Sovereign of the Ashes

Ghur’s friendliness and hospitality were not shaped by his nature as a knight. Instead, they were deeply rooted in his family’s values and environment.

House Jobbs had members who cultivated battle qi or specialized in magic, but they were neither a traditional knight house nor an ancient magic family.

Instead, they were fundamentally a business-oriented family, driven by profit, with their development steered by financial gain.

Ghur’s enthusiasm for Sein was partly because they were peers of the same rank.

In the Magus World, Rank One creatures were not considered powerful. Nevertheless, Sein was highly valued by House Jobbs for his status as a Knight Continent’s trialist, his considerable potential, and his significant background.

This value was reflected in Ghur’s gifts to Sein, which were not acts of personal generosity but investments by House Jobbs.

Governed by members as powerful as demigod-level experts and a deeply entrenched value system, House Jobbs saw merit in investing in promising Rank One mages like Sein, anticipating that today’s “small favors” could pave the way to future alliances with Rank Three or higher grand mages.

As an ancient family that had thrived on the East Coast for over twenty thousand years, House Jobbs followed a distinctive development philosophy.

In his interactions with Ghur, Sein quickly realized that the initial warmth and familiarity were merely facades.

Despite being a friendly knight, Ghur was not overly sentimental or passionate.

As they made their way to Ghur’s private manor, Ghur placed a hand on his chest armor and let out a long sigh of relief.

He was not fond of pretense, but sometimes it was necessary given his position.

“Heh, that was my second uncle back there. He may be a mage but he’s a real stick-in-the-mud. I thought you were a boring person back in the Knight Continent, but my second uncle is worse,” Ghur said, shaking his head.

The person Ghur referred to was a Rank Two mage who had been the first to receive Sein upon his arrival at House Jobbs’ castle.

Throughout the entire time, Sein did not manage to converse with him.

He only knew that the mage’s last name was Jobbs, yet Sein had not realized how closely he was related to Ghur.

House Jobbs had expanded its influence across several human cities on the East Coast, including two exceptionally prosperous megacities with floating ports.

Financially, House Jobbs was likely better off than Lorianne who had constructed the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring.

Hence, it was wise not to underestimate anyone.

Ghur’s presence in the Knight Continent as a trialist indicated that his family’s background was far from simple.

Although Ghur had appeared overly enthusiastic earlier, he was still more talkative than Sein.

Most of the time, Ghur led the conversation, with Sein merely nodding and agreeing with a few sentences, seldom voicing his own thoughts.

As they neared Ghur’s manor, the late-stage Rank One knight confessed with a grimace, “When I was in the Knight Continent trial zone, I had been so intent on searching for a legacy secret realm that I neglected to collect a few resources my family had requested.”

“Sein, can you help me? If you have those resources, House Jobbs is even willing to pay a premium for them. I guarantee you’ll be satisfied with our offer!” Ghur looked at Sein with hopeful eyes.

So, that was the crux of the matter.

Sein did not immediately respond to Ghur’s request; instead, he asked which specific resources Ghur needed.

After hearing Ghur’s list, Sein felt a wave of relief and nodded in agreement.

The resources Ghur needed were specialties of the Knight Continent—common there, but nearly impossible to cultivate in the outside world.

Fortunately, Sein had collected many such specimens and was willing to share some with Ghur and House Jobbs.

Ghur visibly relaxed upon receiving Sein’s agreement.

He patted Sein’s shoulder, his joy more genuine than before.

“I’ve got gifts for you that you’re going to love. There’s one in particular—I really wanted it for myself, but the family insisted it go to you. You’re really lucky,” Ghur teased Sein with a wink.

Indeed, the gift House Jobbs had prepared for Sein was a lavish one; enough to excite even Rank Two mages.

The list of items was so long that Sein had to spend some time to read it all.

He even needed to use two space rings to carry the generous offering from House Jobbs.

And that did not even include the premium payments Sein would receive for the resources he was about to trade with House Jobbs.

House Jobbs understood well what mages like Sein required, and the gifts they prepared, though not containing rare materials, included unique local magic ingredients from the East Coast and otherworldly specialties obtained from allied planes.

Almost all of these materials were new to Sein; he had only heard of some or seen them in illustrations.

Therefore, it was no surprise that Sein was delighted with the gifts.

For now, House Jobbs was not rushing the trade details with Sein.

They had already appointed a representative to handle the specifics, which extended beyond the items Ghur had mentioned.

Sein wondered how many rare materials from the Knight Continent’s trial zone he could trade with House Jobbs.

While Ghur could wield battle qi skillfully, his ability to gather materials was lacking, much to the frustration of those in charge of House Jobbs.

Had he not stumbled upon a hidden, small legacy secret realm by sheer luck, he would have returned virtually empty-handed, and House Jobbs might have considered reducing his resource allocation, which was currently the highest among the Rank One family members.

“What’s this about?” Sein asked, examining the gifts from House Jobbs and pointing to the fox girl before him.

She was a delicate-looking young woman, standing 1.6 meters with a pale golden fox tail and two delicate ears that twitched slightly—clearly not a creature native to the Magus World.

“Oh, this is a fox maiden from the Beastmen World! Isn’t she lovely?” Ghur replied.

“In case you didn’t know, fox women from the Beastmen World are highly sought after in our Magus World. Their beauty rivals that of elves and mermaids. Fox maidens are especially valuable due to their special innate powers. What makes this one even more extraordinary is that she is a shaman priestess, though she’s only a novice Wind Whisperer,” he explained.

Ghur spoke with surprising eloquence, revealing a depth of knowledge more typical of learned mages like Sein than of a knight.

His familiarity with fox women from the Beastman Tribe was a result of personal interest.

Moreover, Sein inferred from Ghur’s comments that House Jobbs, a powerful business-oriented family, was not only involved in traditional resource trading but also excelled in the slave creature market on the East Coast.

House Jobbs maintained cooperative ties with several planes in the Magus Alliance known for their extensive slave creature exports.

The Beastmen World was House Jobbs’ most significant partner in this trade.

Their years of close, long-term collaboration with a particular sovereign from the Beastmen World had enabled House Jobbs to acquire a fox maiden—a high-grade commodity.

Remarkably, this fox maiden was also a priestess, a unique profession in Beastmen World, equivalent to the mages of the Magus World.

It was uncertain whether the sovereign was too bold or if House Jobbs was simply so shrewd that they could even trade beastmen priests or priestesses as slaves.

The Beastmen World was a large plane where gods and overlords held sway. It was also an important member of the Magus Alliance with a rich legacy.

No matter how powerful the sovereign might be, it would be incinerated by the divine fire within the beastmen temple if it were discovered to be involved in the trading of priests and priestesses.

While the laws of the divine towers and the orders of the knights were effectively enforced within the Magus World, the divine laws imposed by the beastmen gods in the Beastmen World might not be as rigorously upheld.

This was deeply tied to the complex development history of the Beastmen World and the conflicts among various beastmen gods.

The trade of native creatures in the Beastmen World was legally sanctioned and represented a major export, generating substantial magicoins for the Magus Alliance each year.

However, the act of selling fellow kins as commodities was likely a practice only adopted by a race and civilization as foolish as the Beastmen World.

Of course, the knights and mages of the Magus World with vested interests in the situation chose to remain silent.