Recaps

Li Ang recruited Sir Roland, the Dawn Knight Order’s exiled Paladin, and directed him to help the survivors of Serenmis by bringing them to Li Ang’s territory. After the battle, Li Ang also encouraged a defeated knight to return to Lion Lake City and pledge allegiance to Forster.

• Sir Roland recounted how his devotion to justice led the Dawn Knight Order to exile and hunt him, and he accepted Li Ang’s offer to fight alongside him while remaining true to his faith.
• Sir Roland asked Li Ang for money to aid the elderly survivors of Serenmis, where heretics had killed nearly all the young people and plundered the village.
• Li Ang offered to resettle the survivors in his territory, and Sir Roland accepted his counsel and joined Li Ang’s party.
• Li Ang’s forces took the valuable spoils from the battle, while the defeated cavalrymen and mercenaries were left with the Misfortune Bringers’ corpses.
• Li Ang gave the commanding knight travel money and advised him to take his troops to Lion Lake City and swear loyalty to Forster, and the knight agreed.

Li Ang secured Long River Town, negotiated grain and military support, and received an appointment as governor of Aier River County while King Ulrich balanced power among the eastern nobles. With Godric asking him to defend White Deer Fortress and the territory’s immediate threats contained, Li Ang turned his attention to expanding its money, population, and military strength.

• Li Ang sent the Long River Town garrison to pledge allegiance to Forster, offering to buy their fiefs if Forster rejected them, and secretly negotiated a deal for grain.
• Godric’s troops occupied Long River Town, the Horn Summon Ranger Corps returned to its hall, and Li Ang sent captured valuables to Lion City as compensation for his losses.
• Leofric traded two hundred and forty draft horses for 8% of Wheat Fragrance International, while Ralph received a pioneering certificate and Charles became a core Ranger Corps member.
• King Ulrich appointed Godric Commander-in-Chief of Military Affairs for the eastern region as a Great Baron, appointed Duke Brennus acting governor of Long River Town, and made Li Ang governor of Aier River County.
• Godric asked Li Ang to station himself at White Deer Fortress, and Forster agreed to deliver grain within two weeks.
• Li Ang concluded that the territory’s next priorities were money and grain, population, and military strength.

Li Ang established Long River Express in Long River Town to provide standardized cargo and passenger transport, rapidly buying up local caravans and organizing their people into a large armed transport company. With Lesley running operations and Eric leading security, the company began service with fixed prices and a system intended to draw in merchants, workers, and more orders.

• Li Ang sent Sir Roland to escort elderly survivors to his territory and Ansen to search nearby villages, while he assigned Lesley to create a transport company.
• Lesley named the new Wheat Fragrance International subsidiary Long River Express and established its headquarters beside Long River Town's central avenue.
• Li Ang spent one hundred thousand denars to acquire more than four hundred wagons, over five hundred armed men, and nearly seven hundred horses.
• Li Ang appointed Eric to lead the armed division, while Lesley managed customers, orders, and transport operations.
• Lesley recruited temporary teamsters, and Long River Express divided its personnel between wagon driving, customer service, and armed escort duties.
• Long River Express introduced publicly posted distance-based prices and began offering standardized transport, with customized security available for an additional fee.

Li Ang explained to Amy that he aimed to build strength comparable to a duke within a year by expanding Long River Express and using it to secure grain, recruits, technology, and military power. After negotiating future grain purchases in Kewen Village, they traveled north and discovered an estate marked with the Crimson Brotherhood’s symbol.

• Amy questioned the cost of Long River Express, and Li Ang explained that he judged its value by whether it could rapidly increase his overall strength.
• Li Ang told Amy he needed her help securing grain deals and planned to gain the power of a duke within a year.
• Li Ang and Amy negotiated agreements with Kewen Village’s nobles for three hundred thousand pounds of grain next season.
• Li Ang and Amy set out north to negotiate with other estates and secure more future grain supplies.
• Amy recognized the Crimson Brotherhood’s symbol on a large lakeside estate and drew her sword.

Li Ang discovered that the estate was Foucher’s stronghold and fought through its defenders, defeating Frederi in a duel. As Li Ang rushed after Foucher, someone inside the manor fired a matchlock musket at him, leaving his fate uncertain.

• Amy deflected a throwing axe aimed at Li Ang, and Kloze identified the attackers as pirates as Li Ang’s men charged the estate.
• Li Ang recognized Foucher and realized the estate housed the Crimson Brotherhood, but Foucher halted the fight before accusing Li Ang of killing a duke’s attendant and ordering his men to surround him.
• Li Ang and his guards broke through the encirclement, and Li Ang defeated Frederi in close combat before learning Foucher had fled into the manor.
• Li Ang ran toward the manor, spotted someone aiming a matchlock musket, and dove aside as it fired.

Li Ang survived an ambush by Foucher, whose reckless use of gunpowder set a lakeside building ablaze, while Amy killed him with a crossbow. The group recovered Foucher’s matchlock musket, and Li Ang realized the rare weapon’s presence in Long River Town raised questions about how Foucher obtained it.

• Li Ang dodged a matchlock shot, charged into the building, and escaped when the gunman scattered gunpowder that ignited and set the wooden structure on fire.
• Li Ang searched for Foucher as the blaze spread, while pirates escaped across the lake and the Great Swordsmen routed the remaining enemies.
• Amy warned Li Ang about Foucher on the second-floor balcony and shot him with her crossbow as he fired at Li Ang.
• Sammer recovered Foucher’s body and the matchlock musket from the lake, and Li Ang identified the dead man as Duke Alma’s bastard son.
• Li Ang examined the rare firearm and wondered how Foucher had obtained it, concluding that Frederi might know.

Frederi explained how Foucher had hired him and recounted the crimes and strange schemes that led them to the farmstead, where Foucher had promised him grain for Meitengheim. Li Ang realized Foucher was a player who had mistaken the real world for the game, and the chapter left him considering Frederi’s familiar story from the game.

• Kloze introduced Frederi to Li Ang, and Frederi recounted how a shipwreck and cultist attack had left him stranded in Pande with a mission to bring food home to Meitengheim.
• Frederi explained that Foucher had hired him with a promise of grain, then traveled through cities searching for companions, treasure chests, and a ruin while growing increasingly violent.
• Frederi described how Foucher tried to claim Sarah as his fiancée, robbed a Barkley merchant, and later raided villages to create refugees for a supposed quest.
• Frederi said Foucher’s men were routed by the Gatu people, after which Foucher occupied a farmstead and offered Frederi its grain, though Frederi lacked a way to transport it.
• Li Ang recognized Foucher’s actions as those of a player following game logic, including searching taverns, pursuing quests, and treating enemies as experience packs.
• Li Ang recalled that Frederi told the same story in the game when brought near Lion Lake City.

Li Ang killed Foucher and used the corpse’s delivery to Lion Lake City to make Duke Alma suspect his legitimate son, Forster. As Frederi and the Meitengheim people worried over their famine-stricken homeland, Li Ang considered how to help them and gain access to their advanced metalworking.

• Li Ang confirmed Foucher was dead, beheaded him, and reflected on how Foucher’s game-based assumptions had failed him in the real world.
• Frederi told Li Ang that Duke Alma likely knew little of Foucher’s later crimes and that Forster had avoided dealing with him.
• Li Ang ordered Frederi to take Foucher’s corpse to Lion Lake City and tell the truth, expecting Duke Alma to suspect Forster of arranging the murder.
• Frederi returned three days later as Li Ang loaded the manor’s grain onto ships, and the Meitengheim people lamented that they could not transport the grain to their homeland.
• Li Ang considered helping Meitengheim, hoping its renowned metalworkers could eventually help him produce matchlock muskets.

Li Ang arranged to help Meitengheim obtain suitable grain seeds through Imperial Port after Frederi explained the famine’s cause. As the eastern region enjoyed a rare peace, Sir Roland helped evacuate Sailenmis’s elderly survivors and began rebuilding the New Dawn Knights by inspiring ordinary people to do good.

• Amy explained that transporting grain by ship was the only practical way to relieve Meitengheim’s famine.
• Frederi told Li Ang that Meitengheim needed suitable planting seeds, and Li Ang promised to take him to Imperial Port after settling his territory’s affairs.
• The eastern region became more peaceful as Godric restored patrols and the Owl Knight Order helped hunt down bandits.
• Morgan helped Sir Roland evacuate Sailenmis’s elderly survivors, treating them kindly despite having few resources.
• Sir Roland worked alongside the common people, brought Morgan to the Goddess of Justice, and took his first step toward rebuilding the New Dawn Knights.
• Li Ang counted Wheat Fragrance Territory’s grain reserves and continued seeking planting seed for the coming harvest.

Li Ang organized Wheat Fragrance Territory’s growing population into mixed-age farming groups and put noncommissioned officers in charge of managed farmsteads. He then introduced loans and competitive rewards to expand cultivation while keeping the land under his control, leaving the territory mobilized for agricultural development.

• Roland and Ansen brought elderly farmers and destitute commoners to Wheat Fragrance Territory, bringing its population to twelve hundred.
• Li Ang created mixed-age production groups so young workers and experienced elders could cultivate land together and share responsibility for taxes.
• Li Ang assigned noncommissioned officers to manage the groups, placing them under four agricultural departments while retaining centralized control of the farmland.
• Li Ang required each group to reclaim and plant land, and he introduced food-and-seed loans that groups would repay after harvest.
• Li Ang established performance rankings that tied departmental dividends, taxes, loan repayment, rewards, and penalties to agricultural results.

The lord and Amy expanded cultivation in Wheat Fragrance Territory and White Deer Fortress, then the lord traveled south with the Meitengheim people to address their famine. Sarah briefed him on the history of the Bacchus Empire and the Snake Worship Cult’s current infiltration of Pande Continent.

• Wheat Fragrance Territory reclaimed more than thirty thousand acres, while Amy’s policies helped White Deer Fortress reclaim nearly fifty thousand acres and link its fields to the territory.
• The lord left Ansen in charge of Wheat Fragrance Territory and Sir Roland in charge of White Deer Fortress, then traveled toward Imperial Port with Amy, Sarah, and the Meitengheim people.
• Sarah explained how General Osa’s expedition had established New Bacchus after the Second Bacchus Empire collapsed into civil war.
• Sarah recounted how Alfred suppressed opposition and founded the Lionheart Kingdom after the Kingdom of Pendor disintegrated.
• Sarah reported that the Snake Worship Cult had established a theocratic state on Amara and was invading Pande by landing near Imperial Port and infiltrating the Bacchus Empire.

Ansen and Sarah’s research explained how Emperor Marius’s reforms integrated Bax into Pande and weakened the Snake Worship Cult. Li Ang’s convoy entered the Bacchus Empire and continued toward Imperial Port, with Imir Village as its next stop.

• Ansen and Sarah’s information described how Marius replaced Bax’s status laws, promoted Damia’s worship, and reformed civil administration and military recruitment.
• Li Ang considered the value of Marius’s reforms while traveling with a small merchant convoy carrying leather goods toward Imperial Port.
• Risadiran stayed apart from the convoy after encountering Noldo patrol members who recognized him but did not speak to him.
• Li Ang’s convoy crossed into the Bacchus Empire through the wilderness between Shield Wind Fortress and Calundru Castle.
• The convoy headed for Imir Village to replenish supplies, and the chapter contrasted its prosperity with the ruined villages near Calundru Castle.

During Goddess Damia’s festival in Yimeier Village, Li Ang tried to avoid General Clerion, who noticed Amy’s firearm and approached her. Clerion explained that he wanted Amy to meet his unmarried son Dean, leaving Sarah to consider his awkward matchmaking request.

• Li Ang spotted General Clerion at the festival and tried to leave the village with Amy before being recognized.
• Clerion’s Plague-Exorcists questioned Amy about her firearm, and she claimed it was a war trophy while Li Ang and Risadiran slipped away.
• Clerion invited Amy to dinner, alarming her until Sarah stepped in and clarified his intentions.
• Clerion explained that his thirty-three-year-old son Dean had repeatedly rejected potential partners and faced another term of hard labor if he remained unmarried.
• Clerion said he had hoped Amy would be a suitable match for Dean, but Dean had hidden at home instead of attending the festival.

Amy agreed to meet Dean, Clerion’s son, and turned their conversation toward farming in mountainous Meitengheim. Dean welcomed her questions and showed her high-yield corn and potatoes that could help solve the region’s food shortage.

• Clerion asked Amy to help draw Dean out, but Amy refused to dance at Damia’s festival and offered instead to speak with him about agriculture.
• Clerion led Amy and Sarah to Dean’s manor, where Dean initially tried to send them away and then welcomed Amy’s farming questions.
• Amy asked Dean how to improve yields in mountainous regions, and the two discussed waterwheels, irrigation, and crops suited to steep terrain.
• Dean showed Amy the corn and potatoes he had spent years developing, explaining their yields and advantages over wheat.
• Amy realized that Dean’s corn and potatoes could produce far more food per mu and asked why farmers were reluctant to grow them.

Amy persuaded Dean to share his high-yield potato and corn seeds, and Li Ang recruited him to help promote the crops. After a smooth journey south, the caravan reached Buyulin Village, where villagers were wailing over an apparent disaster.

• Dean explained that suspicion, political resistance, and the danger of sprouted potatoes had prevented him from promoting his crops, while Amy offered to take him somewhere he could pursue his research freely.
• Dean agreed to give Amy a cartload of seeds, and Sarah persuaded Clerion to let Dean travel with the caravan rather than face punishment in a mine.
• Li Ang recognized the potatoes and corn as world-changing crops, told Dean he knew how potato sprouts caused poisoning, and brought him aboard the carriage.
• The caravan collected a cartload of seeds in exchange for leather goods and left Yimeier Village with Dean and several Plague-Exorcists accompanying them.
• After traveling south without trouble, the caravan arrived near Buyulin Village and found its villagers wailing as if a disaster had struck.

Li Ang and Dean found Buyulin Village under quarantine for a severe Red Death outbreak and helped the Radiant Cross Knights seal it off. After a mob of villagers tried to flee, Amy shot their leading agitator, and Li Ang’s men drove the crowd back as the story left the village’s thousands of residents trapped inside.

• A Radiant Cross Knight warned Dean and Li Ang that the Red Death had broken out in Buyulin Village and asked them to help guard the crossroads.
• Li Ang ordered his men to block the road, gave them makeshift cloth masks, and urged the knights to prevent anyone from escaping.
• Villagers charged the entrance after a farmer accused the knights of abandoning them, and Li Ang ordered Amy to shoot the farmer dead.
• Li Ang drew a line before the crowd and threatened to kill anyone who crossed it, forcing the villagers to retreat.
• Li Ang told the Radiant Cross Knights to patrol the village’s perimeter and use crossbows if people tried to escape, while Dean worried about the village’s more than three thousand residents.

Li Ang helped the Radiant Cross Knights respond to a Red Death outbreak, then came under attack from the Snake Worship Cult. After defeating the cult warriors, he ordered his men to capture their heavily equipped captain.

• The Plague Doctors reported more than a dozen Red Death patients in the village and said the village would be sealed off until help arrived.
• Li Ang agreed to let the healers use his wagonloads of hides to make masks, with Emperor Marius to pay for them later.
• Snake Worship Cult members ambushed Li Ang and the healers with heavy crossbows, wounding Li Ang in the shoulder.
• Frederi, Li Ang, and their companions fought the cult warriors and wiped out the attackers.
• A Cobra Warrior threw a javelin at Li Ang, but Risadiran shot him down, and Li Ang ordered Kloze and Risadiran to take him alive.

Li Ang and the healers linked the Red Death outbreak and the village ambush to the Snake Worship Cult, then discussed the Empire’s governors while awaiting Kairos. Kairos arrived with Shadow Centurions, recognized Li Ang as the kidnapper from White Deer Fortress, and heard that Li Ang wanted to make a deal.

• Kloze tried to seize a Cobra Warrior, but the fanatic killed himself before he could be captured.
• Li Ang and the healers suspected the Snake Worship Cult had spread the plague and discussed possible infiltration of the Shadow Legion, while defending Kairos as a principled commander.
• Dean and the healers described Kairos’s reputation and criticized Governor Livius as a habitual lawbreaker.
• Kairos arrived at the village with over two hundred Shadow Centurions and took charge of the defenses.
• Li Ang introduced himself to Kairos, proposed a deal, and waited while Kairos deployed his troops.
• Kairos met Li Ang unarmed in the carriage, recognized him as the kidnapper who had humiliated him at White Deer Fortress, and said he would have arrested him if not for his aid against the plague and cultists.

Li Ang explained how the promissory notes from Governors Justus and Livius could protect Kairos from blame for the failed campaign and pressure Emperor Marius to punish Livius instead. Kairos understood Li Ang’s strategy and asked what he wanted in exchange for the notes.

• Li Ang argued that Kairos’s failed campaign had spared him the political consequences of a hypothetical victory by Governors Livius and Justus, and Kairos reconsidered his view of the war.
• Li Ang offered to help Kairos with his strained relationship with Emperor Marius and showed him promissory notes from Justus and Livius, each for six thousand denars.
• Li Ang explained that the notes could undermine the governors’ credibility and give Kairos leverage against those likely to shift the campaign’s blame onto him.
• Li Ang advised Kairos to give Livius’s note to Emperor Marius while keeping Justus’s note in reserve, forcing the Emperor to choose between Kairos and Livius without immediately threatening Justus.
• Kairos thanked Li Ang and asked what he wanted in exchange for the notes.

Li Ang secured grain shipments to relieve Meitengheim’s famine and earned its people’s recognition as a sovereign allied ruler. After expanding his agricultural work and joining White Deer Fortress with Wheat Fragrance Territory, he became the focus of Emperor Marius’s plan to protect the Empire’s reforms and reputation.

• Li Ang persuaded Kairos to send one million pounds of grain seed to Meitengheim, and Kairos agreed to meet him at the port in three days.
• Frederi declared Meitengheim’s recognition of Li Ang as a ruler equal to its count, and the grain fleet departed with Dean aboard to build irrigation works.
• Kairos paid Li Ang two thousand denars for the carriage, and Li Ang used the money to buy wagons and bring Dean’s corn and potato seeds to his territory.
• Li Ang and Amy planted corn across nearly a thousand mu, stored the potatoes at White Deer Fortress, and began managing its affairs alongside Wheat Fragrance Territory.
• Emperor Marius told Justus that he had bought back the promissory notes and planned to portray Li Ang as a powerful commander to preserve Justus’s reputation and support the reforms.

Emperor Marius framed Li Ang as a traitor by granting him a Bacchus title, forcing him to accompany Lord Malbert to Lion City while he prepared White Deer Fortress for danger. Meanwhile, Duke Alma planned to reclaim power by taking command of the Horn Summon Ranger Corps.

• Sarah reported that Bacchus had reassigned Livius to Shield Wind Fortress and spread monstrous rumors about Li Ang.
• Lord Malbert arrived at White Deer Fortress with Lion Knights and a letter in which Emperor Marius named Li Ang General of Long River Town and awarded him ten thousand denars.
• Li Ang agreed to go to Lion City with Malbert, instructed Amy to secure his territories and prepare a beacon, and left Risadiran to follow him covertly.
• Amy gave Li Ang her Goddess's Kiss before he departed White Deer Fortress with Malbert and the Lion Knights.
• At Eagle Claw Fortress, Duke Alma told Baron Cadelon that he intended to reclaim his power and become Grand Commander of the Horn Summon Ranger Corps.

Malbert explained that King Ulrich’s order to arrest Li Ang could lead to Li Ang’s death in Lion City, then feigned illness to leave the escort and avoid blame. Meanwhile, Godric and Charles trained Fletcher Village’s new Red Arrow Longbowmen, but their first field exercise encountered more than a thousand brigands.

• Malbert brought Li Ang under guard to the Owl Knight Order’s camp and suggested he could escape, while Li Ang pretended not to understand.
• Malbert told Li Ang that the Lion Knights had a history of arresting supposed rebels who never returned, and that he wanted to avoid being blamed if Li Ang died.
• Malbert clutched his stomach and asked Ols for help, planning to return to Long River Town and leave Li Ang to decide what to do.
• Godric strengthened Fletcher Village’s defenses and trained Charles’s recruits as the Red Arrow Longbowmen.
• Godric, Charles, Ralph, and Raphael led the new archers into the hills, where they encountered more than a thousand brigands instead of Gatu raiders.

Li Ang was arrested and taken to Lion City, where King Ulrich’s court sought to seize the Wheat Fragrance Company under the pretext of treason. After Igor’s demand failed, Li Ang remained imprisoned, confident the secret chamber could not hold him if he chose to escape.

• Li Ang allowed the Lion Knight Order to escort him to Seven Forks Fortress while Risadiran secretly followed them.
• Sir Rayman warned Li Ang that King Ulrich had ordered him killed if he resisted, then offered him a chance to escape; Li Ang refused because he would not flee as a supposed traitor.
• The Royal City Guard took Li Ang to a secret chamber in the palace, where Igor questioned him about Emperor Marius’s title and his trip to Bacchus territory.
• Igor revealed that King Ulrich wanted the Wheat Fragrance Company, and Li Ang explained that he could not simply hand over the jointly owned, financially interconnected business.
• Igor left after Li Ang refused to surrender the company, and Li Ang inspected the chamber before settling down, believing he could break out if necessary.

Madam Philina revealed that King Ulrich was extorting nobles to fund a hunt for Noldo maidens, hoping their blood would cure his worsening hereditary illness. She also told Li Ang that his mother was part Noldo and that he inherited Noldo blood, leaving him to suspect the Three Prophets had sought the same bloodline for the Mad King before Igor interrupted them.

• Madam Philina visited Li Ang in secret, gave him Amy's message and a bottle from Miss Lesley, and warned him not to confess to treason.
• Philina recounted that Ulrich was suffering from the same illness as the Mad King and was hiring adventurers to capture noble Noldo maidens for the Three Prophets' potion.
• Li Ang realized Ulrich had targeted his wealth to finance the hunt, while Philina confirmed that Noldo bloodlines were immune to disease, including Red Death.
• Philina revealed that Li Ang's mother, Helen, had Noldo ancestry and had survived a Red Death outbreak while helping villagers.
• Li Ang connected Helen's Noldo blood to the Mad King's past actions and wondered whether the Three Prophets had wanted Noldo descendants for Prince Alanric; Igor then entered and ordered Philina to leave.

While Li Ang waited in the Imperial Palace, Amy used a false report of a Bacchus Empire attack to force the kingdom to recognize the danger of detaining him. Elsewhere, Liwa risked her life to rescue Charles from the Crimson Brotherhood and collapsed after reaching him.

• Amy lit White Deer Fortress’s beacon and sent messengers for aid, presenting the treason rumor as a Bacchus Empire attack while Wheat Fragrance Territory moved supplies into the fortress.
• Godric and Charles were trapped on a hill by Duke Alma’s Crimson Brotherhood, while Alma captured Raphael and sent forces toward Ralph’s camp.
• Liwa lured Leofric’s cavalry toward the hill, drawing enemies away and giving Godric’s archers a chance to break out.
• When Charles was wounded and surrounded, Liwa charged into the enemy ranks and carved a path to him as her bandits followed.
• Charles fought back-to-back with Liwa until Godric’s men reached them and the Crimson Brotherhood fled.
• Liwa collapsed from her wounds after telling Charles to go, and Godric had her carried off the battlefield.