The news of the events that took place in the Palace grounds of the Lanthanor Kingdom shook the entirety of the Lanthanor Kingdom.
Never before in its known history had there been someone who could achieve such a power level at such a young age. This was simply heaven-defying talent, making some suspect that he was a hidden disciple of one of the Big Four.
Yet, those who had done extensive research on the background of the King of Lanthanor knew that this was not possible. As they frantically went over the reports concerning the King over and over again, they tried to figure out how he had been able to hide such terrifying talent for so long.
Even more than this reveal, the information that he was injured and that his status was unknown made many turn towards the Kingdom of Lanthanor with ravenous eyes.
Of course, although they still showed a modicum of caution, some had already begun to ready their troops to move on the Kingdom in case another power vacuum appeared.
After all, they knew very well about the effective purging of the nobility by the new King, making it so that there was no clear line of succession.
This meant that the Kingdom of Lanthanor was once again ripe for someone else to take control of.
The only thing that stopped them was the instances in history where Kings and Queens had used such ruses in order to lure in enemy Kingdoms before trapping them and annihilating their forces.
Besides, except the Withering Leaf Sect, almost no other force had any clear information about the man who had actually attacked the King of Lanthanor.
Thus, they could not know that the green flame was actually such a potent attack that there was almost no chance of someone who hadn't even trained their body from surviving a direct penetration.
This was the confidence that made the Withering Leaf Sect Master take the decision to move on the kingdom. Although he hadn't received any official report from the Knight, he trusted the power of the green flame which he had witnessed personally.
Indeed, at this point of time, apart from the Grand Court Mage and the few others who had personally seen the King after the attack, there were only two other individuals outside the Kingdom who were aware of the status of the king.
These were the Eldest Prince of Lanthanor and the Queen of the Kingdom of the Elves.
As those who had sworn oaths to Daneel, they could clearly feel that the ties that bound them still existed, which meant that the King of Lanthanor was at least still alive.
Knowing about this fact, the Withering Leaf Sect master turned to the Eldest Prince after giving the command.
"Is he still alive?", he asked, looking into the eyes of the man who had sworn revenge against his homeland.
Although the Eldest Prince considered lying, he was not confident that he could get away with it especially when the Sect Master was looking right at him.
"Yes", he replied, looking back into the eyes that were boring into his with an indecipherable expression on his face.
Sighing softly, the Sect Master thought for a bit before saying, "The order stands. He must be hanging onto the last threads of his life. The moment you feel yourself being released from the oath, tell me."
With a wide smile, the Eldest Prince nodded before gathering all the trinkets near him that were being handed out by one of the men who had been on the strikeforce which had attacked and killed the villagers of the Lanthanor Kingdom.
As for the Queen of the Kingdom of the Elves, the only thing she did after receiving the message was to command her spies to keep a close eye on the situation. Through the oath, she knew that the King was still alive, and from everything she knew about him, she suspected that there was more to this matter than what was apparent to the public.
Meanwhile, in the situation room in the Lanthanor Kingdom.
Robert, Kellor, and Faxul were currently sitting at the table which was usually headed by the King of Lanthanor.
After a few moments of silence, Robert spoke out with an expression of frustration on his face.
"Why is there no status update yet?"
Even before Kellor could speak to answer the question, a knock sounded on the door interrupting Robert who hurriedly rushed forward to open it.
On the other side stood a nurse wearing white clothes. Slightly startled seeing that a man with the expression of someone who might have lost the most important thing to them in the world had opened the door the instant she knocked, she stepped back a bit before giving the message she had been sent to deliver.
"The head healer has asked all three of you to come to the King's chambers."
Hearing the message, the three in the room ran out of the room before directly trotting toward the king's chambers.
It was Kellor who came to his senses, saying, "Control yourselves, there are spies in the Palace. If they see us hurrying like this, they might reach conclusions which we cannot afford to handle."
This showed just how important Daneel was to all three of them. The fact that he was in danger had put them on edge to the extent that they had even forgotten this simple fact.
Nodding with concerned expressions, Faxul and Robert slowed to a fast stride before hurriedly heading towards the King's chambers.
On entering and closing the doors completely behind them, they looked around to see with shock that the man whom the entire continent was currently talking about was idly laying on his bed while putting fruits that look like grapes into his mouth.
While Faxul and Kellor stood still unable to decide what to do, Robert ran forward and hugged his son whom he thought he had lost.
Feeling the ardent care and affection from his father, Daneel smiled before patting his back and saying, "Get mom over. She must be crying uncontrollably with worry."
For Robert, it was enough to see that his son was alright. Nodding and smiling wide, he ran out of the room to get his wife who had indeed been sobbing without control since the moment this news reached her.
Seeing his father leave the room, Daneel turned to the six healers who were still inside, saying, "I have no choice but to ask you to stay at the side until this whole situation passes over. I cannot risk you leaving this chamber, as the news about my condition is too sensitive to be leaked."
Although the healers looked bewildered, then nodded before obediently heading to one side of the room where six chairs had already been arranged. After bowing again to the King, they sad down before seeing a barrier envelop them, stopping them from hearing anything from outside.
"Ready our troops. If my estimation is correct, the Withering Leaf Sect will soon invade. Spread the news about what happened in the Palace, but make sure that my condition is unknown. Keep a close eye on all of our enemies, and most importantly, maintain order inside the Kingdom. Use any means you have to, and imprison all those who try to take advantage of the situation."
This had been his third reason for choosing to take the damage. For a wounded enemy, there was no better way to force it out of its hiding place without showing weakness.
Although it had been six hours since the attack, Daneel had been awake since the last two. He had only shifted his consciousness to his clone for desperate cases where he might have to release the energy absorbed, which was also why he had formed it in the first place before the fight with the enemy. Thankfully, no such case had arisen.
Except for the burning pain in his stomach, he felt fine albeit a bit tired due to the exertion he had placed on his mageroot in the fight against the man from the Church.
During these two hours, he had been thinking hard about how to take full advantage of the situation.
For those who had ill intentions, there was no better time to incite panic in the Kingdom either for personal profit or for any other hidden agenda.
Thus, he had given the command to imprison all of them so that they could be slowly interrogated later in order to find out if they were spies from a different kingdom.
Apart from this, one of the main reasons he had taken this risk was to increase his image in the public. Hence, it was necessary that news of his brave deed had to spread as far as possible as fast as possible.
After seeing Kellor and Faxul head out without a word to carry out his orders which were very urgent, Daneel relaxed again on his bed before starting to eat the grapes again after asking the system to repeat the notification it had given when he had regained consciousness.
[Tenebrous Flame has been taken under system's control. Analysis in progress.]