Darius Supreme

Darius was not surprised by their hopeful expressions, nor the consequences of his actions. Without seeing it for themselves, anyone would assume that Darius had the means to make anyone into a Master, which wasn't exactly wrong. 

It was no secret that even someone as talented as Jeanne had been stuck at a bottleneck around the peak of the Adept stage for a year or two, and her stage had actually regressed with each revival of her troops. 

And yet as soon as Darius had swooped in, he had not only fixed everything inside the Andrato Kingdom, he had healed the Queen, even going so far as to present her with a means to become a Master. 

Now even without the presence of Darius, Xela or Gunner, the Queen had the right to speak in the Fallon Continental Council. 

Not only that, but she would also be able to attack the various kingdoms and empires during the hearing from a far stronger position. 

With their information network, they would come to learn that the Andrato Kingdom had three other Masters which the 'weak' Andrato had somehow managed to hide, making it no longer something they could ignore. 

Foldo and co must have not only heard these rumors but also met Jeanne and Elijah already since Darius had similarly told them to come here after three months. 

Even so, Darius could tell that Jeanne was smart enough to keep the specifics under wraps until he himself decided to share it with them. 

After all, Jeanne's loyalty lay with only two things, Darius and the Andrato Kingdom, with the young man's position being slightly higher on the scale. 

Computing all of this took seconds for Darius, and he also stretched his Telesthesia-induced awareness out, covering the entire core area. 

It allowed him to see everything that went on there. He was not surprised at all to find Jeanne and Elijah seated together while talking in one of the manors. In fact, Jeanne's head snapped towards Darius, as she noticed his mental probe. 

She eventually connected to his mind telepathically and greeted him cheerfully. [Welcome back, Darius, it's good to see you. A lot has happened while you were away. Would you like me to brief you?] 

[If you would do me the honors.] Darius chuckled. 

Jeanne slowly transferred her knowledge of what had happened in the last six months, especially on Andrato's end. 

How she had attacked the various empires that had participated in the war during the hearing from an emotional and moral standpoint, to how she had even dug up evidence of Andrato's suppression ever since its inception, with a bigger focus on how active it had become after Jeanne had taken to the throne. 

It had to be said that Jeanne had been truly ruthless. It was bad enough that these countries had been disadvantaged after being blindsided by Andrato's multiple Master stage experts, but she had also brought up one of the greatest taboos, the suppression. 

Why was it a taboo? Well, it was quite obvious. From the perspective of the kingdoms and empire, they absolutely did not want more powerhouses to appear, especially one's they couldn't control. 

Multiple tigers cannot share one mountain after all. However, from the perspective of the Fallon Continental Council, the development of kingdom and empires had to be encouraged, since having more Masters was a great thing, as it would raise the entire continent's strength. 

Being last on the rankings was a great shame, and the council had been established precisely to solve that issue, which was why it was very particular about impartiality. 

If the Grandmasters who formed the core of the council had enough free time to pursue personal interests, then the continent would never rise. 

This was why the Andrato Kingdom had been quietly suppressed all this while, creating the illusion that it was just incapable of rising up. With a good excuse, the various empires slumped to swallow it up and wanted to divvy up its resources, meager as they were. 

However, by exposing this, Jeanne had opened them up to even heavier sanctions. The amount and quality of things Jeanne had asked for were enough to make even Darius wince, especially the one Fraterina Kingdom was forced to pay. 

With the Fallon Continental Council's backing, they had no choice but to do so, however it had resulted in Andrato being socially estranged from the rest of the continent. 

Imagine if you were a kid in a class of 40, and you were always bullied by the other 39 kids but swallowed it every day. 

Suddenly, you discover that the principal is actually your uncle, so you report everything that happened to you with evidence. Naturally, this turns into a huge issue and all the kids get severely reprimanded and punished. 

Now would that change their perception of you? They would certainly not look at you in a good light. They wouldn't dare to bully you or make it obvious that they despised you, but you would definitely not be able to enter their inner circle or interact with them on more than a surface level. 

However, neither Darius nor Jeanne were bothered by this. Following the execution of the plan, it wasn't about whether or not the various states wanted to ignore Andrato, but whether they could afford to. 

Both Darius' territory and Andrato were now linked in a system that would promote each other's strength, values, and means. Those states would have to suck up to one or the other, likely both, in order to not fall behind their neighbors. 

After receiving the update from Jeanne, Darius retracted his awareness and focused on Foldo and co. He then addressed them with a soft smile. 

"It was not done as easily as they claim, and most of the credit lies with Jeanne herself, She had the talent and was on the cusp of promotion. I just gave her that final push she needed." 

Their expressions fell slightly as they did not hear the exact answer they wanted, but they were smart enough to know that as core members close to Darius, they would not lack such chances. 

Right now, the quickest way to please him was to promote Darius' plans and make sure that everything would go smoothly. 

Foldo then gazed at Darius expectantly and tapped the butt of his cane onto the ground. 

"Master, shall we begin the first phase then?" Foldo asked with a smile. 

Shanks and Jorge looked excited, and even Jeanne and Elijah who just entered the mage tower from the manor they had been in shown expressions of interest. 

Darius rose from his own seat and nodded to the rest who also stood up. 

"You could have started three months ago, but I'm glad you've waited for me. It would be strange for the ruler to miss out on this historic moment. Now is just as good a time as any, so let's execute the First Phase immediately!"