52nd Move | Valar Morghulis
AN: I'm not back yet, this is just to celebrate the one-year anniversary of this fic.
This version of Tensura's cosmology will be heavily inspired by Xeeleeverse cosmology, since I am far from qualified in terms of physics even after spending hours on Wikipedia, browsing everything.
Gotta thank SpaceBattle for the Xeelee info
I updated some previous chapters as well.
One last thing, "Henri Werner - Imposter" is an excellent OP for the Final Arc, with the main color scheme being black, red, and white and the theme contrasting Chloe and Scientia.
"Aphrodite's Child - End of the World (HQ)" would be the ED
Once again, I'll state it again: I'M NOT BACK YET. For the first anniversary.
Without further ado.
_____________________________________________
Final Arc | Act I: The Tail's End of Summer
_____________________________________________
Three Month After Walpurgis, a meeting room within the Hexagon.
How...
...did it come to this? I wonder as I look at my message box, everything that happened in the past week felt like a slideshow as it played inside my mind. What the hell went wrong?
The noises and sounds that Rimuru and the others are saying are dulled due to how deep I am in my own mind, my left hand subconsciously massaged my forehead as if I had a killer headache.
The meeting room is jam-packed with people in the highest positions in the government. Due to the current situation, the President has declared a national state of emergency.
The constant back and forth between these people, so numerous as to blur together into white noise.
My brows furrow even more, completely hidden by the hand on my forehead. The white noise grows louder and louder as a small whimper escapes my lips, drowned out by the sea of chatter around me in the room.
Sensing my agitation, the Mathematic injected a calming serum into my bloodstream. Despite having a Philosopher Stone for a heart, 'blood' still pumps throughout my body as if I were a human.
The crimson liquid is produced from my 'heart' endlessly. The last time I experimented with how many blood cells, plasma, and other components the Stone will create, I dyed a portion of Lake Shisu pink for days afterward.
Even so, the calming serum isn't enough. It's like trying to put out a house fire with water coming out of a gardening hose.
[Silenced Emotion: 100%]
My eyes glazed over, everything else seemed too arbitrary and pointless now that I feel like a true machine.
In the face of infinity, nothing matters.
"Enough", I calmly spoke, completely silencing the room in an instant, "I will give myself up to the enemy."
_____________________________________________
A month before the meeting, Friday, the Citadel.
It has been two months since Walpurgis ended.
It has become an open secret among the Tempest Society that I am a Perfect Homunculus. The fact that most Tempest Citizens could not care less what I am astonished me. In retrospect, it made sense that they would accept me.
The World knows me as Demon Lord Scientia, the Futurist, but among the foreign nobles, I am called 'Kingmaker'.
Unlike many grand strategy games, changing borders would cause major red flags in the geopolitical scene, just ask Russia's currency; it still hasn't returned to what it used to be before they invaded Crimea. So Falmuth became a satellite state instead of annexation.
(AN: I wrote this chapter before the invasion of Ukraine)
Officially, the Kingdom of Falmuth become the Republic of Falmuth after the newly elected parliamentary council turned the status of Royalty into a mere figurehead, and with advisors from the Jura Tempest Republic, they switched their focus from trade to making clothes.
Why clothing? Throughout all of history, a tried and tested method of earning a large amount of wealth for a nation in a short amount of time is the fabric industry. Unlike most things, clothing is an essential part of everyday life for an individual, even if the economy is poor, people are still gonna buy clothes. What's more, clothing can be both a necessity and a luxury.
All these facts make the fabric industry one of the most stable ones, especially after the industrial revolution. Why did the British take over India? Partially for their cotton supply, why did the Confederacy of America need slaves? To pick cotton to make clothes. It's gotten to a point where during the mid-1800s, around 2% of the entire Earth's population worked in the fabric and textile industry simply due to how profitable it is.
Thus, the second act that the Parliament of Falmuth did after banning all forms of slavery (including indentured servants) was to specialize heavily in the textile industry after we had kickstarted their own industrial revolution. With advisors from Tempest, they should be able to go around most of the... dirty aspects of the process of industrialization, things like child labor, 60-hour workweeks, and things generally related to Victorian London were avoided with the passing of the Labor Bill after some pressure.
Industrialization should prevent any chance of chattel slavery from returning, as industrialization was the economic equivalent of a force multiplier; it put the power into that of the workers. It's why Communism and Socialism rose during that era and why I will not allow the former to even appear in the lexicon since Ruberios proves true communism is possible.
(AN: According to the Hinata chapters right after season 2, Ruberios was a communist utopia where the workers traded freedom but still has both the clergy and a monarchy... what the f—, Karl Marx would be rolling in his grave)
In terms of Falmuth's military, they weren't allowed to have one as we are currently occupying them to aid in Governmental Transition and avoid something like a coup from happening. Of course, they can reinstate it after the end of the Tempest Military Occupation.
Eurazania is treated as a special administrative region sort of like Hong Kong to China. This allows them a higher degree of autonomy than a province (they'll have their legal/political system, police force, immigration policy, etc) but they don't control their external affairs. Their capital is in the process of being repaired, but my efforts have been primarily focused on removing the fallout so that farming can return.
The Puppet Nation Jistav was absorbed into the Jura Tempest Republic as the new Province of Jistav after a referendum with 91% of the voters wanting to join Tempest. There were riots planned by Clayman loyalists but Special Circumstances canceled those plans via executive actions against the leaders.
I had to personally take the field just to pacify and stabilize the whole region. Like hell I'm going to allow unrest to fester.
The 100 million individuals joining us as new citizens had strained our administrative capacity to the absolute limit. It was so bad at one point that I had to take a momentary break from writing the Constitution of the Falmuthian Republic just to help with the integration and freeing of millions of slaves.
Racial tension is still high between those who benefitted from Clayman's reign and those who were repressed. Even now, after I personally introduced similar policing measures you'd find in Metropolis, hate crimes still persistently happen. Much to my and Rimuru's dismay, it'll probably take an entire generation of people for the pain from centuries of Clayman's rule to lessen, that's why the first thing I did was to introduce a new mandatory child curriculum separate from the rest of Tempest.
God that was such a messy week, which is further compounded when after finishing the Republic of Falmuth's Constitution, I had to deal with the Eurazanian Refugee Crisis as the Acting Minister of the newly minted Ministry of Disaster Response.
At least it wasn't all bad, as a good thing that happened ever since Walpurgis was I finally cracked the code for eternal free energy, [Inspired Inventor] dubbed it: 'The Universe Reactor'.
In order to understand how the Universe Reactor works, one must understand how close String Theory and Brane Cosmology were to the truth; that being how the other 7 spatial dimensions beyond the basic 3 spatial and 1 temporal are compactified down to the Planck scale into the forms of Calabi-Yau manifolds and how the Bulk is in fact the Metaphysical Plane— the 12th and final dimension that encompasses all other Worlds— is the wall that separates us from the Great Beyond, a Type IV Multiverse.
Now, these Calabi-Yau manifolds are what's responsible for the Physical Constants (similar to the string theory landscape), with the Metaphysical Constants upheld by the Metaphysical Plane (It's how my old world has a Hubble's Constant that's a billionth of a percent faster than that of this world).
Utilizing the ultra-advanced forms of field manipulation technology that use Imaginary Math dealing with higher spatial dimensions, I can control the shape of these compactified manifolds, ending in me being able to effectively control the physical laws in a region of space, or if I scale it up enough; a whole universe. It's in a way similar to the Holographic Principle, where instead of information being encoded at the edge of the Spacelike Infinity, every piece of information is engraved upon those Calabi-Yau manifolds and quantum strings.
But here comes the problem: even if I offload most of the calculations to the Star Computer and Jupiter Brains (planets that are converted into computers), I can't change the Calabi-Yau manifolds within this universe fast enough and to such a degree that it can give me free energy unless I want to spend the next 3-years of my life tinkering on it. Thus, I lifted the ban on Multiversal Exploration and had the Star Computer use all of its processing power to search the System for a universe that fits the bill.
It wasn't until last week that Star Computer found a World that fits my requirement. Opening a wormhole to that (VERY) bright and (EXTREMELY) hot universe, I pinched off a portion of it with a singularity, creating a miniature universe for me to tinker with.
After that, the Universe Reactor was born; a closed pocket universe the size of Saturn where the laws of entropy are non-existent and any energy you put in is exponentially increased endlessly. In order to avoid a kugelblitz from forming due to the energy becoming too dense, I had to causally connect it with a wormhole to another pocket universe of near-absolute entropy to serve as a heat sink.
The Universe Reactor's output alone is approaching a theoretical Type V civilization on the Kardashev scale, but the thing that scares even me about this Reactor is that its output can go higher, as in theoretically indefinitely so long as I allow cosmic inflation of the pocket universe to occur. This is superior to the negative mass reactors I've been using up until now since it does not decay.
The Universe Reactor: a source of true, eternal, endless energy. True violation of the Laws of Thermodynamics.
Returning to the present, I drizzled on some gravy before gripping the bowl of poutine by its side and carrying it over to the dinner table, Milim anxiously waiting in her chair.
As a side effect of my creating the Universe Reactor, I had half expected it to give me a new skill like the Matrioshka Brain, only for the Voice of the World to surprise me and give me the title of 'Material Lord'
"Oh, that smells so good!" she exclaimed, "what is it? What is it? What is it?"
What is the end result of being called the 'Material Lord' is beyond even [Contessa].
Placing the bowl in front of her, I stabbed a spoon into the mixture of cheese, french fries, and gravy, "this is called Poutine, it is a food from my old world that I think you'll enjoy a lot."
I then mixed the entire thing until it is somewhat homogenous.
"Done, enjoy!"
Milim digs in with the eagerness of Mother Bear in protecting her cubs, devouring the dish while moaning in ecstasy.
I let out a sheepish smile at the sight, [Cooking] was able to turn even the most mundane of dishes into something worthy of a Michelin Three-Star restaurant. My apron shifted into a display screen as I check my messages. Part of my mind was a bit apprehensive about what was coming next as about two days ago, Arcueid tried to take our relationship to the next level...
_____________________________________________
The day before yesterday, night.
I sat on the bed, having just woken up from a nightmare. Arcueid lay beside me, still sleeping peacefully.
Recently, I've been having specifically two different types of nightmares.
The first one is where I'm standing on a planet made up solely of other versions of myself. Bodies, arms, and legs made up the ground I'm standing on. Sometimes they would grab me and try to pull me under while other times it was a constant sea of shifting mass that I'm standing on, the bodies ignoring me while fighting with each other to stay above ground like a person fighting to stay on the surface of a pit of quicksand.
The second one is far worse. I saw myself trapped in a dark cell, bleeding profusely with drainage pipes off to the sides. Whenever 'I' had finished regenerating, there would be these beings of shadow that would come to drag the other me out of the cell, and all the while I was forced to be a passive observer with no physical body of my own, like a spirit. Whenever the other 'me' return, there would be all kinds of wounds all over their body, everything from missing fingers, legs, and organs, hell, there was this one time when I looked steamed.
As in the cooking process, like steamed buns.
[Psychology] diagnosed me with PTSD and those dreams are just a manifestation of my internal issues. I would've believed in that diagnosis wholeheartedly had it not been for the fact that every time I had gone to sleep, I'd get at least some variants of those nightmares.
Thus, instead of trying to sleep again, I took out a pair of augmented reality glasses and started working. They're a poor man's hologram, but since holograms glow like an LED and Arcueid's right next to me, I chose the option that wouldn't disturb her.
From an outside perspective, it'd just look like I was tapping on air but in reality, any moment I make is caught on by the glasses and translated into movement made by the tabs projected onto the surface of the AR glasses.
I checked up on Project Mobius. The titanic amount of resources I'm pouring into the project really goes to show just how far I've expanded. From the furthest light down to the nearest star, there is not a single place within the Observable Universe where one cannot find a single trace of me.
For a brief few seconds, I wondered if there are anyone similar to me within the Unobservable Universe before stopping and continuing to work.
I was deeply engrossed in my work, so I wasn't able to realize the exact time when Arcueid had woken up and placed me in an embrace. Only when my movement was impeded by her body did I notice that something was wrong.
"Scientia. I thought you promised me you'd stop working," Arcueid said as she took away the AR glasses, "that you'd spend time with me."
I felt guilty. The End of the System didn't leave me a lot of free time, so I optimized my unique physiology to the maximum and started working multiple days at a time. I then further optimized my use of time by combining whenever I sleep with spending time with Arcueid. The True Ancestor isn't so high maintenance as to demand my presence 24/7, so cuddling together, holding onto each other as we fall into slumber is just barely enough.
"I'm... sorry," I still haven't told her about the End of the System yet. I stared off into somewhere else, I can't bare to look at Arcueid since seeing her pouting face would be just—
A hand grasped my face, forcing me to turn and look into Arcueid's red eyes. Moments later, our lips crashed into each other as the True Ancestor kissed me.
Shifting her weight onto my body, I fell down to the soft bed, Arcueid on top of me in a straddle position.
I could do nothing but take it as the vampire took the initiative, her mouth covering mine and her tongue exploring my insides with vigor like a bright eye adventurer out on their first quest.
I could feel the sweat form on my back as Arcueid continued, my arms crawled up and covered the side of her stomach, her unbelievably soft skin made this makeout session even hotter.
As we parted, Arcueid erotically bit into my lower lips. Oh god, that's hot.
I could see blood flushing into the True Ancestor's face, turning them almost as red as her eyes. In my private life, I've always been more of a follower, where Arcueid lead, I shall follow.
Then just as Arcueid leaned in and I prepared myself for another round, the vampire surprised me by going for my left ear.
A shiver shot through my body with how hot Arcueid's exhaling breathe was—
"Ahhh~" I unintentionally let out a ridiculously embarrassing sound as Arcueid softly nibbled at the tips of my ears. My body started squirming uncontrollably when she then started tracing her tongue all over it, "stop~! It's dirty!"
Arcueid stopped for a second before giggling, "Aw, Tiaaaaa~, did you really think I wouldn't know how much you care about cleanliness? Your skin is one of the cleanest and most sterile places I've ever seen."
"...Ahhh... I'm not getting out of this am I?"
Instead of a verbal answer, I felt a hand tread down towards the area between my legs. This new body of mine, despite not having any reproduction organs, has certain erogenous zones. The most sensitive area is interestingly enough, between my legs.
So as Arcueid started her assault by gently, oh so teasingly gently, touching and rubbing the area in a circular manner.
"Ah~!" Voices that are unfamiliar to me leaked out of my mouth, "Ah~ ah~ ah~!"
The fact that her finger felt cool to the touch just added another layer of eroticism.
I think with this new body I may have some interest in temperatures.
A hazy mist covered my mind, preventing me from thinking too deeply about that idea. My attention was fully locked on the beautiful woman in front of me.
The dim moonlight from the balcony outlined her otherworldly lithe frame, her crimson eyes were hypnotic, and her large chest looked supple and extremely soft to the touch as I squeezed it.
"Ah~!" This time, it was her to let out such a strange voice.
Despite having slept with at least a dozen women, I don't think any of them ever had chests this naturally large.
With one swift motion, I was now on top of the vampire. With her below me in a straddling position, I could see every inch of her body.
The way her silky legs wrapped around my waist, the way she looked away from my gaze in embarrassment: a new intense desire blossomed inside my heart. It was all just so heavenly that I just yearned to be closer to her, to embrace her fully.
I disregarded a sudden dash of doubt entirely.
I moved in for another kiss, and despite me being on top, Arcueid proved that once again, she was the one who leads and I follow by taking control.
Her tongue started exploring my insides again, her vigor stronger than before as my own could only serve as a cushion.
Once we parted, a trail of glistening saliva connected both of us. We were visibly breathing heavily despite not needing any air. I could feel the blood rushing to my face, heating it up immensely, just as with the True Ancestor.
I pinned Arcueid's arms down and she didn't resist, her soft flesh consuming bits of my hand and fingers as they sunk down making my yearning rise to a level I didn't know was possible.
Hot. Her eyes are full of desire.
"Haaa..."
So hot. Instinctively, a viable sword for her sheath formed between my legs. It was a biomechanical sex toy connected to my nerves, allowing me to feel what it feel as though it was a flesh and blood penis. The entire thing was malleable, allowing it to take any size, shape, and texture. It also has a vibration option for extra stimulus since rarely do females ejaculate based on penetration alone.
"Haaa..."
Seeing what was coming next, Arcueid swallowed her saliva as I used my hands to separate her smooth and slender legs, allowing me easy access to her entrance.
Even with the soft light coming from the false moon, I can see her glistening. Trails of wetness crawled down from her flower.
Dark thoughts entered my mind as my desire, my need, and my lust consumes every last piece of my conscious thoughts.
I looked deep into her crimson eyes, that perfectly shaped body, those perfectly symmetrical natural E-cup chest that grew a bit because she was aroused, her cute lips that I want to kiss, the short golden hair that was so similar to mine, a look of contradicting demure and sensual, and that sweet, sweet innocence that I just utterly love and adore about her since she's like a beacon— my beacon of hope, of happiness, a living painting of womanly beauty, a perfection that not even Da Vinci could make...
...and...
...and...
...and...
...and...
...and it would be so easy to taint it, to shatter it, to corrupt her, to get her addicted to me, to ensure she never leaves me or even thinks of betraying me.
Specialties like [Biology] whispered to me ways of pleasuring Arcueid in ways that would twist her, get her addicted to me. [Chemistry] comes up with blueprints of chemicals strong enough to affect a True Ancestor like her.
It would be no different from torture really.
I smiled with lust and cruelty, my usual inhibition concerning coitus was yeeted out the proverbial window.
I grasped her supple and shapely chest, unable to fully cover her two mounts.
[Alert]
"—!"
"Ah—!"
Before this could continue any further, I froze. My fingers stabbed into her flesh hard enough to actually alert Arcueid that it was more than just rough play. I felt a pit, a hole had opened up underneath me.
I was about to fall.
I'm falling.
I felt like my foot was freezing, my brain is saying that I'm falling despite my other senses reporting the exact opposite.
My breathing quickened as an intense desire to back away, away from her straddle, away from the 'hole', away from Arcueid, away from any thoughts of tainting her perfection blanketed my thoughts, eclipsing everything else like how the moon eclipses the sun.
Throwing myself off of her with a single push, the top rail of the footboard smashing into the back of my head felt a much-needed sobering splash of cold water.
"Oww!"
Still, pain is pain.
"Are you alright?!" She asked worriedly as I instinctively raised my body into a sitting position.
Seeing Arcueid's worried expression made my legs feel as if they were made out of silly strings, how fortunate I am to be still in bed.
I looked dazed, my legs became numb as I attempt to collect my thoughts.
I've had plenty of one-night stands in my past life, why am I—
Utter disgust rocked through my body like the banging of a drum in a canyon when my eyes gaze innocently upon the nude form of Arcueid, the thoughts I had at that moment of perverting that beauty, the thoughts of destroying that innocence, came rushing back like karmic debt.
The very idea of corrupting her...
It. Disgusts. Me.
I felt sick, I need to throw up. Covering my mouth with one hand and placing the other over my stomach, I practically leaped off the bed and ran towards the bathroom, gripping the side of a toilet.
I felt my eyes water as I attempt to throw up, only, nothing came out.
Have you ever felt the need to sneeze but when you do, nothing came out? That's what I'm feeling right now as I literally cannot throw up; any food I eat is turned into magicules the moment they pass through my esophagus.
The stone automatically transmutes the food into pure magicule that is then consumed by said stone.
Soon enough, I felt someone patting my back in between bouts of dry heaving, and despite having spilled no content of my stomach, I still felt my throat burn as if I did.
I heard Arcueid apologize, I would've assured her nothing was wrong but my stomach would disagree.
_____________________________________________
Now.
The next morning after that I felt extremely bad, however, Arcueid felt even worse than I did, claiming that it was her fault for trying to take our relationship to the next level when I'm clearly not ready.
In the end, she decided to take me out for a treat...
...on her budget to show how serious she was since apparently, she earned a large amount of ad revenue from her blog about books that she posts every now and then.
I've always known she had a blog but out of privacy I never asked how much she was earning.
I'm awestruck by her development into an independent, and mature person. The Arcueid I met at that rail guard would've never thought of doing such a thing, I don't think she even knew the concept of consent back then.
Although, why did Veldanava make spirits able to experience reproductive joy? Like for humans and majins, it's to serve as incentives and procreate, so why spirits?
Rather, I want to know why me?
Why can I, a Perfect Homunculus, have areas that can feel such stimuli?
"Hey, Scientia do you have any more?" Milim's words snapped me out of my thoughts.
Blinking, I glanced and saw no new messages on the display, "um, do you want more?"
"Yeah! the poutine is unlike anything I've ever eaten before! All my 'followers' offer me are yucky raw food with no seasoning, 'oh the Great Milim only deserve the freshest food in all the world, and what food is fresher than raw?'."
She ended that with a fake low-pitch voice imitating someone else.
That reminds me, "on the topic of your followers, you don't mind the fact that some of them... died during the Ameld Massacre, right?"
Her head tilted to show she was in deep thought, before waving me off, "oh don't worry about it, the Dragonewts can always just repopulate themselves. Now, more Poutine?" She held up an empty bowl with a pleading look on her face, oil glistening off of the inside of the ceramic bowl.
Sighing at her casual dismissal of such an issue, I grabbed the bowl off of Milim's hands and placed it in the Water Washer. Unlike metal plates, I can't use the faster Sonic Washer as that'll more likely shatter the ceramics.
On a whim, I decided to use [Contessa] and created a '[Path to defeating Milim]'.
[3 Steps]
[Step 1: say, 'You killed them']
I stopped. The uncanny resemblance to Guy is almost disturbing. In hindsight, it should've been obvious that Milim and Guy are connected somehow, like how the old people of one neighborhood know the other well, and so too would the oldest beings in the world. It's really human for them to be affected by loneliness.
Taking a huge bowl out of the cupboard, a holographic panel suddenly popped up next to me, displaying that I got a new message.
It's an internal memo alerting everyone that next Friday is the opening of the Space Elevator in Trantor.
The current geopolitical situation reflects a multipolar order world that can be divided into 4 spheres of influence: The Western Bloc, The Eastern Bloc, The Central Bloc, and The Southern Non-aligned Bloc, the Non-aligned being composed entirely of Sarion and their ally, the disgusting Ulgrasia Republic.
(I swear, if Ulgrasia didn't have such close ties with Sarion I would've flexed my political muscle to 'liberate' and institute a better system.)
The investigation into Eastern Empire has been less than helpful as they've got some seriously good cloaking magic around the really important area. An iron curtain surrounds the entire Eastern Empire, an information black hole that some historians in the West have come to call 'Fortress Orientem'.
The Council of the West was not happy with the establishment of a new geopolitical Superpower right on their doorstep. They especially hated the fact that Falmuth, one of the biggest contributors to the Council, is breaking away from the West and leaning towards Tempest instead.
They tolerated Blumund since the Kingdom is still willing to trade secrets, but even that stopped when President Rimuru launched the Central Continental Treaty Organization (CCTO) a month after Walpurgis. The CCTO is an economic and military alliance between Dwargon, Tempest, Eurazania, and Blumund, with Falmuth gaining an associate status but is expected to join after the governmental transition is completed.
The alliance is similar to NATO of my old world, where an attack on one is an attack on all (Blumund was especially happy with this).
The economic portion of CCTO called for the cutting of all taxes involved in intra-organizational trade, allowing Tempest corporations to expand unimpeded inside each of their nations. Honestly, we got the better deal as you don't make billions by mining, you do it by making the iPhones. Just like third-world countries in my old world, even if the pay by these corporations is abysmal by Tempest standards, they're much higher compared to any jobs belonging to the locals.
The Council was even less happy when there's the largest brain drain in history happening right now, as every month tens of thousands of well-educated people and intellectuals immigrated to the Republic in search of a better life.
They were so unhappy that, other than Ingrassia, most other countries followed Ruberios' example and did not establish any forms of diplomatic ties.
Ingrassia was a rarity among the backward-thinking elites of the West. King Aegil led a lifelong economic and political liberalization campaign, allowing the common man to raise their status to the level of nobility if they work hard enough.
I'd like to think the only reason Ingrassia established diplomatic relations with us was that we're like the idealized society imagined by King Aegil, but then again, there is no benevolent tyrant.
Still, having one nation in the West recognize you are pitiful. Given how Eurazania's farms still aren't fully operational, I figured Tempest could bribe other Western nations with food. But Ruberios canceled that avenue by giving out food stored within their vaults.
Rimuru was frustrated with the diplomatic limbo, so he planned to host an event that would force nations to recognize Tempest, or else there'll be great backlashes.
The event had to be grand, and Rimuru had asked me how quickly can I make a Space Elevator.
The answer was very quickly, as evident when the Space Elevator was completed in little under a month, a feat of unparalleled engineering and logistics.
With Rimuru framing this event as an achievement made by all of Intelligent Life, it essentially forces every nation to either accept the invitation— whereby recognizing our existence— or deny it and miss out on perhaps the greatest achievement in recorded history; resulting in huge loss of prestige among the international community.
A smile formed on my face.
Rimuru has grown so much after Walpurgis, I thought proudly, the old him probably would've asked me for a solution.
Grabbing a bag of cheese curds from the massive double-door fridge before pouring them over the remaining french fries from the last batch. Sending a command through the Noosphere, I waited for a minute before opening a portal to my pocket dimension above the bowl of french fries.
Quickly, hot gravy came pouring out of that portal and onto the cheese. I watched as it slowly melt and seep through the cracks and into the bundle of fries. The gravy stopped after dumping 250 mL, exactly the amount I ordered to be produced.
With two spoons, I mixed it well, bending the bits of half-melted cheese with the fries before giving it to Milim.
Taking a peek at the clock at the edge of my peripherals, currently displaying 18:52, my eyes widen at how close it is to 19:00, or around the time when I and Arcueid had agreed upon.
Opening a door using Doormaker, I quickly bid my farewell to a Milim head-deep in the bowl, a comical sight that gave me a few chuckles.
Appearing in an alleyway, the smell of garbage was the first thing that hit my nose.
Looking at the source, I'm greeted with a large, green metal container with a Metropolis Garbage Disposal logo off to the side. Overall, it looked like one you'd find in the downtown area of a city.
With a single adjustment of the Mathematic, the warp space which surrounds my body altered itself to block out molecules responsible for the smell.
Remaking the Block Form into a winter coat, I walked out of the alley. My eyes were greeted with the bustling street of Metropolis, people of all races walking down the sidewalks while electric cars drove down the main road. Off in the city skylines were towering Arcologies that stretched far above the clouds, looking a lot like pillars that hold up the heavens.
Using my internal GPS, I navigated through the sea of people rushing to get home.
Eventually, after walking a city block and just admiring the view, I stopped when I passed by the glass front of an antique store.
Antique stores are rather uncommon in a place such as this. Especially with how advanced technologically everything is, only the really rich families buy antiquated items that have no uses other than to just look cool.
What caught my eye was a single opened wooden music box that looked like it had been decades ever since its creation if the rust on the metal part is any indication. Small enough to fit in my hands, it's really nothing special, but [Carpenter] was absolutely infatuated with the designs on the sides while [Machinery] is intrigued by the mechanical portion responsible for the actual music.
Crouching down by the glass wall, I got a better look at the music box,
The glass wall is really preventing me from hearing what it's actually playing, however, zooming in on the minuscule grooves on the drum responsible for the song, [Vocal Recognition] helped me reconstruct the entire thing.
Softly humming it out, I discovered it was a piece of soft, gentle music, like something you'd find a mother humming to their children as they fall asleep.
It's peaceful, undeniably so.
Would probably be a good gift for Arcueid considering her nature... I considered. The price is easily affordable by my metric. Still, then again, anything in Tempest is affordable considering I lay claim to the entirety of the Observable Universe and bits of the Unobservable Universe, meaning pocket change for me would be the equivalent of star systems while '100-dollar bills' would be a galaxy.
The door to the antique store opened with a 'chink' as I walked through, finding a kind-looking old human male at the counter. In less than 5 minutes, I am now the owner of an antique music box, right now inside another wooden box layered with styrofoam.
I looked at the picture I had taken of it before being boxed up, the design is definitely beautiful, a clear, hand-carved wooden box from Dwargon that probably cost thousands in my old life.
Wait— the time! I froze still when I walked out the door of that antique shop, right before the incoming traffic of people. Gritting my teeth, I saw that currently, the Mathematic displayed 19:06 and promptly relaxed a little, at least it was not too late.
Normally, I would not use Doormaker in a place as open as this, but...
Walking through the black rectangle with purple outlines, I took a good look at the place Arc was talking about.
It's a fancy Ingrassian-style restaurant that should be way out of any common person's price range, with the red carpet and all.
I...it has been some time since I've last eaten a proper meal beyond the spiced nutrition packets that [Cooking] made, or at all considering my biology.
"Tia!" A silver bell-like voice called my name, her tone full of innocence that one cannot help but love and protect.
Turning to face the source of the voice, I saw Arcueid standing by some chairs she was probably sitting in and waving at me. Currently, she's wearing a set of white light-jacket with thigh-high black boots, and around her neck was a large fluffy white scarf connected via a black bow. With how light Arcueid is wearing, completely in contrast to everyone else's around us, it would be easy to assume that it's only mid-autumn instead of late winter.
Are those cat ears on her head—?
Blinking, I couldn't find the phantom cat ears.
She walked over and was about to give me a small kiss, only to stop when I reached into the plastic bag hooked around my arms and offered her the wrapped music box.
Taking it out of my hands, Arcueid had an adorable pout on her face.
"Tiaaaaaaaa~, you didn't have to give me a gift you know!" She clutched the gift deep into her chest as though it was the most precious thing in the world.
"Well," thinking quickly, "considering your birthday was on December 25 and that, by my calculation, Christmas passed around a while ago in my world, I figured giving you a birthday gift should be nice."
The pout on her face turned into a sincere smile as her cheeks were dusted with a small blush. Giving me a long kiss that tasted a hint of sweetness, she looked like she wanted to say something before grabbing my hand and dragging me inside the restaurant as though I were a pet.
I was getting odd looks with almost everyone whipping out their phones and recording me as if I were some kind of exotic animal. Just like the last time, I used [Mekhane] and temporarily disabled all their phones within a radius of myself, preventing any paparazzi from getting any unwanted photos.
Making our way to a private room, we were handed the menu by a human female waitress once Arc and I sat down.
My Mathematic automatically shifted into indoor clothing once I started to read the menu, sneaking a peek at Arcueid, I discovered that her jacket was nowhere to be found, instead, she was wearing the same white long-sleeved shirt, short blue skirt, and black leggings she always wore.
[Psychology] interrupted my view by saying that the waitress is especially nervous as she discreetly chewed on tip of her pen.
"I'll have the dragon curry," I ordered, ending the silence.
"And I'll take the tiger steak,"
Arcueid seemed to have an intense dislike for curry if her grimace is any indication when I offered her some of the dragon curries.
She acts like a child being given broccoli.
It was only a few days after she had come to this world when I asked how many people she drank blood from considering she's a vampire. Using [Mathematic] and [Biology] and assuming that physics is the same, every liter of human blood should contain around 900 calories before abandoning this line of thought when I recalled these vampires could leap taller than some skyscrapers, obviously, we're dealing with magic here.
So I answered with a random number of 100,000.
The look of indignation in her eyes is priceless.
During the dinner, there was an intense blanket of silence as both of us did our best to avoid eye contact.
"So..." Arcueid started the conversation while fidgeting around with her food, the entire room was immediately bathed in awkwardness. With a firm tone that leaves nothing to the imagination, "I understand you aren't ready to take our relationship to the next level, and I want you to know I'm perfectly fine with that. I love you for who you are, not because of your body."
My mouth opened before closing, this went on for several more seconds before I let out a small, almost inaudible sigh, "thank you."
She then reached over the table and grabbed my left hand, "I'm really sorry for trying such a thing while you aren't ready."
Taking a deep breath, I looked to the side to avoid eye contact, the next part felt especially difficult for some reason, "no, I also need to apologize... I thought I was ready, but— I'm sorry for leading you on."
[Psychology] note how similar I and Arcueid are feeling right now. She is feeling guilty for pushing our relationship into areas I'm uncomfortable with while I'm feeling bad for being too passive.
I'm reminded of the fact that on the rare occasions I do come home back in my old world, my parents would often say stuff like 'relationships are complicated; take it slow', and 'when can I expect a child'.
[Suggestion]
Ugh, this feels like the plot of a romance novel. I massaged my forehead, only to stop when [Contessa] suggested something to me.
To be honest, I have this...admittedly illogical prejudice against the Ultimate Skill
And it's not helped by the fact that the Ultimate Skill has a harder time precog-ing other Ultimate Skill users. Quite frankly, I don't trust any Paths that are too long. It's the same reason why you never plan too specifically for the far future; there is just too high of a chance that something goes awry, I should know, the first time I tried asking a girl out in high school, I planned everything down to the last second, but she wasn't there that day since she was sick.
'Never play more dice than necessary against God' is a good rule of thumb in more than just one when playing the stock market.
"How about this, we'll create a Relationship Agreement."
Arcueid tilted her head to show confusion, "what's a Relationship Agreement?"
"I actually got this idea from this one TV show I watched in my old life. In this show, one of the characters absolutely loves contracts and agreements, and when he dated someone, he had a relationship agreement where he had set out specific rules and boundaries for both him and his partner to follow. We could do that." I spoke with a hint of fondness.
God, I miss that show, and I didn't even see the ending yet!
Arcueid's mouth thinned, "I mean... we could but..." she was a bit hesitant as she played around with her hair. "That kinda takes the spice out of things, doesn't it?"
I thought about her words and clicked my tongue, it does make sense since if everything is the same then there's not ever really an exploration of interest; it'll become boring essentially as every day would be the same.
Perfect for Sheldon, not for real life.
"I guess so... we'll just put a pin in it."
The dinner finished with the True Ancestor taking a selfie with me, noting how this is one of the rare times we had gone out. I chatted with Arcueid about her blog, and how it exploded after people knew it was her who was reviewing these books. After paying for our meals, Arcueid gave me a hug like a possessive cat before dragging me across the city into a theater to watch a silent film.
Due to how new everything is, there aren't really any good or well-known movie actors.
I miss action movies like Rambo and the Fast and Furious series, where I can just turn off my brain and enjoy mindless actions.
Still, watching a goblin version of Charlie Chaplin is funny as all hell.
_____________________________________________
AN: The clothing portion was inspired by BritMonkey's Bangladesh video.
I've hit a bit of writer's block concerning how the final battle is going to turn out. Like, I imagined the scenes already and have a general idea of where each goes, but I'm having difficulty connecting them together.
In my defense, this is a realistic AU and actual romantic relationships are complicated. I don't think most people realize that marrying someone is something sacred, something you actually think about instead of the split-second decision made by anime characters (looking at you SAO, and other isekais like Arifureta).
So I don't see how having sex for the first time for reasons beyond that of lust is any different, it is a huge jump for most people, and thus emotionally speaking, it has a weight.
Oh and I'm going to nip this in the bud: the reason why a Soul Corridor didn't form between the Kijins and Scientia was due to the stipulation of the contract Scientia signed with them, that being their relationship is not one of servant and master but instead a contractor and contractee.
Also, if you guys want to friend me on my F/GO account here's the ID: 879,637,518