6 Chapter 6

"See! See? I told you that drifting on a magic carpet was possible!"

"Y-yeah. I never doubted your dri- uh, riding skills- down now!"

Alice had already lowered our magical ride so that we didn't bang our heads upon the underpass, which would have caused quite a bit of infrastructure damage given how durable we were.

"Way ahead of you!"

Note to self, do not make another high-performance magical vehicle for Alice.

"Nice one! But can we please fly higher? I know we're invisible to normal people but I would really like to minimize any accidents here." I praised her a bit before requesting that we travel at a height where we wouldn't encounter any vehicles.

"Aww, okay." Alice pouted slightly and took us into the air, way above ground levels, "Are you actually feeling anxiety when you ride something like this?"

"Only because I'm in the passenger seat instead of the driver's seat. I'm just not used to it. Also for the record, I didn't say that it was impossible to drift with a magic carpet, just that it was pointless because it's ability to go sideways gives it a magnificent turn rate."

"It's not pointless if it was fun."

"I agree with that to a point. Well, so long as you had fun then I have no problems with it… I just feel a little weirded out by how inefficient and illogical it was. I mean, I do plenty of illogical things, but drifting on a magic carpet felt particularly unnecessary to me."

After our romantic date at Tokyo Disneyland Alice had asked me whether we could ride back to my place on the magic carpet, naturally, I said yes. Then she asked to be the driver, being the indulgent boyfriend I was, I agreed once again.

How was I supposed to know that she would be re-enacting her Need For Speed driving fantasies?!

"I just wanted to see what happens… I won't do it again."

Moving one of my hands from the carpet over to grasp her hand, I shook my head and smiled reassuringly, "I never said that you couldn't or shouldn't do it, you don't need to restrain yourself for my sake if it's just the two of us. It just nettled me slightly, that's all. I'll probably get over it and learn to enjoy the ride at some point."

I didn't want Alice to feel uncomfortable with being herself.

"Thank you. For being kind with me."

The glum princess cheered up quickly and snuggled a little closer to me.

Alice and I shared similar dispositions when it came to enjoying the little things in life and a good adventure every so often. We differed slightly on our respective interests.

My British princess enjoyed visiting all sorts of places (just like me), trying out magical items, mundane activities and the like, but she didn't like participating in any excessive partying or "hooligan-like" behavior. Whilst I wasn't the type to go 'too wild' either I was a tad bit less restrained than her.

On my end I deeply enjoyed having powers, being able to travel the world without restrictions, creating and using magical items, though I really disliked stuffy/formal events (to Alice's chagrin), incompetence, nonsensical redundancies (especially useless functions) and inefficiencies.

Magical item designs and functionality are given a pass because they can be really funny, like those junk items in Wiz's shop (Konosuba), and unlike Alice I had been born into a world without magic (as far as I know), so quirky items or strong items with odd cosmetic designs are things I find enjoyable.

"Oh? Is there a reason for flying higher?"

"I felt like taking a detour."

"I'm pretty sure you weren't following my directions from the start so technically the whole ride was a detour."

"Mn!" She sulked and pinched my side, though she did no damage I pretended that I actually felt something from that, "You nitpick over the most peculiar things."

"I don't see a problem with paying attention to detail."

"Uuu, you could say I have a bad experience with particularly meticulous men. Especially the ones that set verbal traps and other deceptive methods that makes me reveal the truth to them. That way lies the path to being the worst sort of gentleman, fully devoid of chivalry!"

Judging by her mini tantrum I can safely say she's talking about my older brother Alexandre.

"Aren't you just angry about getting called out on your own sneakiness? And isn't that typical politician behavior? I'm pretty sure you just don't like losing."

"Ah. Really! You're supposed to be on my side."

"You can hardly blame me for pointing out obvious hypocrisy."

She stared at me with a petulant expression as I grinned lightly, in the end she merely sighed and giggled to herself, "Ahaha, I suppose I am being a little childish on the matter. At least I can trust you to be honest and straight-forward with me, without being brutishly impolite like him."

"I choose to take that as a compliment." I leaned down and kissed her on the cheek, she slowed down and 'parked' the carpet in the sky, then gestured for me to lift her up into my lap, clearly indicating how pleased she was.

After a bit of seating adjustments we continued flying over the country in an aimless manner.

"... I'll have to head back home tomorrow. Will you be okay without me?"

"You make it sound like I'm walking into hell. I'm perfectly capable of telling those HCC guys and some magical ancient clans that I'll take whoever I damn want from this country as another wife in my own time. I'll probably take a look at them, reveal something personal about their character then say something about how I wouldn't settle for just anyone."

One of the things I had revealed to Alice is my ability to discern the names and a quick summary of others just by looking at them. She had swiftly advised me on different ways to leverage it against other people.

Leaning back into my chest, Alice huffed, "I am well aware that you are perfectly capable of handling yourself in that field, in spite of your personal distaste over battles that are not ordinarily ended over the blade. I was speaking of whether you will miss me."

Strictly speaking, outside of our promise to be wed and our current relationship, she had already completed her business here after helping me align my Netherworld Phone to the correct realm (apparently the Witches and some Hime Miko call it the Astral Plan), though I would need to stabilize it myself over a period of time.

"You know I can just drop by whenever right? But to answer your question, that's a definite yes. Unless of course, you feel like calling all this off."

"Not in the slightest."

"Then it's settled."

"Not quite. We still have to decide on the date… hmm, it would be rather convenient for you if we had our wedding in a month's time. If you did that then the HCC and other Mage Associations would stay clear out of your way for a time, and after that I should be perfectly capable of managing their requests in your stead."

We had somewhat dodged around the topic of when we would get married. I know she has valid points and whilst I do think she's correct in what she says, I don't think she's right in the sense that her suggestion is totally skewed towards benefiting me.

"... Alice, while that would be helpful… you shouldn't have to rush things just for my sake. A lady only has one wedding, I mean, one first wedding and argh!"

It was harder than I thought to put what I'm trying to say into words. I'm conflicted. I really wanted to get married to her already and enjoy a beautiful marriage with lots of sex. On the other hand, I really hated the idea of forcing her into it, or making her come up with good reasons to push it through so that she wouldn't displease me.

Part of me really relished the fact that I could force whatever result I wanted, that I could make her marry me and do whatever I wanted with her because of how powerful I was. The other part of me was disgusted with the idea of taking advantage of my superior position over the younger girl and allowing her to convince herself that having it sooner is the better choice.

"-But your marriage ceremony should be special! I'm a flexible guy and my thoughts on it are different from yours, but what's more important is your own feelings about it. I don't want you to regret anything, I want it to be the happiest day of your life! I don't want you to hurry things up for my benefit, you should think about what you really want and talk to me about it. Whatever your choice is, be it several months or years from now, I'm willing to respect it and agree to it."

Alice stayed quiet for a long few seconds before turning around and embracing me tightly.

"Thank you William. Truly. I had been wor- very concerned over the dreadful possibility that you might lose interest in me if we did not marry soon… among other things. You have been very loving and considerate and I… love this part of you, and many others... I suppose I can tolerate your inability to be comfortable in a refined gathering as well." Her pupils shone with a mischievous luster as she slid that remark in just when it was getting really touching.

"You're such a cheeky little minx. Alice, I love you."

"H-how bold! Surely you could have declared your love and desire for me in a much more appropriate manner and setting!"

Seeing her flustered like that made me want to tease her further.

"I don't see a better setting than flying over the city on a magic carpet ride under the beautiful night sky alone with one's partner."

"You could have put it in a more romantic manner."

"I think telling the person you love that you love them is more than romantic enough. There's no room for misinterpretation there."

"You… you…" Whatever anger born out of her embarrassment quickly drained away, "I love you too."

We kissed under one of the most highly desirable romantic settings. After a long tender kiss, which we both greatly enjoyed (I had a high [Kissing] skill level, got plenty of advice from the resident married couple and practiced on a blank fleshy doll), we finally descended back to my manor.

After kissing each other good night, we departed to our respective bedrooms, once I was safe in the confines of my room and made sure nobody was there I did a quick victory jig for the day's near-perfect date.

I cooked breakfast for Alice the next morning (after telling Daigo and Maiya to give us some time alone), Alice told me that she decided that we should get married in four months, as that would be how long she would take to get everything ready.

It sounded a lot quicker than the marriage preparations I was familiar with, but I just chalked it up to it being Anime Ojou-sama things. I then took her back to England and returned back to Japan immediately after.

I did a bit of work on the grounds where the Netherworld Phone was planted on (in my backyard), then proceeded to tend to the magical Red Spider Lilies planted around it that helped maintain the association with 'death' needed to have a clear connection with the Boundary of Life and Immortality (also another name for the Netherworld).

After that, I made some business plans with Daigo on how I wanted to begin making my own company, as a way to help the Japanese economy break out of its stagnant state and hopefully, prevent its depressing future decline while making positive changes to its working culture.

With my game-given genius intellect, very high skill in [Engineering] and other skills, I planned to slowly accelerate technologies and make this country great again! Which would be another way for me to integrate myself into this country, if the model works, I could also start building ties with other South-East Asian countries and Australia.

Seeing that America, Europe and mainland China are the biggest Campione hot spots given how canon turned out, I may as well expand to other places where Campione's couldn't be bothered. Once I'm done with the SEA countries and Australia, I can make a move West through the Middle-Eastern countries then Africa!

Since the dungeons only go up to Level 100 I wouldn't be able to gain levels by continuous grinding, with only material grinding (the rewards and loot were improved tremendously) and skill grinding being the only other way I can pass the time within them (as the monsters do scale up to my level in terms of stats after I became a Campione), I needed to do something with my life outside of endless tourism and selling magical items.

Sometimes I need to refresh my creative juices by engaging in fresh challenges, and what would be more challenging (and fulfilling) than finding ways to improve the world (in my subjective opinion) and the lives of others?

"I thought to myself, 'hang the fuck on! If there are runes to improve health and fertility, why can't there be runes to improve health, beauty and intelligence?' Naturally I outdone myself."

I gestured to Maiya who now looked even more beautiful and had better assets after consuming the chocolate made with my special rune-engraved tools. Thanks to my ability to see my effects on her, I could tell that the 'corrective' effects (e.g. bust size growth and appearance improvements) were permanent and only the 'sustained' effects (e.g. resistances to diseases, acne, improved learning capabilities, etc…) would disappear if the buffs weren't refreshed.

Daigo was very pleased with the results (especially after I gave them two hours alone), he wasn't as pleased with the idea of showing his wife off to the HCC personnel during my 'proposal' presentation, but relented rather easily.

"And so I would like to conduct an experiment with a small town! All I need to do is have access to the water supply and I can dilute the effects so that it works gradually enough while being perfectly sustainable." After a month we can check if everything is safe, if not then I can fix it, if it works… "Once I have sure-fire proof that the process is effective, safe and secure then I will do the same to the entire country's water supply! No longer shall we have to labor under the yoke of settling with 5/10 or 7/10 partners, we shall have sexier 8/10 beautiful girls and handsome men at the least! Japan will be filled with the best looking people in the world!"

The (upper management) History Compilation Committee members stood up in a standing ovation.

There were a handful of dissenters among the group (they mentioned something about nature or natural beauty, and one of them was a lolicon), all of which I graciously reassured them that we could just agree to disagree, before I made the throat slitting gesture and had my magical golems apprehend them and drag them to my 'Obliviate Room'. I would have to wipe their memories of the meeting so that they wouldn't spread the word out to anyone that would obstruct my plans.

Two months later...

"Come on RNJesus grant me loot from the best drop table-!"

I said my prayer before striking down the [God-Like Emperor of Goblinkind] Boss Monster of my first dungeon as I was starting another dungeon grinding campaign.

Activating my Authority over lightning, I energized myself with Divine Lightning and swiftly ended the lives of all the enhanced goblins in the area in 0.01 seconds.

Thanks to my physics breaking [Turn Rate Zero]spell I no longer had to deal with pesky things like decelerating before changing my direction, which greatly improved my Speedrun capabilities. Though it didn't apply to just under a third of the dungeons where the special rules made it impossible for me to use lightning Authority properly.

But for the dungeons where I could use my power without huge consequences, only the top handful of highest leveled dungeons had monsters and environments that would be challenging enough such that it won't be a cakewalk to me, despite being capable of fighting at a third the speed of light.

"Whew! Man I love blitzing my enemies! Tastes better than cake."

I opened up the chest and to my great pleasure, found that it was another rare item.

[Greater Mango Tree Seed]

Description: Plant a mango tree that provides unlimited mango power. The tree generates [Enchanted Mangoes] every hour if it accumulates enough MP (can be fed MP), and creates a 250m X 250m [Non-Detection] zone where it is planted. Can be replanted, if fed enough MP, produces another seed.

[Enchanted Mangoes] - Restores 1000 MP Instantly and Grants +5 HP Regen per Second for 24 Hours. Yes, it can be juiced and used in cooking.

[Non-Det…]

"Oh yeah, nice drop! The mangoes aren't a late game item but I can definitely package it and give them as gifts! Or maybe I can sell them to the magical community? Mmm… better get some advice."

The more important part was the non-detection zone that would protect me from scrying, well, more than my 'outsider' nature already does. It's good that I can get new trees too and replant it wherever I want.

After blitzing through almost all the dungeons available to me, I called it a day and returned back to my Manor just before sundown. I planted the Greater Mango Tree Seed in my backyard and watched as it sprouted a tree in an instant!

Upon feeding it several million units of MP over the course of a minute, I waited for a few minutes to harvest a dozen mangoes, then went back inside to make some mango ice cream, making liberal use of magic to accelerate the process.

With so many servings I just had to share it around.

"Daigo, Maiya, have some mango ice cream."

I put the rest of it into my Inventory and visited various families I was acquainted with (e.g. Kohinata, Amakasu, etc…), giving their family members a scoop of ice cream.

After that I went over to track down Alice and stopped by to have lunch with her before offering the mango ice cream (time zone differences ftw).

"So you basically found and empowered a mango tree that grows enchanted mangoes that magicians would kill for… and the first thing you do is make ice cream with the fruits?"

"Yeah, basically."

"Ahah, as thoughtful as always. Mmmn! This is exquisite! Could you share the recipe with me, I wish to have my maids become capable of preparing it."

I took out several pieces of paper then used a spell to 'print' the words unto them, then handled the recipe and instructions to Alice.

We ended up having another discussion on whether my 'printing spell' could be taught and how it would definitely save people a lot of time in paperwork.

"Speaking of work, have you been doing anything interesting lately?"

"Oh, the usual, planning for world crises, dealing with Alexandre through his proxies while he's gallivanting around the world, managing the magi and other individuals within the Witenagamot. The wedding preparations are ahead of schedule, which leaves me time to pour myself into researching the "King of the End"."

"The one mentioned by that Divine Ancestor Guinevere who Alexandre is tracking down?"

"Yes, that one. We are currently looking into King Arthur's prototype, seeing as my acquaintance Lucretia's research indicates that it should be a much more ancient existence that transcends oriental and occidental divisions-"

This sounds like some main plot type of thing. I roughly recalled something about the King of the End not being King Arthur and that he was super OP or something. I could probably figure something out if I meet this Guinevere and her partner Lancelot face-to-face.

"And yourself? You have been inordinately pleased with yourself for the past month. It's about time you shared your results."

"Haven't you figured out enough with your Spirit Vision already?"

"I want to hear it from you."

I went on to explain how my experiment was a success and that the people living in the town experienced an… enhanced living standard. After that I went on to infect, I mean, improve the water supply of major cities. Once the rest of the HCC (that wasn't subverted to my cause) and the Four Families caught wind of my actions I went ahead and 'gifted' them a natural hot spring with improved effects created with the help of my Authorities.

My special hot springs was now a heavily protected site freely accessible only to the Four Families with the rest of the HCC being granted special access on a scheduled basis.

The health, beauty and mind improving aspects were ramped up to near divine levels, the waters would take away fatigue near instantly, were imbued with powerful healing properties (to the point where members suffering curses, had significant injuries or diseases would be tossed into it) and simply made them feel 'more' than human (temporary stat buffs and small permanent enhancements through my newly made [Unlock Potential (small)] enchantment.

Come to think of it, I really needed to set up that "Warrior's Summit" thing so that I could level up my [Unlock Potential] spell to DBZ level effectiveness by spamming it on others.

"I also used a special technique to become intangible to the physical world, then proceeded to blitz through major cities in Japan at lightning speed, using my ability to discern the circumstances of others to alert child services of certain abuses and solve a couple of problems where I could. I have also made a huge list of young talented teenagers and children that could be interesting to work with. How does "Gump's School for Gifted Youngsters" sound? I can even get started with my Valkyrie project by enhancing the females through a specially cultivated menu of enchanted food-"

Alice raised a hand to stop me, "I apologize for interrupting, but when exactly were you going to offer me this magical beauty treatment of yours?"

Thankfully I already had an answer for that, "Why, Alice, after I have perfected the effects for maximum benefit of course! Everything I've 'gifted' to my Japanese pals are prototypes and proof-of-concepts, I hadn't even put in my maximum effect yet, naturally you would get only the best from me."

That won her over real quick. I spent a while giving her the outlines of the new companies I was starting up then decided to tell her that the Netherworld Phone was just about ready.

Alice was, of course, invited to the first call. I would like it if my mother approved of my relationship with her.

Alice's father Duke Goddodin was hard enough to persuade, especially after I followed Alice's insane plan of signing a letter declaring that I would destroy London if he wouldn't give me his daughter's hand in marriage.