The Mech Touch novel Chapter 4651

The interview conducted by the award-winning Najan Kittar had reached a hotter phase!

Unwilling to be deflected by her current guest's dubious and slimy excuses, she had brought up another incident that was sure to force at least some admission from the disgraced dwarven emperor that tried to disguise himself under a righteous coat!

At least, that was what Najan Kittar hoped.

Rion Aaden's tall and bulky armored form rose from the bench. The dwarf's presence seemed to magnify as he became larger than life to many viewers.

It was as if he was an ace pilot himself, which was clearly not the case as he could not even pilot a mech!

As the powerful-looking crown made the armored dwarf look even taller, Rion Aaden issued a forceful response to the latest accusations thrown by the female interviewer.

[HUMANITY IS NOT PERFECT. OUR CIVILIZATION IS FAR FROM IDEAL. MANY INJUSTICES TAKE PLACE ACROSS THE STARS. I SHOULD KNOW, AS I LIVED THROUGH SOME OF THEM. THE YEARS I LIVED IN IGNORANCE AND SLAVERY SHOULD HAVE BROKEN ME AND DIMINISHED ME AS A DWARF. IT DID NOT. I REFUSED TO BEND TO THE FORCES THAT SEEK TO BREAK NOT JUST MYSELF, BUT ALL OF DWARVENKIND.]

"You are going off on a tangent, Your Majesty." Najan Kittar interjected with a touch of annoyance on her expression.

[BE SILENT, WOMAN.] The powerful dwarf hissed while his optical lenses flashed. [MY MESSAGE NEEDS TO BE HEARD BY YOUR AUDIENCE. SINCE THE START OF THIS INTERVIEW, YOU HAVE DIRECTED THE ATTENTION OF YOUR VIEWERS TO THE WRONG SUBJECTS. THE CRISIS THAT IS AFFECTING MY PEOPLE IS GREATER THAN MY PERSONAL STORY.]

Though Najan Kittar was very much aware that her guest was clearly trying to deflect from his own impropriety, she gained interest in where the dwarven leader wanted to take this dialogue.

"What is this great and terrible crisis that you are referring to, Your Majesty?" The interviewer curiously asked. "If I may say so, I find you to be a fascinating individual. I have interviewed over half-a-dozen dwarves throughout my career as a journalist, but none have demonstrated as much pride and determination as you. We should have allocated more time to this slot."

The dwarf ignored her praise.

[IF YOU HAVE YET TO DISCERN THE PROBLEM THAT I AM ALLUDING TO, THEN LET ME TELL YOU THE ANSWER. I AM REFERRING TO THE TREATMENT OF HEAVY GRAVITY VARIANT HUMANS IN HUMAN SOCIETY. I HAVE EXPRESSLY USED THE FULL AND ORIGINAL NAME FOR OUR KIND, BECAUSE THE WORD 'DWARF' ALL TOO OFTEN MAKES PEOPLE FORGET THE FACT THAT WE ARE ALSO CHILDREN OF HUMANITY.]

"No one here is accusing you of belonging to a different race, Your Majesty."

[THAT IS BECAUSE THE PEOPLE HERE DO NOT WANT TO BE EXPOSED AS BIGOTS. DO NOT MAKE EXCUSES, MISS KITTAR. NORMALLY-STATURED HUMANS ALL TOO OFTEN LIKE TO LOOK DOWN ON US DWARVES, BOTH FIGURATIVELY AND LITERALLY. HEAVY GRAVITY VARIANT HUMANS HAVE ALWAYS BEEN A PART OF THE MINORITY, SO ANY ATTEMPTS TO CORRECT THIS INJUSTICE HAVE ALWAYS FAILED.]

To her credit, Najan Kittar made a remorseful impression.

"I have personally never discriminated against a dwarf, but as a member of the group of humans with normal proportions, I understand that my words do not mean much to you and your fellow dwarves. I have covered stories before where my fellow humans have not provided fair employment conditions to their dwarven workers."

The Iron Emperor shifted in her direction. [THERE IT IS AGAIN. YOU ARE TALKING AS IF YOU AND YOUR FELLOW HUMANS BELONG TO A SUPERIOR SPECIES WHILE DWARVES BELONG TO A LESSER SPECIES. DO YOU UNDERSTAND MY WARNINGS NOW? THE STATE OF OUR SOCIETY HAS DECLINED TO A GREATER DEGREE THAN YOU THINK IF IT HAS BECOME AN ACCEPTED HABIT TO TREAT DWARVES AS INHUMAN.]

"I have done no such thing, Your Majesty!" Miss Kittar responded with a shocked expression, though no one could figure out how much of that was theater and how much of that was genuine. "You have proven your point, as everyone here can attest to. I can now agree that there are serious issues with how we speak about dwarves and treat them in our daily lives, but not everyone is purposefully trying to disparage heavy gravity variant humans. The vast amount regular humans do not know any better."

CLANK!

[THAT MAKES IT WORSE!] The Iron Emperor boomed! The armored dwarf raised his thick arms as if to express the frustration of his own kind. [YOU STANDARD HUMANS DO NOT THINK ABOUT HOW YOU CASUALLY DISMISS, DISPARAGE AND DIMINISH YOUR MUTATED COUSINS! BECAUSE WE DO NOT LOOK LIKE YOU, IT HAS SOMEHOW BECOME JUSTIFIED TO TREAT US AS DIFFERENT.]

"Look, Your Majesty, we all understand that you and the people you profess to represent have well-founded grievances, but that does not give you the right to paint standard humans such as myself with a single brush. What you are doing is perpetuating the cycle of ignorance and prejudice that you aim to destroy!"

The armored dwarf's eye lenses flashed again.

[DO YOU THINK I AM SPEAKING WITHOUT PROOF? I HAVE THE RESEARCH TO BACK UP MY CLAIMS. AFTER MY RESEARCHERS AND I INVESTIGATING THE STATE OF MY PEOPLE THROUGHOUT HUMAN SPACE, I CAN REVEAL ONE UNDISPUTED FACT TO YOU. DEPRIVING DWARVES OF THEIR HUMAN RIGHTS IS NOT AN EXCEPTION. IT IS THE RULE, ONE THAT HAS PROVEN TO BE MORE UNIVERSAL THAN YOU EVER IMAGINED!]

Najan Kittar's eyes widened as she felt more attacked than she had ever been in her last dozen or so interviews!

"Can you publicize your research for us, Your Majesty? My program has a dedicated fact checking team on hand that can verify any claims or statements that you have made."

[HERE YOU GO.]

After the Iron Emperor transferred the electronic documents to Najan, who subsequently passed them onto her backstage personnel, the interview session continued.

"For now, let us proceed as if the evidence that you have provided is valid." The woman said as she leaned closer to the armored dwarf. "You have spoken plenty of words about the problematic state of heavy gravity variant humans in our society. Surely you must have thought about a plan that can lessen the divide between different versions of humanity."

Forceful and visionary leaders always had a habit of coming up with solutions that they strongly believed in and wished to implement.

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