Chapter 531 Second Meeting of the Council
The idea behind the name came from the fact that two of these eight were already sovereigns of two major forces. Perhaps, with this name, the rest might also be motivated to forge ahead with as much enthusiasm and dedication as possible so that they could reach that level, themselves, too.
After all, Daneel had no intention whatsoever of shortchanging those who trusted him so much and believed in him to lead them. He valued them highly, and he had always had grand plans for them so that he could be rest assured that they would never, ever feel regret in their choices.
After calling for the meeting and asking them to assemble after six hours, Daneel began a deep run through of everything he had obtained from Drakos with the company of the Ancient Dragon, whose enthusiasm was palpable.
According to him, all of this data had been obtained with the blood and sweat of the Empire's forces. He was very proud of it, and Daneel's great interest only spurred him on to go to great lengths regarding each and every category.
Of course, Daneel didn't learn too much new stuff other than what the system had already analyzed, as although Drakos had a lot to say, a lot of it comprised of musings regarding how each specific piece of knowledge had been collected.
For example, according to him, he had personally known the Paragon who invented the legendary Barrier-Piercing Ballistae, from which had been derived a certain type of Artifact that had become the mainstay of the Emperor's Armies for quite a long time.
This information was definitely something interesting, but it didn't benefit Daneel all that much, but he still endeavored to gather it all. After all, who knew when it might come in handy.
Yet, 3 hours later, the Dragon's penchant for soliloquies resulted in Daneel feeling very drowsy, so he did a little cheating. The Ancient Dragon was completely absorbed in recounting everything in vivid detail, so he didn't notice much when Daneel's replies became sort of robotic, as the system had taken over while Daneel took a very well-deserved nap.
He woke up two hours later, only to find Drakos still going on with the same amount of gusto.
Finally, after another hour, Dale extricated himself from the Ancient Dragon, quoting that he was too tired to accept any more information, when in reality, he had already had enough after realizing that he had been right all along - the system had already extracted as much as it could.
As he reached his chambers to change clothes before heading off to the meeting, he once again marveled at just how valuable everything he had obtained was, as he now had an even better idea after this long session of discussion.
If this were some sort of video game, that it was like he had entered a cheat code which gave him so much stuff that he wasn't supposed to have at this stage.
Yet, he was definitely going to use it to great effect.
First, Daneel took a deep breath and decided to prioritize, as this was always most necessary when he was faced with too many routes to go in.
His utmost priorities were still the same - First, he needed to find all the parts of the Grand Inheritance before someone else did, as even though the ancient Dragon hadn't told him exactly what that thing could do, he knew that he definitely didn't want it in anyone else's hands. And, of course, he wanted to win the Race, too, as he could tell that it was very important.
On the same level was his priority to get to the Champion level. After seeing all of the Common Champion Paths, it had once again dawned on Daneel just how important this choice was. Whatever the Path that was chosen, one would have to stick with it when they proceeded to become a Hero and beyond. Hence, he definitely had to find one which he was happy with. Only, none of the ones he had seen so far stood out that much, and this included Ashahell's path.
Maybe… He would have to leave this until he broke the next seal, which brought him to his next priority - raising the Satisfaction Level even more so that he could see for himself what the Queen coveted so much.
She seemed to be pretty sure that if she broke the last seal, she would be able to take over the entire Continent, itself, without a problem. Could the information hidden there be that powerful?
Daneel honestly couldn't say, but he was definitely pretty excited to find out, especially now when he had already been endlessly awed by what was behind just the second seal.
However, he knew that it would be very tough.
Finally, his last main priority was actually related to the third one - he had seen just how beneficial it had been for him to come out in the open and become the ruler of the Kingdom of the Elves. How amazing would it be if he was somehow able to do the same with the other two forces that he controlled?
This was a pretty tall order, but if he really managed to do it, Daneel suspected that he would be able to achieve the third goal quite easily, if the Queen was to be believed.
These four remained on top, while there were a bunch below.
Things such as choosing what path to go with his military, what to do with all the Mages whom he had shown to the world as disabled, how he was going to integrate the Mages of Eldinor with the Fighters of Lanthanor, what he was going to do to hide the fact that he was in possession of unlimited wealth, et cetera et cetera were all stuff that he hoped to take help with from the Council.
His purpose behind prioritizing now was also so that their meeting could have an agenda, instead of spiraling into multiple discussions that might reach nowhere. On Earth, he had seen just how fruitless such discussions would be, during the times when he randomly tuned in to congressional sessions of various countries where elected officials would squabble uselessly instead of reaching any conclusion.
Donning a clean, shiny coat, Daneel left to the same spot in the sky between the Hidden Kill Sect, the Black Raven Kingdom and Lanthanor where the rest were already waiting for him.
4 were seated on each side, and as he appeared, all of them stood up in respect.
No bowing was necessary, as Daneel had explicitly stated this in his message. He thought of all of these people as his closest friends and confidants, so he didn't want a formal atmosphere to pervade this meeting.
As soon as he took his seat, Faxul also sat down and chuckled before saying, "Council of Nine Sovereigns. I must say that I quite like the sound of that. Is it your goal for all of us to become Sovereigns, eventually?"
Daneel hadn't expected that his friend would hit the nail on its head so soon, so he feigned surprise, but didn't say anything.
This made the rest exchange looks between each other, but knowing that the King must have called them all for a very important reason, they waited for him to speak.
Sure enough, as soon as Daneel began speaking, expressions of seriousness came on everyone's faces. He started reciting all of the things that had happened since their last meeting - including what had happened exactly during the whole episode with the Emperor Spirit of Eldinor.
Of course, he hid a few specific details, such as how he had made Drakos give him a fake formation. But what he did give was a detailed recounting, with more information than what anyone else had.
When he went over how he had taken the decision to disregard the threat of a Hero after 'Mercy for the Wicked', gasps sounded in the air, mainly from Eloise and even Robert.
Cassandra looked at him with approval in her eyes, while her red hair swayed in the light breeze.
As for the rest, they were more surprised than anything.
They all wondered one thing: where did the confidence of the King come from?
When he told them about his bargaining chip, his father furrowed his eyebrows, but didn't say anything.
It was obvious that the man could understand what the Hero must have felt, but, at the same time, he knew that it was necessary.
Toward the end, all 8 members were even more astonished than last time, which they had thought would be impossible.
It was almost like the King achieved phenomenal things left and right in the same span of time that the rest of them used to do something absolutely trivial.
For example, Elanev had just now compared his activities with his 'younger brother's', and when all he remembered were the curses from the old man who had repeatedly said that if he didn't push himself even further, he could never hope to reach even the shadow of 'that kid', as he referred to him, Elanev couldn't help but blush and realise just how right the damn old man was.
Of course, his blush only deepened when he heard the mocking laugh from the old man in his head.
With the recounting done, Daneel leaned forward to get to the real agenda.
Waving his hand, he made numerous words appear in the air between them.
"This is all the important knowledge I've gained after breaking the second seal. In fact, there is much more, but this is the part which can be used in the present age. The rest either requires resources which have long gone extinct, or conditions such as squadrons of Champions which is something that can only be dreamed about right now. My task for you is simple. Go through it, and pick the ones you find to be the most interesting, or the most valuable. We will be deciding which to prioritize right now."
Daneel had come up with this open-ended format on the way over. It would take too much time to go through each piece of information, one by one, so this was probably the best.
Using the system, he had cast a spell which gave brief image-based descriptions of each thing so that it could be understood easily. For example, military formations or training techniques had little stick figures carrying out small demonstrations.
At first, viewing the large area that was taken up by all these glowing beacons of knowledge, all 8 members of the Council were quite shocked. Each label was more unbelievable than the one before, so much so that they couldn't believe that the King had obtained this much.
After that, each member started to walk up to whatever interested them.
The commanders were, of course, mesmerized by all the numerous things related to war. So, like kids who had found new toys to play with, Cassandra, Robert, Aran, and Luther hurried over to this section and started to go through each and everything available seriously.
Eloise walked over to the Kingdom development strategies, where each idea was more daring than the last. Kellor was captivated by all the Mage techniques, and even though he didn't understand many, he studied each and every one of them.
Elanev's choice was also to be expected. He ran to the section called 'Fighter Techniques'.
It was only Faxul who walked to Daneel's side instead of immediately delving into the treasure trove.
Daneel looked at his friend questioningly, who seemed to be adjusting quite well even though he had lost his body.
"Hey, I heard you when you said that its a priority to take control of the other two forces in the open, too. I have an idea regarding that. Is there any way…to fake an attack by the Church? What if we get crippled, too, in the same way Lanthanor was? What if, in the process of driving away the Church, we ally with you in the same way that Eldinor did, so that it doesn't draw too much attention? Just another struggling Kingdom allying to survive. What do you think?"
For a moment, Daneel could only stare at his friend in disbelief.
It was almost like he was being a bad influence on all these people.
The idea sounded great on the surface, but there was a problem.
"It's too risky to fake the Church. The Big 4 would swoop in right away."
"Then can we fake it that anyone else attacked?"
As Daneel heard this, the cogs in his head started to turn as he gazed out over all the knowledge.
There was one additional problem with all this knowledge, too, that he hadn't thought about.
If he brazenly implemented it, how could he explain it if someone came asking where he had gotten it from?
By using that Paragon Attack, he had already made it clear what 'Inheritance' he had obtained.
What if…the idea that Faxul had brought up could be used to solve this, too?
After all, Daneel liked nothing more than to hit two birds with one stone.
Seeing the maleficent smile on Daneel's face, Faxul couldn't help but feel a chill in his spine.
At the same moment, Eloise called out to Daneel, which made him walk over while still pondering over the plan that was forming in his mind.
Eloise was standing in front of a certain Kingdom Development Strategy that Daneel hadn't seen before during his discussion with Drakos.
It showed the images of two cities connected by a bridge that rose into the air, while a cubical box was traveling between them on the bridge and dropping off stick figures and boxes.
Seeing this, Daneel's eyes widened.
Was this…what he thought it was?!