Chapter - 542

Reveal & Planning
Indeed, Daneel was entering the Kingdom of Arafell… as a rat.

According to Drakos, the formation could scan both lifeforms and consciousnesses at any level. Yet, there was a certain loophole that wouldn't have existed if they were living in the age of the Empire of Angaria.

Apparently, the original formation, when deployed, also had a secondary part where a fine-tuned search would be carried out of each and every organism entering the formation which would have resulted in this plan failing.

Yet, because the second part was the one which required a lot of materials which were not available right now, the Queen had chosen to subvert that by building the smaller, second one around her Palace while the larger one was around her borders.

Essentially, this large formation, which was easy to implement, was only designed to scan large beings.

That was because if each and every beast and insect that made its way into the Kingdom were scanned live, every second, the formation would just overload.

The second formation was special because it managed to only scan these beings and still stay functioning, which was why it required more precious materials to handle the workload and the increased complexity as compared to one which only needed to scan larger beings.

The Queen of Arafell's most important objective was to stop anyone or anything from entering her most guarded areas, which were all inside the Palace. As she had no other option, she had only implemented the second part around the Palace, and was thus disregarding any threat that might come in the form of pests inside her Kingdom.

This did make sense. The Queen of Arafell had never struck Daneel as one who cared too much about the Kingdom except for their impact on the satisfaction level in the breaking of the seals. As such, her priority would be the Palace and whatever secrets she was hiding in there, so it was no surprise that she had allowed only that larger formation to protect the kingdom and alert her if any large being of Warrior or Hero level entered.

All of this meant that Daneel could only use smaller beasts, and there was even an inherent risk here.

If Daneel had wanted to go through with this plan, he would essentially be doing what Drakos had done before: he would be separating his own consciousness, which was apparently pitifully small at this point of time, and if it was lost due to the death of whatever it inhabited, it would have a very bad effect on him and cause him to need a period of recovery before he could even be as adept in all matters as before.

Basically, it would be like someone had taken a hammer and was hitting him on his head daily, resulting in a throb that would need weeks or months to disappear.

Also, he had to take care not to go near the Palace or near the Queen, as she would be able to detect him.

This was a plan filled with so many variables and dangers, but Daneel had still agreed to go through with it as there was simply no better choice. He had no intention whatsoever of asking the Queen whether she was behind this, as it would be a sign that he was acknowledging his defeat, which would cause her to gloat.

He just did not want to give her the satisfaction, when there was another way.

The process had been surprisingly painless: all Daneel had needed to do was cast the spell by himself or using the system, following which it was as if a hair had been plucked from his head.

After that, he had started to feel strange sensations, which were those that he was intercepting and understanding from the rat.

A rat's only focus was food, and its main weapon, it's nose was also geared towards finding as much food as possible. When he had been in the Kingdom, Daneel had felt sorry for this rat which would apparently die after this process and had allowed it to feast on all of its favorite delicacies which included bread of all sorts and some product made of milk.

As for how he was communicating with Drakos, it was through a tiny metallic trinket that Drakos made, himself, by using Daneel's hands. It was a communication trinket that connected to 3 trinkets: one that was in contact with Daneel's original body that was currently being controlled by Drakos, one with the cart driver who was a regular trader that had been enlisted for this mission, and one that connected him to Eloise in case he needed something from her.

Eloise had found the whole thing funny, and she had even taken rat Daneel into her hands and caressed him, as if it was the cutest thing in the world. Daneel had simply been helpless at that juncture, and he had only been hoping that this would get over as soon as possible, even though being in her hands had felt… Comfortable.

Now that the first major question about this mission was solved, which was whether Drakos's information was right about this formation, Daneel felt more at ease.

Instructing the cart driver to go about his usual routine first before taking him to that bar, Daneel fell asleep along with the rat.

He woke up at night, due to the spell of grapes near his nose, which were being given to him by the cart driver who had been instructed to carry certain foods and keep feeding it to him so that he could control this thing's urges, which was actually a very hard thing to do as there was only a very small part of his consciousness here. If he wasn't careful and if this rat felt something strong enough, it might break apart from his possession and do whatever it wanted.

At the end of the day, this had been a willing possession, as the rat had been bribed and distracted with food when Daneel had entered its mind. That was why it could still take back control of its body when it wanted to, enough.

After heartily eating all the grapes, rat Daneel entered the man's sleeve and was taken to the bar known as The Maiden's Waist.

Pungent smells of alcohol and sweat greeted his hypersensitive nose, and Daneel had to struggle hard not to move and startle the man who was transporting him.

According to some intel that they had received from the spies who were inside the Kingdom of Arafell with the knowledge of the Queen, who was allowing them for reasons he didn't understand, there was a really specific, unique individual who did frequent this bar on a weekly basis on the same exact day, at the same exact time.

Others also had habits like these, but they had been eliminated because all of their origins could be traced. Yet, this man was like a ghost who disappeared and appeared only during this visit, and could not be found at any other time.

There was no clearer sign that this was who Daneel was looking for.

This was both a bar and a brothel, with the upper rooms reserved for the other 'services' that were being offered by the establishment. This man would always book the same room with the same performer, and, in anticipation of that, Daneel had already used his rat form to sneak away from the bar and covertly use the areas where pipes were hidden to access the room.

Sure enough, after an hour or so, the man appeared inside the room, but the strange thing was that Daneel had just noticed that there was a secret second exit through which the scantily clad 'performer' exited right after entering.

After seeing her leave, this man, who had a very strange hairstyle of a bald, shiny patch surrounded by long, glossy black hair and a face filled with features that looked like they had been sculpted by an amateur sculptor who had just started the trade, opened the wine bottle on the table and started to sip glass after glass while looking into the distance.

An hour after that, Daneel had begun to wonder whether this was their man. Based on all the movies where he had seen the hero of the story eavesdrop on something and immediately happen upon the exact information that he wanted to hear, he had been hoping that something similar might happen for him, which would allow him to leave this rat and get back to his body as quickly as possible.

It was only after another hour did something finally happened, and, thankfully and coincidently, it did turn out to be what Daneel was here for.

From his coat which looked like it had been worn for years without being washed, the man took out three trinkets, and Daneel recognized two of them.

They were very precious surveillance trinkets that scanned the area for listening devices and humans.

Even though he had been capable of doing these things with the system since he was a human, itself, it was very difficult for a trinket to carry out such tasks. Hence, it required highly advanced formations that could only be engraved by a high-level engraver, the likes of which were rare in the continent of Angaria.

All in all, these trinkets would sell for thousands and even tens of thousands of Ether blocks in typical Central Continent auctions, if they were sold.

The last part was the problem. Very few were in circulation, so Daneel wondered where this guy could have obtained them.

Thankfully, the trinket only scanned for humans, and he was in the form of a rat, which was something that even the Queen's formation, itself, hadn't been able to detect.

The second trinket was slightly a problem, as the one on Daneel qualified as a listening trinket. He was currently in a long, dark passage filled with plumbing tubes that had running water going through them with the tubes vibrating every second as a result. He was peeking through a tiny hole he had made discreetly, and he knew the exact range of the trinket. So, without hesitation, Daneel removed the string with the tiny communication trinket that Drakos had made for him and threw it hard in the direction he had come from. He could simply take it on his way back.

His quick thinking had saved the day, as the man immediately activated the two trinkets and waited for them to give the green signal that he was in a very secure location. In fact, it might be one of the most secure in the entirety of the Central Continent if one did not count freaks such as Daneel and Queen Arafell who were in possession of stuff from the Empire, which could basically be considered cheating.

Whatever this was, it was a very high-level operation that was being carried out by someone who had an eye for details.

Soon, the purpose of the third trinket became clear. It was a communication one, which the man touched and began speaking.

"Preliminary checks are done. I'm alone. Shall we begin?"

Initially, Daneel got very excited, but, sadly, everything wasn't as perfect as he had imagined. This was a communication trinket, so that meant that whatever was going on in the channel was only stuff that he could hear. Hence, he could only rely on what the man in front of him was saying to try and understand the flow of the entire conversation.

It started with a discussion of the progress of their mission of delaying the process of laying rail tracks. On finding that it was going well, the man smiled a very unpleasant smile which made Daneel wish he could get down there and scratch his eyes out.

No, he should be calm at all times, like Drakos had said.

Next, the conversation turned towards topics he didn't understand, with this man giving updates on his part of whatever he was doing, which apparently involved him gaining control of one of the fake network operators that Daneel had set up as 'competition'.

This was already very important information, in itself, so Daneel rejoiced inwardly that he had taken this decision to come here. In fact, he also counted himself lucky that this man was incapable of sending his thoughts through his mind, which wasn't something that everyone could do if they didn't have a knack for it, which was why he was speaking what he wanted to say out loud for Daneel to hear.

The rest of the conversation was all about cursing at the one who was responsible for all of their problems: Daneel, himself.

Each curse made Daneel angrily wipe his whiskers, and by the time the conversation was done, he was fuming, especially because of certain curses which had been leveled against his mother by this guy.

Thankfully, his mission had been accomplished, so Daneel headed to the cart driver who was still drinking in the pub.

As he wanted to be done with this as soon as possible, Daneel insisted that they leave right away, which led to the cart driver stating that his wife was suddenly sick and that he had to get back to Lanthanor as soon as possible.

An hour or so after they exited Arafell, Kellor arrived to end this ordeal that he would always remember, and as Daneel took back control of his body and let out a deep sigh of relief, he knew where they had to go to next.

A day later, Daneel was carefully surveilling a certain exit of one of the 18 of the Kingdom of Arafell, and as the system alerted him that it had found the one whom it had scanned the day before, Daneel smoothly nabbed the guy who was wearing a physical disguise.

He was only an Exalted Human, so Mind Control worked like a charm, and the first thing Daneel asked was the identity of those he had been talking to.

Only, he was once again met with disappointment as the identity of the main person who was calling the shots yet working as an equal with them was hidden.

The second question was what the endgame was, and this was where Daneel was really tempted to snap this guy's neck, which was exactly what he had done with all those other bandits he had come across.

Their plan was to stop the train… By breaking the alliance between Lanthanor and Eldinor.

And how were they going to do that? Well, the plan was certainly very chilling.

Race crimes, when an elf would discriminate against, kill and even torture humans because they felt superior were things which were punishable by death, but still existed.

Their plan was to make the reverse happen. In one week from now, in a certain town in Lanthanor, humans would turn against and kill a large delegation of elves. It would be leaked that it was done by Daneel, following which suspicion and doubt would emerge that would result in what they wanted.

For further popularity and outrage, this would be broadcast on the Network Trinkets, too.

As for that specific town, there was again no info.

Yet, Daneel had already chosen his course of action.

He…was going to become a bandit leader.

...

All contest entries are up in the Auxiliary Chapter! Scroll up to before