"So, we are allowed to go back?" Arin asked in a questioning tone as he read through the letter in his hands. He and his cousins had been stationed in this dark forest for six months by now, enduring an entire winter while guarding the mine and keeping unwanted visitors away. Although the forest had offered some rather interesting scenery during the colder months, Arin had grown thoroughly tired of the assignment. The dense canopy was so thick that very little sunlight reached the forest floor, making the entire area feel as though it existed in perpetual darkness, even during the brightest parts of the day.
Winter had changed the appearance of the forest considerably, as the cold had stripped away much of the vegetation and exposed the landscape beneath the enormous canopy. The snow and frost had painted a beautiful picture, revealing details that would normally have remained hidden beneath the dense foliage. Nevertheless, Arin had never been particularly interested in spending more time admiring the scenery. He would much rather have returned to the Crimson Forest, where he could resume his cultivation and spend time with the rest of his family instead of constantly patrolling the same stretches of woodland.
Unfortunately, the family had needed people who could reliably hold the mine and prevent unwanted visitors from investigating it too closely. Arin and his cousins had been among the most efficient people available for that particular task, especially given their familiarity with the forest and their ability to deal with threats that ordinary guards might struggle against. Foreign actors had repeatedly hired spies and bandits to investigate the area, hoping to discover what the family was hiding. In the beginning, there had also been some probing from forces within the Union, although those groups had largely stopped after receiving a sufficiently unpleasant lesson.
The foreign operations, however, had proven considerably more persistent. Even after several months, there were still people who seemed incapable of understanding when they should abandon an investigation. As a result, Arin had spent most of his time patrolling the forest, checking the road, and dealing with anyone who became too curious about the mine. He had barely been able to cultivate properly or devote time to anything else, which had made the assignment increasingly frustrating. He had wanted to protest on several occasions, but he knew perfectly well that he had very little say in the matter.
That was why receiving a letter authorizing their return was such an interesting development. Arin had expected that the family would eventually replace them with another group, allowing them to return home after completing their assignment. However, the letter did not seem to mention any replacement arrangements, which made the situation rather unusual. He looked at the document again, wondering whether he had overlooked something important in its wording.
"Yes, apparently. It also says nothing about a replacement, which is rather strange," Bertho remarked as he leaned over Arin's shoulder to read the letter. He had noticed the same detail and seemed just as curious about it, although he did not appear particularly concerned. Perhaps the family had already arranged something else, or perhaps the situation at the mine had changed enough that their continued presence was no longer necessary. Whatever the explanation, the important part was that they had finally been given permission to leave.
"Yes, but I don't care. I want to go home. I am sick of playing whack-a-mole with all these idiots who don't know what is good for them," Arin replied. He folded the letter and stood up, making it quite clear that he had no intention of spending another day debating the matter. His patience with the endless stream of spies and bandits had run out some time ago, and the prospect of returning to the Crimson Forest was far more appealing than another patrol. Without waiting for further discussion, he began walking towards the former village.
The settlement had changed considerably during their six months away from the rest of the family. What had once been little more than a loosely organized village could now reasonably be described as a town, with a more established administration and considerably more activity than before. The continued development of the mining operation had attracted people and created a need for better organization, while the surrounding infrastructure had gradually improved to accommodate the growing population. The old village was becoming a proper settlement, even if some of its original characteristics were still visible.
The foreign forces had not entirely given up their investigations, despite the repeated failures of their agents. The anti-corruption campaign had initially distracted them, providing a convenient explanation for some of the unusual political developments taking place within the Union. However, those governments were not entirely ignorant of what was happening, and most of them understood that the situation involved more than the public statements suggested. Almost every government knew that corruption existed within its own institutions, and as long as the situation did not become too serious, many were willing to look the other way. There were simply too many people with their fingers in the same pot, making a genuine cleanup difficult without implicating people who preferred to remain untouched.
As the campaign continued, however, foreign observers began to realize that the level of corruption being exposed did not fully explain the scale of the response. The Union was taking unusually firm action, and its refusal to soften its position suggested that something considerably more important was involved. The situation became even more interesting when the Union demanded that several African countries hand over specific individuals. Those governments complied with the requests, but the Union's position remained unchanged afterward. It did not offer concessions or indicate that it intended to reduce the pressure, leaving foreign intelligence agencies increasingly suspicious about the real purpose of the operation.
Eventually, several foreign actors began to suspect that the matter had something to do with mana stones. Once that possibility entered their calculations, their investigations shifted towards the mining operations and the resources being extracted from the ground. They continued sending people to investigate the European mana stone mine, hoping to uncover whatever secret the Union was protecting. At the same time, countries that already possessed mana stone deposits began expanding their own mining operations, while others increased their efforts to locate new veins. The possibility that mana stones were connected to something far more important than ordinary mineral resources had become difficult to ignore.
Yet even after four months of probing, searching, and expanding their own mining operations, those governments had failed to discover any practical use for the stones. They had examined the available information and attempted to determine why the Union and the major European factions were so interested in acquiring them. However, almost every indication suggested that the various parties involved were simply accumulating enormous stockpiles without doing anything particularly visible with their resources. This was especially strange because mana stones were clearly valuable enough to justify considerable investment, yet nobody appeared willing to explain what they intended to do with them.
The European Union itself was behaving in much the same way. Despite facing considerable financial pressure and carrying substantial debts, it had stopped selling mana stones to generate additional income. Initially, some of those resources had been expected to be sold to help relieve the financial burden facing the Union. However, after the Great Houses had spoken with the president, all plans to sell those stones had been halted. Nobody within the government seemed to understand precisely what had been discussed or why the decision had been made, but the order was clear enough that nobody dared to reverse it without further instructions.
This development had only increased the suspicions surrounding the mana stones. Foreign governments could understand the idea of stockpiling a valuable resource, particularly if they expected its price to increase in the future. However, the fact that the Union was willing to sacrifice an opportunity to reduce its debt suggested that the stones served a purpose that outweighed their immediate financial value. The Great Houses clearly knew something that the wider government did not, and they were determined to keep that information from becoming public. For the time being, the family was perfectly happy to allow those suspicions to continue without providing anyone with an explanation.
A month before Arin and the others received permission to return, Alex had already said goodbye to the town's new administration and departed for home. The settlement had benefited considerably from the work of the talented bureaucrats trained by one of the Great Houses, who had focused on developing people capable of managing its growing responsibilities. Their presence had helped transform the former village into a more organized town, ensuring that the mining operation and its surrounding population could function without requiring constant intervention from the family. With that work largely settled, Alex had been able to leave without worrying that the administration would immediately fall apart.
Now it was finally Arin and the rest of his family members who were preparing to leave. They gathered their belongings and made their way towards the boat that would transport them home, leaving behind the forest where they had spent the previous six months. The journey would take them back to the Crimson Forest, where they could once again be surrounded by familiar faces and return to their usual responsibilities. Arin was particularly pleased with the prospect of being able to cultivate properly again, although he had no idea what awaited him once they arrived. As the boat began carrying them away from the settlement, the family members were looking forward to the return journey and the pleasant surprise waiting for them at home.
Meanwhile, inside the Crimson Forest, Karl was going over the ritual instructions one more time. Despite the considerable preparations that had taken place over the previous six months, he still wanted to make certain that everything was in order before the event began. The existence of mana veins remained a closely guarded secret, and very few people in the world knew that they could be established through the use of mana stones. Outside the ancient families, practically nobody possessed reliable information about the process. There had been plenty of speculation about the possibility that the major factions had discovered an effective way to use mana stones, but nobody had managed to uncover concrete evidence.
That was precisely how Karl wanted the situation to remain until the family was ready. The Great Houses and Trade Families had worked hard to keep the details hidden, and revealing the existence of mana veins too early could create unnecessary complications. There was already enough suspicion surrounding the enormous quantities of mana stones being accumulated by the various factions. If people learned what those resources were actually being used for, the attention directed towards the families would increase considerably. Karl therefore preferred to complete the preparations before allowing the wider world to discover what they had accomplished.
The plan was to begin the ritual next week, with all the participating families starting at precisely the same time. They had deliberately arranged for everyone to perform the ritual simultaneously, rather than allowing one family to begin earlier than the others. Otherwise, the first family to establish its mana vein might attempt to claim the distinction of being the pioneer, potentially arguing that it deserved additional rewards or recognition because it had completed the process before anyone else. By coordinating the starting time, they could prevent that particular argument from developing and ensure that nobody gained an unnecessary advantage simply because their preparations had been completed a few hours earlier.
Consequently, when Arin and the others returned home, the family would begin the ritual together with the other participants at five o'clock in the afternoon, Brussels time. The schedule had been carefully coordinated so that every faction would be ready to proceed at the appointed moment. There was still considerable work to be done before then, but Karl was confident that they could finish the remaining preparations. After all the effort that had gone into securing the mana stones and organizing the ritual, he wanted the final stage to proceed without any unnecessary complications.
The reason they had needed another full six months of mining was largely because the families had not been interested in establishing ordinary mana veins. They wanted rare veins, comparable to the Sonnenbergs' Nature mana vein, or veins capable of producing Sun-attributed mana. There were several other attributes that the participating families were interested in obtaining as well, and their ambitions had made the entire undertaking considerably more difficult. It was not enough to gather a sufficient number of mana stones and establish whatever vein happened to be possible. They wanted specific results, and obtaining those results required an enormous investment of resources.
Even after approximately three million mana stones had been extracted from the ground and transported to the necessary locations, they had only just managed to secure enough to establish the desired mana veins. The amount was staggering, and Karl had not originally expected the mine to contain such a large number of stones. In that sense, the entire operation had been a small miracle, since the family had been able to obtain considerably more resources than they had initially anticipated. Without that unexpected abundance, the plans of the participating families might have required much longer to complete, assuming they could have been completed at all.
Nevertheless, Karl was not particularly interested in complaining about the difficulties they had encountered. The important thing was that the family had secured the mana stones it needed, and the preparations for establishing its mana vein were finally nearing completion. Once the ritual had been performed, he would no longer need to hide so many details from the rest of the family. That prospect alone was enough to make him feel considerably more relaxed, since maintaining secrecy had become increasingly difficult as the months passed.
Even Karl, despite being the patriarch, had found himself needing to seek the assistance of the two ancestors to calm the questions raised by various family members. The undertaking had consumed an enormous amount of money, and the people responsible for managing the family's finances had not been particularly pleased with how much had been spent. The family members wanted explanations, especially when they saw so many resources being directed towards a project whose purpose they were not allowed to understand. Karl had therefore needed to rely on the authority and influence of the ancestors to prevent the situation from becoming a much larger internal problem.
The irony was that the family had spent nearly all the money it had earned during the period of unrest involving the secret realms. Those operations had generated considerable income, and Karl had originally expected the proceeds to strengthen the family's position for years to come. Instead, a substantial portion of that wealth had been poured into securing the mana stones and preparing for the establishment of the new mana veins. It had been an expensive undertaking, but Karl believed the investment would ultimately be worth it. Once the ritual was completed, the family would finally be able to reveal what all those resources had been spent on and move forward with the next stage of its development.