Kendrick and Keen were still kneeling somewhat awkwardly at this point, but they came to know that their master had somehow changed a lot and liked to explain his plan in greater detail even to them, so although it was a bit hard to follow, it made them feel warm.

“The true power of the first head lays in the control of all the families’ guardians. The second head is actually not only his representant but also the head of the guardians, giving them an official position in the family and some power at that.

The guardians are those that bind their Origin to the family. But, unlike the family heads, they are individuals that join the family. Their contribution would be less that whole lineages, but it would still be a lot, so naturally they have some benefits, such as access to all of the families’ resources. They wouldn’t be allotted any, but the access to resources and the connection to the family are the big points.

You might think there aren’t many that would accept on such conditions, but well, I ask you. Are you willing to become our families’ guardians? All guardians are equal, only the second head is the leader of all guardians in emergency situations, and he also serves as a communication bridge between the guardians and the family, so as to not make them feel any less important compared to the other family heads.

You will have no responsibilities except following our rules and being successful yourself. We allow no mediocrity! This applies to the family heads too, in case a lineage falls behind too much, they will be punished accordingly, in the worst case, exiled. Anyways, do you wish to join the Violet Guardians, protecting and supporting our family in times of dangers while enjoying fortune during times of prosperity?”

Kendrick and Keen stood up from their kneeling position, looked upon Alaric and said proudly “We are willing!”

“I declare thee, Kendrick and Keen, as Violet Guardians!” – Unlike the family ritual, they didn’t get any Key or something similar, still, they felt that a different kind of weight came upon their souls. This one wasn’t heavy at all, it felt like a little something that you were always familiar with. The plant you grew at home as a hobby, that special looking stone in front of the house door, that spider in your room you never hunt as long as they are doing their job of killing flies!

With the guardian-business done, Alaric focused on his next steps as he sent them away. He thought about it, and curses would probably truly be the best option for his shop. It was fortunate that there would be an event in just a month that would be important for the whole world. This was an event agreed upon by all Origin Realms.

Every of these realms had a special day yearly, where they would be praised. Faith wasn’t the main source of, actually, most of the Origin Realms, but it was still a good source of power. So, to make a second day, the Holy initiated talks and decided that it would do good for there to be a day in the world where all gods were worshipped.

They day was to be the day all Origin Realms went back to peace after the Demon and Holy realms fully integrated. The natives weren’t happy initially, but after a bit of war, just a few hundred years, all parties understood that they had enough space for two more realms. It helped that the Holy and Demon hated each other to the core, the reason why the anchored on the Main World in the first place was to defeat the other party.

Using this as a basis, the natives milked both parties of many resources before generously accepting a pact where the Demon and Holy were allowed in the Main World.

This enhanced the Origin of the Main World, which in turn enlarged it, strengthened it, and gave many other benefits. The Holy and Demon were happy with that too, since they had practically nothing to lose and a lot to gain. In case they really were rejected, it wasn’t like they had to anchor themselves on a larger world, while joining the world brought them an increase too, their realm was weakened initially, but over time, it healed and became stronger than ever before.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

The day the pact was signed was thereby declared a great day for worship of gods. Every year, the Festival of Gods would be held in every part of the world, celebrating each and every god would have their celebration and people would normally gain more messages from their gods during this day, many have made it a tradition to ask for blessings, even if they didn’t gain any, it was still there to bring a good omen.

If Alaric was already famous, he would be able to hold a celebration for a family, helping them in their worship and generally participate in the event. But he isn’t famous and has no connections, barely a month away there would be no family that still searched for a person to hold the ceremony, no matter how desperate they were, at this time there wouldn’t be any trustable person that can hold the ceremony.

But this wasn’t what Alaric was looking for. Since he was going to make his shop one proficient in curses, naturally, the Festival of Gods, where every little detail is interpreted as omens, would be a great day to debut!

He would have to make it hidden, but the clientele would know who is responsible, as well as the Silent Travellers Emporium. As long as he could satisfy his clients, he would be able to gain a lot of connections in just a short period of time.

Alaric was thinking and contemplating his situation and goals. Having read the books, he naturally knew some that could be come his clients, and he also made a plan on how he would handle that particular shop. He had already decided to split his ritualistic magics into different shops, it wouldn’t do well if a shop focused on preaching and holding ceremonies somehow ended up also practicing curses.

His own identity would be that of the founder, and only the upper ranks of the Silent Travellers Emporium would know that all information regarding shops aligned to the emporium were strictly hidden and only handled by the lower council. The owner would only be identified if he was in the possession of the certificate of ownership, this caused much competition among all the shops, but no one ever complained.

Of course, there were events where a representative would often be sent, and Alaric had already an idea of who would be the face of their shop, it would be someone not just the face but also the manage of the shop. He would only care for it for the early ages, then drop it and officially only be known as an associate, fulfilling the more difficult requests.

This would still be problematic if he went ahead to cast a curse at one place and a ceremony worshipping gods at another, but since he was an associate of the shop, people would put their trust into the shop. Distance and secrecy are two important points in his idea, he himself would rise in reputation but the shop wouldn’t fall behind either.

I just hope that the people I select also reach Godhood one day, becoming even better than me in their specialisation is a dream, as that would mean I’d get a whole group of ritualist-specialists and I’d be able to perform any ritual I want. It is even better if they become gods before me, and that’s to say it wouldn’t be a surprise either.

Since their Origin would be tied to mine, if they truly wanted to retaliate against me, then their godhood would become very shaky and lose a large portion of its foundation. Loyalty wouldn’t be an issue; I just hope they won’t be too talentless. Since I never reached godhood, and I heard of no other player reaching it either, I can only hope that it won’t be too difficult to achieve.

He had ideas and plans already before he transmigrated, so he only had to decide which route he would take. There were many, but in the end, one particular seemed viable and proper. In all honesty, Alaric’s only goal was reaching godhood, since he had not achieved that when he was gaming. But, with each increase in stage, he would have more lifespan.

This goal could take decades upon decades, maybe even several hundred years. Who knew how things would work, he was sure that he’d at least spent a decade in the southern capital working on curses before he would move on. His heart stirred, over a decade would sound a lot for many, but he had read the books for so long and enjoyed the game even more, how could reality fail him? If it wasn’t for the fact that he really didn’t want to have several of his shops in the same major city, he could probably stay there for many more years.

It's just that… Alaric was too excited for everything, his detest towards where he currently was grew by the second, making him restless. He knew many people enjoyed the politics in the Laya kingdom, and he wasn’t averse to politics at all, but he was in a magical world! An expanse world with so many things – he believed even all the books together barely covered a part of it, after all, just a single sidenote left by the author sometimes spoke of tales and adventurers that went far beyond his understanding.