Tsunade and Azrael were considerate and I appreciated it. During my time with Yasaka and Haku, they maintained their distance.
"Are they gone?" Tsunade asked me, her coat waving with the wind. She was sitting on top of a branch, looking gorgeous.
"Yes, for now," I said.
"And how are you feeling?" She smirked, in a rather good mood. I don't understand why is she happy about this outcome.
"A bit lonely, but not much more... let's get this party started", I stretched... this is the middle of the forest, we don't have a clock to tell the time, but gauging by the position of the sun, it should be around five o'clock afternoon.
Tsunade smiled she jumped and landed next to me, to my right. Azrael nodded as well and stood in serenity on my left, holding her scythe. This is my team.
"What's our objective?" Tsunade asked me.
"First, tell me what's yours?" I asked back, it has been a while since she left her world. Due to the disconnection with her homeworld and the multiversal void that divides us, whenever she returns, it is going to be as if she never left, but still, Tsunade looks like she has been enjoying her time away from her world, her 'friends' and her debts.
The blonde cast her hair aside, deep in thought, "I don't have any objective in particular, Ray. I have lived a miserable life for too long, now that I'm free... I want to enjoy it. Travelling alongside you is fun. I studied the previous world, and all the medical practices it had to offer, and I learned how to use my powers. I want to continue doing that... I will have fun exploring this world with you, learning new things... and making it so that when I return, my journey won't be wasted, this is my Nindō (Ninja Way)".
She looked so confident.
"And while I am at it... It wouldn't hurt getting a few therapies," Tsunade evaded my gaze, her cheeks blushing, I wondered what sort of therapies she wanted.
"I don't mind, but they won't always be free" I tapped my fingers and she exhaled a deep breath before nodding.
"Still, thanks for waiting patiently for me during my time with Yasaka and Haku. As a reward, I'll give you two an X10 therapy as well, whenever you want" I was originally going to give this to them that night, it is just... things got a little out of control.
"I am underserving of your grace, my beautiful lord is merciful, " Azrael showed her gratitude to me in a weird way, she made me feel giddy.
"I will take whatever you give me, brat~" Tsunade blushed cheekly.
These women are so different from one another but one thing is clear, Azrael is not fond of the roguish way Tsunade treats me. Tsunade finds Azrael's devotion towards me amusing, but they don't cross each other's boundaries.
It seems they've both come to terms with the other party's power, and that's for the best.
"As for my objective... I only have two ways to become stronger. Defeat powerful enemies and devour them, or take on customers".
"What a weird way to become stronger, won't you train your powers?" Tsunade asked me but I shook my head.
With Energy Records, I do not need to train, or at the very least, I don't need to spend hours on an end. Techniques that previously I wouldn't know how to use, have now become natural to me, instead... earning chaos points is the most important task.
'Horus'.
[Yes?]
'I'm going to start undertaking once I catch a breather and have a proper place to settle, until then, you can start advertising again'.
[You have already got a few bookings].
'And I will sort out all those quickly enough'.
[As you wish, since you have already become quite a bit stronger compared to the past, I'm sure you can undertake a few more... troublesome... customers].
'...'
I don't know why that sounds ominous but I will let him do his thing. Nazarick was a streak of luck, I don't know if I will be able to find in this world another place where there are so many powerful treasures and people converging in one place. If there is such a place, I can only guess it will be in the Empire's capital and so, that's where I'm going to go.
I also have my booking with Solution, ahhh... what am I going to do with her?
...
"Thankfully I have calcination, if not, then taking customers would have been my only way".
[You have another way, Ray].
"What would that be?"
[To receive faith. We can make it so that the faith receives transforms into chaos points, it is your privilege as a God].
'How...? If I remember correctly I should now be considered a God in Takamagahara and the Heavens, why am I not receiving that faith?'.
[You were, but the faith you received was infimal as to be considered enough to transform into Chaos Points. In both cases you were worshipped by humans, that energy is lacklustre at best. If you manage to be worshipped by stronger beings, you will receive stronger faith].
"To become a God, huh..."
"My lord, if you'd allow me input" Azrael bowed and spoke.
"Hmn? what is it, Azrael?"
"I believe we should start with the Baharut Empire".
"Start what?"
"Conquer... we should let them all known, all over every corner of this world, that you are God"
Her scythe palpitated, and a strong gust of wind enveloped us as if it were my fate. I sighed, in the end, it all comes to this. I looked at Tsunade, who was grinning.
"She's not wrong, I was never a religious one, Ray... but even I have to accept, you are a God... therefore, it is only natural that you have worshippers".
I nodded, if that is what I must do, then I know exactly how I must start. I stared firmly at the northeast, where a cluster of energy approached with slow steps. We're not that far from that cave... It is not unexpected that they'd send this many people.
I took Azrael and Tsunade on a flight up in the skies to survey the situation, in no time we watched a group of hundreds of soldiers and sorcerers head towards the direction of the cave where we had our fateful night.
"They're after the Armatista" Tsunade concluded. Not only are they after the Armatista, but they're also likely to meet another army coming from the South, the Re-Estize Kingdom.
"What should we do, my lord?"
"Killing them is not profitable, so we will infiltrate and get information about the Baharut Empire once they set their camps..." I proposed. I want to go to the Baharut Empire, but the information we have is quite limited. There used to be a camp towards the West close to where Nazarick was located, but after the incident, those units dispersed, likely heading back towards the border of the Empire with news.
This force is way bigger and stronger than what we had seen prior and I can even feel a few strong people among them.
"If infiltration is the way, I know what to do~" Tsunade smirked and started her descent before even listening to my input.
"My lord, should we trust her?" Azrael frowned, she didn't seem to like Tsunade's guts and proactivity. I, however, liked that about her.
"She's a ninja, if we can't trust her, who are we going to trust?"
I said and rushed down to see what she was going to do to get all the information. She's a ninja so surely no one is better at infiltration than her among us.
**
**
"..."
"..."
Azrael and I sat in the middle of a gigantic crowd of men drinking and dancing in the middle of the night, pushing and squishing against each other while throwing golden crystals at themselves left and right like they were rich in treasures, smelling like dirty monkeys after a whole day of work.
"Hohoho, this one's great!~ what do you use to make this booze?" Tsunade laughed while drinking some sort of alcoholic beverage with the generals.
"Duchess, you do know how to enjoy yourself, don't you!?" The men celebrated alongside her, drinking and concealing the lustful gazes they had been throwing towards her cleavage throughout the night.
'What the fuck is going on?'.
Azrael touched my waist a few times to get my attention.
"My lord, should I kill everyone?"
"..."
"Of course, she's included".
"..."
Her plan was simple, Tsunade descended towards the army and introduced herself as a duchess of the Baharut Empire, who happened to be hunting around the area. She introduced Azrael, who concealed her wings and me as her servants and bodyguards. They naturally doubted her... until she used her 'magic' aka Ninjutsu to use what they believed to be 'high-tiered spells'.
The blonde sannin asserted we were on the way to hunt some wild boars when we came across the Armatista and were on our way to inform the Empire. Be it because of her charisma, beauty, charm... or her swinging massive breasts and mature charms, they believed her story and followed us towards the Armatista.
There were more than three hundred of them who quickly divided into units and created a small camp around the secret underground cave that we had previously created. They spent the next half of the day harvesting everything there was and guarding against possible assailants from the Re-Estize Kingdom.
And it was like that... that Tsunade managed to successfully infiltrate the Baharut Empire's forces.
"How dare she... how dare she belittle my lord?!" Azrael whispered menacingly.
Her methods were rather rudimentary, I was planning to use the illusion domain I got from Yasaka to obtain all the information, but these guys were spilling the beans like broken damns.
The Emperor's name, Jicniv. The conflict against the Re-Estize Kingdom, the alliance with the Draconic Kingdom against the Beastman Kingdom, the territory surface, maps of commerce, and troop movements across the board. Their volatile relationships against the Sloane Theocracy.
The strongest among them was an individual who identified himself as a 'Gold-Rank Adventurer' his name was Laier, a tall user of the hammer together with his party who seemed to be contracted as a 'worker' by the unit general. Judging by his looks, he wanted to get laid tonight by a certain blonde, this man revealed so much information that he even made the soldiers and priests awkward. The stuff he was not supposed to say, all so long as he could get in Tsunade's good looks.
At some point, it even felt as if Tsunade had become a part of their army.
"They will come from the south of the Azerlisia mountains, I'd lay down an ambush as they know we have the Armatista and are sure to give chase" She pointed, marked and explained various positions in the map of the plains.
"The duchess is wise!" Laier nodded, thinking that her strategy was actually what they needed to do.
'Why is she giving them advice!?'