Lord Callum Eden was enjoying a bountiful dinner during a hard-earned break when one of his advisors barged into his room.
"What brings you here so suddenly Milan?" he asked with a puzzled expression, he'd be lying if he said he wasn't a little angry about his dinner being disrupted, but no one that worked around him was incompetent which meant that they would only disrupt him if it was necessary.
"There is something you need to see my lord," she said, ", It would be best if you watch it to the end before commenting," she added quickly, it wasn't that what she brought was extremely urgent but it might have implications on their star zone.
"Is it to do with her majesties brat again, I will admit that his energy control is exceptional but that's all it is it won't cause us too much stress in the long term." he chuckled, that child was truly a genius but he also caused so much trouble on his first day in the public eye.
"Yes, my lord it is, and today's news is a little troubling," she said.
He gestured for Milan to help herself to a drink as the footage began to play, he frowned at first when he saw that Lirian was sitting in the meeting of candidates, he remembered even now how hard he had to work to sit in meetings like those, and when he saw Edith say nothing about his presence in the room, he felt slightly disappointed in her, she ought to know the rules better than anyone.
As the meeting began, he smiled in approval as the younger candidates began to voice their opinion but he was surprised at first by Ediths and Tobias's lack of reaction, it was then that he thought of the impossible.
A few minutes had passed and he confirmed his suspicion the little candidate had already learned the first secret after a single day and his approach was completely different from the usual, it was something that he himself had only realised a while after he officially stepped into the political field.
He was impressed without any doubt and he even started to look past the candidates' ungraceful acts that went on in the room and smiled as he heard the candidate mention that everything was set up by the great families. It was extremely impressive to witness how deep his insight went into the families' reasons for turning their lives into a game.
When the last candidate entered, he broke into a smile at the appearance of the fool, in truth while Tobias was the most popular in the public, it was Indra that most of the nobles enjoyed watching because of what an idiot she was.
He witnessed the energy control in awe and sighed in pity at how quickly Indra was shut up, he was looking forward to one of her speeches about equality no matter one's position in the world, but she almost soiled herself after saying a few words.
Those speeches of hers were always so much fun to listen to and he would never be able to stop himself from laughed when they occurred, it was simply against all logic to treat everyone equally, a businessman would get a little bit of respect for providing jobs to people, a doctor would be well respected for saving lives and a soldier will be revered for fighting for their people.
You can't give an ordinary person the same respect you give to someone who actively works towards bettering the lives of ordinary people.
He thought that it was over when the children began to leave, they even had to carry Indra out.
He looked away to Milan who was sipping on a whiskey and her glass was slightly icy as she cooled it in her hands, "There wasn't anything too concerning," he said, "if anything I'm more convinced than ever that we may have a serious contender for the throne in a few hundred years."
"It's not over my lord, and the most interesting part is coming up." she said with a slight smile ", you will find that he is about to become the talk of all 42-star zones that set up a mark inside that booth."
He turned back to the recording and watched as Lirian began to seemingly talk to himself, he wondered if the kid was crazy, but soon he realised that the boy was practically speaking to him directly and all the others that were spying on him, at first, he thought that maybe the empress had broken the rules and told him the truth about the booths real use, and he even started to chuckle slightly.
It was then that a few words made him stop, '...laugh while you can...' he frowned and looked down only to meet the boy's eyes and for a second it felt like he was really being looked at and he watched as he did the same to every mark in the room.
He felt his veins go cold as Lirian finished and he looked down in contemplation, "Did you also..."
"... feel like I was being looked at directly, yes and so did everyone who saw the footage before me, and after contacting some of our friends in the Garo star zone we confirmed that it wasn't only us that felt that way," Milan quickly said.
Callum shook his head and smiled, "I doubt that there has ever been a candidate that got so much attention so fast, I mean it's only the 3rd day of the school year at this rate he might even enter the eyes of every star zone in ten years."
Milan started hesitantly, "My lord what that child did is not something I can even understand," she hinted at the strange feeling she got when that eye fell on her, "It's beyond ordinary, I'm curious about something do you think that the empress choosing to adopt such a child was truly a coincidence because the secrecy of his days before he entered the school was already suspicious it's starting to feel like this child's appearance on Xelia was set up!" she finished hesitantly, she knew that her lord and the empress had a good friendship and it wouldn't sound so good to voice out something so conspiracy-like, but she felt it was her duty as an advisor.
Callum calmly nodded, "What you are thinking is most likely true that child was planted on that ship by her majesty, but I've already had several teams investigate the world the child came from, and it would appear that her majesty has done a good job of faking his appearance, so no one can accuse her of tampering with the candidate games."
Milan nodded in relief, "The zone will start to get pretty busy once word of this gets out, how are we to proceed?"
"For now strengthen the guard on all planets with level 5 priority and above and let the Xelia family know that we'll be adding to their guards, we have to ensure that there is as little damage done to the planets by any troublesome visitors."
"It should be at least a year before any trouble starts, but just to be safe put up an additional guard around Lirian, I'll inform the empress."
"I think it will be best to do the same for all the candidates," Milan added her voice seemed to soften slightly.
Callum didn't miss that detail and frowned, "It seems that you have started to worry about her," he did not approve of this small change.
Milan glanced at him with a little anger in her eyes, "You asked me to keep in contact with her, what did you expect would happen." she said coldly.
He sighed softly, "You might as well ask her what she thinks of him while you're at it, also speak to the child we put in his class, it's important that we learn everything we can about him," he added.
She nodded silently and left to begin the preparations.
Callum returned to eating his meal while lost in his thoughts, he was known as one of the best info brokers in the empire, it made him very certain that the empress cleared up well behind the trials of her new son, but he only had one fear, the diviner that hated the empress, if there was anyone that could drag out his origins it was her, Efrideet Capriska. He didn't know the details obviously but if the empress felt it was necessary to hide his origins, then she would have a reason.
By all means, her actions of attacking the empress's reputation was frowned upon by a vast majority of the current super-worlds but she was also a living legend, to have become a seventh-grade diviner was a feat beyond belief, there were only 4 such cases throughout the entire history of the six civilizations besides the great diviner Quaria, due to her accomplishment, there was a big split in the opinion of the nobles towards her.
Some believed that she deserved to become empress because of her strategic value in the empire, whilst others supported the current empress after all it was emperor Albus that won the race to become emperor and he was free to choose any empress candidate to become his wife and even the previous empress had approved of his choice.
Due to their conflict, many nobles were preparing for a potential civil war to break out, even after many negotiations Efrideet insisted on a vision she had seen, she claimed that she saw the empress bring down destruction on the lands of her people.
She even went so far as to say that the empress's actions would cause a war with one of the other civilisations and that her attacks were to stop the empress from bringing such a future to the world.
The words of a diviner were scary and some believed her, while others thought it was just a scam so that she could take the throne. If not for how highly she was valued, she would have been executed a long time ago.