After toiling for a whole afternoon and evening, the two slogged back into the city. In the end, they had managed to catch around 30 mosquitoes.
After making a trip to the marketplace in which Daneel made some purchases, the two parted ways.
Reaching his room, Daneel started working on his first product in this world.
The result of this work would determine whether he would build the financial cornerstone for the rise of his faction.
The next morning, Daneel traveled to the Training Hall again. This time, he requested a meeting with Elanev"s father, the "Righteous Hawk".
Although he had seldom interacted with the man, he had heard a lot of things about him from Elanev. Elanev"s mother had pa.s.sed away at a very young age, and since then, his father had brought him up to be who he was now.
According to Elanev, there had been many occasions on which his father simply spent the whole night kneeling in front of his mother"s grave.
The next day, Elanev would usually find out that some or the other commoner or soldier had either been executed or exiled by the arrogant n.o.bility.
Always a staunch believer in fairness, his father often lamented that he was one of the last pillars that stood on the commoner"s side. Although he could not do much in the present state of the Kingdom, he always did whatever was in his power, like in the event where he had awarded Daneel prime citizens.h.i.+p.
Thus, Daneel decided that he was the right man to partner with if he wanted to smoothly build a financial base for his faction. Besides, he would not be exposing any crucial plans to a member of the government. It was common for ministers to start businesses in the Kingdom, so this would also elicit less attention towards him.
All he needed was a steady supply of Ether and wealth to train his followers and make trinkets. Although he had contemplated selling his product under his own name and keeping all the profits to himself, there was no way this would escape the attention of the King or the Grand Court Mage. Besides, his primary focus was still to train for as much amount of time as possible.
On entering the inner city, Daneel and Elanev walked towards a gate situated right beside the palace.
After pa.s.sing through an expansive lawn, the duo arrived at a manor with pointed spires and an enormous door. The architectural style was quite different from the library-long flights of stairs were replaced by a ramp that led up. Instead of huge pillars, there were many smaller ones, elegantly carved with figures of dancing men and women. The door was the most striking part of the manor, with the top of the door reaching at least 20 feet in height.
Entering the manor and seating themselves in one of the softest sofas Daneel had ever seen, the two chatted while waiting for the minister to come.
Around a half-hour later, 2 familiar figures appeared at the doorway. One of them was the s.p.a.ce mage that had explained about the mageroot before. The other, who was looking at Daneel with an odd look on his face, was the man fondly known as the "Righteous Hawk" by many.
"Welcome, Daneel. What brings you here?", he asked, before sitting down opposite them.
Daneel had a jar of what looked like honey in his hands. As the s.p.a.ce mage smiled at Daneel and looked peculiarly at the jar as if it were fascinating, Daneel replied, "I have a proposition for you. How much would you pay me if I told you that I can solve the mosquito problem plaguing the Kingdom?"
The minister was quite bewildered by the sudden mention of mosquitoes. Frowning, he said, "Funny that you bring them up. I had to spend the past hour examining the financial records of the Kingdom to make sure that someone isn"t embezzling money by quoting extravagant prices for the methods used to keep mosquitoes away from the treasury of the Kingdom. Sadly, the numbers were right. Currently, almost 10% of the tax collected by the Kingdom goes into solving this problem. I do not need to explain how many millions of gold Lans that is. If you can solve it, I daresay that the least price the government would offer to you is a million Gold Lans."
Seeing the surprise and delight in Daneel"s face, the minister paused before saying, "Of course, that stands if you had the power to defend yourself from the army. Instead of paying, the King would just opt to force the mechanism out of you. So tell me. Will you still put forward your proposition?"
Hearing this bomb drop, the smile was wiped off of Daneel"s face. Yet, this was something he had thought about even before requesting for an appointment.
"You said the King would opt for it. Would you do the same?"
On hearing this question, the minister smiled. Instead of answering, he looked around the room before signaling something to the s.p.a.ce mage in black robes standing nearby.
Nodding, the mage took out a large, s.h.i.+ning red coin and placed it on the table in front of them. A red dome appeared around them, reminding Daneel of the time he had spoken to Radagast.
"This is a high level trinket designed to s.h.i.+eld an area containing personnel below the level of a Warrior Mage or Fighter. As such, it can only be used for a short time. State your proposition fast. Although Kellor told me a bit about you, he never stated that you would start taking matters into your own hands so soon."
Daneel breathed a sigh of relief hearing that things were as he had expected. Just like Master Jonah, this was another member of the group that Kellor had formed. The signs had been quite clear, from the righteousness of the minister to everything Daneel had heard from Elanev. One common pattern connected all these people who were willing to stand with Kellor-resentment at the actions of the n.o.bility.
"I need my parents to be transported out of the Kingdom or to a location where they can be safe. As for the sales of the product, I want 80% of all of the profits obtained.", said Daneel. The first had been weighing on his heart ever since he had heard Master Jonah"s story. He did not want to wake up to news that his parents had been killed by "bandits".
"We don"t need to talk about percentages. If the product is good enough, I will just deduct the operational costs. After all, you are acknowledged by Kellor. But first, show me what it is that you seem to have so much confidence in."
Daneel had been ready to go down to 50% if worst came to worst, so he he felt jubilant on finding out that he could keep all of the profits. Showing his potential to Kellor indeed seemed to be paying off more and more.
Nodding, he took out the jar that he had been clutching between his hands all this time as if it were his baby.
Opening the lid, Daneel demonstrated for the first time the product that he would fondly remember later as his first financial step towards World Domination.