"Oh, come on, do it! You don't dare! Both of us know you're a chicken!"
"Fine, I will! When I find my Axelorian friend, I'll tell him that their Kingdom sucks! I'm proud to be a Lanthanorian!"
"All the students are so proud. We should hold some kind of event, or competition to commemorate Lanthanor's victory in the Olympics."
"I'm sure there will be one, anyway. As soon as the King is back; he's apparently handling something personal right now."
"Hon, there's going to be a celebration soon! LANTHANOR WON, you know! Come on, we need to hire more chefs and make more food!"
"Was that really the King before? I can't believe it! What's he doing here?"
"I don't know, but don't talk-"
Waking up, Daneel wondered if he had gone mad.
Myriad voices were in his head, talking continuously, going on and on about topics varying from Lanthanor's win to the price of onions in the morning.
It wasn't just thoughts. There were feelings too. Happiness, sadness, anger, love, excitement. All of them were in his head, in a bundle that was threatening to spill out at any second. He could feel them all in a muted fashion, but as soon as he thought about them, they threatened to spring up and make him faint again.
It couldn't even be described properly in words. It was as if…his mind wasn't his anymore. As if it was co-inhabited by many, many people, all with their own distinct personalities and lives.
Daneel tried to analyze what was happening by himself. For some reason, he was…reading their minds? Or something even more profound? Was that even possible using magic?
First things first; he tried to count. Count the number of people in his head.
1,2,3….
He categorized each thought and feeling, and this seemed to calm him down, allowing him to think for himself, find himself in this chaotic mess that was his mind.
100.
It had felt like many, many more, but there were only one hundred voices and feelings in his head.
Of course, it was 100 too many.
What was going on?
Unable to handle his curiosity any more, he was just about to ask the system, but he noticed something at this moment.
All of them had one thing in common, and if he had to describe it, it was like an underlying thought, one beneath the surface.
For example, he had just segregated them all when counting them.
If the thoughts and feeling bundled together were a person, then this thought he felt was like their subconscious.
Daneel visualized them as orbs.
Glowing orbs, with different layers of different colors.
The thoughts inside their heads and the words they spoke were the outermost red layer-constantly in flux, changing every second.
The second layer was matching orange-these were the feelings, which accompanied the first layer and moved along in sync for the most part.
Finally, the innermost part was golden.
If Daneel had to describe it, then it was the part which was made of the core beliefs of the person.
He had just tried to analyze it, but it turned out that he was only able to detect one thing from it, unlike the other two layers, which were laid bare to him.
Loyalty.
Loyalty to Lanthanor.
Loyalty to him.
[Host has achieved the first stage of Ruler's Inheritance: Visualization.
Progress has been faster than expected.
Likely reason: Mageroot potential of host, which has exceeded the maximum level known to system. Please input more information for deeper analysis.
Ruler's Spell Model: First Layer-Unlocked and ready for use.]
With this notification, Daneel came back to reality.
Till now, he had been concentrating on his own mind so much that he had completely forgotten about everything else.
It was only in that stage had managed to obtain that small bit of clarity regarding what was going on in his head, after being able to distract himself from the mess.
However, now that he had exited that state, his mind felt like it would be overwhelmed again.
As all the voices started to grow in intensity, he realized that he was heading to that point like before when he had fainted.
Hence, Daneel hurriedly asked, "System, is there a way to turn these things off? Mute them?"
[Affirmative. However, if the inheritance is deactivated, host will be unable to use Ruler's Spell Model and other Ruler's Perks that have been unlocked.]
At this, Daneel paused, but it was too much. He couldn't even think.
He didn't know how he had managed to do what he had just done before, and even though he tried once again now, it only gave him a splitting headache.
Hence, gritting his teeth, he asked, "Is it one-time? Can I not activate it again later?"
[Replying to host, with the system, host can activate or deactivate any inheritance as per his wishes.]
"THEN DEACTIVATE IT RIGHT NOW!"
[Acknowledged. Inheritance deactivated.]
As silence suddenly fell over him, for once, Daneel appreciated its charm.
There was just him in his mind, and he could talk to himself in peace.
In this secret room, there was a bathroom to the side, to which Daneel hobbled to.
The hobbling was due to the fact that the headache was still there, and although it wasn't painful to the point that it would make him faint again, it was very bad.
Inside the bathroom, the first thing Daneel did was puke his guts out.
He hadn't even known that it was coming, so it was fortunate that he was in the bathroom when it did force his way out.
Having his mind invaded by 100 people was apparently not a joking matter, as it seemed to have left other adverse effects, aside from the headache.
He did feel better now though, so he used the washbasin to wash his face.
As he splashed water and looked at himself in the mirror, he realized that there were veins throbbing on his forehead, and that his face was also red in color.
He looked like…he had almost gone crazy.
At this moment, an appalling image came into Daneel's mind.
A face with no features.
If he had truly gone crazy right then, could he have guaranteed that he wouldn't have flown into a rage like that man?
The scary thing was that he didn't know the answer to the question.
Finally feeling slightly better, he made his way back to the secret room and collapsed in a chair.
Putting his head in his hands in an attempt to ease the pain, he asked, "All right, tell me. What the hell is an inheritance in the first place?"
[Inheritance: A methodical change in the functioning of the mageroot/body constitution. Through a series of modifying parameters, the change is brought about. An inheritance has two parts: physical and metaphysical. By obtaining the metaphysical part after entering host's present location, host was able to obtain the 'Ruler's Inheritance'.]
"Then what was the physical part?"
[The Oathstone.]
Of course. After so many shocks in one day, Daneel wasn't surprised.
The Oathstone was something which was a prerequisite for accessing the Empire Spirit in the first place, so it made sense that it was a prerequisite for obtaining this inheritance too.
However, even though he had heard the definition of an inheritance, he was no closer to understanding what it was.
It changed the mageroot or the body constitution itself? Wasn't that a bit too…magical?
"What more information is there about inheritances? How are they typically obtained? Who makes them? Are there any examples for other inheritances?"
[Replying to host, available data has been obtained by extrapolating from database. Host needs to input more data for more accurate answers. From clues which have been deciphered to refer to inheritances after using the data about inheritances that was just obtained, system has been able to deduce that inheritances can be left behind both by living entities or nature. Thus the word 'inherit', which signifies that the one obtaining it is benefiting from something being handed down. No more information is available.]
Ok, it wasn't much, but it was enough to go on.
Although there were more questions that Daneel wished the system would answer, the most important ones had already been addressed.
Right now, he had an inheritance, so the most pressing question left was: how good was it?
Bracing himself, Daneel activated the inheritance again and asked the system to ready the spell model.
Lifting his palm, he cast a simple fireball.
His goal was to obtain statistics regarding the effectiveness, so he was going to start slow.
With expectations piling up inside him, he asked the system to launch the spell model.
ROOAAAARRRR!
"OOOOWWWWW!"
In the blink of an eye, the palm-sized fireball expanded to 5 times its size, becoming practically a chaotic inferno.
And in the process, the King of Lanthanor, who had been bending over it with an eager expression, had his hair set on fire.