Chapter 759: The Shy Charmer I
CH759 The Shy Charmer I
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When Alex sat down at the study desk to read the documents left for him, he initially found the reports difficult to follow because they had been very poorly filed.
Fortunately, he noticed annotations inserted by Zora and Eleanore that helped him make sense of the format and template used to compile the reports. Once he figured that out, reading them became much easier.
Even so, he made a mental note to update many of the clerical methods used within the domain to standards more akin to those of his previous life.
Like many things, while the humans of his previous life were weaker than those of his current one, they had refined many everyday practices to a level that surpassed their counterparts in this world.
Perhaps it was precisely because of humanity’s weakness in his previous life that they had been forced to optimise their methods as much as possible in order to maximise the results of whatever they did.
Whatever the reason, Alex saw it as proof that every civilisation excelled at something—showing that one could learn from anyone, anywhere, and any civilisation.
Shaking his head, Alex pushed those idle thoughts aside and focused on the documents before him.
As one might expect, the reports were quite dry. However, Alex felt right at home thanks to his past-life experience as a multinational Corpo worker.
He had read documents far drier than these, making what he was currently reading seem like a D-grade novel—not particularly interesting, but not entirely boring either.
Soon, Alex lost himself in the paperwork.
Being the workaholic that he was, once he started, he lost all sense of his surroundings, only pausing from time to time to organise his thoughts and ponder something he had read.
It was only when his body instinctively sensed a shift in the ambient mana that he was snapped out of his focused state.
It was almost dawn. Solar mana was rising while darkness mana was receding. Having an exceptionally high affinity for both mana types meant Alex’s body was extremely sensitive to the changes brought about by the transition between day and night.
Alex stood up from the desk and stretched.
Fortunately, he had managed to get through all the documents in a single night.
Of course, this was largely thanks to Milton, Zora, and Eleanore already doing the heavy lifting by sorting through the records and ensuring that only the documents he actually needed to review reached his desk.
For example, Alex didn’t need to know exactly how much every individual peasant earned, but he did need to know what peasants in each industry across the domain earned on average.
Likewise, he didn’t need detailed information on the living standards of every individual within his territory, but he did need broad statistics regarding the living conditions of the population in order to gain a clearer understanding of the domain’s overall standard of living.
After stretching, Alex sighed.
’As expected, there are some low-level cliché problems gripping the domain due to the poor management of past domain lords and magistrates.
’The last two, in particular, dug a very deep hole for me. I can’t begin reclaiming territory from the Great Berserk Beast Forest and, more importantly, building an Interplanar Gate back home to Pangea without first removing the rot and cancers within the territory,’ he thought to himself.
His eyes narrowed.
’I cannot build a skyscraper if I do not first ensure the foundation is firm.’
Alex walked to the small balcony attached to the study and looked out over the townscape.
There was little to see compared to the larger cities he had visited, let alone the metropolises of his previous life, but in its own way, Fonterra Bastide possessed a certain charm.
’Developing the territory is going to take time. So, should I take my time solving the festering problems left behind for me, or should I flip the board? Slowly and steadily take over the game, or overturn the entire board and start anew? The former has the advantage of stability, while the latter offers speed.’
He shook his head, deciding to clear his mind for a moment.
Alex took a deep breath of the morning air.
Had anyone been present, they would have seen small blazing flames within Alex’s nostrils as two splinters of AetherKindle settled there, purifying the air and mana he drew in with every breath.
Alex had made the Primal Origin Flame break off splinters of itself so many times that the semi-sentient, draconic-shaped flame had learned to reattach or regrow its broken splinters—usually a claw—by consuming free providence around Alex.
Fortunately, unbeknownst to Alex, a great deal of ’waste’ Providence was released to every special entity within or attached to his body whenever Lord Bonsai absorbed Providence from divine statues.
Otherwise, at the rate Alex used AetherKindle’s splinters—even though he recovered and reused them—AetherKindle might have already broken down. After all, Primal Origin Flames were never intended to be used in such a manner.
It went to show that the Heartwood Tree had indeed made the right decision by tailoring itself into an energy tree for Alex instead of becoming the Wisdom Tree the youth had originally wanted.
Too bad the youth remained oblivious to this and believed it was simply something AetherKindle had always been capable of doing.
Then again, if he had known otherwise—or if AetherKindle hadn’t adapted to its host’s unusual methods of usage—Alex might have stopped using it this way once he realised the damage he had been unknowingly causing.
However, none of that mattered, as everything had aligned beautifully in his favour.
As Alex remained on the balcony, letting the morning air and ambient mana wash over him, he sensed a particular person using the comms network.
"Udara, where are you?" Alex asked through the comms.
"At an inn in town, Master," Udara replied.
"Are you busy right now?"
"No."
"Good, I’m coming over to see you."
"What? No, don’t. I’ll come to the manor instead," Udara’s flustered voice sounded through the link.
Alex felt the comms connection to Udara cut and reconnect multiple times. Most likely, she was using [Shadow Dash] to rush over immediately.
And as expected, only a few minutes later, she emerged from the shadows within the study.
"What are you thinking? Why would you want to come over? Don’t you know you’re the most talked-about person in town right now? You’ll draw attention to us if you come over," Udara said.
Alex chuckled to himself.
He hadn’t actually intended to go either. He had only been teasing Udara.
After all, she was the one tasked with subtly establishing an intelligence network within the town. It was already a delicate operation given that they were outsiders. Having people connect him to Udara and her agents would only make an already difficult task even harder, especially considering his current ambiguous standing with the townsfolk.
Still, Alex wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to have a little fun at Udara’s expense.
"Well, what other choice did I have? A certain someone decided not to call, text, or reach out. I thought you’d abandoned me," Alex said pitifully.
"Master, I was busy..." Udara replied hurriedly.
She wanted to explain herself, but she was too flustered to know what to say.
Then she noticed the cunning smirk tugging at Alex’s lips.
"Master, you..."
Before she could finish speaking, Alex closed the distance, pulled her into an embrace, and kissed her.
Udara immediately melted in his arms, giving him the opportunity to scoop her up in a princess carry and set her down on the long sofa within the study.
Her ears had turned completely red, looking soft and delicate—so much so that Alex briefly felt the urge to nibble on them. Fortunately for Udara, he restrained himself.
Ears were particularly sensitive for women with elven bloodlines, and thanks to her quarter Dark Elf bloodline, Udara was no exception. In fact, her Succubus and Dryad bloodline inheritances seemed to amplify that sensitivity even further.
Since he didn’t intend to push things that far, he held himself back.
Even so, he found an odd—possibly unhealthy—amount of enjoyment in watching a woman blessed with four different ’bold’ bloodlines become so shy and vulnerable in his arms.
The contrast between the natural charm Udara radiated because of her bloodlines and her own reserved personality stirred something within him.
’It’s probably because of the domineering traits of my Furor Bloodline and Velkar True Name,’ Alex told himself.
(Yeah, right.)
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