Chapter 132 Receiving Word
In the throne room of the Lanthanor Kingdom.
Taking a parchment from Cassandra and going through it, Daneel smiled as the information about the elves;' decision sounded in his mind.
Although not the best-equipped spy network in all of Angaria, Lanthanor had once boasted of one of the most robust and efficient spies in almost all the Kingdoms.
This was mainly because of the man in charge of training spies: Commander Luther.
The man's past was shrouded in mystery, but one thing that could never be disputed was his loyalty to Lanthanor.
According to Cassandra, he had stumbled to the border of Lanthanor with his body covered in blood at the tender age of 10. Although he had been questioned repeatedly regarding his past, he had only had one answer: that he didn't remember.
Showing remarkable talent in almost all aspects of warfare, he quickly rose through the ranks until he was one step below a commander.
In fact, the only reason why he wasn't promoted was that King Richard had had misgivings regarding the fact that he wasn't born in Lanthanor.
Yet, this all changed when during an ambush by Axelor, he risked his life and almost died while saving the King.
That was also the incident which gave him the scars on his face.
Mauled by a nefarious magic spell, it was a wonder he even survived.
Since then, the King had had no qualms in trusting him to follow orders.
Also taking over the duty of training spies, Luther had produced and sent some of the most talented espionage agents to the corners of Angaria.
Above all, he was skilled in this matter the most. Thus, many suspected that it was somehow linked to his forgotten childhood.
Regardless, there was one problem with maintaining such an extensive network: resources.
Expensive trinkets, money for bribes, daily expenses, etc.
To handle all such miscellaneous costs, the Kingdom always sent an amount of money to all spies stationed all over the continent.
Of course, this was a huge drain on resources.
Because of the King Richard's mad lust for power, he had made the decision of cutting off these resources to a bare minimum.
This had been the reason why Axelor had managed to move their army to attack without alerting Lanthanor during the struggle for the throne.
Many spies, who had established themselves as merchants needing a steady flow of money from Lanthanor, were left out to dry. Luther had seen these men and women as his own children, and it had broken his heart to see them in such a condition.
With time, the network dwindled until it became a mere skeleton of its former glory.
That all changed when Daneel took the throne. Although he had no idea why Luther didn't approach him with this matter himself, the order to reestablish the spy network had been given out by him along with the one to set up the Justice Centers.
Such a major reinstatement took time, thus the signal to awake had reached the man in Eldinor after the meeting with the Black Raven Kingdom.
The report went as follows:
"Old sewer network used to gain access to specific sewer line from the Palace. A recording device was sent to the room of an individual named 'Eldra'. To evade detection, a short range transmitting device was used. I will be coming to the sewer every day to collect information.
So far, the individual has given orders to keep an eye on King Daneel's movements while being cautious so that no spy is caught alive. She also sent a request to a strategist to secretly assess the effects of mass producing certain simple trinkets on the economy of Lanthanor, on behalf of the Queen."
First and foremost, Daneel admired the tenacity of the man to crawl through piles of sewerage to carry out this mission. Indeed, Commander Luther's training was something else.
Secondly, he was not very surprised that the news about the assembly line had been leaked. There were many spies in the Palace, and it would be impossible to keep something like this which was known to many people hidden.
As the elves suspected, he had used the system to modify a schematic of a simple communication trinket in order to make it possible to be mass produced on the assembly line. Each individual only knew the part of the process they were supposed to do, so even if Eldinor somehow came into possession of the knowledge of a single individual belonging to a unit, it would do no good.
The most important part was the full schematic, which only two individuals knew: Daneel and Ripley.
Indeed, the special individual who was in charge of the division was Ripley. He had jumped to the offer when being told that he would be given the best of resources to do whatever he wanted.
For now, Ripley headed the production of communication trinkets. In the near future, Daneel planned to have a talk with him regarding the future direction of Lanthanor.
With news about the decision of Eldinor, Daneel felt rest assured knowing that they wouldn't be moving on him. Time was all he needed, and he seemed to have some breathing space now.
Dismissing the court, Daneel walked back to his chambers, happy that this issue was settled.
On the way, he couldn't help but think back to the report of the system regarding the Echer seeds that had put him in a dilemma which had been tormenting him ever since:
[Phenomena Analysis Module has analyzed Echer seeds.
Echer Seeds: These are a modified variety of a common plant known for its tenacity to live by sapping away the nutrients of other plants around it. This variety can absorb the energy present in the ground, resulting in plants that can be processed to obtain an energy material similar to Ether.
The earth that the seeds are buried loses all vitality in a period of 1 year. This has an effect on the nutrients present in the earth which enable regular plants to grow: in a period of 2 years after planting echer seeds, the earth they were planted becomes completely barren. No plant will be able to grow in this soil. According to estimates, the time required to reverse this effect is 10 years.]
Daneel had been quite shocked when he heard this analysis from the system. The echer plants were actually a man-made alternative to Ether!
This had been the dream of many Kingdoms for as long as they could remember. Although Ether mines were still in operation, there would be a time when they are completely depleted. At that point, many wondered what the state of Angaria would be.
Would mages and fighters have to give up training? This was simply a horrific thing to think about.
Thus, many had been conducting research to tackle this problem, but there hadn't been any success at least in all 6 Kingdoms.
It only made sense that with their superior resources, the Big 4 would be the first to succeed. Yet, this plant was simply too nefarious.
In one year, it would eat away the earth's energy, but it would take another year for this to be detected by humans.
Effectively, someone could plant these in an area and show that there were no ill effects. After scamming the farmers, they could leave with the Echer plants.
Another year later, all the crops planted in the area would start dying, eventually resulting in the whole area becoming a desert.
For many in Lanthanor, their land was their livelihood. If Daneel agreed to the Black Raven King's plan and allowed the Echer seeds to be planted in his Kingdom due to being tempted by the spot in the Big 4 and the profits, he would be sending numerous farmers to their deaths.
In fact, he would be dooming his whole Kingdom to ruin.
Yet, what he didn't understand was how the Black Raven King's plan could be so dumb. If this did come about, Lanthanor would definitely launch a justified do-or-die assault on the Black Raven Kingdom, following which both Kingdoms would be devastated, allowing others to enter the fray and reap benefits.
This was something they definitely didn't desire.
Now, as he walked to his chambers, another possibility which he hadn't thought about before came into Daneel's mind.
He had the system which could analyze the seeds in order to give this analysis. As far as he knew, no one else in the 6 Kingdoms would have been able to make such an analysis.
If this was so, then what if the Black Raven Kingdom had no idea about these ill-effects, and had already been schemed upon and duped by the Big 4 who had given the seeds?