Chapter Summaries

Ang and Aisha searched River Bay City for magical ore and recruits for North Wind Territory, but found limited supplies and little interest from Aisha's classmates. Ang decided to make the territory more appealing over time and left with a plan to develop it gradually.

• Aisha urged Merlin to leave her unhappy job and join North Wind Territory, but Merlin said she needed more time to decide.
• Ang and Aisha visited River Bay City's magic shops, but Ang bought enough materials to make only one set of Enchanted Armament.
• Ang arranged monthly iron ore deliveries from two trading houses after learning that the Ula Mountains lacked abundant magical ore deposits.
• Ang and Aisha visited Aisha's classmates, but most declined his invitation to North Wind Territory.
• Ang explained that he hoped to recruit young magic apprentices who would be more open to his unconventional rune combinations.
• Aisha encouraged Ang to build North Wind Territory's appeal, and he regained his resolve to plan its development after they returned.

Ang returned to North Wind Territory, increased patrol precautions after reports of hidden scouts, and taught Aisha how to make and enchant a second-generation Enchanted Armament. He demonstrated its fire-enhanced attacks and Fireball rune, then urged Aisha to learn the craft for the territory’s future needs.

• Aida reported that people had been secretly watching patrols, so Ang ordered patrol teams increased to twenty-five men under Bruno and Sanchez.
• Ang took Aisha to the Enchanting Workshop and taught her how he smelted ore, shaped armor, and engraved flame runes.
• Ang filled the runes with solvent and immersed the armor in the Enchanting Pool to complete the enchanting process.
• Ang tested the finished Enchanted Armament, showing how it enhanced his sword with fire and cast a Fireball using a magic crystal.
• Ang told Aisha that guards needed to become Level 1 Warriors before they could use Enchanted Armament, and encouraged her to learn how to make more.

Ang discussed rune learning with Aisha and planned animal husbandry for North Wind Territory. The next morning, Aida reported that Slock’s patrol had captured a spy, and Ang prepared to interrogate him.

• Ang explained to Aisha how Guanda Plane runes differed from Imperial Runes and offered her classmates a chance to learn in North Wind Territory.
• Ang drafted an animal husbandry development plan for the territory.
• Aida told Ang that Slock’s ambush had killed three spies and captured one alive.
• Ang discovered that the spy had hidden poison in a tooth, and Slock removed it before the spy could use it.
• Ang rewarded Slock and the participating team, then ordered the prisoner taken to the interrogation room.

Ang learned that a large bandit force planned to raid North Wind Territory’s food reserves, but chose to release their spy and focus on building strength and exploiting divisions among the bandits. He then advanced plans for trade, infrastructure, and future population growth in the territory.

• Slock reported that the bandits numbered nearly four thousand, relied on enslaved people, had an agreement with the barbarians, and intended to raid North Wind Territory’s food reserves in autumn.
• Ang healed the spy enough to survive and ordered that he be released once he could walk, explaining to Aisha that the territory should recruit the bandits’ slaves and avoid a direct clash until it grew stronger.
• Aisha told Ang that River Bay City’s iron ore had arrived and the reservoir was complete, and Ang praised her and directed that the ore be stored for inspection.
• Ang instructed Aisha to recruit villagers to open shops, with the territory holding half the shares, supplying materials at cost, and limiting basic shop types to two each.
• Ang explained to Aisha that he would build standardized houses at the territory’s northern end despite the current labor shortage, preparing for future settlers and signaling growth.

Ang and Aisha developed North Wind Territory’s shops, food supply, and trade, bringing residents into a more active economy. Ang then refined steel and pioneered rune-stamped enchanted weapons, but testing revealed that different runes could clash and destroy their enchantments.

• Aisha explained the shop plans, and residents opened a bakery and tailor shop; Ang told her the territory held half the shares in most businesses but would keep the bakery’s food affordable to win the people’s gratitude.
• North Wind Territory ended communal meals for most residents, added grain and meat sections to its Trading House, and opened a restaurant while Ang focused foreign trade on enchanted goods, potions, and alcohol.
• Ang joined the craftsmen in smelting River Bay City ore into steel, then directed them to forge shields, swords, and spears.
• Ang and the craftsmen developed reverse-carved casting hammers and a modified press to stamp runes onto steel weapons, then enchanted the finished items in the Enchanting Pool.
• Ang tested the enchanted weapons and found that their runes could damage each other through energy conflicts, so he decided the rune processes and solvent ratios needed adjustment.

Ang oversaw the production of enchanted North Wind weapons and reorganized his growing guard unit as North Wind Territory prepared for its first autumn harvest. When scouts reported that more than four hundred bandits were approaching, Ang arranged the territory’s defenses while farmers hurried to bring in the grain.

• Ang celebrated the successful weapon production, rewarded the craftsmen, and ordered Dusha to build separate Enchanting Pools for different weapons.
• Ang named the longsword the North Wind Steel Sword and told Bruno to organize the guards into Sword and Shield Soldiers and spearmen; he later named the shield and spear as signature North Wind weapons too.
• As iron ore arrived, Ang enchanted weapons for the guard unit, which replaced its old weapons while the territory increased patrols ahead of the harvest.
• Aida worried about facing the bandits, but Ang reassured him that the trained guard unit could defeat them.
• The Scout Team reported that more than four hundred bandits were heading toward North Wind Territory, and Ang ordered the harvest sped up and the guards prepared for battle.
• Ang assigned Sword and Shield Soldiers to the front, spearmen to the flanks, and the reserve unit to support them, telling Aida to keep the bandits away from the farmland.

Ang prepared North Wind Territory for the approaching bandits, evacuated workers and farmers, and rallied nearly a hundred guards at the territory’s edge. The four hundred bandits charged under cover of night, and Ang’s soldiers braced to meet them as the battle began.

• Ang ordered farmers away from the unharvested fields near the Beastlands and sent workshop workers home while Aisha arranged for the family’s protection.
• After scouts reported the bandits were less than half a day away, Ang led the guards to the territory’s edge and urged them to defend their home.
• The bandits spotted the barley field, coveted its food and North Wind Territory’s spoils, and rested before planning a night attack.
• Ang watched the bandits’ camp and had Bruno relay orders for the guards to form up behind shields and spears.
• The bandit leader ordered his force to charge at night, and Ang rallied his guards as they prepared to meet the attack.

Ang led North Wind Territory's warriors in repelling a bandit attack, killing the leader and routing the raiders. After treating the wounded and collecting the spoils, he ordered a campaign to hunt down the fleeing bandits.

• Ang used the Agility Enchantment to rally the soldiers as the bandits charged, and North Wind Territory's shield wall held against them.
• Ang killed the bandit leader in single combat, breaking the bandits' morale and sending them fleeing.
• Ang ordered Bruno to deal with bandits fleeing north, then led the pursuit of the others before halting it in the Beastlands at night.
• Ang ordered the spoils collected and the corpses burned, recorded battle merits, and used the Holy Light Technique and a Healing Potion to treat the wounded.
• Slock reported 197 bandits killed, 300 warhorses captured, and 20 lightly wounded and one severely wounded among the guards; Bruno reported that the northern bandits were killed and several unoccupied residences burned.
• Ang ordered the territory's safety and rebuilding, then announced a Clearing Operation to hunt down the fleeing bandits.

After returning to North Wind Territory victorious, Ang reorganized and rested the guard unit before leading it on a prolonged pursuit of the fleeing bandits. The pursuit ended with a captured bandit agreeing to guide Ang to the bandits’ stronghold, setting up the next battle.

• Ang ordered the confiscated weapons melted down, promoted the reserve members to full guards, and arranged for the exhausted soldiers to rest while three squads stayed behind to protect the territory.
• Ang prepared supplies and led the recovered guard unit out at dawn to hunt down the fleeing bandits.
• Over several days, Ang’s soldiers found bandit corpses and hideouts and eliminated more than fifty bandits, but Ang ordered them to capture survivors who could reveal the stronghold’s location.
• Bruno’s squad captured several bandits in an abandoned village, and one agreed to guide Ang to the stronghold in exchange for his life.
• Ang promised to spare the guide if he led them there, then ordered a guard to feed him and give him medicine.

Ang questioned Kiribe about the Saber Gang and marched with his guards toward its remote stronghold in the Northern Savage Lands. After reaching Beast Mouth and setting up camp, Ang sent Bruno and Aida to scout the gang’s two mountain peaks under cover of darkness.

• Kiribe recovered enough to lead Ang’s group and revealed that nobles sometimes hired the Saber Gang to attack their enemies.
• Kiribe said the gang mined iron and copper with about fifteen hundred enslaved workers at two mountain mines.
• Ang’s group reached Beast Mouth, where they found dead bandits; Ang determined that people, not beasts, had killed them.
• Ang ordered the guards to secure both sides of the canyon and sent Bruno, Aida, and Kiribe to scout the mountains.
• Bruno and Aida split their soldiers into two teams and stealthily approached the two peaks after nightfall.

Bruno and Aida’s squads cleared the bandit guards and settlement before Ang led the main force to secure the area. After ordering the captured bandit men executed and guarding the women and children, Ang reached the mine and declared the enslaved workers free.

• Bruno’s squad scouted the mine camp, found more than forty shacks and six armed guards, then silently eliminated the guards at midnight.
• Aida’s squad cleared the sentinels and scouted eight bandits in the residential area before helping eliminate them in a coordinated night raid.
• After hearing the teams’ reports, Ang ordered the troops to advance and led the attack on the bandits’ residential area at dawn.
• Ang’s soldiers captured more than thirty people; Ang ordered the men executed and the women and children guarded.
• At the mine, Ang found the slaves working mechanically despite having no guards and ordered them to stop.
• Ang told the miners, “From this moment on, you are free!”

Ang rescued the numb slaves from the bandits’ mining camps and led them through a perilous winter journey to North Wind Territory. He settled the survivors in warm shelters, declared them free, and knew they would need time to rebuild their lives.

• Ang fed the slaves and discovered a pit filled with corpses, which he burned before ordering the mining camps and bandit strongholds stripped of supplies.
• Ang destroyed the bandits’ lair beneath an avalanche and told Bruno that the rescued people could choose whether to stay in North Wind Territory or return home.
• Ang led the slaves through nearly two weeks of deep snow, burying those who died along the way and using his Magic Furnace to warm the survivors.
• Ang and the fewer than seven hundred remaining slaves reached North Wind Territory, where Aisha had prepared shelters, hot food, and soup.
• Ang declared the survivors free, and they settled into warm Wooden Huts for the night.

Ang helped the rescued slaves recover and integrate into the North Wind Territory, while launching a farming and livestock plan to develop the Beastlands. By spring, the former slaves had begun working alongside residents, and the territory’s reclaimed fields and canals were ready for the seeds.

• Aisha told Ang that the rescued slaves remained withdrawn, and Ang explained that they needed time to recover from their years of enslavement.
• Ang examined letters taken from the bandits and planned to collect their bounties to fund safes for important belongings.
• As winter passed, the former slaves explored the territory, helped clear snow, and gradually began speaking with guards after Ang visited them with Holy Light Technique.
• Ang announced free rentals of draft horses, plows, and seeds for residents reclaiming designated Beastlands, while reserving the western land for livestock.
• Residents and former slaves worked together to reclaim fields and build canals, and the former slaves began taking on other jobs as well.
• Ang collected the bandits’ bounties in Pat City, where an investigation committee reviewed the operation and raised no objections to the rescued slaves staying in the territory.

Ang completed a fortified vault beneath the Lord's Manor and showed Aisha how to guard it. He traded Flame No. 2 to Baron Allen for livestock and magic crystals, and the delivered animals filled North Wind Territory's new ranch.

• Ang oversaw construction of a rune-protected vault, explained its defenses to Aisha, and stored potions, magic crystals, and high-grade equipment inside.
• Ang showed Baron Allen North Wind Territory's thriving streets and trading house, where Allen discovered the workshop's Flame No. 2 armament.
• Ang let Allen test Flame No. 2, and Allen agreed to pay with livestock, retired green mane horses, and 270 magic crystals.
• Allen sent five hundred cattle, one thousand yellow sheep, three hundred draft horses, and ten retired green mane horses to North Wind Territory the next day.
• Dusha and the workers drove the livestock into the new ranch as Allen left with Flame No. 2.

Ang arranged careful care for the territory’s injured Green Mane Horses and received an invitation from President Aden of the Pat City Mage Association. He left for Pat City the next morning, while Aisha remained responsible for the horses and was told to improve her magic training.

• Ang identified a captured stallion as a crossbreed of a Northern Savage Lands mountain horse and a Green Mane Horse, then ordered Dusha to build a spacious, well-ventilated Stables.
• Ang assigned Aisha to give the eleven Green Mane Horses weekly Healing Potions and install magical furnaces to keep the Stables warm.
• After the horses moved into the new Stables, Aisha told Ang that their healing had made them unusually excited and noisy.
• Dusha delivered a letter from President Aden of the Pat City Mage Association, and Ang decided to visit him the next morning.
• Ang told Aisha that the territory would stop accepting large numbers of new residents and focus on becoming self-sufficient in food.
• Ang urged Aisha to study magic more diligently and left for Pat City with two attendants early the next morning.

Ang visited the Mage Tower, helped Aden complete an experiment, and heard that nobles were investigating the Saber Gang’s connections. Aden then warned him that escaped Black Mages were moving toward Pat City, leaving Ang determined to strengthen his territory’s defenses.

• Ang went to the Mage Tower and corrected a missing step in Aden’s experiment, producing a clear liquid.
• Aden warned Ang that nobles were gathering information about the Saber Gang and feared evidence of their crimes might implicate them.
• Aden showed Ang a Mage Association warning that Black Mages had sacrificed a city in Bondalou to summon a Level 3 Demon, and that some survivors were heading toward Pat City.
• Aden cautioned Ang that the Black Mages might target his growing sphere of influence and urged him to prepare.
• Ang left the tower resolved to strengthen his territory’s defenses against the possible threat.

Ang assessed the guard unit’s progress, discovered that Bruno, Sanchez, Walder, and Slock had old battlefield injuries while Aida lacked the resolve forged through life-and-death combat, and began an intensive training and treatment plan. After preparing potions, Ang treated the four men and sparred with all five, leaving them exhausted but encouraged by their progress.

• Ang questioned Aida, Bruno, Sanchez, Walder, and Slock about their training and found that four veterans’ hidden injuries obstructed their advancement while Aida needed the resolve gained through a true life-and-death battle.
• Ang told Aisha he would train with Bruno and the others in the mornings and guide her magic practice later in the day, then prepared medicinal potions from magical herbs.
• Ang gave the potions to Bruno, Sanchez, Walder, and Slock, then used the Holy Light Technique and Water Therapy Technique to treat them.
• Ang sparred with Aida and advised him on his technique, calmness, and observation before testing the four veterans and identifying each man’s combat weaknesses.
• Bruno and the others finished training tired but excited, feeling their improvement and gaining confidence from the treatment.

Ang intensified training for his team and guided Aisha in magic and scroll-making, while her skills and the fighters’ condition improved over the following month. As nobles grew interested in North Wind Territory’s Enchanted Armaments, Ang declined their invitations and focused on his people’s development.

• After morning training, Ang instructed Bruno, Sanchez, Walder, and Slock to rest and continue training their teams that afternoon.
• Ang taught Aisha to cut Green Wolf hides for magic scrolls, and she practiced spellcasting and meditation until she could prepare the hides herself.
• Healing Potions and Holy Light Technique helped Aida, Bruno, and the others recover from old injuries and train more effectively.
• A month later, Ang declined invitations from Pat City nobles who were curious about Allen’s Enchanted Armaments and their possible connection to North Wind Territory.
• Aisha completed a Water Arrow Technique scroll that struck a target dummy, and Ang advised her to train assistants to share her administrative work.
• Aisha refined her Water Therapy Technique while helping Bruno and the others, and her mental strength neared the level of a Senior Magic Apprentice.

Ang gave Bruno and the others a break while Allen trained the expanded guard force and Aisha advanced in magic. When a mage repeatedly surveyed North Wind Territory from a Magic Broom, Ang chose to monitor the situation and sent Aden a letter asking for information.

• Ang gave Bruno and the others leave, then tasked Allen with training the new guards to Junior Squire level before winter.
• Aisha complained about making scrolls, and Ang learned that she had already mastered the Water Therapy Technique scroll.
• Ang began designing magical weapons to strengthen North Wind Territory’s defenses against magical creatures and large enemies.
• A guard reported that a mage had circled North Wind Territory before flying toward the Beastlands, and Ang ordered the guards to report any similar sightings.
• Ang declined Aisha’s suggestion to recall Bruno and the others, then wrote Aden asking about the mage.

Ang received Aden’s warning about a suspicious mage and prepared weapons to strengthen North Wind Territory against Black Mages. After testing the single-use Holy Light Bullets with Aisha, Ang met the mage, Savap, who asked about the Saber Gang and tried to tour the territory before flying away.

• Ang read Aden’s warning that a traveling mage from Zanguoda City seemed suspicious and decided to strengthen the territory’s defenses against Black Mages.
• Ang crafted Holy Light Bullets and improved magical bombs fitted with rune-inscribed nails.
• Ang taught Aisha to fire a Holy Light Bullet, which destroyed a target, and warned her to practice carefully with the dangerous bombs.
• Less than a week later, Ang spotted the mage approaching by broom and ordered the guards to keep watch while maintaining their normal duties.
• Savap introduced himself as a member of the Borick Family, asked Ang about the Saber Gang, and requested a tour of the territory.
• Ang refused Savap’s request, and Savap flew away, leaving Ang convinced that his purpose was suspicious.