The next day, as per the deal, Alfonso handed in a formal resignation and recommendation for Travis, quoting that he saw himself in his earlier days in this kid.
There had been such strange requests before, and the job of those in the administrative department of the Central tower was just to approve the requests after checking that all the proper channels were being used.
Everything looked fine, and by the end of the day, Travis Eclair had a post on the Central tower, where he was in charge of handing out the payments for all the normal humans in the sect.
Mundane posts like these in the Central tower were mostly overlooked, and were only favored because of the easy pay. However, there were many better ones, and because this job involved doing some legwork, powerful and talented Warriors actually avoided it as they didn"t want to waste their time. Instead, they would rather prefer to find something else to grow stronger, faster.
As Alfonso had never been someone too talented, he had been happy with this job, but the main reason was that he simply loved everything he could do to all the women in the Border Village.
Still, he had decided to give that all up to increase his lifespan.
After his end of the deal was done, he simply shook hands with Travis and left to go to the mine, trusting in the oath which could not be broken in any way. Although there were rumors that Champions and those above might have a chance, that was, of course, too far away from him.
The next two days pa.s.sed peacefully. Instead of beginning to mine the Ker Gems immediately, Alfonso decided to absorb all of the mist first, so he simply sat inside and trained all day long.
On the morning of the third day, everything still seemed fine, but he suddenly felt someone trespa.s.s over the formation that he had set up in the direction of the sect.
He initially ignored this, thinking it was just some woodcutter, but when the second formation that was placed after it also got triggered, he panicked and got up.
The blonde haired kid could definitely not have told anyone else about this, so he wondered whether he was just unlucky.
Of course, they were definitely just pa.s.serbys, and there was no way of them knowing that he was here, underground.
Only, he had placed one final formation right beside the Bush which had the entrance to the mine, and when he suddenly felt it triggered too, he quickly tried to teleport away.
However, to his shock, he realized that an anti-teleportation formation had been set up at some point without his knowledge.
He was an Exalted Warrior! For a formation to activate without even him knowing about it… It had to mean that it was at least at the Peak Champion level!
As he realized this horrific fact, he decided to leave.
Until now, he had been sitting at the front of the mine which was in the form of a long corridor, and he had been training with his eyes closed.
During his panic, he had only looked up at the entrance. Now, when he decided to escape, he turned around and was about to cast the spell to burrow into the ground, but he stopped in his tracks when he saw a sight that was even more horrifying than the knowledge that the sect had caught wind of this mine.
All of the Ker gems were gone!
All those s.h.i.+ning prisms had disappeared, replaced by faint fragments of Ker gems here and there, as if they had been dug out extensively.
Only the smallest amount of mist was left, as he had been busy absorbing it all this time.
What the h.e.l.l was going on?
No… It didn"t matter! He had to get out of here first!
However, the pause due to his shock was enough for the Champions who had been sent by the sect to descend into the hole and find Alfonso standing there like a statue.
Noticing that he was just about to cast a spell, the two Champions immediately cast anti-spells.
If Daneel had been here, he would have been startled to see that their way of spell work was very reminiscent of what the Domination Corps had used in the Olympics to shock everyone.
"Enough. Resist, and we won"t hesitate to tear you apart. Just come quietly. If you"re innocent, nothing will happen to you."
As one of the Champions said this while casting immobilization spells by making the air around the target heavy by using metal elementary particles, Alfonso only nodded, knowing that the jig was up.
He couldn"t even take on one Champion in direct combat- there was simply no hope of going up against two.
Three hours later, when he found himself in a cell underneath the Central tower, he only had one question in his mind.
How in h.e.l.l had this happened?!
…
The news that a member of the Central tower had been arrested for committing one of the few crimes that one could get jailed for in the Sect of Hedon spread like wildfire.
Hiding information of Ker Gem mines from the sect was something that even the bravest of sect members wouldn"t do, but it seemed that this particular one had a nasty streak of doing anything and everything to gain power.
Because he was jailed now, all of his past got dug up, including the cruel way he behaved with all the women who were actually sweethearts of the sect members who regularly visited the Border Village, and the way he had gotten his post using underhanded means.
Normally, such things were common and remained hidden, but now that the perpetrator was behind bars with no hope of being released for a long, long time, everyone began to talk.
Of course, his appointment of Travis in his post also became known, but a rumor soon started to spread that explained this.
Apparently, Travis had found out about the mine, and he had been about to go to the sect to report it. However, Alfonso had threatened him and had made him swear an oath that he wouldn"t tell anyone, also going so far as to give him his post so that they would be known to be accomplices together if it ever got out. Also, Travis was under Alfonso"s control, and Alfonso needed to go into closed door training for a long time to take that last step towards becoming a Peak Warrior. So, he had appointed Travis so that he could simply take back his post if he wanted, after he was done.
This made perfect sense!
No one knew where the rumor started, but it kept spreading and spreading until it even got into the ears of the sect officials who was placed in charge of investigating the cover-up of this mine.
From the indications of the mist that was remaining in the mine, it became clear that it had existed since a long time, and the extra Energy in that land had already been sapped dry.
Alfonso had always had more Ker gems than he was supposed to, and many had always thought that this was because he shaved off a small amount from all of the payments he was supposed to make. However, now, it became clear that these extra gems came from the mine, and when the humans of the Border Village were asked about this after being told that they needn"t fear retribution from Alfonso, they answered that they got their pay in full, although the man regularly delayed payments so that he could do whatever he wanted with those related to these poor people.
As all the facts started to add up, the case against Alfonso became clearer and clearer, and it no longer remained a doubt whether he needed to be imprisoned.
It was a pity to lose an Exalted Warrior like that, but punishments like these had to be carried out, lest others repeat such infractions without being afraid of repercussions.
One day later, the sect leader pa.s.sed the final verdict - Alfonso would be imprisoned for a period of 50 years.
He kept claiming that this was all a scam, but of course, no one believed him.
The night that he was incarcerated, the entire Border Village lit up as if there was a festival going on.
By all rights, Travis should have been the chief guest, but because it was better not to arouse any suspicion, the women settled with profusely thanking him and telling him once again that they would forever be indebted to him.
Many actually walked up and gave him hugs and kisses on his cheek, and when they saw him blush a little from time to time due to this, they laughed gently, but didn"t mock him.
As Daneel walked back to his dormitory with many marks of lipstick on his cheeks, he couldn"t help but pat himself on his back.
The Nigerian prince plan had worked perfectly, and it also felt great to have helped out so many sweet women.
The image of the mine being full of Ker Gems had been an illusion using "Mind Control", but the mist had been real: Daneel had covertly transported it over from his own Natural Energized Training Chamber, which was why the sect hadn"t suspected that the entire mine might be fake. Daneel, had, of course, dug out the mine and placed those fragments of the gems to make it look real.
To escape the oath, the key had been the system - although he had sworn not to tell anything to the sect, he had already done all the preparations and preprogrammed them into the system before asking it to execute all of the tasks, like sending the tip to the sect.
The sect was still puzzled as to who sent that tip, but because of all the facts, they let it go, thinking that it might just be someone who had picked up on some clues, or might have a vendetta against Alfonso.
Also, he had used a special spell that worked similar to the one which made simulations appear, albeit being simpler, to introduce those suggestive thoughts in Alfonso"s mind so that he wouldn"t question anything too much and go along with it.
And of course, the rumor was his work.
[Achievement unlocked: Crusader of Justice.
Crusader of Justice: By going out of your way to help those who couldn"t help themselves, you have shown the att.i.tude that a person on the righteous path of World Domination should have. They will forever remember you, and if the need ever arises, they will not hesitate to follow you. It is events like these that build up the support that every World Dominator must have. Congratulations!
5000 EXP earned.]
A nice bonus on top, too!
With his smile widening even further, Daneel got to his dormitory and fell on the bed.
One job was done, and although it had been very fun and gratifying, it was now time to get back to his main goals.