"It's good to see you back."
"I'm happy to be back." Raikou answered cheerfully. "Everyone has been so welcoming as soon as I returned too."
Venelana gave her a side hug. "It's because everyone is glad that you're back home."
"Did Yasaka and the others have any indication they were coming back yet?" I asked.
Raikou shook her head. "Scáthach may be back soon, but Yasaka and Artoria are still dealing with a lot of things that require their presence. I think Jinn isn't coming back either because she's overseeing some stuff as well. Unfortunately, it's nothing that I can help with."
Wilhelm did say that he would be coming back to help her with some matters regarding 'cleanup' there as well.
Raikou smiled brightly, pressing her cheeks together with a barely held back laugh before putting a bunch of different papers on the table. A quick glance showed lots of drawings, writings, and other things of that nature.
"These were all waiting for me when I got back. All the children had been writing me letters and giving me drawings, and all of them were so sweet, wishing me the best."
"Aww, that's adorable." Venelana cooed. "I'm sure they're going to be thrilled that you're going to be back now."
"We should— " My words abruptly died because a portal opened up and Wilhelm came walking out. "Wilhelm?"
His head peeked around a very large stack of papers.
He silently walked over and dropped them on the table, making it shake.
"...Are you okay, dear?" Venelana was the first to ask him as we all noticed his expression.
"49 hours." He said pointedly. Then he looked around, and his eyes landed on Raikou. Before any of us could blink, he had scooped her up in his arms and taken her out of the room.
"Master~?!" Raikou's voice squeaked from the living room, and a flurry of new sounds could be heard from there.
Venelana and I shared a look amidst the sounds coming from the other room.
Venelana first grabbed one of the papers and looked it over, blinking in surprise. "Land deeds?" She shuffled through them. "A lot of land deeds. And here are some documents on… border laws?" ŗΑℕỌ₿Ëᶊ
I let out a sigh, not knowing if I wanted to even hear the details of what he's doing. And I did not mean whatever he was doing to Raikou in the other room.
Venelana put them back, then bit her lip, looking at me before getting up and looking around the corner. "Oh my." She smiled coyly, watching for a few minutes before rejoining me at the table.
"Do they at least still have their clothes on?" I sighed.
"Oh yes. But I believe poor Raikou is going to be a puddle on the couch after he's done."
Well… I suppose it's only fair he does that to the others as well.
"You're welcome to go join them." I gestured to her with a wave of my hand. "I won't be offended."
If I were to get offended over something , I would never have willingly joined a harem .
"It's alright; I don't want to ruin their time together. She just got back; let her get some time to herself." Venelana just smiled politely.
She's always very considerate about matters like these; it certainly makes things run smoothly in our little group.
Though I felt myself getting more flustered the longer we listened to it. And it didn't help that Venelana was giving me those kinds of looks.
I'm not a prude or anything.
Wilhelm came sauntering back in, collar messed up and lipstick on various parts of his neck and face.
He fell into the chair Raikou was sitting in with a goofy smile on his face.
"I thought you were going to be gone for longer?" I was happy to see him, of course, but I didn't expect him to come back already.
"Just a quick pit stop. I was…busy with something, and I was getting increasingly annoyed on top of being angry and, well…." He glanced back towards the other room. "I wanted to calm down."
"Why do you have so many land deeds?" Venelana asked next.
"And where are they for?"
"…..the Federal Republic of Nigeria."
"I have…a great many questions to ask." I looked at him dryly.
"What? What's wrong with Nigeria?" Wilhelm quickly got defensive, but I saw through his demeanor.
"On a scale of 1 to 10, what's the danger?" I asked pointedly.
Wilhelm pursed his lips. "Two."
I let out another sigh. "Then have fun with whatever you're doing." I couldn't be bothered if he wasn't putting himself in danger. Let him have his fun; I know he's never malicious about any mischief he gets up to. More often than not, the recipient is deserving.
Wilhelm smiled happily.
"How were you able to purchase so much land there? I'm pretty sure most African countries only lease their lands these days." Venelana was looking over the documents.
"I am officially a citizen of the great Federal Republic of Nigeria." Wilhelm said with mock patriotism, he even had a little Nigerian flag he took out and waved in the air.
"How much did you have to bribe?" I asked him.
"…a lot." He admitted. "One of the reasons I came back was to refill my wallet. I'm running low on the amount of gold I usually carry."
"Who angered you, that you went through so much effort?" Venelana asked.
"Some stupid country, pretending to be a third world country while they're actually super advanced and hiding from everyone else." Wilhelm even pouted with his arms crossed.
Venelana took out a pen and started circling things. "I assume you're going to be abusing border laws and legal rights to annoy them then. If you're building anything, make sure to double-check height limits, as they're usually quite strict at borders. Also, sovereign airspace gets murky right at borderlines as well. Be sure to double-check the legalities there."
"...you seem very knowledgeable about this sort of thing." I looked at her in surprise.
"Oh, I was a paralegal for a while out of boredom. I hopped around a bit; I spent some time at a law firm that specialized in international law before trying out other things." She said simply.
Wilhelm was quick to grab her for an affectionate kiss.
Of course, he didn't let me be either, not that I would reject him.
Oh well, let him have his fun; what's the worst that could happen?
I stepped back to Kamar Taj after my little…side trip.
Forty-nine hours filing paperwork, signing documents, and sorting everything else. And that didn't take into account the time I needed to actually bribe the right people.
To say that my patient had been worn down would be an understatement. Combined with already being pissed off, well, it just simmered underneath, and I wanted to take a moment to breathe.
Conveniently, Raikou had gotten back home!
"You have some lipstick, right here." The Ancient One pointed at her cheek.
I blinked and wiped at the spot, noticing I missed a bit.
"You disappeared for quite a while; did you acquire the Vibranium you were after?" She asked. "And what about Nigeria you were asking about?"
I pursed my lips in annoyance. "No on the vibranium front still. As for the second bit, I am not a happy citizen of the Great Federal Republic of Nigeria."
"That's unfortunate, but I did find something that may be of use." She held out her hand, and there was a small box, practically a ring box in size. She opened it up, and there was a finger-nailed size of metal inside. "After looking through the archives, I found mention that we did in fact have a sample of Vibranium at the Sanctum in China." She seemingly ignored the fact that I was now a citizen of Nigeria.
"Oh, you're giving this to me?" I was surprised.
"Absolutely not." She laughed. "This little piece is worth millions just by itself. While I can't say we overly care for money, it's not just something I could give away."
"...Are you just rubbing it in my face?"
"Well, that was one benefit. But you can at least borrow it. You mentioned needing a method to find more Vibranium. The issue, as you already know, is that it's rather resistant to magical effects on the surface. Therefore, with a sample, we may be able to leverage that to your advantage."
She didn't stop me as I picked up the small piece and held it closely to my eye. I tried to imbue it with a touch of my magical energy, and it was solidly rejected.
Now, it wasn't immune to Magic; that would be just absurd. It was just extremely resistant on a surface level.
Which was absolutely perfect for what I needed it for.
Adding the material to make the structure of Greed more magically resistant would go a long way in making it a Mage Killer. Likewise, the metal was a tier or so above the Goblin Silver that it was originally crafted with; I was pretty confident in adding Fenrir's saliva to the mix with the upgrade.
"I assume we share the same initial thought in regards to it then?" I looked up at her.
"Hmm, using the resistant effect to our advantage and trying to ping that in a search spell and using the proverbial 'voids' in detection as location markers?" She summarized.
"It's so nice dealing with competent people." I sighed happily. I didn't even need to explain it from the ground up. "I have several spells that can attempt to 'scry' it; what about you?"
"We, of course, have a good number of such spells as well. However, to begin scanning such large parts of the world… well, it's going to take a while to complete." She informed me.
I scratched my head, considering that. "Yeah, that seems rather obvious in hindsight. Especially since we're looking for things not there, rather than trying to pinpoint something in specific."
"Hmm, and the issue in New Mexico may cause some disruptions…." The Ancient One hummed.
"What the fuck is happening over there that would cause such a big problem?" Seriously, that's the second time she's said something like that.
"I believe the kids these days call it a 'cluster fuck.'."
I nearly choked hearing her say something like that with such a deadpan voice.
"Regardless, want to see who can do it first?" I asked with a grin.
Her lips quirked upwards. "Very well, let's see who can do it first." She said, presumably going off to do her own thing.
Well, setting up the large-scale scrying isn't too difficult; just as she said, it's going to take a long ass time.
Thankfully, I have something to do in the meantime!
It was important before a bit of a workout.
Before me stood piles and piles of materials. Wood, metal, nails, and screws. Not to mention a plethora of painting supplies.
Then, I took out my wand and twirled it in my hand.
I certainly developed a new appreciation for the magic that Kunou is learning. What it lacked in just pure throughput power, it made up in just sheer versatility and everyday usefulness.
I mean, how many spells did I have on hand now that were just used for simple cleaning?
I knew at least four new spells just for removing stains from clothing, all depending on what kind of stains they were.
And I was looking forward to peering through the tomes and books they accumulated here as well. But that was me going off on a mental tangent if I got into it.
With wand in hand, I raised it up, like a conductor leading an orchestra; the piles of materials began to float and move around.
They flew through the air, arranging themselves according to my thoughts; nails were pushed into place, and scaffolding was lined up to provide proper structural integrity.
The pieces built upon themselves until finally formed, sturdy. Then, I gestured towards the painting materials as they flew out and began to
When my hands lowered, everything was in place and constructed.
I admired my handiwork.
And it was just in time for company!
I put my wand away as dust clouds were kicked up; quite a few people were riding towards me from the other side of the border.
Huh, they're using rather…mundane vehicles. They're really committed to the whole hiding act, aren't they? Just from the pieces of technology I saw last time, it was obvious they had much better things available than some surplus Russian jeeps that had more dents than not. ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ Nove1Fire.net
"Hello, Neighbors!" I greeted them enthusiastically.
Probably about a hundred or so of them, probably a few less considering it was a dozen jeeps at first glance.
Weapons were pointed at me immediately.
From experience, those fully metallic spears could shoot lasers.
Though, they seemed taken with my masterpiece behind me.