Alaric didn’t want to be an adventurer, but how could he accept being stuck in a tiny place such as the Laya Kingdom? The southern capital was much better, it was a major city even in comparison to other cities in the central continent, and he could experience a lot of different life there. The city alone had several million residents, some speak of citizen in nine digits! He wasn’t sure, after all, he never saw the city and books could only talk so much about a city, but he was excited, nonetheless.

By now it was time for lunch, Alaric had it served in his room as Kendrick and Keen were doing their own final preparations. Onaia was busy too, probably reporting to Oianon or cultivating or whatever, Alaric didn’t care about the whereabouts of his partners. Since he had explained most things, there was no need to babysit them all the time.

He himself was also busy thinking about a lot of things, this was something he always did in his past life. He would think and contemplate about his plans for hours with no end. He refined it so well, he could do so while working and no one would complain since he was still doing his work perfectly. If he had more passion for work, he might’ve been promoted long ago.

That didn’t matter to him anyways, since he worked good hours and got the money he needed for his hobby, there was no desire to climb the ladder. What if he had to work longer? Unlike how many people think, a boss always works more than his subordinates. Only the top-chef owning the company can simply assign a CEO and not work at all. But how many years would that take? And the work to even reach a point where you are an owner, since he wasn’t a second-generation of some conglomerate or something, he would have to create the company from scratch.

Just imagining all the work he’d have to put in, it was simply too much. Meanwhile, his current job was perfectly fine. He worked forty hours weekly, no extra hours, no issues regarding payment, and so on. The best was, he lived in an affluent country in Europe, so sick days were always paid up to a certain point, thirty vacation days were legally a must, and his company offered even more, his contract had more but he could also gain them as a bonus for excellent work. Additionally, his country had many holidays celebrating various things, so you can add twenty more days of no work, this was just beyond what anyone needed, and Alaric diligently took all days he had to play the game or go to book-cons.

Some people might think that this was a wrong way of work, since you’d barely work around ten months of the year, and there you also have two days free each week. But unsurprisingly, his company was successful and never made any losses for the past several years. Of course, there wasn’t a large margin of profit because of that, but everyone was satisfied with what they had. After all, the owner was old and he just wanted to have a secure company for his retirement, his children also worked in the company and all of them were lax too.

It didn’t mean they couldn’t work well, no, they did work well. It’s just that they never forced anyone to do more hours than needed, the workers were naturally happy about the situation, and everyone worked so well, they might have as well worked for twelve full months without a single break. Truthfully, Alaric was very happy with the situation, and the higher ups appreciated him too, since he worked well and never left. Even though they gave him a higher payment each year, if he left the company, then he’d be even more successful.

“Master!” Kendrick called out again, these days, he saw his master lose focus more often. It was exhausting, since he had to always wait or wake up his master.

“Yes?”

“Master Illic has just returned!”

As he said this, another figure opened the door and entered. It was Illic, who didn’t care for the so-called manners and just strode in. Well, technically, he was the mistress of the house, so obviously, he didn’t need to be courteous to himself.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Alaric smiled and called Keen, who instantly appeared as he seemed to have been outside the door, doing something. Having all of them present, Alaric made each of them wear their respective masks, explained a bit about them, and then told them they’d set off.

He went down to the Ritual Chamber, where Onaia was apparently doing something with the dude she converted. Alaric still refused to mentally give him a name, yes yes yes, bad Alaric with his bad divinely enhanced memory.

Onaia heard them come down, so she went to the door. She quickly heard of their departure and wished them well, there was no need to talk long, since they would return in just a few hours. Of course, she also knew they would most likely leave the next day, so there was no sadness yet.

Alaric and his group entered the carriage after they willed their masks to become invisible. This was a special feature to ensure they wouldn’t need to take it off or carry it around. The carriage they took this time was one of lesser quality, it didn’t have any insignia and looked more like a random carriage of a merchant.

Normally, they’d have to buy a totally new one and had to destroy this one after driving it, but their masks provided profound anti-tracking protection, so if they didn’t have a god to track them, there was no way to find the background of them.

Alaric might not respect gods that much, and he interacted with a god of high standing, that is to say, the Major Devil Oianon, but gods weren’t usually so leisure as to interact with mortals, especially not ones they have no relation to.

The world was flowing in such long-time steps, each of the books of his favourite author was in a different timeline. Some were in the past, such as the flower-harem dude, and there were others in the future. This was why Alaric knew so much about different timelines in the first place. He knew of some people that were nobodies right now but had the future of gods.

Naturally, he would use those chances when he got it. As a semi-sage of this world, he had to use any single advantage he would get. He read some novels he didn’t like as much as his favourites, and often people would hold back with their so-called ‘OP’-Knowledge or ‘Golden Finger’, but he didn’t plan on doing that at all.

He would use each chance to abuse all the knowledge he had, jumping around the world like he owned it and have fun doing so. Some people might think ‘how could politics and business be fun’ – but that thought process was wrong in itself.

People had different tastes, just like some people would read novels in a western-setting and others with an eastern-setting. Well, Alaric was now in a world with both, and more, but that wasn’t important. There were also people that preferred gaming over reading, whatever, he didn’t care about ignorant people, and he soon arrived in front of the shop, so he ceased thinking.

They left the carriage and activated the masks once more. No one was next to them and there didn’t seem to be anyone in the shop either, so their appearance didn’t cause any problems. Stepping inside, it was a perfectly normal shop, besides the fact that the owner didn’t seem to care about their masks at all. The mask had a function to cast an illusion around their face, making it seem like a different face, but that function wasn’t activated currently, so the fact that the shop manager didn’t react at all was a statement in itself.

The manager came in front of Alaric and introduced himself “Hello dear customers!”

Before the manager could speak anymore, or even dare to give himself a name, Alaric stepped up and said, “I wish to speak to the Silent Travellers Emporium’s Branch Manager.”

The manager took a silver sign out from desk right next to him, it was the Silent Emporium’s insignia. A white sun the background, a dead black tree in the foreground with crows sitting on it, below there were blank gravestones, and on the lower end there was ‘Silent Travellers Emporium’ written, then he turned 360° then introduced himself again “Hello dear travellers!”

Alaric smiled and said “I would like to open a shop. Not under this branch, but one directly under the emporium. I reckon that is possible?”

The manager nodded and didn’t ask once again. The emporium simply operated under the idea ‘if you know how the rules play, you’ll be better off’ – besides the basic rule book, there is no mentioning of anything important, and branch managers would also never tell you that you have the possibility to open a shop that is not under the branch but operates generally.

Taking out a form, the manager handed it to Alaric. There wasn’t much written on it, so Alaric only took a look at it and wrote down the name ‘Night Lily’, then he took out an essence stamp from his face. It looked weird, barely visible lights of essence, but a design appeared on the paper. The manager was surprised but didn’t ask, honouring the silence.