Sovereign of the Ashes

The city lord’s mansion in Berthold City suddenly buzzed with activity today after six months of silence.

Half a year ago, the city lord’s eldest son met a tragic fate in a skirmish with a neighboring territory. Devastated by this tragic loss, the old city lord canceled a much-anticipated birthday celebration.

Yet today, the mansion suddenly lit up. Speculation was rife—perhaps one of the city lord’s wives was expecting once more.

Upon visiting the city lord’s mansion, Sein was reunited with the corpulent baron after twenty years.

While Sein remained youthful and handsome as he used to be, the city lord had aged considerably.

Although the city lord was still a big man, he was now sagging under the weight of his opulent robes, giving him a decidedly more decrepit appearance.

Sein did not go out of his way to meet the city lord. Berthold City was on his route, so he decided to stop by for a visit.

“Where’s Frank? Why isn’t he around?” Sein casually asked.

“Frank had passed away seven years ago, but his family is still in this city and they’re doing very well. Would you like to meet them?” the city lord asked respectfully.

Sein had always regarded the city lord as a sincere man. True to form, despite Frank’s death, his descendants were likely well taken care of by the city lord.

The only thing Sein wondered was whether any new magic initiates had emerged from Frank’s lineage.

However, Sein shook his head in response to the city lord’s question. He had no desire to connect with unfamiliar faces.

Apart from Frank, Sein also inquired about a few old acquaintances.

He still remembered the magic initiates with whom he once met during a trade fair.

The city lord provided updates where he could, but some others had drifted beyond his knowledge. After all, nobles like him and those mages were from two different worlds.

The city lord mentioned Mary, a senior initiate with whom Sein had a one-night stand in the past. She had ventured south with three other magic initiates from neighboring areas.

He knew of this because Mary had invited Frank before they departed, but Old Frank declined their invitation.

Not everyone was keen to journey south, and Frank was already quite advanced in age. In the end, he was laid to rest in his homeland.

“It’s been twenty-eight years, huh?” Sein mused aloud, a sigh escaping him.

When he had first arrived in Berthold City, he was but a senior initiate.

Now that he was back after nearly three decades, so much had changed.

***

Sein’s visit to Berthold City was brief, lasting only half a day. Before his departure, he presented the city lord with a disposable Flame Arrow.

It was a parting gift from him as this was probably the last time they would see each other. Activating the Flame Arrow could deal damage on par with a quasi-ranked spell.

The recent loss of the city lord’s eldest son had come to Sein’s ears, but such were common occurrences in Gloomhaven.

Known for its lawlessness and situated at the confluence of several major powers, Gloomhaven had long been an epitome of anarchy, with no established order to speak of.

Violence and death were the norm there.

Unlike the border conflicts seen in places like the Lysian Alliance, which were orchestrated by ranked knights from the orders of the knights, the turmoil within Gloomhaven was unadulterated chaos—unguided and overlooked by all.

No one knew how long chaos would prevail in that region.

Sein found no sign of any orders of the knights or divine towers in the vicinity either.

The nearest divine tower to Gloomhaven was the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring, which lay far to the north.

The southern coast’s reputed richness and fertility were still a distant journey away.

For magic initiates, reaching this rumored place was fraught with uncertainty, but for Sein, a Rank One mage, such a journey presented no significant challenge.

His magic map indicated a three-month journey at full speed to reach the southern coast of Magus World.

Half a month after leaving Berthold City, Sein landed on an ordinary hill amid vast plains, scarcely populated by humans or magic beasts.

At the foot of the hill, only common animals and birds were seen gathering by the river to quench their thirst.

Atop this hill, Sein discovered the entrance to a deep cave with a low ceiling. It seemed unlikely that anyone would explore such an uninteresting cave.

Nevertheless, after pacing around outside for a short while, Sein decided to venture inside.

He remembered that the tunnels inside the cave were complex because he was also blindly exploring its depths back then.

After a few days of navigating through the cave, he eventually encountered a passageway blocked by igneous rocks.

This underground passage, obstructed by igneous rocks, was likely one of the many formed during the eruption of magma back then.

However, it might not be the same one Sein had traversed previously, as it did not seem familiar to him.

Although Rank One mages possessed power far beyond that of ordinary people, Sein could not possibly excavate the rocks, much less uncover Mystralora City, which had been engulfed by lava.

Sein lingered at the lava-hardened passage for a long while before letting out a sigh and departing.

However, he did not leave empty-handed. He extracted a piece of blue moss from the cavern’s wall as a keepsake.

***

After spending a few days revisiting the area he had been in the past, Sein resumed his journey southward.

This time, Sein did not take any detours and hastened his pace beyond his usual speed.

What was initially a three-month journey to the southern coast of the Magus World was shortened to two. His first destination was a bustling major human city known as “Jasmine City”.

The southern coast presented a stark contrast to the human cities Sein had previously encountered.

Even the city’s name was a departure from the convention of naming cities after local nobility, which was a practice prevalent north of Gloomhaven.

The name “Jasmine City” was derived from the “Bright Jasmine Fields” in the northeastern part of this city.

Bright Jasmine was a low-grade botanical harvested by humans. It was a useful material for mages, a good beverage ingredient for the knights, and a luxurious indulgence for nobles in the region.

Although Jasmine City was regarded as part of the southern coast, it was more like an inland city that sadly did not offer views of the sea.

The southern coast was bigger than Sein’s expectations. He would need to fly for nearly two more months from Jasmine City to reach the Boundless South Sea.