Sovereign of the Ashes

Mayne did not return to White Sand World with Sein.

The two parted ways upon arriving at the star domain void near White Sand World.

Before leaving, Mayne reminded Sein not to forget the promise he had made.

Sein nodded in acknowledgment. Mayne then added that once he returned, he would help Sein get in touch with Void Aphid World.

When Sein arrived back in White Sand World, everything had pretty much settled down and returned to normal.

Sustainable development and construction efforts were already underway in several regions across the plane.

In addition to stable production of energy crystals and the harvesting of sandworm mucus, Sein had also secured at least two hundred thousand winged enslaved creatures to use as cannon fodder.

However, they still needed proper training.

If no other interplanar wars broke out in the near future, Sein planned to sell them through the Magus Alliance market to recover part of his expenses.

Going forward, White Sand World would serve as a reliable plane for Sein to source enslaved creatures.

Those well-established divine towers or knightly orders could so easily deploy elite enslaved creature legions numbering in the hundreds of thousands because they controlled numerous planes dedicated to producing them.

By the time Sein returned to White Sand World, Lorianne and Berecca were already discussing their departure from the plane.

Thinking of Mayne's request, Sein felt a headache coming on.

Seeing his mentor and Berecca chatting happily, he decided to bring up the matter with Lorianne in private.

Having Lorianne, who was also a woman, raise the topic would be better than him doing it himself.

What Sein did not expect was that Lorianne would be extremely enthusiastic about the matter. She even confidently assured him that she would take care of it.

Once Mayne fulfilled his end of the deal, the rewards from Void Aphid World would naturally include a share for her too.

As she left Sein's side, she looked full of confidence and ready to take action.

But not long afterward, she returned with a gloomy expression.

Berecca had outright rejected Lorianne's matchmaking attempt. In fact, the female knight had been even more upset than expected.

Without so much as a farewell to Sein or the others, she returned directly to Magus World aboard her space fortress.

"Am I in trouble?" Lorianne asked, looking genuinely confused.

She had only brought up Mayne in passing and casually asked Berecca for her opinion on the knight.

She could not understand why Berecca had reacted so strongly.

"It should be fine. We always apologize to her later," Sein said, just as puzzled.

Lorianne's confusion quickly shifted into anger, directed squarely at Sein.

She pinched his arm hard. "This is all your fault! You're the one who dragged me into this. If I really offended Berecca, how am I supposed to face Bernice in the future?!"

As Lorianne complained, she pinched him even harder.

Normally, her action would have been pointless against a body-tempering mage like Sein.

But the faint pulse of mana from her fingertips sent a wave of numbness through his arm.

Sein did not dare argue—even though it had clearly been his mentor who was so eager to try matchmaking in the first place. Somehow, all the blame had landed on him.

He put on a pained expression and grimaced dramatically, finally managing to calm her down a little.

"We've got to do something. Once we're back in Magus World, you're coming with me to the Divine Tower of Floating Flame! I'm going to tell Bernice that it was your idea to get me involved in this matchmaking nonsense!" Lorianne declared.

Hearing that, Sein suddenly had a dreadful thought that he might actually get beaten up by Bernice, who was also body-tempering expert.

Meanwhile, Berecca sat quietly aboard her vessel, gazing into the depths of the starry void on her way back to the Magus World.

Her eyes rested on a faint silver vortex glowing in the distance. She gritted her teeth and muttered under her breath, "I won't let you take Bernice away from me..."

In truth, Berecca had long suspected that Bernice held feelings for Lorianne, though she had never found solid proof.

Deep down, Berecca had always feared that she was just a substitute.

To be fair, Berecca and Lorianne did share some similarities.

Both had an innate affinity with the dendro elemental law, and both had long, vivid green hair.

But as a knight, Berecca was taller and far more physically imposing.

Lorianne, on the other hand, was shorter and carried a very different kind of presence.

Her unexpected visit last time had hit Berecca right where it hurt.

Berecca was not usually the kind to lose her cool so easily.

But now, sitting alone with her fists clenched tight, it was clear that even this Rank Four knight had troubles of her own.

***

There was not much left to do in White Sand World after that. Once the teleportation channel between this world and Magus World was established, Sein and Lorianne also set off on their return journey.

Although the immediate gains from the war in White Sand World had been significantly reduced, there was still a profit to be made overall.

The half-beastman legions and sea race legions that had been hired and recruited were all given satisfactory rewards, especially the former.

Sein even gifted Eugene a piece of solidified mucus produced by the Sandworm Queen.

Outside of Beastmen World, Sein unexpectedly ran into the Drunken Panda Immortal, who had just returned from his travels.

Once again, Tourmaline was sent by Sein to request for another blood sample from the Drunken Panda Immortal.

"Didn't I already get some for you last time?" Tourmaline asked.

"That wasn't even enough. It was all used up during the experiment a while ago. Please help me out again," Sein pleaded sincerely.

Tourmaline shuddered, perhaps remembering how Sein used to stick needles into her. She quickly nodded and said, "Fine, I will help you again... but only if you let me play with Sandy for a while."

"No problem! You can play with it as long as you like!" Sein agreed without hesitation.

Not just Lou, the half-undead girl—even Sandy was going to become Tourmaline's dedicated playmate.

Playing with Tourmaline was never boring. In fact, it came with many unexpected perks.

For example, Lou now wore all sorts of little accessories that even Sein had never seen before. They were all gifts from Tourmaline.

After a brief stop outside Beastmen World, Sein and the others resumed their journey back to Magus World.

The Maya Tribe also reaped considerable benefits from following Sein this time around.

As his enslaved creatures, Sein had always treated this group of centaurs well.

In addition to providing them with enough sandworm mucus from White Sand World to support the growth of their population, he also sponsored them with approximately five hundred thousand magicoins.

Sein had limited cash on hand, so this level of generosity made it clear that he had high hopes for the Maya Tribe.

With everything finally settled, Sein and his group returned to Magus World, bringing with them the wealth and resources they had plundered from White Sand World.