In the cell whose location was so secret that the number of people who knew where it was could be counted on two hands, Jessica was looking at a display trinket that was onlooking the gates of the Palace of Lanthanor.
All over the continent, families were running out to hastily collect the coins that were being rained down on to their houses, and a display trinket beside this central one was showing varying images of those scenes.
Yet, she didn't feel angry because of the success of the King's plan.
Instead…she simply sent a message, saying, "Do it."
Unable to control her excitement, Jessica walked forward until her face was almost right in front of the display trinket.
A few seconds after she sent the message, an envelope appeared out of thin air and dropped onto the ground, in full view of the guards who were standing at the gates while vigilantly looking around.
No sooner had they seen this strange occurrence happen, an alarm was raised, and after a few moments, the man who had destroyed all of her hopes and dreams for her future appeared.
The worry could be seen clearly on his face, even though it looked like he was concealing it well. A smile broke onto Jessica's face, and it was actually the first full one she had gotten since being locked up here.
Her entire body started to shake with joy in anticipation of what was going to happen, and as she saw him wearily pick up the envelope, she couldn't help but remark to herself regarding just how good it felt to see his face without the confident smirk that she had seen on it before.
Well…what she was going to see next was something she would delight in for a long time to come.
The display trinket was already recording, and when the coins finally started to fall onto the ground in front of the King, the expression of shock on his face made Jessica exclaim, "YES!"
She balled up her fist in joy, and her eyes which had been blazing with anger now glinted with the happiness that came from success.
Her smile was as wide as it could go, and her hair, which she hadn't bothered to wash as there was no one who would see her here, anyway, was fanned around her face, giving her the image of a banshee which had just eyed its next sumptuous meal.
The King immediately disappeared afterward with all of those coins, and right away, she received an incoming attempt from the man she was using as her liaison to the outside world.
She accepted the request, and another display trinket popped up to show the image of a large bronze sun affixed onto a wall, in the middle of which an almost holy woman's face was framed.
It was the official symbol of the Goddess's Sanctum, and in front of it, the cloaked man spoke.
"Congratulations on the first success of your plan, my lady. Was it really wise to allow him to know that it was you, though? Wouldn't we have been better off if he was still searching for us while we were hidden in the dark?"
It looked like the man had been wanting to ask this question for a long time, and seeing a moment where she was finally in a good mood, he was making an attempt to satiate his curiosity.
Indeed, Jessica was in a wildly ecstatic mood, so she answered right away.
Banging her fist on the stone floor for emphasis, she said through gritted teeth, "Because he needs to know that it is I, who is the reason for the ruin of all of his carefully laid plans. He did the same thing to me, and I want him to find out exactly how it feels to experience witnessing one's future crushed to dust in front of them. If he doesn't know it is me, I can hardly find enjoyment in his plight when he realizes that there is no way whatsoever to touch me, right? Now, he will curse my name with frustration and anger, as I have done his for what he feels like an eternity. I will be the demon in his dreams and the wraith who haunts him when he is awake. I will make sure that everything he has accomplished will be destroyed, no matter how many resources I need to spend for this task. Speaking of resources…how goes the production of the coins which will supplant his?"
It wasn't clear what the man thought of the answer, as he was famous for losing control of his facial muscles due to a strange spell he had experimented with. Any changes to his face had to be done using spells, so he seldom did so unless he needed to unsettle someone, like he had had to do in the case when he had handled the leaders of the trading families.
His answer was prompt, and delivered in a slightly proud tone.
"It goes well. No matter what he does, we will be able to entice people into using our coins instead of his, which will be cheaper to do. As the goal is to make sure that his plan to monopolize the power sources fails, we will not be targeting the trinkets, which were never meant to be his major source of income anyway. We are burning three times the resources to create the coins, and even though they can only be used once, people will choose us as we will almost be giving them away for free. No matter how deep his reserves are, they cannot compare to what you have stored away during your long time as a seed."
While Jessica nodded in response, far away from her, the King of Lanthanor had made the same discovery.
He was in his quarters, where he was standing in front of a table that seemed to have been attacked by a battering ram while the coins, that had just been analyzed by the system, were lying strewn around the room.
The message from the system was the reason why he had just banged his hands on the table where he had placed the coin after teleporting to his room, causing the present scene to appear.
[Coin has been made by wasting resources in a brute-force method which was not judged to be sustainable by anyone in the Central Continent. At least 3.4 times the resources used by host are being used to create coins with equal amounts of Energy. Coin also does not have any mechanism to be recharged, which suggests that there is an extremely high probability of the coins being only for one-time use. One of the coins also has a hidden message etched using tiny letters which says 'It is time to pay for your sins']
Sins?
For a moment, Daneel really felt like kicking himself for not anticipating that someone as smart as Jessica would want to get revenge on him, right away, for spoiling her almost perfect plan to obtain power by sacrificing 5 other seeds.
Wasn't she supposed to be in prison? So, was the prison for seeds like the one for corrupt politicians back on Earth, where they could have all kinds of facilities while only being imprisoned in name?
Right away, he contacted Rayen to find out about this, and the Hero could hear the fury in Daneel's voice.
Unable to understand the reason behind it as he was currently in closed-door training, he answered, "Yes, seeds are special, so they're only thrown into a cell from which they cannot leave. They can still talk to people outside and eat and train like normal, because if they have committed grave crimes, each of them are investments which amount to a number you cannot even imagine. Almost since their birth, a lot of resources are burnt to make sure that they become the best. They even have a certain quota to use every month for luxury, as the idea is also that they should have no impediments while training."
Without even asking, Rayen had given the answers to two of Daneel's questions.
How Jessica was managing things on the outside, and how she had so many resources.
It wasn't a farfetched assumption to make that she must have stashed away this quota for a long time because she was the kind of cunning b*tch to target those who caller her their sister so that she could grow in power.
Without hesitation, Daneel asked the question that sprang into his mind next.
"Can I go to the prison? If I wanted to."
Rayen was quite taken aback as he heard this, but he answered in a puzzled tone.
"Err…definitely not. Seeds are also supposed to be safe, so they would probably be placed in the Maximum Security prison that only a handful know of."
Daneel had already expected this the moment he had seen Jessica brazenly announce that she was the one behind all this.
If she wasn't confident that she couldn't ensure her safety, she wouldn't have pulled that stunt anyway.
Directly cutting off the connection without further ado, Daneel reassessed his situation, which was when he saw that her plan was clear.
She wanted to supplement the people by making her coins cheaper, thereby taking away his monopoly, which was the most important source of income which he had been about to use to pull out his own stash.
True, she would be burning through resources, but with time…it was possible that she even had the plan to modify the formations of old in the way that he had done.
With the system, he had done it in a week. Without it, she might need years, but for that much time, she could probably afford to keep on burning, as Ker Gems, which were definitely the form of her resources, were simply incomparable to Ether blocks in value.
"Argh!"
Daneel couldn't help but exclaim with anger before beginning to pace around the room.
It was a brute-force method to undercut him and take away his business, but it was highly effective.
At the moment, Daneel felt as helpless as all the poor souls on Earth who found their work being profited off of without them being able to have any say in the matter.
All they would want to do was work hard, but the value of their hard work would be severely impacted by the pirates who only wished to exploit and make a quick buck.
And here, the pirate wasn't even after money. They wanted revenge, and they also had an almost bottomless pocket.
Of course, he couldn't blame the people, either, because they were just choosing the cheaper alternative.
At the moment, Daneel wished that he could just show his power and flatten her and everyone who was helping her out here in the world, but sadly, that wasn't an option.
What the hell was he supposed to do?!
Right as he was about to rage with the anger that kept flooding into his mind, he received a message from Jordan.
"My Lord, I've managed to trace a place from where coins just like yours are being shipped to all the same places which you chose for your launch. Should I deploy someone to stop the coins from being circulated?"
Wh-what?!
Like someone offering water to a parched man in a desert, Jordan seemed to have chosen the perfect time to make his worth clear.
Seeing the light in the darkness, Daneel snapped out of his emotions and began to think about what he should do.
After a moment, though, his course was clear.
"No, let them be. I know who the enemy is, and even if we stop them now, they will simply shift base and be even more careful the next time. They have near-endless resources, after all. Well done, Jordan. Let me take it from here."
Saying so, the King teleported away.
.....
Note from the Author: It was a coincidence that this matter came in the book, as I have had the intention to say this for quite some time. Thank you, thank you, thank you to all the readers who have judged my humble work to be worthy enough for spending your hard-earned money on. You keep the lights burning, and you have given me the confidence that there is something that I can proudly say I am good at. I will forever strive to make my work better, and again, my gratitude is endless. Three cheers to you, and may fortune ever smile on the path you walk.