Fate/Resistance: Alternative.

(Disclaimer: I don't own Type-Moon or any other content used in this book. This is a fanfiction written for fun.)

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A college town located in London, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain, was an apt description for the Clock Tower that governed the Mage's Association. It also functioned as a place of learning, open to both the elitist nobility of ancient lineage and New Agers. The latter of which were regarded with disdain and looked down upon by the former.

The Clock Tower was divided into twelve departments, each a vital cornerstone of modern magecraft, each ruled by one of the Lords; twelve corresponding individuals of ancient lineage that held major political power within the magus world.

The Animuspheres held the Department of Astromancy, focused on reading the stars and the heavenly bodies and in that regard, it was no wonder that Marisbury Animusphere had noticed a coming problem and sought to use it to complete his ambitions.

The buildings for the Departments were spread throughout the city at certain intervals, forming a college town that hosted over three hundred student dormitories, over a hundred research buildings and campus facilities accompanied by a separate business district to facilitate the needs of various residents.

At the focal, was the Mystile Department, the Department of General Fundamentals under the Lord Trambelio of the Democratic Faction, built similarly to the famous Big Ben itself. The HeadQuarters referred to as the 'Clock Tower' were located at the British Museum, under it to be precise, and stretched from Regent's Park to Westminster.

Alaric calmly took in the Department of General Fundamentals, "It's been a while but nothing's changed, as expected of stingy elitists." He grinned cheekily. It reminded him of an old university, with massive buildings holding multiple wings, open lecture halls and long, harrowing hallways.

Alaric had spent a significant part of his later life here, studying under the Lord Trambelio and Lady Edelfelt of the Democratic Faction and had gleaned much, adding on a gleam only he could do what they taught served him well.

Alaric was once again reminded of the narcissistic nature of nobility, "Never mind that what do you want me to do?" To ensure survival, Chaldea was an absolute necessity. Not because of their ability to travel back in time or summon and sustain Servants but because Fujimaru Ritsuka was going to find his way there. His ability to influence those around him and gather allies with words alone made him the most important aspect of Chaldea in Alaric's perspective.

Marisbury hummed and closed his eyes, "I want you to... do nothing for now." He joked, amused with how Alaric deflated at his words, "Or rather, there is nothing to do for now. With the funds secured, I now need to convene with the necessary people." He paused, letting his words sink in, "Research for what is needed is already underway, bide your time, build up your strength."

Alaric gave a small nod, he was planning on it.

"Of course, if you were an influential member of the nobility, you could do more but alas..."

Alaric shrugged, "That's impossible. Any influence I have is with New Agers." The Clock Tower functioned based on ranks, assigning them as merited. The highest ranks like Grand or Brand were monopolised by high-class nobility or absolute monsters. Alaric, who didn't show his complete prowess out of caution so as not to be designated for sealing for being too 'dangerous', was meant to possess the lowest rank Frame.

Only, for a New Ager to study and grasp three schools of magecraft, possess the combat prowess of a Church Executioner, and wield the Five Great Elements, was an absurd occurrence that earned him the admiration of many a fellow New Agers who viewed it as proof that lineage wasn't all that mattered.

"I wouldn't say a Fes has no influence. It's a rank two steps higher than you should possess. I remember there being word of you rejecting quite a few adoption offers."

"They came to me and acted like I should get down on my knees and thank them for the 'offer'." He answered sarcastically. Families without proper heirs would oftentimes seek out individuals of notable skill and adopt them, "I suppose, in a way, accepting would've been more profitable." The other family members could meet unfortunate 'accidents', leaving him the sole heir.

Marisbury shrugged, dropping the conversation, "Regardless, go about as you will, meet my daughter if you wish. Though, be prepared in case we come upon... undesirables that would hinder Chaldea."

"So, you expect me to be a killer at your convenience."

"You say that as though you would mind." Marisbury closed his eyes and smiled gently.

Alaric responded with a cheeky grin and stared at the grey, cloudy sky, "Very well, Lord Marisbury. I trust you'll know to find me, astromancy can work as GPS."

Bells chimed, announcing the passing of an hour and Marisbury silently took his leave, disappearing into the students going about their days. A sudden commotion drew Alaric's attention and he noticed someone pushing through a crowd of students exiting one of the buildings, some of them grunted, some reminded the world of their heritage as if that exempted them, and others recognised just who was pushing through them and pursed their lips.

"Alaric! Alaric! Is that you?!" An elegant, feminine voice with a touch of haughtiness called him out.

Alaric pinched the bridge of his nose and released a sigh, "Nope." He tried to look around for a hiding spot and found none so he resigned himself to his fate.

Kicking up a storm of dust behind her, walking with balanced but hurried steps, dressed in a predominantly blue dress that reached down to her ankles with a white stovepipe collar accented by white shoes and wrist-covering gloves. She wore her bright blonde hair in large coils held up by blue ribbons, two of these fell to her sizable breasts while four fell to her lower back.

Having studied Gemcraft under the Edelfelt matriarch, there was no way for him to avoid coming into contact with a wrestling enthusiast famous as the Forklift Lady and Hunting Dog of the Ring in the wrestling world and the magus infamous for destroying the entire upper floor, consisting of twenty-two rooms, along with the reception of the Norwich Student Dormitory in a scuffle with a certain dark-haired oriental magus.

A beautiful young woman with a filled yet sharp face, added to by a pair of deep cognac eyes that reflected her surroundings.

The woman grinned and wrapped Alaric in a hug, almost lifting a man a whole foot taller than her into the air, "Oom-... While I appreciate the gesture... in more ways than one..." Alaric briefly glanced at her sizable chest, "The next Lady Edelfelt shouldn't be hugging a new ager in public, Luviagelita."

She noticed him glancing at the small crowd staring at her in confusion and tossed one of her coils up, placing her other hand at her hips, and raised her head haughtily, "Hmph! A lady need not concern herself with what useless gawkers who know nothing think of her." Luviagelita purposely declared loud enough for bystanders to hear, shaming them directly.

"Sure." Alaric was aware, that she only knew to look down on others because of her status and conducted herself as she deemed proper, sometimes elegant, other times fierce and uncompromising to the point of shamelessness, "This humble lowborn is glad to catch the eye of a noble."

Luviagelita was unamused with his words, not failing to notice the sarcasm in his words, but failing to stop a faint blush from forming across her face, "Very funny… Anyhow, it has been a while! We must eat, catch up! Yes, I recently acquired a new restaurant near here!"

"Eh... I'd rather go to a humble family restaurant, they've got better food..." Alaric expected to dissuade her by indirectly insulting her, knowing she had perfectionist tendencies. What he didn't expect was for her to smile even wider and nod multiple times in satisfaction. Thus, he adopted another strategy.

He stomped his foot on the clean brick road and put his hands back in his pockets, "Is she here? Ri-"

"Who cares about that barbaric gorilla? Forget her."

"Who the hell are you callin' a damn gorilla?!"

Alaric pursed his lips, he, however, didn't regret his actions.

In an attempt to add further to his knowledge of Gemcraft than what studying under the Edelfelt allowed, and to help correlate it with his knowledge of curses, Alaric von Dietrich had sought out a teacher in a nation most magi considered backward and barbaric.

The cheapest, and easiest teacher to get along with was a girl younger than himself, whose knowledge had surpassed his own for a time.

The same girl whose boot would have collided with Luviagelita's face had he not moved to intercept it with the palm of his free hand, "Tsk, traitor."

The girl, in the presence of whom, Luviagelita reverted back into a bad-tempered, competitive and brash teenager.

…

Rin Tohsaka sat across from Alaric with one arm crossed under her modest bosom and the other twirling one of the twin tails of dark hair that fell to the front, with the majority loose and falling to her back.

"Grrr..." She let out a small snarl and her clear aqua eyes narrowed further. Rin glared at her former student, or rather, at the vixen sitting beside him all aloof and smug. A small, barely noticeable to all but Rin herself, grin tugged at Luviagelita Edelfelt's lips.

To others, the Edelfelt heir was only gracefully observing the commoners enjoying a day outside with their families, mothers feeding their children or those raunchy students in the corner of the fast food restaurant who'd just gained freedom from their classrooms.

Alaric interrupted their silent competition by clearing his throat and resting both his gloved hands on the table between them, "Teacher dearest..." His words were meant to be endearing, but his dull and lackadaisical countenance was a fatal counter.

Still, for a moment, Rin forgot about Luviagelita and focused her gaze on him, "...Yes?"

Alaric von Dietrich, as she'd come to learn in the time they spent as teacher and student, was someone who morphed his words to suit the person he was addressing in a way that even made up for his strange tone. It was upsetting in a way.

"I sincerely thank you for lending me your Command Seals for this war." Alaric's tone was calm as he reached into his coat pocket, producing a cheque. Placing it on the table, he gently nudged it toward Rin.

"This is…" Rin's eyes widened as she glanced at the figure on the cheque. Surprise quickly flashed across her face.

"I earned quite the sum hunting rogue magi and patenting improved spells," Alaric explained with a faint smile. "This is all of it. Consider it compensation for the destruction of Fuyuki." Despite his inclination to let the gas companies foot the bill, Alaric had taken it upon himself to shoulder some of the responsibility.

"But what about your expenses? Don't you need this money for research? And the project?" Rin asked, her words spilling out in rapid succession. Her concern was clear, but Alaric remained patient.

"I've already completed the project," he replied smoothly. "As for research funds, I'm currently employed under Lord Animusphere. I'm quite well-compensated." The lie slid effortlessly from his lips—Marisbury's payments, in reality, barely rivalled the wages of a Counter Guardian.

"My, my~ This is news to me," Luvia chimed in with her usual elegance, a mischievous glint in her eye. "If it's simply a matter of employment, the Edelfelt family would be more than happy to accommodate you. We could negotiate your salary right here~"

With a playful smirk, she leaned in, invading Alaric's personal space. Their faces were mere inches apart before Rin forcefully yanked Luvia back, her glare sharp enough to cut steel.

"What do you think you're doing? Actually, why are you even here?"

"Why are YOU here? This was meant to be a talk between old friends. I allowed you along and now you talk as if I'm the one intruding."

"Wha-..." Rin's jaw dropped at the sheer audacity of her words, "He had business with me! You're the interloper! Besides, is it alright for the 'great' LADY Edelfelt to be out with a lowborn magus? Wouldn't it taint your glorious image?"

Neither of them asked Alaric for clarification because as time and occasion had proven, he never paid enough attention to their squabbles. Even now, he was just curiously eyeing the burgers they'd wholly disregarded in favour of arguing and slowly but surely, reaching out for them.

"Please, as if I care about the opinion of someone presumptuous enough to assume wrongly, let them know, I say! Truly, you underestimate nobility all too much."

"Hey, where do you get off calling me a commoner?" The Tohsaka were nobility too, not quite respected in the Clock Tower for they were Asian and their only contribution to the Fuyuki Grail War was land, but that didn't make them commoners!

"My!" Luviagelita feigned a loud gasp, "It seems you've disillusioned yourself, you poor thing! Everyone knows even the smallest of nobles possesses some modicum of wealth. You possess nothing even resembling wealth!" She raised the back of her hand to her face and let out a haughty laugh, "I knew you were lacking mentally but I never believed you were this simple!"

"I have money! Lots of it!" Rin shouted back, blushing deeply, "Screw you! Which noble goes around wrestling like a goddamn gorilla?!"

"This is why I call you unlearned! A woman that can handle herself is much preferred."

"That just means your entire personality is centred around attracting men. You're a whore."

"..." For the first time in their conversation, Luviagelita was gobsmacked, "Uncouth, backwards, savage!"

Rin raised her hand and struck at Luviagelita but the latter smacked her hand away, so she tried again, only this time a woman in a dress suit interrupted them both. She grabbed either of their hands and stared at them with a difficult smile, a vein popping out on her forehead under light brown hair styled into a bun, "Can you ladies please take this outside?"

Both Luviagelita and Rin only then realised that many had stopped eating to observe their quarrel, some had even stopped outside, curiously watching them through the window. Both huffed at the same time and reached for Alaric to find his seat empty.

"He left a while ago. No wonder, you insulted him more than each other."

Someone, Rin couldn't identify who pointed out, shaming her further. Luviagelita shrugged and pushed her way out of the crowd, her features stoic and unbothered. Rin knew though, that the Edelfelt was just as embarrassed as she was.

But,

Why was it that her student always left her in these situations?!

…

Meanwhile, Alaric was sprawled on a wooden bench in a nearby park. He ran a hand through his dark, streaked hair and a small grin crawled onto his lips, "They should be about done by now." It wasn't that he didn't want to stop the two, it was just that it was impossible without drastic measures that would compromise his current dynamic with either.

And because there were more immediate matters to attend to.

They were teenagers, they could do whatever they wanted, other than get attached to him.

"Hm... A little bit of this... A little bit of that..."

There was a certain thing that many magi didn't know and had no way of knowing if they didn't possess the affinity for Void/Ether. Any magecraft or pertaining system, active or delayed, could be dismantled, and if need be, replicated by a holder of the affinity for Ether/Void, for they manipulated the very foundation of all magecraft.

As such, it had taken him a glance to learn most of what his professors sought to teach him. Then spent the time needed to create superior formulas of his own. Subsequently, it had taken him a glance to parse the summoning mechanism of the Fuyuki Grail War.

This also meant that he'd instantly noticed the discrepancy in the method employed by Lord Animusphere to summon the King of Magecraft, Solomon, once he met the servant, and how it was superior in that the servant was mostly sustained by a leyline through a system he had come to learn from Marisbury as the FATE system.

Over the course of the next few days, he'd honed and refined that same method, finding that it didn't need the presence of a Holy Grail like the defective Fuyuki System. The black glove currently over his left hand was there to hide the presence of command seals that resuscitated themselves using his magical energy.

"Humanity has a strange preference when it comes to choosing heroes." Alaric smiled and leaned forward. He rested his hands on his knees and regarded the servant stoically, his eyes hidden under his sunglasses, "Are you sure you'll be able to fight?"

"Rest assured, Master. While I admit I am mostly unaware as to how this has come to be, I recognise your will." The one who answered was a woman. Her face was young, and filled, possessing a beauty that felt unreal in some manner. She had pure amethyst eyes, framed by a set of thin brows that went perfectly with her fair, smooth skin. Some of her long blonde hair fell to her neck while the rest was tied in a single, thick braided ponytail that fell below her hips.

The blonde woman, no, servant, wore armour that covered her stomach area, no breastplate, displaying the size of her not-so-modest bust, and knee-high, purplish stockings with plain heeled sabatons on her feet. The cloak she wore had a golden cross sewn into it, and that was cause for concern for Alaric.

"I intend to do my utmost." She gripped the thin sword at her waist and lodged the flag in her other hand into the earth, "With the Lord as my witness, this much, I, Jeanne D'Arc, can promise."

Alaric gave a small nod, "I can admire that. I just hope you aren't the type to get me stabbed because I bored you somehow." He shivered, recalling some very bad memories, "Hope we get al-"

As he'd come to learn sooner rather than later, the servant he'd summoned could be a little too enthusiastic and stalwart at times.

Evident by how she'd let go of her weapons and gently grabbed his gloved hand with both of hers, wrapping her thin, smooth fingers around it, and stared at him with shining eyes, "Heavens no! I could never bring myself to harm one with aspirations as admirable as yours."

"That's... nice." Alaric recalled how King Gilgamesh had called him 'a retarded and useless mongrel' that could never achieve anything and had never grown up, and then laughed in his face.

Jeanne only then noticed the sudden proximity to her Master and backed away quickly, "F-Forgive me! I was a bit too straightforward." She lowered her head, blushing in shame, "I... I hope my calloused hands didn't bother you too much."

Alaric was reminded of the stark difference between Gilgamesh and... people that weren't Gilgamesh.

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(A/N: Special Thanks to @Uami for reading this beforehand and giving his input. This is my first novel so I would appreciate some much-needed support and criticism in the form of Reviews, Comments and Power Stones.)