One of the people who earned his acknowledgement was Jannzi Larkinson.

Though Brutus was aware that the Larkinson Clan was an off-shoot of a family that was famous for producing a lot of expert pilots, he never met one in person.

Jannzi came close, though. Some expert pilots like Brutus were capable of picking this up. He instantly became intrigued when she walked by him one day.

Though the Larkinson Clan also had another mech pilot, Brutus completely disregarded the boy in favor of studying the intriguing woman who radiated a similar kind of strength than him. The more he studied her, the more he became intrigued.

He had the feeling they shared something in common with each other!

However, when he approached her on his own accord, Jannzi didn't exhibit as much interest towards him as the other Larkinsons.

"Do you need something, Venerable Brutus?" She crossed her arms as she was standing at the foot of the Shield of Samar.

"Please call me Brutus, madame." He gestured towards her large and hefty mech. "That's a spaceborn mech, right? It's not very maneuverable on land. Pardon me for saying so, but it doesn't seem you are getting much out of practicing with this mech under standard gravity conditions. You are much better served if you practice in space or switch to another like the Paravan."

Jannzi frowned. "I appreciate your advice, but I am content with my training methods. Piloting my personal mech under these conditions isn't as useless as you think. The bonds we share with our mechs is just as important as cultivating our battle skills."

Her answer confused Brutus a bit. Though he adored his Star Dancer a bit more than usual due to his sister's involvement in its design, it was still inevitable for expert pilots to lose or replace their mechs.

"You'll eventually outgrow your mech, you know. In fact, it's already the case. This mech is far too sluggish and weak to express your full skill."