Chapter 26 Chapter Nineteen

Cleon I had just finished his dinner, which unfortunately was another official state banquet.This meant that he had to spend a lot of time uttering formulaic words to various department officials (none of which he knew or was familiar with) in order to make everyone feel welcome and inspire their loyalty to the royal family.This also made the food only slightly warm when it was delivered to him, but it was much cooler when he took it in. There must be some way to avoid this situation.Maybe he should dine alone, or with a crony or two who can let him loose, before going to a formal dinner.At that time, there will only be one imported pear that he loves in front of him.But will this offend the guests and make them think that the emperor's refusal to have a meal with them is a deliberate humiliation?

In this, of course, his wife was of no use, and her presence only aggravated his bad mood.He had married her only because she came from a powerful dissident family, and through this marriage he could count on them to be deaf and dumb for the time being and not insist on their opposition.But Kryon sincerely hoped that at least she would not be against him personally.He was perfectly content to let her live her life in her own chamber, except when a child had to be produced, because, frankly, he didn't like her.Now, now that his successor was born, he could completely forget her. Before leaving the table, he grabbed a handful of walnuts and put them in his pocket.And now he was chewing a walnut, and shouted, "Demerzel!"

"His Majesty." Demerzel always appeared as soon as Kryon called.Whether he lingered all the time within earshot, or whether an instinct of flattery alerted him to a possible summons in a few minutes and made him come closer in time, he showed up anyway—and that was the last point. The important thing, Kryon had this thought for no reason.Of course, there were times when Demerzel had to run around on Imperial business.Kryon had always hated those days, and the absence of Demerzel always made him uneasy. "How is the mathematician? I forgot his name." Of course Demerzel knew who the emperor was referring to, but he might want to test how much the emperor still remembered. "Which mathematician do you mean, Sire?"

Kryon waved his hand to express his impatience: "The fortune teller, the one who came to see me." "The one we invited?" "Well, he was invited, but he did come to see me. I think you said you were going to take care of it, did you?" Demerzel cleared his throat: "Your Majesty, I did my best." "Ah! So you've failed, haven't you?" In a way, Kryon was pleased.Of all the ministerial heads, Demerzel was the only one who made no secret of his failure.Others never admit failure, but because failure is so common, it becomes difficult to correct.Perhaps Demerzel isn't afraid to be more honest because he rarely fails.Had it not been for Demerzel, Kryon thought sadly, he might never have known what honesty was.Perhaps none of the emperors knew, and things like that, the Empire...

He pulled his thoughts back in time, and the other party's silence suddenly made him angry.He wanted to hear a word of acknowledgment, because he had just mentally approved of Demerzel's reduction.He said sharply, "Well, you've failed, haven't you?" Demerzel was not timid: "Your Majesty, I have failed in some places. I feel that if he stays on Trantor, the situation here is quite—difficult. It may cause us trouble. So I It's not hard to imagine that it would be easier to put him on his home planet. He was planning to return to his home planet the next day, but there was always a chance that something would happen and he decided to stay on Trantor again, so I got two A street punk who's going to put him on a spaceship that very day."

"Do you know any street thugs, Demerzel?" Kryon asked with interest. "Having a way to find all kinds of people, Your Majesty, is a very important ability, because each type of person has its own different uses—street gangsters also have a lot of uses. In the end, I didn't expect them to be successful. " "Why is this happening?" "How strange that Seldon has the ability to repel them." "That mathematician can play?" "Obviously, math and martial arts don't necessarily conflict. It wasn't until later that I found out that his world, Helicon, is famous for this—I mean martial arts, not math. I didn't know this earlier, and it really counts My negligence, Your Majesty, I can only beg your forgiveness now."

"But if this is the case, I think the mathematician should follow his original plan and set off for his home planet the next day." "Unfortunately, the episode turned out to be self-defeating. Terrified by the incident, he decided not to return to Helicon for the time being, but to remain on Trantor. He may have taken the advice of a passer-by to make this It was decided that the man happened to be there when they were fighting. That was another unexpected development." Emperor Cleon frowned: "Then our mathematician—what's his name?" "Seldon, Hari Seldon, Your Majesty."

"Then, this Seldon is out of our grasp." "So to speak, Your Majesty. We've tracked him down, and he's at Trantor now. We couldn't touch him at all while he was hiding there." The emperor showed displeasure, and his face flushed slightly. "I don't like that word—untouchable. There shouldn't be any place in the whole empire that I can't grasp. Yet here, in my own world, you're telling me that someone is untouchable. Simply Intolerable!'' "Your hand can reach into that university, Your Majesty. You can send your army at any time to wrest this Seldon out of there. But doing so will be...unpopular."

"Why not just say 'no way,' Demerzel? You sound like a mathematician talking about his fortune-telling, which is possible but not really possible: I, the Emperor, also found Everything is possible, but very little is practical. Don't forget, Demerzel, that if arresting Sherlock is not an option, arresting you is easy." Itur Demmerzel didn't take the last sentence to heart.The "power after the throne" knew his importance to the emperor, and he had heard the threat before.When the emperor blew his beard and stared, he just waited silently. Kryon tapped his fingers on the armrest of his chair and asked, "Well, what use is that mathematician to us if he's hiding out at Trantor University?"

"There may be a bright future after a desperate situation, Your Majesty. At that university, he may decide to develop his psychohistory." "Even if he insists it's not actually feasible?" "He may be wrong, or he may find out that he was wrong. If he finds out that he was wrong, we try to get him out of that university. In that case, he may even volunteer to join us." The emperor fell into deep thought for a while, and then said: "If someone takes him away first, what should we do?" "Who would want to do that?" Demerzel asked softly.

"Like the Mayor of Wye!" Kryon suddenly shouted loudly: "He still dreams of taking over the empire." "The years have worn him out, my lord." "You won't believe that, Demerzel." "We have no reason to suppose that he has any interest in Seldon, or has heard of the man, Your Majesty." "Come on, Demerzel. Now that we've heard of the paper, so can Wye. Now that we see Seldon's potential importance, so can Wye." "If this happens," Demmerzel said, "even if there is even a slight chance that it will happen, we have a legitimate reason to take drastic measures." "How intense?" Demerzel replied cautiously: "It can be said that instead of letting Seldon fall into Weihe's hands, we would rather make him unable to fall into anyone's hands. Let him cease to exist, Your Majesty." "You meant to kill him," Kryon said. "If you wish to put it that way, Your Majesty," Demerzel replied.