Chapter Summaries

Reunion’s defensive battle against the Third Army Group shifted into an assault after Talula ordered Viscount Kerk’s assassination, and Orson disabled the army’s heavy artillery to create an opening. Elsewhere, FrostNova was trapped in a mine and nearly executed by an Imperial Guard, but Orson reached her and attacked it.

• Talula ordered FrostNova, Patriot, and Orson to attack Viscount Kerk’s command post after the mission changed, and Patriot’s Shield Guards withstood the Third Army Group’s opening barrage.
• Kerk dismissed warnings about Patriot and FrostNova, then ordered heavy artillery to fire on Reunion despite the danger to his own soldiers.
• Orson stopped the artillery from firing, sabotaged it into an explosion, and silently signaled FrostNova that Reunion should launch an all-out attack.
• FrostNova recalled being trapped in a mine ambush where explosives killed most of her Abyssal Hunters, and an Imperial Guard prepared to execute her.
• Orson broke into the room, fought the Imperial Guard, disrupted its mist, and stabbed it in the head.

Orson and FrostNova helped Reunion defeat the Ursus army group, with Orson’s silence and Curtain Call disrupting the enemy while Patriot led the assault. Patriot then hurled Orson into Viscount Kerk’s command tent, where Orson confronted him, as Duke Baikal spoke with a hidden figure elsewhere.

• Orson protected FrostNova from the Internal Guard’s final attack, and Ino later saved his life at the cost of leaving him unable to speak.
• FrostNova learned to understand Orson’s lip movements and relayed his orders during the battle near the Chernobog wilderness.
• Orson used Curtain Call to disrupt the Ursus army group’s Originium Arts while Patriot and the Abyssal Hunters broke through its defenses.
• Viscount Kerk’s soldiers questioned his orders, and Kerk claimed Chernobog had betrayed Ursus before refusing to retreat.
• Patriot carried out Protocol Three by throwing Orson into Kerk’s command tent, where Orson stepped out and greeted the vice commander.
• Duke Baikal chatted with a person hidden in the shadows inside a villa on his territory.

Talula infiltrated Grand Duke Baikal’s villa and defeated the Emperor’s Guard with a hand cannon before heading for Chernobyl’s command tower. Baikal fled there, but W had already killed Garson and won over the surviving Sarkaz mercenaries.

• Baikal dismissed reports of nobles supporting the Rostov family and insisted his plan to provoke war would succeed, until Talula confronted him in his villa.
• JunJun infiltrated the villa while Alina guided her through the surveillance system, clearing Talula’s route without raising alarms.
• Talula attacked Baikal, but an Emperor’s Guard blocked her flames; she then used Orson’s single-shot Dragon Strike Gun to kill the Guard and headed for the command tower.
• Baikal fled toward the command tower after discovering Reunion had tied down his forces, and he ordered Garson to activate Chernobyl.
• W answered Baikal’s radio call and told him Garson was dead, then persuaded the surviving Sarkaz mercenaries to follow her and seek names of their own.

Orson’s improvised claims helped turn the Third Army Group against Viscount Kerk, while Talula defeated Grand Duke Baikal and ended the rebellion. The city celebrated the victory, but Hegre warned Lumen that the upheaval was only beginning, and Orson ended up captured and badly injured.

• Grand Duke Baikal ordered Viscount Kerk to send troops and find Misha, but Orson killed Kerk and persuaded the Third Army Group’s soldiers that their commander and Baikal were traitors.
• Talula confronted Baikal atop the command tower, defeated him, and severed his hands rather than kill him before his trial.
• Lumen announced that the rebellion had been thwarted as Chernobyl’s fighting stopped and the survivors tended to the wounded.
• Hegre told Lumen that the rebellion’s consequences could spread beyond Chernobyl, then credited Nayin’s insistence with bringing him into the conflict.
• The Third Army Group’s soldiers arrested Orson, who later lay bandaged in a hospital ward as someone offered him Yan Country-style rice porridge.

After recovering from his injuries, Orson escaped the people trying to care for him while Kazimierz City struggled with the aftermath of Boris’s death and the infected’s uncertain future. At a meeting to choose a new City Lord, Lumen accepted the position, then used her authority to claim Orson for the day.

• Orson endured overbearing attempts to feed and entertain him in the hospital, then fled when he was discharged because he distrusted everyone’s medical skills.
• The chapter described Kazimierz City’s uneasy aftermath: Boris was dead, the city could not shelter all the infected, and public attitudes toward them had only begun to shift.
• Lumen’s Father arranged trade routes and repairs for Northern Territory villages, while the Emperor quietly refrained from condemning Reunion’s actions.
• Talula called a meeting to settle who would become City Lord of Kazimierz City, but Reunion’s leaders avoided the responsibility and Lumen’s Father was away.
• Talula explained that she would not take the office because it would bind Reunion to Ursus, and she persuaded Lumen to accept the position.
• After signing the appointment, Lumen ordered Orson to belong to her for the entire day.

Lumen took Orson on a tour of Kazimierz City’s recovering districts, where he reunited with Bear Squad and learned how Peterheim Middle School was changing. The chapter then revealed Ino performing on a commercial street and recalled Orson helping him confront his guilt over past violence.

• Lumen dragged Orson from the Rostov villa and asked him to serve as her guard while she inspected areas affected by the Kazimierz City Incident.
• At Peterheim Middle School, Lumiere chased and beat Orson for disappearing, then Bear Squad reunited over Gummy’s meal and heard that Lumen had become mayor and Orson was nearly twenty.
• Lumen told Orson that Peterheim planned to place noble and ordinary students in the same classes, and they left as winter began to give way to spring.
• Orson and Lumen found Ino performing onstage for a lively crowd in the repaired commercial district.
• In a past conversation, Ino told Orson he felt happy after killing someone who had bullied him and causing Sasha to become Infected.
• Orson acknowledged Ino’s feelings but told him that taking pleasure in killing was wrong and that he should seek other ways to solve problems when he had the strength.

Orson encouraged Ino to seek peace by saving lives, and Ino became a medical worker and a wildly popular singer known as Angel. As Orson prepared to leave Chernobyl with the Reunion Movement, Lumen promised to find him again after she made the city safe and its people smile.

• Orson comforted Ino and urged him to use his power to save others, while promising that he and Sasha would stay by him as he chose his path.
• Ino began learning first aid and found purpose after saving an infected warrior, then decided he wanted to sing onstage.
• A video of Ino rescuing injured civilians went viral, and he quickly became Chernobyl's popular idol Angel while Sasha helped run his show.
• Ino told the audience that he loved Orson most, prompting his fans to arm themselves and chase Orson and Lumen from the venue.
• Lumen asked Orson to stay in Chernobyl, but he explained that the Reunion Movement would eventually move on to other city-states.
• Lumen declared that she would work to protect Chernobyl and its people, then promised to find Orson after the city was safe as she embraced her role as its youngest City Lord.

Orson recruited W and JunJun into the Reunion Movement after sparring with them, then returned to the Rostov family's branch residence and considered how to contact Rhodes Island. Talula appeared before him as he sat outside at night.

• Orson met W at a condemned building, survived her bomb-filled ambush, and agreed that she and her mercenaries could join the Reunion Movement.
• W demolished the building with Orson still inside, but Orson protected himself with Rest Note and walked out of the rubble unharmed.
• JunJun challenged Orson from within a fog, but Rest Note found and captured her, and Orson explained why her Arts had failed.
• JunJun said she wanted to stay, and Orson welcomed her into the Reunion Movement.
• Orson chose not to recruit Skullshatterer because Misha and Alex were living with a foster family and were not fighters.
• Orson returned to the Rostov family's branch residence, pondered how to contact Rhodes Island, and heard Talula caution him against catching a chill.

Talula confessed her feelings to Orson after fearing she had lost him, and they spent the night together before FrostNova, Alina, and Lumen confronted him. The chapter then shifted to Rhodes Island members secretly infiltrating Chernobyl for an operation.

• Talula invited Orson to play chess, then confessed how terrified she had been when he collapsed and asked him to see her as a woman rather than as Reunion’s leader.
• Talula and Orson kissed and embraced, but she stopped him after realizing he had used tuning on himself; they then awkwardly agreed to proceed without it.
• The next morning, FrostNova, Alina, and Lumen questioned Orson about his burns while Talula appeared pleased with the night they had shared.
• A Rhodes Island scout reported that the area was clear, and the infiltrators began moving toward a hub in Chernobyl’s underground power district.

Rhodes Island operators entered Chernobyl’s underground core seeking the Doctor, but found the sarcophagus empty and clashed with Orson and his allies. Orson’s touch identified him as “Doctor Orson,” and he invited the wary group to meet with Chernobyl’s City Lord.

• Amiya, Nearl, and ACE reached Chernobyl’s sarcophagus without encountering resistance, where Kingslayer, FrostNova, and Orson confronted them.
• The sarcophagus opened to reveal it was empty, and the panicked Amiya attacked Orson’s group before Orson stopped the fight with Curtain Call.
• Orson touched the sarcophagus, which announced that genetic verification had passed and welcomed “Doctor Orson.”
• Amiya and Orson exchanged remarks about their heights, easing the tension enough for both groups to introduce themselves.
• Orson proposed moving elsewhere to talk, and after ACE rejected the invitation as potentially dangerous, Orson offered a meeting with Chernobyl’s City Lord.