A few minutes later, there was an awkward silence between Daneel and Drakos as they found themselves outside the sect which they ventured into with the hope of finding answers.
Instead, there had only been mockery.
Finally, seeing the King just stand in the middle of nowhere without moving, Drakos spoke up as it looked like he was unable to handle it anymore.
"My King, Erin-"
"Is Erin. I expected nothing less from her. You don't need to apologize for her actions. And even though she was being a…er, never mind. Even though she was acting like herself, she still gave the answer she knew. It is possible that Letitia might be the one behind all this."
Although Daneel spoke only until here out loud, inside his mind, he had added a sentence.
Just like last time, it is futile to bark back at barking dogs. Just you wait, Erin.
Setting his jaw firmly, Daneel returned to the mountain to converse with Luther.
Outside the tent in which Luther was recovering, though, he found the Head, who was pacing to and fro almost as if he was waiting for Daneel instead of contacting him.
Seeing him arrive, he exclaimed, "Ah! You're here! Come inside!"
The tent in which Luther was present had already been outfitted with the most advanced formations that the Head could muster. Hence, as soon as they entered it, he began speaking without worrying that they might be overheard.
"The dagger and that substance were both stolen from one of the treasuries of the Big Four and then changed to make it seem as if they are something else. They were also enhanced in some method. That liquid is made from the blood of a high-level Mage or Fighter, and when it enters the body of someone who is weaker than that power level, it consumes everything it can find, due to the instinct to live again that belongs to that high-level person which still lingers in their blood long after they pass. It wouldn't have worked against me, or any Hero. The dagger is just one that removes all traces of itself after it stabs a target. Typically, this poison, which is extremely precious as it requires copious amounts of blood to make and is simply not worth it in usual conditions, will turn a target into a puddle of blood. Yet, it was tweaked to make ash appear, perhaps to hide its identity. In other words…"
"It points even more to the fact that it might be someone from the Big Four who is the culprit. Someone like…Letitia."
"What?!"
The Head was completely taken aback when he heard this, and it was obvious why that was the case.
Daneel had thrown out the statement like a curveball to test if the Head had considered it, even though his guess had been that he hadn't.
That guess was mainly based on the Head's actions he had seen back when they had gone to that sect with that infernal Empire Spirit. He had been vigilant, without asking any questions, and it was obvious that he might not have made too many inquiries into the exact powers of members of that sect. Hell, Daneel was sure that if he didn't have that 'bond' with Erica, even he might never have found that it was even possible, as there was just too much secrecy surrounding the techniques of those from the Eternal Blossom sect.
And generally, when people extremely disliked something or were uncomfortable even thinking about it, then it was possible that they wouldn't want to think about it too much.
Yet, when faced with the possibility, then they would overcome that and let their thoughts forcefully go down that route, like a child from Earth who might dislike a subject and never spend too much time on it given a choice, but would sit down and study it when it was time for a test as there was no other choice.
Sure enough, now that it had been hinted to him, the Head took a moment to think and then exclaimed, "Yes, Letitia! Could that damn sect's methods be at play, here? I remember that there was once a sect master who discreetly killed two Heroes to grow in power through some obscure technique, while making it look as if they had done it to themselves! She injured herself, too, to allay suspicion, but it came out before her death that it had all been a farce, and that her 'injuries' had somehow actually helped her to grow stronger! Could there be something similar, but more sinister going on in this case?"
Oh, yes, this was definitely Erin.
Daneel knew that for many, many years, Erin had been the sect master, so she was the one who must have pulled something like that off. But why expose it before letting the host she had forcefully taken control of die, then? Had it been to gloat?
Yes, knowing her, that was probably the reason. After she exposed it, she must have been laughing on the inside while seeing the expressions of shock on the other Heroes of Angaria.
While these thoughts ran through his mind, Daneel remained silent, choosing not to answer the Head's questions, which almost seemed like they were rhetorical.
Just like he thought, the man reached a conclusion all by himself without needing to receive any inputs from Daneel.
"I'll go ask the Sect Leader right away about this. I've already spoken to her before, but if I insist, she might try to reveal some things even if it is forbidden. They have been separated as you asked, King. I'll contact you if I get any answers."
Seeing the Head disappear, Daneel couldn't help but pity him, as he knew that he would be met with disappointment, just like he had been.
After that, he went inside the tent and spoke to Luther, but their conversation didn't bear any fruit, as although there was the possibility, they couldn't do anything to confirm it without more information.
As things stood, Letitia was the main suspect, as the discovery of the origin of the dagger's poison made the case stronger against her.
At this point, the priority was to either confirm or reject this, as it wouldn't be wise to just go ahead and pursue other avenues while waiting for some help to arrive which might heed them in this task.
They had to be proactive. Hence, Daneel sat down and began to go over everything he had seen so far in the hopes that he could find some clue.
And that…was when something stood out to him, making him snap his eyes open with delight.
Even the smartest of culprits would always leave behind some or the other clue, and in this matter, Daneel, and even Luther had overlooked a certain place where they might some or the other trace that could help them.
And this…had only occurred to Daneel as he had been thinking in the route where he had assumed that Letitia was the culprit, and that his objective was to find out her motive and catch her.
If that was so, and if she had planned everything so far, then…couldn't her planning have gone back even further? Say, to before she had even come into this group?
What if…she had targeted this group on purpose?
The more Daneel thought about it, the more he felt as if it fit.
Initially, before everything had happened, the group had been about to attack Daneel, and Marcus had been ready to stop them.
This represented a fractured group, more or less, even if they had grown up together from birth. Marcus was known for his good attitude toward the Central Continent, and anyone assessing the group would know, right away, that there was a probability that his son might share the same beliefs, even if they weren't displayed on the surface.
Just this was too vague, but there were other clues, too, which Daneel had ignored as they hadn't seemed important individually.
Together, though, they were like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle he had assembled.
During Memphis's long talk, he had commented about their interactions with other groups. Apparently, they lost a lot when fighting together because they were weak in the aspect of uniting together, and Memphis had whimsically said that they were each like lions in a pride, all of which wanted to lead but couldn't as there could only be one leader. In fact, he had also mentioned that Marcus's son had been able to take command, more or less, only recently after a lucky breakthrough.
Also, Jessica was supposed to be the prettiest among all of the seeds, and Dave had always pursued her unsuccessfully, while apparently being mocked by other seeds whenever they met. This was a ripe opportunity to be exploited if one wished.
All in all, what it pointed to was that these five had been the perfect target for one who wanted to enter and gain their confidence in a short period of time.
If so, then they would have to make sure that they would be assigned to this group, and not another.
And if so, they would target…the administrative department.
Right away, Daneel contacted the Head, but he didn't give a reason.
Getting their location and finding out, to his surprise, that they were actually located in an abode in the sky which was apparently also the one where the Head resided if he wasn't outside on some task, Daneel directly headed there after getting permission to do whatever was necessary.
In fact, he was even assigned a Hero to help, and coincidentally, this was the same Hero who had been guarding the Mad Doctor.
His face and body covered in a cloak, he didn't speak much, as if he was disgruntled due to something.
Daneel knew that it was probably because of his 'failure' of not stopping the Mad Doctor from leaving, and allowing such a big mess to happen right under his nose. He had heard that the Hero also blamed himself for not checking on Ashahell, who was the culprit in the eyes of everyone.
After reaching the place, Daneel was quite surprised to see a floating Palace, but he ignored the details of the Palace as he wanted to get to his destination as soon as possible.
Right after they reached, he asked for a thorough inspection of the process through which Letitia had been assigned to that group of five.
All the records were pulled up, and all those involved in the process were confined and questioned using Mind Control.
When Daneel saw none of them object, itself, he felt frustration creeping into him, as it seemed as if all of his deduction might come to naught.
Sure enough, a few minutes later, all of the personnel were declared to be clean. The process had been done just by comparing power levels, and it was only by chance that Letitia had been assigned to that group.
At this point, Daneel could hardly hold back that emotion which had begun to fill his mind.
Everywhere he went, there seemed to be dead ends, and for some reason, Erin's gloating face floated into his vision, making him burst out with slight anger for the first time in a long time.
He had been standing in front of a desk with a large book that he had taken to check for himself whether the process had been fair, and beside it were placed multiple documents which he hadn't checked as they had simply been there since he had arrived.
Out of exasperation, he used his hands to clear the desk as it had looked as if Erin's mocking face was drawn on each of them, but at that moment, as the system suddenly spoke in his mind, he froze and blinked with shock.
[New data found. Analyzing.
Anomalies discovered.
At the time when target 'Letitia' was assigned, she was the only one with that power level.
List of personnel denoted as 'Investigative Team' also scanned. Possible connection found.
A member of investigative team who was assigned to this case is from the Eternal Blossom Sect.]