A few seconds later, Daneel was curiously observing the room in which the five who had broken into the Alliance were seated.
The entire interaction between Kellor, who had gone to the gates, and these five who looked like they were used to having the world under their feet was surprisingly much different than Daneel had expected.
Right away, he had been able to understand that these five were probably from the Big Four, both from their apparent power, which was at least at the Peak Warrior level, and their clothes each of which were enchanted with very high-level formations that would defend them if needed.
He had to think for a bit to understand who they might be, but after he managed to recall something which indicated their identity, he immediately began to get ready for a confrontation.
Yet, after Kellor told them that the King was still recovering, they simply asked, with neither humility nor arrogance, to be seated inside the Palace so that they could wait until he woke up.
Both Daneel and Keller had been taken aback at this, and Daneel had commanded Kellor to do as they asked.
Right now, they were seated in a small meeting room, and the five of them had just been served glasses of wine which they had tasted right before grimacing at the taste as one.
After that, they simply began to close their eyes and start to meditate, almost as if they didn't care that they had just broken through all of the defensive formations of both the Alliance and Lanthanor to arrive at the gates just like people who were coming with the intention to finish the job the Mad Doctor had started.
Knowing what he did about them, Daneel had expected that might be the case, but he was no longer sure now after seeing their actions. After all, no one would politely ask to wait if they found that the one they wanted to kill was sleeping.
Only the leader- the one with the tiger skin on his back had not started meditating, and he was currently looking around as if he was fascinated by the entire place.
On Daneel's orders, it was to him that Kellor posed the question.
"May I ask who all of you are, and why you are here? As soon as the King wakes up, I'll be able to tell him this so that he can receive you right away."
Hearing the question, the man actually took a few moments to answer, because it looked like he was thinking about something.
Finally, though, he shrugged and said, "I guess it's fine if I tell you. The five of us are some of the seeds of the Big Four, and we have been raised with the best of resources and techniques to take over as the Heroes of Angaria when the time comes. Of course, this will not happen before the invasion by the Church, so right now, our duty is to grow as powerful as possible so that we can make a difference in the eventual battle. As for why we are here, originally, we were tasked by the Hero Bartholomew to come take out our grudges on the King. You see, all of us were united in the fact that we despise the Central Continent, and we were all vehemently against him directly inheriting a sect just because he won a stupid Legacy Battle. In fact, I am from the Fortress of Unyielding Might, and if I had been allowed to take part, I would have won, too, but I was banned from doing so. Anyway, that is the official story, and although it is false, that is the only one I can tell you until the King wakes up. You can rest assured that all of us are not a threat to him anymore, because the Head has perfectly ensured that no one else will ever dare to target anyone in the Central Continent. Some who dared to speak up are still wincing from the wounds on their bodies as we speak. Right now, we are here for a different purpose, but again, I can only speak of it to the King."
This extremely weird explanation threw both Daneel and Kellor off, and even Kellor could only continue to stare at the man who finally also started to meditate after he had studied the room enough.
Kellor asked Daneel what he should do, but the King of Lanthanor himself was pretty clueless.
Just like he had thought, these were the seeds that Bartholomew had apparently mentioned who would be given the task to act as backups in case anything went wrong with the Mad Doctor.
Daneel had thought that there must be a problem with that plan, though, because if it had been implemented well, they would have arrived on the scene right after the Mad Doctor left to target the shell that he was supposed to be in.
Yet, they hadn't done so, so Daneel had assumed that they had either changed their mind or might have had some other reason to not do what they were going to, but seeing them here now, he was extremely puzzled.
As for the part about them hating him, it was obvious, and from the beginning, he had expected that the seeds would be like the arrogant Young Masters in many of the books he had read back on Earth.
It had to be expected, though, because these were individuals who had grown up with silver spoons in their mouth, being told that they were the pride of the continent and that no one else in the younger generation would ever be able to even dream of reaching them.
Yet, there he was, repeatedly doing feats that were both earning him the praise of millions of people around the continent and even the attention of the Head, himself, which must definitely be something very valuable and sought after in the Big Four.
Moreover, he had won the Legacy Battle, and if anyone heard that the entire sect was commanded to bow to him, they would definitely feel pretty damn jealous, and out of anger and the arrogance that was always born from pride, they would definitely want to attack him.
All of this made them the perfect group for Bartholomew to exploit, and he had done so, but something had happened that had stopped them.
Daneel was really curious to find out just what it was, but there was no way that he could randomly break out of his shell just because he wanted to satiate his curiosity.
Besides… The moment these five had appeared, he had felt a very powerful detection mechanism lay its eye on Lanthanor, which made it clear that the Head was aware that these people were here.
The man had been constantly checking on Daneel, and that was partly the reason behind those acts by Kellor and Eloise, but again, what was even more puzzling was why he had not come to interfere with these five.
The only reasonable explanation was that he knew why they were here, and he condoned their actions.
Whatever the case, to find the answers, Daneel had to first wake up, and he considered speeding up his recovery, but he decided against doing so because he didn't want to spoil the careful idea he had built up about himself that he was only a Bloodline possessor of the Bloodline of the Divine Cockroach.
If it sped up, new questions would begin to be raised, and it simply wasn't worth it.
Kellor was placed on guest duty, and for two days, he constantly went to the room with the intent to find something out about them.
Yet, all he was met with was five figures who looked as if they had turned to stone, and even when he went to ask whether they needed any refreshments, all he received was silence.
This was a bit rude, but Daneel finally told the Grand Court Mage of Lanthanor to simply leave them alone.
Their patience, though, had to be commended, because they didn't even ask once regarding how long it would take for the king to wake up.
Finally, on the third day, deciding that the time was ripe and that it fit with the records in the Big Four pertaining to the power of regeneration that a Bloodline possessor should hold, Daneel broke out of the shell.
He had teleported inside it, and with a cracking sound that attracted the attention of Eloise who was right outside, the king appeared in the world for the first time since the battle, officially, and as soon as he took in a few deep breaths and looked down at his body with shock as he was supposed to be equally surprised as everyone else that he had the Bloodline, he was engulfed in a hug by Eloise, who began to cry onto his shoulders.
Initially, he thought that she was playing out her role of being extremely worried for the king, but soon, he realized that it was real.
Feeling warm inside and realizing that these were probably the leftover emotions from seeing him tortured in that way and almost killed, Daneel hugged her back, and patted her for a few minutes until she finally calmed down and blushed a bit before turning to the side.
She was saved by Keller coughing nearby, who congratulated Daneel on his recovery, and told him about the guests who were waiting.
Everything was being watched, and although Daneel had the option to activate the hidden Hero level formations and make a false image be shown, just like the Head had done with the infiltrator in order to not spook him, he decided against doing so, just in case advanced methods that even he didn't know about were being used.
His clothes were still the rags that were left after the Mad Doctor had tortured him gleefully, so he nodded in response, and went to take a bath a long, long time. It was as if he was using this time to come to terms with what had happened, and finally, after that, he seemed to be more or less back to his usual self as he wore some royal robes and went to the room where the five were waiting.
As soon as he entered, all five broke out of the meditation, and Daneel couldn't help but feel a slight chill in his back as five predatory gazes fell on him.
He looked like he felt slight panic even though the truth was that he didn't care about these five, no matter how powerful they were, and as he sat down, once again, the man with the tiger skin on his back spoke up before he could ask any questions.
"Congratulations on your recovery and your break through, King of Lanthanor. As seeds, we know of Bloodlines well, and although the Divine Cockroach bloodline has its limitations, it is quite a powerful one, and when trained well, it will place you on the top of the continent, especially if you persevere and keep improving in your mage path even if the going is tough. You must surely have heard of the official account that I've given. Let me be frank, and precise. Most of that… Is fake. The part about us being asked to come attack you was real, but the truth is that I, as a disciple of the Chief of the Fortress, have already pledged my allegiance to you, the Legacy Disciple. I was only acting when I showed my vehemence. My plan was to stop all of the others who were given the task even if it killed me, but it did not need to come to that, because in those few minutes during which the Head was not present to look over the continent, one of us died. Yes, there were six before, and now, only five sit before you. The death of a seed is a very serious thing, but the fact is that there are very few clues regarding what has happened, and only someone with expertise in this area can assess them to find the culprit. Foremost in this is Luther, your commander, and because we know that he is still your subordinate, we have come to ask your permission to take him with us. I insisted on doing this, because it is different now that he has broken through to become a Warrior. As a human, he was already taken before, and his memories were forcefully wiped. Of course, this was before you became King, but I thought that you should know about it. I give you my word that he will come to no harm, and as your junior disciple, I ask you to trust me with this matter."