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Unwoven Destinies

Yuujiki

Summary:

The story is formerly known as "A minor change, a different world".

Fate, or destiny – such is the name of a mysterious force that controls the world itself, in order to fulfill a predetermined set of events. Consequently, this whole set of events is also called fate or destiny.

Many myths were made to explain destiny. On Earth, people of the past tended to think of it as something akin to a flowing river, or a certain amount of good and bad things that must happen. Or, as Greeks believed, as a thread, a piece of yarn for each individual fate. All of them, Greeks believed, were closely interwoven, and stitched, as goddesses, who personalized the force of destiny, made a cloth, a fabric out of it.

Fate also governs the Six-Faced world. And yet, its rule is not absolute. Destiny could be changed, and even the whole Grand Tapestry of Fate, as Greek would metaphorize it, could come unwoven due to even the smallest events if they were not bound to happen. The large events, on the other hand, could tear apart the whole fabric of fate, setting the world into the new direction. One particular event, a mana calamity known as the Metastasis Event, in fact, did. But what if it happened a little differently?

Notes:

Hello, welcome to my story. This is my attempt to reexplore and rewrite Mushoku Tensei series. Hope you enjoy it.

The story is formerly known as "A minor change, a different world".

Light Novel is considered as primary canon. Spellings are also from LN.

There is no update schedule at this time, updates are irregular. The story isn't likely to be abandoned, although there can be breaks in updating up to several months long at a time.

Any feedback is welcome. I also can be reached in Mushoku Tensei discord server (which is a broad description, but I mean the most popular public one which is also tied to the largest dedicated reddit community, I believe) as One Inch of Ash in the fanfiction chat.

Chapter 1: Prologue # 1 - The minor changes

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

The Teleport Incident of Fittoa was an event that, without a doubt, defined decades to come. Events of this caliber tend to. Asura Kingdom government sent competent enough investigators to define the cause — and none of them could even come up with a solid hypothesis. The Magicians' Guild was utterly baffled about its cause, as a magical disaster of this caliber without a visible reason was unprecedented and had even less of a cause from a scientific point of view. Its researchers pursued the investigation to this very day. Alas, they only had a little more success than the royal investigators. Even world powers, observing the mundane world from afar with a hawk's eye, couldn't determine the origins of the calamity.

Aside from the cause, even the mechanics of teleportation were utterly undecipherable. Just what determined the teleportation location? Was it the person's mana? Or was it the impact of calamity on one's body? Could it be that distance to the epicenter determined it? None of the former have proven themselves correct. In the end, it is reasonable to assume that the teleportation destination was random. Random order of things, random effect — these things aren't unheard of in this particular branch of magic.

That's why a phenomenon known as the Butterfly Effect could change the fate of a single person dramatically. After all, a completely random thing happening twice in two different situations is cosmically rare. For example, let's say a person from the city of Roa could have two different versions of the same day. The difference would be minor: whether he had porridge or bean and pork stew for breakfast. The two options would not make any difference normally, but in these circumstances they mattered because they physically changed the object teleported: its mass, its state, its location at the time of the teleportation. That's how the outcome of one minor change could turn the fate of a normal person, a 'weak' fate, upside down. More so, minor changes usually tend to pile up as the person affected interacts with other objects, expanding the difference between two alternate timelines.

On the other hand, a 'strong' fate is a thing in the Six-Faced world. The fates of some people tend to converge to reach certain events in their lives. Like this, nothing changed for the stray soul that inhabited the body of a ten-year-old boy. His student, a violent rich girl, wasn't really affected by the Butterfly Effect, too. Perhaps, they were fated to embark on a journey and meet a superd warrior. Or, perhaps, the threads of their fate were pulled by some other being at its will.

Strong-fated people are the backbone of this world history, it's them who determine the frame of it. And it's their actions that reassemble the fate of the world. Yet, the rest of them, the so called weak-fated ones are the flesh and blood of it, it's their existence that often determines how the strong-fated ones see the world.

For the sake of this story, the change was a minor one as well. Sauros Boreas Greyrat had drank wine from a different barrel on Rudeus Greyrat's birthday celebration, leaving him with a bit of a hangover in the morning. Just how could this affect the fate of the world, really?

Sauros Boreas Greyrat had his fill of fighting when he was younger. He had been given the training expected of nobles. Combined with his body's constitution and character, he was a fearsome fighter in his youth, despite not having a great deal of raw talent. Even now, in his fifties, he was in good shape: strong as a bear, and despite his stamina declining and skills getting a little bit rusty, it didn't change that he was capable of surviving the initial days after the teleportation by himself.

One moment he was arguing with Philipp in the dinner room, and then he was in the middle of nowhere. It was quite a shock, but having a dagger, a cloak, a golden brooch, and a few coins certainly increased his chances of survival. He made his way through the forests and marshes of yet undetermined territory, cutting down some C-rank monsters on the way. In the end, he was able to get into a small, half-destroyed town, where, after some careful inquiries, he was finally able to determine his location. North outskirts of Kibal County, one of the small, dying nations in the middle of the Strife Zone.

Constant war of each against all did this territory no good. Local pseudo-nobility and warlords had no resources to spare for anything other than their own survival. Small folk, abandoned to their own fate, couldn't protect their homes from monsters, outlaws, and invading forces, leaving the remaining people in utmost poverty. Adventurers with a smart head on them left this place long ago, as no one could pay them. The less smart ones rarely survive long enough to make any difference. Therefore, with no force to step up and help, this territory was stuck in a vicious circle, slowly degrading into a wasteland.

The local lord hasn't appeared in town in forever. The garrison that was left behind was decimated last autumn after an invasion from a neighboring country. The Adventurers' Guild was shut down. Merchants didn't visit this place, unwilling to risk their wares and their lives.

With no choice whatsoever, the Boreas patriarch, after hanging around for a few days, traded most of the coins for a horse and provisions, hired some less untrustworthy mercenaries out there and set off on the journey to get back into his domain.

A visit from a stranger who could trade himself a horse couldn't go unnoticed. The local bandits' informant, noting it, went to his protectors, letting them know about the virtually unguarded old man.

One day to the south, on the ford through a river, an ambush was set up. Several brigands, armed with self-made bows, old short swords and axes, were awaiting there. A perfect crime. Only one thing went not according to the plan. The victim did not show up.

A day after the ambush was set up, four of them left to let the boss know and ask for the orders, leaving another three on standby.

The assigned victim has taken them up on the opening, assuming the brigands have given up. Unluckily, he underestimated just how desperate the brigands were for some loot. The Lord's horse was shot during the crossing. The Lord's two bodyguards were killed, taking one of the attackers with them and injuring another. As Sauros Boreas Greyrat, injured by his own horse and with an arrow in his back, was slowly trying to escape, the two remaining attackers caught up with him.

Offing the uninjured one with a North God style move of throwing his dagger, the lord eventually managed to overpower the injured one, receiving a few more cuts himself.

There wasn't much hope now. He couldn't go back to town. He didn't know of any villages nearby. The forest was probably filled to the brim with monsters. His only hope was that a traveler would find him at some point. Staying in place, tending to his wounds as good as he could, Sauros Boreas Greyrat was waiting for his slow, but almost inevitable death.

Three days later, weak, bleed out and feverish, lord was sitting, his back to the pine tree near the road. A few notes, scratched on the parchment with whatever was nearby and with his own blood, were in his pocket.

That was the state Ghislaine Dedoldia found her master in. She couldn't do healing or detoxification magic. There was no hope for him, yet she still tried to bring him to a healer. After a few hours on the way, it became apparent. The remnants of meagre mana he had were oozing and dissipating around the scene. He was pale as a corpse, with dried blood staining the clothes along with mud. Even the fever was wearing down.

"Protect Eris. Let her be happy" were the last orders to the Black Wolf Sword King, left by Sauros Boreas Greyrat. Beastwoman could only helplessly watch as his life faded away, with her fists clenched and head down, gritting her teeth.

Hours later, after taking away her master's last notes and a broach, she burned the body with elementary fire magic, Fireball. Collecting the ashes and a few churned shards of the bones, she had set off. Ghislaine had an order to fulfill. And if she took a detour to slaughter every single member of the local gang, well, Ghislaine just couldn't resist the urge. There was no telling just where the young lady could have ended up after the teleportation.

In the years to come, the local legend of the Forest Goddess was also enriched, among other things, by the brutal demise of the gang that seized control of the town for a time. It was said that a divine punishment was cast upon them. And every time new brigands started terrorizing the place or a new band took control of the town, locals would harbor a hope of the divine punishment of death coming for them by the grace of the fierce goddess. Interestingly enough, every single time, most of the bandits eventually died, strengthening the belief further.

To tell the truth, there was nothing good for Sauros Boreas Greyrat if he had survived to return to the Asura Kingdom. As the first days after the teleportation passed, the lesser commotion of an assassination attempt on the second princess, Ariel Anemoi Asura, died down. As it turns out, neither the monster nor the white-haired child fallen from the sky were tools assembled to murder the princess. Instead, a whole raging tempest of intrigues and conspiracies came in its place. The royal court may have been astonished by the scale of the unmitigated disaster that the Metastasis event was, but none of the nobles and officials could spare many thoughts, let alone resources, for attempting to start rectifying the aftermath of the calamity. Instead, all the resources were directed toward surviving the storm, reaping benefits of it and putting the blame on someone.

More often than not, the blame was directed at the Boreas house. Unsurprising, really. Not only did they rule over the territory, but over his long reign as the house head, Sauros Boreas Greyrat made quite a few enemies. Boreas wealth attracted rivals, ill-wishers, and sycophants. The loud, prideful, and stern temper of the missing lord accumulated grudges, even from previously allied nobles.

Whitefox, Liston, and the most important of them, Philemon Notos Greyrat — all those lords had a bone to pick with Boreas house and Sauros Boreas Greyrat in particular. Namely, Philemon had personal grievances with Sauros, intensified by the rumors of his disgraced brother Paul's offspring fostering in Roa palace.

Incidentally, but not coincidentally, all those nobles and more belonged to the second princess' faction.

James Boreas Greyrat, heir to the family, had soon fled the court with the rest of the family, fully intending to sit it all out away from the capital. He wasn't eager to become a scapegoat, thank you very much.

In another world, when Sauros Boreas Greyrat showed up and started throwing his entire fortune into the rebuilding of his ancestral seat, these nobles would have started plotting. They would call in favors, pull strings with money, blackmail, and authority, and curry favors themselves. A lot of time, plotting, and recourses would be thrown into putting down the lord of one of the Four Great Houses of Asura Kingdom. In the end, combining their efforts, they managed to corner Sauros Boreas Greyrat and bring him down. But that would be a trap. Darius Silva Ganius, senior minister and leader of the first prince faction Sauros belonged to, had no personal attachments. Even more, he had his own grudges against Boreas house. So, when the lord outlived his usefulness, he would be thrown away to be torn apart by his enemies. And when the trap closed in, the most powerful nobles of the second princess' faction were severely punished for that little plot. Only the Lord of Millbots, Philemon Notos Greyrat, would manage to escape the punishment, pretending to switch sides.

Without all those powerful figures, Ariel's faction would implode, making her flee for her life.

However, in this world, things have gone differently. Sauros Boreas Greyrat did not arrive at the court. Neither did Philipp. No such convenient opportunity presented itself, and James was too useful to be recalled and used as a scapegoat, as he would eventually take control of Boreas wealth. Senior Minister Darius could only lament the fact that such a nice plan had gone to waste.

"Ah, how unfortunate," he would think, not really concerned. Now he just had to manually destroy those fools, one by one.

So, when the time for extermination of the second princess' faction came, things were shaping up akin to fox hunting, striking the Achilles' heel of the second princess faction. Unlike what one might think, the weak point that made them vulnerable to fox hunting was not the name of lord Whitefox, but the origins of the faction. None of the nobles of this faction had a real common goal besides making Ariel win in order to benefit from her position. No longstanding alliances, no economic or strategic partnerships, no kinship or intermarriages. That's why the lords were picked out, one by one, and bought, intimidated, or downright overthrown or demoted. That certainly took more time, but Darius Silva Ganius was not restricted in his methods and could resort to anything shy of exterminating whole noble lines.

And so, after two and a half years after the calamity, none of the remaining lords of the second princess' faction were in any position to continue fighting in the political warfare. In particular, November of K419 was marked by a very public accident.

During a reception her highness princess Ariel held, a giant chandelier, along with a part of the ceiling, fell down on Lord Liston, instantly killing him and several other guests. Princess herself would have perished if not for the smart and quick use of voiceless wind magic by her newly-acquired guardian magician, a mysterious white-haired boy.

No witness and no politician believed in such accidents, no matter how loudly the members of the opposing factions lamented 'unfortunate circumstances', 'misfortune' and 'loss of such an eminent statesman'. In the matter of weeks, more nobles distanced themselves, and more assassination attempts on the princess' life followed. In the end, accepting a wise counsel of one of the few remaining allies, lord Greyrat, princess Ariel left the city of Ars, heading north to the Kingdom of Ranoa. The official reason for her studying abroad was the Princess' apparent amazement and growing respect for magical arts, the very thing that saved her life — points given for a creative excuse.

Notes:

The prologues were combined and slightly edited. 30/06/2023.