The Mech Touch (Web Novel)

5809 The Octara Kingdom

The format for the grand auction had changed.

Instead of bidding with cash or phasewater, the participants needed to offer more substantial concessions in order to obtain what they needed.

Value was no longer strictly measured by concrete numbers, but by the subjective opinion of the current owner of the much-coveted shares.

As Ves swept his gaze across the submerged upper hall, he gained a good impression of how the gathered leaders and elites regarded this situation.

Many of them displayed clear interest in obtaining shares. Even if the LMC in its current stage of development did not merit their attention, its future potential was limitless with a highly promising mech designer like Ves in charge.

However, these greedy figures were in the minority.

Many more enlightened individuals understood that the point of investing in the LMC was not to earn huge dividends, though it was certainly a nice bonus.

Their real motivation was to develop a strong, long-term relationship with the most talented mech designer of his generation.

Given his extraordinary feats and his much more impressive background than anyone previously realized, Ves turned out to be a lot more remarkable and promising than anyone realized!

It no longer became crazy talk to consider Ves to be a Star Designer candidate. His history so far contained so many crazy turns of events that he already experienced far more successes and upheaval in his life than any Star Designer at his age!

Ves did not just match the template of a Star Designer-in-the-

making, he exemplified it, so much so that the betting platforms judged that his probability of advancing to the highest rank was higher than numerous renowned Master Mech Designers!

Who wouldn't want to befriend a mech designer with such fantastic future prospects?

Even if the chance was great that he would stagnate, get assassinated or otherwise fail to reach his potential, it did not hurt to make a modest investment in exchange for a possible future payout.

In other words, the way that many powerful players regarded him was like he was a particularly attractive lottery ticket.

It was definitely worthwhile for them to participate in this special auction so long as the cost of purchasing the lottery ticket did not harm their own strength and financial position too much.

The only problem was that far too many players made the same conclusion. The intense competition for ownership stakes in LMC meant that only the wealthiest and most optimistic ones would be able to get away with a solid connection to Ves.

Ves smiled as he completed his quick survey. Interest in his shares was great enough for him to decide to push for his main objective anyway.

"There will be five rounds of bidding in total. Each round will allow you to contest the ownership of 5 percent of all outstanding shares in the Living Mech Corporation that are currently under my name. You may call out a concession and perhaps an official valuation in phasewater, but it will be up to me to accept or deny that your bid has exceeded the value of the previous one. Do note that I am not too rigid with the rules of this special auction. If you happen to offer such a major concession that 5 percent ownership in the LMC does not cut it anymore, I may agree to increase the share I am willing to transact with you. I have already given you an explanation for what I seek. It is up to you to figure out how you wish to satisfy my needs."

He raised a warning finger.

"Since I am determined to come away with full ownership in at least one orbital shipyard, you may only offer shipbuilding facilities in this inaugural round. I will not accept any other kinds of concessions this time. Leave that for the subsequent rounds of bidding."

Ves nodded towards Orion Leeds, who promptly clapped his hands!

"Let the first round of bidding as specified by Professor Larkinson commence! Please speak one at a time and give time for our consignor to accept or reject your bid."

A few seconds of silence ensued as many people wanted to wait and see. They were not quite clear what Ves wanted to hear.

Soon enough, an older and distinguished-looking gentleman rose up from his seat.

"It is an honor to meet you, Professor Larkinson. I am Elijah von Reevus, a first-generation duke of the Octara Kingdom and its defense minister. The Young King has instructed me to invite you to become a royal advisor and hereditary noble in our court. Before you object, let me inform you that we do not demand you to pledge any oath of fealty or submission to His Majesty. We only ask you to befriend us and be honest in your dealings with our kingdom. We are willing to gift you partial but controlling interest in one of our royal shipyards."

The strange noble's offer took many people by surprise.

Instead of offering a shipyard outright, Duke Elijah von Reevus instead tied it into a more elaborate package that clearly sought to bind Ves to the Octara Kingdom!

This was a rather clever way of getting more out of a transaction. The duke's transparent ploy clearly inspired a lot of other potential bidders into cooking up similar offers!

Ves curled his lips downwards. He had little interest in burdening himself with useless obligations.

While it was best if he and his clan maintained a cordial relationship with the government of the star system where his new shipyard resided, that did not mean that Ves wanted to become a vassal!

Perhaps sensing that Ves was not taking his offer too well, the duke of the Octara Kingdom quickly clarified his offer.

"If at any time you wish to end your relationship with our court, you may do so as long as you are willing to follow orderly procedures. We do have to ask you to relinquish your majority stake in our royal shipyard. I can promise you that you may use our royal shipyard as long as you do not excessively damage or degrade its operational capabilities. We offer you full access to our logistical network, allowing you to source the large quantities of bulk exotics and hypers needed to construct first-class starships under a cost-plus pricing scheme. So long as our Octara Kingdom prospers, so shall your royal shipyard, which will always enjoy the protection of our system defense forces."

Ves smiled. Now that sounded more to his liking.

The duke was not that stupid after all. Turning his offer into a loose commitment where Ves could pull out at any time did much to bolster the attractiveness of this bid.

"I accept your bid, Your Grace." Ves calmly spoke. "If none of the subsequent bids gives me reason to favor them over yours, I would be happy to accept your terms. Just make sure that the final contract closely matches your description. I do not tolerate deception."

The duke looked scandalized!

"We would not dare to engage in such dishonesty, professor!"

Ves was not so sure about that. He had never heard of the Octara Kingdom before, so he utilized his cranial implant to discreetly look it up on the galactic net.

What he managed to read was… not impressive.

It turned out that the Octara Kingdom did not start out as a serious colony founded by ambitious pioneers.

The origin of this relatively small first-rate state was actually a lot more banal.

Back during the Age of Mechs, there existed a couple of extremely wealthy leaders. They had a 15-year old son who behaved a bit like a spoiled brat to the point where he started to slip in his studies.

Instead of trying to correct the behavior of their son the normal way, this power couple instead did something extremely outrageous.

They formed a powerful pioneering fleet, dumped their son onto the flagship, sent the vessels through the greater beyonder gate and commanded the new arrivals to found a kingdom in an upper zone!

That was how the Octara Kingdom came to be. The pioneering fleet succeeded in carving out a fairly small but resource-rich chunk of territory in the Vivan Upper Zone and started to build up an entire colonial state from scratch.

Even though the ultimate owners of the pioneering fleet did not style themselves as royals or nobles, they purposefully forged the new colonies into a feudal kingdom for the sole purpose of turning their son into a real king!

This was the most extravagant combination of a punishment, an exile, a practical teaching experience and a birthday present that Ves had ever heard of! How could these parents be so out of touch that they did not even take the founding of a first-rate colonial state seriously?

Many lesser but much more hard-working individuals would have taken this venture a hundred times more seriously!

In any case, the Octara Kingdom was never supposed to be a 'serious' state to begin with, and many people knew that. Everyone from the Young King himself down to the commoners who emigrated to the new kingdom in exchange for rich compensation all treated it as one giant amusement park.

If not for the fact that the Octara Kingdom was mainly run by a large and professional civilian administration, the immature king and his extensive court of partying nobles would never have made it last longer than a year!

It was pretty clear that the Young King was not just supposed to enact his fantasies as an absolute monarch of his own private kingdom.

He was supposed to learn how to handle responsibilities and run an actual state by throwing him off the deep end.

It did not matter if he fumbled or failed, because his parents back in the old galaxy would always ensure that the Young King would always receive the support he needed.

If everything proceeded as planned, the Young King would have meandered about as a sovereign for a couple of decades before gradually maturing and becoming more accustomed to acting a serious ruler.

By that time, the colonization of the Red Ocean should have reached a much more advanced stage. The parents of the Young King would have been able to organize a more ambitious pioneering fleet that was capable of colonizing the more attractive territories that were closer to the center of the Red Ocean.

In other words, the Octara Kingdom was supposed to be a practice run.

The reality was very much different. As soon as the Great Severing occurred, a lot of plans got disrupted, including the playtime for the Young King!

Now that he had suddenly been bereft of contact and any form of support from his parents from the old galaxy, the Young King had been forced to sober up quickly, as did everyone else from his isolated kingdom!

While the Octara Kingdom was actually doing pretty decently despite what had happened, its biggest problem was that it was located in the Vivan Upper Zone, which happened to be located very close to the frontlines!

Given that all of the states of the Vivan Upper Zone fell under the Red Ocean Union, the Octara Kingdom could not count on strong support to help defend its territories.

It did not help that the Octarans spent so much time partying and playing around instead of engaging in actual diplomacy. They had few allies to begin with, and their prior conduct left them with a bad relationship that they had yet to fully rehabilitate.

This put the bid of Duke Von Reevus into perspective. The Octara Kingdom was desperate for friends, and was willing to place a serious bet on Ves!

"Interesting."

While Ves did not mind the dubious history of the Octara Kingdom, he was a lot more concerned about its perilous location.

How much value did an orbital shipyard possess when it was located a bit too close from the frontlines?