Dragon Across the Multiverse (Si-WC) (Patreon)

Chapter 31: Lessons of an Immortal Teacher

Three Years Later — Alexandria

“…And that’s how currency works.” I finished explaining and turned from the whiteboard I was using, which still highlighted several key points for my audience, Haru’s current members, along with a few additions.

The first pair of eyes I met belonged to a beautiful girl with long strawberry-blonde hair tinted with pink. One lock draped neatly over her left eye, leaving only her bright azure-blue right eye visible… and fixed on me with an intensity bordering on obsession. She hadn’t blinked once during the entire lecture. Her outfit looked like a saint’s ceremonial garb, just in darker colors, and she had her hands clasped at her chest like she was praying to me.

That was none other than Victoria, a former Saint of the Church who had led the Templars before I saved her shortly after recruiting Elisabeth. I freed her from the literal mind control of the Cult and the Holy Church of Divine Teachings.

She didn’t believe me at first, until my binding shattered the manipulation and she realized they’d been steering her life from the very beginning. After helping her carve through the people responsible, she joined us with zero hesitation and had been with us ever since.

Luckily, this Victoria, unlike in the original timeline, was not as cold or filled with hatred and mostly kept her original kind personality. One thing that hadn’t changed, however, was her obsession with me or how she reverted into a shy girl with a crush whenever I was present, which I thought was cute.

She was also still a Yandere, but I decided to overlook that aspect of her since there had been no problems so far.

“There have been no problems because every girl here loves Master, so she has no reason to complain. Wait until she sees Master interacting with regular girls.” Ciel said with a deadpan tone.

Moving on.

I turned my head and met the eyes of two Cat Therianthropes sitting behind Yukime—Natsu and Kana. They were the girls Yukime would eventually rescue and who became her closest aides, helping her run the White Tower in the Lawless City.

Natsu had long brown hair and gold eyes with a mature figure, currently wearing a black and white kimono. Kana, on the other hand, had short black hair, gold eyes, and a more petite body, along with a similar kimono. Their personalities also differed: while Natsu was mature and womanly, Kana was a bit childish most of the time, though both were hard workers at the end of the day.

My gaze then moved to the last three girls who had joined us, a dark elf, an elf, and a half-elf. These girls were Lambda, or Zinaida; Chi, or Karen von Herzog; and Omega, or Olga.

Lambda was the only dark elf I had managed to recruit so far. She had long gray hair, golden eyes, and wore a dark military uniform highlighting her background serving in the Velgata Empire’s military before she was possessed and discarded.

Next was Chi, a short blonde-haired elf with emerald-green eyes and a slender figure. Like Lambda, she had also served Velgata as one of Velgata’s Seven Blades and was a Named First Child of the Cult before being discarded when stricken with possession.

Finally, there was Omega, who had short black hair and heterochromia, her right eye silver and her left gold. Omega was slightly more developed than Chi and had a unique tattoo on the right side of her body. She, too, had been abandoned when stricken with possession, until we rescued her.

Three long years had passed since I had recruited Lilim, Elisabeth, and Mary, and a lot had happened since then. Other than recruiting the mentioned girls and fighting the Cult, I had been training them and teaching them everything I could think of that might be useful or that lined up with their interests.

Thanks to the Golden Leopard Clan joining us, the fields around the city were now being properly maintained and no longer required the help of my clones. After having a talk with them—ahem, threatening them a little, they were able to get along just fine with the Spirit Fox Tribe and work together.

As for the little vampire queen, Elisabeth spent most of her time walking under the sunlight, enjoying being under the sun now that it didn’t burn her. We also got into the habit of having tea and snacks almost every morning and just chatting about anything that came to mind.

Mary had joined Marie and become our second maid, though she mainly took care of my lazy vampire queen. Growing up as royalty, Elisabeth didn’t really know how to do most things and relied on others for mundane tasks like waking her up, feeding her, and things like that.

Most of my time went into missions, taking out members of the Cult, and training the girls, and I was glad to say that my days as a teacher were soon to be over. I had taught everyone to the best of my abilities, and now the only thing they needed was actual experience.

“…Any questions?” I asked, focusing my mind back on the present.

I immediately saw a couple of hands rise into the air, so I spent a few minutes answering their questions and clarifying any confusion they had.

From the corner of my eye, I caught Eta recording everything with a video camera, not wanting to miss a single second. The girl had almost salivated when I upgraded her old voice recorder to a modern camera.

Not wanting to play favorites, I had also gotten the other girls similar gifts like portable computers and digital cameras. Now you couldn’t find a girl without an iPad or tablet whenever I was teaching them something.

When I finished answering questions, I noticed Eta raising her hand while maneuvering her video camera with the other, making sure it was still recording.

“Yes, Eta?” I asked, raising an eyebrow, curious what crazy thing she was going to ask this time.

“Boss, is it possible to fully scan a brain with the technology you know of?” Eta asked with an eager expression, her gaze fixed on me intensely even though her voice came out monotone.

“Yes, there is technology that can do that,” I said with a nod, and she looked even more excited.

“Then can I scan your brain, Boss? I’m really curious to find out how your brain works, being as strong and smart as you are,” Eta said, her eyes gleaming, giving her the look of a mad scientist even though she was only fourteen right now.

Deadpanning at her, I let out a sigh, already expecting the insane question. She had wanted to do the same with Cid in canon, only without any technology, thinking she might find some hidden secrets in his brain.

I saw the other girls giving her weird looks, especially Liriel, Yukime, and Victoria, those three being the most overprotective and possessive over me, though Eta completely ignored them.

“I’m going to have to disappoint you, Eta,” I said, shaking my head, causing the girl to slump in sadness like a kicked puppy for not getting to study my brain of all things. “Though it’s not because I don’t want to show you.”

Eta blinked and perked up again, suddenly hopeful.

“What do you mean, Akari-sama?” Elisabeth asked, tilting her head to the side and putting her teacup down.

“It’s simple,” I said with a teasing smile, looking everyone in the eye as I dropped the surprise. “I don’t have a brain for you to scan.”

My smile widened into a grin as I immediately noticed the shocked looks everyone was giving me.

“W-What do you mean, my Lord?” Natsume asked with wide eyes as she stopped fiddling with her iPad and focused on me.

“A-Are you saying that you have a different organ acting as the brain, Boss?” Eta asked, looking even more excited than before with every new detail she learned about me.

“Sort of,” I said with an easy shrug before pointing at my own body. “The thing is, this body you see before you is nothing but a convenient shell that I use to interact with others and with the world around me. Even if this body were to ever die, I could simply make another one for me to inhabit, because my true essence is essentially somewhere else and is immortal.”

My answer was met with many awestruck looks and a chorus of gasps.

“W-Whoa~”

“As expected of Akari-sama~”

“God! He truly is a God! I knew it~”

“Does that mean that you can’t reproduce with other species, Akari-sama?” Elisabeth, who was taking this reveal a lot easier than the others, asked a follow-up question that immediately grabbed everyone’s attention.

Seeing the anticipating and hopeful looks I was getting from literally everyone, I slumped my head a little, causing them to fear the worst.

“That—” I paused for dramatic effect before raising my head with all traces of melancholy gone and giving them a thumbs up. “—shouldn’t be a problem at all~ I can reproduce with any race just fine,” I said confidently.

I did my best not to snicker when I saw everyone let out sighs of relief before realizing what they were doing and blushing a pretty shade of red, especially Elisabeth once she heard the last part, which must have come as a surprise for her.

“…That sounds wonderful~” Elisabeth muttered to herself in a dreamy voice, imagining all sorts of things.

“Ahem,” Eta said, almost vibrating in her seat, excitement returning as she restored some order to the group. “Boss, if you don’t mind sharing with us… just what is your true essence?”

Her question worked, and the girls lost most of their blush as they focused on me again.

“Hmm,” I hummed, thinking for a moment about how to best answer before deciding to simplify it as much as I could. “To put it simply, I’m a type of spiritual life-form known as a True Dragon. A walking natural disaster that can’t be fought and is able to exist without a physical body in a digital nature. As long as my home universe remains intact, nothing can kill me.”

And with my home universe being my Demiplane, an ever-expanding universe protected by the Company, I didn’t see myself dying anytime soon unless I did something extremely stupid, like going against the likes of The Presence, The One Above All or those similar in terms of power.

Once more, the sound of awed whispers and murmurs reached my ears, but my eyes focused mainly on Lilim and Victoria, whose eyes had been replaced almost literally by stars as they stared at me.

‘Even though this Lilim is already different from the original, best deal with this now. Now that she knows I’m already immortal, hopefully no foolish ideas get into her head about forming her own secret division of Haru in the future,’ I thought silently, pleased.

“So, you’re a being made of information, Boss?” Eta asked, no longer paying attention to the video camera and instead focusing entirely on me with a shocking intensity.

“Yes, essentially. We all are, actually, but the difference between us is that I’m able to interact with the information that makes up existence,” I explained, going into more detail for her.

“…Boss is truly the best~ Now I really want to see what goes on in Boss’s head, even if he doesn’t have a brain,” Eta said passionately.

“Maybe later. Now, onto the next lesson,” I said, waving her request away, though judging by the eager look in her eyes, I had a feeling she would bother me about it until I made good on my promise.

‘I think it’s finally time I reward them personally with something nice for all the work everyone has made so far.’ I thought silently in the back of my mind already coming up with the perfect gift.

=====

Alexandria — Akari & Livia

“Now, what did you want to ask me, Livia?” I asked curiously, watching as she fidgeted nervously in place with a small blush on her cheeks, turning her head to the side.

“A-Akari-sama, with you being so knowledgeable and having already traveled to different worlds, i-is there some form of magic that lets one shape their own body to their will?” Livia asked, her blush intensifying as she finally revealed what she wanted.

Blinking, I looked at the azure-haired girl with a raised eyebrow, not really understanding why she wanted to know that. Unlike the original Epsilon, who was flat as a board with a petite body to match, Livia was already shaping up to be a true beauty at fourteen. In fact, she already had one of the curviest bodies among the group, just behind Natsume, Liriel, and Yukime.

‘It must be her pride,’ I eventually settled on with a sagely nod.

“I’ve already given you such power, Livia,” I said with an understanding smile, causing her to blink and look at me in confusion.

“W-What do you mean, my Lord?”

I pointed at her, more specifically at her clothes, which were made by the Shroud I had gifted everyone. “The Shroud I gave you, aside from its other abilities, can stimulate your body’s growth based on your desires. So if that’s what you want, you just need to be patient, and the Shroud will respond.”

Livia blinked again before realization hit her, and she threw herself into my arms, squealing happily.

“You’re the best, Akari-sama~!” she giggled joyfully.

“You’re welcome. But if you really want to thank me, keep working on your magic control. I’ve noticed you have a natural affinity for it, and I want to see how far you can take it,” I recommended, earning an immediate nod.

“Of course~! I won’t let you down.”

‘Good. With this, she won’t lose the abilities she gained in canon from abusing the slime bodysuit just to make her body prettier.’

“If you impress me enough, I’ll reward you by giving you the music sheets of some of the most famous composers I know,” I added, sweetening the deal.

That was apparently too much, because she squealed even louder. “I love you so much, Akari-sama~!”

=====

Alexandria — Akari & Natsume

“Can I see your iPad for a moment, Natsume?”

During our private lessons, I stopped her before she left, wanting to surprise her.

“Of course, Akari-sama~!” Natsume said immediately, handing over the device without question.

Taking it, I fiddled with it for a few minutes, though thanks to Thought Acceleration, it looked like only a few seconds, before handing it back to the curious elf.

“I know you really enjoy it when I read you stories from the worlds I’ve visited, so I downloaded a couple thousand of the most popular books for you. If you ever finish them and want more, just let me know and I’ll download more.”

Her face lit up beautifully, and she held the iPad close to her chest as if it were a sacred treasure.

“T-Thank you so much, Akari-sama,” Natsume stuttered, happy tears gathering in her eyes.

I gently wiped them away, then pulled her into my arms, something she immediately melted into, and rubbed her head. “Thank you for all your hard work so far.”

“Mmn.”

=====

I went on to do the same for several others, gifting Luna books on finance, marketing, and anything else she’d find useful, and gifting Eta advanced equipment to further her studies, like a state-of-the-art microscope and several other high-tech tools.

Unfortunately, I had to leave her lab because of the looks she kept shooting me after thanking me profusely.

Feeling a little bored now, I blinked when I remembered that in a few days Claire, Cid’s sister, was supposed to be kidnapped by the Cult. A grin crept across my face.

‘It’s been a while since I last messed with Cid. I think a reunion is in order.’ I thought, already coming up with ways to troll him.