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

"But you pretty much tapped into the realm of supreme."

Madam's words didn't have the great effect they should according to my own understanding of their meaning. Within our group of me, Fay, Madam, Makary, Selene, and the driver, only the first half understood the meaning of supreme properly.

And with Madam being the one to deliver the news, it left only me and Fay to turn silent and allow our expressions to change as we both slowly came to realize what we missed during the action.

'Realm of the supreme, huh?' I allowed my thoughts to wander as I took a moment to lean over the issue. 'Is this what reversing the reflection and affection,' I thought, only for my lips to twist in a grimace as I faced yet another issue.

'Affection… is this even the right world?' I rolled my eyes over how quickly my mind swarmed with pointless thoughts. 'Either way, so that was it, huh?'

That shadow of a dark realm that I've noticed and its intrinsic connection to reality along with how just infusing it with around was enough to switch which dimension reflected the other…

Was that what the realm of the supreme was all about? But wasn't it supposed to be something about the ability to manipulate the world's aura over one's own?

'If that were to be the case, does that mean once I properly go through my next rebirth, I should be able to control that realm at will?'

A mere thought like that was enough for something to twitch deep at the bottom of my soul. For with only a mere hint of what this power could be, I could already see just how far I would be able to take it.

For if I were to take aura as an enigmatic force that allowed one to affect change in the world, then changing the reality around me was akin to sculpting in stone. With an aura for the power of muscles and the spell frames acting as the sculpting tools, changing how things naturally should be in the world was quite the process.

But save for what little aura one needed to infuse the dark reflection of reality and just how much easier it was to shape…

Within the same sculpting analogy, if using aura in the real world was like sculpting in stone, then using the same amount of aura to influence the dark realm was as hard as cutting shapes out of cardboard.

'Assuming all of my guesses thus far are correct, how does this connect to the supposed ability of the supremes to harness the power of the world's mana?' I asked myself, falling into the trap of trying to solve the issue all on my own when I had one of the greatest possible compendiums of magic knowledge right within my arm's reach.

"What exactly do you mean by that?" I asked, putting my own thoughts on the matter aside as I raised my eyes and silently asked Madam.

By now, both Makary and his wife appeared to have noticed that something of importance was going on, both turning silent not to disturb things as they moved.

"How about we have that talk while on the go?" Madam smiled upon seeing the eagerness to learn on my face only to turn around and move towards the nearest of the rescue cars. "Aren't we on the clock, guys?"

As if by a touch of a magic wand, Madam's reminder alerted all those who knew… And then going into the heat of shouting orders and moving around forced all those who didn't know to follow along and match their pace.

In the end, the cars that came to our rescue were nowhere as comfortable as the totaled limousine that we left behind with some of Makary's men to haul back to the compound. And when we all packed in just one of the cars, the insides soon grew quite cramped.

"I will ride," seeing how we were already at the limit of how many could fit into the car, Selene shook her hand before announcing.

With this concession of removing the driver from the equation, we finally managed to fit into the black car, with Selen and Makary at the front and the girls occupying the back seats.

"Where to?" Selene asked, glancing over to the side as she started the engine with a press of a single button, a design solution often used in military cars but hardly in any civilian ones.

"Back to the main compound," Makary groaned a little before stretching himself back in his seat. "We are already late for a meeting that we really shouldn't be late for."

Hearing this exchange, I couldn't help but smile a little.

From the looks of things, Selene has yet to learn the truth about my business with Makary. As such, when bringing up meetings, whatever Makary's wife imagined we were late for was likely in stark and great contrast to the meeting we were actually rushing to join.

"Anyway," I clapped my hands a little before turning my head to Fay and looking past the girl, at the edge seat where Madam was seated. "What was that about reaching the realm of the supreme? Because from what I saw and felt back then…"

I raised my hands and gave them a solemn stare, playing out the act of the main character in some stupid, system novel who had to make himself mysterious with empty gestures just to keep some of that interesting vibe about himself.

"What, did you discover a power sleeping deep at the bottom of your right eye? Or maybe a mysterious sigil-like tattoo appeared on your right wrist?" Selene joked around a bit, proving that while she didn't actively participate in the conversation, she was more than keen to listen to all of its details.

"Madam, what I experienced back then," I ignored Makary's wife and continued my leisurely chat with Madam instead. "It was nothing like what I was told the realm of the supreme was all about. Not even for a second I felt any sort of connection to the world's aura that you mentioned before."

This was my biggest gripe with the situation. And while I was happy to figure out a new power… There was a limit to how long I could keep going while blindly trusting in things that made no rational sense to me!

"That's why I've said you've merely tapped into the supreme realm, not reached it properly," Madam shook her head before leaning forth and turning her head so that she could take a better look at me.

"You know, most have long forgotten this, but the supreme's ability to manipulate the world's aura is just an additional boon, a prerequisite ability for them to create and affect their own domains, something that should be impossible with just one's own aura alone."

Both seeing and feeling Madam's intense stare on me, I gulped down my saliva and instinctively reached out and grasped at Fay's thigh. The feeling of her warm, soft flesh offered some solace…

But it offered no escape from Madam's revelation.

"Meaning, if you really managed to tap into your domain before learning how to manipulate the world's aura…"

Madam raised her eyes and stared blankly into my face.

"Then…"