Chapter 624: Landon’s Observations – Part 2

"You hold those kids in such high regard?" Talia asked curiously, having met a few of the youths her son was referring to.

She agreed with him that the current younger generation from the Rockwell Kingdom seemed to be a bit better than their own, but she didn’t believe the difference was that big.

Noticing the look of doubt on his mother’s face, Landon chucked wryly and shook his head, "If you searched the entire Blue Sky Continent, you might be able to find someone with greater strength or Innate Talent than Christina, or perhaps a more charismatic and inspiring leader than Eris, but when it comes to intelligence, I guarantee you there is no one who is Lucas’ equal."

"That’s a rather interesting way of phrasing things," Darian noted, "You signaled out Princess Christina for her strength, Eris Newton for her charm, and Lucas for his brains. Would you care to explain in more detail?"

"Regarding Princess Christina," Landon frowned, "I apologize, Your Majesty, but I cannot say anything more about her other than this, she’s a monster. No one in our kingdom, in any generation, is even remotely comparable."

"It seems you didn’t tell us everything that happened that night in Sabre Point, did you, Prince Landon?" General Tabor questioned, though he didn’t expect to receive a response.

Sure enough, Landon said nothing and gave no further signs of acknowledgement or denial.

"And Marquess Balfour’s great granddaughter?" Darian, who seemed willing to let the matter rest for now, continued.

"Eris’ special ability is much more subtle than those of her fellow Disciples," Landon explained, "But it could also become the most difficult to deal with if she is given enough time to develop it."

"And what exactly is this ’ability’ you speak of?" The king followed up.

Staring straight as his grandfather, Landon said with complete seriousness, "The ability to inspire others, and to win over allies to her side."

"Hmm, that is an interesting ability," King Darian mused, stroking his chin slightly as he wondered aloud, "But how persuasive is this young girl, really?"

"It’s not about persuasion," Landon shook his head, "Eris is... there’s something about the way she interacts with others that just naturally draws them to her and makes them want to support her."

"I can attest to what Landon is saying," Talia added from the side, "After Princess Christina’s 16th birthday party, everyone from our group who was in attendance left with a positive impression of that young girl, and I do mean everyone."

Knowing that there were several individuals, both children and adults, who belonged to prominent Noble Faction families among that delegation, Darian was genuinely intrigued by this comment.

If, in one evening, Eris was able to have even those who had been raised to hate the Rockwell Kingdom their whole lives paying her compliments and praising her, that certainly was a scary level of charisma.

One should not discount the ability to win over friends or to inspire others. Like Landon had said, it may not be the flashiest of abilities, but for a leader, personal appeal was oftentimes more important than personal strength.

Gino Tabor, with his experience as a general, also understood this concept deeply.

On the battlefield, a leader who had the complete loyalty of their troops, and who could rally them to fight harder even when the odds were stacked against them, was invaluable.

If you asked Gino, or any other military commander for that matter, what the most important factor in deciding victory in a fight between two armies of relatively even strength, ’morale’ would definitely be one of the most common responses.

Simply put, in the situation where equipment quality and overall strength didn’t vary too much between foes, the side which fought harder and refused to accept defeat generally won.

Sometimes, it was even possible for a much smaller and theoretically weaker force to defeat a larger, more powerful one if there was a drastic difference in the two side’s will to fight, and a charismatic leader was often key to achieving that.

The king’s cultivation chamber fell silent as the adults mulled over various thoughts in their heads, each of them recalling events from their past where quality of leadership had been the ultimate deciding factor.

After a short moment, however, General Tabor asked about the all-important final individual Landon had mentioned, "And that strange boy, Lucas?"

"Even you call him ’strange’, old man?" Darian turned to his former commander from his days back in the army and asked.

"En," Gino nodded, "That child was present at the negotiations over the Sabre Point incident. He was... impressive."

"Ho..." Darian frowned, turning to his favoured daughter, "I recall you also mentioning this... Lucas, to me before, Talia."

"Indeed, Father," Talia crossed her arms and knit her brow, "At times, he seemed like any other innocent young boy his age, but at others, he was like a... a..."

"Like a wise old teacher who has seen the future and traveled back in time to enlighten the rest of us," Landon completed his mother’s words.

At first, Talia seemed a bit shocked by her son’s description, but the more she thought about it, the more she began to agree with him, eventually nodding, "He did seem to have an uncanny ability to explain complex problems, and to illustrate potential future outcomes that would result from current events."

"And you say this boy is... 11?" Darian asked somewhat doubtfully.

In response, Landon laughed, "He’s definitely still a child in a number of ways, but he can also act more mature than most adults when he wants to. It’s almost like he has two separate personalities living in his head."

Landon had no idea how close he was to the truth, but that didn’t really matter at the moment. What did matter was that he was describing an anomaly, something that shouldn’t be possible, but was clearly real.

"Do you have any solid evidence of the boy’s genius, or is this all just based on listening to him speak?" Darian asked, still not quite convinced.

Talia and Gino both shook their heads, as neither of them had interacted much with Lucas.

Landon, however, frowned deeply as he contemplated revealing one of his most shocking speculations. He was a bit reluctant to do so, because he didn’t have any proof and wasn’t totally sure of his conclusions, but from everything he had seen and heard so far, it seemed like the most likely scenario.

Seeing the hesitant look on his grandson’s face, Darian encouraged, "Say what’s on your mind, boy. We’re not here to judge, we’re here to learn."

Pursing his lips, Landon turned to his mother first and asked, "You mentioned earlier about the Rockwell Kingdom’s Second Queen spearheading a massive reform of their economy, right?"