Chapter 478 Implementing the Plan
3 days later, the Mad Doctor was following his routine as usual.
He had just been to his son's grave, and he was currently on the way to his office.
Over the past fortnight, each day, he had only been able to stay sane by imagining and dreaming of the moment that would soon come when he would crave the flesh of the King of Lanthanor and make him beg before finding out the location and identity of his master from him.
And if he didn't have the answer the Mad Doctor sought, then it was just too bad. The Central Continent would lose a valuable King, but a part of the Mad Doctor's revenge would at least be fulfilled, as he would be able to make that master feel a little of just how it was to lose a son.
However, until then, he had to stay out of sight of the Hero level members of the Sect of Hedon, who usually kept an eye on him due to some…activities that he had gotten up to a few decades back, which had partly given him the nickname he carried now.
After reaching his office, he suddenly noticed that something was amiss.
A Champion's senses couldn't be compared to those of a normal human: they could sense even the smallest changes in places they regularly frequented, purely due to the familiarity they obtained after staying in a location for an extended period of time.
Thinking for a bit, the Mad Doctor walked to the cabinet to the left of the room which contained the important records of the Health Department of the Sect of Hedon, such as core healing methods and records of injuries, which was actually a very valuable resource because of the fact that each injury caused by magic was unique, leading to different healing methods, where one method may be more effective than other.
All in all, this cabinet was protected by the core formation of the Sect itself, and although it wasn't as prioritized as the areas where the true treasures of the sect were stores, it was still quite strong.
However, he could tell that someone had opened it.
Frowning and wondering who it could have been, the Mad Doctor opened the cabinet to view the rows and rows of cubical white crystals, which were memory trinkets, that were placed inside.
Scanning each row carefully, the Mad Doctor finally spotted the incongruency: it was one of the cubes in the back of the 6th row, whose position had changed by a millimeter since the Mad Doctor had last seen it.
Wait! That wasn't the only one!
In the 9th row, there was one more cube.
Picking both of them up, the Mad Doctor sat down at his desk and went through them carefully.
Everything looked fine, but his gut told him that something was off.
A Champion's instinct could never be doubted, as it was only with harmonizing ethereally with themselves did they even cross that chasm that separated the Warrior and Champion realms.
Frowning even further, the Mad Doctor quickly left the office and went back to his room.
Inside, he opened a secret compartment in the wall which he had hidden using a Hero-level formation that he had obtained with great difficulty.
Here lay piles and piles of Ker Gems, and also a thin, branch-like substance that glowed red.
Yes, it was the inferior Ker Root that he had used partially for the solution that was supposed to have advanced his son to the peak of the Warrior stage.
As for how he had obtained it: that was a secret that only he knew.
Not just that, even this compartment's existence was definitely not known even by the Hero-level sect members of the Sect of Hedon. Unless someone was capable enough of watching him every day, after evading the detection of the only other Hero-level trinket he had that alerted him to being spied on, could they even find a hint of this compartment, and even then, he would definitely have been alerted if someone disturbed the foundation.
No Hero-level individual alive was capable of tampering with this vault of his.
With a small smile of confidence, the Mad Doctor reached inside and traced his fingers across the rows of data crystals that were arranged here.
Indeed: these were the illegal copies he had made of the ones in his office, for his own personal use, in case he ever needed to flee the Sect. Although they contained trivial information such as the records of all the people who had been healed in the Health Department, the core data about healing they contained would ensure him amnesty if the day ever came when he did something horrible enough that he would be hunted by the Heroes of the Sect of Hedon.
Who knew? That day might come very soon.
Discarding these thoughts, the Mad Doctor took out the corresponding cubes that had been moved in his office.
Going through them, he realized that it was the data of the records of those healed in the Health Department that had been made.
There were two records that had been deleted, with one each in each cube.
In the first one, on the same day that his son had died, someone had been admitted to the health department with a wound in their back, that seemed to have been sustained from a Champion.
On asking, the recipient of the wound had just claimed that it was an Exalted Warrior who was trying out a new attack. As the wound wasn't very serious, not many questions were asked.
With this itself, the Mad Doctor started to shake with anger.
On that day, he had been sure that the attack of his had grazed the person who had killed his son.
Apparently, the culprit was in his own sect, and he had dared to get healed in the department he was a head of!
Such audacity!
Controlling himself, the Mad Doctor viewed the second one, and it made him stand up with absolute shock.
On the day when the tea that was served to the Hero-level individuals of the continent who had gathered for the meeting, someone had been admitted in the health department showing symptoms similar to those that came from drinking a little of that poison.
As the concentration of poison was very low, and because that person claimed that it was from ingesting some herb outside which was apparently his weird habit, only a record had been made.
However, no one had made this connection- that it was the same poison.
Perhaps…the one who had transported/administered the poison had ingested it by mistake? And was still at large?
And the person who was responsible for intruding in his office wanted to cover this up?
Wait…then didn't that mean that…the one who had killed his son, and the one who had colluded with the Church, were one and the same?!
With completely bloodshot eyes, the Mad Doctor rushed to his office again, where he pulled aside a healer to ask who had gone into his office when he was absent.
There was only one person, and the answer completely shocked the Mad Doctor, making him look as if he had just been electrocuted by an attack from a Hero.
It was a staff member of the Sect Leader, who had come with the Sect Leader's permission to check on the formations inside the room.
If it wasn't for his paranoia of making backups which no one knew about, this would have been a perfect plan.
However, now, that activity of his had resulted in him finding out the killer of his son, and as it was someone whom he had suspected before, he had no suspicion at all. Thus, he let rage consume him again, while he started to rapidly change his plans.
…
Meanwhile, in the chambers of the Sect Leader, Ashahell had just received a report from a few sect members from other members of the Big 4 whom he had contracted to keep an eye on the general Energy levels and concentrations in the continent.
It was his attempt at finding Ker Gem Mines which could be protected from the Big 4, and these sect members were people who shared his zeal, albeit to a much lesser extent.
The report made his eyes furrow, before making him show a hint of anger, that anyone would be very surprised to see, as the Sect Leader was always a man of few emotions.
If any emotion was being shown on the outside, then it definitely meant that it was present in considerable amounts in the Sect Leader's mind.
The report stated that the Mad Doctor had engaged in planting Devil Crops secretly, not caring for the fact that they rendered the land barren for years, in order to obtain enough resources to make those pools which were designed to push those sect members who had died to the Peak of the Warrior level.
Since the incident in Lanthanor last time, the Big 4 had cracked down on all such activities, even putting in place the law that those found to be engaging in these activities would be killed directly.
This man had already opposed him vehemently once, when he had proposed his plan to save Angaria.
This time, for once, Ashahell seriously considered giving in to his emotions, and killing that Mad Doctor, lest he finds an opportunity to take shelter behind some Hero.
…
Meanwhile, the one responsible for all of these actions and reactions was slowly savoring a piece of Fish from the Endless Sea while smiling to himself.
"Young King, you said that framing someone means planting false evidence in their abode. But you planted false evidences in both of their abodes! Why?"
"Two reasons, but you should be able to guess the first as its obvious. Try, Drakos."
After a few moments of thought, Drakos replied, "I got it! So that they would be instigated to fight against each other!"
Sighing and thinking that Drakos still had a long way to go, Daneel spoke.
"Yes. But the second reason is that I planted false evidence about a false crime in one case, and false evidence of a real crime in the other. Even though a lot of care has been taken to cover up that real crime, if investigation starts in the earnest, don't you think that some or the other clue might be uncovered? After all, no crime is perfect, at least, not when there's someone like me to help the investigation. What do you say, Drakos? It's like a thief who has stolen something accusing and being accused by another thief who is innocent, with both thieves finding false evidence which lead to the accusations. If you are the investigator, don't you think that you have more chances of finding some clue to prove the crime of the first thief, because it really has happened, and because although the evidence is false, it points to that crime?"
"Yes! Of course! Brilliant, Young King! You're using his crime against him! Wonderful! Deceitful! Shamele-..Err, I mean, Amazing!"
As Daneel accepted the praises, he finished the piece of fish before buying another, deciding to splurge in celebration of a successful start to his plan.