Ivor looked at the assembled mages. They were all the key ones, those who were above level five. There were barely a handful, and these assembled ones included both the healers and the mages, so only a few amidst these handful were truly attached to the palace and perhaps Winston, their leader. Winston was also present. He was a level seven light mage with immense experience, after all, despite how he seemed. Even if his fighting prowess would be undoubtedly abysmal since he specialized in healing.

Being the new king, he made sure to maintain a kind but regal expression. Not that he needed to, since what he was about to say would make sure that these mages would be loyal to him.

“I’m tripling your research funds.”

The mages blinked. Then their eyes widened.

—

Ivor looked at the assembled royal knights, all the key ones, those who were commanders and people with great sway amidst the knights. There were barely a handful, and all of them were graying, yet bulky and strong. They had stern but definitely not unkind expressions. Perhaps it was the same for them whoever the king was, as long as they could serve the kingdom with honor.

But at the end of the day, they were humans too.

“I’m doubling all of your salaries.”

The royal knights blinked. And then they gasped.

—

The nobles had rushed to meet him in a matter of days. Those close to the capital had arrived to meet him on the exact same day that he’d killed the king, in fact. However, there was a major difference in behavior depending on if they’d been neutral previously or aligned with the first prince or second prince.

If they’d been neutral previously, they simply swore their loyalty to him and poured praises on him, saying he would be a kind and just king.

Those who had been aligned with the first or second prince previously, however, had a far more humble attitude. All of them basically said the same thing, except in noble code with lots of layers on top:

We’ll serve you loyally and give you lots of gold, please be nice to us?

Ivor naturally didn’t mind acting kind and nice to them. He wasn’t a tyrant, unlike his father. And his expenses did increase drastically, so naturally, he accepted all of their thinly veiled gold offerings with glee. He’d squeeze them dry, he would, and they’d appreciate it, since he could outright kill them. That’s what his father had done during his ascension.

He had killed all the nobles supporting his brothers and sisters and simply plopped the relatives of the nobles loyal to him in their places.

Nobles were but glorified gold storages in Elen. The most powerful was the royal family, and the one amongst the royal family who could ascend to the throne was the best of the best.

And Ivor?

He was simply outrageous, straight out of the legends, with his dual attribute mana that made him an absolute powerhouse.

The thing about level seven mages who used other elements was that they weren’t sturdy. True, they could cause immense amounts of damage, but their body would eventually wear down due to the strain. Iif they were facing a group of level seven mages, a group with a level seven healer amidst them…

Well, they were fucked.

They most certainly would die, unless they have a group supporting them.

The thing about level seven healers or light mana specializers was that they were very sturdy but could cause far less damage. So while they were very good supportive mages, being practically integral to keep around, they could not take on a level seven mage specializing in fire or dark and survive.

But a dual mage?

A mage who could use both efficiently?

He was practically the same as a group of level seven mages. He was both sturdy and incredibly destructive. Even kingdoms wouldn’t dare casually challenge him, let alone nobles.

That was why Ivor was distributing gold so freely. If he ran out of gold in the treasury, he could squeeze the nobles, waiting for the treasury to refill. The treasury will refill because of taxes, which he could increase whenever he wanted… Of course, he’ll relax it for a bit to make the commoners more receptive to him before making up some reason and increasing it, but this way, he could practically pour gold out without inhibitions.

But one noble Ivor hadn’t been expecting would meet him without any resistance was the northern duke. His sister had been killed by Ivor, after all. Ivor had definitely been expecting the northern duke to resist, if not revolt, to at least make some perfunctory protests.

Perhaps that was why Ivor couldn’t help but ask the northern duke, the red haired man bowing deeply in front of him, “Do you not hold a grudge, duke?”

The duke lifted his head—his eyes were red too—and tilted his head curiously. “A grudge, Your Majesty? Why would I?”

“I killed your eldest sister?” Ivor asked rather straightforwardly. No point beating around the bushes.

The duke sighed at Ivor’s words but nodded. “You did indeed, Your Majesty. However, I heard it was a swift beheading, so I hope she did not go through too much pain.” And then he didn’t say anything, looking at Ivor stably.

“That’s it? You’re not angry? You don’t hate me?”

“No, Your Majesty,” the duke said. “Your mother died in part due to my sister. I cannot expect you to show mercy to her, nor her son. And… this is only to be expected during the ascension of a king. While I would have preferred that she lived and her son had thrived, what’s done is done. What would I gain by bearing a grudge against you, Your Majesty? I would gain death. My siblings would gain death. My children would gain death. My territory would see bloodshed.”

Ivor raised his eyebrows, leaning back into the throne. Indeed, that made sense. The northern duke was known to be a good ruler. And one could not be a good ruler without a good dose of practicality.

“In fact, Your Majesty, the fact you are even talking to me instead of beheading me on the spot indicates that you are a far better ruler than your father, the late king,” the duke further continued on, laying his praise a bit thick. “I, of course, am more than willing to offer both my undying loyalty and support.”

“Your loyalty will only stay undying until I haven’t died, hm?” Ivor couldn’t help but ask. The man must have said the exact same thing to his father once upon a time, after all.

The northern duke bowed low at his words. “I believe you have a lifespan that overshadows mine, Your Majesty.”

What a flatterer. Ivor grinned. He kind of liked this man. Not that that’ll stop him from squeezing the duke dry. But he didn’t care much. The duke’s punishment was lenient already.

“You are one hell of a person, duke,” Ivor muttered.

“Thank you, Your Majesty,” the northern duke replied, perfectly in sync.

—

James yawned and lounged back into his chair, staring at the sun peacefully from the plot of land inside his shop. This had become his daily routine at this point. Sit in his chair, grab a novel, stare at the novel for a bit, and then stare at the sun for a bit.

Sadly, this time too, the shop had teleported to the weirdest of locations. They were in the middle of an endless desert, not a single speck of human presence anywhere close by. Then again, James couldn’t exactly deny that this was a better place than the mountains. At least he could run endlessly through the desert if he wanted to. And it wasn’t like he couldn’t teleport if he wanted to.

But where would he teleport to, really? He didn’t know anyone in this world and didn’t have any desire to sightsee it. He could probably call Archaniel, but James wanted to wait at least a hundred days passed so that he wouldn’t be bothering him too excessively and so that he could get to know Archaniel’s entire day’s events at once. Surely a day would be enough for Archaniel to meet his sister so he could get to know how she was doing too.

She probably wouldn’t be doing well, but with Archaniel’s help, hopefully she’d do better.

A few minutes passed before James stared at his novel again.

Then he yawned once more.

—

Archaniel stared at the house in front of him with squinted eyes. This was where James’ sister should be, according to the shop. Stingy shop, charging so much even to just find James’ sister's location.

It was a two story house, remarkably like the shop except with better colors, tucked away in an alleyway.

Archaniel rang the doorbell, and there was no response. He waited for a solid minute, but there was no response at all.

Blinking, Archaniel rang the doorbell again. A minute later, the door was opened. Hesitantly, oh-so very hesitantly. Opened not even widely enough for his foot to fit through. A voice was the only thing he heard. The person who opened the door didn’t even dare show their face.

“Who is it?”

“I’m James’ friend,” Archaniel called out.

“Who?”

“A coworker of his. I heard what happened to him… Truly terrible. He had mentioned his ill sister once to me… You must be his sister.”

This seemed to convince her that he was somewhat trustworthy. Her brother wouldn’t just mention her and her being ill to some random acquaintance. She opened the door ever-so slightly more. Which was foolish of her, in Archaniel’s opinion. There were many ways Archaniel could have obtained this information. She couldn’t trust him so easily. But she was a young, ill girl, so he let her mistake slide.

Out peeked a pale girl. Black eyes, black hair… She looked just like James had before he changed his appearance. She questioned lightly, “What are you here for?”

“I’ve come here to…” Archaniel pondered for a reasonable excuse.

Once he was inside the house, he could tell her the whole thing. How James hadn’t fully died and was living in another world, and he could take her to the shop once it left Iastlan. That was the funny thing about the soul administrators’ restrictions.

They wouldn’t let a living soul from one world teleport to another world. They had pretty strict safeguards for that, but they had no safeguards for a living soul simply teleporting to ‘nowhere’.

Perhaps it was because ‘nowhere’ was beyond the region they governed, but it worked out well for them. ‘Nowhere’ was where the shop existed once it left a world, after all.

“...deliver his belongings.” He decided that was the most reasonable excuse, especially if he was a coworker. And hey, he was technically a coworker. Ex-coworker. Close enough.

“Oh.” The girl paused for a solid few seconds. “Please, come in.”

Archaniel stepped inside and took in the house’s interior. It was rather cramped but cozy. He found it very interesting, since this was where his junior had once lived. The door closed behind him, and Archaniel turned towards the source of the noise, only to be pepper sprayed in the face.

He stumbled back, screaming since his eyes burned, when he heard James’ sister scream, “Where’s his belongings?! You’re empty handed?!”

She leapt at him.

Archaniel fell down before feeling a sharp sense of pain spread through his stomach again and again and… Was he being stabbed?! 

He pushed away the girl, which was surprisingly easy since she was both thin and ill and barely weighed a thing. But that did not seem to dissuade her as she screamed and ran at him again, and Archaniel instinctively screamed, “Shop, use my soul energy reserves to chain this girl!”

Two golden chains materialized in the air, made purely with soul energy, and wrapped themselves around James’ sister, holding her back as she growled and tried to escape like a rabid creature.

“Shop, heal me!” And immediately both the burning of his eyes and the pain in his stomach disappeared, helping him recover enough that he was able to stand up and look at the girl properly with shock in his eyes. The girl too had seemed to calm down after she saw his skin join together and blood vanish in real time.

What in god’s name had just happened?! Archaniel screamed in his mind as he backed away from James’ rabid sister. James was so nice and kind and docile. Why was his sister so crazy?!

Well, even Archaniel could guess that it was because of the trauma of her brother dying by getting stabbed to death. Which… goddamn, how dumb of him. He’d taken his spatial storage as something granted and accepted, forgetting that the people of this world probably didn’t even know such a concept existed. Of course James’ sister was going to get scared and think he was some sort of creep!

“O-okay, listen,” he said in a hurried attempt to soothe the girl, who was temporarily looking at the golden chains hanging midair and Archaniel with shock and confusion. “I’m actually genuinely your brother’s ex-coworker, except not on Earth. You see, after your brother died, he was recruited by an entity known as the shop and is currently alive and well in another world. He sent me to help you, heal you, and assist you until I can eventually reunite you with him.”

The girl blinked, looking at Archaniel with hollow eyes. Then, she replied, “Oh. I see.”