Seeing his enthusiasm, Stefan smiled but went back to his serious expression soon after, saying, "I knew it would excite you. But it"s not guaranteed. Let"s just say that there might be a chance. You see, we want the prophecy to be fulfilled, because we trust in the knowledge of the ancient basilisk when it wrote that the person who obtains the inheritance through the crash course will save our sect. Normally, this should have been enough for you to take the position of the sect leader. However, because the other three and the present sect leader will definitely not support you, we should look for other ways. There is one, but it will depend on you, and I don"t know if you"re up for it."
Hearing this, Daneel felt like laughing.
He knew what Stefan was going to suggest next, but he kept a straight face anyway and said, "Don"t underestimate me. First of all, I admire you two because you are prepared to trust in your ancestor and believe in me to take control of the sect. You know nothing about me. You don"t know if I"ll take control, plunder the resources and techniques and just dump the sect and leave it to be destroyed. You don"t know if I"ll use all the a.s.sa.s.sins of the sect for my own agenda and result in the destruction of the sect anyway. You must have thought about this, but you still trust your prophecy and your ancestor. That"s impressive. And I want to say that your trust is not misplaced. I am someone who cares a lot about debts. If the sect helps me by making me strong enough to achieve my goals, I can a.s.sure you that I will keep its best interests in my heart. Now, tell me what I need to do."
When Daneel had been detailing the possible things that could have happened, he saw fear in the eyes of both Stefan and Jaggrv.
However, towards the end, he noticed the relief when he stated his intentions.
They were simple, and thus easy to understand and sympathize with.
Opening his mouth, Stefan sighed and said, "Yes, we blindly trust in the prophecy, and we were called fools when we said this before. But we still do so anyway. You see, there is a specific bylaw which says that someone who is newly inaugurated into the sect can take the position of sect leader if there is a situation where the sect will be destroyed. The five top a.s.sa.s.sins can take a vote on whether they need to replace the sect leader, and if the majority wins, even someone like you can become the sect leader. You have both of our votes, but you need one more. You need to convince one of the other three top a.s.sa.s.sins to support you, but I have no idea how you can accomplish that. What do you think?"
After hearing this, Daneel once again faked a thoughtful expression and said, "Lead me to them first. It depends on who they are. I can only guarantee that I will try. Let"s see what comes of it. Do you have a backup plan if that fails?"
Shaking his head, Stefan said, "Not right now, but we will think of one when you go meet them. These are their residences. Remember, you cannot expose the fact that you obtained the inheritance. Good luck. Meet us back here after you"re done."
…
Unable to believe that things had worked out so ideally with the first two top a.s.sa.s.sins that he had met, Daneel went with high hopes to the next one.
However, his hopes took a beating when this one declined to spar with him politely.
He talked with Daneel quite nicely, and even answered everything that Daneel asked with the smile on his face.
Yet, whenever even a mention came of sparring together or of forming a closer relations.h.i.+p, it was shut down, of course, politely.
Understanding that this reptilian was just being polite for the sake of it, Daneel exited the house.
Well, there were two more.
His hopes were still there, but they took another beating when the next a.s.sa.s.sin directly avoided him.
Stefan had given him a communication trinket, so when he asked about this, he realized that this one was sort of an introvert who hated talking to strangers.
Stefan said to move on, as he had only given this address in the first place because he didn"t want to miss any possibility of Daneel somehow talking to him.
Finally, reaching the last one, Daneel decided that he would do whatever was needed to make sure that he would get this one in the bag.
The previous two locations had been isolated mansions as large as the one he had been lodged in, but this one was different.
It was at the place on the mountain beside which there was a large, closed gate with the words "Training Grounds" written on them.
As Daneel tried to probe inside, he realized that a very strong formation protected this place, not allowing the system to scan what was on the other side.
He had heard before that the training grounds were peculiar in the fact that those who entered could only exit after their entire training period was over.
He wondered why this rule was in place again as he walked to the house that was nearby.
There were actually many houses in this area, but the one he was going to seemed to be bigger than the rest.
Knocking on the door, he waited.
"Who is it?" came a voice, making Daneel answer "I"m Master Novrain. I"m the one here to unlock your formation, and I"m going around talking to all the top a.s.sa.s.sins. Open up."
When the door opened, Daneel directly sidestepped the a.s.sa.s.sin while saying rudely, "I"m bored waiting for your auspicious time to come. Your sect leader must have commanded you to follow all of my requests, right? I"m not even going to ask to spar with you, even though that is what I really want. The other four blew me off already. Let"s just talk. And drink, if you have any wine."
Sitting down on a chair, Daneel stretched.
He had acted in the same way with the third top a.s.sa.s.sin, as he needed to maintain his image of the rude expert that he had shown to the sect leader before.
Making himself comfortable, Daneel started to look around the room as if he owned the place.
The man at the door seemed to be controlling his rage while still facing the door, but this turned out to be a good thing, as Daneel had just noticed something that made his jaw drop in astonishment.
Blinking, he wondered whether he was dreaming.
It was a picture of two men battling with swords, and the painter had accurately captured the expressions of happiness on their faces.
At least 20 years of age separated the two of them, and as Daneel stared, the man who had opened the door came and sat in front of him.
This man seemed to be more of Jaggrv"s type, as he replied in an equally rude voice, "Yes, the sect leader asked us to agree to your requests. But you"re naïve if you think that he can make me spar with you or even talk to you. It"s already bad enough that you are taking away one of the most precious treasures of our sect. I don"t think you deserve anything more. You can leave."
Normally, hearing this, Daneel"s hopes would have been crushed.
However, his eyes were still locked on the picture, so he didn"t even respond.
"System, is it true? Match facial features."
Seeing Daneel sit there while staring off into the distance, the man frowned but remained silent, deciding that he would just ignore this master until he had no option but to give up and leave.
Picking up a book from beside him which he had been reading before he had been interrupted, he buried himself inside it.
Hence, he did not see Daneel"s eyes widen when he heard the notification from the system.
[Facial features are a match.]
Taking out a communication trinket from his pocket, Daneel hesitated for a moment, asking himself whether this was the best thing to do.
This was his last chance, and although Stefan and Jaggrv had said that they would look for a backup plan, as Daneel had gone through all of the rules, he knew that there was no other way.
He needed to get the support of this a.s.sa.s.sin one way or another, so bracing himself, he stretched his hand towards the man after sending a message on the trinket.
"Someone wants to talk to you," he said, making the man frown further as he looked up from his book.
Looking at the communication trinket, he felt puzzled, but decided to continue ignoring the man.
However, his decision changed when Daneel said, "Come on. Just talk. Take it and talk, and I will leave after that, and even tell your sect leader that you were the best host among all the 5. Don"t tell me you"re afraid."
For a few seconds, there was silence.
As Daneel watched, after the man took the trinket, his expression changed slowly from irritation to absolute shock, as if he had been struck by a lightning bolt from the heavens.
"Son…," he whispered in disbelief, making Daneel understand that he had been right.
Clearly, when his commander Luther had said that he had information that could help Daneel overtake the Hidden Kill Sect, he hadn"t been lying.
After all, someone who had apparently grown up in the sect and was even called "son" by a top a.s.sa.s.sin, must know some very crucial things.