[Dormant surveillance on target: Jordan has activated. Target moving suspiciously. Before these movements, target received a message from a known source.]
Hearing this extremely strange message from the system, Daneel looked up from the parchments over which he had been brooding for the last few hours.
They were plans for more types of trinkets which would be implemented to work with the coins, and included in them were also recharging stations that could be kept secret even if one walked in and saw the formations.
The idea was to guard them, and also to implement a self-destruct formation that would activate when the fake formations that would be layered on to the real ones to confuse those who were studying them were bypa.s.sed.
Putting all these thoughts out of his head, Daneel rechecked the message from the system, and this time, there was more information for him to see.
[Target has arrived in Lanthanor.]
Huh?!
This didn"t make sense. Jordan was just someone whom Daneel had Mind Controlled without him knowing that he was even being subjected to something of the sort, and to the man, it would have felt as if all of his ideas had originated from his own mind.
Moreover, he had recently checked on him and found out that although the pyramid scheme had been exposed, there were still a few suckers, but the profits they had made so far meant that whole thing could be called a grand success.
The only reason that Daneel was still monitoring him and keeping him under his control was for the extensive network of servants that he controlled, who could pick up all sorts of information that could never be found in other methods. After all, gossip was a very prominent source of information which was often overlooked.
Daneel was puzzled as to what Jordan would want to do here, and he was just about to ask the system whether it is possible to deploy a more thorough Mind Control spell which would allow him to check his thoughts.
After all, all that stuff about the consciousness being sacred only applied to powerful people, and with a brute force, consciousnesses of regular humans could be broken into and altered however one wished. If one wasn"t delicate, though, they would cause permanent damage because it was, after all, a dangerous endeavor. Yet, Daneel had full confidence that he would not cause any damage whatsoever because the system could execute the spell with clinical accuracy.
The problem was that it was extremely resource-consuming, and hence, it was typically not used, especially because there weren"t even many use cases where it would be required. And where it would be useful, it was impossible to deploy it, as most prime targets would have broken through to become Warriors, which would give them enough protection that their consciousnesses would not be intruded upon unless it was someone very powerful like the Head.
Before he could even do anything more, though, to his surprise, he saw that Jordan had arrived in front of the palace gates, and was requesting an audience with him.
He gave a fake name and said that he was simply someone from a trading family who was interested in selling the trinkets that were being tested in Lancers.h.i.+re village, and as Daneel gave the order that he should be let inside, he walked in with a complicated expression on his face.
He was led to a small meeting room, where Daneel observed him for a little bit of time.
It had been surprising enough that he was coming to Lanthanor, where he hadn"t stepped foot in decades, but it was even more puzzling that he had sought out Daneel.
No matter how much he thought about it, Daneel couldn"t think of a possible reason.
While he waited, various emotions of worry, despair and even slight hopelessness appeared on his face, and this was very strange, because the last time Daneel had seen him, he had given a strong impression that he was someone who wasn"t very expressive.
Why the sudden change?
Intending to find out, he directly teleported into the room, and as Jordan looked up to see that the king had arrived, he immediately bowed low and asked a question that made Daneel widen his eyes and raise his eyebrows with shock.
"King ofLanthanorr, can I please ask whether you have been tampering with my mind?"
What?!
He had identified that he was being Mind Controlled?
But how?!
It was supposed to be a completely foolproof spell which would make it seem as if all of the ideas being placed into his mind were coming from himself, and even the system had been carefully monitoring him to make sure that nothing was amiss.
It hadn"t been checking his thoughts, but it had been looking into what he was doing everyday. That was why he had gotten that alert, and it couldn"t even be said that he had figured it out due to the message he had received. When he had read the message, the system had been able to intercept it using the spells that had been placed in his mind, and it said simply that someone was breaking up with him.
At this moment, Daneel hesitated, because he didn"t know what to do.
After that, though, he shrugged and just nodded before sitting down.
This was just a normal human, and he hadn"t even placed any safeguards or done anything that might threaten Daneel in any way. Hence, why not just find out how he had identified it and also why he had come here to ask directly?
As soon as Jordan heard the answer, the emotion that came on his face startled Daneel again, and it was all he could do to maintain his kingly expression and not put on one of surprise.
Relief had actually appeared in Jordan"s face, and he stood up from his bow and sat back down before speaking.
"I knew it. My mind is my biggest a.s.set, and for the longest time, I just thought that it had begun to churn out all sorts of amazing ideas. However… I started to feel that something was wrong. I just couldn"t explain it, as everything looked fine, including all the money I had earned from the pyramid scheme. I"m a.s.suming now that the vault in which the money was placed is empty, and I was made to believe that all of it is still there?"
Still surprised, Daneel nodded again.
He had already taken away all the Ether blocks for safekeeping, and the place where they were all stashed by Jordan was actually empty. The Mind Control had made him see otherwise, and for safety, Daneel had also Mind Controlled the servants around the house to see the same thing.
Even more relief appeared in Jordan"s face, and he said, "You don"t know how good it feels to find out that I was right. I thought that I was going senile, but it turns out that I was simply trapped using the legendary spell that is the dream of any spymaster. Only those from the Big Four are supposed to be able to use it, right? I see that you have many secrets, Oh King, while mine are all bare to you. I have been on this continent for a long time, and I have ama.s.sed all sorts of wealth. I have thousands of people under me who all depend on me for their livelihoods, and I believe that I have fulfilled all of the goals that I set for myself. In all this time, I"ve never seen a king as capable as you. You have both strength and intelligence, and both are necessary if one has lofty ambitions. Sadly, I only have the latter."
Hearing Jordan"s impa.s.sioned speech, Daneel actually felt a little sorry for him.
The man had accomplished so much by putting in a lot of hard work, but he had swooped in and directly used a simple spell to take it all for himself. True, he wasn"t a very "good" man, especially in the sense of the "good" that was prevalent on Eart. He wasn"t someone who indiscriminately killed, but he was also not very known for his good heart. In fact, when Daneel had found out about him, he had been surprised to see that he had caused the bankruptcy and suicides of many people, because after all, one of his major sources of income was blackmail using sensitive information.
First, though, Daneel wanted to find the answer to the question that was still burning inside him.
"How did you identify that it was Mind Control?"
It looked like Jordan had entered some kind of a reverie, because he snapped out of it when the King asked this question and answered, "It was pretty simple. I checked back on all the times that I had gotten thoughts out of nowhere, and then I a.s.sociated them with the movements of the kingdoms in the Central Continent. So, it was easy to identify that the information that I was collecting using my network was being used by you, especially in the case where you found out about the movements of the Kingdom of Arafell when she was recruiting allies."
"…"
The extremely simple answer impressed Daneel, because it once again showed the intellect of this man, whom he had been using all this while. Indeed, at that time, he had used Jordan"s extensive network to keep a close eye on the movements of the people sent out by the Queen of Arafell for recruiting settlements into her kingdom.
From this, a connection really could be made, and the man had made it, so here he was.
But why was he here?
As if he had read Daneel"s mind, Jordan spoke up.
"I"ve just received word that someone is targeting your new business of trinkets and coins. I must applaud you on the fact that you created something which has tremendous potential, but I wish that you had begun testing in a more discrete manner. I can deduce that you are mostly doing this because you"re confident that no one else can copy what you have done, but what if… It is someone from the Big Four that is targeting you?"
BANG!
Stamping his foot on the ground, Daneel immediately stood up while staring at Jordan.
Was the man jesting? But that didn"t make sense, as he seemed to value his life. These were the kinds of jokes that could get people killed, but his expression was one of seriousness.
Someone from the Big Four was targeting his plan?
That was exactly what Daneel had been sure wouldn"t happen, and the reason why he had gone ahead so brazenly!
The Big Four were supposed to be completely absorbed with themselves! There should be no one who was idle enough to target his business, instead of just directly targeting him!
Calming these thoughts, Daneel first decided to find out just how the h.e.l.l this man had made this claim.
Again, before he could ask, Jordan spoke.
"I have always had an insider in the trade families to check how the pyramid scheme and other things were being adopted. You must already know this. Today, she attended a meeting where the agenda was to target your business to get back the money that they had lost. However, after that, she sent me a private message before cutting off all communications. We already have an understanding between us, and I can tell that she would only do so if someone managed to overpower her. If she was overpowered, then it means that the same happened to the rest, too. They all have Warriors, and there is only one force on the Central Continent apart from you who can defeat so many of them - the Big Four. She could not speak of the result of their meeting, which means that an oath must"ve been extracted from her regarding it. This leads me to conclude that whoever has targeted all of these trade families has taken them under their control and has set their eyes on your business. I wish to ask directly to enter your retinue, and do things of my own volition, instead of "getting ideas out of nowhere". I will serve you to the fullest of my abilities, in much better ways than what I would have done if I continued to be Mind Controlled. In return, I just ask one thing: lifespan. Please promise me that if you become powerful enough and obtain a method to extend my mortal lifespan, you will give it to me, and until then, I need no payment. If you are in agreement, I"m ready to swear whatever oath is necessary. In my life, I have always succeeded in everything that I set my mind to, and I promise that if you believe in me, I will show you the meaning of the word "Spymaster". I humbly request that you consider this deal, Oh King"