Chapter 77: Fate Convergence - II

The moment Lillie met with Clementine and Taylor, a mild haze of <Fate> began to linger around me. It wasn’t as decisive as a thread that could tie me down, but I had never been surrounded by <Fate> before.

Anything bound by <Fate> would be greatly distorted—and even torn—the moment I was around.

Now, however...

"It seems like this world has acknowledged my current and continuing existence. Are its <Laws> slowly adapting to my presence? Or have those slaves of <Fate> succeeded in scheming against me?"

[Absolute Awareness].

My mana had been drained completely and utterly—along with the <Wyrm With No Name>. Despite such an expenditure...

"...Nothing, huh?"

This time, the answers were completely beyond my reach, barred by a thick layer of ever-moving threads. All those secrets hidden in plain sight by thick ethereal cocoons were impossible to isolate and trace as I was now.

Still, even my inability to attain the answers I wanted gave me something to work with.

At least, I was almost certain that <Fate> was never a mindless existence. It moved on its own, responding to changes, and plotting the direction of the future. The world’s <Laws> were merely one of its limbs that allowed it to design the trend of the times.

Therefore!

Someone was plotting against me. Trying to pull me into a maelstrom I would be unable to escape from.

<Fate> kept them hidden, but perhaps it also kept them from confronting me directly.

The moment those beings who were deeply entrenched in a web of <Fate> moved, the entire world would suffer and respond.

I wasn’t sure how, but logic dictated that that was the result when everything and everyone had long been bound by the same strings.

In essence, a bunch of butterfly effects.

When my mana reserves were once again full, I activated [Absolute Awareness] and observed the faint haze of grey-white lingering around me.

They looked like wisps of cotton and dust, floating in the air.

When I looked deeper, my mana was suddenly being siphoned in chunks. Different faces and different choices flashed through my mind...

Followed by a location.

"Oh?"

Perhaps there was a benefit to being included in the web of <Fate>. Somehow, [Absolute Awareness] could help me look into certain events that affected me. It was akin to a form of Divination, somehow.

"The Höwerwaslis District?"

It was the district where a quest had once directed me to explore, but with [Absolute Awareness], I had simply scanned it and written a report directly. I hadn’t taken a single step into its borders.

Now that I could see that it was heavily related to <Fate>—something made possible only because I was a part of the web now too...

An alarm bell rang in my mind.

Had that quest been a part of their schemes? To entangle me with an event I could not refuse or control? To deepen their influence over my actions?

I wasn’t sure, but the situation at hand was too eerie to simply ignore.

"Unfortunately, I have no direct countermeasures."

All I could do was try to avoid going to the Höwerwaslis District. However, I had a feeling that defying <Fate> wasn’t merely an act that could be done with knowledge.

To others, <Fate> was an invisible hand that directed their lives. To me, an outsider with [Absolute Awareness], it was an open scheme instead.

Because...

When I looked into the Höwerwaslis District, all I could see was a blanket woven by <Fate>.

All of its information had been obscured, as if someone had manipulated hundreds of thousands of fateful events to all converge there.

I felt a shiver running down my back.

If I tried to run away now... would something force me back there? If I did not comply with their schemes, would a meteor come crashing down on my head?

Because of <Perfect Estimate>, somehow, I felt that the answer was a resounding yes.

"Haha~"

Realizing what was happening, I laughed.

"Truly, an open scheme."

The world had included me. Now, I had to dance to its tune because all of my limbs were bound. If I tried to escape, I would have to sacrifice those limbs all at once and worm my way out of its embrace.

I couldn’t help but feel curious....

What kind of <Fate> was it trying to give me?

** *

After understanding the implications of his inclusion in the world’s <Fate>, Aventine watched as the previously faint haze thickened. Then, with his mind set to participate in its directives, the world acknowledged his willingness.

A single thread thus appeared, coiling around him and vanishing into nothingness.

At the same time, Aventine learned of a name.

<Fleim>.

It was not the name of a person or an item relevant to him.

No...

It was something much more shocking. Even Aventine himself hadn’t realized he had overlooked something so crucial.

It was the name of the world itself.

This world.

The world he had never called by name, referring to it only as the ’Other World.’

This singular revelation made Aventine shudder in both terror and excitement. The name of the world itself should have been accessible the moment he arrived.

However, not once did he perceive any reference to its existence. Not once did it appear in any of his deep-reaching scans of memories and souls.

Even his own mind had been glossing over the possibility that this world had a name.

"...Fleim."

A crooked smile appeared across his lips as he looked back at everything that had happened thus far.

The moment he appeared in this world, mana surged into him. With the mana he wielded, he never stopped using his Gift.

With [Absolute Awareness], he stole the <Sword of Light> from the original Hero of Leisha, Melia, derailing her future.

Then, he travelled with the hero and arrived at Laquer, taking the <Traits>, <Power of the Sky>, <Power of the Sea>, and the <Power of Death> all at once.

After that, he sealed the <Wyrm With No Name> into the <Sword of Light>, gained the <Blessing of Light>, and created a new Hero of Leisha through Lila.

Then, he somehow drifted to Walvaskaz, as if enticed by the presence of more <Traits>.

In fact...

’Didn’t I want to gain some more magic-related <Traits> along the way?’

But where were those <Traits> now?

Nonexistent.

’...Damn,’

Aventine felt another shiver, as if the walls had eyes.

He continued to re-evaluate his arrival in Walvaskaz and the acquisition of <Perfect Estimate> and <Soulbound Anchor>.

’Wait, no, I get it.’

The detriment he felt intuitively before stealing the crystalline staff, <Soul Permanence>, hadn’t merely been the problem of his soul becoming bound to the staff.

No...

’The <Powers of the Sky, Sea, and Death> are all environmental <Traits>, connecting me to everything around me.’

’The <Blessing of Light> gives me light-attributed mana, which seeps into my Physique, heightening it in the process.’

’Then, <Perfect Estimate> makes it so that my thoughts are always aided by the <Laws> of the world, giving me an autocorrect to any estimate I dare to make.’

’And finally...’ Aventine’s eyes shrank. ’The last <Trait> I received, <Soulbound Anchor>, literally binds the soul.’

In that sense, suddenly everything clicked.

Taylor’s massive amounts of <Fate> and their similar status as Mana Mages, Bliekon’s <String Theory> and the oddly entangled nature of her puppets’ <Fate> threads, and finally, the only three quests that he was able to get.

Saving a Drakon led him to interact with Kuvie’s other identity.

Exploring Kirivan’s Crypt was the exact reason he stole <Soul Permanence>.

Finally, the supposed exploration of the ruins under Building 103F-C4 in Höwerwaslis District, which he avoided because of his Gift.

"...Ah, shit."

It was a trap. A trap that wasn’t perfect, but still achieved an amazing result.

Had Aventine not been so curious about Taylor’s life, he wouldn’t have been constantly observing him. He wouldn’t have been entangled through information.

Had Aventine not become an Info-Hunter and gained a certain renown for commissions, Hau’goth would never have approached him for a commission related to Bliekon.

Had Aventine not gone through that commission, he would never have been approached by the Empire’s Guards... and given a badge containing the <Primordial Dragon Empress’s> will.

He wouldn’t have been able to use the <True Star Astrolabe> to specifically exclude a few of Bliekon’s puppets and thus give her hope.

...Hope that had eventually led her to interact with Taylor and Clementine.

Looking back at all this, Aventine covered his face. [Absolute Awareness] truly made him aware of small instances and many secrets.

But the mana it would have consumed to understand this machination that spanned more than a continent and over more than a year’s worth of time?

It was simply impossible for him to have known.

Even the <Wyrm With No Name>, who was only a little ways away from becoming a holy <Light Dragon> whose Divine Power could rival gods...

—Truly, a Mortal God, through and through.

...Even that entity’s mana reserves had barely been enough to ascertain some facts hidden by <Fate>.

As for the truly vast world and its infinite web?

Aventine just laughed.

The moment had arrived so abruptly. So beautifully, in fact, that he had simply been doing his own thing, following his own routine, when suddenly:

—Bam.

Right in the face, he’d been told that he was now going to be enlisted in the war of all fates.

"I’ve been had."