In the sky above the central point of Angaria which had been relocated to allow for the absence of the Kingdom of Axelor, the sovereigns had gathered, but something was… off.
The king and Eloise both had flushed cheeks, and they were decidedly avoiding eye contact for some reason.
Even though she was sitting right beside him, Eloise was looking elsewhere, as if extremely interested in the birds that were flying a few meters away from the spot where they had gathered.
As for the king, he was looking into the sky, as if it held the key to the secrets of the universe, which had captivated him so strongly that he could not look away.
After everyone had gathered, this was the scene that continued to prevail, and it was finally Kellor who broke the silence during which everyone had started to speculate in their own way regarding the reason behind why it was like this.
Aaron, of course, had the raunchiest of imaginations, whereas Elanev had a small frown, which was actually not filled with animosity.
In fact, he was the one whom Daneel was most concerned about, and he was the one the system was a.n.a.lyzing in order to check whether there were any negative emotions being displayed.
Strangely enough, Elanev was the first person that Daneel had thought of after that experience, as there had been clues to make him think that there was some sort of a bond forming between Eloise and his elder brother.
Of course, there had been nothing to indicate that it was something greater than that between two people who were close because of growing up together, but still, Daneel knew the tale of the famous King Arthur, and he had no intention whatsoever of having it repeated with him as the protagonist.
And with this thought, he realized that he was really overthinking things, so he calmed himself down, but that calm was suddenly shattered by the memory of what had just happened which was still firmly in the forefront of his mind.
His cheeks flushed again, making him seriously contemplate whether to tell the system to control his facial expressions, but instead, he forced himself to a.n.a.lyze what had happened, which actually made him see something right away.
In the case of Xuan, the physical pain and torment she had gone through had melted him, making him take her into his arms, by himself, with the wish to take away her suffering, or at least warm her heart with his presence.
In the case of Eloise, there was the same torment of the same intensity, with the only difference being that it was emotional, as he had mentioned. It had melted him, too, and even though the kiss had been initiated by her, he was the one who had kissed back with all of himself, leaving nothing back, and exposing himself completely in the same way that he had done before.
What did it all mean?
Daneel had no idea, and thankfully, Kellor"s words distracted him.
Unlike the others, it looked like he had been contemplating the topic due to which they had been called together, so when he spoke, the others also stopped gossiping and paid attention.
"Positioning oneself as a G.o.d… It is definitely a great idea, and this is definitely the perfect time, as we can reap the most benefits from it. But… I can"t help but say that it is not a unique idea. So why haven"t people tried to do the same over all these years? I know why the Emperor must not have done so, because of his personality which made him want to remain as a normal person with whom anyone could interact even though he was the ruler, but what about the rest, in the subsequent years? Yes, Queen Arafell has done it, but her case is different as her status was pa.s.sed down in families, from father to son, from mother to daughter, and hence, it has taken hold even if she doesn"t push for it actively. Why don"t more people copy her, and introduce all kinds of things to give themselves a permanent spot in the hearts of the people, thereby solidifying their position for generations to come?"
Using the opportunity, Daneel put aside his chaotic thoughts and answered.
"The reason is the Big Four, or actually, it"s the Order. You seem to have forgotten about the small experiment I did before… where I introduced a religion, of sorts, which made all of the corrupt individuals in the Kingdom of the elves expose themselves. It actually brought down the sky on me, and I was lucky to escape without any negative effects… After Eloise gave the suggestion, I used my newfound position to find out why this was the case. This is what I found."
Daneel"s voice had taken a very weird high-pitch when he said the word "Eloise", but it was practically unnoticeable because he covered it up instantly.
However, it looked like Eloise did notice, as a small smile flashed across her face for the briefest of moments which she hid away before looking like she had her full attention on the king.
"In the earlier annals of the order, there is a clear warning stating that any religion which popped out of nowhere has the chance of being the doing of a foreign presence which wishes to take root in this land. Any such threats are supposed to be disposed of immediately, with the Big Four handling the case if it pops up the Central Continent, and the Order stepping in if it pops up in the Big Four, itself. The idea is basically that one does not need to know the location of a place in order to influence the minds of those living far away - this kind of power is something we cannot even imagine, but it is written that there are beings which exist purely to take control of people"s minds through a religion and thereby gain power and a foothold which they can use to do what they please. There isn"t really anything stopping a home-grown religion from popping up, though, and that is probably why Arafell was not stopped - besides, she was never that brazen about it, at least as much as we are going to be in case we do go through with this."
Elanev was still looking between the king and Eloise as the entire conversation was happening, but finally, after Daneel said this, he shrugged and spoke up.
This shrug really meant a lot to Daneel, as it meant that what he had seen might possibly not have been true - it was a cla.s.sic case of seeing a lot even if there was nothing there, and it made him feel like some sort of a lovesick teenager in a movie who was getting jealous was no reason even though what he saw was completely normal.
Wait… Lovesick?
This put a whole new spin on everything, and it made those chaotic thoughts arise again, but Daneel forcefully pushed them down and listened to what his elder brother had to say.
"Speaking of Arafell… any way I see this, if we want to go ahead, we need to have the full continent under our fold, officially. With Axelor, only Arafell is left, so isn"t it high time we go to her Queenliness to see what"s up?"
BANG!
With a loud sound, the king abruptly got up, shocking the sovereigns who were present.
"Great idea! Let"s go right now! In fact, it might be best if I go alone! This is just an apparition, so don"t worry about me - stay, and think about the ramifications of what we are going to do, and if we do decide to go forward, the method in which we will implement it. As Eloise said, the first thing would be to create a TV show, but it has to have a lot of authenticity to it, and such a lofty goal will need a lot of planning - possibly more than everything we"ve done so far to create the Alliance, combined. Brainstorm, and I"ll speak to Arafell and be back soon. Farewell, my sovereigns!"
No sooner had the last word exited the king"s mouth, he disappeared, appearing as if he had something very urgent to attend to.
And in the silence that followed, the atmosphere only got weirder when Eloise broke out into a hearty laugh, while her eyes twinkled with amus.e.m.e.nt.
What the others did know… Was that she had just made eye contact with Daneel before shooting him a smile, and that had made him stand and react in that way.
She was actually quite proud of herself, even though she didn"t know what she had done-but whatever it was, she found herself happier than she had been in the longest time.
She stood up, too, at this point, to say, "You guys continue the brainstorming. I need to go visit Xuan-we were very, very close before everything happened, so it"s possible that my presence will help her, too."
With that, Eloise also disappeared, leaving the rest of the sovereigns staring between themselves, completely perplexed, wondering what had gotten into these two.
…
Daneel reappeared in the sky above Arafell before taking a deep breath and noticing that he had begun to pant.
"You"re not a high school kid! Come on!"
Scolding himself in this way, but still getting a lopsided smile which lingered as he knew that he had entered a dream which any high schooler would wish to be in, he shook his head to focus and looked down, intending to actually do the job he had said he would set out to do.
Introspection could come later- first, he had a Queen to visit.
Daneel directly flew to the Palace, which he had visited before.
All the formations that were publicly on display were no match to him as his apparition was at the Champion level, and those hidden had not been activated. Even if they were, he would lose a few resources, and that was all as he had taken the precaution to have the tiniest bit of consciousness possible in this form.
Arafell had always had the second most unique Palace in the Central Continent, after the one of Axelor, which had unfortunately been destroyed.
It was in the form of a giant statue which was over 120 feet(37 m) tall that towered over the entire capital, of a woman with a wreath in her hair, made of marble yet looking life-like because of the skill of the artisan who had made it eons ago.
The woman"s hands were kindly clasped in front of her, and her eyes seemed to be looking out over the Kingdom which had taken her name.
At the top of this statue was supposed to be the private room of the Queen, and in front of the statue was a large building half its size which acted as the actual Palace.
All around the statue were various other buildings which housed the army, and other personnel.
Daneel had only ever been to the Palace, and it was obvious that it was rude to directly intrude into a woman"s bedroom.
True, it was what he had just done, but it wasn"t the case that all woman would welcome him with a kiss.
As he landed in front of the large doors, they opened, almost as if they had been waiting for him, leading him to walk inside cautiously, as he knew of the Queen"s penchant to act like a Venus flytrap which looked beautiful, but would kill and suck dry anyone that was foolish enough to approach.
That was how she had "innovatively" built up funds to go up against him before, and he had no intention of sharing the fate of those poor errant members of the Big Four.
The doors led to a large Central Hall, and the throne was actually empty.
After a moment, though, the Queen appeared, but her expression was innocent, which made it clear that it was the original owner of the body who was present.
In a flash, though, it changed, and her voice rang out loudly, echoing in the room.
"So you finally showed up…great job blowing up almost a quarter of Angaria. But, hey, sometimes it is better to cut off rotting limbs before they fester. If you thought I had forgotten how you abused me before by using the visage of the one man I admire, you are mistaken. I know what you came for, and I know you"re just an apparition. But still…I"m itching for a fight. Defeat me, and I"ll talk to you. Otherwise, I"ll trap your consciousness and show you what I learned under the Empress of Torture. Let us begin!"