Kapitel 9: Chapter 9
I hurried to the travelling Campione's location after powering up myself with my lightning spell and layering the appropriate protection spells on Alice. It didn't take long to track him down and reach him.
"The two of you arrived earlier than expected."
Alexander Gascoigne grumbled as he took a seat in the increasingly busy ramen store just after giving his order to the chef.
I waved my hand and casted a spell that would ensure the normal people here wouldn't pay attention to us. Alice walked into the store while holding onto my other hand and huffed, looking at the British Campione with a disapproving look, "Your efforts are as half-hearted as ever, Alexander. If you were going to sample the local cuisine you should have at least aimed for the city's top ten stores."
"Such effort is unnecessary when there are more efficient uses of my time. Best to get something to fill my empty stomach and move on."
Alex responded curtly before turning to look at me, I smiled lightly and said, "Just because something isn't necessary doesn't mean it's not rewarding. As a frequent traveller, I always plan ahead so that I can experience the best of every country, food especially."
I took out a notepad from my inventory stack, then used my printing magic to list down as many good food places as I could within the limited pieces of paper.
"William Gump's Foodie Notes, Volume 1."
He looked mildly surprised by my actions for a moment, then calmly accepted the gift. He flipped through the notepad pages quickly, it took him four seconds to do so while formulating his response.
"Well… I was planning to continue my travels to those countries, so this will certainly save me some time while safeguarding my taste buds. Thank you for this. Now, where are my manners? Alexander Gascoigne, pleasure to meet you."
"William Gump, I'm glad that we could meet on rather pleasurable and peaceful terms."
We shook hands in an amicable manner.
Alice had her fists all balled up in spite of the smile on her face, she must have really wanted me to punch him out or kick him out of the country immediately.
I knew that they could work together relatively well if they had the same objective, but from the looks of it, she seemed to be a lot more antagonistic towards Alexander than normal. Then again, his arrival into the country did interrupt the date plans I was about to inform her about…
… I will have to talk to her about that later on.
Anyways, I'll just take a quick look at his level and details now.
[Alexander Gascoigne, Level 450]
FINALLY! A worthy opponent that is actually lower leveled than me!
I have been getting really sick of fighting against gods with hundreds of levels over me. And when it comes to everyone else, all their levels were under a hundred, which makes them effectively powerless towards me.
Seeing a fellow Campione having a reasonable Level number is a sight for sore eyes.
Taking a seat next to his right, deliberately ensuring that Alice is seated to my right and not near Alexander, seeing that he was the blunt type that didn't like to waste any time, I got straight to the point.
"So, what brings you to Japan? Just for your information, if you're planning anything in this country then I will be obliged to kick you out in the direction of another country, of your choosing, if I were to be nice about it."
He merely grumbled under his breath, not exactly dismissive of my claims.
After all, with two out of Alex's three Authorities being derived from Grecian Heretic Gods, the fact that I had usurped the Authorities from the King of Gods (Greek) would make me an opponent to be wary of. Especially when one works under the, very reasonable, assumption that I could negate or severely weaken the effects of any magics or Authorities that originate from Greek Mythology.
For someone like Alexander that believes in the power of prep-time and cautiousness, he wouldn't dare challenge me unless he prepared the battlefield beforehand with countermeasures with a believable chance of working.
If it were anyone else, like say a battle-hungry Campione or an overly ambitious (and stupid) mage, they would have chosen to test my limits and challenge me regardless because of how 'puffed up' I appear.
I hadn't seriously made an effort to hide the details of my Authorities, or as most of the world knows it (according to Alice's reports) as a singular Authority with many manifestations, and as a result of how overpowered and outlandish my 'apparent' claims were most people hadn't believed them.
"You make it sound like I will make it easy for you. Anyways, this was an unplanned stop-over. I narrowly dodged another run-in with China's Freakishly Strong Girl. The original plan was to head to Korea, but needs must."
Alexander recounted his 'daring escape' (aka desperate run at godspeed) out of Chinese airspace and into the Sea of Japan, which involved a lot of swimming until he could properly launch himself back into the sky and arrive on dry land.
"As cool as it sounds, I can't help but imagining you swimming like a champ until you flip yourself into the air like a dolphin before turning into lightning."
I should give him my old [Dolphin Suit Ver. B] just to see what he makes of it. If he isn't as wasteful as I think he is, he might just give it to his mage association member's and demand that one of them use it for aquatic research work. For efficiency purposes, of course.
"Then you don't have to imagine anymore. I was using the butterfly stroke, so you can toss that image right into the trash then burn it."
I could feel the moment his active imagination provided him the disturbing image of himself swimming like an animal, hearing him coldly replying to my words as his 'poker face' began to deteriorate was hardly as satisfying as the act of embarrassing my sweet Alice, but it was nonetheless entertaining for me.
"Alexander, my dear William was only remarking on your elegant yet powerful swimming technique, there is no need for such rudeness." Alice played the affronted lady wife and genuinely looked appalled at his behavior. "I'm so sorry William, Alexander is a very difficult person. He is too serious and petty in weird areas."
What is she dragging me into?
"Hmph, I don't see how there is any evidence for that. I guess I should have expected that a self-proclaimed lady so concerned with superficial matters like yourself would slander me in front of a new acquaintance without remorse."
I doubted he actually cared about what I thought about him but he certainly has no qualms about using me as ammo against Alice. I would normally be more defensive of her, but she kinda brought this on herself.
These two quarrel way too much.
"'Self-proclaimed'? I am a proper lady, thank you very much! And I do believe you have said that you cared little about slander, especially after all those terrible words spoken about you when you constantly barge into my chambers. You are fortunate that I had foreseen every one of your visits to clothe myself properly lest William will have cause to mark you as a deviant to be punished for his transgressions."
He what?! Oh yeah, she did mention that Alexander sometimes barges right into her bedroom… I'm going to take revenge in her stead one day. Better to teach him a lesson before he does it again in the future. I will have to execute my plans carefully.
Things will be different now that Alice is to be my wife, another Campione will not be allowed to walk over her privacy and personal space.
"Why do you always feel the need to make a mountain out of a molehill?! Can you shut up with the personality attacks?"
Alexander tried to cover up his embarrassment by raising his voice to the point of a near-violent outburst. He then quickly, and deliberately, made some coughing noises. Trying his best to look composed.
"Ahem, uh-"
The chef then popped by and placed Alex's ramen order in front of him.
"Your food's here." I said, giving Alex an easy 'out', which he took without hesitation.
I turned to Alice and placed a hand on her shoulder, "Alice, I know you have legitimate reasons for being mad at Alexander here-"
"Alexander is a pain to write and pronounce. Call me Alec or Alex instead."
The other Campione interrupted me while he was eating his ramen… after putting lots of chili flakes and other toppings on it. The Ramen Heretic. I should kick him out of Japan just for that.
"-Can you at least eat Ramen properly?!" I shouted right back at him.
The bastard then flooded his ramen with lots of sesame seeds, seemingly out of spite and defiance, in other words… typical Campione (impulsive) behavior.
"Anyways, Alice, you have good reasons for being mad at Alex considering how rude he is heck even I'm a little mad... but continuing your usual childish quarrels with him while I'm trying to resolve our business with each other is counter-intuitive to your own goals to get him out of the country as soon as possible. Now you know I don't like to pull rank, or the 'I'm older than you' card, but I will do so if you don't 'cool off', understood?"
"Hmph! Very well, I suppose I must abide by your decision."
Oh? You want to be petulant with me now?
"If you are going to behave like a child then I will have you punished like one, but with my personal spin on it, given that we are to be wed to one another." I gave her a lascivious wink then turned away from her.
Even as I turned around to speak with Alex on my left, I could sense and effectively 'see' the moment when Alice put two and two together to know what I had in mind for her.
According to his character details, he was currently feeling rather confused by what I meant, nonetheless, he was still happy that Alice got told off that way.
"As for you, don't go around thinking that it's appropriate to behave like that and not reap the consequences of your actions, what did you expect, really? That others would sing praises about your behavior for not being a 'standard Campione' when you cause all sorts of trouble with the way you act and behave. Am I dealing with children here? You two argue as if you were terribly behaved brother and sister."
The two of them vehemently denied behaving as such in a hypocritical manner soon after, which only validated my point, much to their mutual embarrassment. The two of them agreed to not talk to each other unless it had to do with issues regarding certain collaborations.
"... Anyways, so you're heading to Korea? Are you planning to stick around for a while or do anything else here?"
"Not particularly. I only have business in Korea, I've sent a letter to the premier mage association that I intend to borrow and examine the Sword of Dangun."
I wasn't particularly well-versed in Korean mythology if only because I spent most of my time on other matters, but I'm pretty sure that blade had something to do with their creation myth and was also the sword that granted Han Jee Han's best bro immortality in The Gamer webcomic.
"You mean stealing it?"
"Only borrowing. In the letter, I clearly wrote that I'd return it as soon as I'm satisfied."
I glared at him with an unimpressed stare even as he maintained an impassive expression.
"I've heard that you have borrowed many times without returning. Just as it is with not returning a borrowed book from the library on time, this is the exact sort of situation where criminal charges should be pressed against you."
"In short, you're calling me a criminal. Then if we take into account the things you've done to this country's water supply, you would be something akin to an unlicensed doctor deciding to vaccinate everyone for their own good, completely ignoring the will of the people and any decent safety procedures."
"The key difference being that my actions do not directly or intentionally cause trouble nor harm anyone. Giving people a free health and beauty top-up is a net positive compared to stealing, after we take away the incalculable indirect consequences of both actions. If you really want to say we aren't so different from one another then go start up a corporate social responsibility program and a couple of charities with the Royal Arsenal. Do some good for the world, or at least fix up any damage you caused yourself."
"Tch! Mind your own business! Not everyone has convenient powers like yourself."
"I'm aware of that, still, it's on me to at least try to talk my brothers and sisters out of such actions. Have you thought about leaving them with a deposit of other treasured 'borrowed' items that you are finished with? That way, you can at least give of the impression that you would return their items, while in reality, it's like one of those borrowing schemes where you keep paying off your loans with the debts incurred from other lenders. Everyone will be chasing after someone else to get back what is due to them."
"... That… that is actually a great idea. I should do just that."
Alice was making pained noises after I gave advice to Alex that could potentially plunge the supernatural institutions into conflict and chaos.
What I hadn't told Alice and Alex was that I intended to let those mage associations bite at each other's throats then use my Authority as Campione to have them settle matters 'in a civil manner' using representatives at my soon-to-be hosted battle tournament.
It's like a typical setup for battle harem high school stories where nations and factions have kids fight each other to settle disputes as a substitute for all-out war, only this time it will mostly involve trained magic warriors and that the one benefitting from all this would be me!
The great 'negotiator', peace-maker and most reasonable Campione in the world.
Changing things up so that the world would be frustrated with my fellow Campione and turn towards me for guidance would only accelerate the success of my plans to regularly host my battle tournaments.
… Alright, to be completely honest, I just wanted to host really great tournament arcs.
All of these political plays are just so that I can get everyone on-board with my hosted battle tournaments and to anime-fy global society even further.
It was all very petty of me. Not at all as petty as that time Ainz committed countless atrocities by launching an invasion of a kingdom just so that he could advertise and sell his 'Runecraft' weapons in Overlord. But it was still rather
I'm not all that different from the other Campiones from a certain point of view, I simply hide my intentions a lot better.
We continued to chat about a variety of topics like Pandora, which Alex denies as his step-mother, as he felt he didn't need a mother after his birth mother left him and his father due to the latter's obsession with the Holy Grail.
He asked whether I had any intentions towards the Holy Grail, which I denied in all honesty, as I had been using Hephaetus's Authority on a near-daily basis in order to construct various divine (and near-divine) constructs that could be comparable to the Holy Grail in terms of power and utility. Then there's my secret and half finished Divine Forge that I spent weeks worth of work hours on… yeah, once I start powering it up I'm pretty sure the amount of accumulated mana there will dwarf Guinevere's Holy Grail.
Anyways, Alexander was fine with teaming up on the 'King of the End' issue, and so Alice began to debrief me about what has been going on with their research and hunt for ancient lore.
Alexander filled up the gaps where he could while updating us both on what he has been up to by his lonesome as well.
We departed amicably from the restaurant soon after, once again, I carried Alice all the way home in my lightning form. I took out some home-made enchanted mango ice cream from the freezer and placed them in nice glass bowls for the both of us.
"Alice, I think you're exaggerating, he's arrogant as hell but wasn't all that horrible."
She pouted harder at me and began to eat her ice cream in a hurried manner.
"Perhaps not to you, but the reality of the matter is that he treats all ladies poorly."
All ladies huh?
"Considering his backstory, what, with his misplaced anger over his mother that left his family for perfectly justifiable reasons given the hereditary obsession for the Holy Grail, he could have a grudge or at minimum, a bias against women."
Alice's spoon clattered on the table, she rested her elbows on the same surface in an uncharacteristic manner, and said, "That makes a lot more sense than any other report or observations made on Alexander's personality that I have ever read."
She mumbled something about not having thought of that herself before remembering her ice cream and quickly finished it. I wanted to warn her about getting a brain freeze, then I looked at the magic rings on her fingers and recalled that something like that wouldn't happen to her.
"Mnn! Delicious and refreshing. I can never quite get used to the feeling of having my magical power restored so easily."
"On the other hand, this mana generator here has gotten too used to it."
I pointed at myself, getting a raised eyebrow in return.
"It would please me if you could have the decency to not lord your incongruous nature as a being that breaks every conceivable law of reality, especially with regards to your distinct lack of limits on magical power." Alice gave her thoughts on the matter, only to finish it off with a short and sweet phrase that I would have expected in a decade or two, "Cheat Character."
The dichotomy of her sentence and her last two words struck me as adorable.
"Oh? You're asking that of me when the fact is that you love that I break all those pesky rules."
Alice smiled radiantly, "That is true. I suppose it can't be helped. I will simply have to learn how to live with myself and my preposterous husband."
We spent a long romantic time together… until I carried her to my bedroom with full intentions on following up with my declaration that she would be 'punished' like a child.
"Wait, stop! Release me this instant! You fiend!"
Her resistance only made me more excited.
"I did say that you would be punished, didn't I? Hmm, it's been a long time since I saw any of your beautiful skin, always with the long dresses…"
"If you want me to bare my skin then I would be more than willing to model several swimsuits, costumes, anything-!! I beg you to reconsider thi- Eep!"
Her protests died when she began admitting that she had been a 'bad girl'.
While I would never be so crass to use lust related magic without consent, it didn't mean that I had qualms with secretly grinding various lewd skills with mindless puppets that mimicked the bodies of women for the sole purpose of making any action I take upon Alice extremely pleasurable for her. The EXP gain might have taken a big hit due to puppets not having any thoughts or emotions within them, leaving them with only dull physiological responses and internal chemistry changes, but my 5X EXP Multiplier perk was ever so helpful in getting most of my lewd skills up to a minimum Level of 30.
In the weeks leading up to our wedding I continued with my usual projects, personal training, 'preparing' Alice in mind and body (especially the latter) for the big day. I even managed to convince her to hold a second, private wedding ceremony where she would wear my personally designed [Lewd Bride Wedding Dress] and defile a house of worship while we were at it.
It was when there were only a handful of days before our wedding that my instincts screamed at me that a Heretic God had descended… until every one of my senses and magical scans told me the exact opposite.
"Any ideas Alice? Did you hear anything from Alex and if it wasn't just me feeling paranoid?"
"It's not much but… it seems that Alexander had felt it too, only for the sensation to recede near-instantly. Hence, it was not an isolated incident. My main conclusions are thus, either a Divine Ancestor was about half-way to removing the seal on their divinity to take their serpentine divine form then changed their mind quickly… or a Heretic God did descend and immediately hid their presence, which is highly unusual behavior. Alternatively, this can be yet another unusual case as it was with Zeus, but this time the Heretic God is being hidden from our view and being found by magical means."
Alice also confirmed that many others with Hime Miko powers had not received forewarning on the descent of a Heretic God either. Marking this as either a false alarm, a particularly canny Heretic God or another outlier like Zeus.
Our wedding plans continued uninterrupted regardless of the increase in security measures I implemented. I began to believe I worried for nothing even as we were enjoying our honeymoon.
Until, of course, suspicious things began to happen. Reports started coming in from various Mage Associations across the world about how their records were pilfered, specifically when it came to their files on all the Campiones.
Another observation was that the people who guarded or were keeping watch on those documents either hadn't saw anything, or had been incapacitated in a way that left them in a state of utmost ecstasy.
It reminded me a lot of how Freya incapacitated those Ganesha Familia members during the Monsterphilia festival in Danmachi, while it could have been any sort of Heretic God with a history in magic or sex, my first guess was that of a Goddess of Love.
My personal feelings on the matter was that the world, or whoever is pulling the strings on this, really has it out for me by sending a Heretic God with possible Authorities over love and lust at me just when I was enjoying my honeymoon with my new young wife.
Guess it's time to place Alice in the m
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein