Chapter 545: Finally, a Billionaire (Patreon)

Kenway Keep — Western Private Wing — Philadelphia

Linette's hand remained resting on the thick ledger as though she were still considering whether its considerable weight might finally persuade her nephew to stop calling Celestial Brand a soap company.

Alaric eyed the book, then raised both hands in surrender.

"Alright, Aunt Linette. Point taken."

William Penn chuckled into his tea while Linette lowered the ledger back onto the table with a satisfied nod. Around them, financial statements and distribution reports covered so much of the polished surface that the remains of William's breakfast had been steadily pushed toward one corner.

Alaric looked again at the three names Linette had placed before him.

Reuben, Thulani, and Edward Kenway.

His amusement faded as he leaned forward and rested his forearms against his knees.

"The simplest answer is probably the fairest one."

Linette watched him carefully. "Meaning?"

"They get the one percent."

William lowered his teacup.

Linette's expression barely changed, although the small relaxation in her shoulders revealed that she had expected Alaric to reach exactly that conclusion.

"Beginning when?" she asked.

"Next major distribution cycle," Alaric answered. "The present cycle stays under the existing six-person structure because the accounting is already built around it. Starting with the next qualifying cycle, Reuben, Thulani, and Edward join the pool."

Linette pulled one of the reports closer, "That makes nine percent total."

"Right."

"And they receive the same participation terms as everyone else?"

Alaric nodded before adding, "With one clarification that applies to all nine managers."

That brought William's attention back to him.

Alaric tapped the list of names.

"The one percent follows managerial responsibility. It isn't permanent equity, inheritance, or a pension that somebody keeps collecting after walking away from Celestial."

Linette's eyes sharpened approvingly.

"If Reuben decides tomorrow that he wants nothing more to do with Liquid Soap, ration products, or any managerial responsibility whatsoever, then his participation eventually ends with the appropriate completed cycle. The same applies to Thulani, Edward, you, Caroline, Eleanor, Bernard, and Leonard."

William leaned back slightly. "That prevents a person from earning millions indefinitely because of a title they stopped performing twenty years earlier."

"Exactly."

Linette reached for her pen.

"And if someone is temporarily absent because of war?"

"Temporary absence does not erase the position," Alaric replied. "Reuben and Thulani are the reason we are having this conversation in the first place. They are serving Vanguard and Pennmere, not abandoning Celestial."

Linette began writing.

"So managerial participation remains active during authorized temporary absence as long as the individual still holds genuine responsibility and returns to it when circumstances allow."

Alaric pointed toward her. "That."

William smiled. "You realize she is translating everything you say into language that a company can actually use."

"That is why I pay her."

Linette glanced up.

"You currently pay me more than six million dollars from this projected cycle."

Alaric paused, and William laughed.

Alaric cleared his throat. "And clearly I am getting excellent value."

Linette returned to her notes with a dry smile.

For another hour, the three of them continued refining the arrangement.

They discussed what constituted genuine managerial responsibility, how participation should be suspended when someone permanently left a division, how replacements would qualify, and why equity ownership remained completely separate from profit participation.

William occasionally inserted the perspective of a government increasingly dependent upon Celestial tax revenue, while Linette repeatedly dragged the discussion back toward the practical reality of operating a company whose managers could receive fortunes larger than European noble estates from a single profitable cycle.

By the time the final pages were organized, the fire had burned low and William had finished enough Celestial Tea to make his promised lifetime allocation seem less like a gift and more like necessary strategic planning.

"Alrighty then," Alaric eventually stood. "That should do it."

Linette reviewed the final page.

"For now."

Alaric stared at her.

"For now?"

"Celestial will continue growing."

"You say that like a threat."

"With you, I have learned to assume growth will eventually create another ridiculous administrative problem."

William rose beside them and began gathering his government papers.

"She is probably correct."

"You two have become very comfortable criticizing me in my own house."

William smiled. "It is one of the privileges of friendship."

Linette closed her ledger, "And family."

Alaric sighed dramatically.

There was no winning against both.

One Hour Later*...*

Celestial Bank — Central Philadelphia — Deep Reserve Vault

The final steel door closed behind Alaric with a deep mechanical reverberation that rolled through the underground chamber.

He stood alone.

Very few people possessed authorization to descend this far beneath Celestial Bank, and fewer still could enter the primary reserve vault without an escort, multiple keys, and several independent approvals. Alaric required none of them.

It was his bank.

More importantly, the fūinjutsu woven through the foundation recognized him before conventional locks had any opportunity to object.

Alaric slowly looked around and saw that the vault was enormous.

Shelves and reinforced compartments stretched along stone walls in meticulously organized rows. Locked chests contained currencies acquired through international trade, while entire sections had been devoted to Pennmerian Dollars, British currency, Spanish reales, French coinage accumulated before the embargo, Ottoman money, Russian currency, Mughal coinage, and dozens of smaller denominations collected through the global reach of Celestial commerce.

Then there was the metal.

Gold bars, gold coins, silver, copper, and bullion acquired from trade settlements, bank reserves, converted foreign profits, collateral, and deposits.

Alaric walked deeper into the chamber while his eyes moved across enough physical wealth to finance wars that had not yet begun.

He stopped near the center.

"Dayum..."

His voice echoed faintly from the distant stone.

Celestial Bank had accumulated far more physical currency than he remembered.

Alaric shook his head before extending one hand.

The System answered his intent immediately.

He began with the assets he had personally designated for transfer, sweeping through accumulated currency and precious-metal holdings that could be converted into System value. Coins vanished from reinforced compartments. Foreign notes disappeared from sealed storage. Gold reserves assigned to his conversion were swallowed silently as the System assessed weight, purity, denomination, and exchange value before translating everything into the currency standard he currently preferred.

Pennmerian Dollars.

The process lasted only moments, and when it ended, a familiar translucent panel appeared before his eyes.

[Current Balance: $1,233,053,846.9]

[Buy] [Sell]

Alaric stared, his expression slowly changing.

The number remained exactly where it was.

One billion.

Two hundred thirty-three million.

Fifty-three thousand—

He stopped himself with a sigh, then smiled.

"Damn…" Alaric folded his arms and gave the balance another long look. "I'm finally a billionaire in Pennmerian Dollars…"

A quiet laugh escaped him.

For a boy who had once treated sixteen thousand reales as an almost incomprehensible fortune, seeing more than a billion Pennmerian Dollars sitting inside the System should probably have inspired something more dignified.

Instead, Alaric shook his head. "About fucking time."

Then he looked around the vault.

Large sections were now empty.

His smile faded. "Right."

Removing billions in currency-equivalent assets from a functioning banking network without replacing the reserves would create the kind of economic catastrophe Linette would personally hunt him across dimensions to correct.

Alaric lifted one hand, and Vulcan answered.

Metal throughout the vault shuddered.

The ability was normally terrifying because of what it could accomplish on a battlefield. Within five kilometers, metal could become whatever Alaric desired, from cables and blades to mountain-sized weapons capable of smashing through the Ten-Tails.

Here, he used that same absurd power for accounting.

Gold began flowing, followed by silver, while copper reshaped itself according to carefully preserved reserve records, reproducing bars, coinage blanks, weighted deposits, and metallic stores until every section requiring hard reserves possessed the correct mass.

Alaric walked through the aisles while the process continued around him.

Coins formed into orderly stacks as gold bars settled into reinforced shelving, while silver reserves regained their former volume.

He stopped when he reached the section containing Pennmerian banknotes.

Metal would not solve that.

Alaric looked at the paper reserves, then flexed his fingers.

There was another ability he had never actually used.

Creation of All Things.

He had understood the technique for some time, yet understanding a power and having a reason to use it were different things. Most problems in Alaric's life could already be solved through chakra, fūinjutsu, dōjutsu, Wood Release, Vulcan, or some other unreasonable ability he had accumulated over the years.

Now, for the first time, he deliberately invoked it.

The sensation was peculiar.

Chakra did not merely become matter.

Intent imposed form upon possibility.

Alaric held one Pennmerian banknote between two fingers and examined every detail: paper composition, printing, texture, serial design, seals, ink placement, anti-counterfeiting marks, and the minute irregularities that distinguished authentic government-issued notes from inferior copies.

Creation of All Things responded.

A second note appeared.

Then another.

Alaric raised his eyebrows.

"Huh."

The notes were perfect.

He increased the output, and stacks formed.

Rather than lazily duplicating identical serials, Alaric shaped each note according to legitimate unused sequences maintained within the bank's reserve records, reproducing the denominations and quantities that had occupied the vault before his conversion.

Within minutes, the empty compartments were full again.

Gold, silver, copper, and banknotes.

Foreign-currency equivalents required for ordinary banking transactions were recreated according to the reserve ledger until the vault looked indistinguishable from its condition before Alaric had entered.

He walked through it one final time using the Rinne-Sharingan to inspect the result.

Everything matched.

Alaric nodded in satisfaction. "Nice…"

Nobody opening the vault tomorrow would discover that its owner had just converted a staggering amount of physical wealth into System currency before replacing the underlying reserves through abilities that made ordinary monetary theory deeply uncomfortable.

His attention returned to the translucent interface.

There was another promise waiting.

Izuna.

Alaric mentally selected the first option.

[Buy]

The System catalog opened, and he immediately began searching.

'Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan.'

Two relevant entries appeared.

[Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan — Integrates with User — $625,000]

[Physical Mangekyo Sharingan Eyes — $937,500]

Alaric stared at the first price, his face slowly twisting in disbelief before a chuckle escaped him.

"Sixteen thousand Reales." He shook his head. "I paid sixteen fucking thousand Reales for this when I was five."

His eyes returned to the figure.

$625,000

"And now it's six hundred twenty-five thousand dollars."

Alaric laughed softly to himself.

"Inflation is a bitch."

The integrated version did not interest him; he already possessed his own eyes.

The physical pair did.

His attention settled upon the second option.

[Physical Mangekyo Sharingan Eyes — $937,500]

He purchased them.

[Physical Mangekyo Sharingan Eyes — $937,500]

[Total Deduction: $937,500][Current Balance: $1,232,116,346.9]

A pair of eyes appeared carefully within his waiting palm.

Alaric studied them.

There was no rejection issue from being crudely harvested from an incompatible human body, nor were they degraded by death or preservation. They were pristine physical Mangekyō eyes produced directly by the System, which gave him exactly the biological foundation he wanted for what he intended to do with Izuna.

His Rinne-Sharingan examined them for several seconds.

"Perfect."

Alaric touched the storage tattoo on his shoulder, and the eyes vanished inside.

Then he reopened the System shop.

This time, the search was considerably larger.

Celestial needed stock... a great deal of stock.

Linette's report had made that painfully clear.

Alaric began purchasing.

The System rapidly populated his selections.

[Ichiraku Ramen Instant Noodle Cups (1 Pack (10x)) — A ready-to-eat ramen kit inspired by Naruto's favorite dish, featuring authentic flavors and collectible packaging that reflects the iconic Ichiraku Ramen shop.][Buying: 50,000,000 pcs — $200,000]

Alaric continued.

[Uchiha Fire & Spice Hot Sauce — A spicy condiment that draws inspiration from the Uchiha clan's passionate legacy. This hot sauce blends fiery peppers and secret spices to deliver a burst of heat and flavor.][Buying: 50,000,000 pcs — $700,000]

Another selection joined it.

[Kunoichi Beauty Mask (1 Pack (5x)) — Commonly used by Kunoichis, this rejuvenating face mask uses ingredients sourced from traditional remedies to help purify and refresh the skin. Packaged in elegant, collectible containers, it taps into the allure of secret beauty rituals passed down among ninja clans.][Buying: 800,000,000 pcs — $43,200,000]

Alaric paused at the quantity.

Eight hundred million.

Then he remembered the international demand Linette had just described.

He continued.

[Sage's Herbal Infusion Tea Bags — A premium tea blend that combines rare herbs reminiscent of the meditative practices of Hagoromo Otsutsuki. (1 Box — 10 Tea Bags)][Buying: 50,000,000 pcs — $3,700,000]

[Premium Cigars — A pack of ten cigars known for their rich taste, aromatic smell, and expensive price.][Buying: 100,000,000 pcs — $15,000,000]

[Hyuga Clan Secret Ointment — Ointment created by the Hyuga clan.][Buying: 250,000,000 pcs — $7,500,000]

The household products followed.

[Shampoo + Conditioner — Buying: 100,000,000 pcs — $200,000]

[Liquid Bathing Soap — Buying: 100,000,000 pcs — $200,000]

[Toothpaste — A toothpaste with mint inspired by the Fifth Mizukage's icy glare.][Buying: 100,000,000 pcs — $200,000]

[Toothbrush — A toothbrush with bristles as white as Jiraiya's hair.][Buying: 100,000,000 pcs — $200,000]

Then Alaric reached the lotion description.

He stared.

[Lotion — Lotion that makes your skin as silky and smooth as Naruto's A**.][Buying: 100,000,000 pcs — $200,000]

Alaric remained silent for several seconds before buying it anyway.

Finally, military and emergency food received its own enormous order.

[MRE — Meal, Ready to Eat. It doesn't necessarily taste good.][Buying: 500,000,000 pcs — $2,000,000]

Alaric reviewed everything and knew that the quantities were absurd, but they were also becoming necessary.

Celestial was no longer selling a few thousand miraculous objects to wealthy colonial buyers. Its distribution network served Pennmere, foreign states, armies, hospitals, merchant fleets, households, and consumers spanning continents.

He nodded.

"Do it."

The System processed the purchase.

[Total Deduction: $73,300,000][Current Balance: $1,158,816,346.9]

Alaric stared at the remaining number.

Then a smirk crossed his face as he said, "Damn, I'm still a billionaire."

As the System prepared to materialize the order, Alaric immediately lifted his hand.

"No, you fucking don't."

Hundreds of millions of products appearing physically inside the underground vault would have transformed Celestial Bank into the world's most expensive burial chamber.

Instead, Alaric directed the purchase toward the Storage Seal Ring on his hand.

The ring warmed as its interior space expanded to receive the transaction.

More importantly, the master ring remained linked to the corresponding Storage Seal Rings issued to Celestial's managers, allowing authorized managers to access inventory assigned to their divisions without requiring Alaric to physically transport mountains of goods between warehouses.

The purchase vanished into storage.

Alaric inspected the master ring, his consciousness passing through organized sealed compartments.

Ramen, Hot Sauce, Beauty Masks, Tea, Cigars, Ointment, Shampoo, Soap, Toothpaste, Toothbrushes, Lotion, MREs.

Every product had arrived.

He smiled.

Then the ring vibrated.

Once, twice, then three times.

Alaric raised an eyebrow.

The communication seals built into the manager rings were activating.

Another call arrived, then several more.

"Of course."

He accepted the group-call function.

Multiple chakra-linked voices entered the sealed communication channel almost simultaneously.

Bernard Kenway managed to speak first, his amusement unmistakable even without his face being present. "Lad, another restock, huh? Nice!"

Alaric smiled.

Before he could answer, Edward Kenway's voice cut through with considerably less composure. "…What in the nine devils?"

Alaric let out a quiet laugh.

Edward had apparently opened his inventory view.

"You seeing it?"

"Seeing it?" Edward responded, and Alaric could practically imagine his father staring at the numbers. "There's enough merchandise in here to supply half the bloody Atlantic!"

"That's the idea."

Several other voices joined.

Eleanor immediately began discussing warehouse allocation.

Leonard sounded delighted by the Ramen quantity and was already calculating how quickly current distributors could move another fifty million units.

Caroline reacted to the Tea restock with considerably more restraint, although Alaric could hear her satisfaction when she realized fifty million additional boxes had entered the system.

Linette's response was different; she remained silent for several seconds.

Alaric knew exactly what she was doing.

Calculating.

"You bought eight hundred million Beauty Mask packs," Linette eventually said.

"Yes."

"And two hundred fifty million Ointments."

"Yes."

"Five hundred million MREs."

"Yes."

"Without discussing the quantities with me."

Alaric paused.

Edward began laughing through the communication seal.

"Aunt Linette—"

"'Laric."

"I reviewed your demand projections."

"You reviewed them for roughly ten minutes."

"That was enough... and it's not like you to ask about this when it's always been like this."

Linette inhaled slowly as Alaric smiled.

The fact that she did not immediately threaten him with another ledger meant the numbers were probably defensible.

Reuben eventually spoke calmly, "Liquid Soap inventory registered."

Thulani followed with equal composure, "So did the cigars."

Neither man reacted dramatically to the quantities.

They had spent enough time around Alaric to understand that his concept of restocking occasionally resembled military mobilization.

Alaric rested one hand against a reinforced vault table.

"Before everyone disappears, there's one standing household allocation."

The channel quieted.

William Penn's household receives a monthly Celestial supply for life.

Bernard chuckled.

"His Majesty finally convinced you?"

"He spent his own money buying Celestial products after I already made him rich."

Silence followed, before Edward burst into laughter.

Linette sounded tired.

"That explains the investment conversation."

"You knew?"

"I suspected."

Alaric shook his head.

"Set reasonable monthly household quantities. Tea, hygiene goods, Salve, dental products, household products, and cigars within reason. Charge nothing."

Caroline answered first. "Understood."

Eleanor followed, already sounding as though she were preparing to record the standing allocation.

Leonard agreed, while Bernard enthusiastically suggested adding several bottles of Hot Sauce whether William requested them or not.

Reuben and Thulani simply confirmed.

Edward, still amused, promised he would personally make sure William received enough products to regret ever trying to purchase them himself.

Linette finally sighed.

"I'll formalize the household allocation."

"Thank you."

As the group call ended, silence returned to the vault, and Alaric looked around.

There were still several things he had promised to do.

"One million dollars."

He brought his hands together as Wood flowed from his shoulder, gathering beside him in a twisting mass before shaping itself into another Alaric.

The Wood Clone opened its eyes and looked at him.

Alaric looked back. "Bank first."

The clone waited.

"Find whoever is processing private loans and have them prepare one for William Penn Senior. One million Pennmerian Dollars."

The clone nodded.

"No interest."

Another nod.

"Don't make him wait through normal approval."

The clone raised an eyebrow, and Alaric reconsidered.

"Actually, make the paperwork legitimate. William will complain if I bypass procedures after he just spent an hour lecturing me about institutional structure."

The clone smiled.

"After that, check the Celestial Mall. Walk the commercial floors, speak to managers, look at customer traffic, inventory movement, security, and see whether anything is beginning to strain because of the war."

The clone listened.

"Then head toward the Iroquois territories. I want to know how everything is going there without relying entirely on reports. Trade, settlements, local government, relations with locals and Pennmerian citizens, complaints, all of it."

The clone's expression sharpened when Alaric continued.

"After that, things get less official." Alaric folded his arms. "Henge into Spanish military personnel."

The Wood Clone smiled faintly.

"Go to Louisiana and New France. Military targets only. Supply depots, command communications, ammunition movements, patrol coordination, bridges being used for Spanish-French logistics. Make enough trouble that French forces start wondering whether their Spanish friends are sabotaging them."

The clone nodded.

"Then switch."

Alaric's smile became sharper.

"Henge into French personnel and move into New Spain and La Florida. Do the same thing there. Break military logistics, wreck command coordination, sabotage war supplies, and make Spain wonder exactly how trustworthy its undeclared French ally actually is."

The clone tilted its head.

Alaric pointed toward it. "No civilians."

The clone nodded again.

"No hospitals either."

Another nod.

"And don't do anything so obvious that an intelligent officer immediately concludes there's one infiltrator behind both operations. Change methods, timing, targets, and style."

The Wood Clone gave him a thumbs-up.

"Good."

It disappeared.

There was no puff of smoke, no Body Flicker distortion, and no Hiraishin flash... the clone simply accelerated.

One instant it stood beside him.

The next, the air shifted faintly and it was gone from the vault.

Alaric blinked.

His Rinne-Sharingan tracked the residual movement easily enough, but ordinary human senses would have perceived almost nothing.

He stared toward the closed vault entrance.

"Just pure speed, huh?"

A small smile crossed his face.

"Not even using Body Flicker…"

For a moment, Alaric remained alone beneath billions of dollars in recreated reserves, surrounded by the strange intersection of modern economics and powers that had no business existing in eighteenth-century Philadelphia.

Then his hand touched the storage tattoo on his shoulder.

Inside it waited the physical Mangekyō Sharingan eyes he had purchased for the promise made to Madara.

Izuna had his life back.

Madara had five years of employment ahead of him.

And somewhere inside the Kenway Compound in Konoha, several people were almost certainly discovering how difficult it was to place Madara Uchiha inside a household and expect the morning to remain peaceful.

Alaric smiled to himself.

Two days... he had promised two days.

He wondered how much damage they could manage before then.