Chapter 437: Respect.
Everyone looked at Alexios, and soon he replied:
"Yes, it's possible to do that with my runes."
"Ohh..." When Victor was about to say something, he heard:
"But I'm going to need something to feed these houses."
"Energy...?"
"When I created that portal in Japan, I used my energy as fuel, but this is a large-scale project, and I will not always be there, so I need some energy to be the 'battery' that will keep the 'space ' of the House."
"…What energy do you need?"
"...Since I'm just going to 'keep' the space to a size I see fit, I'm going to need Mana crystals."
"Mana crystals?" Victor searched through his acquired memories and remembered hearing it talked about 500 years ago.
"It's a stone that has mana condensed inside, often used in witch 'tech' products."
"It's like a reassurance, huh. You buy the witch's product, and you still have to buy the crystals to make the product work."
"Yes."
"They really have a monopoly on the market..." Victor narrowed his eyes slightly.
'If I had more witches, maybe I could compete with those bitches?' Victor thought seriously. He knew how many 'rogue' witches there were, and if he tried to recruit them...
'Although it's a risky move, if I can trap them with benefits and 'small' threats, I think it might work.' Victor decided to file that thought away in his mind.
"...." Vlad tapped his finger rhythmically on the table while doing the calculations in his head of how much money he needed to spend.
"And that will be extremely expensive, huh."
"Yes... And they will raise the price even more when they find out that we are buying a lot of crystals."
"Greedy bitches." Everyone in the room spoke.
The feeling of being robbed was never good, no matter what kind of existence you were, and it was that feeling that everyone had when dealing with witches.
"Even with a simple account, the value will be astronomical. It is not viable in the long term." Agnes spoke.
"Even if we are rich, even we have a money limit." Natashia spoke.
"..." Scathach looked at Victor, who had his hand on his chin, while he seemed lost in his thoughts:
"Victor, share your thoughts."
"…Huh?" Victor woke up from his stupor and looked at the people present.
Seeing that they were waiting for him to speak, Victor said,
"I was thinking that since this is an experimental city, we don't have to use the free space boost for everyone."
"... What do you mean?"
"Let's rent this service."
"…Huh?"
Victor ignored everyone and said, "Alexios, if a witch looked at your technique, would they be able to replicate it?"
"It's impossible. Only people in my family can use my space and time techniques." He spoke in a confident voice.
"Good."
"We will keep the initial design and build a city that can house 500,000 inhabitants, it will be a city carefully planned by an engineer."
"And since most of the initial people of this city will be rich people, we can rent Alexios' service through a monthly subscription, but they will, of course, also have to pay an initial amount, I think 250 million dollars?
"...." The women were still silent, but Vlad, as a quick thinker, understood what Victor was talking about.
"This is possible… By doing this, we will make the customer pay for the costs of increasing 'space', and profit from that."
"That starting value is not possible because mana stones vary greatly in price."
"Alexios, if you create a space of 50 square meters, how many mana stones do you need?"
"Just a mid-level one, I think 30 CM?"
"Hmm... The value of that stone is 500 million, and the high-level one with the most mana concentration can reach billions."
"Tsk... If we could get mana crystals easily, we could create a monopoly on this kind of business, and with monthly subscriptions, money would rain." Victor grumbled.
"Nothing is perfect, we have to work with what we have."
"..." Victor nodded.
"Alexios, what's the biggest size you can make in a space?"
"Don't underestimate me, Alucard. If I have enough energy, I can make a 1KM space easily, and if I have several high-level mana stones, I could create a country-sized area in the space of a house." He spoke, very proud of his power.
"...." Victor's smile grew wider when he heard what Alexios said.
'Damn fucking broken power.'
"Fuck, Vlad. You are stupid, dude!"
"Huuuh!?"
"You have such a gem on your side, and you only use him as a means of transport and spying!"
"And what's the problem with that?"
"Didn't your mind wake up at all when you heard what he said!?"
"Noo?"
"Are you fucking senile?"
"..." Vlad narrowed his eyes dangerously when he heard Victor, but seeing his serious gaze, he tried to think what this man was talking about, but nothing flashed in his mind.
"Natashia, my love."
Agnes and Scathach's eyes twitched when they heard Victor's tone of voice.
"Hmm?"
"When you make a move from one house to another, what is the most irritating part?"
"The change, without a doubt." Her reply was quick.
"Now, think with me. What if you had... Hmm... A bag, with room for a whole house where you can put your furniture."
"That would be incredibly useful!" Natashia wasted no time.
"...." Victor didn't say anything else and just smiled while he looked at Vlad and enjoyed the shocked look of the two men.
"See?"
"Fuck, why didn't I think of this before?"
"You haven't watched Harry Potter." Victor shrugged as if he couldn't help it.
"What is it?"
"...See? You do not know. I recommend seeing it if you have the time, preferably read the books as well."
"...." Vlad narrowed his eyes.
"Alexios?"
"It's a movie saga about a boy wizard." Alexios summarized briefly as he thought about what Victor had said.
"Oh..."
'Why should I see this? But I can watch the movie with Ophis... Hmm, sounds like a good idea.' Vlad thought.
Meanwhile, with Alexios:
'With the time it takes me to make a simple space-increasing rune the size of a house, and if I teach this to my daughter, I could produce 10 – 20 bags a day? Although it will not be possible to do this in the long term, since the power problem still persists.'
Honestly, Alexios felt stupid now. He was a man who loved watching movies in his spare time, so how did he never think of that?
'Oh... I didn't need to.' Alexios found the answer quickly. He had gotten used to the 'routine' without change, and his king didn't seem interested in changing or evolving either.
He stagnated in time, and consequently, so did everyone around him.
"Alexios." He lifted his eyes and looked at Victor.
"Produce four large suitcases of strong materials, I want the size of the suitcase big enough for a man to walk through with his head down, and inside the suitcase, I want the space of 2 km square."
"I want seven bags with the size of 500 square meters, you just need to put the bag big enough for the hand to pass through." Victor throws something to Alexios.
Alexios caught it and saw that it was a cell phone that had the Frost Bank logo.
"Don't think about saving. When you make the purchases, send the bill to the number registered on this cell phone, and I will make the payment."
"Each of the suitcases must be handed over to me, Scathach, Agnes, and Natashia. The remaining bags must be handed over to me."
"...You don't even know if I'm going to succeed or not."
"Don't treat me like a fool. By the time I talked about it, you'd already thought of the method of making this item."
"How do you know...? Oh…" He remembered how skillful Victor was at noticing minute details.
"Alexios, I want a briefcase too, use the royal treasury. I want the biggest size possible."
"...." Victor just opened his mouth.
"Now that's just flexing."
"One of my powers is being filthy rich."
"...." The two look at each other until.
"Pfft... HAHAHAHAHA~" The two laughed as if it was something very funny, and they were both thinking about how to exploit this power as much as possible.
'Just imagine, I arrive on the battlefield with a long suitcase, I put this suitcase on its feet, and my subordinates go out to fight? And I don't even need to exhaust Alexios!' Vlad was delirious.
On the other hand, Victor was:
'I will try to see if Alexios can make a time rune to train... If I can make 1 day's time into 1 year in the briefcase... I will be able to train as efficiently as possible!'
The group, seeing this, just shook their heads, they really do look a lot alike.
...
The meeting ended.
Vlad was explaining to Natashia, Agnes, and Scathach what he and Victor were talking about at the end and realized that the two got too carried away and forgot to let the countesses know about it.
Meanwhile, Victor was talking to Alexios.
"Impossible."
"...why?" Victor held back the urge to sigh.
"It's not that I can't do it, it's just that using the power of time is more complicated than using the power of space." Alexios seemed to think for a while and seemed to be making a decision.
'Ahh, fuck it, he's the master my daughter trusted.'
"For me to use the power of time, I need to use this." Alexios slowly opened his eyes.
And Victor saw that his eyes had transformed. Showing that they were clearly supernatural with galaxies in place of his eyes.
No sclera or pupils were seen.
"And in using this power in the way you asked, I must pay an incredibly high price."
"... Which is?"
"My life."
"..."
"You know? My clan, due to our powers, we are born with strong vitality, and because of that, we can live for a long time, but not even with our vitality can we surpass the 500 year old barrier."
"Because of this, a ritual is performed when our Clan's successor inherits these eyes."
"A ritual that forces the 'time' of my body to slow down and, with that, my life can be extended for another 500 years..."
"Of course, that is if I don't use that time like I did in that incident that left you stranded on Earth..."
"...." Victor wanted to ask how long he'd spent on that incident, but he felt it was an impolite question.
"By using my time power, I am essentially shortening my lifespan."
"Sigh... I see. Thank you so much for talking about this." Victor spoke out of gratitude, as he knew that this must be a Clan secret of his, and if he spoke it was because Alexios trusted him.
'And there goes my training plans... Fuck... I think I need to focus on using the method from before... The key is in the control and in the exploitation of my powers.' Victor wanted to punch him in the face right now because he'd made that impatient decision.
But it was a natural thought process since he thought it was possible to do what he was planning.
And indeed, it was possible, but it would likely cost Alexios his life.
And Natalia would never forgive Victor for that, and Vlad would either. Not even Victor's relationship with Ophis or his kingdom's concern would stop Vlad's rage.
"...." Alexios smiled when he heard what Victor had said.
"Don't be hasty, Count. You are still young, why do you want to get older?" he asked as he closed his eyes.
Sighing visibly, he spoke as if he had no choice:
"…I need to defeat a person, you know?" Then he looks at Scathach:
"If I'm not strong enough, she won't accept me from the bottom of her heart."
"...." Looking in Scathach's direction, Alexios broke into a cold sweat.
'Seriously, why does this boy love crazy women? He must have some kind of problem in his head.' Despite the beautiful figures of these women…
Alexios knew very well that underneath those beautiful figures, there was just a little bit of madness and insanity.
'Well, he married Natashia, I don't doubt anything anymore.'
Feeling someone touching his shoulder, he looked at Victor:
"You would not understand."
"Huh...?"
Victor simply smiled, not saying anything more, and just walked towards the women.
Looking at Victor's back, and seeing Natashia jumping on his body as she hugged him, seeing the faces of Agnes and Scathach, Alexios just thought:
'Actually, I definitely wouldn't understand...' Even from here, he could feel the danger emanating from those two women.
And Victor just took it lightly while he was literally playing with fire and ice.
'But one thing I can say is, this man... He has balls.'
It's not every day you hear news of a man marrying the daughter and mother of a prestigious Clan.
Not only that!
If it continues like this, he will marry his two other mothers-in-law!
Alexios can't help but feel a sense of respect for this man.
"Alexios, we are going to visit Ophis. Are you coming?" Vlad asked.
Looking at the group looking at him, Alexios wished that image would never fade and soon said:
"... Of course."
........
