Dante rubbed his forehead and decided to deal with this professionally. If he acted wishy-washy about it, things would just become stale and problematic between him and Valeria. Dante pondered for a while before replying.
Dante: "Can't do it tomorrow. I am swamped with work. Also, we might meet less often in the future, but I'm still willing to support you if only to get my own personal missile designer."
Dante sighed as he sent it and Valeria read it immediately. There was a short period where it showed she was typing and he couldn't help but feel anxious that she would have a negative response to the sudden change.
Valeria: "Okay, that's not a problem. Work is also troubling on my end. By the way, did you get a girlfriend or something?"
Dante sighed. As he thought, Valeria was pretty sharp. The last time she and Dante hooked up was just a few days before he was zoomed into the Eternal Universe and nothing showed that he had any intentions of reducing their time together.
If there was anything that could suddenly change things, it would naturally be finding a genuine partner.
But was Beatrice considered a genuine partner? Dante did not know. In truth, he liked Valeria far more than he liked Beatrice. The majority of the reason why he was resistant to Beatrice's charms and antics was precisely because he had the lively Valeria to hold him down.
But he did sign a contract. As Beatrice said, but in a very silly and amusing manner, she came along with it, being the bond that would tie Dante to the ship of the Portinari clan, who were sponsoring him and acting as his backing.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtDante did not know if such things as polygamy or polyandry were allowed in the social and cultural circle of the Eternal Universe, so he would have to do research on that as well. He was in a sort of relationship with Beatrice and didn't want to cheat, which was basically the issue.
Dante: "I can't even be sure, to be honest. Part of what's gonna occupy is me finding out."
Valeria: "Hmm, okay then. Let me know the conclusion and we can discuss what to do going forward."
Valeria: "Stay safe Dante~"
Dante shook his head and no longer wanted to spend another second here. He closed his eyes and visualized the massive gate in his Soul Space that showed the other side of the passage for him; The Eternal Universe.
From the various locations he could choose from, Dante chose the smartest and the most obscure. With a silent and practically inaudible pop sound, he instantly traveled from Earth's Universe to the Eternal Universe.
When Dante appeared, it was daytime. He was in a familiar alleyway that had a half-robotized cat staring at him with shock and confusion. He glanced at the cat askance and then walked out of the alleyway into a bustling street.
He was back in Avalon City of Planet Etonia, the first place he had landed on. This, as classified by Beatrice, was a backwater planet very close to the known edge of the universe and was only recently settled.
That was why the higher dimensional being dumped Dante here, as it was the nearest inhabited planet within light centuries of the universe's wall, which Dante had pierced through when he first activated that app.
Now that he was back here, not only much stronger and with a citizen ID, Dante felt the difference. The entire city was opened up to him as his AI chip connected to various facilities as well as the planet's entire quantum network.
Of course, doing this made him traceable by anyone with the authority to trace his Citizen ID, but it didn't matter anyway. The moment he had injected the solution that granted him the upgraded AI chip as well as his Citizen ID, he was marked.
When Dante walked out, the nearby aliens and half-humans were dazed once more. Then greed filled their eyes as they thought Dante was another pure human that was lost like the one from the previous week.
However, they froze when they saw his attire, which was the Vice-Admiral's uniform. They might not know anything, but they definitely knew what those symbols meant. Even if they didn't, their AI chips sent them an alarm that a distinguished military person was in front of them.
Immediately, the cyborg patrolmen who acted as the city's police force rushed over and cordoned the area around Dante, glancing at every citizen as if they were a potential enemy. The captain of this force walked up to Dante and saluted with respect.
"Lord Vice Admiral, Captain Huskar of the Etonian Defense Force greets you!"
Dante saluted back and smiled. "At ease. I am here to investigate some rumors of an extremist alien rebel group in the sector. I hope to rely on the resources of Planet Etonia to affect my search."
The captain trembled as his expression changed greatly. Dante had just casually mentioned the greatest taboo of their universe: those aliens who were dissatisfied with pure humans being in charge and wanted to do something about it.
To be honest, every planet that was cosmopolitan like this and had a larger amount of aliens and mixed humans was likely to hold at least one group, or a branch of a group. However, even if they didn't agree personally, none of the residents here were going to snitch them, because they technically stood on the same side.
Rather than think of who snitched, Captain Huskar was wondering why Dante chose Etonia in particular to start from. He raised his head slightly and sensed that Dante was a pure human, and his pupils couldn't help but constrict.
He thought of a certain colossal event that occurred a week or so ago where many mixed breeds and aliens tried to capture a pure human but were restrained. After that, the pure human was saved and taken away by a whole Admiral of the Prue Human Fleet!
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmThe people of Etonia had been fearful of the vengeance of the Pure Human Council after that for their actions, but a week had passed and nothing occurred, so everyone relaxed and went about their lives.
But haha, how could things be simple? Captain Huskar thought bitterly. It seemed like the retribution was here.
With the power of the Pure Human Council and their fleet, it didn't matter about evidence or facts. If Dante pointed to him, Captain Huskar, and said he was a rebel, he could be ruined on the spot with no chance of redemption.
Planet Etonia was just one out of trillions in the universe, so even if Dante exterminated them all, who would care?
Even the richest man or woman, the most powerful man or woman, or the person with the highest political qualifications on this entire planet was not even within the outer circle of power in the entire sector, much less the galaxy, and the universe as a whole.
In other words, to simplify, for the duration of his 'investigation' Dante was now the god of Planet Etonia.
(Un)Fortunately, Dante did not know this. He chose Etonia because it was far away from the core worlds and he liked its environment the most because it felt cyberpunkish. He also felt like he could worm his way into power here and stabilize himself for long enough that he could investigate what happened at the Eternal Academy while enriching himself with knowledge.
Of course just because Dante did not know now did not mean he would not know in the future. If he got a chance to settle down and see what he was going to do next, he would naturally find all these things out.
If Captain Huskar knew that Dante was ignorant of his near limitless power, he would do everything to delay and distract Dante so that he never had a free moment, but the current him was far too intimidated to think of it.
"Alright, take me to the Administrative Center of this planet. I want to meet the Governor of Etonia." Dante commanded with a tone that brooked no questions.
Huskar felt this was natural and agreed. Dante was led to the city center nearby where he used an exclusive teleporter for administrators in the city hall to go from there to the capital of Etonia, Ferris State.
Ferris City was the location of the administrative center itself with the governor, and when Dante came out of the teleporter, he found a row of important mixed-breed humans and aliens ready to receive him with clearly fake yet pandering smiles.
However, the man at the center remained seated with a look of calmness, as he was a pure human. After all, no truly powerful position in the universe was held by anyone other than a pure human.
Even though Dante's official status was way higher, as pure humans they were of the same rank in terms of social standing so he didn't need to butter Dante up.