For a long time, Daneel couldn't believe his ears and eyes.
He just sat there, on the bed that was so familiar yet so foreign to him right now, and as the familiar sounds and smells washed over him, he took them all in while reveling in the way that they made him feel.
It was as if he had gone on a long, long journey, but had found his way home in such an abrupt fashion that he couldn't believe it. The tears lingered in his eyes until they started to drip down his cheeks, but he didn't stop them - he let them flow, and again and again, he tried to tell himself that this was but a simulation, but it just didn't work.
It was all too… real, and close to him, and hence, any such thoughts which entered his mind were quashed and thrown aside almost unconsciously.
For once, he didn't even want to check on the system to see if it was there.
He could hear the sounds from the kitchen downstairs, with the many voices of children who had been assigned kitchen duty. Unlike in typical scenarios, in his orphanage, kitchen duty was an absolute pleasure, and many of the orphans would even play rock paper scissors so that they could decide who would be able to take the lucky spot where they would be continuously fed little snacks by the old lady while she cooked a delicious meal.
All they needed to do was cut a few vegetables carefully, or stir something, and they would also be continuously regaled by the endless tales that the old lady never ran out of.
Daneel could hear her telling one of her favorites right now, and it was one of the few that she liked to repeat. It was about a man who lost everything, but hadn't realized that everything that he had lost meant nothing. The story ended with him finding out what really meant something to him in his life, and it was filled with fun tales of revenge where he outsmarted the people who targeted him all while making sure that he obtained what he had recognized as the sources of true happiness.
He listened to this tale, once again getting the thought that she had always been beyond her time. Somehow, she had always been able to pick the right things to teach the children in the orphanage, and if he had to be frank, Daneel would admit that her teachings had gone a long way in allowing him to change in the way that he had in the continent of Angaria.
If it weren't for his upbringing in her kind hands… He did not know exactly how different things would have happened, but he was pretty damn confident that they would definitely not have played out as well as they had so far.
A half-hour later, the old lady seemed to finally see that the oldest inhabitant in the orphanage, beside herself, had yet to make his way down.
They had always been strapped for cash, so the thin walls of the orphanage meant that anyone could hear what was happening in the other rooms at any time. Hence, Daneel could clearly hear the soft muttering of the old lady who told herself that he must be tired from all the studying in the university, which was why he must be sleeping in.
She reached his room, and as soon as she opened the door, she found herself being hugged tightly by Daneel who had gone back to the little kid he had once been.
She saw the tears in his eyes, and wondered what was wrong, but she had always had the tact to read situations and know perfectly what she was supposed to do.
In this situation, she saw that the best thing she could do was just comfort him and not as questions, and that was what she did.
"Come here, you big baby," she said affectionately, before walking to the bed and sitting Daneel down, just like she had many times before in the past.
That hug had made so many emotions erupt in Daneel that his eyes had started to get wet again, so he tried to control his feelings. He was no longer the same person who had lived through this life, but still, being here… Made him inadvertently revert to the Daneel who had had only one goal in his life: to live well and give all that he could to the orphanage that was everything to him.
She sat on the bed, and what she did next was something that he had expected, but had still been looking forward to.
"Hey, kids! Get the food here! Show your big brother how much you all missed him!"
These words were followed by a torrent of small and big children who ran into the room and dutifully sat down one by one with cheerful smiles on their faces.
Lunchtime was always a delight, and as Daneel looked at each of them and saw their expressions of pure happiness which he had almost forgotten, he couldn't help but smile, too, as the tears disappeared.
No words were needed. This was a precious period of time where the old lady would let herself go and talk and talk and talk, and all of them would listen attentively while savoring the food that they were really thankful for.
Daneel was more silent than usual, but no one really found anything odd about it. Each of them were given small plates, and the huge bowl of food which was carried inside by four children together were spread among everyone equally.
Daneel always had a habit of giving his food to 2 little kids who were always ravenous and never happy with how much they got, and as always, he did so, which made his smile broaden even further after seeing their ecstatic faces.
Life had been… So simple. There was a beauty about this simplicity, and as he experienced it again, he realized how much he had missed it.
Having no responsibilities was truly a boon, and that was mainly the reason why adults would always look back on their childhood and wish that they had enjoyed it more. They would wish that they could relive it, too, because there was really no such time which would give most a lifetime of happy memories that they would contentedly be able to look back on no matter what went wrong in their life afterward.
For a few hours, Daneel just forgot about everything that had happened to him. He enjoyed himself fully: first, during the meal, the old lady continued her tale while feeding the smallest kids, and after that was an hour of discussion time during which everyone would talk about the random things that they were thinking about. The orphanage was small, but it had a large tree in front of it that had stood there for many decades. They would all gather around it and talk until they were thirsty, which was when the old lady would bring out water sweetened with a little bit of the pulp that was extracted from the fruits of the tree that they sat beneath.
It was only after this that Daneel found himself alone in his room again, and as he stood there looking out the window, he had such a contented smile on his face that he almost wished that he could continue like this.
Yet… That thought only lingered for a moment, before a change came over him.
He was back in his thin body with drooping shoulders and shifting eyes that never really looked up and always focused on the ground, almost as if they believed that that was where they should naturally be. However, as he took a deep breath, those shoulders were thrown back, his back became ramrod straight, and his head that was now defiantly pointed forward had an expression of self-confidence that was definitely not characteristic of him, at least in this age, and in this place.
He once again looked like the king who was revered by millions of Angarians, and the regal air which didn't really care about one's appearance could be seen on him again.
If anyone saw him now, they would think that he was a completely different person, and recognizing this, Daneel tried to act, before starting to think about everything he had noticed so far, but had not focused on.
First of all, he knew just when this was. It was after the incident where he had spilled water on that son of the powerful politician, and although that guy had looked at him with a scathing expression on his face, his wrath had not settled upon Daneel yet.
He could remember clearly that it would begin from the moment he ended this short trip in the weekend, and as for what would follow… He knew it all too well, and it was something that he was in no way ready to relive.
A test of the self. He hadn't thought about it before, but he saw now that this was the perfect test that anyone would put for him if they wanted to see whether he had really changed from the time when he had lived through these moments.
As the sun began to set on the horizon, its last rays fell on Daneel's face, and they framed his smile which was filled with the confidence of one who was ready to change his fate.
Gone was the weak Daneel who had made no impact on the world, and had probably died on that chair in the experiment that he had volunteered for foolishly. What replaced him… Was a man who would make the world bow to him even if it didn't want to.
He had already recognized that this was a simulation using the details he knew, but that didn't mean that he could slack off. If he failed, he would die, but Daneel felt no fear at all, because in fact… this scenario was something he had thought of a lot of times in Angaria, and he already knew what he was going to do.
"System, are you there?"
For once, there was no answer, and Daneel had expected that. This was a test placed on oneself, and because his self knew that the system was something that he had obtained later on, it looked like his consciousness was somehow blocking it. It was almost like a self-imposed hypnotization, and because one could not lie to themselves, it was perfect.
He had none of the power that he had used to crush his opponents back in Angaria, and he didn't even have the system which had always allowed him to have an edge on his enemies.
But was he worried?
No, because what he had gained over all his time spent in Angaria was something more valuable than both of these combined.
It was time to show exactly what that was, and Daneel had to say that he was actually excited. After all, who wouldn't want to go back in their lives and do things differently?
He was going to use this opportunity to the fullest, and it was definitely going to be… pretty damn fun.
At the same time that a smile came on the corner of his lips as he got this thought, a figure appeared in the Chamber of the Golden Lightning with a very panicked expression on his face.
He looked around and found no one waiting for him, which made him exclaim, "Dammit, Daneel! Where the f*ck are you! Argh!"
His words echoed in the empty Chamber, and even though he waited and sent multiple messages, he received no reply.
With frustration, Jonah started pacing around, and after a few seconds, he realized that this was too big to ignore. It was not the time to be safe, so taking a little risk was needed.
With that, he sent messages to the others, and weirdly enough, only a few replied.
As the rest of the sovereigns all appeared in the Chamber with puzzled expressions on their faces as they didn't understand why they had been summoned so urgently, they saw the King of Lanthanor's master looking at them all with an extremely agitated expression on his face.
Waiting for a second more and then seeing that no one else was coming, he blurted out what he had found, and his words… made all those present wonder whether the man had finally lost it.
"Daneel was right, they did put a backup plan, and it is going to blow up all the Energy resources on Angaria! If we don't act soon, the war will be lost before it even begins! Now, where the f*ck is that disciple of mine? Go find him at once, or we're done for!"