Hearing the door open, Daneel looked up to see Kellor enter the room.
The Grand Court Mage was someone who regularly went to whichever forest he wanted in order to train his creed and advance on the path of understanding his ultimate technique.
Hence, he had ordered Kellor to go instead of sending anyone else as he was the safest option present.
Besides, if the ones trying to spy had any ill intentions, things would have been very different already.
"Well done. If I"m right, our Kingdom is now an unknowing host of two individuals from one of the Big 4."
Just as Kellor had been about to ask the intention behind Daneel giving those very specific orders to cut that tree in that exact angle to fall on that exact spot, he heard these words from Daneel which made his jaw drop.
The legendary…. Big 4?
They had actually attracted attention from them?!
Seeing the panic filling Kellor"s eyes, Daneel quickly said, "Don"t worry, they hold no ill intentions, at least presently. I have also managed to find out their faces, but that may be useless because they seem to be using some sort of spell to hide their existence from the world. Anyway, they are definitely not people we can face right now. We can only hope that they are here in pa.s.sing, but we should act with the knowledge that someone has their eye on us. Follow me outside."
Saying so, Daneel led the way outside.
While walking to the destination he had in mind with Kellor following behind him, he tried to think of any way he could proactively use this information about the presence of those from the Big 4 to further his goals.
Deciding to keep thinking on this matter, he realized that he had gotten to the lawn on the back side of the Palace where he had set out to.
Behind him, Kellor had closed his eyes and was taking a deep breath in the lush greenery. As a woodcutter, such forests and wide open areas were where he felt most at home.
Yet, a second later, he had to snap them open as the King had done something which made no sense whatsoever.
He had thrown a round rock at Kellor.
Although the speed of the rock wasn"t very fast, Kellor didn"t have much time to react as he had been in a completely relaxed state.
Still, he was an Exalted Human Mage. A wall of earth immediately came into being in front of it, decreasing its momentum and resulting in it harmlessly falling in front of his feet.
Looking up, Kellor realized that Daneel was looking at him with a slightly disappointed expression on his face.
What was he supposed to do? Let himself get hit?
"I guess I should have explained first. Kellor, when I throw the rock, catch it and try to get past me. No magic, and I will be doing everything I can to stop you. Your goal is to set the rock down by hand 20 feet behind me"
Thus began one of the most grueling experiences in Kellor"s memory.
Initially, he hadn"t understood exactly what the King wanted, leading him to try and walk past while moving quickly.
Soon, he understood that it wouldn"t cut it.
As he began to run, the King let out a laugh as if he were finally seeing what he desired.
This had actually startled Kellor a bit, as such pure expression of emotion was not something the King usually did.
Yet, this thought quickly disappeared as he found himself tackled to the ground by the King who seemed to be holding back the power of his body.
Each and every time he got even a little bit closer to moving past the King, he would find himself on the ground due to being grabbed expertly by the King who seemed to be doing it naturally.
Finally, after about 20 attempts, Kellor gave up and lay on the ground, panting,
Beside him, Daneel who had just tackled him was also lying with his back on the ground, staring up into the blue sky while memories flooded through his mind.
Back on Earth, in the orphanage, this was one of the only sports which all the kids played to pa.s.s time.
They hadn"t even had a proper ball; instead, it was one thrown away by someone because it had a puncture.
Yet, this was enough for the orphans. In an open area, they would draw two lines on the ground before aiming to get the ball across while holding it in their hands.
It was their own version of Street American Football, or more accurately, Rugby.
Although Daneel had been one of the scrawniest kids, his specialty had been his speed which often brought their team the victory.
Even though tackles were dangerous, no serious injuries ever occurred, with bruises and sc.r.a.pes being the most common thing with which the kids walked away.
As he kept looking into the sky, he relived that simple life he had left behind.
After a few minutes, his expression still joyful due to the nostalgia, Daneel got up and held out an arm to Kellor.
As the Grand Court Mage got up, Daneel asked, "What do you think? Would this be a game people would like to play?"
The unexpected question made Kellor tonguetied, causing him to ponder for a few seconds before saying, "My King, I must say that I do not know."
Chuckling at the answer, Daneel thought about the motivation behind choosing this game.
Knowing full well that sports was one of the biggest businesses on Earth, Daneel had been meaning to bring some or the other sport over to Angaria in order to both develop a new business domain that he could take control of and to give a pastime to the people of this continent.
As for why this game, Daneel"s main reason had been that Fighters were much more prevalent than Mages on Angaria.
Hence, if he wanted to make a proper business out of the game, it would have to be something that could be adopted by everyone. Even though sports specific to Mages might come later, it wasn"t his focus right now.
Also, the game also had to be simple enough. In his opinion, the simple game of "getting the ball across" which could be done in numerous ways was much simpler to understand than other more complex sports like basketball and soccer.
Of course, the fact that the highest earning sports a.s.sociation on Earth was actually the NFL(National Football League) had also been a factor which led to him choosing this game.
Regardless, although Daneel knew that it was an experiment, its primary focus right now was to do one thing: give Elanev a way to enter the Throne Room without arousing any suspicion.
Hence, he set about making the plan to have this happen using this game he had chosen which would hopefully change the sports landscape in the continent of Angaria.
....
A few days later.
After an especially grueling spar, Elanev had just collapsed onto a chair beside the sparring ground while the Black Raven King walked over, smiling with satisfaction at having temporarily vented everything he was feeling.
Although Elanev was constantly soaking up the experience and getting better day by day, there was still a long way for him to go before he could hope to fight toe-to-toe with the King without using any of his trump cards.
Seeing the King sit down and calmly take a sip of the chilled wine that had been served beforehand, he turned around to check what was happening in the adjacent field before deciding that this was the best time to broach the topic.
In the adjacent field, soldiers were lined up in rows facing wooden puppets.
All of them were Black Raven Fights, and as the gong sounded, numerous Black Ravens shot off their hands and soldiers to impale the puppets.
After a few seconds, the soldier whose Raven had been the fastest was declared the winner.
Indeed, these were war games which were carried out in almost all the Kingdoms.
While the King idly watched these proceedings, Elanev said, "King, this reminds me of a bet I had with a friend I made in one of the places I pa.s.sed through on my journey. Would you like to hear about it?"
Hearing Elanev speak, the Black Raven King turned around with an interested expression.
Over the weeks, he had been enthralled by stories from Elanev about exotic locations and people, giving him a view of the World he hadn"t gotten to see. They had repeatedly piqued his interest, and there was no reason for this one not to do the same.
"His bet was that by putting in very little investment, he would be able to make 1000 Ether Blocks by making people run around holding something in their hand. I didn"t believe him, but I actually ended up losing the bet. Would you like to hear about this "business" which, according to him, has the potential to change the face of the continent?"