Political Tension

"Koyuki!" Shiki called out to the princess in her new lordly residence, in the comfort of her room.

"What is is Shiki-san?" Koyuki answered.

"I assume you have been curious about all of this was achieved and since I don't want us to be strangers and could use your help . . . I thought to tell you everything." Shiki declared.

Naturally, Koyuki was immensely pleased with this turn of events even though the skillful actress did not show it on her face too much and only a small but very genuine smile graced her fair face.

The fact that Shiki, the man who seemed to be able to do anything, wanted her help also made her feel quite good about herself. Koyuki had her pride and didn't want to be on the receiving end of the assistance for the rest of her days. No matter how small, she wanted to assist him who have returned her everything taken from her and gave her even more.

Shiki then pulled out the Soul Contract Tag and explained its functions to Koyuki. Being the smart woman she was, she did not see this as a sign of lacking trust but as a necessary protection for what seemed to be a colossal undertaking.

Needless to say, despite her very good mind, Koyuki still vastly underestimated just how great the undertaking was. But finding out there was no friend and it was just another of Shiki's identities only made her love him more since he had single handedly solved everything.

Seeing his adult form was also some very attractive eye candy for the princess who wasted no time in giving a hot kiss to Shiki as soon as the contract was sealed.

The biggest surprise to shiki was her total disregard for the other girls he said he had but since he could tell it was genuine, he had zero intention of questioning his good luck, unlike some other protagonists that feel an overpowering need to ask girls why exactly they are okay with harems.

Truthfully, powerful lord like Daimyos may not have multiple wives but they do tend to keep any number of concubines so Shiki guessed it was not that strange for a Daimyo's daughter to be okay with such things despite the fact that he did not think Sosetsu was one to keep side chicks.

Still, with the contract in place and a hot kiss to seal the deal, now that Shiki had access to the leadership of both a country and its respective hidden village, the degree of control he could maintain was much higher.

With the penetration of Mugetsu into the underworld of the country, his grasp on it would become absolute, specially since the Daimyo has become his lover and the leader of the hidden village is straight up his subordinate.

This being the case, Shiki decided to start some major operations in this country. These would both serve to increase the country's economic and even political influence. With his resources exporting technology after adding various safety features would be a cinch.

Train transport companies spanning several land based countries, Airships, for more urgent transpor and or luxurious travelling and since they can make snowmobiles other kinds of land based vehicles should be possible as well.

Stones of Gelel were great for manufacturing and enhancing technology. They possessed limitless energy despite the limited output and could be used to create any number of revolutionary things from vehicles and weapons to medical equipment.

When combined with fuinjutsu, Shiki had noted that they were a good material to make learning AIs too, which resulted in some changes being made to his automata forces.

All these things will expand Shiki's influence in the world as himself and not as the Reaper. To maintain his image as himself, the more bellicose innovations were monopolised by the Reaper but while only his advances in medicine had spread under his name. Now though, Shiki had more to go on and since it would benefit the world at large, most nations would have a generally good opinion.

But speaking of influence, politics and opinions, a few predictable barriers to Shiki's plans came up. Namely, the Daimyo of the Land of Wind and his court which were very against his actions in regards to Suna. Well, not "his" actions per say but Konoha's.

The Daimyo of the Land of Fire was surprisingly supportive of the idea, Shiki's business ventures as both himself and the Reaper had benefited the Land of Fire quite a bit and up until this point, although rather mysterious, the Reaper has been a loyal Konoha shinobi so that's that.

As for the soft takeover of Suna, he saw it as his forces spreading into other territories under proper cause and thus had deflected or outright ignored the Land of Wind's Daimyo's requests and demands for a full withdrawal from his country. It was a foolish way of thinking but it suited Shiki very well, the Daimyo of the Land of Wind on the other hand was starting to get bothersome.

The civilians of Sunagakure, had already tasted the fruits of Shiki's support and were quite please with the changes. The atmosphere created by them had also started affecting some shinobi as well. Naturally, the resentment of most shinobi would not disappear in such a short amount of time but progress was being made.

Nobody, not even the worst hardliners that wanted nothing but the end of Konoha could deny that their village was benefitting from the occupation at the very least, in terms of economy and quality of Life which made it easier to accept the situation.

Regardless, the more intense and violent the opposition of the Land of Wind's Daimyo became, the less progress could be made. The Reaper had some low level members of the court under control through his criminal contacts but no real way to influence the high level decision making.

An option would be to find a reason for the Reaper to go rogue and then use him to deal with the Daimyo in a more forceful way but for Now, Shiki was enjoying the anonymity behind Mugetsu. They already competed with the Akatsuki over some jobs and had great notoriety.

At this point in time, the Akatsuki is hot stuff and constantly being hired by various nations across the world, this would only change once they shift the target to the various jinchuriki which would shift the opinion of the great nations against them but they had yet to enter that phase.

With the Reaper's unrivalled stealth, getting rid of the Daimyo tracelessly would pose no great challenge, he could also make Mugetsu more notorious by offing him as an organization but that would bring to much heat at this stage.

The very best thing would be to gain enough pull in the Daimyo's court to interfere with decisions that did not suit him. In fact, a lot of the more business orientated members of the court were actually hoping to profit from the more technologically advanced and rich Land of Fire. They could not do so however because they would fall out of favor with their liege.

The advancements coming from the Land of Snow and Spring in the future would help him in this regard as well as the ever growing influence of the Reaper in the underworld. Either of those things would take too long though and the opposition might turn into war if the current aggression is not placated in some way.

In the end, Shiki though of a not very good plan but one that might buy him some time to better grasp some power power in the Wind Court. The Daimyo was quite old and his designated heir was more conservative and still quite young, not to mention it would take some time to consolidate his own position.

That plan was to assassinate the current Daimyo but make it look like a death by natural causes. genjutsu would be a viable option if there weren't too many preventive measures to ensure that the Daimyo was not compromised.

That was not a big problem for Shiki but if there was even the slightest suspicion, the Daimyo would be removed from power. And it would be quite obvious who the main suspects would be in case it was the work of a shinobi, so death by natural causes it would be.

Since his visit to the Land of Medicine and the ability he gained of refining various drugs and chemicals inside his body, Shiki's skills in medicine had greatly improved and it would be a relatively easy task to create a traceless poison that would weaken the Daimyo just enough that the natural problems that come with old age bring about his death.

With things set in motion fro both his projects fro the Land of Snow and Spring and the elimination of the bothersome Daimyo of the Land of Wind, SHiki decided to move his attention to the probably soon to occur visit of Itachi to Konoha that would take place once the Akatsuki shift to tailed beast hunting.

Alas, fate had other plans as Tsunade called Shiki to speak with him about something important . . .

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P.a.t.r.e.o.n is officially up!

The link is: https://www.p.a.t.r.e.o.n.com/lusoba without the extra dots of course.

You'll get to read up to FOUR week ahead, a full month, but I'll still post here.

There's also my other novel Archon of DanMachi, do check it out!

I would greatly appreciate any support since this is going to be my breadwinner.