Axelor was going to conquer the Hidden Kill Sect?
What? How? When?!
This piece of news was so shocking to Daneel that he couldn"t even respond to Sister Xuan"s queries for a few seconds.
After she finally raised her voice and said his name, Daneel came to his senses and walked out of the room without a word.
This changed things. This changed things in a big way.
Sister Xuan, on the other hand, didn"t think too much into this as she had just been asking whether he was OK.
Thinking that he was probably putting on his expert master act and knowing that he wasn"t hurt, she went back to chatting with the other two people who were her acquaintances.
After reaching his room, Daneel grimaced when he saw all the mess around.
However, there were several human servants cleaning all the rubble, and a few mages had also started to fix the damage.
Thankfully, the bedroom wasn"t damaged, so Daneel entered it and closed the door behind him.
Sitting down on the bed, he tried to order his thoughts.
Axelor was one of the strongest Kingdoms on the Central Continent. Even if they hadn"t taken the help of the mages from the Big 4, they could have been a solid contender to take the second place in the Olympics.
It was almost public knowledge that the goal of both Axelor and the member of the Big 4 behind them was to take over the Central Continent. However, because the rest of the forces always allied against Axelor if it tried something big, it hadn"t been able to accomplish its goal yet.
If Angaria had been in a normal state, the rest of the Kingdoms and forces in the Central Continent would have allied against him too when it became known that he was uniting with the Black Raven Kingdom. The only reason they hadn"t done so was the looming threat of the Church, which Daneel had taken advantage of to make his move.
Clearly, he wasn"t the only one taking advantage of that threat.
It made a lot of sense. After all, what was stopping Axelor from doing so?
The thing that shocked him most was that he hadn"t heard about this at all till now. His spies had been totally ineffective, meaning that Axelor must have gone to GREAT lengths to try and ensure that this fact remained a secret.
Understanding this, Daneel started to appreciate that slimy kid. His sliminess actually seemed a little bit cute now.
However, he still wasn"t ready to believe his story blindly. Yet, Daneel made the decision: he was going to accept him as a disciple and try to uncover more about him later on.
So, taking the communication trinket, he said, "Hey, kiddo. I gotta say, that information was, indeed, quite useful. Seems you"re my second disciple now! But you"re the junior disciple though, and your senior is that kid from Lanthanor. Can you handle that? And I should warn you that if you want to learn things, I"m going to have a lot of tasks for you. You better be up for it."
In a voice that seemed to contain all the world"s joy, Percy replied, "Thank you, thank you, thank you, Master! I won"t let you down! Of course I"m fine with having a Senior Brother! If you command it, I"m ready to call anyone my senior! How about I send a gift to Senior Brother Daneel, too? I"ll think about it! Please call me whenever you see fit, Master!"
Hearing this, Daneel chuckled.
This kid seemed to be a gift that never stopped giving!
He had no shame whatsoever taking everything he could from this guy, as he was, after all, from a "village".
Hoping that the next gift would also be as valuable as the first two, Daneel smiled, feeling glad that this was settled.
He had one crony in the Hidden Kill Sect, but it definitely wasn"t enough. h.e.l.l, he didn"t even trust this crony fully.
So, it was time to make another one.
"Skrrag, can you come over to my room? I have something to ask."
Sending the message on the communication trinket that he had been given after entering the Sect, Daneel waited.
After a few seconds, Skrrag knocked on the door and came in.
"h.e.l.lo, Sir. You"ve made a quick recovery! If I didn"t know better, I would have thought that you healed yourself through the night! I hope everything is fine with those from the Big 4? Your house will be back to top shape in an hour, I"ve checked, and I"m sorry I brought them to you, I didn"t know there were problems-"
Raising his hands to stop the reptilian from talking, Daneel said, "Calm down, boy! It"s all fine, I"m not mad! I just wanted to talk to you! Sit down!"
Smiling on seeing that the "expert" wasn"t angry, Skrrag sat down.
Seeing this, Daneel actually caught a hint of something that he hadn"t noticed before.
Skrrag had an…innocence to him that made Daneel think that he was more like a teenager than a grown man.
It was mostly from his mannerisms, such as the way he had been ready to beg before in an instant, or how he had become impressed with Daneel during their fight, or even now, when he showed relief on seeing that someone he admired wasn"t angry.
Also, using what he knew about the customs of other forces, Envoys were either long-time government officials of a force, or the offspring of the leader of a force sent with the intention of getting experience. This had been the case with Eldra, too, who had been sent as an envoy to Lanthanor by her mother.
This corroborated with the supposition that Skrrag had also been sent to gain experience, and that he was also young.
Young…and gullible.
Daneel felt a little bad about what he was going to do, but he shoved it aside, knowing that it was necessary.
He also knew that he might have to do a lot more "bad" things before he achieved all his goals, but if he kept mooning over them, he might never get anything done.
So, steeling his heart, he said, "Do you drink?"
"Uh, yes, Sir, but I possibly can"t share a drink with you- an honored guest. I don"t think my father would like it at all…that situation of deactivating our formation really cost us a lot…but I really shouldn"t be talking about that. I"ll take my leave."
Sighing deeply, Daneel replied, "And here I just thought that we have a bond after shedding so much blood together. Well, I shedded the blood for both of us, but it counts! Fine, fine, leave. There"s no more honor between men, I swear."
"Sir, don"t say that! I really do admire you for the endurance you showed! No one I know could have done that! Well, maybe one drink is fine. I can"t deny my guest"s request as the host. That"s what my social customs teacher taught me, anyway."
He was right! This kid did have his guard down!
And he was definitely young, too.
Daneel"s plan was working. But the problem was, he didn"t have the wine.
Well, he was going to wing it.
Touching the communication trinket in his pocket, he sent a message to his new disciple.
"Hey kid, it"s time for your first a.s.signment. Bring some wine to my room. Right now. The best wine you can have. If you don"t have it, find it. No questions. I"m not alone, I"m with Skrrag."
"B-but, Master, I can"t fraternize with you in public!"
"Humph. You said you won"t disappoint me. Be creative! Get it done! I don"t care how!"
"A-all right, Master."
The whole conversation had happened fast, so Skrrag didn"t notice anything amiss.
"Good man! Now, just wait a little. We will have some great wine soon!"
Skrrag nodded and waited for a few seconds, but he spoke after not seeing Daneel move an inch.
"Uh, sir, what are we waiting for, exactly?"
Just at this moment, a knock sounded on the door, making Daneel say "This!" and open the door.
There stood the slimy kid again, and Daneel realized that he hadn"t missed him.
He was holding 2 bottles of wine each in each hand, and after Daneel opened the door, he shoved them into his hands rudely and shouted, "Here you go, punk! Someone dying by my hands shouldn"t have to die before tasting the best wine of my sect! Enjoy it while you can! Let each sip remind you that you will die soon in the hands of Percy! Feel glad that I"m so gracious!"
As both Daneel and Skrrag looked on at this ridiculously weird performance, Percy stormed away with an extreme look of haughtiness on his face.
Of course, at the door, he turned around and shouted, "Make sure you rue the day you messed with my family when you"re pa.s.sed out, drunk, on the floor! HA!" before banging the door behind him.
Sitting back down in silence with the wine bottles, Daneel couldn"t help but say, "Well, that was weird."
"Yes, sir, definitely weird."
Looking at each other, both of them burst out laughing while Daneel fished out two gla.s.ses from the cabinet nearby and poured the wine.
As both of them took their first sip, they couldn"t help but stop laughing and lick their lips.
That weird kid hadn"t been lying; this wine really was awesome!
It had a complex taste that reminded Daneel vaguely of chocolate from Earth, and it was also spicy, with quite a kick to it.
Even Skrrag seemed to love it very much, as he had just placed his gla.s.s on the table and seemed reluctant to leave.
Excited to see that his plan was working, Daneel filled up the gla.s.s again.
...
That night, standing outside a spot on the mountain, Daneel beamed with happiness.
Feeling very thankful that the information he had needed hadn"t been restricted by an oath, he asked the system to look for vulnerabilities and waited.
[Point of Entry to Archive Room found. Breaching.]
As Daneel heard this notification in his head, he prepared to finally find out the rules of the Hidden Kill Sect.