"Isn"t it magnificent, Young King? But I am curious to find out what their thoughts are, just like you. And it does feel great to be back."
Hearing this voice in his head, the smile on Daneel"s face only grew broader.
Of course, the one who was speaking was Drakos, the Ancient Dragon, whom he had picked up before coming here.
It wasn"t exactly that he had been able to take back the Dragon"s consciousness into his mind, as he was currently in a covert location which very few knew about, but that he had sort of set up a walkie-talkie situation where he could communicate with the Empire Spirit even though he was standing here.
And the reason behind this… Was that he wanted to have an Empire Spirit with him, to see if there might be any clues left behind by the other one who had betrayed them all.
And also… He was feeling guilty about leaving someone so close to him for so long, alone.
The reason that he had left the Ancient Dragon in the kingdom was that he would be a final line of defense in case the worst happened, and this had actually turned out to be the right decision - after all of his sovereigns had been "kidnapped" by the order, it was the Ancient Dragon who had run everything behind the scenes, even though it had looked as if it was people like the Spymaster whom he had recruited who were the ones running the show.
Whatever happened, Drakos had ensured that the direction of the Alliance would not be changed, and he was the reason why the adoption of the new currency, the construction of the combined school, and all the other projects the Daneel had started long back were still going on smoothly, with no hitches whatsoever.
Below them, the crowd was still roaring, and it did not look like they would stop anytime soon - such was the intensity of their emotions, and of course, they were very justified.
Although Drakos had said that he wanted to find out why their thoughts, Daneel had a general idea regarding why it was revenge that they were asking for: he had been told that in his absence, his sovereigns had had a brief talk with the citizens in order to explain to them exactly what had happened. They had been told that their King had been under the control of a different, ancient being over all these years, and that that was the reason why they had undergone so much suffering for so many centuries. Well, it was at least partly the reason, and they were also told that he had escaped destruction at the hands of the King of Lanthanor somehow before covertly creating this elaborate plot, that had almost resulted in the destruction of the continent as they knew it.
The decision to do so was taken by Eloise, who knew how it must feel to live in doubt, without knowing for certain why something so important and precious to them had been taken away.
So, of course, it would definitely be revenge that they would ask for, as they knew who was to be blamed.
"How did it feel to have a nice break from all the mayhem?", asked Daneel, whose mind was now so much lighter after seeing the response from the Axelorians.
"Quite good, but if I were being frank, I would tell you that I would have preferred the mayhem, any day. Still, I had a nice nap, which allowed me to refresh myself quite a bit. These are needed, even for me, so I could tell that they must have been needed even more so for someone like Arnold, who might not have found p.a.w.ns to do his bidding all the while."
The response made him nod, before saying, "Quite so. I had heard about these naps that you need, but I didn"t think about it much, as in my experience, almost all the Empire Spirits I met are all up and ready to kill me right as I find out about them."
Daneel could hear the smile in Drakos"s tone.
"You were born in a time where Empire Spirits would be in a "waking" phase, Young King. It has been around 17,000 years, and for the first 10,000, we were all sleeping, for the most part, as those who survived the Apocalypse and then grew stronger were still powerful enough to sense us if we awoke, and target us as the Apocalypse would still be fresh, within their minds. You already know that the Emperor meant us to be a secret from these organizations, and although they had an inkling, they never really knew what we were, or what was stored within us. This allowed us to get by, before the phase came when the Energy levels had gone low enough to make it so that there were fewer Heroes. It was then that we started communicating with the rulers. Well…that was in my case, at least. As far as I know, it must also be then that Arnold and Arafell began to look for people whom they could possess. Still, in the 7000 years that followed that point, there were long periods where all of us had to sleep for extended lengths in order to have at least a semblance of hope in preserving our sanity. I needed the least. It is only in the past ~1000 years that another "awakening" phase began. Hence…like I said, you are lucky, Young King."
Chuckling in his mind, Daneel said, "Yeah, very lucky, indeed. Anyway, let"s go find out more about these people."
Daneel had cleared out his agenda for this reason, too: even though he had already gotten his answer in that way, he wanted to find out more about these people.
And for that, he had to go among them.
It had to be noted that these people had lived in the most closed-off place on the continent, with the information that they could access being very, very limited.
Such people"s mindsets might also be different, and of course, he also wanted to see whether there were any signs of Arnold"s plans that he could pick up.
As Daneel began to descend, the roaring finally began to die down.
Only the children continued it. Waving imaginary flags, they kept chanting this word while running around the camp, and Daneel watched them with pity as their faces which should be filled with innocent joy were now covered in a shade of anger and bitter hatred.
As he landed, though, he was distracted by a man who walked up to him.
"King Daneel! Please follow me. There is an elder among us who helped us to understand everything, and let us know where our anger should be directed. He also explained clearly about how you managed to save us from right under the Church"s noses. On behalf of my family, thank you! We lived while fearing the next purge…but we didn"t know that there was such an evil in our Kingdom. Please come! He is the best person to speak to!"
Daneel nodded and motioned for the man to lead the way.
His skin was sunburned, and his hands were that of a farmer: coa.r.s.e and rugged. His s.h.i.+rt was hanging loose, though, and it was torn, showing the ribs underneath.
Clearly, he had been a poor man.
Walking through the streets of the large camp, Daneel saw that there were many such people. Axelor looked like it had been in a severe state of poverty, which made him wonder where all the profit had gone to. It had always been a relatively wealthy nation, with ample resources within its borders that it had been able to sell without any problems to get everything it needed, so where had all that money gone?
The last time that Daneel was in the Kingdom, he had been too busy with his plans to oppose Arnold, so he hadn"t really been able to think deeply about the economy of this Kingdom.
However, now, he wondered whether it really resembled that unique nation from Earth run by a man famously known as "the little rocket man" in more ways than he had imagined.
On the way, he was met with many gazes. Most were filled with grat.i.tude, but some were bitter, while others only showed sadness.
Of course, it was to be expected that some might still hold him to blame and wish that he saved everyone, just like those on Earth who would argue with firefighters that they should have saved the house, too, even though it had been a miracle to pull them out of the fire, in the first place.
Daneel wasn"t childish enough now to be affected by them, and the only problem would be if they were present in the majority.
However, there were barely a couple in the hundreds that he pa.s.sed, and soon, it looked like he was near his destination.
The reason behind this was that he was approaching a large tree, and many, many people were seated around it in a circle.
There was an old man sitting in front of it, and he looked like he might fall down and never wake up again at any moment. He was exceedingly weak, with bony hands and legs and a sunken, pale face.
His hair reached his knees, and it looked like it hadn"t been cut in a long, long time.
Yet, when Daneel approached, he spoke in a surprisingly strong voice.
"All hail the King of Lanthanor!"
"HAIL!"
There were more than a thousand people seated around him, and surprisingly, there were communication eyes that seemed to be transmitting his image to other places, too.
This became clear when the answering cry came from the entire plain, making Daneel look around with surprise.
Folding his hands behind his back, he walked forward, definitely not expecting something like this.
"Please sit. I am afraid I do not have anything better..."
The old man said this as an Axelorian nearby pulled up a normal chair, but Daneel raised his hand to silence him and simply sat.
Following that, he looked out over the people, all of whom were glancing between him and the old man.
His curiosity at its peak, he said, "May I ask who you are?"
With a chuckle that shook his entire body, the old man answered.
"Oh, names are such unimportant things. I lost mine when I was taken to the dungeons for 40 years. Now, I just go by "old man". There"s no one older than me in all of Axelor, so it"s perfect! Don"t you think so?"
Raising an eyebrow, Daneel regarded the man, and in the next moment, he was given an answer by the system.
[Target was born with high comprehension level, but it was of a rare form which has a chance of going unnoticed when normal methods are used for testing. His body is being kept alive by sheer will. His Mageroot, although untrained, has managed to create its own form of a healing spell which it is actively deploying 24/7. Such individuals who created spells without training were called Virtuosos. If this was the Age of the Empire, target would be called a Healing Virtuoso, as he is a natural expert in the field who was able to do what others can only do with training by simply fumbling around alone.]
Daneel didn"t know what he had been expecting when he asked the system to scan this man...but it had definitely not been this.
He was a d.a.m.n treasure!
Just as he was about to rejoice, though...a cry was heard from the crowd.
"King Daneel! Finally!"
The crowd parted, and a man who Daneel actually knew stumbled out.
He looked extremely malnourished, and from the scars still present on his face and hands, it seemed as if he had been tied up very securely.
He...was the Minister of Axelor, who had subsequently introduced democracy before being voted as the Ruler.
"That thing imprisoned me and took my place! I was just able to break free! Please! There is a ploy to bring the Church here, we must stop them! We- GUAGH!!"
Everyone present had been looking on with abject shock as this famous man had appeared out of nowhere, but suddenly, as he clutched his throat and fell to the ground before being bound by shackle after shackle that kept appearing, all of them turned to Daneel, only to see him have an extremely frigid expression on his face.
Before they could say anything, he walked forward while speaking in a cold voice, and his words...made them all drop their jaws and stare.
"All these days...I was going over my every step in Axelor which lead me to think that I had put the legendarily cold-blooded Empire Spirit, Arnold, to sleep. All signs pointed to him being in the King"s head, as he kept possessing him, so after blowing up the man, I thought I succeeded in putting him to sleep. But...when I listed the other possibilities, there was one which stood out, mainly for absurdity. During every possession...the minister was always present beside the King. So...couldn"t Arnold have been present in the minister, before going into hiding and creating this perfect plan to bring over the Church? I was ready to discard it, but lo and behold, it has been confirmed! You"re such a c.o.c.ky son of a b*tch, aren"t you, Arnold? You just couldn"t resist taking it too far! Well...you"re done for, now."
At first, there was silence, as no one could comprehend what the King was saying.
But after that...an even colder voice, completely different from the one that had come from the minister before burst out from the completely bound man, and it was filled with such malice that all those nearby stepped back with fear.
"HAHAHA! That"s right! Oh, I knew that there was a risk...but I just couldn"t stop myself from seeing your face! But you"re wrong on one count...this is just a figment of me that I can afford to lose! Now, then, getting to the point...how did it feel to be screwed right in the a.r.s.e? Forgive my crude language, but that"s exactly what you did to me! And look what you"ve caused! Angaria is f*cked! Oh, it is soooooo f*cked! HAHAHAHAHAHA!"