[Few hours after Ez had announced PCD to his group of scientists, 1 week ago- 3rd Person PoV]
"Most holy one what is the verdict on the imperial prince from revealing this piece of marvellous technology?" An old woman asked Linda as she came alone to ask this question of her.
"Since Lord Fake has not said anything, I assume it is left to our own discretion to do whatever we want." Linda replied with a visible amount of stress and weight on her.
The old woman nodded as she walked back. A strange sight was to be seen as she got further away from Linda the younger, she got.
"Your highness, what is 'your' will upon the communication device?" The old woman who was now a dashing young woman asked just before she left the room.
"That device will be useful to establish communication with all the faithful ones of Lord Fake. We can't be everywhere for them, but the least we can do is let them be with us." Linda advised her.
The beautiful woman nodded as she left with clear concern on her face seeing Linda's state.
The woman walked out with concern. As she was walking, she suddenly halted as she passed a room with the label 'Overseer'.
Before she could knock a voice came from behind the door. "Come in!"
"What is it Grace?" The young man whose eyes were glowing white, as he sat there with books rapidly flipping through pages simultaneously, asked Grace.
"It looks like she hasn't had any rest." Grace replied with concern.
The pages of all the books and papers stopped flipping as the glow from the man's eyes stopped.
"Are you sure?" He asked.
"Yes!" The woman confirmed with a worried look.
The man sighed as he stood up. "I will go to visit her."
Both left the room together but each went the opposite way.
The young man went in the direction of Linda's personal room.
However similar to before the closer he got to Linda the older he got, with wrinkles and loose skin.
"Holy one are you sure you don't need one of us to assist you? You haven't been sleeping for a few days now, always having to carry this burden. Let one of us carry it for you." The old man asked Linda.
"I can't let you. Anyone other than me who carries this burden will be affected by the passage of time permanently and will have their minds broken. What you are experiencing is just the side effect of being in the presence of the burden." Linda pointed out the reason why the man was getting old when he got near her.
The man sighed. "Is there anything I can do for you to relieve this pain?"
Linda thought for a while. "I would like it if no one would disturb me until the whole process is complete."
"That I can arrange. Who would you like to have in charge, in your absence?" The overseer asked.
"Get the council to make decision-based on votes while I am gone." She ordered as she rubbed her glowing black ring.
Suddenly a heavy presence descended upon the area ageing everything in its area just as a black portal opened up. This included the overseer who soon died as his body aged beyond it was supposed to exist and dispersed into dust.
Linda sighed at seeing the dead overseer and left the room by entering the portal.
As soon as Linda left and the portal closed a body was soon constructed and formed in the form of the overseer. Soon the overseer came back to life and saw that the holy one had disappeared into the portal he last saw before he had died.
He sighed as he left the room to inform the others of the Holy one's decision.
While as soon as Linda entered the portal, she appeared in an extremely dark place with the only light being in the centre of the empty place.
There shackled in runes and magical construct, bounded was Zel.
"All this for a drop of divine energy, you won't even know when you would get? Lol!" Zel chuckled even though he was very tired from the process in which he was being drained.
"You know this process will be very easy if you give it to us willingly." Linda stated.
"As much as I hate to think, I know for a fact that once you get that single drop you won't stop at just one drop. You will continue to milk me until someone comes to rescue me or I am set free somehow and escape this place without encountering you in your stupid gear." Zel smiled.
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"So, the least I can do is make the process harder for you." Zel said with confidence.
"One way or another we will get it Zel." Linda said as she sat down and released her energy to hasten the process of gathering Divine energy.
"Oh, you will, but it won't be easy. I will make each attempt harder and harder for you to the point you will find getting divine energy from me is simply a wasteful way of using resources." Zel smirked as he felt a force tugging onto his well of Divine energy.
'What are you bastards watching from above doing? Go report this to God or get someone to help me.' Zel visibly cursed in his mind, but he knew those watching from above preferred to watch rather than help.
Even if someone attacked the source of divine energy or heaven using his divine energy, none of them will even as much as care, or even bother to report it.
That is how bored they were. They needed entertainment and this was the perfect source of entertainment.
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[Present. Ez PoV]
It was finally 7 pm. The time for the reveal of the final event.
I walked up to the stage after everyone came back and sat down in excitement. Many who understood what was being displayed and shown before by the other researchers from my R&D department became even more excited at what I had to show.
"It has been said we as humans are a social species, which means we as humans need to be as a group. And when in a group there is always a primary rule to make it an effective group. The need for communication." The screens started showing images responding to each of my words.
"A good source of communication can win wars and a bad source of communication can bring about the ruins of a kingdom. So, for this reason, the magi's and our beloved scholars of the empire had invented the communication crystal." I held up a communication crystal.
"However, the problem with communication crystal is that it is expensive and not affordable to many, it requires constant fuelling by a magi who has very good control of magi particles, along with sometimes having the problem of the crystal not working occasionally in certain locations.
So, therefore, I decided to solve this problem…" I paused. Many looked in interest while few looked bored seeing it was another communication device and not something that was useful for them.
I smiled "Thank you for waiting. Without further ado let me reveal to you the invention that will change the world and change your lives…" I said with a smile as opened my arms wide.
"The PCD! Short for portable communication device!" I pulled up my sleeve to show a simple watch and it appeared on all the screens.
"Rather than explaining it to you all let me demonstrate it. I need 1 volunteer from amongst you." Many hands popped up from the massive crowd and I just picked 1 person from the crowd randomly.
"You boy, with the green shirt standing next to the girl with the pink dress eating a lollipop." I said and pointed towards the boy at the very back standing next to his family.
Suddenly his face appeared on the screen with an expression of confusion, followed by panic and excitement.
However, his parents had a worried expression on their face.
"Follow the guide next to you." I said to the boy of probably only 7 years of age, while his parents quickly turned towards the guide and said something to her in panic.
The boy was frightened not expecting me, a royalty, to pick him along with something else.
"Your highness the boy's parents are saying he is affected by stammering. They are asking if you can kindly reconsider it otherwise, he would embarrass you." The guide communicated with me through her communication crystal.
"No problem, send him in." I told her back with a smile, quietly through the device.
He came up alone guided by a woman with worry.
The woman left as she handed the boy to me.
"What is your name little one?" I asked with a smile.
The boy bowed in trepidation before he said "M..m…my…na…name is… Ru… Rufu…s." The boy struggled while his voice was magnified through the venue.
Suddenly everyone roared to life and started laughing, while the boy looked down in embarrassment and shame having thought he humiliated me.
"Look up Rufus." I told him amidst everyone's laughter.
The boy looked up with tears welling up in his eyes. "Am I laughing?" I asked him.
The boy shook his head while looking at the crowd of people laughing.
"Do I look embarrassed by you?" I asked him as he started sniffling.
Rufus shook his head with tears.
"Then why are you looking down at yourself?" I asked.
He tried talking but stopped himself not wanting to further embarrass himself and me.
"I don't care about what they think Rufus. I picked you even after your family informed my guide that you had stammering; do you know why?" I asked him as I knelt before his crying face.
The boy was silent as slowly everyone became silent and seeing something was wrong with my behaviour.
"I don't care if you have stammering, or are disabled, old, young, dying or a prostitute. I see everyone equally. You live and breathe just like everyone here and one day you will die like them. To me, you are no different than my father. Understand?" I said with seriousness.
He was shocked at hearing me say this along with everyone in the crowd. To most lower nobles they would have taken my words as a personal insult to the emperor having compared him to a commoner, but to those higher nobles and above they saw my words as nothing more than an act of propaganda.
While for the commoner there was no honour greater than being compared to an emperor. If someone from their own rank had done it, they would have been sentenced for execution but having that done by the son of the very emperor himself was something else.
Rufus nodded after a while.
"Great. Now let's start from where we left off." I said as I stood up.
"How old are you Rufus?" I asked him who looked more confident and happier.
"Ei…ghttt." The boy said with much less embarrassment however this time no one laughed.
"What do your parents do Rufus?" I asked him.
"My da…dad works in in a a biggg off…office, my mum loo…ooks after after me a..and my si…sister." He said with slight happiness.
"What's your sister's name?" I showed an equal amount of excitement.
"Me…me…Mia."
I nodded. "How old is your sister?" I asked him with a smile.
"Fa…Five." I could see his confidence was slowly rising.
"Sweet. Rufus, I need your help today to try something out. Will you do it for me?" I asked him.
"Yes!" He nodded quickly wanting to help me.
"Awesome. Show me your hand." I told him as I took another PCD out of my pocket.
Rufus showed me his wrist in excitement.
I put the PCD on his hand.
"Go on examine it." I told the curious Rufus who stopped himself from doing anything to it.
As soon as he received my confirmation he felt over the PCD on his left wrist using his right hand.
"Wow, so..ooo shaa…iny!" He said in amazement as he felt the smooth PCD over.
I smiled at him while the audience simply waited up in excitement wanting to see what PCD could do.