'The camaraderie hidden in darkness, the silent exchange of wills! They say villains are not born, they're made. So by that standard, did I create a villain? Or a hero? Hmm~ maybe Roy Gold would… unfortunately the kid has zero potential'
Walking along the streets of New York, James had just left Empire State University, his mind filled with the memory of that battle. It was neither a powerful battle of wills nor was it a battle for the future- it was nothing more than a silent exchange between friends.
"So few things to marvel at in the world of Marvel… maybe I came too early? Is this why authors create weak characters? Or… am I simply looking at all the wrong places?"
James thought about the reports he had received from his subordinates. Extensive amounts of data that almost covered the whole world.
At least most of the major cities of the world had been infiltrated, various governments now had one or two spies under James.
"By the current estimates, I would need at least a few thousand Manservants, a couple hundred Maids and even the addition of one or two butlers…"
James pondered over the reports, the estimates he was given by Black severely undervalued the capabilities of the manservants and maids. A request was put forward to add an additional workforce of a few thousand homunculi…
"Back in the Clock Tower, such a plan would have been noticed and terminated during its mere inception, then a few jewels would appear in front of me and blast my whole office. I would then be required to fix my own office without the assistance of Magecraft and any item or creation born from Magecraft… it should take me a month to complete all that… then the piled up paperwork, additional classes, ah~ I don't miss being the underlying in a bureaucracy~"
Walking through New York, James had been speaking loudly, not hiding his thoughts or voice but no one seemed to hear his words. It was as if the world around him was moving in slow motion, the world devoid of colors was quite an interesting sight.
James patted his suit, now glowing with various mystical lines forming a magic circle.
"The Emiya's time manipulation is quite useful… Kiritsugu… what a waste, though he's satisfied now at least~"
Recalling the face of the man who was infamous as the mage killer, James couldn't help but smile. That bond is what led him to obtaining a few interesting students. They were quite fun to play with but maybe its their white hair or maybe the red eyes? Something about them made them really volatile and James had to struggle hard with the young one.
"That old puppet should have just transferred everything to Ilya, the third magic is something that she can't reach but Ilya has the potential for it… well, after all my hard work, if she can't even manage that much then it'd be a real shame~"
As he reminisced about his previous world, James' eyes caught sight of an interesting image. The world was near frozen but he could see three kids with an interesting fate.
"A web, a sorcerer and… a nobody?"
Without even using his eyes abilities James could already tell who the three kids were. They walked together, friends, companions… even till the bitter end they would stick together-
"Ah! That Origin! Oh my~"
Although he did not want to peer too much into them, when James noticed the image of a web he had to double check and there he saw it-
One had the potential to become a magus, though he was fated for something else. That said both boys showed potential for magecraft.
Especially the boy with a web as an origin, his fate- no his entire existence revolved around that web.
It was an interesting sight but the power of that web made James curious.
"How far could this web go?"
He tried to peer into the web's origins, its power but when he did-
"Ah-"
He was blocked, his sight was covered up, not by darkness but by two large spider legs. He wasn't scared of the legs but he was shocked at his own weakness. He was unable to resist the power which blocked his vision.
That short experience made James come to a decision-
"You're number 2~"
He then pulled out a gem from his pocket, it glowed with a pattern many magi which would make many Magi drool. It was the appearance of a "Crest Orb". An original creation of James, its capabilities were quite extensive, allowing for the quick, painless and simple transfer of a magic crest from one person to another.
Of course, if transfer was the only capability of the orb, Magi would not really care for it. What truly made many Magi greedy for the orb was its nature that allowed for it to be replicated.
It was a development that made many families both love and hate James to the bone.
On one hand it allowed them to have multiple individuals within the clan inherit the family crest which meant that the chances of the crest being lost was extremely low. Cases such as Kayneth's would not be repeated-
But the problem lay in the fact that only James could create the Crest Orbs.
It was his special magecraft that allowed for the creation of the Crest Orbs. As such, many families loved James for his development but they hated him as he could potentially replicate their secrets and use them for his own benefit…
If that was all, none would complain, after all, they still retain ownership over their magecraft. But! James is the teacher of a certain Waver Velvet, moreover! He had trained Waver himself!
Unbeknownst to the Magi of the Clock Tower, James had not only given Waver an opportunity to rapidly rise, he even made that student of his reach heights he would have never reached if James did not exists.
Moreover, both James and Waver had a certain talent in seeing through magecraft, James' was more potent though due to his own eyes.
Now though, this treasure which many renowned Magi families would have waged war to obtain, this priceless treasure, had now found itself lodged inside the backpack of a little boy-
"You're number 3"
Two little boys…
"..." James stared deeply at the little girl, her talents nonexistent yet the fact that she was fated to stand beside these two kids showed that her fate was not that bad-
"Fine~ Four~"
Another orb, a bit different this time, golden in color and bearing a weird crest found itself, not dropped into the little girls bag. Instead, James had directly implanted the orb in the little girls spirit body-
"Well, if fate really wishes you to be together with these two geniuses, you'd be able to survive"
After he said those words, James smiled contentedly as he walked away from the three but to his surprise, the individuals he was bound to discover was not limited to the three kids-
A blind man whose fate was filled with danger, James did not see potential for magecraft and didn't bother to forcefully awaken him. Based solely on the fate he carried, James could see that he was not truly bound for much-
But he did insert a business card in the man's breast pocket.
After that, James walked towards the road, he ignored the taxis and other vehicles as he stepped towards a red vintage sports car.
Inside sat three women, two in the backseat, one in the front seat, all three were smiling happily while a middle aged man sat in the driver's seat. His face exuded endless confidence and without even thinking James could already recognize this infamous individual.
In his very first world, the man was known as RDJ, but in this world this man is known as Tony Stark.
James did not care about his various titles, instead he cared about something else.
"He has an origin? Interesting~ Which world is this I wonder? This is really exhilarating!"
James could not help but exclaim, filled with excitement he found this world getting more and more interesting.
"Maybe I should do my own investigations?"
He thought as he recalled the reports given to him by Black. It wasn't even that Black or his subordinates were incompetent.
In fact, the ability to see the origin of a magus is something that would immediately be hunted down if known. James had many secrets and this was one of those that he did not share with others.
His ability to see through truths were not limited to magecraft and mysteries, in fact, the origin of a mage was a mystery in and of itself.
James could peer into these things, it just so happened that he had found so many interesting things in this small space in a random street in NYC. It was an interesting intersection of fate! He didn't even use his eyes too much or for too long to see the many interesting surprises!
He was truly tempted to just shock Tony Stark with magic at this moment but-
"No… it won't be all that fun now… maybe-"
James stared deeply at Tony, his eyes glowing with a bright azure light but his face showed a confused expression-
"Interesting…"
He canceled his ability and shook his head, what he saw made him truly understand the type of mystery this world carried.
James pondered for a moment, he did not use any ability, he simply used his own understanding and knowledge to decide.
Ultimately, James decided to drop the matter- for now at least.
With that, James did a one more scan, the convergence of fate was a truly marvelous mystery which he did not have the ability to see through. Maybe someone like Merlin or Solomon could do so, these two beings, one who could see the present, another who could see the past and future… Clairvoyance is an ability that many would be jealous of, and James is one of such people.
But his jealousy lasted for a mere moment before it disappeared.
"Now then… what else will I find?"
James casually whistled as he walked away from the scene. None had witnessed his actions, few could even detect what had just happened.
A certain bald sorceress noticed another anomaly, yet, in a world where powers were used haphazardly, one where mysteries are forgone, turning reality into mystery and mystery into reality… this world was twisted in and of itself.
The ability of Magi are tricks, they all followed the principle of breaking and bending laws.
But in this world, the common trend, the desire of many is to practice and master manipulation.
Maybe it was this, or maybe it was something else, but in the face of a being who could freely manipulate time, an ant who simply plays around is sure to go unnoticed.
Though it did not come without a cost, the magecraft used by James was no small spell. It was one that had yet to be perfected as it came with an extreme drawback-
The loss of time-
By displacing oneself from the flow of time, it is possible to suspend or slow down others, though that is in the casters perception. In reality, what's happening is the caster being placed in an accelerated state of time.
The spell was imperfect, as the slowed perception of time for everyone else meant that the caster was aging rapidly.
If that was not enough, the spell would consume OD, it was a magecraft that took one's time away in order to manipulate the time of the world.
But that is where the trick layed.
For others it was a spell of certain death and using it to play around during a walk was a death sentence. That is for anyone aside from James-
Unfortunately for the sorceress, even the knowledge of magecraft was something she could not touch much less the secrets of James, some of which were hidden even from the old jewel man.
Back in New York, in a small cafe, two teens sat talking to each other once more-
"You said the recruiter claimed that your position would be high if you passed the evaluation and showed talent? Isn't that normal?"
Felicia rolled her eyes as she responded to Cindy's words.
"You don't understand! I could become the secretary of a billionaire! You know- like Pepper Potts!"
"Are you going to be a secretary of a sex-y-tary?"
"Hey!"
Cindy and Felicia were talking about the recent update Cindy had about her internship.
As it stands, Cindy topped every other potential candidate for the position of being the secretary of the young man who owned the recently established Tower Technologies International.
It's a relatively unknown company as it was just established, literally a few days ago.
But what many did not know was that the owner of multiple newly established companies. Publicly he was known as being a millionaire but Cindy who dug into James Barthomeloi found many weird inconsistencies with his profile.
Despite claiming to be a millionaire, James owned properties that already exceeded the title of "millionaire", in the US alone he had properties scattered around the nation. If all these assets were given a price he would be a "multimillionaire"!
If that wasn't enough, those properties did not include his recently established companies, the purchase of land and office spaces to accommodate these companies…
Cindy, a young teen, majoring in Biology could not find a way for James to have such an extensive amount of assets being a mere "millionaire".
Though she did not find out the true net worth of the man known as James Barthomeloi, she was able to come across knowledge she never really thought about looking into before.
Articles talking about the fact that, despite people not knowing, the amount of billionaires could not be counted with one's fingers. If anything, the truly terrifying people were the individuals who held or had access to trillions.
Forbes could not account for all the assets of individuals and few of the truly rich and powerful would be willing to share their true net worth.
Moreover, with the amounts of oil tycoons, oil barons, tech giants… Cindy could already tell that the information of James being a "millionaire" was nothing more than a smoke screen.
If only she knew… the methods James had employed to accrue such wealth.
Methods that would have been shot down by the Mage Association had been employed by the crazy bastard who found himself in a world without restrictions.
Moreover, money was not really much of a problem for a magus who was skilled. Even an idiot like Waver Velvet found methods to scam money out of Magi. Unfortunately this world did not have the many safeguards that prevented Magi from abusing their abilities to earn money.
Without accounting for James' various illegal inventions that he could not truly abuse before, this world was basically a huge sandbox for James.
Unfortunately, even when money is not a problem, magecraft did not really get stronger or move faster with money.
Money helps but what James truly needs now is time, resources and history-
Of course, Cindy was unaware of all this, all she knew was that James was a mysterious individual who could move assets worth billions in less than a month.
Even Felicia felt as if it was unreal but seeing the serious look on her friends face as well as the well researched data she presented. All Felicia could do was nod and accept the facts presented to her.
But-
While Cindy was excited over the bright opportunity before her eyes, Felicia felt that something was amiss.
Her guts told her that there was something fishy going on.
Silently making such big moves? Starting up multiple companies in a short period of time and yet no one cares?
Now that she thought about it… based on the data that Cindy had presented-
"For some reason… these all match up with the sudden rise in gas related accidents… its as if the gas explosions and various crazy accidents covered up all this…"
When Felicia muttered those words, she felt a sudden chill run down her spine at the same time, Cindy heard her talk but did not hear her words as she asked-
"What?"
But Felicia shook her head as she responded-
"Nothing"
Cindy did not really believe her but if Felicia was not going to tell then she won't force her-
"Hm… fine"
-
'Interesting… Felicia Hardy huh?'