Seeing Dante placing his hands on his face as he tries to understand the current predicament they found themselves in, Landon asked while hoping that Dante could come up with a solution.
"Precisely. This could only mean that the ones who did this are most likely going to act faster now and if possible, maybe more openly now. So what do you think we should do?"
That's right, if the word got out of the Emperor's demise. The ones who cursed the Royal families were most likely going to act more visible to achieve whatever goals they had in mind.
But to avoid such a thing from happening, Dante had to come up with an idea that would convince everyone that the Emperor was alive and the Empress and her children were in good health.
While also concealing the fact that the Emperor was dead and also providing the Royal family enough time to properly heal back to good health.
"You could get a puppet," A weak arrogant voice abruptly sounded out from the entrance of the Emperor's bed chambers.
The voice was something that was really familiar to both Landon and Dante. The disdainful and arrogant tone of the speaker wasn't foreign to them.
Both Landon and Dante drifted their gaze towards the source of the voice and the person standing over there turned out to be the Empress.
"Your Majesty!..... You're okay. Praise the gods!..... *Sobs* Thank you *sobs*....so much...*sobs*....for answering my prayers *Sobs*"
The head eunuch rushed towards the Empress as he kowtowed very deeply before her while weeping his eyes out as he praised the gods he had yet to see or heard from.
He had previously begun to doubt if the Royal family could ever be restored back to normal again.
But with the Empress standing before him, he was truly grateful to see her alive as a large volume of tears streamed down his cheeks.
The Empress on the other hand was currently clothed in a magenta colored cloak which completely concealed her bald head and her burnt looking flesh which had several blisters and boils.
She stood there still, expecting Dante and Landon to do the same by grovelling before her feet but neither acted as though her existence mattered....
"Oh! That's right! I've just got a marvelous idea," Dante declared in a loud voice and a huge smile appeared on his face before he clapped his hands as though he had really thought about something.
"Oh really? Tell me D, what do you have in mind?" Landon smiled as he played along.
"Tch!!" The sound made by the Empress as she clicked her tongue in ire certainly didn't escape the keen ears of both jesters.
"Un," Dante nodded. "How about we use a puppet?" Dante resumed his mockery, of course while retaining his smile.
"Hmm, that could work," Landon pondered while stroking his chin.
"Indeed. It would be better to have a bunch of puppets camouflaged as the imperial family until their condition becomes better." Dante sided with him while stealing glances at the already ired but still reticent Empress.
"But how ever shall we find one?" Landon raised his shoulders momentarily in a shrug which could make one to initially think he really didn't know where to find such a puppet but in reality he was really showing indifference towards the situation the royalties currently found themselves in, which clearly wasn't of concern to him.
"Wait! Don't you mean four?" Dante said jeeringly, while stroking his invisible hairy chin.
"Oops! You're right. How could I have forgotten," Landon mockingly replied with his palm hitting his forehead as though he really did forgot .
*Tch* This time around, it was the head eunuch's turn to click his tongue in annoyance with veins bulging at the side of his head, caused by the two men who were deliberately trying to provoke the Empress in a way that meant. 'Duh! We've thought about this before and just because you're the Empress, that doesn't mean you could just brazenly walk in here to state the obvious.'
In other words, they had thought of the Empress suggestion before now but knew it won't be easy unless certain conditions were meant. They were also just trying to be mean to the Empress based on the history they've had with her in the past.
This was just their way of having fun with the Queen's prideful demeanor in contrast to her daughter's hot-tempered behavior.
"Oh! Wait! Wait! I do remember someone who's a puppeteer," Landon declared with a huge grin on his face while rubbing his nostrils .
" Really? And the person is really adept in what he does right?" Dante continued his jest with no intention of relenting anytime soon.
" Un," Landon nodded in approval
"Oops! But wait." Dante said while flashing a sardonic smile. Though no one around the room was going anywhere, still he said so before he continued.
"Oops! Silly me. Won't we need someone who's willing enough to offer half of his soul energy into the puppet to enable its functionality?" Dante said while placing his hands on his face as though what he just said was meant to be common sense known to everyone.
Just as how mana was a form of energy capable of granting spell casters and anyone else who possesses it the privilege of performing magic and using their elemental abilities.
Soul energy on the other hand was the base energy that defines the life of all living things. It is the quintessence of life force which keeps everyone alive.
Plants, humans, beasts, demi humans, demons and every other races have the ability to possess Mana. Only few were unable to use mana thus rendering them to become manaless, just like Deena and Mia.
But for those who could perform elemental magic with the aid of their mana which also depletes the more a mage or spell caster casts several spells, the soul energy also aids in mana regeneration once a spell caster exhausts the amount of mana he/she is capable of using.
In other words, a person won't die if his mana becomes depleted but will surely die if his soul energy becomes exhausted.
Just as how mana can be absorbed and transmitted between people capable of possessing it, so can soul energy be used in a similar context.
The only downside to soul energy was that unlike mana which could still be regenerated once completely exhausted, soul energy on the other hand couldn't be done in a similar way.