CHAPTER 78: BINDING

After a lyric, measured discussion with Lord Crydias, Alaric departed the estate’s main mansion.

He left the husband and wife to their thoughts—how they would now shape a flawless information chain from the fragments of opportunity he had handed them. The path ahead was theirs to pave. But the foundation... that had already been laid in blood.

They had spoken at length—about storefront chains, public façades, network management, and the most critical element of all: secrecy.

To ensure the secrets remained secret, Alaric offered them something far more potent than oaths or contracts. Blood.

"You may use my blood,"

He had said simply,

"or your daughter’s, now bound to me. Let your employees drink it, as part of the hiring ritual."

They had both looked stunned, even Lady Crydias. But he had explained further—and what he said had chilled and awed them in equal measure.

At first, it had been just a method. A crude means of sealing loyalty—an instinct he followed the day he bound Aurevia. Then Cellione, Serineth, and Virellen. But when the number reached twenty-four, he finally saw the pattern emerging in full clarity.

This wasn’t just a symbolic ritual.

It was a system.

A web.

Each girl who drank his blood was tied to him by an invisible thread, woven from divine energy. And the origin of it all lay in his own heart—where the Divine Heart Core resided, pulsing with ceaseless light.

That was the secret.

His blood was no longer mere blood.

It was suffused—altered—by proximity to that divine nucleus. The longer it dwelled inside him, the more its properties changed. It had become... something else. Holy. Binding. Echoing with sanctity and command.

And because it came from his heart—his core—anyone who drank it willingly became bound not just to him, but to each other. The connection was not linear. It was organic. It could spread.

Virellen was a perfect example. She was directly tied to him. Her blood, when offered to her parents, extended that web even further.

Now, Lord and Lady Crydias were wrapped in divine thread, incapable of speaking of anything that would lead back to him—not even by accident. Their minds could still think it, but their voices would never betray it.

This realization... it both thrilled and unsettled Alaric.

"What have I created...?"

He didn’t know the limitations yet.

He didn’t know what might happen if he pushed it too far.

But he could feel the bonds. The threads. Layered like the rings of a tree. Each direct binding gave him emotional resonance—a pulse of feeling. Distant ones were fainter, but present.

Perhaps, in time, he would learn to see through them. To navigate the web like a spider in its lair.

For now, he left it be.

There were too many plans to manage, too little time to explore every mystery. He would return to this... eventually.

Before leaving, he had advised the Crydias couple carefully.

"First, they will sign a binding contract,"

He said.

"Then, they will drink the blood. That’s two layers.They will not know who I am. That is the third.And the fourth... is time. The longer this runs, the more normal it becomes."

He had smiled faintly.

"And if there is ever a breach... I will know."

This technique—this divine binding—was not the end. It was merely the opening act to a far grander symphony. He could feel it in his marrow.

This web would be the scaffolding for something much greater.

And for once, he had created something that frightened even him.

*****

✢═─༻༺═✢═─༻༺═✢

✶ I Reincarnated as an Extra ✶

✧ in a Reverse Harem World ✧

⊱ Eternal_Void_ ⊰

✢═─༻༺═✢═─༻༺═✢

*****

The afternoon sun was mellow, slipping through the high windows of the Crydias estate and softening the edges of the mansion’s marbled corridors.

Alaric stepped through the gilded archway of the main residence, his pace unhurried, his expression calm—but not unreadable. Something about the divine threads within him felt a little brighter.

The moment he opened the doors to the sitting hall, a small, soft thump greeted him.

A pillow.

It bounced off his chest and fell to the floor like an embarrassed apology.

Virellen stood across the room, arms crossed, puffed cheeks tinted red.

"Master,"

She huffed,

"you have no heart."

Alaric raised a brow, a lazy smile playing on his lips.

"If I didn’t have a heart, you wouldn’t be bound to it."

Aurevia snorted from her seat. Cellione whistled low under her breath.

"Nice try,"

Serineth whispered beside her,

"he’s going to get stabbed."

"Master,"

Virellen growled,

"I was this close to learning something important. And you kicked me out like I was some... feather-duster!"

She actually pouted.

Alaric walked forward, his tone light and joking.

"To be fair, you make an excellent feather-duster."

The room erupted in light laughter. Even Auralyne covered her mouth, though her smile betrayed her amusement. Virellen, meanwhile, narrowed her eyes at him and flopped onto the couch like a defeated cat.

"You’re impossible."

"And yet,"

Alaric said as he leaned against the armrest beside her,

"you keep chasing me."

"Only because I want to see how much of a fool you can be."

"The fool with a mansion full of beautiful girls. What a tragic tale."

That got her. Virellen turned away with a sullen hmph, but a tiny twitch at the edge of her lips betrayed the smile she tried to suppress.

The rest of the girls had gathered by now—Aurevia, Cellione, Serineth, Auralyne, and the twenty-four new additions. Some stood, others sat, all watching with mixed curiosity and disbelief.

To the new girls, this was not what they had expected.

Not even remotely.

They had imagined a tyrant. An overlord. Some cruel young master with crueler eyes and expectations far beyond what they could bear. But instead, this man—Alaric—was... teasing his maid, making dry jokes, catching pillows without so much as flinching.

And, above all, he was handsome. That ageless kind of handsome—refined but approachable, otherworldly but warm.

A few of the girls exchanged glances.

"That’s the Master?"

Mara Embershade murmured under her breath, blinking.

"He’s... nicer than I thought,"

Reva Moondrake whispered, her voice like a breeze.

"Still dangerous though,"

Thalessia said calmly, arms folded.

"Don’t forget that."

Alaric, unaware of their muttered judgments—or simply choosing not to respond—glanced over the gathering, then addressed them all with a gracious tone.

"I hope my girls didn’t scare you too much."

Aurevia rolled her eyes.

"We did our best to prepare them. Then you showed up and started juggling sarcasm and dignity."

"Balance is a virtue."

"You tripped on it."

The laughter that followed was warm, contagious.

Cellione stepped forward and cleared her throat, a bit more serious.

"Master, we’ve already begun explaining everything. About the lifestyle. The expectations. The production project. Their importance."

"And the romantic part?"

Alaric asked slyly.

"We told them you’re a pervert,"

Cellione said without skipping a beat.

"But a fair pervert."

The room cracked again in laughter. Virellen groaned into a cushion.

"Kill me..."

"I’d rather not,"

Alaric mused.

"You’d just come back angrier."

As the evening light filtered in, the atmosphere softened. The new girls relaxed a little. Some even began to smile. The bonds were still fresh, the shock not fully worn off—but a kind of peace began to settle. Like the tremors after a storm.

Alaric sat among them now, not above them. He listened as names were reintroduced, personalities observed, small laughter shared. And even if none of them fully understood what kind of life they had stepped into...

...they knew one thing:

They could breathe.

And he, their enigmatic Master, was not the monster they’d prepared for.

Not yet, at least.

-To Be Continued

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Today, I felt the immense urge to tackle the question, what is the Divine Heart Core?

I believe while reading this, you had this thought even once.

Well, for starters, the Divine Heart Core is the container of Divine energy, which is obvious. This is a gift from Goddess Elyssera. Why? We will get to that later in the story.

And, Most importantly. The Divine Heart Core doesn’t have Ranks. It is out of the mortal ranking system. Since it’s something from the Divine. No body else in the mortal realm can control Divine energy except Alaric because of his Soul Trait, The Eternal Arcane Core.

And, another thing I would like to address is the Gods. A reader of mine( probably Named Yang_Tao or something) asked if the Goddess will be in the Harem or not. No. Let me tell you why.

The god are not human. Nor any other races. They don’t have what it takes to engage in those kind of activities. Because their body is spectral. They do not have a physical body and that’s what makes them different from mortals. Than why am I using the terms like God and Goddess if that’s the case?

Well, it is for clarity. And the Gods may look like human or any other races out their, but they are not like them. Humans for example, is designed after Goddess Elyssera her self. Both male and female counter part. Same for other races.

They may look like mortal races because they themselves designed them like that but they DO NOT possess the same qualities as mortal races.

And that’s the reason Goddess won’t be on the Harem.

I hope this clarifies things that bugged you.

Why am I writing this?

Honestly, I have no idea.

Have a Great Night, or... whatever time you’re reading in. Have a great time .👍

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