Suzuki had to admit that fortune was currently smiling upon him. Upon returning to the surface, he learned that Aiko-sensei was being dispatched to the rural town of Ur to establish an agricultural zone designed to support the entire kingdom's food supply.
That afternoon, the King, the Pope, and the high ministers convened a war council to formalize her deployment.
While Suzuki was perfectly fine with her leaving the capital—meaning he wouldn't have anyone breathing down his neck—the problem lay in the kingdom's logistics. The crown intended to send Aiko with absolute minimal funding and a pathetic handful of guards, treating her like a cheap, disposable farming tool.
It was exactly how they treated him and all his classmates: disposable assets that could be replaced at any moment by simply summoning another batch of suckers from Earth. Despite Aiko possessing a legendary Job, in the eyes of the royals, she was just a glorified plow.
Suzuki absolutely refused to let that slide. He decided to take the negotiations into his own hands.
Sitting in the council room, he watched the King, the Pope, and the ministers deliberate. Not a single one of them had even bothered to ask about his near-death experience in the abyss. Their blatant apathy only fueled his burning desire to execute a hostile takeover of this entire kingdom. He couldn't wait to turn these arrogant aristocrats into penniless beggars. The thought of ripping them from their plush thrones and forcing them into abject poverty sent a thrilling shiver down his spine.
Since no one was offering him a seat at the table, he simply stepped forward and hijacked the presentation.
"Your Majesty, sending our primary agricultural asset to an unsecured sector with sub-optimal funding is a massive logistical liability," Suzuki stated smoothly, his voice cutting through the murmurs. "I am volunteering to accompany Aiko-sensei as the Lead Project Manager. To ensure success, I will require a Royal Charter granting me absolute administrative control over Ur, as well as an upfront operational budget of 100,000 gold coins."
"..."
The entire room fell dead silent. Aiko and the rest of his classmates stared at him, utterly dumbfounded.
The King recovered first and immediately scoffed. "Absurd! You are a Merchant, a mere boy! We will absolutely not hand you a sovereign town and the royal treasury!"
Suzuki didn't argue. He didn't even flinch. He simply shifted his gaze across the grand table, making brief, terrifying eye contact with one specific person: the Minister of Finance.
The Minister, whose soul was literally bound by Suzuki's [Absolute Contract], immediately broke out in a cold sweat. He knew with absolute certainty that if he didn't support Suzuki right here and now, his mind would be reduced to an empty, drooling husk.
However, the Minister wasn't the only one watching Suzuki. Sitting beside the King, the Queen was also staring at the young Merchant. Her eyes gleamed with deep curiosity and a strange, undeniable attraction to this boy who confidently sought to hold the kingdom's agricultural future in his bare hands.
Suzuki, completely oblivious to her gaze, had no intention of seducing the King's wife. As for Pope Ishtar, the old man didn't care about the kingdom's secular problems so long as the Church's influence remained absolute.
Before the King could officially deny Suzuki's brazen request, his own cabinet turned on him.
"A-Actually, Your Majesty!" the Minister of Finance interrupted, frantically wiping his brow with a silk handkerchief. "Tanaka Suzuki-kun's ledgers are... flawless! His fiscal oversight could drastically increase our crop yields and stabilize the economy. I highly recommend we approve the 100,000 gold budget. Immediately!"
"..."
The King stared at his most trusted financial advisor in sheer shock. But before he could even question the man's sanity, the other ministers, knights, and nobles—many of whom were deeply in debt or susceptible to the Minister's influence—began to murmur their approval.
"That actually isn't a bad decision..."
"Indeed, the Kingdom desperately needs the food."
"Honestly, 100,000 gold is a little low for a nationwide agricultural reform. Why don't we give him more?"
Yet, the final nail in the coffin came from the most unexpected source. The Queen placed her delicate, smooth hand gently on the King's arm.
"I agree, my love," the Queen purred, shooting a gentle, captivating smile directly at Suzuki. "The boy seems to possess a uniquely brilliant mind. If he requires administrative control over Ur to ensure our realm does not starve, we must grant him the Charter. It is for the good of the kingdom."
"Hmm?!"
The King was completely baffled. His wife, his chief minister, and half his court were fiercely advocating for a teenage boy to be handed an entire city and a massive fortune.
Even Suzuki was slightly bewildered. What exactly did I do to make the Queen act like that? Naturally, he also noticed the Minister of Finance's dumbfounded expression at the Queen's support, which made Suzuki roll his eyes internally. He hadn't used any mind-control on her, even if he had to admit she was a remarkably beautiful woman.
Outnumbered and pressured by his own inner circle, the highly conflicted King reluctantly signed the Royal Charter. In the span of five minutes, Suzuki had legally become the absolute ruler of the City of Ur.
Standing in the corner of the room, Kouki and the rest of the Hero's party were deeply confused. Kouki had always thought Suzuki was just a weak bag-boy who needed protection. Instead, he had just watched Suzuki casually extort the royal family and walk away with a sovereign state.
"..."
An hour later, Suzuki stood by the royal carriages in the courtyard. He had the Royal Charter safely tucked into his briefcase, 100,000 gold coins instantly deposited into his spatial inventory, and the entire Ur agricultural project under his exclusive control.
Aiko looked up at him, her eyes shining with profound, overwhelming gratitude. "Suzuki-kun... did you do all of that just to make sure I was safe?" she asked, her heart fluttering at how incredibly dependable her student had become.
"Yes, Sensei," Suzuki replied flawlessly, opening the carriage door for her, Kaori, and Shizuku. "Now, let's go secure this kingdom's food reserves, shall we?"
And by doing so, the entire food supply of this world will be under my absolute control~!
While the Arifureta Suzuki initiated the next phase of his grand monopoly, in another universe entirely, the 5th Suzuki was sitting in his university library, diligently conducting research for his thesis. His goal was simple: secure his future, graduate as soon as possible, and live a quiet, comfortable life.
Unlike the other variants who knew their worlds were chaotic messes, the 5th Suzuki genuinely believed his world was perfectly normal. He hadn't encountered a single anime protagonist, magical creature, or supernatural anomaly in his entire life.
This world definitely isn't some romance, harem, or comedy manga, he had often thought.
Usually, authors created stories where the protagonist reincarnated into a fantastical world filled with magic and action. But Suzuki knew his reality was thoroughly mundane. He was just a normal Japanese citizen who had to grind through life like everyone else. It was difficult, especially as an orphan with zero safety nets, but it was grounded in reality. If he failed here, his life was over. That was why he was so incredibly grateful for the [Manager] and his connection to his alternate selves; it allowed him to optimize his mundane life perfectly.
However, remembering the fate of the 4th Suzuki, he knew he couldn't let his guard down. And as fate would have it, the moment he finally allowed himself to relax and enjoy the fruits of his labor, reality fractured.
There was no speeding truck. There was no glowing goddess. There was absolutely no warning.
One moment, he was walking back to his Tokyo apartment—which he had paid for in cash using funds generated by the Manager's algorithmic trading—mentally mapping out a syntactic tree for his linguistics thesis.
The next moment, the pavement vanished beneath his feet.
He plummeted through a dizzying, agonizing kaleidoscope of raw, tearing energy. His physical body was violently dragged across the dimensional boundary, absorbing vast, unfathomable amounts of ambient magicules in the process.
"What is this?! What's happening?! Manager, help me!"
Suzuki completely lost his composure as his senses were overloaded. Fortunately, his trusted Unique Skill responded instantly to calm his panic.
[Affirmative. Do not worry. Leave everything to us.]
Trusting the system, Suzuki surrendered control, letting the Manager stabilize his soul during the violent transition. As he crashed heavily into the damp, mossy earth of a dense, primordial forest, a cold, mechanical voice suddenly echoed directly into his mind.
⟪ Confirmed. Assessing the soul's dimensional transition... Successful. ⟫
⟪ Analyzing the subject's soul structure and desires... Confirmed. A soul defined by absolute self-reliance. Acquiring Extra Skill: [Adaptation]. Acquiring Extra Skill: [Vitality Overwrite]. ⟫
⟪ Combining and evolving Extra Skills... Successful. Unique Skill: [Self-Made] has been acquired. ⟫
⟪ Further analysis of the soul's foundation... Confirmed. A deep comprehension of foundational logic, laws, and structural syntax. Acquiring Extra Skill: [Chant Annulment]. Acquiring Extra Skill: [Semantic Parse]. ⟫
⟪ Combining and evolving Extra Skills... Successful. Unique Skill: [Etymologist] has been acquired. ⟫
⟪ Confirmed. A profound desire to eliminate absolute waste and maximize operational efficiency has been recognized. Conditions have been met. Acquiring Unique Skill: 『Manager』... Successful. ⟫
⟪ Analyzing skill composition... The Unique Skill 『Manager』 has derived the following sub-skills: ⟫
⟪ 『Thought Acceleration』... Successful. ⟫
⟪ 『Parallel Processing』... Successful. ⟫
⟪ 『Optimal Allocation』... Successful. ⟫
⟪ 『Process Optimization』... Successful. ⟫
⟪ 『Absolute Delegation』... Successful. ⟫
⟪ The acquisition of Unique Skill 『Manager』 is complete. ⟫
⟪ Integrating [Language Comprehension]... Successful. Transition complete. ⟫
"..."
Suzuki sat up slowly on the wet, grassy ground. He stared blankly at the impossibly massive trees and the strange, alien sky above him.
"Oh, God..."
[Confirmed. The user has been transmigrated into another world.]
"..."
Yes. Just like all the others, it seemed his world wasn't going to be normal after all.