After settling the matter of joining Ashenreach, Gin hurried back to his territory to gather his men and pack up his belongings.

This pyro-attribute knight was clearly an impatient man.

He had not even properly surveyed possible locations for his knightly order’s future main hall in Ashenreach, let alone made any plans for where the branch halls would be built.

His sister Gina, on the other hand, remained remarkably calm.

After meeting with Sein, Gina took the initiative to seek out Marie, the dean of his divine tower academy.

Although the Divine Tower of Ashes had several demigod-level vice deans, most of them were little more than figureheads. In practice, nearly all matters, great and small, were handled by Marie alone.

Tower Master Sein was not someone a person could casually request an audience with.

Because of that, building a good relationship with Marie was especially important.

Gina’s new position as vice dean also gave her the perfect opportunity to approach Marie and get closer to her.

Although Gina had never served as vice dean of a divine tower academy before, she had long helped her brother manage his knightly order. That wealth of administrative experience left a strong impression on Marie not long after they met.

“The other vice deans are hardly ever around, and I’ve been managing most of the divine tower’s affairs on my own all this time. Now that you are here, Master Gina, my burden will finally be a little lighter,” Marie said with a cheerful smile.

Although Marie was still only Rank Three and had yet to step into the demigod realm, Gina did not dare look down on her in the slightest.

She knew very well that Marie was one of the people Sein trusted most. So Gina immediately said, “If there is ever anything you need me to do in the future, just let me know, Master Marie.”

“And when we have the time, perhaps we can also discuss magic together and improve ourselves. Surely the Divine Tower of Ashes holds magic salons for mages of different ranks?” she asked.

“Yes, but I rarely attend. I’m always buried in work,” Marie replied with a helpless smile.

“I’ll do my best to share more of your burden, Master Marie. Growing the divine tower is certainly important, but you shouldn’t neglect your own pursuit of truth either,” Gina said earnestly.

Marie nodded. It seemed she had long been thinking the same thing.

***

After Sein returned from Steel City, construction across Ashenreach entered another feverish phase.

Gin moved quickly. In less than five years, he had leased a large fleet of airships and transported most of his knightly order’s assets to Ashenreach.

Naturally, most of those airships came from the Divine Tower of Ashes. Thanks to Gina’s good relationship with Marie, the siblings were able to secure them at a special internal rate.

Now that the Order of the Crimson Sword had firmly aligned itself with the Divine Tower of Ashes, Marie understood Sein’s stance on the matter and naturally extended every possible convenience to the siblings.

In the end, the main hall of the knightly order was established at a planar node east of the Divine Tower of Ashes.

At the same time, the order was officially renamed the Order of Crimson Knights, which seemed to reflect Gin’s desire to make a fresh start.

Gin had intentionally established his knightly order in the east to avoid direct competition with Sia’s Order of the Flame Demon in the south.

His personal finances were in poor shape. He was burdened with more than ten million magicoins in loans, and this relocation added several hundred thousand more to his debt.

What surprised Sein was that Gin actually owned a space fortress!

It was a secondhand standard model with a worn and battered exterior, nothing like the heavy-duty fortresses owned by Sein, Reina, and Sia.

Gin had purchased this secondhand space fortress for two million magicoins from a market run by the Capiche Business Alliance.

To be more exact, it was already a fourth-hand fortress that had originally been meant for sale within the Magus Alliance. But when Gin showed interest, the seller had let it go to him at a relatively low price.

Using that space fortress as a foundation, Gin brought a total of 5,017 low-ranking knights with him to Ashenreach to establish the knightly order.

Although the number matched what he and his sister had promised Sein beforehand, it still fell short of their own expectations.

Gin had originally believed that more than six thousand lower-ranking knights would be willing to follow him to Ashenreach and help him build a new foundation there.

Unexpectedly, the final number had only just passed the minimum figure he had promised Master Sein.

That, however, was perfectly normal. More often than not, people chose reality over idealism.

In truth, the arrival of over five thousand knights had already exceeded Sein’s expectations.

He had originally thought that bringing around three thousand ranked knights to Ashenreach would already be an impressive achievement for Gin.

Gin’s performance in this matter also proved how much prestige he held among the lower-ranking knights. So many of them had been willing to trust him and follow him here.

The arrival of these new ranked knights from the Order of the Crimson Sword greatly boosted the overall strength and prosperity of Ashenreach’s knightly forces.

And behind every ranked knight was a knight house, each one made up of anywhere from dozens to hundreds of members.

As those knight houses took root in Ashenreach, their influence would prove deep and far-reaching.

***

After Ashenreach’s construction entered a stable phase, Sein paid little further attention to it.

Once he returned to the Divine Tower of Ashes, his focus shifted almost entirely back to his various magic experiments. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

Mikaeli remained as stubborn as ever. No matter how Sein tormented her, she endured it all.

Even during Sein and Leena’s intimate moments, Mikaeli gradually went from cursing and resisting at first to falling completely silent.

If not for the magic chains on Leena’s skin constantly reminding him of her presence, Sein might have thought Mikaeli had all but disappeared into Leena’s soul, as she rarely showed herself anymore.

Although the progress of his soul experiments on Mikaeli had stagnated, Sein’s research in other fields continued to produce frequent breakthroughs over the following years.

The Rank Six Apocalypse World creature Sein had acquired, together with the Apocalypse Potions he developed from it, elevated his body-tempering results far beyond anything he had achieved before.

In terms of physical constitution alone, Sein was now nearly on par with a mid-stage Rank Five knight.

The Apocalypse Potion had still not reached the limit of what it could do for him. This potion could continue to strengthen his body at least until he reached the peak of Rank Five.

As a result of his body-tempering progress and the significant increase in his constitution, even Sein’s Ashen Demon lawful body had begun to show subtle changes.

His demonic physique had become bulkier and more imposing, and even his demonic wings had grown broader than before.

With a weapon in hand, he now gave off a strange blend of raw, primal power and calm intelligence after activating that form.

With his body tempering advancing yet again, Sein could not help wondering when he should challenge Master Gregory to a test of strength.