The Mech Touch novel Chapter 2880

Chapter 2880: Rising Momentum

"That Commander Sendra of yours acted a bit too excessively this time." Angelique Harcourt spoke as she met with Ketis back at her villa at the end of the day. "The more traditional swordmasters frown upon showboating. Her conduct towards her opponent this afternoon is disrespectful. With their skills, she could have defeated her foe in an upright manner. There was no need for your superior to demean someone weaker. The poor man's career is pretty much over given how widely his humiliating defeat has spread."

Ketis sheepishly shrugged. "For what it's worth, I agree with you, but Commander Sendra has a mind of her own. None of us except Venerable Dise can rein her in, and even then it won't do much. She chose to win the match in the most attention-grabbing way possible, and she definitely succeeded in that. The amount of attention we've received is at least two orders of magnitude greater than before!"

Commander Sendra's stunts were very controversial to the more conservative and traditional swordmasters. There were plenty of snobby Heavensworders who thought that Sendra acted dishonorably by failing to treat her opponent with respect.

Good sportsmanship entailed fostering a circumstance where every participant benefited by taking part. A loss should only signify an end to someone's journey in the tournament. It should not be a punishment where the loser was humiliated in front of a crowd of billions if not trillions of spectators!

A lot of matches took place each day. The Greater Omanderie Festival was a truly massive event that offered something to every Heavensworder.

Initially, the number of people who paid attention to this specific match only numbered in the tens of thousands. Most of the broadcasts focused on the exploits of the seeded contestants and particularly interesting dark horses.

Yet the manner in which Sendra's mech defeated its opponent was so newsworthy that all of the domestic and foreign news portals that covered the event broadcasted the highlights of the match in front of a huge audience!

The publicity generated by this match exceeded the efforts of every other Swordmaiden by at least a hundred times!

As it turned out, there were plenty of people who loved the theatrics!

It took a lot of skill and cunning to steal an opposing swordsman mech's weapon. Sendra definitely proved that she was by no means weak.

As long as at least some of these people looked Commander Sendra up, they would eventually know about the Swordmaidens.

Once they found out that the Swordmaidens were accepting recruits, a small proportion of eligible swordswomen might be interested enough to apply!

While the number of applicants was still low in absolute terms, the trend was much more optimistic than before. The Swordmaidens came a lot closer to accomplishing its goal of recruiting at least a thousand battle-ready swordsman mech pilots than before!

Ketis admired Sendra's decision. The Swordmaiden Commander prioritized the greater needs of the Swordmaidens over her personal honor.

Angelique was right that Sendra could have won the match in a more normal fashion. Yet matches like these where two honorable swordsman mechs hacked their swords at each other until one side succumbed happened all the time.

The highlights of Sendra's match would have never reached such a massive audience if it depicted a fight that was indistinguishable from the thousands that had already occurred that day!

Angelique Harcourt crossed her arms as she leaned against a pillar. She observed Ketis with a critical eye as the latter tossed some stones into a fish pond.

"I really don't know what to make of your group of women." The Journeyman sighed. "On one hand, I sense a true warrior spirit in each of you. On the other hand, your conduct and your choices make it clear that you Swordmaidens are not as honorable as the rest of the Larkinson Clan."

"We're different. Honor is great and all, but surviving and succeeding are more important. We have fought against plenty of honorable soldiers who ultimately died at our hands."

"Does that mean you don't care about your honor at all?" Angelique looked puzzled.

"We care about our reputation."

"Is that not the same?"

Ketis shook her head as she tossed in her next stone. Different from the last ones, her latest rock didn't skip across the surface. Instead, it cut straight into the water and almost cut one of the placidly-swimming fishes!

"Honor is a luxury that we don't deserve. Sure, it's useful and all, but to Swordmaidens like us, it isn't necessary. You have never been in our position so you don't know what it is like to do what is necessary to stay alive."

"I don't understand. What does this have to do with reputation?"

"We are cruel to our enemies but kind to our friends." Ketis smiled. "There is no need to show any mercy to our opponents. That just makes things worse for us. Maybe it sounds selfish to you, but we really can't be bothered with all of the pretentious behavior that is associated with honorable conduct. When we want to achieve something, we'll accomplish it in the most effective way possible."

"And that has led Commander Sendra to turn herself into one of the more notorious competitors?

"We don't care for our reputation in the Heavensword Association. We'll be leaving once this tournament is over, hopefully with lots of like-minded recruits in tow. We aren't looking to recruit any goody two shoes anyway. We like practical women who aren't afraid of getting their hands dirty when the situation calls for it. There's enough room for those types of soldiers in the rest of the Larkinson Clan."

The more time she spent with the Swordmaidens, the more Angelique learned about this peculiar group of women.

As a mech designer who grew up in the Heavensword Association for her entire life, Angelique became immersed in a very upright culture that prized honor and mutual respect.

Some aspects about their culture ran counter to the prevailing notions in the rest of Majestic Teal, but the Heavensworders didn't care about that. The founders of their state were old-school warriors who wanted to start a purer warrior society than the glory-obsessed Garlen Empire.

As much as she was interested in exploring an alternate mindset, Angelique was too attached to her state to adopt the Swordmaiden way.

Intriguing though they might be, the Swordmaidens were only guests. Just as Ketis had said, she and her fellow sisters would leave once their participation in the tournaments ended.

The next day, the personal combat tournaments began their next round of matches.

This time, the top team of Swordmaidens were preparing to fight a group match against a formidable opponent.

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