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

"What a calm evening, isn't it?"
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A gentle smile decorated my lips as I laid down with Fay atop the open ramp of our maglev while it hovered a safe distance away from the battle, the fortress, and all the immediate dangers of the area.

Leaving Claudy behind at the fortress after giving him one of our spare radios was what allowed us this small retreat, a short moment of respite before everything would pick up the pace again.

Now that the situation at the fortress improved by leaps and bounds and there was no immediate risk of the enemy breaking through, we had to start thinking about the opportune time to go back home.

That was the most fundamental rule of our excursion past the barrier, to come back often enough to maintain the stability of the stable gates. But…

We still had to return to our negotiations with the locals, figure out some basic framework of cooperation that we could expand upon once we talked it through with Makary and Etaria, and then ensure this place wouldn't fall to the invaders while we were away…

The things that we still had to do didn't seem to end but continued to multiply instead, while the time that we had before we would have to return continued to shrink.

And yet, rather than rushing to get everything done, the very moment the imperial invaders started to retreat, I grabbed Fay, talked with Claudy, and organized our own escape.

'I cannot lose focus of what's really important,' I thought while slowly driving my fingers through Fay's hair.

Like a purring of a cat, Fay continued to make small, satisfied noises, perfectly satisfied with her head on my lap and her deeply blue eyes zeroed in on my face.

"I wonder for how much longer do we need to rush everything before we will be able to just enjoy ourselves the way we do right now?" Fay muttered.

Hearing those words, my face contorted a bit.

"I'm sorry…"

Fay's eyebrows moved up, only for her face to alert before melting down in a small smile.

"I wasn't blaming you for it, silly," Fay smiled while reaching out with her hand to caress my cheek.

Feeling the touch of her warm, delicate fingers on my face, I closed my eyes and allowed this slight, delicate pleasure to take over my mind.

"Even if you do not blame me for it, it goes without saying that I'm the one at fault," I pointed out before uttering a small sigh.

Then, upon noticing where Fay kept her other hand, I removed my fingers from her hair only to reach out and cover Fay's hand caressing her belly with my own.

"At a time like this, I should be doing everything in my power to make sure you have nothing but peace and calm, that you are well-fed and well-taken care of. And here I am, dragging you across impassable lands, exposing our kid to the dangers of the starlight, and then bringing you out directly to the battlefield…"

While my left hand continued to gently caress Fay's slightly bulging stomach, my right hand tightened into a fist.

This wasn't the first the second or even the third time for me to notice this fact.

Despite all the love I had for Fay, I kept exposing her to danger again and again, all in a rush to do… what?

'Even if I were to conclude my job right now and do nothing else beyond maintaining the stable gates, there should be a way for the two of us to just spend the rest of our days leisurely.'

This was a simple truth no one could dare to dispute.

As the only one who could maintain the gates, I was in a perfect position to force Makary, Leon, or literally anyone else into any terms I wanted. As long as my demands didn't exceed both the current and the projected worth of our project, they would have no other choice but to obey my demands, all for the sake of keeping this project going.

'And I wouldn't even ask for all that much. Just a small mansion somewhere with a nice view, a big garden for us to plant vegetables, fruits, and some flowers, a bunch of nice servants to take care of everything we would need…'

I allowed myself to sink into the dreamscape of the ideal life I wanted for me and Fay, all the while gently caressing the skin of her exposed stomach.

"Dear, it's something I thought about long ago, but right now, I really think you need to hear it," Fay whispered, her hand collapsing on my cheek only to then steer it down so that I would have no other choice but to look down.

Yet, even when our eyes met, Fay didn't seem to be happy with the arrangement. And so, she moved her hand over to my shoulder before using it to pull herself up all the way to the point where she sat sideways on my lap. Then, with her face riding all the way up to my chest, she took a moment to think about something before finally relaxing and resting the side of her head against my shoulder.

"You have this picture of a perfect, peaceful life in your mind. The kind of life you wish upon me and yourself," Fay whispered, having no need to use a voice any louder than a whisper when her mouth was a mere inch away from my ear. "But have you ever asked yourself if that kind of life wouldn't bore you to the death?"

Somehow, Fay's whisper easily paralyzed my upper body.

Was it a spell? A curse? Maybe some sort of a technique?

Or maybe it was the same kind of compulsion that prevented people from standing up if their cat were to sit down on their lap and go to sleep?

"Between safe but boring and risky yet exciting…" I muttered, struggling to move my lips with Fay's face so close to mine yet perfectly hidden outside of my current range of view. "You see," I sighed, "I'm not the gambling type. So, if there's even the slightest risk that something would happen to you…"

Finally, I managed to free myself from Fay's spell and turn my head far enough to look her in the face once again.

"Isn't normal life fraught with dangers, though?" Fay countered while putting a small smirk on her lips.

"Would those dangers even apply to us, given how we went above and beyond the rank of a supreme already?" I countered while matching Fay's smile with a grin of my own.

This time, though, Fay didn't bounce the ball back but opted to just stare into my eyes with her mischievous smile growing with each passing second.

Ultimately, it took me a moment to realize that by bouncing the ball back like that, I pretty much put myself in the position Fay wanted me to be in from the very beginning.

"At this point, there are hardly any dangers for us even if we were to go and make love right in the middle of an ongoing battle," Fay chuckled before bringing her hand back to her stomach to give it yet another portion of caresses. "I'm not trying to imply I would ever want to do that, especially when I have to care for more than just my life alone now, but…"

Fay leaned out of my shoulder to get a better look at my face, only for her smile to widen before she fell right back to the spot she found rather comfortable. And then, once she nestled herself back in, she whispered,

"And do you really want to live a life free of excitement?"