Gacha Kingdom Building

Chapter 83: Border Policy

Our morning began as usual, while Licia and Ellie helped me with breakfast, the other girls were minding their own business.

I had to turn my attention to the TV however when news about immigration from other worlds started being broadcast.

A reporter was summarizing the decision agreed upon by most nations after intensive talks that had been happening ever since the dungeons started to connect to other worlds.

According to what he said, it's hard to hold someone from another world accountable for their actions on Earth since no government has that kind of jurisdiction or diplomatic ties yet.

As such, people from other worlds are only allowed to enter Earth after having themselves thoroughly registered, including things such as their fingerprints, so they don't try multiple registrations.

Not only that, they can't come alone. Any person coming from another world needs to be associated with someone born on Earth who will be held responsible for their actions. Both parties need to be present and sign an agreement.

After being registered, they need to choose between two types of documents, the first option allows for "short stays" of up to a month, and the other one is meant to be used for up to two years.

Each nation has determined its cap for the number of people eligible for the "long stays".

And to be honest, it's not a lot. Not one nation has its cap reached a million.

It's clear that everyone is being cautious with it to not disrupt the current world order, but the various limitations are making Earth's borders pretty closed.

It seems you can reapply for the documents at the very least though, and with time, the limitations might erode on their own.

Still, one limitation that will definitely not erode is the matter of slavery. We've seen a few people going around with collars or chains attached to their bodies in the dungeon, and the girls confirmed to me that these were slaves.

It didn't take long for everyone on Earth to notice that too, governments included.

They have decided that a country's law still applies, so, for most, in case a slave comes out of the dungeon with their master, the slave is to be freed and the master is to be registered as a criminal, unable to enter Earth and "deported" to their own world.

Failure to do so will result in the imprisonment of the perpetrator.

It's a bit of a question what will happen to the slave after being freed though, and aside from jokes on the internet where guys say their house is open for cute girls, there's not been much of an answer yet. Most people expect the government to provide them with support in such cases.

Anyway, while this part doesn't affect me much, the rest of the system sure does.

For starters, I was already gonna have Claire and Licia get fake IDs so that they can pass as normal citizens at the very least...

I feel like it's still worth it to pursue that for these two, since they're humans and all that, it's less likely for suspicions to arise.

Anna and Beatrice are in the same boat, but I think with this new system in place it's better to wait and see how things progress before ordering fake IDs for them.

Ellie and Mia on the other hand...

I can't possibly get them fake IDs for obvious reasons, and while we could hide their characteristics pretty well, now that races other than humans will be going around, I feel like people will get much better at recognizing them as non-humans.

If we're going to test this system, these two make for the best candidates.

In case it turns out bad, we can always keep going like we've been. The kingdom allows for untraceable transport after all.

Still, since this impacts them more than anything else, we had to sit down for a while and discuss.

The overall sentiment in the group was that things were fine the way they are now, but they also weren't reluctant to try it out.

I tried to explain that this would allow them to act a bit more independently, but they kind of brushed it aside since I'm' already providing them with anything they ask for either way.

Ultimately, we've decided to at least try it out with Ellie since she couldn't resist the group pressure- I mean since Mia gave a good argument about how her current circumstances might lead Hamperlon to go to war if they discover that she's alive.

It's kind of cute how she thinks they would pose a threat though.

To be completely honest, even nations not regarded by their military could probably face them head-on without much trouble.

Messing around on Earth would be akin to suicide, but if you ask me, they are more than welcome to try.

We kept discussing here and there, which made us arrive a bit later today for the raid, and since we were also going to leave earlier to have Ellie registered, we didn't get too far inside nor did we get too much loot this time.

We managed to reach level 21 though which is pretty good considering the amount of experience necessary to level up is getting higher and higher.

And yet, our pace is still faster than normal thanks to the perk that makes experience not get divided.

In the end, we made $668 thanks to a mana orb dropping, which was more than enough for our needs, so I decided to have Ellie test out her new identification documents by shopping in a market nearby.

Aside from a few things we were running out of, I gave her a budget to get things she wanted for herself and the others, and since it was her first time in a store she was pretty amazed by the amount of things on display everywhere.

She ended up grabbing a bunch of candy and processed food that I hadn't cooked for them, as well as some energy drinks. I could tell she had the other in mind for some of these, but as soon as we left, she started going directly for the candy, which was one of the things I thought were meant for somebody else.

Miwen: "I didn't know you liked sweets."

Ellie: "Mn...We didn't have anything sweet where I lived, and even after becoming an adventurer, sweets were too expensive, so I couldn't help when I noticed that I could buy some..."

She looks like a kid munching on a bunch of different things one after the other. But it's pretty nice of her to leave some for the others to try out too...

Miwen: "Maybe I should start baking some cakes..."

Ellie: "Eh? You can do that? Miwen, maybe you're actually incredible?"

Miwen: "Pfft, thanks I guess. Now, I can only manage some simple ones, so don't expect too much alright?"

Ellie: "Sure! I can't contain my excitement already."

That's literally the opposite of what I asked of you, but alright.

... Even though it's already late, people on the street are taking notice of her and some are even taking pictures.

Since her appearance is pretty close to that of a human, I thought she would go unnoticed but I couldn't be more wrong.

Even the clerk couldn't take her eyes away from Ellie's ears...

If it's like this with her, I can only imagine what would it look like with Mia.

This kind of thing takes time though, it will probably be normalized soon... At least I hope so, nothing would make me happier than the girls being free to comfortably explore Earth and all it has to offer on their own.

When I got back home I went straight for the shower and then went to do some summons for the Merchant again.

Last time he asked me to get him some weapons. According to what he said, he has a friend capable of viewing a weapon's story, concentrating that story into a jewel, and then applying it to another weapon, making it stronger in the process.

Seems pretty broken if you ask me, but the important part is that he might be able to analyze if the weapon really has a story, meaning that it was taken from somewhere instead of being copied and made anew.

It's not really concrete proof either way since something tells me my Gift is not short from copying that aspect as well, but it might be indicative at the very least.

Today we are summoning armor though. It's for the very same reason, but he says it's good to have alternatives and also to test if something changes from one day to another.

Speaking of which, he got some pretty good loot out of this in my opinion, but when I left a comment about that, he simply replied that there wasn't anything good at all about the weapons I've produced since not a single one of them would be able to hurt a God.

Which yeah, kind of stings. I'm not gonna ask him to mince his words though, after all, while cold, it's still good information to have.

Miwen: "Oh yeah, I'll probably bake a cake or two in the coming days. Do you have any preference for flavor?"

Merchant: "Hm? Are you trying to win my heart or something?"

Miwen: "Yeah, forget I even asked."

Infuriatingly, he only shows emotions when he decides to act like an idiot.

Merchant: "Wait, wait, I do! I like oranges and such."

Like the girls, the Merchant has also fallen for my food trap. I'm actually quite proud of making someone as high and mighty as him look forward to what I'll cook next.

But oranges eh... it was also a pretty popular choice with the girls, but it ended up losing to strawberry in the end.

If I end up making a second one I'll try my hand with oranges.

Speaking of which...

Miwen: "Coincidentally, I got some strawberry-flavored candy with me. Do you want some?"

Without a shred of dignity, the Merchant nods along and I hand him a bag with some candy.

I would've preferred if he had kept his mouth shut though.

Merchant: "Hm... doesn't taste like strawberry to me?"

Miwen: "Yeah? Give it back then."

Merchant: "I'll give the bag back after dinner."

And in the blink of an eye, the guy actually left for his temporary house in the kingdom with the fucking bag.

I just know that he'll give it back empty too and then act like he kept his end of the deal.

It's still a mystery to me how a man-child like him managed to reach his current position as one of the strongest beings around.