Chapter 7

Alaric's whole background story is so much more intense than the first book about this part of the world would tell. Only later in side-stories was it revealed, and still, many people don't know about it because barely anyone read the whole lore of the books. The only reason people even read the side story of Alaric was because it included some ritual free-form magic.

"So, with most of our wealth being portable, we only need to prepare minimal things to go out. I am planning to leave in a week at the latest. Today, we will announce our engagement to the higher circles and have an engagement party in just two days, this should be enough for most to find gifts for us, then we can leave. If it was up to me, I'd much rather just disappear with you and the butlers, but the journey away will be costly.

The central continent… is far away. The Silent Travellers Emporium's Branch in the capital should have a way to teleport us from here to their southern continents main branch, which will then serve as the hub to take an air ship that brings us to the central continent. The territory of the Emporium in the central continent is very small, but they have territory everywhere and we will stay in their southern capital that connects the southern continent and the central continent.

Luckily, they are the ones with the most influence when it comes to trading with the southern continent, if that wasn't the case, then we'd have to join the Great Horn Merchantry or the Swift Crane Commerce, who each have at least one continental trade point.

We will build our first shop in that city, the competition is fierce, but there is a severe lack of ritual magicians everywhere, especially those that make more than the usual rituals. And ritualistic magic is only one of the few things I can, so we will find foot there. Kendrick will manage our shop, and you will be my guard, I will help you train your shadow-affinity till you are the strongest assassin or whatever you want to be!"

Illic smiled, he was worried that he would be useless, but since Alaric had a role for him already, he was happy. If he didn't leave, then he'd most likely marry a woman his father deemed worthy and continue the line of his duchy. Now that he was with the person he liked, he was fine letting go of a bit of control, if that made Alaric happy.

In the end, he knew how the world functioned, and was happy to build up something from the ground up, not just inheriting something from his family and managing it till he died, just to be given to someone else. The shop would be as much his as it would be Alaric's, already being pulled into the grand scheme of things unknowingly.

Alaric sat in comfortable silence with Illic, both contemplating their future till Kendrick came back with a somewhat haggard looking Keen. Both bowed till Kendrick reported "We put all of them together in the ritual chamber, lord, shall we prepare anything?"

Smiling, Alaric replied "The ritual I will be making won't need anything special, just bleed them out so I can use that as ink. I won't be eating lunch, so we can go there soon. Illic, why don't you go back and prepare for the celebration in the evening?

Also, tell your father about our engagement, it would be awkward if he didn't know it. Tell him that it'll be profitable for the duchy and that it's possible to have us as vassals or something. It would be nice if he gave away a good dowry for our journey, don't you think?"

Illic nodded and left soon after. It would be better if he didn't know the full extent of the rituals, that'd be too much. Also, he could get a bit revenge by scamming his father a bit. As far as I know, he hates his father quite a lot after his mother died and his father shunned any of his children's emotions, giving them quite the hard time.

Looking out the window, I see Illic entering a carriage that was waiting for him the whole time. I go out of my room to find Kendrick and Keen outside, telling them to bring me to the ritual chamber, which was a nice way of calling a bloody basement with a strong smell of iron. We go further in till we are at the last large room, the main chamber for rituals.

Inside, twenty people could be seen chained up by chains that seem to grow out of the walls, their wrists and ankles slit open to let blood gather in small pools below them. All pools were connected to a central pool to the left of the rooms centre. The ground was flat and made of clean stone, separated from the twenty servants was the mistress chained strongly from the ceiling, hanging like an animal to be slaughtered.

Satisfied, I look at Keen, who looks calmer than before, as this was somehow an easier social situation. He was more used being a warden than a butler, but he would learn with time. I tell him "Bring her to the centre of the room, I don't wish to hear her talk, trash like her is only usable for rituals. She doesn't deserve the respect of a human, nor do these servants who have forgotten who their lord is."

As she was dragged to the centre, I looked around the main pool of blood and saw a table with tools next to it. Taking a brush of high quality, probably Alaric's Father's main brush, I dip it a bit in blood then go to the centre, where the mistress stood without even a chain on her, but she wasn't able to talk or move at all, this was one of the ways to combine mental and physical restrictions. It worked well when the target was weaker than you.

I go down and use the brush to draw a grand circle around the mistress, the circle made of connected words in the demonic language. Kendrich had learned a bit when he watched his previous master and understood that this was a ritual that involved demons, a race known for their trickery and destruction, but they were optimal for rituals because they would always keep their contracts, and if it amused them, then it would work even better.

They lived in a different dimension. There were demonkin in the world, but the origin of all demons was the demon realm, where they are born from the power the realm absorbs from different worlds. Summoning them gave the realm the chance to absorb more energy, so rituals towards them were always easy. If the demon succeeds in his contract, then they could usually keep staying in the main world as long as their connection was stable.

The ritual circle expanded more and more, different lines formed, some small figures, other symbols. It went past the usual thought of a hexagon, no, this was more. Rituals were ranked in lesser, greater and higher; it depended on the potential of influence it would bring towards the main world, as well as the skill needed to execute the ritual perfectly. There was a force that would reject the ritual and make it a failure if even a single line was wrong.

As an example, lesser ritual could very well bring forth the strength of a god, while a higher would only bring a newborn demon into the world. The strength of the god would be so temporal, after the first few seconds, his influence would be gone, while the newborn demon would live in the world perfectly fine and everything it did would influence the world in some way.

It took hours to complete, being past lunch time when Alaric finished it. It was a greater ritual; he would've done a better job if he had more time but finishing a greater in just a few hours speaks volumes of his skills. There were twenty spots in the ritual, so Alaric told Kendrick to put one of the servants on a spot each, as he calmed himself down and entered a meditative state.

Okay, this should be enough. Let's get this done.

"Oianon, Arbiter of your Realm, Witness of countless Pacts! I, Alaric van Violet seek thy presence. My offering here, I beseech thy help."

The writing on the ground lights up, servants suddenly feeling a pain in their very being. A second later a strong presence falls upon the room, the servants all stopping their breathing, eyes bleeding as they synchronously turn towards Alaric.

Standing straight, they move their mouths together and speak in a way that destroyed their voice cords, but the voice wasn't influenced the least.

"What do thee beseech, mortal whose true name he has not revealed, yet summoned?"

This came as a surprise to Alaric. So, Alaric isn't my true name? I mean I can understand, but how did I summon him if I didn't use my true name? Maybe because it's the true name of the body, but my soul still has my previous true name? BAHAHAH! That means many restrictions that would inflict me when using my true name won't come true, right?

"I greet the Lord of the Seer Tribe" I say as I bow towards him, revealing some information that could do well for me, since I just got a huge advantage.