Chapter 142: Two wins and prospects

My answer earned me nothing but a confused look from Ayda. Being the one who decided to go with this fairly ambiguous answer, I couldn't complain about the girl being unable to understand. After all, I was confident in racking huge benefits from this fight only due to a single message that Jeff sent to me as I was riding towards the battle. 

"First off, we win by infusing a huge amount of magic stones to the market." 

Pointing my hand at the endless amount of corpses littering the field of battle, I aimed my finger at the scavengers. Given how they already started gutting all the monsters, it was only a matter of time before the factions would split the battlefield between themselves. 

"Once they learn how useful those stones can be, this influx will vanish from the shelves in just a few days. And when that happens…" 

Instead of finishing my own sentence, I looked meaningfully at the girl beside me. With a glister of understanding appearing in her eyes, I smiled before moving on.

"Secondly, we managed to establish Penne as a hero and our faction as the ultimate guardians of the city. This was something that I hoped to achieve someday, but never expected for it to come so soon." 

Turning away from the girl, I scanned the area with my eyes before grabbing her delicate hand and pulling Ayda along towards the car. Given how even the bodyguards assigned to me by Jeff jumped into the frenzy of recovering the treasures from the dead monsters, there was no point in waiting for them to board the vehicle as well.

"You see, back when this faction was first established, I pompously gave up on any political power in the city. But that wasn't because I didn't want it or didn't have any use for it."

Shaking my head, I locked my seatbelt before helping out Ayda with hers. Even though she spent a long while on earth already, there were quite a lot of nuances that she had no clue about. 

Turning the keys in the station, I launched the vehicle. While officially I have yet to obtain my driving licence, there was no point bothering with it now. Just a single request to Jeff should do the job, given how I already learned how to drive cars on my own.

"Why did you do it, then?" 

Proving that she wasn't just letting my words past her ears, Ayda asked.

"Because it was more convenient at that time. To speak honestly, I had to build the entire organisation from scratch. If I were to interfere with the political wars of the city back then, they would just squash my cult out of existence. Now, it's not the case any longer."

Finally taking the first turn, the road changed from the unkept one outside of the city borders, to the actual proper asphalt. Not daring to risk riding too daringly, only now could I put my foot on the gas. 

"But if you ignored it in the past… How are you going to take it now? It's not like you overthrew the last regime creating a power vacuum that you could fill."

Contrary to most of the eartherners, if this kind of topic were to appear, they would either be completely confused and at least have the grace to admit it, or they would just spew total nonsense that they were taught in the schools. Compared to them, Ayda knew life on a far greater level, making her a great talking companion. 

"I'm not going to meddle with the current situation. Everyone already has what they wanted and what they could secure from the others. Trying to infringe on the status quo would be too costly."

Shaking my head, I slowed down the car. While I knew how to ride it, now that I reached the more densely populated area of the city, I had to account for all the people running around the place, still under the influence of the threat of the incoming invasion of monsters.

"So you want to avoid them, or just crush them all?"

Picking up on my drift, Ayda asked. But while her question was well aimed and fitting the situation, just a single glance to the side allowed me to see the whites of her knuckle-bones as she held to her seat for her dear life.

"Do you take me for some kind of dictator? We will just avoid them. Let them have their small fun fighting for influence within the city, while we will look beyond." Taking a momentary pause as I entered a long straight street, I momentarily leaned my head to the side, sending the girl a long and meaningful look. "After all, once the dungeons start bringing up profits by themselves, this city… No, the entire province should fall in my hands just by manipulating the prices of the magic stones that we will distribute."

Ultimately, no matter what kind of power, it could always trace its roots to money. Without money, one could feed or arm his troops, nor push the agenda of his group for social support. 

"Stones and stones again… Aren't you worried that relying on just a single thing might be too risky? I mean, what if someone else figures out the way to craft them? What if the information on how to do it will leak?"

Finally starting to slowly relax, Ayda released her desperate hold over the side of her seat as she spoke. 

"That's a valid point, but I don't think there is a huge chance of it happening. You see…"

Reaching out to my pocket, I pulled out one of the raw stones that I missed while distributing them to my bodyguards back at the faction lands. Bringing it up for the girl to see, I squinted my eyes, absorbing the energy contained within the stone.

Even though I ignored my cultivation for a long time already, I was still easily capable of practising it. With the fresh energy infusing itself into my body, it took me just a moment to break through the bottleneck that formerly stood on my path. The surge of the energy from the stone was quickly absorbed by my flesh, leading to a surge of my physical strength. While the effects weren't that great, it was definitely a step forward. And a change that Ayda could easily perceive.

"I do believe that those stones… They will be in a short supply even if other people will come up with a way to craft them. In fact, the amount of precious stones that we can turn into magic stones is severely limited on the market." Shaking my head once again, I slowed the car before taking the last turn before the lands of my faction. Parking the car haphazardly on the lot, I rushed out of the driver's seat only to circle around the car and help Ayda out of it. 

"Okay, I can understand that they were only taken to be a temporary solution to your strained finances… But once this momentary rush of gold will end, won't we be left with absolutely no edge over the other factions, not to speak about other towns and provinces?"

Over and over again, Ayda proved to be perfectly well-versed in political strategising and devising developmental plants. While she has yet to contribute anything to the development itself outside of suggesting to tax the maintenance of the dungeons, just her doubts were enough of a help for me. After all, having someone be critical of my ideas was helping me to refine them!

"For now, I'm not really sure. The raw stones will provide us with a nice injection of funds, but that's generally the limit of their use. Unless I will find a proper way to grow soldiers, some of them will also be used at grooming our private forces. What I'm really hoping to bank on the near future of the faction, are the carved stones."

Sadly, I didn't have even a single one on me to show it as an example to the girl, but from the look on her face and lack of fluctuations in her aura, I could tell she was no stranger to the term nor the meaning behind it.

"You used them right as you joined the battle, right?" Scratching her head with an uneasy smile, Ayda ended up laughing up softly. "You are really something else. While I already saw Sander's demonstration, what you did back then… It was truly something on an entirely different scale."

Hearing my beloved praise me as I pulled her towards my wing of the compound, I could feel my heart fluttering. Even though our relationship didn't start yesterday, this girl still could command my feelings at will even without resorting to the usage of witchcraft.

"And that's what I hope to utilize. While figuring out the way to carve the stones won't take others long, learning the proper way to create high-class ones will still take a while. I believe for at least three to six months, we should have a complete monopoly. And that leaves us with one thing."

Finally stopping before the doors to my private rooms, I scanned the access card before pulling the girl to the room. Not offering even a hint of resistance, Ayda followed my lead, only to end up thrown to the bed. 

After a battle, my blood was raging. Even though I was exhausted, this kind of inferno couldn't be ignored, especially if I had a willing girl right on my side, already forward to what would happen next.

"What is that?" 

Reaching with her arms forward, Ayda didn't even bother to take her clothes off. With a sudden appearance of repulsion in her aura, her elaborate clothes were torn to shreds, leaving the girl in her birthday suit right for me to grab and ravage.

"Explore new worlds from my basement so that we will find even more amazing things to replicate on our own!"