The Mech Touch

"Each of you are part of the future of our Magrin Family." A vigorous and stern-faced man spoke in front of a lectern in front of a classroom.

Dozens of young children obediently sat on their chairs as they had been taught and looked up to the speaker with varying degrees of love, respect and adoration in their expressions.

Neville Magrin was one of those children. He was almost indistinguishable from his other brothers and sisters.

Though each of them were born from different mothers, they all shared the same father.

They hardly ever saw their father in reality. Their mothers told them that he shouldered great burdens and had to work hard every day in order to complete a grand mission.

Even if the children had no idea what all of that meant, the importance of what his father was doing had already been drilled into their minds before they grew old enough to understand human speech.

"I have high expectations for all of you." Otrus Magrin continued his speech. "The school that I have set up for you will teach you essential skills. Each of you will need to be good at something when you grow older because the galaxy we live in does not tolerate useless people!"

Becoming useless was one of the greatest sins in the Magrin Family! Little Neville Magrin stiffened his back and resolved to work harder than everyone else to earn his father's personal recognition.

The older kids told him that the ones that performed better received more attention from their father!

In contrast, the ones that never amounted to everything usually got transferred away from the orbit of their father so that he would never have to waste his time on failures.

Otrus continued his speech.

"Learning is a struggle. Becoming good at something requires a lot of dedication and hard work. Some will tell you that you will need talent to become good at something, but that only applies to a small number of professions such as mech piloting. I do not believe that talent is relevant in everything else. Therefore, if you don't succeed, you have no one to blame but yourself."

This was a harsh message, but the children had all heard this message many times. Their father tolerated no excuses from them. If they failed, it was their fault.

Though their father could be harsh, he was also fair. Their mothers repeatedly emphasized this point.

"Each of you are lucky to be my children." Otrus Magrin claimed. "There are many children in this galaxy who have no parents, who don't have a roof over their heads, who have never felt the touch of love and aren't able to get into any decent schools. Compare that to yourselves. Here, you have everything you need. You have access to a good school that possesses all of the necessary learning facilities. You will receive a light set of augmentations that will help you keep up with your studies. I have even been generous enough to free plenty of hours in your weekly schedule."

The Magrin children each knew they were enormously privileged. While they were a bit sheltered from society, they heard how many children grew up in poverty. Some literally had to live on the streets!

Otrus Magrin swept all of the children with his piercing gaze. Kids such as Neville felt as if they were exposed to the great responsibility that their father had always shouldered!

The man's voice grew softer and more gentle. "You are all sons and daughters of mine. My love for you is boundless, so I have made sure to give you enough playtime to let you be children. However, do not forget that children cannot rule the galaxy. Only the strongest and smartest grown ups have earned the right to reign over everyone else. If you want to join me at the top, then do the best you can. Only you have the power to make yourself succeed. Excellence is within your reach, but you will need to work harder than everyone else to succeed. Make me proud. For Magrin!"

All of the children raised their fists! "For Magrin!"

Little Neville Magrin became completely entranced by their father's strong voice and wise words.

Many kids worked hard for a time, but they eventually fell back to their youthful impulses. Spending so many hours of studying ahead or understanding the lesson materials more thoroughly was utterly boring compared to playing with all of the games in the playrooms.

Neville used to play with his toys as well, but ever since he met his father, he locked them into a lockbox that he had requested from his mother and resolved to never open them again.

The box constantly tempted him. He had placed it on the foot of his bed, so he was constantly aware that it was close.

His toy mechs, his stuffed dolls and his cool starship models always called him back and play like in the old days.

Many times, he came to stand in front of his lockbox and came close to opening the lid.

It took more and more effort to turn himself back each day.

Each time he did, he felt saddened and pained for rejecting so much fun, but he constantly reminded himself that his father would always approve of his choice.

The desire to earn the recognition of his father ultimately drove Neville forward.

The lockbox became easier for him to ignore. As he grew older, he became less obsessed over playing with his toys. Part of it was because he outgrew them, but another part of it was because he found enjoyment in other ways.

The approval shown by his mother, the admiration he attracted from his fellow brothers and sisters and the accomplishment he felt for doing a good job all turned into his new sources of fun!

Of course, Neville was hardly the only child in his class who worked harder than ever. There were numerous other children who constantly competed for first place. They all pressured each other into doing better, because they knew that if they slacked off even once, they would get further away from obtaining a chance to receive a compliment from their father!

It wasn't until he became 10 years old that his life changed forever.

From the moment the Magrin Family learned of his genetic aptitude, his father summoned him and his mother!

It was one of the most glorious moments of his long life. Even though Neville had attained much greater achievements since that time, he would never forget the pride and expectation his father directed to himself.

"A genetic aptitude of B is good." Otrus said as he stroked his large and hard hand on Neville's head. "Children with this aptitude can be considered talented in mech piloting, but don't let that go to your head. Even A-grade potentates ended up becoming worthless because they thought their excellent talent was enough to replace hard work. If you want to be first, then work for it. Make me proud."

"I will, father." Neville politely said, though his little heart was burning with the desire to get another pat on his head.

In his 10 years of life, he never experienced as much love from his father as this day!

Neville threw himself into his training. The Magrin Family hadn't been large enough to set up its own mech academy back then, so Neville was forced to attend a public institution.

It was hard at first. There were so many people around him who were so different from the Magrins he was familiar with. Their personalities diverged and hardly any of his fellow mech cadets trained as much as himself.

Even so, he resisted the temptation to hang out with them or match their pace. He clung onto the motivation that allowed him to stop himself from opening his box of toys and pushed himself into both physical and mental training.

With hard work came rewards. He earned higher grades and greater appreciation from his mech instructors. That allowed him to take extra classes where he could receive personal tutoring from retired veterans who could teach a lot of materials that weren't necessarily included in the curriculum.

By the time he graduated from the mech academy with distinction, he entered a long but successful career as a mech pilot.

It almost seemed natural for him to achieve successive breakthroughs, but only a few people understood how much he sacrificed in order to meet everyone's expectations.

As more and more people in the Magrin Family expected greatness from him, Neville always made sure to never slack off in his training.

This was because despite all of the people looking up to him, the increasingly more accomplished mech pilot only truly cared about the opinion of a single individual.

His father.

Becoming an expert pilot and especially an ace pilot was enough to make a person feel fulfilled, but not Neville.

This was because his father expected him to go much further.

Whereas many other people thought that Neville would only amount to so much before he reached his limit, his father never believed that he had reached the end of his road.

"You are only halfway on your journey." Otrus Magrin gently said as he patted Neville on the back with great affection. "So don't celebrate before you have completed your marathon. You will need to work much harder from now on because the remainder of your route will be an uphill struggle."

"Do you believe in me, father?"

Otrus' eyes stared hungrily at his grown son. "I do. Do you know why? It is because you are my flesh and blood. Not only that, but you also took after my lessons better than anyone else. No one has matched my drive and urgency to excel as well as you. That is why I know for certain that you have what it takes to become a god pilot."

His father was the beginning and the end of his life. Though other people always reacted oddly when they found out how much Saint Neville Magrin remained dependent on his father, he never saw this as a weakness.

Instead, he saw this as his strength!

He had earned everything in his life with the help of his father.

As long as Otrus Magrin remained a part of his life, Saint Neville Magrin never had to worry about everything else. His only concern and responsibility was to become strong as possible so that he could help his father fulfill his great mission.

For over one-and-a-half centuries, his father served as Neville Magrin's bedrock.

The ace pilot never imagined a scenario where his father was no longer present in his life.

This was because Otrus Magrin was simply too strong, brilliant and clever to fail. The man hardly looked older and still tackled all of his problems with the same level of energy and conviction as before.

Though Otrus inevitably made mistakes from time to time, he never allowed that to put him down for long.

As Neville grew increasingly stronger, he felt gratified for being help his father tide over these difficulties with greater ease.

He should have been doing so for his father once again today.

"Father!"

Saint Neville didn't know why a part of his mind recalled all of his cherished moments that he had spent with his father, but he had an ominous feeling about what he was experiencing.

Past and present blended into each other as he remembered Otrus Magrin when he was at his greatest and when he was at his most vulnerable.

A much greater sense of urgency and pain burst in his heart, causing him to resonate a lot better with his Unrelenting than before.

However, his connection with his ace mech also became a lot more unstable than any other point in his life!

His ace mech's Saint Kingdom began to wobble even as it glowed brighter, causing it to draw even more laser fire from the alien battleship, but Neville cared nothing about his own ordeals.

He only paid attention to the wellbeing of a single person.

"Father! Talk to me, please! Are you still alive?!"

The lack of answer caused the dread in his heart to grow even stronger.