"My Lord, I was going to bring this matter to your attention after all the pressing issues were dealt with. More than me, I think Eloise is the one who is better qualified to explain the situation."
Daneel simply nodded, signaling her to go ahead.
Clearing her throat, Eloise first thought for a bit before beginning to speak.
"Thank you, Your Majesty. You must have heard of the King who betrayed his brother and took control of the Kingdom, building the wall separating the Inner and Outer Cities and thereby beginning years of unfair treatment. What is hidden is that at the same time, that King also changed the customs of the Royal Family. Until that point, Lanthanor had a queen who, although didn't have official power, was quite influential and loved by the people. At one point, her popularity even rivaled that of the King himself.
"Fearing an eventual uprising, in a swift stroke, the Queen along with all of the Royal Concubines were confined to a specific wing of the palace. Only the King could access this wing, except for a few servants who delivered food and took care of maintenance.
"Since then, this custom has been followed even though the other Kings had a chance to change it. After being born, all the Nobles in the direct line of the King could only spend up to five years with their mothers before being parted forcefully. What would follow is a time of training, after which they would be sent to either official positions or assigned specific goals to reach in case they had the talent."
Although there had been a clear start, her voice started to break as she went along; it was as if she was trying hard not to be swept away by the waves of sadness that seemed to be battering into her. Daneel could understand her plight. It was truly a cruel practice to separate children from their mothers at just the ripe age of five, just when they were developing their mental faculties. Back on Earth, incidents like these were even known to cause long-term psychological problems.
Having been an orphan himself in his past life, Daneel knew clearly the pain from not having anyone to call 'mother'. Thus, when he saw her expression filled with sorrow, he couldn't help but feel anger rising in him.
"My King, I just have two humble requests. First, please let us who have not gone down the route of abusing our power to state our case to you. Second, please abolish this cruel practice. I know my second request is sudden, but even now, I miss my Mother and I wish I could see her again. Please consider, My Lord."
So this was the case, thought Daneel after he finished hearing all the facts of the case. He had heard of the custom of having concubines to prolong the Royal Line, but this was taking it to another level. What sense did it make to part children from mothers?
The time was already late, and he also realized that he had a mistake in summoning the girl to his room at such an hour. Deciding to be more tactful in the future, Daneel said, "I understand. I will be passing the decision regarding both matters tomorrow. Both of you can take your leave now."
Although Eloise looked like she wanted to say more, a look from Kellor silenced her. Nodding, both of them left the chambers, leaving Daneel alone again.
He had already made his decision, and he would simply have to announce it the next day. But before this day ended, he had one more task to do.
A few minutes later, he walked out of the chambers and headed for the passage leading to the academy.
Taking the route he had traversed before, Daneel reached the secret library which held the empire spirit.
Putting the oathstone in the groove and asking the system to communicate with the Empire Spirit, Daneel asked, "Can you tell me if I have reached closer to the general satisfaction level that you specified?"
This had been his intention in not buying the Kingdom Management Tool. The reason this idea came was that the keyword regarding the Kingdom Management Rewards section had been "milestones". Instead of a relative increase, milestones meant that there were set certain levels which had to be reached.
Thus, he had asked the system if he would lose any possible rewards if he did not buy the tool before events like the ceremony occurred.
It turned out that his suspicion had been correct. Even if he bought the tool a year later after managing to increase the satisfaction by a level, he would still be able to obtain the rewards.
Daneel's hope had been to start accumulating EXP as soon as possible for the next upgrade. With the trend so far, with another upgrade, the system's complexity would increase to that of a legendary Champion Mage. This was a realm that could crush a Kingdom such as Lanthanor with only a small degree of effort. If the system reached that level of complexity, he would be able to develop spells that could actually fight against a Warrior Mage even with his low power level. After all, how the developed spells worked was that although they could only be cast by mages a full realm above him, his limited energy level meant that they could only cause deadly harm to those at most a couple of levels above him. For instance, the fire needle would definitely be able to kill an Exalted Human Mage even though he was only a 4th Grade Eminent Human Mage. If he used the needle against an actual Warrior Mage, they would be able to simply dodge or use a counter-attack unless he managed to land a surprise attack.
Coming back the matter regarding the tools, even before, he had had the option to buy tools which used Faction Points and EXP to monitor faction members' loyalty. But he had circumvented the need for this tool by setting the rule of using magical oaths which had the same general effect.
Thus, he had been able to save up EXP.
"Haha, good try, young King. But if it were that simple, someone would have succeeded long ago. Just removing the negativity in people's hearts and making them relatively happy using food and drink does not improve the general satisfaction level. That's all I can say. Now run along. I do hope you continue your efforts, though, unlike others who gave up after giving only a pitiful few attempts."
Hearing the Empire Spirit's response, Daneel confirmed that his plan of circumvention wouldn't work.
Now, it was clear that the best thing to do was to have a tool which could accurately assess the level so that he could have a clear idea regarding how much effect each of his plans would have, while also striving to reach milestones to earn more EXP. Even though Daneel himself knew it had been a long shot to try what he just did, he simply did not want to let go of an alternative without at least testing it first.
Hence, without hesitation, he removed his hands from the podium and said, "Buy the Kingdom Management Tools, and show me the current satisfaction level."
[Purchase made and tool deployed. Thank you for shopping with the system!
Remaining EXP: 0
Data collection in progress. Time required to output statistics: 1 hour. Present area of effect: Radius of 100 km around host. Please upgrade the tool to increase area of effect and unlock new metrics for assessment.]
100 km! That was almost half the Kingdom!
In fact, it was also the area most densely populated. As the distance towards the border neared, there were generally lesser and lesser people living with larger barren areas dominating the area.
Although seeing the big fat 0 hurt a bit, Daneel was happy that he now had the Godly method to assess just exactly how satisfied his subjects were. With this measurement, it would be much easier to make future decisions.
Returning to his chambers, Daneel started planning his next steps.
First and foremost, the meeting with the envoys would have to be handled. At least, this was only an initial meeting, so his intention was to probe the situation and see what they had to say. Currently, he had no intention to make drastic changes without assessing everything first.
Another pressing issue was training. He would have to structure his day to add training to his schedule. In fact, seeing the Ker gems had made him wish that he could also use them to grow in power faster.
Ker gems were simply a higher grade of energy storage. After understanding this, he had been reminded of the treasure that was still sitting in the village with security formations all around it: The Natural Energised Training Chamber.
The best thing would be to use the chamber to somehow produce energy that could rival the one present in Ker Gems.
If he could do this, then Daneel knew he would soon be able to become the youngest Warrior Mage in the Lanthanor Kingdom.
After all, his goal had never been to depend on the army or anyone else to protect himself. His goal was to be able to always rely on himself, while also being a bastion which Lanthanor could always look up towards.
Remembering the description of the chamber, he knew that the key was to find a location with a high abundance of energy.
Deciding to ask while the statistics were collected, Daneel almost stumbled in his steps when he heard the answer.
[Energy Detection Tool indicates that the area directly underneath the palace is the best place to store the Natural Energized Training Chamber if host wishes to condense energy to rival that of Ker Gems. Tool also suggests that an Ultra High-Grade Energy Source is located under the Kingdom.]