"Miss. Eloise, you"re a G.o.dsend! We don"t know what we would have done without you!"
"Don"t thank me. Thank our King, who made everything possible. Now go home, Janice. Your kids are waiting for you. With this money, let the first meal you cook be for them. After that, I can"t wait to hear great things about it from all of Lanthanor. You hear me?"
"Y-yes! Of course! Hail King Daneel! Please thank him for me!"
"I will. He is in secluded training, so that he can be strong enough to protect us when threats come our way. Go on. I"ll come by to your restaurant later when I have the chance. Remember, don"t trust the wrong people again. Harley, here, will help you with that. Ok?"
"Of course! Thank you! Oh, thank you, so much!"
Seeing the tears in the eyes of the woman who had been begging on the streets to feed her kids just the day before, Eloise felt happiness fill her heart.
This woman had trusted her husband with years of savings that had been earned by being a maid in various restaurants. They were all so that she could open a small place of her own, as she had always been great with cooking.
However, that man had fled with that money, leaving two young kids.
She had been found by Maria, who had been in the poorest areas of the city as a part of her efforts in uplifting those who had been dealt a bad card in life.
Her efforts had already been paying off big time, and she was called Mother Maria by all.
Mother to not just the King, but Lanthanor itself.
After tasting her cooking in her small, dingy shack without putting on any of the airs expected from the mother of a King, Maria had referred Janice to Eloise, who hadn"t hesitated to give her the t.i.tle of "Citizen in Need" so that she could be lent money in order to kickstart her business.
Her days were usually spent in this way- taking care of a few things which needed her attention, while carrying out inspections to make sure that all of the King"s plans were going on smoothly.
Norcet was a phenomenal person who had helped her greatly in the endeavors which she couldn"t pay her full attention to. While she took care of the bank, the network and the hospital, he was slowly developing the fleet of transportation units which were part of the King"s plan to make a service that could deliver items to sellers in a cost-effective way.
As for the business with the IDs, both of them regularly met to see how the trial run was going.
So far, the success had been phenomenal. In a closed group, they had carried out mock scenarios where soldiers acting as those with malicious intent tried to breach the Kingdom to carry out their plans. Using the ID trinkets, those charged with defending the city could easily rule out the authorized citizens to focus on outsiders, and those who had managed to sneak in.
As for the Bank, it was seeing a record influx of money. The King hadn"t expanded it to the whole continent, but Eloise had been charged with making it so that when they were ready for that stage, there would no problems such as not being able to handle such a scale.
Almost all "Citizen in Need" cases were profitable, and even in cases where the initial businesses had failed, the process of vetting individuals carefully had shown its worth. Even after failure, citizens tried again and more often than not, succeeded at least on the second try.
These were all small businesses, like the restaurant in the case of Janice. Still, the sheer number of the cases made it so that the total amount that the Bank was earning was quite sizeable.
Although none of them were at the scale of H&D, this was nothing to be scoffed at, as H&D was truly special.
Since the Olympics, they had seen an influx of orders from all over the continent. Many spectators had zoomed in to see their logos on all the clothes worn by the partic.i.p.ants, and this had been followed by an effective marketing campaign which let everyone know just how special this brand was.
Helena and Dalia were shown as the perfect dream family who had overcome poverty through hard work, thus, they knew just how much quality was to be valued. Besides, they had many innovative and new designs, and they also seemed to have an unlimited pool of money to draw on to fulfill the orders, no matter how many came.
Of course, the last one was due to the partners.h.i.+p that Helena had signed with Daneel, which gave her almost unlimited funds to invest in her business.
All in all, H&D was slowly becoming THE brand to own in the continent.
Eloise was really happy for them, as she knew that this was what the King had envisioned for the company when he had thrown his support behind them.
She missed him. She really, really missed him.
Although they had never gotten as close as she wished, she had just loved to be near him. Even now, the thing which gave her the most happiness was seeing his dreams come true.
His last communication had been two months ago, when he had said that he was entering "deep-state training", which meant that he wouldn"t be able to respond to messages unless they were at the level where the Kingdom might be destroyed.
Since then, she had had a weird itch, as if she felt him close. She knew it was false, but she just couldn"t get rid of it.
Every day, she took care of the Kingdom, she trained and she thought about him.
Already, she was almost an Eminent Human, and this was astonis.h.i.+ng given the fact that she had been an Amateur one just months ago.
Clearly, the fact about her having top-grade talent was true.
On this day, more than ever, she felt that the King was near.
Little did she knew that she had just been scanned by him.
….
Get gem.
Get blood.
Train.
Absorb clone.
Rest.
Get gem.
Get blood.
Train.
Rest.
This had been Daneel"s schedule, day in and day out.
2 months.
2 months of isolation.
2 months of being cut off from the world, so much so that he couldn"t tell night from day.
If it hadn"t been for the numbers on the status that kept going up, he knew that he would have lost himself long back.
He lived for those numbers. Those tiny percentages which meant that inch by inch, he was crawling towards his goal.
To be a Warrior.
His food consisted of bare basic bread, as his body was already getting enough nutrition from the Energy. If he had to go to the bathroom, he would use magic to construct one.
When he rested, he couldn"t dream, as his mind was completely occupied by a singular feeling.
The feeling of being changed, inside out, by Energy.
He knew that if he broke off his concentration on that feeling, he might never be able to go through with such a long, continuous period of training.
He knew that if he even heard others" voices, he would be tempted to leave, and probably never come back.
He became sick of the blood that stank.
He became sick of the dust that fell on his clothes when Ker gems dissipated.
He became sick of himself.
In these two months, Daneel got closer to insanity than ever before.
If there was any other way to achieve his goal of breaking through, he might have chosen it.
However, there was none.
What he needed to do was get in a state where he would be able to keep absorbing, day and night, while taking only the briefest of rests.
And that-demanded this kind of singular isolation, which was the longest period of torture that Daneel had ever felt in his life.
Since entering that chamber, Daneel had followed his plan of pus.h.i.+ng through. It had been so tempting. All he needed to do was think, and he could contact anyone he wanted. His mother, or his father. Eloise. Sister Xuan. Anyone.
But no, he had resisted.
Until today.
Today, he had allowed the system to scan his surroundings, and let him hear Eloise and his parents talking above him in the Palace.
Because he had hit a dead end.
[Host status updating. Please standby.
Host status:
Host Fighter Level: Human-9(99%)
Host Mage Level: Human-9(99%)
Host Body Potential: A+
Host Comprehension Level: ????
Host Condition: Nominal]
He was at the absolute peak of the Human level, but no matter what he did, he couldn"t take that next step.
It was as if his body and mageroot had become sieves, which let all the Energy out, no matter how much more he absorbed.
Deciding that this approach and just sitting and training had taken its course, Daneel finally broke his self-imposed isolation.
As he listened to their voices, tears came in his eyes and flowed down his cheeks, falling on his feet, which were quivering, just like his entire body.
He was…back.
He had grown a beard, which he shaved with a flick of his finger after managing to control himself.
Right now, all he wanted to do was embrace his mother and cry. Cry with happiness that he hadn"t become lost in that dark place where he had been in till now.
So, he did just that.
The King of Lanthanor, a man in command of 4 forces in Central Angaria, possessor of mage talent which surpa.s.sed that known to all in the Central Continent, Paragon, holder of a Tenebrous Flame, inheritor of the Ruler"s Inheritance, inheritor of the Basilisk"s Breath, inheritor of the Art of the Withering Leaf, Basilisk Rider and, last but not least, heir to the Anivron family, hugged his mother hard and found comfort in her embrace.
He was all of those things, but right now, he was just a boy who had been shut in the darkness for far too long.