Chapter 59 - 059 – FINDING THE GAP
The day passed quickly and Lirian found himself closing his history book, today's lesson was something he had been looking forward to it was one about his mother and her discovery.
She had become a princess and empress candidate through different means after all for the most part lesser and lower worlds had very little to do with the political structure of the world, the real powers only started at the high worlds and above.
His mother grew up on a colonial planet called Scavanor and it wasn't very well developed despite being a part of a lesser world. She grew up on a farm with many brothers, but during a conflict between two sects her home village became collateral damage and most of her friends and family died, only two of her brothers survived along with her, but they both died as they tried to take revenge against the people that ruined their lives.
At the age of 105, she reached the fourth-grade as a cultivator across all three centres of power which gave her enough power to avenge her family and brothers, with that in mind she began a slaughter and slowly killed every person that so much as sold a grain of food to the sects, after slowly backing them into a corner she picked of any important personal in their sects and finally she led them into a series of traps she had prepared.
When she completed her revenge, she was said to have gone mad for a few years before she was dragged before the powers in control of the world she came from, she was going to be executed for her crimes, but after discovering how shocking her talent was, they reported it to the empire and the advisor of the empress Telamon Dao received her and requested to become her teacher, and under his guidance she reached the fifth-grade before the age of 160 years.
She had met the conditions to become a princess, at least the second condition, which was to reach the fifth-grade before the age 400 years without the aid of the empire, it was without a doubt one of the fastest speeds in history and it got her the attention and support she needed to become a real princess of the empire.
It wasn't anything he hadn't heard of before but it was his first time reading it from the history books directly and learning it from this point of view, when his mother told him the stories, she always toned it down and she rarely ever spoke a word about her family.
He left school like always with Anya accompanying him and told her about his plan to get to speak with his mother, but she shook her head softly, "Her majesty's schedule is far too busy unless you can stop someone from contacting her it will be impossible, and she will be furious about it afterward, honestly, I doubt she's going to have any free time for a few more months and if you pull any more schemes it's only going to make it harder on her majesty.", she glanced at him pitifully.
Since his first few stunts he had been well behaved for the most part but she could tell that he was restraining himself to lessen the Emperess's work.
"The biggest problem is Lady Efrideet, she won't relent a bit on your pod data despite her majesty making it clear that only when you are about to leave for your trial will your pod data be made accessible to the public."
Lirian sighed as he thought about it, unfortunately, he had no choice but to reveal 72 open energy points, it made it possible for him to explain how he opened another 12 to bring it to 84 energy points, and it would allow him to freely expose his esper techniques when he returns from the trial. After all, 84 energy points are the minimum requirement to use an esper technique.
Lirian unconsciously gritted his teeth together as he realised how frustrating it was going to be to come up with a good plan to spend some time with his mom, without getting into too much trouble.
He partially wished to reveal his pod data but the main reason he chose not to was the system's warning cautioning him against such a decision, such potential was a scary thing, and it was likely that even the current prince's and emperor candidates would try to move against him if they felt threatened by his existence.
Currently, the only problems he was facing was political, and those few opportunity chasers that would try to abduct him and use him as leverage against the empire, but their numbers were manageable and the empress's personal guard that remained stationed above the world had dealt with almost all those threats so far and the few that slipped past them were caught by Anya.
When he returned home, he got a hold of his mother's schedule and began to look through its contents for an opportunity but it wasn't so easy, even the hours in which he usually sleeps were packed with meetings, for a seventh-grade cultivator it was enough to sleep once a year so there was no need for constant breaks, and finally, after some time he found his opportunity there were many meetings being rescheduled.
He quickly found the meetings that had been rescheduled the most, since they were being rescheduled it meant that they were the least important of the lot and it would make it his only opportunity to free up some time.
He looked through a few of the meeting topics and researched many of the people involved and after a couple of days, he found an opportunity in two weeks.
Two weeks passed in the blink of an eye and Lirian had learned all he could about the meeting, it was two policymakers in rival factions, and they were both after the same set of funds, their meeting had been rescheduled 7 times already and he doubted that it would be done again.
He came back from school early and began his first step, he turned to Anya and looked at her with his most pleading look until she finally submitted to his request of distracting the guards, it was his only problem, the two aides that always blocked the doors even if they had a more favorable impression of him now, it didn't mean that they would allow him to break the rules.
"You know Anya I don't say this enough but I'm so glad to always have you by my side," he said with a warm smile.
Anya looked at him coldly, "Try saying that when you don't need my help with something," she chided him and proceeded with her task that she knew was going to get her into so much trouble.
He watched carefully from around the corner as Anya chatted with the other aides and she drew them slightly to the side while keeping their attention away from him as he crept up to the doors and slide inside unnoticed.
The first thing he heard was two voices arguing over each other, in all honestly it sounded like the argument was long forgotten and they were competing to see who could be the loudest while shouting random words, and he could see his mother with her eyes closed and messaging her temples while slightly shaking her head she didn't even notice his presence as he walked in.
He walked forward careful not to make any noise until he was within range of the two projections, they both started at the sight of him, no one else was supposed to be present at the meeting much less a child.
"Ahem," he cleared his throat and Taliyah quickly looked up at him and her pretty face contorted into a furious frown as she looked at him.
He quickly continued before she could say another word, "Mrs. Cauthon and Mr. Lee my mother is growing tired of your continuous bickering and absolute stupidity."
"You see it seem that your brains have shriveled up so much that you have forgotten to think about why both of your factions exist, it's because both of you are necessary to keep each other in check, so if one side disappears so will the other, now I understand that both of your factions have such limited intelligence that you are incapable of funding your own projects so you come crying to empire to provide for every small thing,"
"So, this is how things are going to go, the two of you are going to try and use those limited brain cells of yours to come up with a compromise to share the funds and if you are incapable of doing such a simple thing, there is a list of over 300 people with an interest in your positions, of which there are 13 who are more than capable of doing it,"
"So, do what you can to make sure that your compromise works because if you don't my mother will find someone else who can, and you will also lose your jobs, it will not be some simple demotion."
"Do your best because your continued existence depends on how well you compromise," he said finally with a large and sweet smile that left the two dumbfounded they didn't understand how such horrible words could come out of such a lovely face, they had never been spoken down to like that in their entire life.
"Wait, what do you mean by our continued existence..." Mr Lee tried to say but he was rudely interrupted by Lirian who answered with a sweet demonic smile, "Guess!" and he cut of the projection.
"How was that mom?" he asked with the best smile he could put on, but like always she seemed like the only person in the world immune to his adorable smiles.
"....surprisingly effective and well thought out," she answered begrudgingly.