Chapter Summaries

Roland toured Double Gate Island with Elizabeth, learning the vast strength and wealth of the Black Knight Pirates, and accepted the idea of making the island his future home. At their engagement ceremony, he faced the pirate factions gathered in Black Fortress and was captivated when Elizabeth entered with Dylan Fikernando.

• Roland refused to let Dylan Fikernando dictate his choices, then let Elizabeth show him around Double Gate Island.
• Elizabeth toured Roland through the Black Knight Pirates' military camp, Magical Beast Farm, and Weapons and Equipment Workshop, revealing the faction's immense resources and income.
• Roland agreed to make Double Gate Island his future home but withheld his knowledge of the Oroko Family's conspiracy.
• Roland dressed for the engagement ceremony and entered Black Fortress with Reff, who introduced him to the gathered pirate leaders as Elizabeth's fiancé.
• Roland noticed that many representatives, especially those from the Giant Pirate Groups, withheld their congratulations and regarded the engagement coldly.
• Dylan Fikernando entered the hall with Elizabeth, and Roland was captivated by her formal appearance.

After his engagement to Elizabeth, Roland learned that Plunder Month would begin next month and decided to return to his territory to profit by brewing potions for the Hidden Valley Clan. He left Double Gate Island after promising Elizabeth that he would marry her in one year.

• Roland and Elizabeth exchanged engagement rings, and Roland kissed her before the banquet began.
• Roland left the banquet and learned from Leslie that they could earn hundreds of thousands of gold coins by sending him to brew potions for the Hidden Valley Clan during Plunder Month.
• Roland decided to return to his territory immediately, despite Leslie warning him that leaving might upset Dylan Fikernando.
• Elizabeth reached the docks and confronted Roland about leaving on their engagement day.
• Roland explained that he wanted to pursue his own plans, promised to marry Elizabeth in one year, and sailed away from Double Gate Island.

Roland led his forces toward the Beastkin Empire, where the North Sea Fleet stopped and thoroughly inspected his ships before allowing them to continue. After reaching the coast at night, Roland ordered his fleet to dock in the Hidden Valley Clan’s territory.

• Roland brought the Bulwark Brigade, the Green-Haired Turtle Knight Brigade, and the Mage Regiment on the campaign to test his troops and answer the Human Alliance’s summons.
• Stefano of the North Sea Fleet intercepted Roland’s fleet and recognized Leslie, then explained that an inspection was required to protect the eastern coastal nobles’ smuggling route.
• Roland agreed to the inspection, and Stefano’s soldiers and mages searched the fleet and examined Roland’s and Leslie’s Spatial Rings for nearly two hours.
• After finding no contraband, Stefano departed, while Roland reassured Leslie that he would return to Heglan soon.
• Roland reached the Beastkin Empire’s coast after nightfall and ordered his warships to dock in the Hidden Valley Clan’s territory.

Roland and Leslie negotiated with Sanita of the Hidden Valley Clan to trade Roland’s high-level potions for materials, while Leslie sought support for his army during Plunder Month. Sanita welcomed Roland as a promising apothecary, then demanded an even lower price because the Orcs targeted by the army were her beloved compatriots.

• Sanita confronted Leslie about bringing warships and elite soldiers into Hidden Valley Clan territory, and Leslie introduced Roland as his lord and a rising apothecary.
• Roland told Sanita he could refine Level 9 Spirit Agility Potions and Elemental Rhythm Potions with a success rate near forty percent, prompting her to welcome him and accept the proposed trade.
• Leslie quoted a price of seven times the cost of the Magic Materials, but Roland explained that his exclusive contract left pricing authority with Leslie.
• Leslie offered to lower the price further if Sanita provided intelligence and shelter for his army during Plunder Month.
• Sanita reacted with hostility at the suggestion that the army would slaughter her compatriots, then said the price had to be lowered threefold because the Orcs were her beloved compatriots.

Leslie negotiated a price of ten thousand six hundred gold coins per Level 9 Magic Potion with Sanita, who also offered Roland a tribe of Earth Giants as payment. Roland accepted the Giants despite learning that their enormous appetites had strained the Hidden Valley Clan during the drought.

• Leslie resisted Sanita’s threats and negotiated the potion price down to ten thousand six hundred gold coins per bottle.
• Sanita asked Roland how he wanted to receive payment, and Roland said Magic Crystals, monster cores, or magic equipment would all be acceptable.
• Sanita offered Roland more than a hundred Earth Giants to join his command, and Roland was delighted by the prospect of strengthening his Bulwark Heavy Brigade.
• Roland questioned whether the offer would violate the Beastkin Empire’s alliance with the Giant Kingdom, and Sanita explained that the Giants had left because the drought made them too costly to feed.
• Roland accepted the Earth Giants as payment, despite the burden of providing food for them.

Roland and Leslie negotiated with Sanita for a five-year partnership in exchange for at least three hundred Earth Giants, and Roland began receiving the first recruits. After seeing the giants arrive, Roland promised to provide the Hidden Valley Clan with potions during each Plunder Month.

• Leslie persuaded Sanita to recruit at least three hundred Earth Giants by offering five years of exclusive potion deals, and Sanita agreed.
• Roland and Leslie planned how to house and feed the giants, with Leslie assuring Roland that food would be available.
• Roland brewed two Level 9 Spirit Agility Potions for Sanita, who brought him more than a hundred Earth Giants within three days.
• Roland inspected the wary, battle-scarred giants at the fortress training ground and imagined them strengthening his Bulwark Heavy Brigade.
• Roland promised Sanita that he would return during each Plunder Month for five years to brew potions for the Hidden Valley Clan.

Roland recruited three Earth Giant tribes for his territory by promising them food, protection, and equipment, though their enormous appetites far exceeded his expectations. After completing his potion exchange with Sanita, he declined her offer to stay with the Hidden Valley Clan and sailed home with a much stronger force.

• Roland promised Kailon and the Stone Giant Tribe food, weapons, armor, and rewards in exchange for their loyalty, and the tribe swore allegiance to him.
• The giants quickly devoured more than two tons of food, so Roland ordered more prepared; they ultimately ate seven or eight tons before he sent most of them to his territory.
• Over the following month, Sanita brought Roland two more Earth Giant tribes, and he arranged transport for them while postponing his plans to test the Bulwark Brigade in battle.
• Roland traded seventy-two level-nine Spirit Agility Potions for more than three hundred Earth Giants, including three leaders as strong as top-tier Earth Warriors.
• Sanita invited Roland to remain with the Hidden Valley Clan, but he explained that his friends, people, and fiancée were in the Azure Sea Region and boarded a warship to return home.

After returning to Ironflow Island, Roland welcomed the Earth Giants and insisted they would be treated as equals in his territory. He presented them with enormous weapons and armor, and Rugg tried on the equipment, leaving the onlookers awed by his strength.

• Roland returned to Ironflow Island, where officials congratulated him for subduing the Earth Giants, and he corrected them by saying the Giants had chosen to join him.
• Roland promised the Earth Giants equal treatment and visited their camp, where he questioned James about the slow construction of their houses.
• Kailon and the other chiefs asked to build their own houses, and Roland agreed while promising to provide anything they needed.
• Roland inspected the Giants’ newly forged shield, heavy armor, and warblade, which Kailon tested and asked to have made larger and heavier.
• Roland ordered Rugg to wear the equipment, and the fully armored Giant’s imposing presence left everyone nearby awed.

Roland tested Rugg’s giant-sized equipment by ordering him to spar with Naldo, then welcomed the Earth Giants into the territory. Fayez presented the high food and equipment costs of supporting them, leaving the officials concerned about the territory’s growing military expenses.

• Roland ordered Naldo to test Rugg’s weapons and armor in a sparring match.
• Rugg hurled his saber at Naldo, who dodged as it smashed into the ground; Kailon stopped Rugg and made him apologize.
• Roland ended the sparring match, rewarded Rugg with a meat meal, and assigned the giants to obtain equipment through the Foundry Masters.
• Roland told the administrative officials to help the Earth Giants settle into the territory.
• Fayez reported that feeding the 312 giants had already cost 5,800 gold coins and that equipping the adult males would cost at least 80,000 gold coins, alarming the officials.

Roland ordered the territory to devote most of its income to military preparations, while rumors spread that the Black Knight Pirates had taken the Redbeard Pirates' treasure. As rival powers fueled the rumors and Dylan Fikernando tightened defenses, the Black Knight Pirates braced for a larger threat.

• Roland told his officials that a major upheaval might soon hit the Azure Sea Region and ordered eighty percent of the territory's income spent on the army for the next year.
• Roland instructed his officials to equip every adult male Earth Giant, and Leslie promised the Giants would be fully equipped within two months.
• Roland's potion sales helped pay for the Earth Giants' heavy equipment, while Liana developed her potion-making skills.
• The Ghost Pirates and the Count Colin Family agreed to spread rumors targeting the Black Knight Pirates, and the Ghost Wolf Pirates also turned their attention toward the Azure Sea Region.
• Dylan Fikernando ordered Reff to patrol the waters around Double Gate Island and commanded the other Black Knight leaders to strengthen the island's defenses.

Roland reviewed the territory’s Year 44 finances, reserves, infant mortality, and military forces at a high-level meeting. He pressed his officials to keep improving conditions and expanding the brigades, then heard reports that the Thunderbird Squadron and Mage Regiment had also grown.

• Leslie reported 340 newborns in the territory and an 18 percent mortality rate, prompting Roland to call the rate too high and order continued monitoring.
• Leslie reported November income of about 128,000 gold coins, along with the territory’s reserves and other developments, and Roland praised the officials and promised rewards.
• O'Neal reported that the Bulwark Brigade had grown to 510 members, but Roland demanded that it double within six months without counting the Earth Giants.
• Artur reported that all 300 members of the Green-Haired Turtle Brigade had contracted Green-Haired Turtles, while Chopper promised to restore the Loyal Lion Brigade’s strength within a year.
• Alredo and Alice reported that the Thunderbird Squadron had grown to 40 members and the Mage Regiment had reached 23 Intermediate Mages.

A rumor spread that the Black Knight Pirates had obtained the lost treasure of the Redbeard Pirates, threatening to draw powerful enemies against them. Roland’s council debated whether to break free of the Black Knight Pirates, and he ended the meeting by ordering the territory to prepare for war and expansion.

• A messenger told Roland that a rumor blamed the Black Knight Pirates’ rise on their possession of the Redbeard Pirates’ treasure, which Roland suspected the Oroko Family had spread.
• Roland recalled how Redbeard August Cubello’s pirates had been destroyed decades earlier, while their vast treasure disappeared and remained a target of searches.
• O'Neal urged the territory to exploit the Black Knight Pirates’ crisis and break away, while Fili and James warned that acting too soon could invite retaliation; Roland agreed that ending their subordination was necessary.
• Roland ordered Leslie to spend the territory’s remaining gold on strategic supplies and directed the military units, Mage Regiment, and administrative departments to prepare for war and receive new islands.

Roland and Leslie waited to see what the Oroko Family would do as rumors about the Black Knight Pirates’ supposed Redbeard treasure spread. After Cliff Hardy’s betrayal intensified the crisis, Dylan Fikernando tried to secure support and sent Reff to protect Elizabeth, warning him that Roland could not be trusted.

• Roland asked Leslie whether the Oroko Family possessed Redbeard’s treasure, and they agreed to wait for the family’s next move rather than act rashly.
• The rumor spread across the Sea of Ten Thousand Islands, and the Black Knight Pirates sealed off the waters around Double Gate Island with all three fleets.
• A golden light burst from Double Gate Island, then Cliff Hardy defected and publicly claimed the Black Knight Pirates had Redbeard’s treasure, prompting the Pirate Alliance and Noble Council to demand it.
• Dylan Fikernando ordered the Black Knight Pirates to seek the Storm Pirates’ support and warned the colossal factions not to challenge them.
• Dylan ordered Reff to take trusted men to White Whale Island and protect Elizabeth, then told him to warn her that Roland could not be trusted.

A coalition of five massive powers and twenty-six large powers besieged the Black Knight Pirates at Black Fortress, while Roland and Leslie considered exploiting the upheaval to expand their territory. At White Whale Island, Reff ordered a retreat as Elizabeth pleaded to help her trapped father, but a fast magic warship intercepted their escape.

• The Mandy Family and four other massive powers, joined by twenty-six large powers, formed a coalition and marched against the Black Knight Pirates.
• After five allied powers and over a hundred smaller factions abandoned the Black Knight Pirates, Dylan Fikernando withdrew his forces to Black Fortress, where the coalition surrounded them.
• Roland asked Leslie whether the Oroko Family had orchestrated the coalition, and Leslie explained the powers’ motives before they discussed scouting factions and expanding east of Ironflow Island.
• Elizabeth begged Reff to let her return to her father at Black Fortress, but Reff refused and ordered their troops to evacuate White Whale Island when Mandy Family warships approached.
• Reff led more than ten warships out of the harbor, but an enormous, fast four-masted magic warship charged toward them.

Reff and Elizabeth's forces were ambushed by Albert's Mandy Family warship as they tried to escape White Whale Island. Elizabeth survived a betrayal by Henry and six guards, but collapsed after defeating them, while the Black Rose fled under Reff's cover.

• Albert appeared aboard the Mandy Family's four-masted warship, and Reff ordered Henry and Franz to take Elizabeth north while he held Albert back.
• Elizabeth tried to join the fight, but Franz urged her to retreat; Henry then ambushed her, and six other guards revealed themselves as traitors.
• Elizabeth rose after the attack and fought Henry alongside Franz, revealing that she had become an Earth Warrior.
• Elizabeth wounded Henry, who escaped by leaping into the sea, and Franz killed the six other traitors.
• Elizabeth fainted from her injuries, and Franz ordered the Black Rose to leave White Whale Island as Reff's forces covered its escape.

The five allied powers launched a siege against Black Fortress after Dylan Fikernando refused to let them search for the Redbeard Pirates' treasure. The battle began with the Black Knight Pirates defending the fortress and ended with Aliou Mandy's forces surviving a Type II Magic Crystal Cannon strike at the cost of severely exhausting their Mage Regiment.

• Aliou Mandy offered to withdraw if Dylan Fikernando surrendered the Redbeard Pirates' treasure or allowed the allied army to search Black Fortress, but Dylan refused and rallied his troops.
• The five allied powers divided their forces among the fortress's four walls, with the Mandy Family and Colin Family assigned the heavily defended southern wall.
• The allied army bombarded Black Fortress and sent elite troops forward, but the walls withstood the Magic Crystal Cannon fire.
• Black Fortress counterattacked the southern force, and the Mandy and Colin Families' warriors and mages intercepted its initial barrage.
• Dylan Fikernando ordered a Type II Magic Crystal Cannon attack on the Mandy Family, whose Mage Regiment raised a barrier that stopped the powerful fireball but was left severely depleted.

Dylan Fikernando fought to defend Black Fortress as the coalition intensified its assault, while the Type II Magic Crystal Cannon kept the Mandy Family and Colin Family at bay. When he led a charge out of the southern gate, he drank a Forbidden Potion and revealed himself as a Saint Domain expert, leaving Ario facing a deadly Bloody Domain.

• Dylan Fikernando sent the heavy armor battalion, Storm Eagle Knights, and Mage Regiment to reinforce the other walls as the coalition’s attacks overwhelmed the defenders.
• The coalition escalated its siege with armored troops, flying Magical Beast Knights, and Siege Towers, forcing the Black Knight Pirates to retreat.
• Dylan refused to move the Type II Magic Crystal Cannon from its bombardment of the Mandy Family, whose mages eventually ran out of Mana.
• Ario ordered the Mandy Family to scatter to reduce cannon casualties, and Horace protested that the Colin Family would lose its chance at postwar gains.
• Dylan led more than a thousand Green-Haired Turtle Knights out of Black Fortress’s southern gate and charged Ario’s position.
• Surrounded by enemy troops, Dylan drank a Forbidden Potion, transformed into a demon, and unleashed a Bloody Domain that killed countless soldiers as Ario recognized him as a Saint Domain expert.

After the Black Knight Pirates’ defeat left the Sea of Ten Thousand Islands in chaos, Roland seized the chance to expand his territory from Ironflow Island. He wiped out six nearby forces, then marched on Giant Stone Island as the Iron Hook Pirates and their allies sought help from the Owen Family.

• News spread that Dylan Fikernando had used the Level 18 Forbidden Potion Demon's Whisper to kill three overlord leaders and cripple five forces before dying.
• Roland and Leslie discussed the potion, Elizabeth’s disappearance, and the opportunity created by the Black Knight Pirates’ destruction.
• Roland ordered his army out from Ironflow Island and destroyed six nearby small forces within three days.
• The surviving nearby forces rallied nearly three thousand troops and sought support from the Owen Family, while Roland’s troops unloaded spoils worth at least one hundred thousand gold coins.
• Roland learned the Owen Family was busy fighting over Double Gate Island and led his army toward Giant Stone Island, territory of the Iron Hook Pirates.

Roland brought a formidable army to Giant Stone Fortress, where the Iron Hook Pirates and their allies had gathered to oppose him. After his forces landed and began their assault, the Earth Giants charged through the defenders’ barrage and reached the fortress walls.

• Iron Hook and the allied leaders worried that Roland would attack their territories while the Owen Family remained occupied at Double Gate Island.
• When Roland arrived at Giant Stone Island, the allied leaders rallied their troops and hurried to the fortress walls, expecting their combined strength to defeat him.
• Roland’s ships unloaded siege equipment, more than a hundred mages and Earth Giants, and hundreds of other troops, shocking the defenders.
• Roland ordered O'Neal to attack, and ten Magic Crystal Cannons fired at Giant Stone Fortress, opening a breach after three rounds.
• The Earth Giants led by Kailon charged through the defenders’ cannon fire and arrows without taking injuries, reaching the walls.

Roland’s forces captured Giant Stone Fortress after the Earth Giants broke through its defenses and overwhelmed the defenders. With the Iron Hook Pirates and Scarlet Pirates defeated, Roland considered how to use the prisoners to strengthen his territory.

• Kailon and two other Earth Giant leaders stormed the fortress wall, killing defenders and allowing more than a hundred Earth Giants to climb up.
• O'Neal ordered a full-scale assault, and Roland’s mages shielded the Earth Giants as the army advanced; Kailon forced his clansmen to return to the wall and support the attack.
• Roland’s forces seized the southern wall, drove through the fortress with the Magic Crystal Cannons, and made the remaining defenders surrender.
• Roland learned that the alliance had been eliminated and discussed recruiting some of the more than two thousand prisoners with Leslie.
• Roland agreed to consider prisoners who had at least two relatives and did not deeply hate him, and Leslie promised to screen them carefully.