Chapter 475
After agreeing to work together, Matt and Liz spent a few days preparing before they grabbed a few of their people and joined the nobles on their way to the Capital.
One of those preparations was Matt trying to get Aster to join them. However, she was mid-experiment trying to formulate a stable Level five âSpace Iceâ mana, and didnât want to waste the travel time actually traveling. He, along with Zack and Titanâs Torch, helped as much as they could, but similar to when Liz went through the process, a lot of the hard work was reliant on repetition and perseverance.
Allie and Zack both offered their help to his own cause as needed, but Matt temporarily declined. While he knew that he wasn't solely responsible for creating the aura diversity problem, now that heâd seen a path towards a solution, he didnât expect others to sacrifice their limited time.
He offered the same to Liz when they stood before the [Portal] heâd opened to the nobleâs ship. âYou know you donât have to come with us. I know you planned to boil yourself again soon and I donât want to delay that.â
Phoenix Liz, whoâd been napping on human Lizâs shoulder, cocked her head hearing what Matt said, but she didnât comment.
Instead human Liz shook her head. âIt's fine, the herbs won't go bad and Aster agreed to get Allie to drop them off. Given how everyone is already starting to congregate in anticipation of the higher Tier explorers arriving, I figure I might be able to buy a few additional ingredients. Then it's an upgrade to what I was already going to do.â
Catching and squeezing her hand, Matt was silently remembering her sacrifice when Liz grinned. âThat, and I want to be there when we solve this problem to rub it in mom and dadâs faces.â
Rolling eyes, Matt moved to step through the [Portal]. âYou know they will just be happy for us?â
âSo? That just means we all get to celebrate. Best kind of win.â Liz sniped right back and he didnât have a response, giving her the win.
Which she gloated on even as they started traveling to the Capital.
They spent nearly half of the journey refining their plan, their demands, and what things they were willing to compromise on, as well as how far they were willing to in each case. None of them were under any delusion that ninety nine percent wouldnât be thrown out by the end, but everyone was determined to succeed. He was fairly sure several cared more about the success itself than their cause, but he didnât hold it against them as they were still earnest in their efforts.
Their first plan was to leak their plans. Plans that culminated in an official Imperial Petition where they could force their changes through. Theyâd either need the Royal in charge to agree and force the issue, or eighty percent of the affected parties on their side. The nobles hadnât been willing to announce that from the outset as they couldnât or wouldnât risk the backlash of a failed Imperial Petition might cause where Matt and Liz didnât really care too much.
Which was why they started stacking the deck.
Using spies and various news contacts, they deliberately spread the news that they were worried about the trends relating to aura exclusivity. For the well informed, this was nothing new when coming from Palustris. But when news spread that Matt and Liz were teaming up with the Empire's strongest hereditary noble families to address the issue, the various factions started taking notice.
Their next steps were to once more âleakâ several key pieces of information. The most important leak was a still image of Matt presenting before the nobles with a projection conveniently listing out his key points for convincing Manny to not hold back when solving the problem. Having already agreed to not use his original plan, the nobles had far too much fun carefully tweaking Mattâs presentation to have the most abrasive language possible without tipping their hands.
When that leak was âverifiedâ by Matt and Liz firing the staff member whoâd taken the picture, every faction with a vested interest in aura took notice. Having remotely made their plans, they had to trust that no one found out that the person whoâd taken the picture was one of the Empireâs undercover agents who needed to cycle out anyway.
Once the information spread, they ceased their stirring and waited for a reaction even as they rushed to the Capital on what he learned was one of the Dobrescu familyâs yachts. While traveling, Matt specifically took time to study their opposition in detail now that he had access to the nobles' various channels. Alone, none of their information impressed him. But combined, it was a step above anything less than a directed Imperial probe.
Unlike a lot of business types, aura rifts were wide instead of tall. While everyone involved was at least a Tier 30 organization by the required start-up capital, the newness of the underlying industry meant that instead of a few high Tier factions dominating, there were hundreds of similar strength businesses with a few outliers who were larger.
Matt, along with most independent economists, considered it semi-inevitable that once the easy pickings dried up, the most affluent of the factions in the aura space would start to gobble up the lower Tier and smaller organizations who only had a patent or two under their belts. There hadnât been an entirely new industry in a long enough time that no one was entirely confident in those guesses, usually it was about offshoots developments, but it seemed likely with the current trends.
And if there were going to be entities left standing, it wasnât hard to see who would come out on top. Between the corporations, guilds, and noble families whoâd decided to try their hands at aperology, there were three main pillars when looking solely from a quantity of aura related patents. He was personally peeved that two of the three were Talented organizations, led or primarily staffed by those with a related Talent, but he was also aware enough to know having a one third being purely science driven group was a rarity at the highest Tiers.
Sadly, he also disliked the New Horizons Institute of Applied Aperology more than any of the other aperology organizations, thanks to their overly aggressive and predatory contracts. Currently, they were the fastest growing thanks to their catalog, which had the most specialized aura type recipes out of any faction. It didnât help theyâd copied his guilds general reward structure and found massive success.
In the end it boiled down to a few simple truths.
Aura was complicated.
Aura related products were a magnitude more complicated.
Aura potions and their resulting Concepts were
even more
complicated than most potions, given their life altering implications.
While he hadnât paid much attention at the time, he did remember as alchemy companies started releasing aura potion variations with slightly more targeted effects. It hadnât caused too much of a stir back then because the more specific potions' abysmal success rates made them uneconomical. However, with profit on the line, New Horizons had bridged the gap by creating more specific variants of aura from the outset.
It was also the long term solution for the problem Matt envisioned, as it meant a cultivator could slant their Domain from the bottle instead of having to put in decades of work to bring their Concept away from a baseline elemental effect. Theoretically any Tier 15 had the time, but as was becoming more and more apparent with every passing day, most people found that even breaking their Domains wasnât enough to fully erase the after effects. When they tried to make their own Domain, they found it much harder as they tried to deviate from what had been nestled in the core of their very being for hundreds of years.
On the other hand, starting with a fire-heat, or fire-burning, or an even more specific effect such fire-lingering didnât sound like much of a change, the additional starting focus gave cultivators another lever to push, which was all most people needed. With more targeted starting potions, not only was breaking a Concept and reforming it into something less elementally related easier, fewer people felt the need to break their Concepts at all, making it the best of both worlds.
Or it would have been, if everyone had a wide catalog of more specific potions to purchase from, but reality wasnât as accommodating as he would have liked. Developing the more specific aura potion recipes was hard, but creating a rift that produced a specific and repeatable secondary effect was more luck than science at this stage in aperology.
The mountains of mana stones Titanâs Torchâs burned through daily could attest to that, but that was where the Talented aperologist came in.
When potential vast fortunes were on the table, the stodgy aperologists climbed down from their self made thrones and started companies, guilds, or any other organizational structure they felt best suited them and got to work trying to leverage their Talents into making something repeatable.
Few were truly successful, and those that
were
were generously rewarded as they sold their recipes. But they quickly realized they didnât necessarily need to create a
repeatable
recipe if the client was wealthy enough. By partnering with people who had a method to copy a rift, even a partial success could be copied every few months and turned into a profit, which was why there were so many variant potions. Without their Talents, creating the original rifts would have proven impossible in the first place.
Matt was actually happy to see Talented aperologists assisting the field instead of hindering it. He was less happy with their decisions to limit how many base versions of the aura rifts they made as a way to limit how many copies were able to be distributed. That kept the price of each copy high as well as its resultant aura.
However, that same ease of creation was why there were so many factions in the Empire with entangled interests when theyâd discovered less than a hundred base types of aura available at all.
Once more, the Talented led the field when it came to pushing into more complicated aura types. That was how the other two corporations were able to stand up to the juggernaut that was the New Horizons Institute of Applied Aperology.
By abusing the control their Talentâs gave them, the aperologists of Aura Sky and the alchemists of Killianâs Tankard took two different approaches to aura potions aperology, letting them stand tall with smaller catalogs than New Horizons.
Killianâs Tankard tackled the more specific aura potion variants via their targeted alchemy recipes. Originally an alchemy business of little repute, Killian developed a separation function that allowed his company to extract specific variants of aura out of the whole. It was stupidly wasteful and ultimately proved more academically interesting than practical, but once his foot was in the door, Killian leveraged his position to merge with an aperology corporation and dove in leveraging his alchemy skills.
They hadnât seen quite as much success with aperology as they did alchemy, but they had two base aura rift patents, seven variations rift patents, and dozens of potions patents competing with several of the Tier 40 alchemy companies.
The Aura Sky corporation, on the other hand, was a bit more traditional in that they were led by Mackenzie Harrington. Who, despite being a Tier 45 and able to ascend, had jumped into the aura fad like anyone else. She was also the person they suspected was going to be their largest problem going forward.
A first generation noble by her own right, as well as being a staunch supporter of the academic system, Mackenzie had long since been on Mattâs shit list, given her propensity to protect her monopoly on higher Tier rift creation. To her credit, credit he didnât want to give her, there was zero evidence or even an indication she was part of any secret society, or even the Cabal.
Having either would have made everything they were about to go through, much much easier. Even though he didnât like her or her business practices, she hadnât done anything wrong.
Which was exactly why theyâd spread rumors and waited to see everyone's reactions. Sadly, their reactions were to pretend like the news didnât exist, which propelled them to start phase two of their plan.
One by one, half a dozen companies and guilds tried to reach out to them, wanting to âtalk about the futureâ. But none of them were from the larger guilds, so they continued to wait.
It wasnât too difficult to stir up a mild level of publicity, but the nobles were correct when they said most of the general population didnât care about the specifics, so long as a path forward was available. However, most wasnât everyone, and with a couple of carefully crafted leaks and articles highlighting the existing data, the news started to gain traction despite the other side's efforts to downplay it.
Once it had a life of its own, they sat back and waited until a smaller aura company talked to their local media. The entire thing was a soft ball with the âhardest questionsâ perfectly segwaying into yet another talking point, but none of that mattered. The moment they had a response, they were able to counter actual talking points instead of having to guess.
Hating what he knew he had to do, Matt agreed to several interviews on the Capital to ensure their first message spread as well as possible.
Walking out of the makeup room and onto the stage, he waved to the cameras and the crowds behind them. Continuing to his seat, he kept his smile wide and honest, his body language easy and relaxed to prevent it from being read as over eager or desperate. He was relaxed because there was nothing to stress him, as this was a casual interview.
Not because heâd agreed to be given a softball interview with everything planned ahead of time, but because he was willing to see this through to the end. One interview of discomfort meant little in the face of his determination. Though, in the spirit of having a good interview, theyâd agreed on some talking points from the outside and heâd given the studio a week to work on their questions and gather their own intelligence.
Rebecca Young smiled at Matt as he sat down, though he could barely see it with her long, porcelain colored hair twisted into a topknot that then fanned out into her signature half-hidden look. However, her grip was firm without showing off her five Tier advantage, and they both paused for a moment to ensure there were good still images for later distribution.
Her voice was mellow as she got them started. âGood afternoon Ascender Titan, it's a pleasure that you reached out to us after the recent media blitz regarding the aura potions, and your very vocal comments about how the situation should be rectified.â
Matt was already nodding before she finished speaking. âThats exactly right, Iâm not happy and I feel no reason to hide it. We have a problem as well as a ready made fix, but a few individuals' self interest seem to outweigh everyone else's interests.â
Rebecca rocked back at his final words, raising a hand to her hair veil, âA very forceful response Ascender Titan, but the various businesses involved in aura development paint a very different picture. Weâve taken the time to highlight some of the core differences each side presents. One of the largest and most fundamental differences seem to be that they say there isnât an issue with the more limited Concepts that have been recorded coming from aura potions. How do you respond to such a claim?â
âI find that claim absurd, as it is false. Thirty percent of people who break their Concepts find themselves locked into their original element when they go to reforge their Concept. What else can that be considered if not an
epidemic
? Now that the basic elements are freely available and most people driven enough to reach Tier 4 can buy the potion, even if it takes a few years for them to actually receive it, advancing the elemental compatibility as well as the secondary effects becomes much more important. We need to ensure that our people are not being limited by the very tools meant to elevate them. That is what I and the nobles I partnered with seek to rectify. The first four independent studies done on the topic already warned of the phenomenon, and each of them concluded that the situation would only become worse if countermeasures were not taken. Looking at the numbers, they most certainly
havenât
gotten better."
Rebecca gestured with her off hand and the screens around the studio flipped to show various breakdowns of the reports Matt was referencing. Reading everything himself to make sure no one had tried to make a last minute change, he also found curated responses and analysis of each report performed by vetted companies with a good reputation so viewers could make their own opinions.
Most would never bother to look any deeper, but the old adage of pounding the facts when they were on your side was as true now as it ever was, and he didn't mind causing a racket. It, however, wasnât the only thing he was trying to pound. Facts were often less persuasive than emotions, so he didnât intend to rely solely on dry information to get his points across.
When Rebecca dropped her hand, the screens went back to show the show's logo as the cameras focused back on them. âWhile
those
reports back you up Ascender Titan, there were others that were less doom and gloom. Do you believe they are wrong, fabricated, or are you implying something more sinister might be afoot?â
Matt shook his head making sure the cameras could see it. âI think the reports speak for themselves. Even the ones published or sponsored by the various aura related factions all acknowledge there is a problem. No matter how much they try to obfuscate the issue, deflect responsibility elsewhere, or downplay it, they canât hide the facts from the people suffering from the limited availability of aura potions. They are out there, and every time a new report, or a new spokesperson downplays the situation, they are minimizing the very people they hurt. I implore you to ask your friends and family who delve if theyâve run into the issue, or if they know of it. You might be surprised how close some of these people are.â
Rebecca leaned forward as she hit something heâd known was coming. âSaying these businesses are hurting people is a big accusation Ascender Titan, when you yourself publicized these methods originally.â
Matt met her veiled gaze without blinking. âI wonât pretend or shy away from such questions because yes, I do feel a level of responsibility to everyone. That is why Iâm trying to push for alternatives, find solutions, and implement them.â
Rebecca raised her non-dominant hand a second time and the screens changed to the image theyâd deliberately leaked. âAre these your demands, Ascender Titan? Few third parties would call these suggestions anything but onerous. Possibly overreaching in their scope.â
Matt leaned forward slightly as if he hadnât seen the image before, squinting as he read off the captured projection. âDemand that every aura-related recipe for potions and rifts be published free of charge after the ten millennia patent? I donât remember talking about any of this in the context you seem to be describing, but then again, this was a leak from a private meeting, so you canât really take it at face value. This was part of a list of things that while nice, are ultimately impractical to implement in the real world.â
Even with the curtain of porcelain hair obscuring her face, Matt could tell Rebecca didnât believe a word heâd just said and pushed, âThese are still very aggressive demands to throw at companies, guilds, and noble families that are in good standing who, both directly and indirectly, help their communities. They create new jobs and pay local taxes as well as widening the availability of aura related products. Isnât that the very thing you are asking for? What situation could the listed things be raised in where they weren't at least mildly provocative? If that wasnât what you are aiming for, what are you?â
Finally getting the question heâd been waiting for, Matt raised his own hand, changing the displayed images showing a different slide. This time, he showcased the current solution. One he found tolerable and the nobles only found mildly overreaching. In short, it was a decent middle ground.
â
This
is our framework for an aura reform we wish to see implemented Empire wide. At the same time we developed this, we tried to reach out to the various aura related businesses for their input, but they declined to comment or offer their own suggestions.â In reality, theyâd asked for a meeting from the three largest companies and theyâd declined, even though all of their leadership were already in the Capital.
When he was sure he had everyone's full attention, he finished, âIn short, we aim to remove the exclusivity clauses from all existing contracts and ban them going forward.â
Hearing a murmur ripple through the crowd, Matt continued trying to walk a fine line between confident and arrogant. âI understand everyone's resistance to such a large change. It's a big step that has rarely been done before, but we donât suggest it lightly. We also arenât demanding it without compensation. We, the noble families pushing this measure, are willing to negotiate paying part of the existing contracts buy out clauses. We are also offering to allow them to add a flat fee to aura potions or any other products made from aura to ensure the companies and their patents are viable long term. We are also willing to allow the patents to be extended by fifty percent to fifteen thousand years, rather than a flat ten.â
Rebecca looked into her palm reading something off of her AI before she looked up. âAhhh, I was wondering why that sounds remarkably familiar. Is that not similar to the model your own duchy has adopted? Not allowing exclusivity clauses but allowing flat fees? Are there any further modifications away from your baseline? I must say that in our research, most aura companies said they disliked operating in your duchy because of such rules.â
Matt sighed dramatically before smiling again. âMany of them are based on what Liz and I have done, but not as much as Iâd have preferred. Instead, our aim was to create a system that would both better handle the rapidly adapting field that is aura and everything related to it, so we donât have to do this again. From the outset, we tried to craft a framework that will allow for rapid widespread adoption of new aura types, without hampering a businesses ability to make a profit. Every decision is made with that in mind.â
They spent several minutes going through the listed points, but Matt truly did think they were being more than fair. They started by offering to pay five percent of every existing contract's cancellation fees, which was more than generous in his option.
Manny hadnât used the precedent to retroactively modify contracts, but both of his predecessors had. More relevant to their current situation, neither of them had been so kind as to offer any kind of compensation when they did so. He and their collection of nobles were also very aware that they were
not
a Tier 50 or anything close. Limited to politics, they felt it was smart to offer some level of reparation.
Against Mattâs initial judgment, the nobles even went as far as offering to allow the aura companies to add a flat fee on each unit of aura pulled out of the rifts. He thought such an allowance was overly generous, though it proved its worth when its existence seemed to surprise Rebecca, who spent ten minutes diving into various sub clauses, helpfully getting a lot of the information out there for the average viewer.
They moved on before it became too dry, but by the time they were done, he conceded that the nobles had been right. Giving up that concession lightened up the mood for the following points, which might have come under heavier scrutiny.
Like Mattâs idea to hardcap the price of aura potions. It had been shot down, but Liz managed to navigate a good middle ground that left everyone upset about something.
Their current plans said any additional fee couldnât be more than twenty percent of the baseline cost of the potion. That extra expense would balloon the cost of the potions, but it wasnât so burdensome as to put most potions out of reach for most people. The rarer aura types would always be more expensive, but as the rifts themselves spread, their prices would drop until they reached a happy medium.
âI see that you still demand no exclusivity clauses. What do you have to say about the possible invention of more volatile aura types that might need to be restrictive? Several have raised such points, and I canât say I love the idea of void Domain users running around willy-nilly."
Matt let some of his chagrin shine through at the comment about void aura. âThat sounds like a good problem to have, considering we have hardly touched level 3 mana types, let alone something as complicated as void. But to answer the original question, I have to say it's more deflection from the other side. Talents themselves are dangerous. Just ninety two years ago we had an incident where an awakening went badly and the protective measures weren't enough. Over thirty people died. Many young and with their whole lives ahead of them, simply caught at the wrong place at the wrong time. No one sensible is saying we need to stop awakening everyone because of occasional accidents large enough to bypass the existing restrictions. It's the same with aura. The Empire has measures to protect the public safety. We donât need companies restricting access to their own goods using such a flimsy reason. They canât say they are both protecting everyone from the dangers of their own product while also constantly advertising how useful their particular aura potions are over their competitors.â
They exchanged a few more back and forths with Rebecca keeping to their prepared talking points, letting Matt relax slightly, but it didnât last for long as they were wrapping up the interview.
Having gotten through most of what he wanted to mention, Matt said something sheâd said earlier, "Earlier you said we donât
need
to wait for higher authority, but might want to. I disagree. We are the Empire's newest generation of dukes. If not us, then who? There is a reason our leaders rotate and always have. Stagnation sets in otherwise, and I think that's important for everyone to remind ourselves of every once and a while.â
When he mentioned stagnation he saw her twitch slightly, so he refrained from standing. It was the correct choice, as instead of starting to send him away, she asked, âOne last thing before you go, Ascender Titan. Your previous comment triggered the thought, and now I must ask. Why
not
wait until the Emperor has returned? With his ear, all of the obstacles we just talked about could be waved away with a single thought. So why act now? Can it really be as simple as stagnation? Most would just wait, would they not?â
Matt settled in making a show of getting comfortable, looking at Rebecca for a short moment before letting his gaze travel to the crowd, then the cameras where he let his wandering end.
âThats a very poignant question, so thank you for asking. I think it encapsulates part of my issue. We have a solution already presented before us. It's there, it exists, but we canât use it because of previous misunderstandings. It's easy to say something like âlet's grandfather these original companies patents with the old system. It will make everything easier.â but will it? I donât know, maybe that would be good enough. Maybe the Emperor can use his wisdom and foresight to see a perfect solution that makes everyone happy, but he's not here. By that same token, the Empire is more than its Tier 50, it's more than its royals or nobles, it's the people. Iâm also one of those people, you are, your family is, my family is. We are in this together. So I ask you, when I see a problem, and I see a solution, what
should
I do?â
Letting the moment hang, Matt continued his expression somber and serious. âMy answer is to act in the way I best see fit. Thatâs why Iâm here. Iâm doing what I can. I believe Iâve showcased my stance and demonstrated why Iâve reached my conclusions, all backed up by unbiased data from multiple sources. But it has to start somewhere. Iâm offering to be that somewhere.â
As the moment passed, Matt forced a smile out and shook Rebeccaâs hand before walking off the stage.
Phase three had been started, and now heâd need to finish seeing it through. No matter how much heâd love to return to his and Lizâs Capital suite, he had three more interviews today and four tomorrow.
Checking his [AI] and seeing the messages already pouring in, Matt set an alert for any messages from New Horizon, Aura Sky, or Killianâs Tankard. The moment he got even one of them to nibble, they could skip directly to phase five, but he was confident they couldnât remain idle too long.
Not with all of them on the Capital. As big as the Tier 47 world was, Matt could make enough noise to drive them out of their burrows.
That was when the real battle would begin.
Heâd always wanted to call an Imperial Petition.