Soon after these announcements took place, all sorts of discussions sprang up in almost each and every town, city, and village all over Angaria.
There were some who thought themselves educated in the matter of economics, so they repeatedly tried to explain just how brilliant the King"s propositions were, or how stupid.
In fact, half of them were even doubtful as to whether he could really implement them all, and they kept saying that they should wait and see, but that if he really did do it, then they would actually consider moving into the alliance if such a thing was even possible.
In the Black Raven Kingdom, the small family where Daneel and Faxul had stopped at so long ago were also currently sitting around a table with deep expressions of thought on their faces.
The whole reason that the two Kings in disguise had arrived at their house was that they had used to run a small inn called "Irma"s Inn" in order to help out travelers who couldn"t stay at the local inn that was almost always closed for renovation.
However, with finances getting more and more tight, they had had to close that down, which had been very sad for the little kid because he missed the feeling that came from guiding travelers over and seeing their happy faces when they realized that they would not have to go sleep in some haystack on the side of the road.
Right now, all these announcements meant nothing to him, and he was simply thinking back to those days when life had seem so much better.
Since then, so many things had happened, and so much had changed.
Then, life had been simple. His father had used to go mining to send back money, and his mother had used to run that little inn from the kindness of strangers who arrived at their house. Of course, it was the silver given by one of those strangers that had allowed them to tide over the tough times, but soon, it had all been spent, and they had had to decide on something else to do. Although the small farm behind their house was doing okay, it was barely enough for the three of them.
On the other hand, the two adults in the household were sincerely happy and hopeful for the future, but right now, they were just thinking everything through as there had been many instances in their lives where they raised their hopes regarding something only to have them dashed later. It wasn"t that they were afraid of this, but just that they wished to have the right things to say unlike those outside who were simply spouting whatever came into their mind just so that they could gather some attention.
This was regarding the future of this little family, and they wanted to be very thorough.
Finally, it was the woman who spoke up.
"If what the King says is really true, I want to go get a job, too."
The little kid was a bit shocked as he heard this, as his fondest memories were always of his mother being around the house and them finding joy in all the little things that they did together.
If she, too, went on a job like his father"s, then would he be left all alone?
As tears shone in his eyes due to the silly question, the two parents noticed this and realized what they had done wrong. Standing up and hugging him together, they said, "Don"t worry, little Michael. You"re going to go to school! Didn"t you hear about it over the Network?"
School?
This was something that deeply captivated little Michael, and he had only ever dreamt of it. So, now, when he heard that he would actually be going, he couldn"t believe his ears.
Looking up innocently at his dad, he said, "Isn"t it something that is only in Lanthanor? How can I go? Will we be moving? Will I have to say goodbye to all of my friends?"
Being badgered by questions in this way, the man finally laughed before telling himself again that this whole situation was actually a positive one and not one that demanded them to be so serious and brooding.
Brus.h.i.+ng the hair on top of his son"s head, he said, "There"s no need for that! I"m pretty sure that schools will be set up all over the Kingdom - no, the Alliance, as we should now call it, so you"ll definitely be able to go without us having to move anywhere! And even if your mom does go for a job, which even I was thinking about, it will only be during the day. This way, even I can cut down my hours at the mine, where I now work for at least 14 hours a day so that we can sustain ourselves. Maybe even I can get back in the evenings and we can have some family time together every day! How does that sound?"
Family time?
His father could be home more?
The tears that had been s.h.i.+ning immediately burst out of little Michael"s eyes as he hugged his dad tightly and hoped that this wasn"t all a dream.
As a kid with simple wants, what more could he desire? He had always been envious of all those other children who boasted of how they were always playing games or learning from their fathers, and just thinking that he could have something like that too sent him into a tizzy.
Seeing this little reaction made both of the parents" hearts sing with happiness, and after a.s.suring him a little bit more that everything would be great, they laid him down to sleep and resumed their own discussion.
"It is the right idea, Irma. Although it remains to be seen what kinds of jobs will be available, I think that it is pretty safe to plan accordingly. From everything I"ve seen so far, the King is someone who keeps his word."
Nodding, the woman replied, "I know. But is it even possible? And what about those other announcements? How do they impact us? And is it even sustainable to do those things over the long term?"
Hearing these complicated questions from his wife, the man raised an eyebrow, which made the woman blush a little bit and say, "I"ve been talking to Old "Nan… It gets boring, you know. And she loves just using all of these words to show everyone that she is knowledgeable. But by talking to her husband, who is actually the one who studied under a man from the government and knows about these things, I found out the meanings. You said that you also had someone like that in the mines whom you frequently talked to, right? What do you think?"
After thinking for a bit, the man answered, "Well, it is a d.a.m.n hard thing to do, and it"s not like no one has tried over the years. I heard a tale in the mine that was pa.s.sed down by the grandparents of a miner. Apparently, a King tried the same thing in order to make his people the happiest so that he could invite over all sorts of talent and make his Kingdom the "Capital of the Continent". He promised a job for everyone, and guaranteed payment, as that really is what concerns simple people like us the most. However, as soon as it was implemented, flocks of people with no real skills approached him, and he had no option but to keep his promise and dip into his treasury so that he could pay them all. True, a portion of it was retrieved in the form of tax, but the rest was such a drain on the country. With the scale of it even increasing month by month, eventually, his Kingdom became so overpopulated and underfunded that he was invaded by a different one. That stood as a warning sign to all - no schemes of this sort should be implemented which have the potential of placing a Kingdom under risk by promising too much and leaving themselves vulnerable. Just think about it - anyone can enter a Kingdom if there was something like that, no matter what motives they have. But… I have to admit that this King is different. Maybe he has something different planned. Let us see what he does, and then, we can decide whether we, too, should feel lucky that we are in the Alliance. With the grace of the Almighty Black Raven, we will finally be blessed with some good fortune."
The woman also echoed the last sentence in her heart, and told herself not to have too much hope.
Still, like an unstoppable chill in winter, it crept into her heart and made her dream the dream that had been displayed to all by the King.
Meanwhile, a team of mages had immediately rushed over to a certain room in the Sect of Hedon as soon as they received an emergency signal from the location.
On arriving at the site, they were witness to a man who had burned his own eyes out, and as they starred into those holes which looked bottomless, they couldn"t help but shudder and blink as if they felt that their own eyes were threatened. He had done it using fire, so the wounds were seared off, meaning there was no risk to his life. Still, immediately, higher-ups were called, as they had been commanded to do so whenever they saw something even slightly unusual.
As the Champion on duty reached the quarters, he was similarly baffled, and he had to call the one above him, too.
This finally resulted in the strongest individual of the Sect of Hedon, who had been absent during the King of Lanthanor"s visit earlier to arrive on the scene.
He was a man who was quite peculiar. On the surface, he looked completely normal, and it was almost as if some commoner from a village nearby had somehow strolled into the Sect and was being regarded by all as a mighty figure. His clothes looked like they had been washed so many times that the original color could not be discovered anymore, and each time he moved, his face seemed to change, but each of those faces all shared one feature - they were of the sort that would easily mix in a crowd and be forgotten the moment they were seen, which resulted in almost all of the sect members and guards who saw him feeling uncomfortable.
On arriving, the Champion expected him to do something, but even he was baffled. After all, what motive could there be for anyone to do something so horrendous like this? True, everyone knew about the legendary healer who would never move out of her house, but being taken to her was something only reserved for the most talented of sect members.
Giving up, even this Hero had to resort to his own higher-up, which caused the Head to appear on the scene.
Since the moment the Head laid his eyes on the person in question, he could tell that something was wrong. He used all the Hero level scanning techniques he had, but he found nothing wrong.
That was when he resorted to finding out about the ident.i.ty of the person, which led both him and the Hero to discuss for a long time and conclude that he might have gone crazy somehow.
Regardless of what the reason was, the best thing to do was, of course, to wake him up.
Yet, the Head knew that they couldn"t do that, as the healer in question always insisted that healing should be done right after an injury was afflicted, and in the state that was most similar to that when the body first reacted to the injury, as according to her, that was when the body would be ready to fight and react the most.
He wondered for a moment whether he should let this minor sect member lose his eyes as everything regarding this situation felt fishy, which was when he saw a note sticking out of the person"s pocket.
Taking it out, he read it, and couldn"t help but raise his eyebrows.
"These eyes of mine which did not allow me to see the threat to my father are useless."
The Mad Doctor had such a devout son?
As the Mad Doctor was just a normal Champion in a sect, the Head did not know too much about him, and he only felt that the man should be glad that he had a son who was so filial.
Deciding that such a thing should be rewarded, he gave his order.
"Prepare to take him to the Eternal Blossom Sect. But I"ll be accompanying him, just in case. Something feels… Off, and I intend to find out what that is. Put him in stasis first, or that healer will make everyone contract some deadly disease again. Be careful when you do so- it"s fine if it takes a few days."
Nearby, the man who had walked into Percy"s house could be seen with panic on his face.
Why the h.e.l.l had this guy gone ahead and done this? Was he really crazy?
Initially, the man had been about to go ahead and detonate anyway, but with the Head present, he decided not to, as he did not want this man who had just defeated him knowing that he had his hand in this thing. He had worked very hard to infiltrate the sect, and he did not want to waste the opportunity.
Well, he was just going outside, right? It should mostly be fine, as he would be unconscious for the whole time, anyway, which was required for healing at the scale.
It wasn"t like there could be any formations on him that would be able to transmit information that even he couldn"t detect, right? Of course, there was no way that this could be the case, as he had already scanned him and found nothing.
a.s.suring himself in this way, the man left from where he was standing in order to pursue his other plans in the sect.
…
Meanwhile, a meeting of the Nine Sovereigns had just begun in Lanthanor, even though two sovereigns were missing.
And…Daneel was flabbergasted, as all 7 people in front of him had banded together to propose a single thing.
Almost as if they knew that he would think before directly saying no to his father, it was he who spoke up to voice their combined sentiment.
"The new currency should be named after you, as none of this would have been possible without you. It should be stamped with your face, and it should be called either a "Dan", after your first name, or a "Nivron", after your last."