Daneel was beyond himself in anger. Standing there, beside the hole from where multiple echoing booms and screams were emanating as part of Elanev's 'training', he seriously considered whether he should just barge in there and demand that she stop all these nonsensical attempts at derailing his plans.
Derailing them. That was, actually, exactly what she was doing, in case she really was the one behind it.
On seeing the amazing level of development that had begun in both kingdoms after the steps he had taken, Daneel had been looking forward so much to the train being implemented, too, so that everything could really be supercharged.
So far, according to the statistics they had drawn up, the level of development had already exceeded what any of them had estimated. Also, this trend was expected to continue when the trains came into effect, too.
However, that was when these pesky bandits had come into the picture.
After a lot of testing and prototype development, Daneel, Eloise and the rest of the planners of the Kingdom of Lanthanor had decided on this specific model which used both Ether blocks and a form of the trinkets that had been there in the original plan of the Emperor.
The objective was to make a series of affordable ultrafast trains, each of which could travel at a top speed of 150 km/h, which would really be groundbreaking if it was possible.
To do such a feat with just Ether blocks, it would cost too much and the payoff would definitely not be worth what was being burned.
In fact, the Emperor had even left behind logs of certain Ether block to propulsion conversion formations that increased the efficiency beyond the level that was available in Angaria right now. Even if they used this, it would still not be enough.
Hence, they had all gone back to the drawing board to reconsider those trinkets which absorbed momentum and acted like springs, pushing forward the train to faster and faster speeds while also saving fuel in the process.
The Emperor's exact formation plans could not be implemented anyway, as the materials he had used weren't available in the present age. Only low-grade ones that could act as substitutes were what they had, and using these, Drakos had drawn up plans for alternate railway tracks which, although wouldn't have the same effect as that of the Emperor's, would still make it possible for Daneel's trains to reach that speed and maintain it while not costing too much fuel.
In the process, Daneel had also asked Drakos to make the tracks as indestructible as possible, but this was apparently impossible.
That was when they had designed the plan to add the barriers. The trick with the barriers was that if they were active always, they would, again, drink up too many Ether blocks.
So, the plan was to set up two levels of barriers, the first of which was very weak and didn't take a lot of Energy to sustain.
It was, in fact, a very ingenious plan which Daneel had complimented Drakos about repeatedly, and which had made the ancient Dragon blush even though it didn't have a body.
The railway tracks acted as the formation points of this massive formation which stretched over hundreds of kilometers, and as soon as the first layer was broken, a second, stronger one would come into effect which would definitely hold back any attacks until help arrived.
Everything had been going on in such a great manner, when they suddenly started to face multiple teams of bandits attacking the spots where the tracks were being set up repeatedly, throughout the day, and even through the night, in an attempt to delay the process.
Initially, Daneel had thought that this would be a simple problem that could easily be resolved by using Mind Control to reach the leader of this operation. Yet, in that pursuit, he had faced failure due to the leader's uncanny care of not revealing their identity. That was why this was the first clue he had gotten in a week.
Also, these bandits had numerous hideouts spread out everywhere and whenever he thrashed one nest, more would keep popping up as if this was a game of whack a mole.
All in all, Daneel was seriously pissed and he was ready to direct all of his anger on the Queen of Arafell.
At this moment, he heard Drakos speak in his mind.
"Young King, I see your anger, but I urge you to consider something. I know the Queen. She may be crazy, and incredibly egoistic, and even cunning in a lot of ways, but I don't think she's behind this."
This made Daneel take a deep breath and try to calm himself down.
He was typically not someone who would get this much anger, even though this was such an important issue. So, he took a moment to pause and understand why he was taking this so personally.
Daneel had begun this journey with the mind of just a teenager that had had to drop out of college, and although he had matured immensely over the course of all these years, he knew that he was still not anywhere near perfect.
That had only been impressed upon him more in the recent episode where he had been admonished by his dad.
There was one thing he did know for sure: protagonists and antagonists who gave in to emotions too much never did meet good ends in all the stories that he had read back on Earth.
As he analyzed everything that had happened, he realized that this was because this was the only major thing he had failed in in a long time.
All these months, almost everything had been going his way, although he didn't always achieve everything he set out to. For example, in his plan regarding Ashahell and the Mad Doctor, the best case would have been the latter dying and the former getting injured grievously, but both of those things hadn't happened.
Yet, he hadn't written off any of those things as failures, but this one was.
Continuing this line of thought, Daneel also realized the second reason.
All of these were just normal Humans, with none of them even reaching the level of an Amateur Warrior. Yet, he was a damn Peak Exalted Warrior who had even exchanged blows with an Amateur Champion and come out on top!
Anyone who had gone through such experiences would definitely feel very irritated on having these "ants" bother him so much.
The moment this thought entered Daneel's mind, he took a step back, seeing just how wrong that was.
Wasn't this the exact mentality that most of those Big Four douches had which made them seem like such eyesores?
Since when had he picked that up?
It seemed that he had done it inadvertently, without even knowing that this attitude had been forming in his mind.
Well, he had realized it now, so Daneel crushed it right away.
With his anger completely under control, Daneel got a new view on the matter.
Yes, these were all just Humans, but they presented a threat that even a Hero might not be able to tackle.
That was the power of those who were weak, and considering that he was someone who had struggled in that level for a long time, he felt ashamed that he had even adopted that attitude even though it had only been for a brief amount of time.
Resolving that something like that shouldn't happen again, Daneel said to Drakos, "I guess I let my feelings get ahead of me. Tell me why you think so, Drakos. I'm listening."
Drakos took a moment to reply, and when he did, his voice was gushing with pride.
"I must say, Young King, that I'm truly impressed with you. I could tell that you were being affected in the wrong manner, but I did not know what to say to change that. After all, it is a bad thing for the King to be so riled up in the face of any matter. Even if something was threatening the existence of his Kingdom, a King should remain calm and never underestimate his enemies. I could tell that you were doing the latter, too, but, again, I felt helpless. It is truly a marvelous feat that you managed to see it yourself, and learn from it, and I can vouch for that because I saw your feelings throughout the process. Young King, again, this shows me that I made the right decision."
Daneel neither smiled nor grimaced as he heard this, but he took it in stride. It was something that shouldn't happen, but it had, and he was happy that he had handled it in the correct way.
"Yes, about Arafell. She always preferred direct methods, and although she learned how to use underhanded ones from the Emperor and others, she had a tendency of reverting to the former as those aligned most with her personality. In battle, her forte was always her God-like skill in motivating soldiers and deploying them effectively in the face of a direct assault. However, she always had lieutenants and captains who advised her, and, initially, it was known throughout the Army that she set all of their undergarments on fire because they tried to tell her what to do. The Emperor then heavily penalized her, and made her understand the importance of listening to those kinds of points of views, too. After that, Arafell always listened to these individuals, as they were the ones skilled in spotting cunning or underhanded attacks, and in the process, she learned to deploy them herself, and also look out for them while becoming someone who was highly skilled in handling them if the opponent chose to use such methods."
"So? You just said that she learned to use them, herself."
Daneel asked with a slightly annoyed expression on his face. He had given a lot of effort in maintaining his attention throughout Drakos's, as always, lengthy explanation only to find that he had no valid point.
"Hear me out, Young King. The reason I don't think it's her, in this case, is that because of the power difference between you two, she would contact you and even let you know that she was doing this before embarking on it. There is a very interesting story about…"
"Some other time. So, you're saying that if she is doing it, she would already be gloating about it."
"Yes, Young King. And, if she was doing it, she wouldn't have left behind this clue, as her plans are always perfect."
This last sentence, more than anything, went a long way in convincing Daneel that Drakos's point of view might also be right.
What if… the culprit just happened to be in Arafell?
Well, even then, the problem still existed that he had no method to enter the Kingdom without her finding out due to the Hero level formation she had placed all around her borders.
"Young king, there is a way… But you might not like it."
…
A few hours later, a cart with a man chewing a stalk of grass in his mouth was approaching the border gate of the Kingdom of Arafell.
He was singing a merry, local tune of Lanthanor which told the story of a pretty maiden who loved a boy in her village, but was very shy, and was thus praying for some help in this matter from the Heavens. A passing mage took pity on her plight, and took on her countenance to go propose to the boy. Much to her delight, he agreed. Instead of the story ending there, it continued because the mage ended up finding that the boy had a hidden talent in magic, and thus gave him an offer to come study magic under him. The boy agreed, and there were initially no problems, as he married the girl, too. Yet, later, his love for magic outgrew the love he had for his mortal wife who had no talent, which led to him leaving her.
This was supposed to be a cautionary tale for village folk to take care of their own problems instead of praying for some sort of divine intervention which might end up messing things up, and just as he reached the ending, the cart which was being led forward by horses approached the gates.
"Here to pick up a load of metal to transfer to Lanthanor.", He declared, following which the guards carefully checked the cart which had a layer of hay on the bottom to avoid damage to the wood of the cart.
As everything looked normal, the guard walked up to the man and said, "Go ahead. But be careful, there appear to be a few rats inside."
This, strangely, made the man freeze for a moment, before he laughed and said, "Oh, don't you worry about them. I'll take care of 'em."
In the back of the cart, as Daneel heard this, he said, "Now what if that guy had decided to squash me by himself? What would I have done then?"
"Then this would have ended much sooner than it was supposed to, Young King. Please calm down. You look like you're startling the rat."
As Daneel heard this, he grumbled and stayed quiet inside the head of the little rat, while he entered the Kingdom of Arafell without the knowledge of the Queen.