[Lifespan Remaining: 3 days, 0 hours, 10 minutes.]
By the time Noct escaped the Main City Hall, he had a growing inkling that fighting Leviathan had been less exhausting than surviving the proceedings afterward.
After going through all that paperwork, Amelia’s merchants took the opportunity to surround him with offers, mostly due to their amicable relationship.
Noct rejected all of them.
However, knowing that he wouldn’t really be here to supervise the mines as well as oversee it, Noct decided to hand management rights to Amelia herself anyway.
This gave her the ability to sell crystals as she wanted, but under a few terms that needed to be met unconditionally:
1) The mines still belonged to Noct, and an amount of five hundred high-quality mana crystals was to remain in reserve for him at all times.
2) Noct would receive a five-percent royalty from every crystal sold, separate from the funds allocated toward operating expenses and Altaire’s reconstruction.
3) Extraction operations must require Lenia’s approval to ensure that neither the Ley Line nor spirits inhabiting it were harmed.
Well, they weren’t particularly too hard to follow.
Even with those restrictions, Amelia was all too happy with following them. She already got what she wanted, and with the Diamond Merchantry’s existing influence, she was already the dominant economic power in Altaire.
Still, fame wasn’t really something Noct wanted.
Just managing to get out of this predicament without being questioned by any of the higher-ups was good enough of a resolution for him anyway.
Plus, he achieved his goal of securing a stable source that was able to prolong his lifespan was his original goal anyway. Not to mention that he managed to secure a contract with a powerful spirit like Sylpheed—his gains were greater than anticipated.
But now, he was sitting inside Lenia’s office, trying to fulfill a promise he made just yesterday. And what was even more surprising, was the fact that his father was inside as well.
Noct sat opposite of them, but realized that the normally serious Amon was having a casual chat with Lenia, like old friends catching up with each other after a long time.
Lenia, finally noticing that Noct was in the room, gave a cheeky grin. "Well...? Aren’t you going to show me something?"
"Hah..." Noct frowned. "Fine."
She did save him from some hassle, so it would feel weird if he were to deny her request now, especially given her...obsessive tendencies. Lenia probably already told Amon about it, so there was no reason to say no.
Sylph, now having a sanctuary and an anchor to the Mortal World, finally managed to materialize her self in full for the world to see. And naturally, Lenia was all over her.
And naturally, Lenia was all over her.
"Oh my god! She’s so cuteeeeeeeee!"
The Witch of Black Ice leaned across the desk with both hands pressed against her cheeks. "Can I touch your wings?"
"No."
"Your hair?"
"No."
"Can I conduct a small examination of your manifested body?"
"No!"
Sylph flew behind Noct’s head and clung to the edge of his eyepatch. "Noct! Make her stop, please!"
"You heard her," he sighed softly into his palm. "Stop frightening my fairy."
Lenia withdrew her hands, although the disappointment on her face made it look as though someone had taken away her favorite toy. "Hey, hey...I saved your ass at that trial, don’t you think I deserve some kind of reward for that hassle?!"
Sylph peeked out from behind his head and studied Lenia suspiciously. A few seconds later, she pinched her nose and hid once more.
"Again?!" The witch stumbled backward and pressed one hand against her chest, offended. "Why do all of you react like I crawled out of a sewer?!"
"Because your mana smells horrible..."
"WHAT?!"
Noct covered his mouth to hide a laugh, but it was futile.
Sylph floated away from Noct and crossed her tiny arms. "All spirits can sense the emotions and intentions carried inside mana. Yours is leaking everywhere, and every part of it is screaming the same thing."
She deepened her voice in a poor imitation of Lenia’s. "Come here, little spirit! Sign this contract and become mine forever!"
Noct lost the battle and let out a small squeak, causing Lenia to turn toward him.
"You already knew, didn’t you?"
"I wasn’t sure."
"And you didn’t tell me?!" She frowned and melted onto the table, depressed. "So that’s why spirits refuse to approach me?"
Then the witch sprang up once more and pointed at Noct with an embarrassed expression on her face. "Then how the hell did you manage to get Sylpheed to offer you a contract?!"
"She said my mana smells like honey...which she likes."
"Just kill me already..."
"Now, now..." Noct raised his hands out in defense, trying to calm down the sulking witch. "Maybe if you change your attitude, who knows? They might start to like you!"
"Right..."
Once the situation was defused, Noct simply leaned back in his chair and let out a soft breath. Then he turned to Sylph, remembering what happened.
"Is Undyne...alright?"
"She’s barely alive."
"The crystal imprisoning her fractured when Leviathan manifested," the spirit continued. "Once the gateway began closing, the nymphs carried her deeper into the Ley Line."
"Back to the Spirit World?"
"Yeah, to recuperate there."
"Then does that mean the Ley Line will remain without a guardian?"
"The Ley Line has been temporarily closed," Sylph nodded. "Most of the nymphs there escorted Undyne back while the others remained."
"Don’t they mind not having a way back?"
"They care more about their guardian’s well-being."
"Ahh..."
Noct suddenly froze, realizing the implication. "If the Ley Line is closed and most of the nymphs returned to the Spirit World..."
Lenia finished his sentence. "Crystals won’t be produced as quickly."
"Ugh..."
There went his safety net. All the work he was trying to put into securing a stable source of lifespan was suddenly made unstable in the blink of an eye. Still, all he could do was rely on whatever was left.
"Wait, then there should be no mana crystals left in the mines then..."
"What do you mean by that?" Lenia tilted her head in confusion.
"Well, when I made a contract with Sylph," Noct explained. "I had made a gamble and used pretty much all of the mana crystals within the cave."
"So, there should be none left to save me afterwards. Yet..."
Noct remembered the vast amounts inside his room, the ones completely drained to get him the three days’ worth of lifespan he was clinging onto right now.
Lenia scratched the side of her cheek. "Well, a bit of that came from me, but I only had around twenty-ish crystals."
"Really?"
"Mmm," the witch answered. "When we recovered you from the port, your body contained almost no life force. Noelle remembered that mana crystals were connected to your survival, so I brought everything I had stored inside my spire."
"That still doesn’t explain the rest."
"No," Lenia agreed. "It wasn’t enough."
"What happened after they ran out?"
"..."
The witch simply nudged her head at Amon, who had been listening closely to their conversation, but pretended to sip on tea.
"You should ask him instead."