Riches and Bitches: I have a gate to an isekai and leveling-up system!

Chapter 303: Dreadful realization

"Do you think she will agree?"

Madam asked while looking across the small table that the cream of the top of our group gathered at.

"After he threatened her so much?" Makary's lips twisted in quite the irritated, ironic smile. "I bet she's ready to storm our positions herself if that's what it takes to slow us down."

Between the battle and the forest and the great showdown necessary for me to claim the right to be the one negotiating with the princess, I couldn't really tell which was the harder one.

"Either way, it works for us, right?" I rolled my eyes. "On that note, how's the progress on what the thing I asked for?"

The mere mention of the matter discussed just before I went ahead and made the call was enough to put everyone at the table in a sour mood.

Sure, it was fine to help the underdog in a battle against the conqueror. But to go out of our way and brutally slaughter nearly the entirety of the imperial army…

'I guess I'm the only one so strangely detached from the humans of this world,' I thought, catching myself disregarding the value of their lives again.

Strangely enough, just the idea of someone dying back on earth was revolting to me. Sure, I knew life went in many ways, and death or murder couldn't always be avoided…

But still, as a general rule, I considered death to be an abnormal state, something one was unlikely to face out of nowhere.

And never once have I exhibited this kind of mindset when in this world, towards the humans of not-earth.

'Maybe it has something to do with the aura?' A sudden thought appeared in my head. 'Or am I just looking for excuses over my… actual racism? What else should hate or disregard of other races mean if not people from a literally different world?

Because if it wasn't something caused by the aura… Why was my reaction to the prospect of gassing thousands upon thousands of people to their deaths so much different than everyone else, with the exception of Fay, around the table?

"I've already sent men to get their hands on it. But that kind of weapon…" Makary sighed deeply and pressed down at the backrest of his chair. "Even for me, it's not something all that easy to obtain."

"Trying to stock on the neu-weapons is more of an investment in a solid currency in the eyes of the world. Gas weapons, on the other hand, ring quite a lot of bells," one of Makary's officers spoke. "We will need them either way, just in case…"

The man hesitated and looked over at his leader.

"The more we need to stock up on those, the more exposed we will be to everyone's eyes."

Makary closed his eyes and clenched the fist he held on the table. After a breath, he opened his eyes back up and gave me a cold, calculated look.

"How do you plan to deal with it, once the city hall learns of what's going on?"

Makary finally mentioned the elephant in the room.

The one potential obstacle to our actions that hung above our heads from the very moment Makary made big moves when relocating his assets.

The risk of the city's magistrate taking notice, investigating, and realizing all sorts of things that would make our entire operation flagged. Because once that would happen, every tiniest move anyone affiliated with me or Makary would make, would be put under scrutiny.

Without a shadow of a doubt, once all the investigated findings were fed to the processing AI system, the details of everything that was going on would be revealed to the only group of people capable of interfering with what was going on.

"I both hope and strongly believe we still have some time," I stated, treading as carefully as I could. "Nevertheless, once that time comes, we only have two choices. One is to cut them in on the profits while the other is to try to defeat the magistrate and take their place."

The magistrate was just the official name of the theoretically meritocratic city council. In reality, though, it was made up of the cream of the top of the city's elites, oligarchs born from the age of political fracture and the collapse of the concept of globalization.

Or, in simpler terms, a bunch of old goons who were rich enough to make the entire city move according to their whims. The lords locked themselves up in the ivory towers of the town's center, where their sheer wealth allowed them to upkeep the shadow of how the world once was.

All at the cost of all the people I've been a neighbor to back when living in my shack.

"Honestly, I wouldn't mind either way, but either choice will lead to the escalation that's actually worrying," I announced my guess before taking a deep breath and gathering all my wits.

In this single instant, I was only a thought away from activating my eye of time.

"Because once we give everyone something to fight for, I bet everyone will jump on the opportunity. And whether we take the magistrate by force or cooperate with them, the process of colonizing this world will only escalate on both ends of the portal."

I took a deep breath, sparking up the last of my mental strength to pull this small speech through.

"In the end, we can't really avoid the things from growing out of our weight class. But going for cooperation with the magistrate would allow us to better control the growth of global interest in what we are doing here."

I breathed out, only now realizing that in the process of giving my response, I ended up standing up and leaning over the table.

I took a deep breath and held it in my lungs before breathing out again and slowly falling back down on my chair.

"So you thought that far…" Makary muttered under his nose.

"So the things are that complicated on the other side," Madam commented on my left before putting a slightly curious look on her face. "I think I'm starting to warm up to the idea of paying it a visit."

Makary gave Madam a short look before half-raising from his chair to give her a respectful bow.

"It would be our pleasure to host you during your trip. And, as happy as we would be to guide you around, I don't want to deny the factor of your presence…" Makary showed a troubled look on his face for the very first time since I'd met the man. "Miss Madam, your beauty and grace make you stand out. So it would be in our rational interest to have you follow our advice on how to avoid the notice."

The corner of my lips twitched.

'Oh how quickly we moved from the topic of gassing thousands to death to Makary trying to be as diplomatic when saying they need Madam on her leash.'

Before my smile could form and thus betray my thoughts, I decided to throw my sponsor a line.

"I think I would be the most fitted to give Madam a tour and ensure she won't stand out too much," I pledged…

Only for my very soul to twitch.

For but a second, I recalled some facts. Then connected them together with what I've just said.

And without a second thought, I activated my eye of time and focused myself as much as I could…

"Right, would you be able to use aura to hide your presence from others?" I then asked, so centered over the faint sensation of the minuscule grains of the dark aura that I turned blind to the actual world around me.

I could sense Fay twitching to my side, showing one of her rare reactions for when we were out in public.

'For how expressive she is when we are alone, she sure doesn't like to act out when around others,' I randomly noticed, losing the grip over my focus for but a single instant.

"Now that I think about it…"

My focus returned, the courtesy of my intelligence growing beyond the limits of my current reborn form.

"I think I do."

The world around me vanished, replaced by the endless infinity of the realm of the dark aura.

The width of a grain of sand turned into many hundreds of miles in this reality, with just the tiny dots of the dark aura scattered across this thin, unreal space.

And right in the middle of it, relaxing on a hammock weaved from the dark element, Irene smirked at her own thoughts, snacking on chunks of some kind of fruit while amusing herself with our ongoing discussion.

In this single instance, I could see her attention moving to the Madam, with a mild hint of interest sparking in her eyes.

And then…

The dark world collapsed… Or rather, the influence of my eye of time concluded, making the task of visually perceiving the dark reality too much for my brain to handle.

Forced back into reality, I couldn't utter a single word over the experience of seeing the real world… while recalling how it all felt and looking back within that dark realm.

The details made no sense.

If the sense of distance was warped in the realm of the dark element, then how come Irene's body was just the right size for it to make sense both in reality and in her own element?

And how could she perceive the real world while hanging out within that dark realm, when it was a space I could hardly begin to have my brain process properly?

If it took my intelligence reaching beyond the absolute limits of ascenders and creeping into the realm of supreme for me to even perceive the dark reflection of reality, then just how strong does Irene have to be to physically exist in that dimension?

"Then we can consider this issue to be solved," I suggested, scrambling to say something, anything, that would wipe the shocked expression from my own face.

Thankfully, no one seemed to notice.

Not Madam, who was the only supreme in the room was likely the only one who could ever help me understand what was going on, not Makary who hardly knew anything about magic, nor any of the officers of Makary's army or leaders of Fay's kin.

Only Fay appeared to have any clue what just happened, what I just discovered.

Guided by the very same feeling of caution irked by the overwhelming threat of literally hanging out with us in the very same tent, she made sure not to act up.

In the end, all Fay did was reach out and grasp my hand, giving it a little squeeze combined with a short, encouraging peek of her beautiful, blue eyes.

Steeling my resolve under the influence of her warm, supportive glance, I raised my own eyes and fixed the look on my face.

"And with that said, don't you think we've all waited enough?" I suggested, putting a wide smile on my face to wipe out any remaining hints of my state of mind caused by realizing Irene was here, watching every move we made, and listening in to every word we said. "How about we call the princess and ask her to give us her answer?"