The Memory Lake was discovered by the late Emperor Idelfonso during his reign. Upon bonding with its consciousness, he discovered that the being chooses its own master.
Knowing this, Emperor Idelfonso tried if Emperor Valentin could also be recognized as the next master, fortunately, the Memory Lake recognized Emperor Valentin as it's next master.
Soon, when Emperor Idelfonso died, Emperor Valentin had all his sons submit a drop of blood for him to offer to the Memory Lake. Out of the three princes, only Leon's blood was absorbed by the memory lake and was recognized as its next master.
When Emperor Valentin asked the spirit of the lake, why he chose the weakest son out of three to be its master, the lake simply said, "He has the capability to maximize my abilities the most."
True enough, at Leon's coming of age, he issued the special mana pens that greatly eased the burden of his father in approving the transactions for the memory lake. With the pens, his trusted representatives could use it on his behalf without him personally doing all the signing.
The pens were created to approve a certain level of transactions starting from the lowest transaction tier to the highest. In this way no one can haphazardly take advantage of its equivalent authority.
Furthermore, all the holders of the pens swore a bold oath to the owners of the memory lake, only them can hold the pens and use its features.
"So you are saying that we can use the Memory Lake to create another mechanism for the Passport? And we can already use the verified information stored in the lake to immediately issue to the current bank holders?" Emperor Valentin confirmed Eli's conjecture.
"Yes, aside from this being faster than starting from scratch, there's also one thing." Eli squinted her midnight eyes in a scheming manner, "It will force the nobles to verify the citizenships of their servants and trading partners."
"That's true! However, my biggest worry about that would be the diplomatic treaties that we have with the other kingdoms." In truth, this was the heaviest burden Emperor Valentin was most worried in the first place.
"What do the other kingdoms need from us the most?" Eli replied calmly.
"If we are to think about it, then that would be the medicinal herbs and potions from our Empire." General Farauld answered after contemplating for a while.
"Then…" Eli paused for a while and thought for a moment, looking back at the two old men she said, "We cannot afford to please everyone, however, think of how many diplomatic treaties would the Empire be most hesitant to let go of."
"That would roughly be around fifteen contracts." The Emperor answered with a dark expression, "These contracts would hurt our Empire's economy and diplomatic relations should it be dissolved so suddenly because of the surprise scheme."
"Then I offer you one solution, that is to offer them compensation for cooperation with our new scheme."
"We will not let things be difficult for them, if the trading partners would come here to deliver goods or services they just had to present their proof of citizenship and an atestation of legitimate trade approved by the monarch or leader of that kingdom."
"As for the compensation, it will be two fold, first was to compensate the trading partner themselves and the kingdom they belonged to, all for the fact that we suddenly imposed a new regulation without consulting them." Eli filled them in patiently with her ideas.
"But what could we offer them? The trading partners are easy to settle, but the monarchs are not. They do not lack money and treasures." The two men asked helplessly.
"Well, Isn't the most enticing compensation would be a short term entry pass to the Silver Dew Forest? As for how you will ask the cooperation of the Silver Dew Elves for this matter, of course it will be all depend on you."
"Another alternative is to allow them to have privileged trading contracts to the inventions that I released. I wouldn't mind that, though Your Majesty and Papi still need to get the opinions of Grandpa Andi and Grandpa Ben on this matter." Eli answered steadily with a hint of nonchalance, as if saying to the old men, 'Up to you if you believe!'
All throughout the conversation, she didn't feign ignorance but only adviced on her own capacity. Her manner of speech was confident and calm, exuding the intelligence of a corporate woman, defending her business proposals excellently.
Although she gave lots of ideas, she could only do this much. It will depend on Emperor Valentin on how he will decide and sort out matters at his side. It was no longer her problem if they rejected her ideas, after all, leaders would have a wider perspective on things. Just like what usually happens in the modern world.
"This!!!" The old men widened their eyes in disbelief.
How could they not think of this matter? Undeniably, Eli's suggestions really made sense. Although Eli didn't emphasize it in her explanations, these ideas will bring about two effects for the neighboring kingdom and countless benefits to the Empire.
The first effect would be declaring to the kingdoms the Empire's seriousness in apprehending the Spectre - they wouldn't hesitate to cripple themselves just to ensure that their land is safe from the sinister organization's threats.
This would cause the kingdoms to adopt the same attitude and would also start activities to drive away the Spectre from their own territories. They will look at how the Empire dealt with the Spectre decisively and mimic their strategies.
Following Seirende's example, it will cause a wave of change to the Prasinon lands that will also greatly shake the Spectre's foundations!
The next effect was a blatant display of Seirende's might and a generous attitude they show to the kingdoms who will understand their situation and support them willingly. For those who support them, they will not hesitate to share with them the benefits the Empire had to offer!
Be it access to medicinal resources or technological inventions, this was truly something that would strengthen diplomatic relationships rather than destroy!
"Hahaha! I really didn't waste my time visiting you, young Eli!" The Emperor laughed happily as if all his gloominess were washed away upon realizing the pros and cons of Eli's ideas.
"With this, not only will we shake the traitor to the core, we will also disrupt the Spectre's momentum greatly!" General Farauld seconded, although upon remembering the countless months they spent on the clearing operations he felt that it was a great waste of time.
Eli's suggestion only addressed how they could salvage the issue with the Spectre but not ease his agitation upon falling into the traitor and Spectre's mockery of their efforts.
"Papi, the results of the clearing operations are of big help. Do not look down on your hard work. All of my ideas would not effectively work if we do not take advantage of the results of the clearing operations!" Eli understood General Farauld's gloominess.
"Really? How could that help? Shall we announce the existence of the operations? But wouldn't that cause more alarm to people?" General Farauld understood that Eli wanted to comfort him, but still, announcing the clearing operations may lead to negative results.
"We need a valid reason why we have to impose these restrictions both internally and externally. I advise that you do not report the clearing operations' matters haphazardly for it will surely affect the people negatively as you suspected." Eli patiently answered.
"In revealing this matter within and outside the Empire, I suggest you highlight three points."
"The number of victims both murdered and rescued, the apprehended criminals and their background, and most of all, our victory. We will not emphasize the lingering dangers still roaming in the empire, nor the existence of the traitor. But our underlying message would be - even though the 'Spectre's were apprehended' it had hurt our empire so deeply and we will not allow it to happen again."
"Hmm.. If that's how you put it then I think we could use the situation to our advantage!" General Farauld's doubts were cleared up and he was no longer showing dejection.
"Alright! Now that it's all settled, young Eli, I apologize in advance, but I and the General have to move to work with these things that we discussed right away! I could only say thank you for today, but I'll make it up to you when these matters are all done." Emperor Valentin, then dragged his old buddy and rushed to the teleportation array in the living room to who knows where.
"Wait.. how about our dinner!!! Ahhhhhh!" General Farauld was again victimized by the Emperor's fast teleportation scheme.
Eli started blankly at the empty couch in front of her, after blinking a few times, she let out a helpless chuckle and mumbled, "I guess the dinner date would be postponed for a little while."
She immediately got up and checked on Little Han who was already fast asleep after playing for so long. Leaving him to the furry nannies, she hesitated for a while and called Leon to explain the earlier matters.
Fortunately, Leon was already awake from his nap and answered Eli's call right away. He expressed his understanding and agreement to most of the matters discussed and ended the call to immediately conver his views and ideas to further ensure that Eli's ideas would be more effective.
The nobles, the traitors and even the Spectre would never know what's ahead of them in the coming days. All because of the spontaneous discussion that happened in the little cottage!
