At those words, everyone began whispering among themselves. King Vellent added, "Everyone here knows that, over the past year, at least twenty percent of the malicious terrorist attacks across the galaxy involved cyborgs, or even intelligent machines. Now we should know where these unclean things come from."
"Unclean things"? That sounded just like something a fanatical preacher from some Semitic cult would say. Yu Lian could only roll his eyes.
"Yes, the debt of blood owed by the Serpent Around the World has grown," Count Tadié agreed.
Well, the count was the first traditional Starrealm Knight, a typical imperial soldier, and a master-level psionic. It was understandable that he was hostile toward intelligent machines. But King Vellent, at least, had that scientist image to maintain.
Yu Lian had barely finished the thought when King Vellent, the man with the scientist image, continued, "According to our intelligence, the cyborg organizations currently most active across the galaxy include the Brotherhood of Intelligent Machines, the Digital Artisans' Union, and the Steel Doll Club of the Iron Legion Confederacy."
"The last one is just a Palai mech-piloting club, isn't it?" Yu Lian said. "They're even planning to promote mech wing racing and celestial ball games. It's a combination of sports and technology. They're clearly contributing to peace across the universe."
The Palai of the Iron Legion Confederacy might look like ugly bugs, but they were generally decent, conscientious people, friendly toward both themselves and the Commonwealth. For one thing, the nanomaintenance ship coming to reinforce them had been built with Palai technology.
Besides, even sticking to the facts, the Steel Doll Club really was more of a cultural organization promoting its club activities. It was currently hosting the universe's first mech sports tournament—in other words, competitive events with people piloting mechs. The "athletes'" abilities