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

"Was that really necessary?" Makary asked once we got back into the car and gave the driver a signal to rush back to the compound as if the devil himself was chasing us.

I could already see the first rays of the sun rising above the city's artificial horizon made up of all the low-rise residential buildings crowding around the city's center. And that meant if we didn't hurry up more than the law allowed, we would be late for our important meeting with Etaria!

And if it was just a meeting… But in reality, it was supposed to be the ceremony of the imperial forces lowering their banners and surrendering for what I've heard to be the first high-profile case in the country's entire history!

Apparently, not even during the invasion of the other empire, the imperial troops have left their fate to their opponents. In the few engagements that Etaria's empire lost, its soldiers would bravely hold for much longer than any commander could ask them to, only to break and scatter if they were lucky or get routed if the lady fortune looked away that day.

In the end, though, the imperial forces never gave up en masse just for the sake of avoiding needless combat.

And today was supposed to be the first time it would happen.

'I guess we could spin the situation around to turn this from defeat to a great deal the princess managed to make, despite the situation stacked all against her?' I thought, paying little mind to Makary's rambling.

"Hello? I've asked a question!" Makary reached out and waved his hand before my face in an overexaggerated gesture. "Earth to Peter! Wake up!"

"No, it wasn't necessary," I rolled my eyes and replied, "but it was convenient. You know how to make people what you want, I will give you that. But you suck at making them desire to do what you want them to do themselves."

With Makary's words of caution, banking on their history and then hinting at some potential benefits, Leon would cooperate. Heck, I believed he would be happy to throw money at us and sign under every reasonable purchase we would make.

But he would do all of that to put Makary deeper and deeper into his favor, slowly but surely shifting the weights on the scales of power balance between the two.

Still, all of that would only happen if we kept him in the dark right off the bat, only revealing tips and bits of information here and there, as things progressed.

On the other hand, just my act of inviting him to see our project was a seed that I intentionally planted in the man for three reasons.

First came the initiative push. And while I showed initiative by inviting him, I actually made Leon responsible for taking the next step, leaving it to him for when it would happen.

In other words, he would have no one to blame if he came to learn the details of our project later than necessary, as it all rode on just his ability to move his lazy ass and check things out with his own two eyes.

Secondly, I really wanted to cut on the chatter and pointless haggling. While Makary could disagree with this point… I simply saw no reason to haggle for scraps when the riches, power, and all sorts of other benefits of the other world were simply too immense for us to ever properly make use of.

In other words, any effort spent trying to divide what we have yet to possess would be an effort that didn't go towards increasing the cake for everyone to share. And I much preferred to have a smaller slice of a much bigger cake over a bigger portion of a tiny one.

Lastly… I was low-key sick and tired of Makary taking the absolutely leading role in this event, reducing me to the role of merely comedic relief whenever something happened to displease me, just like when that son of a woman hired in the oldest job in the world dared to look at my Fay.

Sure, he was better fit for negotiating with the magistrate than I was just on behalf of his former contacts with them alone…

But that didn't mean I was willing to fully concede my position in this relationship!

"I see," Makary muttered, leaning back in his chair…

Only for the man to throw his hands to the sides and grab at whatever he could when the driver suddenly executed an extremely rapid and unexpected turn.

"Sorry!" a shout came from the front of the limousine. "Some fucker nearly cut me off. Wait, what the…"

The car shook again, sending Makary stumbling around his seat again… While neither Madam nor the due of me and Fay even shifted in our own seats.

Turbulence like that was way too weak for our bodies to lose balance. We sat too heavily in our chairs and too easily manipulated our bodies to extend unknown to the humanity of earth.

Still…

"What's going on?" I asked shortly, sending a quick glance to Makary.

The chances of someone randomly causing our driver to ride so crazily were… low. And that made the possible root of the situation quite obvious.

"Someone put a hit on us," Makary coldly explained, locking himself in place by grabbing two different elements of the car directly welded into its inner chassis and straining his muscles to stay in place. "Unless they really are serious about it, the car should hold but…"

Makary twisted his face in an unpleasant expression.

"Even small arms will work if we give them enough time to wear the armor down."

'Oh?' I twitched a little. 'That's different to what I learned about firefights,' I thought, instinctively denying Makary's explanation…

"And the problem is?" I kept asking. "Can't we outrun them? Or just get the police involved? Isn't that what they are for?"

Makary breathed a long sigh.

"And who do you think is capable of attacking us if not the police?" he asked, rolling his eyes before moving up to the wall separating the driver from the passengers.

"How are things looking?"

"I won't be able to shake them off," the driver reported in a strangely calm voice. "There's too many of them."

I pushed Fay off from my lap and moved towards the blackened windows, taking a quick peek outside.

A short series that tapped into the reinforced glass quickly dissuaded me from keeping my face anywhere near the glass, though.

"Those are not police cars," I pointed out, causing Makary to turn his head and give me an annoyed look. "Yeah, even the magistrate is powerful enough to go away with openly using police for their private fights."

"Magistrate?" I squinted my eyes. "Didn't we just make a deal with Leon?"

"Leon is the top dog of the magistrate," Makary sighed, "not the only powerful member of it."

I opened my eyes… only to shut them down a moment later.

"Fay, stay down, as far away from the windows as you can," I requested before moving closer to the man at the front. "So, let me ask again. What's the problem?"

Makary sighed and gave me an annoyed look. He then looked down at patted himself on the hips.

"The problem is, we didn't bring any weapons. We were supposed to get this meeting over with quickly and then return without making any big wa…."

The car swung in a turn, the driver no longer paying any mind to the comfort of the passengers and outright doing his best and pushing the car to its limits to throw the chase off and gain some ground over our pursuers.

"And Leon won't help," I added to Makary's explanation something that I figured out all on my own. "What kind of business partners would we be if we couldn't deal with a trouble of this level on our own?"

Makary gave me yet another look but opted not to comment this time.

"Shit!" the driver cursed, only for the back of the car to suddenly swing to the side so rapidly, even I failed to keep myself stable and balanced in an upright position. "Fuck, left back is dead."

There wasn't even a hint of anxiety in the man's voice. To a degree, I could even hear some tones of… excitement?

"You have a weapon?" Makary asked the driver.

"Just a handgun, boss," the soldier replied while letting go of the wheel with one hand to pull the gun from the holster at his hip. "You want it?"

"No, I won't do any good while we are still moving," Makary muttered, before allowing a hint of troubled expression on his face. "Shit, what do we do…"

The man's voice was faint… Yet, I could still hear the hint of distress in it.

"Either way, it's going to be fine if we deal with them?" I suddenly asked as I realized just how ridiculous the current situation was.

"What?" Makary asked, taken aback by my sudden question.

"Oh right, you never saw us in action," I smirked a little before outright ignoring the man and turning over to Madam.

Throughout the entire event, Madam continued to sit comfortably in her chair, not buckling even a single inch, not even when the tapping sound of the bullets came from merely half an inch of reinforced glass away from her head.

"Madam, if I may ask for your blessing, so no harm shall come my way once I'm outside," I requested while lowering myself down to one knee before Fay's mother.

"You don't need it," Madam shrugged her shoulders and gave me a small smile. "And wouldn't it be risky if you did… too much?"

I raised my eyes and looked straight into Madam's eyes… Only to then lower my head in another bow.

"You are certainly right," I stated as I rose up from my knee. "Fay, would you be as kind as to wait here for a second?"

Up to this moment, Fay obediently followed my request and kept close to the car's floor, a safe distance away from the windows. But now, she sprung up right in my face, and with merely an inch of air between our lips,

"No way. If you are going out, so am I."

I stared down the depth of Fay's vividly blue eyes.

Even without actually trying, I could sense her aura rising up and then falling down, like waves on the sea that were about to witness a great storm.

"Once we are done, we might be pretty much out of it, so when we settle everything down, bring us somewhere safe," I requested, recalling just how close I was to my next rebirth.

With that in mind, it would be safer for Madam to be the one to solve the issue...

But with opponents on Irene's level, how could I miss a single opportunity to grow stronger? And what place would be safer for doing so than Earth?

"Wait, you can't be serious..." Makary attempted to protest, refusing to believe I actually meant what I was saying.

"You ready, Fay?" I asked, not trying even a single time to stop Fay from following me outside.

There were some battles that could be fought... and there were battles that were predetermined to end up in a defeat.

And in this rapidly changing life of mine, I made a point of not participating in battles I could never win.

"Ready as you are," Fay stated as a huge grin emerged on her lips and the color of her eyes deepened even further.

"Good," I nodded my head before pulling Makary away from the wall separating the car's compartments only to then move up and take his place.

"How close can you get us to them?" I asked while taking a quick look through the untinted windows at the front of the car.

"Pretty close... but I can't guarantee we will be able to stick to them for long."

I took a short yet deep breath.

"That's fine. A single opportune moment is all I need," I announced, "ready as you bear," I then added before pulling back, deeper into the car, and positioning myself by the car's door.

"Get ready," I shouted, gathering all the physical strength and aura that I could wield as I prepared myself for what was about to happen.

Our car sped up, struggling to keep straight due to the faulty wheel at the back. Still, for a few seconds, the driver managed to somehow force it to drive straight... only for the vehicle of our pursuers to slam right into our side, causing our own vehicle to terribly shake.

"Now!"

THIS CHAPTER UPLOAD FIRST AT NOVELBIN.COM