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With a body like that, there wasn't a man alive who wouldn't be tempted.
When Esdeath heard Alex's words, the tension finally left her brow. She stood up, grabbed his hand, and said, "Then let's bathe together."
"Th-that might not be appropriate," Alex said, his heart racing even as he put on a show of modesty.
Esdeath rolled her eyes at him and dragged him straight toward the royal baths.
…
The next morning, the young emperor convened court and announced a brand-new bureaucratic system.
At the same time, he ordered the confiscation of property and execution of a number of corrupt officials.
As for the vacant positions, they were filled according to the list Alex had provided.
For example, the captain of the Imperial Capital Guard was appointed to be Wave from the original Jaegers.
The Minister of Justice became Bols.
The Minister of Finance went to Run.
The Minister of Works was assigned to Dr. Stylish.
His Imperial Arms, God's Hand: Perfector, was perfectly suited for inventing things, after all.
Of course, this was only temporary.
The guy had committed plenty of crimes in the past, so he would need to be dealt with sooner or later.
Once someone capable of truly wielding God's Hand: Perfector appeared, Alex planned to have Stylish eliminated without hesitation.
The Minister of Personnel was appointed to Najenda, the leader of Night Raid.
As for the final post, the Ministry of Rites, its authority was limited and its duties largely ceremonial, so Alex let Sheele take the job.
Bulat, Lubbock, and Leone were appointed as the Empire's new generals, each commanding the city defense forces, the military police, and the imperial palace guards respectively.
After that, the young emperor established a special organization that answered only to the throne.
Its name was the Bad People.
Yes, Alex named it.
Akame became the first leader, with Kurome as her deputy.
With the new bureaucratic system in place, nearly all the decent people from the original story were put to good use.
As for the corrupt officials, every last one of them was stripped of their wealth and executed.
Almost overnight, the atmosphere of the Imperial Capital began to change for the better.
It was like a thousand-year-old tree had its rotten roots torn out. With fresh nutrients feeding it, new roots quickly grew in their place.
This sudden revival, however, sent the surrounding tribes and the Revolutionary Army into a panic.
They had been watching that ancient tree wither, convinced it was on the verge of collapse.
So how had it come back to life?
One month after Alex arrived in the world of Akame ga Kill.
New policies spread outward from the Imperial Capital to the surrounding cities.
With Najenda and the others assisting, corrupt officials and nobles who abused and murdered civilians were dragged out one by one. The young emperor wasted no words. Confiscation, then execution.
In just one week, the Imperial Capital was completely cleansed of its darkness, reborn as something entirely new.
The once lifeless city buzzed with vitality again.
Even the poorest citizens wore smiles on their faces.
Next, Najenda and her group expanded outward from the capital, purging corruption and rotten nobility from nearby cities.
That move pushed the empire's nobles into open unity, plotting to overthrow the throne.
Some of them even sought an alliance with the Revolutionary Army.
The Revolutionary Army's leadership found themselves in a difficult position.
After all, these nobles were exactly the people they were supposed to be fighting.
Now those same nobles wanted to join forces against the Empire.
If the Revolutionary Army openly allied with them, their reputation would be ruined.
Still, their leaders weren't fools.
Publicly, they announced they rejected the nobles' proposal.
Privately, they joined hands anyway.
Alex didn't care in the slightest.
The nobles, the Revolutionary Army, the tribes. He handed them all over to Esdeath.
Let her kill to her heart's content. Let her slaughter until fear seeped into the bones of every enemy.
A month later, the surrounding tribes had been almost entirely wiped out by Esdeath.
She used those wars to hone her swordsmanship, and in the end, successfully fused the three major sword schools with her own style, creating a brand-new art.
In that moment, her strength broke free of the limits imposed by Imperial Arms.
Her battle aura also advanced to the King tier.
A King-class swordswoman.
Even in the world of Mushoku Tensei, that put her on the same level as Ghislaine.
In the world of Akame ga Kill, she was outright invincible.
With King-tier swordsmanship combined with the power of Demon's Extract, even if Akame used Murasame's secret technique like in the original story, and even if Tatsumi fused completely with his armor, the two of them together would still stand no chance against Esdeath.
They were no longer on the same plane of existence.
After eradicating the tribes, Esdeath turned her blade on the Revolutionary Army.
This time, she left no embers of war behind.
Because of the chat group, Esdeath no longer intended to stay in this world. She wanted to conquer higher-level worlds, so there was no reason to leave future troubles behind here.
Besides, Alex now truly controlled the Empire.
As his woman, she had no reason to go against him.
The Revolutionary Army was beaten back at every turn, and one Imperial Arm after another was sent back to the capital.
Alex, meanwhile, was living comfortably.
The Empire's affairs were fully handed over to Najenda.
Whatever Najenda proposed, the puppet emperor carried out without question.
Alex spent his days enjoying flowers and fishing in the harem gardens. When he felt like it, he'd give Akame and Kurome some pointers on swordsmanship.
Despite being the leader and deputy leader of the Bad People, the two girls had effectively become Alex's personal guards.
He didn't bother managing them closely. As long as the job got done, that was enough.
Esdeath was constantly away on campaign, but every so often she would return to the capital and seek Alex out to vent her pent-up aggression.
After it happened often enough, Alex realized he'd started to enjoy being on the receiving end.
Just lying there, watching Esdeath move above him, his entire body relaxed in pure pleasure.
…
Night fell. The imperial training grounds lay quiet.
Alex sat cross-legged, cultivating.
After a full month of daily sign-ins, his points had finally reached 1,000.
When he returned from the Campione world, he'd had 620 points left. Bringing Erica and Liliana to the DanMachi world cost him 200 points.
Completing later tasks earned him another 180, bringing him to 600.
Between his time in Orario and a month in the Akame ga Kill world, daily sign-ins added another 400 points.
Exactly 1,000 in total.
Alex opened the chat group shop, selected the Mushoku Tensei world, and purchased the Immortal Demon King Badigadi's ability: Infinite Regeneration.
With a life-saving ability like that as his foundation, he finally dared to attempt breaking through his limits.
What he intended to do now was the same thing Roxy had once done.
Fuse his magical powers.
At present, Alex possessed five different kinds of energy:
Type-Moon mana, Fairy Tail magic, Campione curse power, DanMachi magic, and Mushoku Tensei mana.
Among them, curse power was the strongest.
However, the rules of the Campione world locked curse power's upper limit.
When a Campione kills their first god, they're flooded with an immense amount of curse power, and that total is fixed forever.
No matter how much you train or how many gods you slay afterward, it never increases.
Even someone as monstrously talented as Luo Hao could only create a technique that instantly refilled her curse power when it was exhausted, essentially giving herself a second mana bar.
But even then, her total curse power never grew.
After becoming a Campione, Alex took advantage of its convenience and focused on cultivating the other systems of power.
In just over a month, he raised his Type-Moon mana to Grand rank, his Fairy Tail magic to the level of a Ten Wizard Saint, and his Mushoku Tensei mana to God rank.
As for DanMachi magic, although his level was still only Lv.6, every time he leveled up, the magic stat on his status sheet hit SSS 9999.
In terms of sheer quantity, aside from curse power, DanMachi magic was actually the largest reserve he had.
Now, with Infinite Regeneration backing him up, he could finally go all out and fuse all his energies together to shatter the Campione limit.
Magical fusion was dangerous.
The new energy created could turn out weak, or incredibly powerful.
It all depended on luck.
Back in the Type-Moon world, Alex hadn't dared to gamble.
But now he would.
Because he had the development ability: Luck.
Using curse power as the core, he began devouring the other magics.
He didn't dare fuse everything at once, so he started with the weakest in quantity, Type-Moon mana.
Two different energies clashed like oil and water, refusing to mix.
But Alex wasn't about to give up.
People said oil and water couldn't mix, so how did fish soup turn milky white?
The most beloved creamy fish broth was nothing but oil and water blended together.
As curse power devoured the Type-Moon mana, the latter resisted.
Alex suppressed that resistance, forcing it into submission.
But that caused problems with his magic circuits.
As the Type-Moon mana was absorbed, the magic circuits tied to it were swallowed as well, damaging Alex's Campione body.
Fortunately, Infinite Regeneration restored everything almost instantly, no matter how severe the injury.
When the curse power completely absorbed and fused with the Type-Moon mana, Alex clearly felt it.
The previously fixed total of curse power began to increase.
Not only that, its quality improved, and it took on the properties of Type-Moon mana.
Alex smiled slightly.
Step one was a success.
Next came Fairy Tail magic.
Then Mushoku Tensei mana.
Finally, DanMachi magic.
As more and more energies fused, the curse power within his body surged wildly.
In both quality and quantity, it was now three times stronger than before the fusion.
Then, as he began merging the final DanMachi magic, something unexpected happened.
When Hestia had purified Alex with her Sacred Flame back then, she hadn't taken that flame back.
Instead, she let it fully integrate into his body.
That was why Alex had transformed from an ordinary person into a prodigy in every aspect.
It was also why, when he became a Campione, his body and curse power were stronger than those of other godslayers.
Because that Sacred Flame was Hestia's power.
True divine power.
That divine spark was what made Alex extraordinary.
Now, as curse power fused with DanMachi magic, the blessing on Alex's back suddenly ignited.
That trace of Sacred Flame burst out from the blessing and merged into the DanMachi magic.
It then guided the DanMachi magic and curse power to fuse together.
This time, it wasn't one-sided devouring.
It was a true, equal fusion.
The two forces entwined, rotating like yin and yang.
At last, they became one.
When Alex opened his eyes, a layer of golden divine flame burned across his body.
Terrifying divinity surged into the sky, forming a pillar that seemed to connect heaven and earth.
Divine music echoed, and in the distant heavens, it felt as if a door had appeared.
The door opened, revealing a scene like paradise beyond.
That was the Realm of the Gods.
The sudden phenomenon shocked the entire Imperial Capital.
Everyone saw it, their gazes instinctively turning toward the palace.
What in the world was happening?
Had the Supreme Imperial Arm been activated?
Alex rose from his seated position.
The divine flames rapidly faded from his body, and the divinity vanished.
Soon after, the strange phenomena in the sky dissipated as well.
He looked down at his hands and smiled.
Thanks to the Sacred Flame, he hadn't just fused all his powers.
He had evolved curse power and magic into divinity.
True divine power.
The kind of energy only gods could wield.
Even more than that, Alex's divine attribute was Alpha.
The origin of all things.
This meant his divine power could accommodate and convert into any form of energy in existence.
For example, in the Naruto world, shinobi needed chakra to use ninjutsu.
Chakra originated from Kaguya, and anyone not from that world couldn't cultivate it or use ninjutsu.
But Alex was different.
His divine power could transform into any energy attribute.
Even without chakra, he could use ninjutsu by converting divine power.
That was absurdly overpowered.
Perhaps because of the Sacred Flame, the external manifestation of his divine power took the form of golden divine fire.
Its holy, noble presence and its mystery surpassed even Hestia's Sacred Flame.
On top of that, the blessing on Alex's back had changed.
On his status sheet, the stat once labeled "Magic" was now called "Divinity."
Alex had completely shattered the limits of a Campione.
The total amount of divine power in his body was now five times greater than his former total curse power.
"..."
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