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

'This has to be the very first time when I move back home all on my own,' Fay thought as she passed through several checkpoints established within Makary's compound.

Thanks to her relatively exotic looks for the place, she was one of the very few people who didn't need to go through an extensive process of identification at each of the checkpoints.

Save for the few other people of extreme importance, it was a process that applied to absolutely everyone… with the exception of the logistical staff, who would get verified at the start of their work shift and get locked within the cargo-transit part of the pass all the way until their eight hours of work would come to an end.

In practice, the very existence of those checkpoints was pretty questionable, given how only those whom Peter allowed could perceive the gate to begin with. Yet, according to Makary-provided military maxim, redundancy was the key to security.

After Makary, his wife, Peter, and her mom, Fay closed the list of people allowed to just pass through… also because Makary pretty much knew that none of his soldiers would be able to stop her if she tried to force her way through.

'And that's all assuming they could even see me going through,' Fay thought, a small smirk appearing on her face as she passed through the gate and emerged within the brightly lit insides of the now fully-finished transit hub at the very center of the new camp.

Both the insides of the building and all the infrastructure on its outside were optimized for logistic purposes, making a foot transit through the gate and then passing the busy streets quite the pain in the ass.

In the end, Fay ended up covering her face with a hoodie, concealing her presence while back in her home world.

She wasn't trying to hide from anyone in particular, but rather not force all of the busy workers to stop their trucks and put the entire logistic chain to even a momentary stop just because she wanted to pass to the other side of the street.

All the time that Fay saved by moving through all the checkpoints unobstructed, she ended up wasting on the few, extremely busy street crossings that she absolutely had to pass through in order to leave the endlessly busy center of the camp and reach the emptier streets that allowed her to pick up the pace and reach a sizeable cottage located right at the innermost edge of the camp.

"You are back," Fay's mom called out while lazying in a hammock spread between two freshly planted, young trees. Read latest chapters on empire

Despite all the amenities and outright luxury provided within her home, a treatment befitting a supreme that the imperial princess forced Makary to provide, Madam still preferred to spend her time outside.

'A simple hammock and a minimalistic garden triumphed over the luxury that would take people back on earth tens of years to earn the worth of,' Fay thought, a conflicted smile emerging on her lips.

Despite using 'back home' when referring to her birthplace and 'earth' when referring to the world Peter originated from, she couldn't help but struggle to decide which world she now felt more comfortable with.

In a sense, the new camp was an exception, something that went outside of her equation as it provided the perks of both worlds while trying to remove or, at least, hide the downsides that came with such a setting.

And yet…

"I'm back," Fay replied with a small sigh, sitting down on the edge of a small, slightly elevated flower garden at the foot of Madam's luxurious cottage before letting herself fall onto her back, resting directly upon the soft grass and flowers sown by the very same method she used to decorate the insides of hers and Peter's love nest.

For a moment, the two women simply relaxed, enjoying the silence secured by the distance from the nearest ongoing construction and the warm rays of the evening sun.

"How did it go?" Madam finally broke the silence, pulling the back of her head with her hands to move her face up and cast a curious glance at her daughter.

"It was one hell of a mess," Fay smiled as she returned to her memories of the medicinal check-up Peter begged her to go through in both worlds, making the most of both Madam's supreme ability and the wonders of the medicinal technology of earth.

Fay chuckled a bit.

"They couldn't pierce my skin to get the blood samples, forcing me to cut my wrist and vein open myself," she revealed what had to be quite the awkward moment for the Makary-organized nurses when their pristine needles simply bent and broke, not leaving even the slightest mark on her skin.

"The ultra… ultrasono… the other test was quite funny too," Fay quickly gave up on her attempt at recalling the stupidly complicated name of the test. "They painted my stomach with some lube before massaging it with some device, allowing me to catch a glimpse of how my kid grows…"

Fay reached down and caressed her own stomach.

It was still way too early for it to bulge, or for the fetus inside to start kicking. Yet, just through the presence of the additional core of mana weave, Fay could feel the presence of her descendant growing within her womb.

"And the results?" Madam asked, the look on her face turning a bit more serious.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Fay sighed heavily, not even bothering to raise her head to look back at her mom.

"Everything is pretty much the same as you judged," Fay replied with a slightly strained voice. "The kid is developing at an astonishing rate, leading to what's supposed to be an extreme burden on me. They called it… nutritional deficiency or something.

Yet, cutting all the professional chatter short, they gave me the lists of all sorts of medicines and tonics that, to a degree, can resolve the issue."

This time, Madam rose up from the hammock, sitting it in as she leaned forward and looked at her daughter.

"That's it?" Madam asked, her eyebrows raising up on her forehead. "You just need to drink some brew and swallow some pills?"

Even Madam, despite her reluctance to accept the blessings of modern technology, adapted to the new reality enough to know of the shape and form of Earthy medicine.

"That's right," Fay nodded her head with a calm look on her face. "I even had a lengthy talk with a doctor who is in the know, and he taught me how to check whether my body is keeping up or not. Meaning," Fay's face finally brightened up, shedding the cold and composed calmness from before, "I am now free to go with Peter for our next adventure!"

The silence returned to the cottage's garden for a short moment.

"I still don't get why you feel so pressed to join him," Madam sighed, falling back onto her hammock while leaving just one of her legs on the ground to bounce it to the sides. "He's is strong and crafty. And if I know it, then you know it better than anyone else. And now that he figured out how to deal with the pressure, he is going to be fine without you tagging along."

What Madam spoke of was a fact that Fay didn't even bother denying.

Just like her Mom stated, she knew better than anyone else that at this point, Peter was ready to face whatever obstacles the starlight plain could throw at him.

In fact, the only reason why he agreed to let her go get this check-up all on her own, was just how much he had to learn in order for Makary to allow him the risk of piloting one of those magic-like hovering vehicles.

"I might come out childish here, but my reasoning is quite simple," Fay stated while her hand kept caressing her stomach. "When we are in the camp, we are so busy we can barely find the time to do anything beyond sleeping together. But when we are out adventuring, we are together at all times."

The bright smile vanished from Fay's face, replaced with a vague sense of melancholy.

"And you are worried that now that you are pregnant, he's going to move on, aren't you?" Madam pointed out with a sigh. "Child, I know it is not my place to say this, but you shouldn't project my own past into your own future."

Madam jumped out of her hammock and moved over to the small cube of the flowery garden where her daughter rested, leaning over to look Fay directly in the face.

"Just like I said before, I can tell he's not that kind of man to leave you now that you bear his kid. And just like before," Madam leaned back and rested her hands on her hips before uttering a long sigh.

"And if I can tell as much, then you should be the one who knows it better than anyone else."

Opening up her eyes, Fay looked up at her mom's face.

"You know it and I know it too," she admitted before uttering a slightly troubled sigh. "It's a pity knowing something doesn't mean my irrational worries will stop, you know?"