Chapter 120 Knowledge
Daneel’s eyes widened as he heard Kellor speak.
There was no Warrior Mage in the Kingdom, but he had a system which could develop spells with Warrior Level complexity that could be cast even by someone at his level.
Indeed, he had already bound all the nobles using the oathstone.
In one way, oaths were like magical strings which tied the two people between which they existed.
The only situation in which oath magic failed was when the oath-taker was forced to take the oath without their free will. As for the Nobles, Daneel had given an option that they could either give the oath or be killed right away.
In front of death, even a chance of life was very important. Thus, all of the nobles, including the Eldest Prince, had sworn the oath to speak the truth and do whatever he said.
But now that he remembered the events that had occurred, Daneel realized that there had been an extra glint in the Eldest Prince’s eyes as opposed to the others. Yet, he had discarded it at the time because he had thought that such an intervention was impossible.
After all, Champion Level one-time trinkets were so valuable that the hostile forces from before had had to seriously consider whether they wanted to use one even though the other option was wasting years of resources and hard work.
Yet, the infiltrator had used one to free the Eldest Prince. At this moment, what puzzled Daneel most was the reason he had chosen to do so. What was so valuable about this prince?!
He had to find the answer himself, and now, he had a way.
"All right. You are all dismissed. We shall convene one day later to decide on the next course of action."
The commanders, Kellor and Faxul all became a little dazed as they heard the sudden order of dismissal. Wasn’t the King anguished about the matter just a few moments ago? And now, he wanted a day’s break?
Although they were puzzled, none of them voiced out an objection. Some, like Cassandra, thought that he might need time to take control of his emotions because it had been his own Master who had betrayed him.
Unlike the commanders who weren’t very acquainted with the King, Kellor and Faxul knew that Daneel was not the kind of a man to need to take time off at such a crucial junction in order to handle his emotions. They knew there was some other reason, but they did not ask out loud, knowing that the King would share whatever it was when required. This was the trust they had in Daneel.
After everyone left the room, Daneel also departed to the library.
The Palace Library was one of the most important locations in the whole of the Lanthanor Kingdom. Along with information about the outside world, almost all of the secret techniques of the Kindom except a select few like the technique the Nobility used to increase their potential were stored here.
In all the time the Kingdom had existed, there had never been a situation like now when there was no Warrior Mage or Fighter in the Kingdom. This was also the reason why Lanthanor stayed in the Nobility’s hands: it was because the full might of the formation, when mastered by a Warrior Level individual, needed too much of a price to be paid in order to be broken.
After reaching, Daneel first nodded at the guard’s traditional salute before entering the library.
The soldiers guarding the door had actually been quite shocked when they saw the King walk over. They had seen him in the panels before, thus they were able to recognise him at first sight.
After bowing on one knee, they stood up and kept their backs ramrod straight- the very image of perfect soldiers, unlike before when they had been leaning on the pillars on the two sides of the massive wooden doors which were 30 feet high.
The Palace Library was a humongous place, with a very high ceiling 70 feet in the air from which hung crystal chandeliers.
Natural light suffused the area where the chairs and tables meant for readers were placed, giving a special feeling of comfort to whoever chose to peruse the knowledge gathered by the Kingdom over the ages.
The seating area itself had a capacity of over 500 people, making it so that it was the largest indoor place that Daneel had ever seen.
Although a fifth of these had been occupied, he did not mind as there was a specific reading room just for the King.
Sprawling over a single floor, the rest of the room contained gigantic bookcases which seemed to hold thousands of books each. By his estimate, each case was definitely over 30 feet in height.
Opposite the public reading area, the areas set aside for the Nobility and important ministers were located. These were closed circular alcoves attached to the wall, almost pearls adorning a beautiful work of art.
Reaching one such alcove, Daneel used the system to open it before going inside.
The doors to the alcoves were hidden quite intelligently, and they needed a verified Noble to enter.
Inside, he saw the familiar podium that was in both the Town Library and the Academy Library.
On both sides of the podium were C-shaped sofas which looked quite comfortable.
Alas, Daneel had no leisure time to take a book and comfortably settle on the sofa to read.
Grasping the podium with both hands, Daneel first chose to feed the spell regarding the Warrior Level ’Oath Locator’ to the system.
As soon as he did so, he ordered the system to make a version which he could use.
Unlike the case of the fireball where he had used increased complexity to make more powerful variations, this was the exact opposite. Yet, the system did not disappoint, as in this case, only the complexity was high while the power needed was not very important.
[Lesser Oath Locator spell developed. If you would like to deploy the spell, please give the names of the individuals you would like to locate.]
As soon as he did so, the reply from the system initially made him smile, after which his expression morphed into one of frustration.
[Target one: Eldest Prince located east of host. Please move closer to the target in order to obtain the exact location.
Target two: Not found. Location cloaked.]
Indeed, his opponent was after all the Master who seemed to have knowledge about most of the things under the sun. It seemed that he had already taken countermeasures, even though the possibility of the spell being cast had already been low.
As for the first target, Daneel had no idea about what lay to the east of Lanthanor. All he knew was that Eldinor was to the West and the Hidden Kill Sect was to the South East.
Information and Knowledge! Whoever had said the famous quote "Knowledge is power" had definitely not been wrong.
In fact, Daneel realized that the reason he had been able to plan and execute everything satisfactorily before in order to obtain the throne was that he had made sure to gather as much information as possible.
Yet, since ascending to the throne, he hadn’t had the time to gather all relevant information and knowledge in order to think as tactfully as before. Thus, it almost felt as if he had been floundering through everything while just barely managing to stop himself from causing disasters.
It was time to rectify the situation and go back to the Daneel who couldn’t be taken advantage of even a tiny bit.
Now that he had realized this, he decided to first devour everything here before proceeding to the Fists of Justice Training Hall to see just what the ’secret techniques’ were which had been left behind by their ancestor.