Handling the Aftermath

The communication Lacrima in my hand finally connected as I heard Barat's voice finally come out, "Hello is this Marcus Fulbright?"

I replied, "Yup, this is me. I've just found something I think you should check out."

He heard him sigh and say, "What did you do?"

I said, "Nothing spectacular. I just found someone trying to build a Ressurection System tower in the middle of the ocean with captive slaves."

Barat said, "A resurrection system!? Slaves!? How that hell did you manage to find such a thing?"

I said, "Didn't you see the report? I'm sure I filed it when I first found out about this place."

He replied, "What report I haven't seen anything like that on my desk at all!?"

I said, "I'm sure I submitted the report to Benny. I made sure to tell him that I thought I was important enough that I was going there myself."

There were some indistinct noises from the other side of Lacrima that sounded like faint shouting and breaking of furniture before, after nearly 5 minutes, Barat returned.

He said, "Ok I've finally got that report in my hands. Fucking incompetent scribes what do I even pay them for if they can't inform of such important information."

"So it's true some madman decided to actually build a Ressurection System in the middle of the ocean with slaves?"

I said, "Yeah it's true. I've got one of the slaves right next to me if you want to talk with him yourself."

He said, "Not now we can deal with that later. Tell me about the situation first."

So I told him about how I managed to find the tower and its specific location. How I had intimidated the population to silence resulting in no casualties.

How I met the leader of the organization who was apparently being possessed and exorcised him. I also told him that I learned that this place was built with the help of the Balam Alliance.

Barat said, "It's always those 3 guilds that fuck up everything were working on. They always have some type of scheme like this that we have to deal with."

"Luckily we managed to catch this early. So do you know anything else about this from your time working as their executor?"

I said, "I was their weapon, not their teammate. I had no idea of anything that was going on behind the scenes. I don't have much to add than what I already told you."

He sighed, "Ok just sit tight I will be sending ships over now. Make sure that everyone is safe and is ready for evacuation."

I said, "Got it, chief. Everything will be ready as soon as the boats arrive."

I ended the call and looked at Simon and Jellal. "You got that, we need to get everyone ready to get out of this shit hole."

Simon nodded and helped Jellal to his feet beginning to lead us back to where we started. There I saw all the slaves milling about wondering what was going on.

I stood in front of all of them and yelled out, "Rejoice I have managed to get reinforcement coming. Soon all of you will be off this tower and back on land."

The slaves immediately started celebrating when they heard my announcement. They were going to be reunited with friends and family after years of isolation.

I heard Millianna speak up, "What happened to Jellal it looks like he is hurt?"

Simon walked up to his childhood friend and connected all of them and me in a telepathic chat room. He said into everyone's mind, "Don't worry Jellal is fine, better than ever even."

"This Rune Knight managed to figure out that Jellal was possessed this entire time. That was why he was acting so out of character."

There were massive gasps of surprise at his news and Sho asked telepathically, "Is that true Jellal were you possessed this entire time?"

Jellal replied, "I don't remember. My last memory was being taken into that room with the guards then something terrible happening. I don't remember these past few years."

They were shocked. I guess they were surprised that the person they thought was their friend for years now was actually someone else, and they couldn't tell the difference.

They soon started chattering like crazy but I ignored them. They were going to be fine. I was paying attention to the happy slaves making sure that nothing was going on.

---

It took nearly a day before the ships finally arrived and I had to quell multiple disputes that broke out in the meantime.

Even when they were about to be rescued fights still broke out. Ah, humanity how incredible we are. Still, I stopped them by releasing just a small stream of Conquerer's Haki.

Once the boats arrived I saw that the one leading the operation was not Barat but some other Rune Knight Commander. Made sense, Barat probably couldn't come here in a single day.

That is something only I could do with my infinite stamina. Plus even if he did this was probably someone else's district so he would be stepping on their toes.

The new Rune Knight Commander walked to me and unlike Barat's strong physique this one was thin as a whip and looked like he hadn't worked a day in his life.

His incredibly pale complexion didn't help with that in fact it enhanced it. He was younger than Barat however looking to be in his mid-30s with long black hair and beard.

He said, "Let me introduce myself my name is Hardigan Puvee. I am the Rune Knight Commander of this area. I would like to talk to you about finding this place."

I smiled, "It's my job, isn't it. Save the oppressed, defeat the evil spirits, all that good stuff."

He nodded, "That is true. I was initially worried about you due to your unsavory past but your deed has turned around my opinion."

"Don't worry at the next conclave meeting of the Rune Knight Commander I will ask for you to be promoted to a group leader and receive commendations for your great work."

I said, "Thank you. Not many can look past my past and see the man who I am now."

Hardigan nodded, "It is true that many of our contemporaries cannot see past their biases but now you have truly proved your loyalty to our organization."

"I can't think of the consequences that could happen if this was left undiscovered and they actually did manage to revive Zeref. The toll would be unimaginable."

I said, "Yeah, I do wonder though how they managed to get his far. Material like this and the food to feed the prisoner had to come from somewhere."

He nodded, "Do not worry I will be looking into this. Such an undertaking will undoubtedly leave trails that I can follow."

"The fact no boats were ever spotted coming to this area but they still managed to get food and building material suggests a powerful space mage was involved."

"You should know yourself how hard someone who has mastered that magic is to fight. I am worried whoever that person is was smart enough to get their resource from all over Earthland."

"That would make it a lot harder to find their trails. Either way, we will to the bottom of this, that is my promise to you."

I nodded, "Thanks. Though I think you should go back to your men it looks like there is a commotion on one of the boats. Probably want to check that out."

He sighed, "That is the problem with leading me, no matter how much you train them some of them will always act like idiots."

He walked off to deal with the commotion and I looked over the since. I saw that Jellal and his group were already in one of the boats and only a few slaves were left.

I looked up at the tower and wondered what the Magic Council would do with it. I mean I hope that they would demolish it but I am not sure.

The allure of being able to revive a loved one from the dead is one that I doubt many can resist. I thought of destroying the entire place myself but decided against it.

I wasn't a knight in shining armor just a selfish man who can pretend to be that very well. And right now I can't see the benefit of destroying the tower me.

I heard one of the boat's bells toll and when I looked around I saw that everyone was now on a ship. I quickly jumped into the air, walking above the boats following them back to shore.

I did not want to feel motion sick on one of those monstrosities. I smiled everything had gone right for once, take that S-rank mission, Marcus Fulbright is well on his way to becoming a Wizard Saint.