Chapter 22

Alaric looked around the room. The sunlight that came through before was dimmed out a lot, and it was becoming orange in the distance. Illic was sitting on the chair, looking through some kind of book. When he felt being looked at, he turned to Alaric and smiled.

"Illic, come here and put this on." He gave the white mask with shadow-affinity runes to Illic. Illic was trying to understand how the mask works while he put it trough his tests. "Go to the training field and come back when you finish, give me feedback when you're done!"

Illic left and Alaric looked out the window. Huh, I guess time flies when you work. It's already late, either I rush there and ask to prepare for departure, or I go tomorrow… they'll need at least a day to prepare. Never mind, I still have somethings to do. I should let myself at least a day or two, even though that event is starting next month in the southern capital, the journey would at most take a week, so I'll have two weeks till then. That'll be enough, I guess.

Going down again, I find Onaia and the man in the guest hall. Maybe I should give him a mental name, actually I know it since I have casted a memory spell on myself, but I just can't give him too much personality since, just like the past marchioness, his current self will change vastly.

"Kendrick has already sent a letter to the northern duchies' heir, telling him that his advisor is busy with negotiations of a possible cooperation. The north is currently expanding their business into many shady things, right? Onaia, give them access to some of our farms. We have many herbs and such which are useful for various things. Just tell him the maxim of our house.

You will have to come with me now, everything is ready at this point. And you, don't worry. Your transformation has only started, Onaia told you already probably, but your abilities will partially be sealed during the time. Use this as a chance to be more present in the public since no one would be able to detect swirling demonic energy transforming your body."

The man nodded solemnly and Onaia followed me. He prepared to leave and said a few last words. Then, Onaia and I went to the Ritual Chamber and checked the main chamber out, this was where Keen was moving around too. He checked the chains of each and every prisoner, making sure everything is fine.

"Keen, come here. This is your mask; you can try it out after the ritual. Oh yeah, this is Kendrick's. I know he's busy taking care of the marquisate's matters before we leave but tell him to put some trust into Onaia. She might be a bit unexperienced regarding this world, but management of wealth and resources is something demons do too, and she is educated. For all we know, the next time we visit the marquisate, it might have become the strongest family. Oh right, Onaia, if you could, don't ask for a higher title."

Onaia was looking and checking the ritual. As an enemy of the holies, she of course learned the language, and she was delighted that a ritual of theirs would be abused this way. When she heard what Alaric said, she asked confusedly "Why not?"

"Because I like 'Marquis' more than 'Duke', it has a nicer ring to it. Remember, noble titles might be oriented towards the strength of someone, but each and every title is bound to you, regardless of what it represents, it still has an important meaning to it. One day, when the Laya kingdom becomes stronger, it will become apparent that the Seer Tribe wouldn't have been able to do everything so fast and stealthy, people will know that you had outside help.

Then, Marquisate Violet will become known to those in higher positions. Marquis Violet will probably be the only noble title I have, and since it won't represent my strength anyways, I might as well have a nice sounding one.

In the first place, if we go by strength, then the progression of the title would be bound to the acknowledgement of our status. We'd have to become a duchy, then a kingdom, then an empire, and so on. Emperor Violet just doesn't sound nearly as good as Marquis Violet, you know?"

Onaia could only say that to her, it sounded ridiculous. But, since that was the wish, then the marquisate would stay a marquisate. It is kind of a joke since duchies will still be present, one day there will maybe even be kings under the reign of a Laya Empire, but all higher nobles will know that someone with the marquis title has actually more authority than them. It is both a joke and probably a trap to anyone that only looks at the title and not the strength.

What was this called again? 'A wolf in sheepskin attempting to kill a lion'? Something similar, that's for sure. Humans were cunning indeed, and here they called demons cunning and untrustworthy. Just look at this human, he talked so amiably while he positioned dozens of different humans into the greater ritual, all of them wailing uncontrollably while he hums a song no one knows.

One Alaric finished pushing each and every of the hundred sacrifices into their position and having Keen restrict them to their place, he went back and inspected all steps he took. Then, he went to the central woman, and checked out how the draining worked thus far.

"Great, Onaia, come here. Do you see this liquid? This is literally materialised affinity, something you will probably never get to see again outside of such rituals. The only exception would be elixirs provided by your tribe if you are lucky, but you know well enough how rare that happens, even you have probably not taken one, and this is while you father is a devil."

Onaia stared at the liquid that was draining in minimal amounts from Hinny. At one point she began to smile. Alaric looked at her from the side lines, not commenting on it. No matter which tribe or faction they came from, every demon has a bit of the Seven Origin Devils in them. The seer tribe managed to make it very minimal, but they were still descendants of the Greed Devil, unlike how many thoughts that they were of the Lust Devils' lineage.

How could a so-called arbiter be lustful? No, that would ruin their judgement most of the time. They are greedy, and even if it wasn't for the Demon Realm's watch, they would still try to give up as few concessions as possible in each and every pact they oversee.

The sole reason the seer tribe had managed to hold their greed during the 'negotiations' with Alaric was because they had barely anything to lose but so much to gain. In the worst case, they'd just lose the descendant of a devil. How many children did that devil have? Even if she was the best among all of her siblings, a devil would live for so long, at one point, they'll get a new promising one and forget about the past.

This was the way of greed demons – as long as their own loss was minimal, they would risk the death of each and every of their prodigies. Of course, many children weren't happy with that, but the devils that were created out of such gambles were always proof enough of their achievement. This wasn't the holy realm, they were demons, of the greed lineage at that.

"Okay, let's do this. Keen, make sure all your restrictions are in place, this will hurt a bit. Onaia, go into the western position, yeah, right there. Everyone is position?" Alaric felt a bit like a director of a movie, maybe it was a bit of a movie, at least a tragedy!

"Oh. Holy Almighty. You who guides us in the difficult times of life. Take this child of light, affinity of yours, subservient to the Holy, and guide it towards the proper path!" A holy golden light came out of the runes while each word of Alaric sounded like flowing honey.

"The sun wanders, from east to left. Dawn of the light, raise! Follow the sun's path, from east to west, from dawn to dusk! The holy dusk, last shine in the prevailing darkness, come forth!" The sacrifices wailed one after another as the light-affinity of Hinny seemed to be in full swing.

"Cleanse everything on your path, dirt and filth, darkness in sentient's heart! Light of dawn, cleanse all, open the way to holiness!" The implications clear here, light would be used as a front line to cleanse everything in the holies' path, merely a servant, the pureness of the holy above all, not to be dirtied by mere filth.

"Clear, Pure and Holy! Light, let go of your strength, you have served!" The rituals light transformed away from the bright white to a golden hue that seemed to represent the sun's pureness. The light went above the halfway mark and the materialised affinity became actual honey flowing towards Onaia.

The screams and wails of the sacrifices could be heard as each drop of honey that glided along the lines written in the holy language. "Oh, Great and Almighty Holy! Bring forth the dusk-ridden Sun, protecting us from darkness and pain!"