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[color=7ea7d8][h2]Evan Strauss[/h2][/color][i][h3]Strauss Workshop, Shinto[/h3][/i]
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Completing his work, he let out a deep exhale. His expression shattered, a mad grin splaying across his face as a laugh tore its way out of his throat. 

Yes. Yes. Yes. The final piece he'd been missing, he had a chance to obtain it now. 

The last step that preceded the creation of a new empire. 

It took some minutes before he managed to calm himself down, but when he finally had, it began. Using the tool he had exchanged for with that homunculus, he would reshape the world with his own hands. 

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[color=7ea7d8]"...'Lord Britain', I trust?"[/color]

"I am Pride, Envy, and Wrath. I am the Cerberus which guards enlightenment."

[color=7ea7d8]"...I...I'll take that a yes?"[/color]

Was that how he usually greeted people? 

It seemed like the stories about him had been at least partially true, after all. 

[color=7ea7d8]"You can call me 'Goldmember'. I was given your contact so I could reach out to you about a...business opportunity, I suppose you could say."[/color]

"Lord Britain is intrigued. Go on."

Wait, why had he suddenly switched to third-person-

[color=7ea7d8]"A few associates and I are in the process of designing a company for the supply and distribution of magical goods. There's been an unmet demand in that sector for centuries, and we're prepared to meet it. I have people working on methods for storage, distribution, the works. I'm sending you the documents and figures we have currently."[/color]

The infrastructure was something he'd been working on for the better part of his admittedly brief life, and the collaborators were all skilled in their own right. Magi several times more talented than Evan himself, certainly. However, a talented magus alone would not be a success, not in the way that Evan had envisioned it.

A group of magi in Scandinavia, working on an improved method of broom travel that was founded on tethering locations. 

A South American magus family that was in the process of perfecting a limited spatial quarantine. 

A partner who was in the final steps of negotiations to obtain a Contract of Atlas, for the aims of designing a database for management. 

The list went on.

They were not his allies or his friends. They would not aid him in this war. They were merely his business partners. Their roles were to perfect the systems that could be agglomerated into one. His role was to serve as their 'business sense', and just as importantly, to-

[color=7ea7d8]"The only thing we're missing is a starting inventory. I'm prepared to offer you ten percent stake in the company in exchange for three hundred million pounds sterling, which we'll use to obtain that very starting inventory. We're prepared to begin operations at the turn of the century, assuming that's met."[/color]

To a mundane businessman, the prospect of investing in a business that did not yet exist, had not obtained profits, and did not plan to begin operations for another decade was absurd. However, for magi it was a different matter, and for this magus in particular...

[color=7ea7d8]"Naturally, that stake will be freely exchangeable for items we obtain after we begin operations. Most specifically, ones from 'that' sector of legend."

"So, what'll it be?"[/color]

...And so it was, that the world forever changed.