Riches and Bitches: I have a gate to an isekai and leveling-up system!

The silence covered the entire area where Makary set up his makeshift and barebones commanding center.

"Shit…" I allowed a slight curse to leave my words as the weight of the message nearly struck me down.

"So while we were all planning and discussing the future, someone else made sure all that we discussed became irrelevant?" I asked, raising my eyes and looking helplessly at the former soldier.

Contrary to how I expected Makary to react to the news, though, the man himself didn't show any signs of anxiety or nervousness. It was as if he wasn't bothered by the news at all…?!

"For now, it's fine. Don't forget, the magistrate still operates within the inefficient system of civic management," Makary finally spoke out, only for his voice to drop down with every word, turning into a mere sigh at the end of his sentence.

And from the looks of things, he also anticipated just what kind of question I would throw at him the very next moment.

"With that said, even if their investigation starts tomorrow, it could take weeks if not months before they uncover anything of importance," Makary stated before putting a small smirk on his lips. "And it's not my first rodeo. Now that I can put this place as an absolute priority, the list of things I can throw at them…"

For a moment, the atmosphere in the area nearly relaxed as Makary's face melted due to all the thoughts he had over how to screw the magistrate over.

This moment of respite didn't last long, though, as Makary quickly regained his usual seriousness and raised his eyes back to my face.

"But I dislike the idea of just letting them go through with this investigation. Cause the investigation aside, if we let them go through with it…"

This time, Makary refused to give it out to me straight.

I took a quick look at the two officers accompanying the man by his sides, only to see them putting on quite the expressions.

'They are… troubled? Amused?' Even though I stared hard at them, I couldn't really figure it out.

Still, just like dealing with the magistrate wasn't a first for Makary, dealing with Makary wasn't a first for me.

"If we let them go through with it, it will be the same as giving up on the initiative," I took my shot at guessing what Makary was hinting at. My eyes then moved up to scan the man's face in search of confirmation…

'Not yet, huh?'

Makary smiled a little… but his smile was still a ways off from a satisfied one.

"We are not only going to lose the initiative but…"

I didn't really have the second part of the answer that Makary wanted from me. Still, speaking out loud allowed me to better immerse my thoughts into the scenario as I ran it through my head.

'Once the investigation starts….' I voiced out in my thoughts, only to then silence all the other thoughts of mine, putting my mind in a perfectly blank state.

And in this state of nothingness, my hyperactive brain improved by both my intelligence and wisdom stat, quickly came up with the entire plotline of how the events were likely to play out.

The investigation would start. Then, Makary would respond by throwing some usual methods at them. Once their use would exhaust, he would ramp up the stakes by giving up on some parts of his half-legal empire on earth, purging himself just to buy us more time.

Things would continue to escalate more and more, all the way to the absolute limit of what Makary could give up for the sake of the investment he was willing to fully prioritize…

But at the end of it all, the situation would be vastly different from how it was right now.

Rather than having suspicion… or merely a magistrate with a viable reason to investigate Makary's group, we would turn into bitter enemies with quite a lot of blood and lost resources marking the evolution and progress of our conflict.

"If we just try to slow down the investigation, things will only keep escalating. And by the end of it, rather than a suspicious magistrate greedy to get a share in whatever we are doing, we will turn them into our bitter enemies. And judging by all the sacrifices we would make in the process of stalling them…"

I turned silent when the reality of the situation dawned on me.

To a degree, the magistrate didn't even need to find out the truth. Just by counting up all the sacrifices we made, they could evaluate the worth of the secret we would be trying to keep them away from. And that…

"And we don't have resources to seriously face them. Not yet, not now," Makary explained the thing that I just figured out. "And in that case, what do you think is the right thing to do?"

The smile on Makary's face changed.

Earlier, he was obviously testing me, to see whether or not I knew the founding rule of never giving up on the initiative. Then, he was simply curious whether I could predict the potential consequences of going along the route of the least resistance.

But now?

Now, his smile told me he wasn't testing me anymore. Right now, his question aimed to help me grow.

"Are we going to attack once again, mister officer?" I whispered as a single line from a novel I'd once read and loved appeared in my mind.

A line spoken by a dying soldier on a field of freshly concluded, bloody battle.

Do we attack again, mister officer?

I closed my eyes.

Experience more tales on empire

"Rather than waiting for their investigation to start, I believe we should start dealing with them instead," I proposed. "Try to buy their silence, pretending we are running some sort of illegal business. By cutting them in, we will lull their suspicions and give them an easily acceptable source of the resources and money we will soon start making off this land.

To a degree, it would also explain the insane degree of our purchasing spree…"

All along my talk, Makary continued to nod his head. Yet, once I took a short pause to get a breath fresh of air, he was quick to cut in.

"Always keep the initiative, this lesson you've learned. But there's another founding rule that you need to engrave into your soul," Makary pointed out, even going as far as to stand up from his chair and lean forward over the desk while slamming his hands down on its surface to support his weight.

"Do not underestimate your enemy."

I fought off the desire to roll my eyes.

"Are you implying that I underestimate the magistrate?" I asked, not exactly sure why Makary brought up something that even five-year-old children playing in a sandbox knew.

"Yes, you do," Makary nodded his head before leaning back and then lowering himself back on the chair. "What you proposed would only serve to buy us some time. Maybe more time than delaying the investigation, maybe a lot less. Ultimately though, the magistrate would figure out we were lying to them and put us back in the precarious position we need to avoid by any means."

Makary took a deep breath before leaning back in his chair so far the front two legs of it rose up above the ground.

"A position where it's my group against the entire city. And by stretching it out to a point where other cities catch the news, my group against the entire world."

'This…'

I gulped my saliva down.

It didn't take a genius to figure out that what Makary said was correct. And it didn't take a genius either to figure out the progression of the events in the scenario I suggested… that led exactly to this kind of outcome.

Yet, as more and more of my ideas got shot down by the inevitable consequences I either didn't notice or thought too little of to care about… A creeping suspicion arose in my mind.

"Wait, are you trying to imply we should…" I took a moment to recalculate everything again… but the math of my logical thinking checked out. So, I did it again, and then again.

Yet, no matter how many times I tried, everything Makary said and did ever since this topic came up led to one solution.

A solution that was as unappealing at first sight as all my other plans were appealing before one looked too much into them.

"You want to actively deal with the magistrate?"

The group of people that sucked most of the wealth from the city, was the founding reason behind the establishment of slums. The group of people that clung to power even after the system that granted it to them had fully collapsed.

A group of people that everyone that was as hated by the populace as they were powerful in all possible regards.

And we were to make an honest deal with them?

"Kid, I know this sounds wrong, but that's how history is made," Makary sighed, leaning so far back in his chair that I couldn't help but start worrying about the structural integrity of its two rear legs. "Whether we like it or not, we can't topple the magistrate.

And to topple them, we would need more time than they are apparently," Makary grabbed the envelope the report came in before waving it in the air, "apparently are willing to give us."

Following those words, Makary moved back to a more natural position, allowing all four legs of his chair to support his weight again as he leaned over the table.

"That's why I believe right now, we have no other choice but to go to those fuckers, tell them a bit of what's really going on and buy their cooperation in exchange for a promise of sharing the profits this world can offer," Makary finally revealed what plan he came out with in response to the magistrate's opening move.

"Back on earth, we are on their home turf where they can find all sorts of means and ways to obstruct us. But here?" Makary spread his arms out as if to point not only at the forest around but the whole, wide world beyond it.

"Here, we are in the power. We are to decide who goes in and who goes out. We are to decide what the laws are, what's priority, and what can be put off for later."

Those words got Makary so heated, that a tiny blush appeared on his cheeks.

"So, rather than dealing with the magistrate where it is the strongest, I suggest we make use of them while we have to and cut them off as soon as we grow strong enough here to project this power back on earth."