Although Seekvaira wasn't the type to judge people by their appearance, she had to admit that Riser's appearance really didn't match his identity as a villain.
Although she had heard this man bragging about his good looks from his inner voice, back then she still didn't believe him and thought that maybe he was just a bit handsome.
But only when she saw him for herself would she believe that...
This man is really handsome!
What's with those fictional facial features!
Even as a woman who was recognized to be on the list of the 10 most beautiful women in Kuoh, she was envious of Riser's white and soft skin that looked better than her even though the other party was male.
It was actually the first time she had seen Riser, although she could have gotten to know him first if she had attended banquets frequently, but she was a young lady who did not like attending banquets.
Even during the birthday of her childhood friend, Rias. She did not come to her birthday party yesterday and only sent her a gift online.
By the way she knew Rias was the fiancee of the man in front of her. She used to hear that Rias often rejected Riser's pursuit, but now it seemed that the woman had changed.
On the internet she had also seen Rias' chasing of her husband to the crematorium and her fawning over Riser.
It was really popular so people who were always busy with mecha hobbies like herself also knew the news.
[How long is this woman going to keep looking at my face in a daze? Damn, it must be because of my handsome face. It's my fault Seekvaira, sorry for being too handsome.]
The heroines: "...."
Hey...
Are you seriously apologizing about that?
Seekvaira gasped when she heard Riser's inner voice, she looked at the man in front of her with a serious expression.
This man... You're too narcissistic, right?
Cough.
Rising from her chair, she stood opposite Riser who was still a head taller than her.
Rich, tall, and very handsome.
Why is this guy even the villain instead of the protagonist? I really don't understand what the dog author was thinking when writing his character settings.
"Um... Excuse me, could you repeat what you said earlier Mr. Riser?"
Having been mesmerized by Riser's appearance, she forgot what the other party had asked earlier.
"Oh? Miss Seekvaira knows me?"
Riser was sure he had not introduced himself to Seekvaira, even though this was the first time he had met her.
But Seekvaira recognized him immediately when she met him?
Was his face already very famous throughout Japan?
"Yes, I happened to have seen your picture on the internet."
Seekvaira lied naturally even though she actually recognized Riser from her inner voice. Why did she do that? Of course it was because she didn't want to expose herself and tell Riser that she could hear his inner voice.
Riser felt Seekvaira's answer made sense, so he nodded and shifted his gaze to the Mini Gundam behind him.
The Mini Gundam was a 200 cm tall robot, slightly taller than him, but that was not the problem. The problem was...
As he looked at the robot's design and the many wires wrapped around its body, he immediately saw many things that were unflattering and inefficient. It felt like he himself could find flaws in the robot Seekvaira made using his knowledge of technology.
By the way why did he have technological knowledge? Well it was because of the reward the system gave him last night.
[Tony Stark's Tech Knowledge]
As the name suggests, this is free tech knowledge that the system gave him. And as the name suggests, it is knowledge derived from Tony Stark, one of the main characters in Marvel's fictional works.
Back then he happened to be debating Iron Man with his system, but he didn't expect his own reward to be related to the topic he was talking about.
He suspected that the system could give him the reward he wanted, but the system denied it and said it was just a "coincidence" and the reward was "random".
What nonsense coincidence and randomness!
The system continued to pretend, but put that aside for now.
Walking past Seekvaira, he took a closer look at the black Mini Gundam.
"Miss Seekvaira, as I said before, I would like to see what your robot can do?"
"Oh... Sure, I can show you."
Taking out a remote-like device from her pocket, Seekvaira pressed the ON button on the remote and instantly the robot made a mechanical sound with its eyes slightly glowing with blue light.
Seekvaira gave some simple instructions such as performing simple movements, lifting objects such as chairs and tables, and then told the robot to throw a basketball into the hoop with 95% accuracy.
There were also other simple things the robot could do, but Riser quickly stopped Seekvaira who was eager to continue showing off her Mini Gundam.
"So what do you think Mr. Riser?" Seekvaira asked Riser with a serious face, but you could see her gaze looked like a child proudly showing off her toy.
Seeing Seekvaira like this, Riser became hesitant to say his honest opinion. Honestly, after he understood technologies like Iron Man's armor and artificial intelligence like Jarvis etc. using Tony Stark's knowledge.
Seekvaira's Mini Gundam was of very low value in his eyes, it was like the view of an expert looking at the work of an amateur!
[I'm worried about hurting this girl's heart when I say my honest opinion. Should I tell the truth? Seekvaira, your Mini Gundam is actually...duh.]
Seekvaira raised her eyebrows, inwardly, she knew Riser was worried about hurting her if he spoke his mind honestly.
Hmph!
You think I'm a fragile woman? Cruel comments won't make me cry!
She looked at Riser with a more serious gaze before saying, "Mr. Riser, just tell me what you think of my Mini Gundam honestly. Even if you say it's ugly, I won't get angry or sad. I'm used to people mocking my technology."
"...."
Riser's lips twitched.
If you say it like that, I feel even worse about you.
Riser felt that Seekvaira looked pitiful, but as a rather gentle villain, you don't have to hesitate anymore in this situation.
"Well... Miss Seekvaira, I'll be honest with you. This Mini Gundam of yours... It's really ugly."
Puff!
So honest!
So cruel!
You villain!
Somehow Seekvaira felt an imaginary arrow pierce her heart when Riser said that.
"The robot's movements are too stiff, and the many wires on every part of its body seem very distracting. It makes the robot look very ugly."
Puff!
Seekvaira clutched her chest to endure the pain of the cruel comment, but she tried to refute Riser's opinion this time.
"But... But this is just an early version and hasn't been perfected yet. So appearance doesn't matter, right? The important thing is that people just need to see what my Mini Gundam can do."
Riser shook his head, and looked at Seekvaira with a serious expression like a teacher who wanted to reprimand his student.
There was a look of disappointment at the sight of his foolish student.
Seekvaira's lips twitched.
What was with that disappointed look?
What do you mean staring at me with that look!
Do you even know how hard it is to make a robot?!
Seekvaira wanted to get angry, but she was overwhelmed by Riser's momentum and could only wait for the other party to speak again.
"This is also the case... Miss Seekvaira, you seem to overlook an important point in appearance when showing off your work to others."
"You're doing it half-heartedly and it seems that you're participating in this technology exhibition event just to prove something to others. You lack dedication in making your robot, you still lack knowledge in making robots, but you want to show this robot that is far from even your expectations to others."
"You deliberately lower your standards and think others will be amazed and interested in investing in your half-assed work."
"This is wrong! Think again Miss Seekvaira, what is your reason for building a robot? Is it to gain praise from others? Is it for yourself just because you like robots and other mecha things?"
Seekvaira's eyes widened, her glasses almost falling off after hearing everything Riser said.
This was clearly not just about the robot, but also about her.
Seekvaira remembered the past, when she was 6 years old. It was the first time she was captivated by mecha after watching the anime Gundam.
She dreamed she could fly around in a white Gundam with cool silver wings to explore the starry sky and look down on the land.
But as time passed, although she still dreamed of creating her own Gundam. Her standards in creating the Gundam she wanted dropped little by little as she began to realize the limitations of her talent and she also began to understand the development of technology in this world that was not very advanced.
Somehow since when, instead of making the Super Advanced Gundam that she dreamed of, she just wanted to make an ordinary advanced robot that could at least make people admire and recognize that her mecha hobby was not in vain.
Riser's words were like a hammer that made her illusion shatter into pieces and he recalled what her real dream was.
Seekvaira bit her lip, her hands clenched very hard as she shifted her gaze to the Mini Gundam she had half-heartedly built.
4 years.
It took her four years to create a robot of that level.
She actually felt disappointed in herself because she was only able to create a robot at that level in 4 years.
Even if given more time, with her limited talent and knowledge, it was still impossible for her to create the Super Advanced Gundam that she dreamed of.
Actually, the illusion she created to lower her own standards was an excuse she used to comfort herself so that she wouldn't be too sad and frustrated about not being able to create the robot she dreamed of.
In the end she could only smile wryly, she turned her gaze back to Riser with a sad look.
She was not angry with what Riser said, instead she felt grateful to him for waking her up from her illusion.
She was about to say something, but she was dumbfounded because instead of seeing Riser standing up while looking at her, she saw Riser moving to her desk and writing something on paper.
No idea where he got the paper and pencil, but she wondered what he was doing?
"Mr. Riser, what are you doing?"
Seekvaira walked up to Riser and looked closely at what he was drawing or writing on the paper.
There were many papers that he seemed to have written on and she picked up one of them.
When she saw what was written on the paper, she was dumbfounded and her hands were shaking. She even picked up another paper to read what else was written on another paper.
And she was even more shocked, even staring at Riser with a horrified and admiring gaze.
Riser had finished writing on the last paper and stacked all the papers on the table. After that he gave Seekvaira a funny look and handed over all the papers to her.
Seeing Seekvaira receiving the pile of papers her hands trembled and looked at him with a shocked face and slightly open mouth.
Riser chuckled and said while pointing at the pile of papers in her hand.
"I call it the Mark XLI. It's a cool mecha armor design with a mech that covers the user's entire body. It's got flying and other features, but I'm only letting you see 8% since you're not my person."
"If you are willing to cooperate with me and become a scientist under me to develop this technology. I will let you see 100% of that pile of paper and it is not impossible to make you feel the sensation of flying in a mecha in the sky and looking down on the land like you dreamed of."
"So... Miss Seekvaira, are you willing to cooperate with my Iron Man project? Although it's a bit different from the Gundam you dreamed of, but I'm sure it's no worse of giant robots."
"Of course you don't have to rush to decide, I'll give you some time to..."
"I agree!"
Seekvaira surprisingly readily agreed to Riser's offer.
Riser was a little surprised by her quick decision.
"Are you sure Miss Seekvaira? You haven't even read everything on that paper."
Seekvaira shook her head, there was no serious and cold face like before, now her face looked like an excited girl with a flowery smile.
"No, from the moment I read some of your technological mechanisms that you wrote down. I was already convinced that you, Mr. Riser was a technological genius! I'm embarrassed... Calling myself a genius in front of you."
"I want to cooperate with you and learn more technology from you."
"So Mr. Riser, call me Seekvaira, I agree to cooperate with your Iron Man project!"
Seekvaira looked at Riser with an adoring gaze, she did not expect this villain to be a technological genius who was better than her.
As for why she agreed so quickly to cooperate with him? Let's just say it was because of her sixth sense that made her not doubt Riser.
Besides, after hearing Riser's inner voice all this time, she knew the man was no ordinary person. He was a cultivator with supernatural abilities so there was no doubt that he also had other extraordinary abilities such as creating super advanced technology that surpassed the development of technology in this world.
There was also his plot knowledge that made him like a prophet who could see the future.
With all that, Seekvaira did not doubt Riser's ability to create Iron Man's technology.
She also felt that Iron Man's mechanism was better than Gundam, which was basically a giant robot that was difficult to carry around.
Iron Man's armor was different, it could allow the user to use it anywhere and anytime which made her fascinated and excited to make it soon.
"Alright Seekvaira, nice working with you. You can also call me, Riser."
Well whatever it was, Riser was glad Seekvaira agreed to work with him. Actually, he did all this just to prevent Issei from getting his opportunis from Seekvaira.
It's about plot corrections that might happen in the future.
So it's good to be on guard and make Seekvaira his person first.
As for the Iron Man project? Well, he can also do that to strengthen his family in the field of technology. He plans to make Seekvaira the person in charge as his chief scientist and he just needs to tell her his ideas.
So let others work hard for him, and he will just be the boss giving directions.
He's a villain after all, his main job is to prevent and cut off all the protagonist's opportunities.
For the another work? You can just tell someone else to do it.
"Okay, Riser. I'm happy to work with you too."
Seekvaira smiled and extended one hand to shake hands with Riser.
Riser naturally took the white, soft hand.
[Seekvaira's hand was so soft, it felt no less than Grayfia's. As expected of a heroine.]
Seekvaira's face flushed slightly at this.
Her heart was beating even faster than usual.
Seekvaira panicked in her heart.
'No, no, Seekvaira, what are you thinking! The other party already has a fiancé!'
'Even so, it seems that this man is a bit of a bastard. Besides having Rias as his fiancée, he also has such a relationship with Grayfia.'
Seekvaira suddenly wondered if Riser had any ideas about her?
Looking at Riser's handsome face that smiled gently at her, recalling his previous words, and his offer to create technology together with her.
Maybe it wouldn't be bad to be Riser's woman?
Cough, what was I thinking again!
Seekvaira had never been interested in romantic relationships before, and had always been focused on her mecha hobby.
So when it came to the romantic aspect, she was actually confused and somewhat embarrassed at the thought.
Riser didn't know what Seekvaira was thinking, but if he did.
He would probably have the courage to ask Seekvaira out on a date right now.
He had been a bastard ever since he had a relationship with Grayfia despite being engaged to Rias. There was also the time he played with Chelsea in his company.
So Riser would think adding again another woman to his life would be okay, right?
Why can the protagonist in the original work have a harem, but he can't?
Villains can have harems too!
...
Author note
I want to vent, if you don't like it, don't read this note. So you see, a few days ago I withdrew my salary from my patreon. I was excited when looking forward to that moment and it worked as usual. But then something bad happened, when I wanted to transfer the patreon paycheck from PayPal to my bank account. After waiting for the process for about 2 days, the notification I received was a failure in transferring the money. It failed and my PayPal balance wasn't even refunded hahaha I'm a very lucky person. Usually this doesn't happen, but this month when I really needed extra money it really happened as if the creatures behind the scenes wanted to give me a hard time in life. Why not last month but now? I smiled wryly at my bad luck this month. I had already contacted PayPal about my failed refund, but had yet to receive a response. I could only smile wryly at that. My head was spinning, but I could only drown myself in writing another novel to ease my sadness. I feel like a masochist, but I force myself to do it to take my mind off bad things. There's also a note here that lightens the burden on my heart a little.
