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

Chapter 34: Recruitment is Too Easy in This World

“Hello there,” I greeted the teen with a smile and received one in return, even if he kept eyeing Coco warily.

“H-Hello,” Hiraku replied nervously. “W-What brings you and your… uh, friend here?” he asked, glancing at the massive bear standing on her hind legs beside me, tongue lolling out like a happy puppy.

“I’m just a humble traveler wandering the world,” I said casually. “And I happened to stumble into this lovely forest, where I met this cutie. Say hi, Coco.”

The bear let out a soft, friendly growl.

“Graww.”

“C-Coco, huh?” Hiraku echoed, visibly relaxing now that he could see how intelligent, and well-behaved, she was.

“Anyway, I’m Hiraku Machio. I’m the only resident living here,” he added, turning back to me with a friendly smile.

“Nice to meet you, Hiraku. I’m Akari Tempest,” I replied with a returning smile, though mine shifted into a small smirk.

“Now… I hope you enjoy your life going forward. I’ll make sure you get to experience a peaceful farming life back in Japan. See ya~”

Hiraku blinked, trying to process what I’d just said. “Wha—”

He didn’t get to finish his question before he was instantly devoured by the black void that represented Azathoth.

Glancing down at my hand, I let Ciel do her part while an identical copy of me materialized beside me.

“You know what to do,” I said simply, not even sparing it a glance as I looked at my left hand, where the AFT, or All-Purpose Farming Tool, began to materialize in the form of a hoe.

“Right. Erase his memories and replace them with ones about waking up from a coma and inheriting some farmland from a distant relative,” my clone repeated dutifully.

I gave a silent nod in approval.

A portal shimmered into existence beside him, and without another word, he stepped through and disappeared, off to deliver Hiraku his new, peaceful life.

“Alright,” I muttered with a smile, admiring the AFT. “Let’s see how you work.”

Divine energy pulsed faintly from the tool as I gave it a testing grip, then began walking forward while whistling cheerfully.

‘Hey, Ciel? Think we can replicate this?’ I asked with a grin. ‘While it’s impressive, I’d rather not get my hands dirty if I can pass the work off to someone, or something, else.’

With that thought, I summoned a few wood clones and set them to work building a house and fencing in the clearing.

“Hmph. Of course we can. While this trinket is remarkable, it’s actually quite simple to recreate. We’d just need to replace the divine energy source,” Ciel replied with a haughty tone, almost as if she were offended by the suggestion that she couldn’t.

“Hahaha. As expected of my other half,” I said with a grin, feeling her pride swell, smug and embarrassed all at once.

With that out of the way, I began setting up a few farms, just enough to sustain things during my brief stay in this world before I left, once I’d accomplished what I came here for.

That said, since this setting’s events moved at a snail’s pace, I decided to fuck with time a little to make sure I met everyone important within a reasonable timeframe. No way I was going to sit around for years waiting for plot progression.

‘It’s good being me sometimes,’ I thought with a pleased smile.

=====

Timeskip — One Year

In between all my time-skipping, not much had really happened in the small village I’d created. I did make friends with some Inferno Wolves and a giant spider I named Zabuton, honoring the name Hiraku gave her in the canon timeline. As it turned out, both were part of the Four Overlords of the Forest, which meant I now had three of the four Overlords under my control.

Naturally, I built them a home worthy of their status. Recently, the pups born from Kuro and Yuki had returned with their own mates, and that little detail let me know our first official resident would be arriving soon. So, I stopped jumping forward in time while I left a few clones behind to keep the farms running.

Suddenly, a bell rang, part of the alert system I had Zabuton handle to warn of any intruders or visitors. I paused my game of Tetris on the Game Boy (can’t beat the classics), slowly got up from my comfortable seat, and stretched.

“Well, time to meet the Vampire Princess,” I muttered with a smile, following the commotion coming from the village gates.

It didn’t take long to reach the scene: a small figure was surrounded by Inferno Wolves, Demon Spiders, and my Grapple Bear, Coco. She had silver hair, striking blue eyes, and pointed ears like an elf, but what gave her away were the faint fangs poking just beneath her lips.

“Alright everyone, please back away,” I instructed calmly as I stopped in front of Rurushi Ru, who currently looked weak due to needing blood. Once she had her fill, she’d return to her proper form.

“Please help me~” Rurushi whimpered, doing her best to cover herself as tears welled in her eyes.

“Sure,” I said with a warm smile and a nod, which instantly brightened her face. “As long as you promise to ask first if you want a drink of my blood.” I finished with a teasing tone.

Her eyes widened in surprise at being caught. She lowered her head and let out a pitiful whimper. “Wuuu… busted. So you know I’m a vampire.”

Then she blinked as the rest of my words clicked, and she snapped her head up so fast she nearly hurt herself. “Wait! So I can drink your blood, as long as I ask first?” she asked excitedly, her glowing eyes sparkling again.

“Of course,” I nodded, then gave her a wink. “I can’t say no to a pretty girl, after all~”

Blushing in embarrassment, but clearly enjoying the compliment, Rurushi nodded. “Then… please let me have some of your blood, handsome stranger,” she pleaded sweetly.

“Hmhm, with pleasure,” I said with a smile, quickly leaning down to tear the vampire free from the tight webbing of Zabuton’s children.

No sooner was she free than she launched herself into my arms and began sucking eagerly at my neck.

“Mmn… shoo good,” Rurushi moaned, eyes closed in bliss as she drank greedily.

While she was preoccupied, clearly on cloud nine from the taste of my blood, I gently held her close to my chest. Taking advantage of her distraction, I went ahead and Stamped her just below the shoulder. Given her current state of undress, it was an easy matter.

Before long, Rurushi finally finished and pulled back, hooded eyes glowing as she slowly licked her lips.

Then, with a sultry smirk, her body began to glow.

I watched as her form shifted, transforming in mere seconds from that of a petite girl to a fully grown woman. The change was stunning… and generous, to say the least.

As she matured, a flowing blue-and-red dress materialized around her, elegant and refined, lending her the appearance of someone important, far from just a random wanderer.

“Y-Your blood is the most delicious I’ve ever tasted~” she murmured softly, her voice still dazed.

“I might get addicted to it... You’re lucky I’m such a cute and benevolent person. Huhuhu~” she added, striking a dramatic, haughty pose.

…Only for said pose to collapse a moment later when the Inferno Wolf pups swarmed her in a joyful dogpile, knocking her off balance.

“Waaah! Help! Mercy!” she screamed, flailing as the pups nuzzled and licked her into submission.

Shaking my head in amusement, I waited until they’d finished their roughhousing. Then I cleared my throat and gently shooed them away.

“Alright, that’s enough, you little menaces. Go play elsewhere,” I said with a chuckle.

Once freed, Rurushi pouted dramatically but quickly perked up when I offered her a hand.

“C’mon. Let me give you a tour of the place,” I said, turning toward the house.

She eagerly followed, clearly enjoying the attention as her eyes sparkled with fascination with all the exotic plants and fruits.

=====

Tour Later

After giving Rurushi a tour of the small village, and answering a flood of questions about everything I’d managed to grow, the day finally came to an end. Now, the two of us were eating dinner together inside my home.

“Everything here is amazing~” Rurushi gushed, smiling as she popped a strawberry into her mouth with one hand while the other scribbled notes on a floating magical notepad.

“I wish I could spend a few days here to properly research everything…” she mumbled to herself, though I still heard her just fine.

“Then why don’t you?” I asked casually, finishing off my salad made with freshly harvested vegetables. My question made her blink and look up at me in surprise.

“Y-You mean… you don’t mind me staying here for a few days? I did mention I’m running from somene, right?” she asked, tilting her head with a puzzled look.

“I don’t care about who’s chasing you,” I said with a small shrug. “It gets lonely here, with only my clones for company. I could really use some human interaction.”

I smiled at her.

“So why don’t you stay here from now on, and live with me forever?”

Given what I already knew about Rurushi, from both personal observation and meta-knowledge, I wasn’t at all surprised when her face flushed bright red in embarrassment.

“P-Please slow down~ This is all so sudden,” she stammered, shyly averting her eyes while twirling a strand of her hair.

‘This vampire is a total pushover. One more push should do it,’ I thought, amused.

“Stay.”

I leaned forward, took her hands in mine, and spoke firmly, my expression serious.

Her face somehow turned an even deeper shade of red as her eyes swirled. “…O-Okay, fine. I’m okay with it, but… but we really have only just met.”

“That’s completely fine.” I shook my head with a calm smile. “We can get to know each other while living together.”

Still squirming in her seat, Rurushi finally turned to face me and nodded. “A-Alright… It’s just… that felt like a sudden proposal.”

I wisely chose to remain silent at that, neither confirming nor denying her assumption.

I had zero desire to explain to the other girls why I’d “proposed” to someone way ahead of them. Especially not to Ciel, Velzard, Velgrynd, Kushina, or Izumi.

“…Good choice,” Ciel’s voice suddenly echoed in my mind, though this time it sounded extremely ominous.

‘Yep. Keeping my mouth shut.’

=====

With Rurushi now fully settled into the small village, things shifted slightly in how we ran things.

With one more mouth to feed, I actually had to put in some real effort in cooking, rather than only eating when I was hungry for something specific, which was how I usually did things, given I didn’t really need to eat.

Of course, even while we were getting to know each other, that didn’t mean I’d stopped playing around with time. I tweaked Rurushi’s perception, so what she experienced as a month was actually a full year for me.

During that "month," Rurushi had thrown herself into studying and researching the various plants growing in the village, taking an especially strong interest in tomatoes for some reason.

I just chalked it up to a vampire thing and moved on.

And since Rurushi already viewed me as her husband (a misunderstanding I continued dodging with extreme care), we had jumped into bed together almost immediately, just like in canon.

We kept having sex throughout the “month,” with Rurushi growing increasingly attached as time went on.

Now that a full year had passed, it was time for our next new resident, and, just like Rurushi, she made quite the entrance.

Surrounded on all sides by the Four Overlords of the Forest of Death, now including the recently acquired Bloody Viper, whom I’d renamed Cici, she called out with panic in her voice.

“Pleeease heeelp!!”

A beautiful blonde woman with golden eyes and pristine white angel wings cried out the moment she spotted us.

“T-Tia!?” Rurushi blinked in surprise before her expression shifted into realization. “You too, huh?”

“Rurushi! Don’t just stand there, help me!” Tia whined, looking utterly pitiful as tears welled in the corners of her eyes.

Rurushi turned to me, giving me a small, pleading look.

“Remember when I said someone was looking for me? Well, this is Tia. But I promise she’s not that bad. Could you please release her? She won’t cause any trouble, I promise.”

Then, turning back to Tia, her expression changed to a narrowed-eyed glare. “Right, Tia?”

Under that look, Tia quickly nodded like her life depended on it. “O-Of course!”

I shrugged, this was the outcome I’d been aiming for anyway. With a flick of my hand, I released the bindings and watched a near-repeat of last time: Tia quickly re-clothed herself and used magic to clean up.

“Nice to meet you. Tia, right?” I greeted with a friendly smile.

She returned a hesitant one, clearly feeling the weight of Rurushi’s death glare from beside me.

“I’m Akari Tempest, ruler, leader, or whatever title you want to use, for this village,” I added.

“Y-Yes, my name is Tia. An Angel. Nice to meet you, Ajari-san.” She bowed slightly, still visibly nervous.

“Anyway, since you’re already here, let me show you around~” Rurushi chirped brightly as she stepped forward, latched onto Tia’s arm, and immediately began dragging her toward the village.

It didn’t take long at all for Rurushi to end up roping Tia to stay longer something that the Angel had done only a bit reluctantly after trying a strawberry which she had come to immediately love.

With the angel now here, Rurushi finally had a friend—well, a friendly rival—she could talk to. So when night rolled around, I wasn’t the least bit surprised to find a blushing Tia joining us in bed.

I was already hoping and somewhat expecting Rurushi to pull through and she hadn’t let me down.

Through all of this, I found myself silently thanking whatever divine forces ruled this world for just how absurdly easy it was to recruit people here.

Hiraku really had it made, huh?

Any trace of remorse I once had about stealing his spotlight?

Yeah, that was long gone, buried and forgotten.

That said, I knew what was coming next.

The first group of elves would be arriving at the village any day now, and honestly, I couldn’t wait.

‘More elves is always good.’