9

Arriving back at the gate I feel a weight off my back now that I can get this teasing succubus out of my lap. not that it's not appreciated but need to do some leg work to secure this mischievous maids heart before trying anything or I will just doom the route to failure and get a bad end. riding in toward a holding pen of some kind we begin to dismount.

"Your legs good enough to get down from here?" quite a few of the guards we rode past were giving me a death glare and she seems to be loving the misfortune she is casting upon me.

"Yes I should be fine now Sir Nova." she jumps straight off and turns to me with a bright smile. what a pain in my ass.

"You can just call me Nova by the way the Sir thing isn't needed, it's a bit weird in my culture to explain but it's not needed." as I hop down I look over and Alice and Athena are already walking over.

"Alright Nova, if that's the case I will call you by just Nova." nodding in agreement as Alice and Athena arrive by our side.

"Alright, if we're making ice cream, we will need a few things. milk, sugar, cream, and maybe some salt as well as some ice of course."

"I can get those items but what kind of cream?" Kia volunteers and Alice begins to lead the way.

"The fat layer that's skimmed from milk. it's kind of one of the most important parts it's even in the name ice cream. we can also add some of those jade dragon fruit it will add a nice flavor."

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After buying what was needed and arriving back at the place I am staying we notice a person standing at the door. as we approach they notice us and walk over and bow to Alice then hand a note over to me. Walking inside and setting everything down I open the note and see that it's a summons to come to meet Shea in the morning.

"What's that Nova?" Alice asks as she mashes the fruit we are peeling.

"It's a summons from your sister to meet tomorrow morning." grabbing one of the pots from the shelf I wonder how I will mix this up without a sealed container then I remember a water skin and come up with an idea. "Hey, Alice you got that big water skin on you still?" Pulling it out of her bracelet she hands it over.

After pouring the water out onto a baking sheet and freezing it with low-tier elemental magic I have from the magic circles. I then pour milk, sugar, and cream all into the pot and start mixing. adding in the fruit and getting a nice smooth mixture I pour it into the water skin and close it. breaking the Ice and making some more, I pour salt on the ice and set the water skin on it. after using a mix of low-tier ice magic to keep the ice from melting and speeding up the bag with Agares by a few minutes I Shake the bag and repeat until the bag feels a bit stiff. grabbing a few cups I squeeze out the ice cream into them and hand them over to the girls and they look at it a bit weird. it looks similar to soft serve and is a bit green like Pistachio and that is also what it tastes like which is a bit too much of a coincidence if you ask me. going back for a bit more Alice finally works up the nerve to try it.

"Mmmm yummy! this is so good." Alice begins to get into and following her example, Kia and Athena begin eating theirs. getting approval across the board I begin to think of ways to market this but I need to make a big ice cream maker like an industrial-sized vat ice cream maker. Shouldn't be too hard if I learn the mechanic trade and use some dragon inscription. I remember Zola the fairy dragon had made a modern washer and dryer using dragon inscription and ancient runes.

"Ahhh! my head!" Alice grabs her head and I realize I forgot to tell them to eat slow or they will get a brain freeze.

"Hahaha Alice press your thumb to the roof of your mouth to make it go away, also don't eat it so fast or you will get another brain freeze."

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Early morning arriving in the meeting room with only Shea and Gauss being present she beings to tell me about how they had 4 locations ready for me to set up.

"Whenever you are ready Gauss will take you to the location and you can do what you need to prepare them."

"I am ready now if you want to set off it should only take an hour or so to set one of them up, I have already prepared on my end" It will be pretty basic I will stretch a circle to speed up the growth using Agares and surprisingly Stolas. by using Stolas I can allow it to target the plants directly and also increase yield overall, the side effect of this is the food will have a tiny bit of poison in it but its so tiny that it wouldn't even do anything and people would have complete immunity to it after eating it a few times. on the same circle, I will add ten small circles that draw in the energy around them to keep the circle running, at first I thought this wouldn't work not being in the native world where this kind of circle comes from but it functioned fine in my tests. standing up I follow Gauss out the door.

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Setting up the last Circle I finish it up with no difficulties, like the others, and turn to Gauss and nod.

"If I didn't see you set up that large magic circle myself I wouldn't even be able to tell there is anything here, to begin with. it's very odd but knowing this we can add a few more farms in other areas today if you have time, originally I thought there would be more visually going on but there isn't anything to see. At least not to someone my level or lower and anyone higher wouldn't be going around checking farms for magic circles, to begin with. most people would just think it's a good season." Gauss seems very happy with this and in the future, I should be able to completely mask them from people weaker than me, I just need to acquire a stealth trait or a magic circle that cloaks.

"In the future, I should be able to make it even better but as of now, this is the best I can do. and I should be able to set up a few more if you lead the way." Gauss waves me on and we board a cart and get pulled along to the next area.

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-- Gauss pov --

After arriving back at the palace I had to give my report to Shea. walking into her study I see her reading away and announcing my presence.

* Cough * Shea raises an eyebrow then sets the paper aside and looks up to me.

"Gauss how did it go, he said a few hours but that took almost all day did something go wrong?" she asks with a bit of worry, not many could tell but after being so close and serving beside her I can detect this kind of thing.

"No he has completed them hours ago but we went and set up a few more after I observed the process and noted that the product would not attract much attention unless someone with some real power came poking around. after knowing that and Nova telling me as he gets stronger he can hide them with some means even better we went and set up some in locations I originally thought a bit too risky."

"Good that's really good news. when will we start having results also we need to prepare more locations to store the food and slowly start selling it and cut off our dependence on the red spirit estate."

"With the numbers, Nova figured the crops should grow four times as fast and give two times the yield so in a few weeks also as far as storage goes he proposed to me earlier to help set up a 'cold storage' that would preserve the food for many years but he said he wants to be paid a sum for each he sets up and a bump up of 5% in food profits." Shea thinks about it for a bit but agrees.

"If the food could be preserved that long then that would allow us to have a huge stockpile and not worry long term. do you think we could talk him down from 5% we need to get as much funds as we can if I am to ever take back the capital."

"Normally I would agree with you on talking him down but I believe we should accept his condition to have him feel comfortable working with us long term if he feels one day his established profits with us are ever in danger from outside threats he would help us more than if he had a lower stake in our business. by having a good deal with us will remove a lot of chance of him jumping ship at a better over. if he continues to keep bringing in ideas from his world the potential profit is too big to miss out."

"I understand, those are all good points." she seems to think about something before passing a report from the guard over to me. it is a complaint from Alan that the 'human' is getting too close to the princess and he fears for her safety but in reality, he doesn't like that Athena seems to be getting close to him. another interesting tidbit is that he was seen riding back with Kia in his lap, that could be useful for us. "what do you think Gauss?"

"I think that you should reward him for his progress in helping the dark moon and give him Kia. on the surface it will just look like giving a maid to a guest but in reality, we are testing his capabilities. if he can unravel the intentions of that succubus on why she was planted here and by who then we can work from there. we have always known the way she arrived and her strength that she was sent here but she has shown no negative intentions so far."

"I agree with that idea and also can add something to that." she motions to the ring on her finger. "with the 'dark will' he will be able to approach Kia and be immune to her devourer physique."

"Agreed, we should also have him sign one of his contracts to guarantee that he doesn't lose, sell or run off with the ring though. also you should give him an advisor position so that we can pick his brain on certain matters and judge if he is going to stay here and invest in the long term. I feel that after today with what I saw with his help the chance of taking back the throne goes up by a good bit. if he can make attacks on the scale he can make those circles for the farms then he would be a potent battle asset. and with the uniqueness of his magic, I doubt anyone but the highest strength in an army could even resist his attack."

"What rank do you think he is at?"

"If I had to guess I would say devil king at least with the amount of those circles he laid. he said they fuel themselves but still laying them has to drain on you at least a good bit."

"Alright send someone to tell Kia of the arrangement and also send someone to let Nova we have a position if he is interested in negotiating." going back to her reports she seems the same as when I entered but I can see a big weight has been lifted from her. with things starting to look good how could she not feel a bit less stressed.

"As you wish, I will have it all completed as fast as I can goodnight lord Shea."

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-- Nova pov --

After spending the day setting up those circles I went home to 'rest' but I wasn't tired I just didn't want Gauss to know I still have quite a bit of energy left. if I had to guess he probably could make some good guesses to my current strength but not an exact measurement, that's fine though I don't plan on hiding everything from allies. if they know I am pretty tough then I can convince them to certain ideas and throw out my ideas and they mean more than if I was a weakling. power is all that matters to demons. the strongest is always the one that's right. by having them think I am pretty strong they will have a better opinion about me, maybe be a bit warier but I think it's worth it in the long road.

I should also try to snag the arena as I am now I can easily beat joseph's three scythes. I can probably approach Royce and kick his ass and take him in with the promise of helping him get back Vasasha. I am confident that he would help me pull down joseph if I can help him get her back, plus she is madly in love with him so it's not even a morally wrong thing to do.

Remembering Joseph's downfall it all kind of started with the sky battle which should be coming up soon. I can participate and pull the odds in our favor and win those wyverns and get joseph in trouble while he deals with the backlash of that recruit Royce and get his help stealing the arena out from under josephs nose. with the arena I can bring in some ideas to gain attention and also make a lot of money.

with enough funds, I can start capitalizing on my meta-knowledge. I need some people to explore the dead sea I want to make early contact with the water elemental king. If I trade his water crown which is the origin fragment of water I can ask for him to convince the dark king to not help Teris awaken his powers which will weaken lord midnight sun.

Getting up and heading out to get something to eat and absorb some more sin I do some rough estimating and it will probably take weeks to get enough sin to buy advanced circles. I could try to buy some materials with sin and use them to get the rest of the way or I could go to the mountain mine and absorb all the crystals from Glorfin. but I don't want to go there till I am ready to take the mask for my use if I can even use the mask that is.

Arriving back at the palace I notice someone still swinging their sword and practicing even though it's getting to be close to bedtime for most. I can see pretty well in the dark as a devil almost as good as I could as a human during the day and I easily identify the person as Athena. walking over I see seems pretty in the zone and seems to not have noticed my approach so I alert her so she doesn't think I am just standing here creeping on her.

"Hey, Athena." She jumps back levels her blade with me then slowly eases it to her side when she recognizes me.

"Hey Nova, what are you doing out this late?" She is drenched in sweat and seems pretty out of breath, this commitment to training is probably why she promotes so fast compared to other demons in her age group. as a Wales she will get a free promotion up a rank if she remains a virgin till her next birthday but even without that she is said to be better than most everyone her age minus royal family demons. I wonder if I could age her up to pass that milestone and get her that promotion sooner, or better yet rewind her and age her again and get it multiple times. Worth asking her once we are better friends.

"Just going for a walk, are you going to continue training?"

"For a bit longer yes." looking around to make sure we are alone. "I don't want to feel as helpless as when that dragon appeared ever again. now me and my friends are all at his mercy and I feel responsible." damn that feels bad I know she's fine but knowing it's eating at her kind of makes me feel like a piece of shit.

"Well why don't I train with you? that way next time we can just beat the enemy's ass instead of getting put in such a poor position." she looks a bit surprised at my offer then smiles.

"You know how to use a sword?" I shake my head and she seems to think a bit before walking over to the building at the far end of the training yard and I follow. taking out two wooden swords she tosses me one. "here let's use these and don't worry about hurting me I am pretty tough." she says with a look of conviction. not that I would be all that great at holding back anyway with these powers and body being so new I accidentally break things trying to just pick them up.

"Alright just don't whine if I bang you up a little." I give a cheeky grin and she looks positively fired up in response as she gets in her stance.

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Laying on the ground not from being physically tired or hurt but mentally exhausted I turn over to the panting Athena. she glances over and glares.

"Did you have to kick me so hard I almost thought you broke my ribs?"

"Ah, my bad I just felt it at the moment I should of-" she cuts me off

"It's fine I was just tired and couldn't dodge but even still your strong, fighting you I think I finally broke through to a higher demon." She looks at her hands grasping them a bit then tries to stand and stumbles back. I stand up and offer her a hand and she takes it, hoisting her up she falls forward and I catch her in my chest.

"You alright? I can walk you back to make sure you don't fall over." she stays there for a moment then turns around and walks off toward her sword slinging it on her back and then looking toward me.

"Well? are you coming?" if I didn't know better I would say she is a bit embarrassed. smiling and walking over I walk beside her as we head to her place. walking mostly in silence except for the sound of her sword clanging on her back. I look her over again and she seems dead tired but seems a bit happy.

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-- Athena pov --

Arriving back at my house I turn to nova and see he is curiously looking around. the dang jerk doesn't even seem tired after all that. I will invite him to come tomorrow when I am refreshed and show him my might, then I can bang him up. still happy about breaking through to higher demon I turn to him at my door and he stops.

"If you want we can spar again tomorrow so you can practice with a sword some more." I offer

"That sounds fun lets do that. I have to go see Shea but after that I can meet up with you." hmmp at least he isn't a coward like Alan and those other jerks trying to propose to me through my dad. wait why am I even trying to compare then to begin with, do I like him? no that's not the case he is just the only guy who isn't scared to fight with me that's defiantly it.

"Ok I will see you tomorrow." I open the door and close it behind me trying to get out of that situation. its not that I was embarrassed but that I am ready to get clean and go to bed that's it.