PftA Book 5 - Chapter 16 - New Plans

I spent the next week searching for the Arcane well while waiting for Bell to finish the project she was working on. When I still hadn’t heard from her after a week, I reached back out.

“Do you need help finishing things up?” I asked.

There was a pause, then I heard Bell sigh through the phone. I was using an Atlas Glass phone to contact her instead of calling through my interface since interface calls were significantly more expensive.

I wasn’t worried about the cost, per se, but I figured it was better to be a little cost-conscious instead of just spending freely like I’d been doing since leaving the dungeon.

“No. I finished what I was working on,” Bell answered in an odd tone. It almost sounded like she was not looking forward to going back home.

“So, do you need me to pick you up?” I asked a little uncertainly.

There was another pause, this one longer.

“You know, I’ve given it a lot of thought, and I’ve decided that it’s about time for a change,” Bell said. “I’ve been stuck doing the same thing that I’d been doing before, hoping for something to change. But things won’t change if I go right back to what I was doing before.

“I think… I think I’m going to stick with the party I’ve been working with. There are a few areas that could really use our help, especially now that a lot of lower-tier people are returning and many of the stronger people are leaving.”

I suddenly found myself very grateful that we were only on an audio call and not a video or holo-call.

It wasn’t that I didn’t support Bell’s decision to do something else with her life, even if that something else might be dangerous. I just didn’t expect it.

“I know I’m not really to blame for the war,” Bell continued, “but I can’t help but feel like some of the blood is on my hands, you know? If I hadn’t been so obsessed with saving Justin, none of this would have ever happened. All of the lives lost in the war… and that’s not even considering the other timelines that were destroyed.”

I could hear the guilt and pain in her voice, but it didn’t sound as deep as it had when she first realized the consequences of using the formation. Hopefully, that was a sign that she was healing.

“Fate is a real thing, you know,” I said quietly. “Reincarnation, too. As much as I’ve struggled against Fate and the desires of whatever higher power that seems intent on pushing things in a certain direction, knowing they are involved eases some of my feelings of guilt about this whole thing.”

“Emie, you have no reason to feel guilty. You’re not the one who crafted and used a formation that destroyed multiple timelines,” Bell said.

“But I helped,” I countered. “Who’s to say the same thing would have happened without my assistance?”

She couldn’t really argue with my logic, and I was glad she didn’t try. Bell could be stubborn, but she’d never been one to argue just for the sake of arguing.

“Well, regardless,” Bell said, “I feel like I need to do more than just sit in my crafting room and make things all day. I want to be more involved in helping people from now on.”

“So, you’re becoming a real adventurer?” I said with a hint of amusement.

Having played adventurer with Bell in virtual reality back before the game became real, I could easily see Bell embracing the adventurer lifestyle. She’d gotten away from that mentality when she fell in love with Justin and started a family, but I could easily see the spark rekindling now that she had something to motivate her.

“If that’s what it takes, yes,” Bell replied. “Our focus will be on killing any rift beasts that have escaped during rift breaks, but we’ll also be doing our fair share of delving as well to prevent future breaks. I know there isn’t as much of a demand at our tier, but I’ve heard the higher tier worlds are struggling a lot with all the rift breaks that occurred during the war.

“People who would normally have been delving were busy defending large cities instead of keeping the rifts clear, and a lot of the outlying rifts have started breaking. Obviously, there’s little we can do about it while at Tier Five, but just leaving things for someone else to handle isn’t going to work.”

“Are you sure that’s what you want to do?” I asked.

“It’s not so much a matter of what I want to do, it’s what I need to do. I’ve been doing pretty good these last few months. I don’t really want to go back to the way I was before.”

I could understand that. I really could. And I was glad that Bell had finally found a reason to start progressing again. As far as I knew, she hadn’t really put any effort into it since Justin died.

“I get it,” I said. “Sometimes, change is good.”

“Speaking of change,” Bell said cryptically. “How do you feel about your old nemesis ascending?”

“My nemesis?”

“Yeah, the Assassin who stuck you in the rift? I heard he ascended during the big attack on the Collective.”

I was surprised that she’d already heard the news since I hadn’t told anyone about the mission aside from mentioning the unexpected inheritance to Kai. I doubted he would have spread the news, so I wondered how she’d learned about the Assassin’s ascension.

“Oddly enough, I’m fine with it,” I told her. “I’m not just saying that because he left me an inheritance, either. Though I’ll admit that part helps,” I chuckled. “How did you know he ascended?”

“First, wow! The Assassin gave you an inheritance? Talk about unexpected!” Bell exclaimed with a hint of jealousy. “As far as finding out goes, it’s been all over the media. There have been several reports mentioning the people who died in combat and those who ascended. I was a little surprised to hear he took part in the fighting, but I guess it makes sense if he really was that close to ascending.”

“Yeah, I was a little surprised to see him there myself,” I said.

“I figured you were a part of it,” Bell said with a sigh.

“Mostly just as a mode of transportation and on-site healer,” I told her honestly.

“Still, that’s pretty cool,” Bell said. “I can see why you’re keeping it quiet. The media would lose their minds if they knew that one of their beloved Trinity Mages was actively involved in the assault.”

I shivered at the thought of another wave of media interest being directed at me. I’d gotten enough of that when news of my status was released. It had only gotten worse when information about how strong my primary affinities were was shared.

“Yeah, no thanks,” I replied. “I already stay in disguise most of the time when I’m in public. I don’t want to have any more reasons to hide.”

= = =

After a nice, long conversation with Bell, I went back to my search for the Arcane well. I’d covered the surface of the last Collective Tier Nine world before taking a break, and now it was time to look a little deeper.

As soon as I started searching beneath the surface, I encountered a strange vein of crystal, followed by another, and then another. Some were only a few meters deep, while others were more than a kilometer deep.

They all seemed connected, almost like a spiderweb or blood vessels. But the entire structure seemed much too large to be a mana well. It made me wonder if there was something truly special about this planet.

‘Maybe this was why Anya told me to find it,’ I mused.

I was about to move a bit higher to try to get a better overall view of the massive crystal growths when Lisa informed me that the Council subsidiary had finally responded.

“So, they’re holding it for the entire fifty years?” I asked.

Lisa had done a little research while we were waiting and found that there was a standard approach to dealing with the holdings of a disbanded sect. Fifty years was usually the maximum that the Council would hold onto assets before selling them and distributing the proceeds to those who made a claim against the previous owners.

In the case where only one set of ‘victims’ wanted the property or other assets belonging to the defunct organization, they would be allowed to buy it for seventy-five percent of the market value – either at the time of the disbandment or when the waiting period ended, whichever was lower.

If more than one ‘victim’ wanted any of the assets, they would be auctioned amongst the interested parties.

I was hoping nobody else would make a claim.

“I should probably talk to Patriarch Fora now that we have some more information,” I said. “He’ll be the one who’ll need to handle most of the paperwork since I’ll be in the dungeon when the waiting period ends.”

“You’ll still probably have to fill out a lot of it since they will be acting in your name.” Lisa said before adding, “Then again, it could be said that the Epikairos Sect has a claim against the former Sovereignty Sect as well.”

My Interface Assistant made a good point. If I could remove myself from the entire process, that would be better.

“Either way, I should let the Patriarch know what we found,” I said.

“I just sent him a message letting him know you are interested in meeting at his earliest convenience,” Lisa informed me.

“Perfect. Let me know when he responds.”

It took less than half an hour for a meeting to be set up, and I soon found myself sitting in the man’s office. I quickly summarized our findings while also letting him know that Kai was currently on-site.

Patriarch Fora was ecstatic to learn about the Tier Eight Time well, even though he would not be able to personally benefit from it as a Fate/Life Mage.

“This is such amazing news,” the new Patriarch said with a huge smile. “We’ve been considering a new branch for some time. If we could gain access to such a resource, it would make sense to use the opportunity to set up a new branch. The infrastructure is even already there!”

“That was my thought as well,” I said.

It was actually Lisa’s idea, not mine. But it was basically the same thing since she was technically a part of me.

“The sect has already made claims against the former Sovereignty Sect’s assets, including one in your name,” Patriarch Fora said. “I’ll be sure to add a request to purchase the property for a potential branch location. Given that justification, I doubt anyone would give the request much scrutiny.”

The lavender-robed man leaned back in his chair with a thoughtful look.

“Honestly, unless another sect has been targeted directly by the former Sovereignty Sect, I doubt we’ll have any issue at all acquiring their assets,” he said. “If they didn’t take all of their records and training resources, we might even benefit more than we expect.”