Chapter 4

Hmm, for him to behave like that, it seems it's still very early. He's alive, doesn't have any clear bruises and pretty young, I guess this should be around the beginning of the book, where the three men are still friends and the girl…

"Keen, tell me. The large ball celebrating the start of the kingdom, when is it again?"

"L-Lord, the ball is today! It is in the evening, would you l-like to eat breakfast?"

Today? Puuh, nearly landed in the drama, huh. Okay, I should still have time "Keen, invite Illic, now. He should be training and wouldn't eat till an hour later, rush to the duke's estate and tell him I would like to talk with him over breakfast."

Keen panicked a bit. The duke's estate in the capital wasn't far away from the marquise estate, but it would still take him half an hour to get there. Since it's early, the streets would somewhat be packed, so he would have to make it as fast as possible. He knew that the marquis would be irritated if he hesitated when fulfilling his orders, so he bowed and sprinted out.

This should be fine, now what will I tell him? I don't want to create drama and stay around too long, but I should tell him enough to make him leave. Let's see… he's unhappy with the knight training and only does it to keep himself healthy, should I tell him I can teach him something?

Nah, that would be too short on time with the event today. I'll take drastic measures.

I walk to the closet, open it, something that should have happened in my previous life, and take out a rather loose robe. I only have a night gown on, and it would be a little cool outside, but there is no need to put on too many clothes for what I'll be doing next.

Going around the room a bit, I pull the curtains and see the garden in all it's light. Yeah, this is where I will be eating. The servants out of my room will barely listen to me if it isn't Keen that commands them, so I have to improvise somewhat.

But wait… nah, I can't. Even if I wanna show some skin to him, I don't need to show it to everyone. Even Keen knows not to look when I wear this, not that I think he would… he seems to have a stick up his arse whenever I see him. Well, I'll introduce a good girl to him someday, she'll take care of him, hopefully.

I guess I'll be eating in my room then. Yeah, that's good. Lemme pull this chair, and that table, yeah, right in front of the window with a bit of the curtain pulled, it's a dark and seducing atmosphere, right?

I try to find the right positions on the seat as I wait. Meanwhile, I think of what I truly want to do, now that it's somewhat of a real life to me. I was planning to sacrifice a few servants and the mother to a demon ritual and do something with that? That'll still be viable, I guess. But what will I do afterwards?

One thing is clear, I don't wish to stay in this southern continent, even if I am in the corner and there is so much to see, I might as well just go to a larger one and come back when I'm stronger. If I'm leaving, I might as well go to the central continent, traverse there a bit, then settle down and make a place of my own, where I can do many things…

The question is, if I do that, I'd most likely have to join an organization to make it easier. Going alone would probably be the protagonist-route for transmigration books, but nah… like, why would I do all that just to be a bit more independent, which is wrong because my independence is dependent on my strength in comparison to the strength of the others in my surroundings.

So, in the central continent, I would never be independent. Well, except I become a superpower, but that's not possible in a short time. If I am not planning to wait like a thousand years, I might as well join one now and take it over later.

Okay so the rankings for organizations in the central continent are dependent on the highest power they have, third circle and equivalent are the start while the peak is the Origin level, where people touch the origin of the world, aka are those that reached godhood or similar things. Obviously, I will take one of Origin level…

Hmm, I should go with a merchant organisation, a mercenary organisation, a guild organisation or some underground organisation? Mercenaries are basically included in all of the others, so let's take that out. Guilds aren't interesting either, they'd need me to do a lot of missions to even reach the rank where I get the resources I like, offering my services and do other stuff will not do.

Okay we're left with underground and merchantry, which is basically the same, but merchants are less dangerous, not really but the illusion it gives is good, and the reputation will give me what I want. But underground organisations will ensure that I get all the resources I want, even the more dubious ones…

Who am I to kid, every merchantry that is even just a bit successful will have some backdoors. Which one should I take though? From the books, I know there are three great ones that compete with each other all the time. The plot never went too deep into each of them, but generally I know that they don't fall behind the sects and clans in terms of strength.

The three are the Great Horn Merchantry, which are known for their great trade in ores and materials in that direction. There is the Swift Crane Commerce, which specialises in delivering any kind of good to any place you need them to. And lastly there is the Silent Travellers Emporium, which is an all-rounder, its pro-point is that it doesn't care for who their clientele is, as long as they give it up to them, they'll eventually sell it to the right person.

Yeah, there's no need to think further, the Silent Travellers Emporium will be where I go. Luckily, they, just like the other two, have branches all around the world. I should be able to create a shop under them, that'd make me an affiliate of the Emporium and I'd just need to pay a small tax for using the name and the right I gain with that.

There is an internal ranking system in the emporium, but as it's a merchantry, of course to rank up you don't only need strength but also capital and fulfilling missions given by them, which are mainly searching and gathering a certain number of resources or offering services for certain clientele. The emporium can't handle everything, and they often give these assignments to test the shops for those that are credible to then be given higher and better paying missions.

Yeah, I'll definitely just offer my free-form magic and outplay life. Like, it's op since I know so much and so well, the best thing though is that with more and more practice, a variety at that, my stats will increase exponentially, and I'll just get stronger. Since free form only needs great amounts of essence, or mana if you want to call it that, then there is one cultivation method that is just perfectly fitting for that.

The Star-Growing Art, which is very literal because you transform your essence into stars that roam freely in your inner world. Not only do you grow one star, but you can grow as many as your essence allows you to. Over time, you will have these huge essence reserves in the form of stars that continuously passively absorb the surrounding essence. On higher levels, you can take these stars out of your body and let them twirl around the real world, strengthening the absorption and growth of them, till they are all separate dantian-like constructs.

This art really only focuses on gathering and storing essence, so it has no other abilities, yet it asks its user to only ever use that art. That makes the user a storing bank and basically useless, of course that is only if you don't know any rituals to make different and interesting things with the separate dantian-like stars.

Woaaaah, so much thinking and planning, I guess the hour is over. Snapping back to reality, I hear light knocks at the door. I turn myself away from the door and somewhat hide my appearance as I go into the shadow in the room as I call out "Keen, you can bring in the breakfast. Only invite Illic after the breakfast is fully served."

His loyal little butler did so and filled the table with many light and warm dishes on the table like soft eggs, some bread, crème, cheese, different meats, vegetables, soups and other things along with those. After he finished, a tall muscular man that looks to be around twenty enters the room. I already sit at one side of the table relaxedly, having my robe saw loosely in the morning breeze, light shining on my chest that is covered by only a thin night gown.