Chapter Summaries

Alina decided to marry Li Ang to secure Bacchus’s future and push through a constitution, while Li Ang investigated Gatu forces moving through the kingdom. The Gatu had left settlements untouched and were migrating in large numbers, so Li Ang sent Raphael to negotiate as he gathered troops.

• Alina told Justus she intended to marry Li Ang to protect Bacchus and establish a constitution, and said Amy had agreed to meet her in Lion City.
• Li Ang reached Long River City and learned that a Gatu force with at least four thousand horses had entered the kingdom but had not attacked any settlements.
• Ols explained that the Owl Knight Order had lost track of the Gatu near Goddess Mountain after they bypassed towns and avoided pursuit.
• Raphael reported that a vast Gatu migration was camped between Lion Lake City and Fletcher, probably led by Zakar’s tribe.
• Li Ang weighed the kingdom’s limited forces, ordered troops summoned, and sent Raphael to communicate with the Gatu as his special envoy.

Raphael and Sigismund escorted Li Ang’s valuable gifts to meet the Gatu warlord Zakar, while Raphael reflected on Zakar’s honor and reforms. Sigismund discovered Zakar and his hidden warriors, then invited him to dinner with Li Ang, prompting Zakar to question how Li Ang could reach them in time.

• Raphael recalled Li Ang’s orders to deliver gifts to the Gatu people and recognized his new role as Li Ang’s Oath Knight.
• Raphael told Sigismund that Zakar was an honorable warlord who led by example, adopted foreign equipment, and sought to reform the Gatu people.
• Sigismund reasoned that the Gatu people’s hidden presence without raiding meant they wanted to negotiate a major deal.
• Sigismund called out to Zakar, and more than a hundred camouflaged Gatu warriors emerged from the wilderness.
• Zakar revealed that he could speak Pendorian, and Sigismund invited him to dinner with Li Ang.
• Zakar asked where Li Ang was and how he could arrive before dinner, since it was already afternoon.

Li Ang met Zakar while disguised as a cavalryman and persuaded the Gatu warlord to host him, using gifts and a proposal for trade to discourage war. During their feast, Li Ang revealed he had guessed Zakar’s plan to attack Long River City and correctly identified where his hidden cavalry were stationed, leaving Zakar shocked.

• Li Ang revealed his identity to Zakar and accepted the warlord’s invitation to dinner at the Gatu camp.
• Li Ang accused Zakar of scouting Lion Lake City and preparing to conquer territory, then offered him carts of goods as gifts.
• At the camp, Li Ang proposed a trade zone in Fletcher where the Gatu could exchange sheep for supplies instead of raiding.
• Li Ang argued that Zakar could not hold the major towns and explained that an attack on Lion Lake City would draw troops away from Long River City.
• Li Ang told Zakar that he had hidden two thousand cavalry in Kewen Village, and Zakar was shocked that Li Ang had guessed correctly.

Li Ang bluffed Zakar into agreeing to withdraw and trade, then raced to turn the threat against the Gatu forces in Kewen Village into a real victory. Raphael captured Charles at Brave Shield Fortress, but Charles insisted he had not betrayed Li Ang and asked to face him in person.

• Li Ang deduced that Charles was cooperating with Zakar, then bluffed that he had already disrupted their plan and trapped the Gatu troops.
• Zakar agreed to withdraw and release his tribesmen in exchange for twenty thousand sheep, while Li Ang negotiated a mutual trade zone.
• Raphael rode ahead to Brave Shield Fortress, found the Horn Summon Ranger Corps gone, and knocked Charles unconscious before carrying him away.
• Li Ang returned to Long River City, appointed Leofric governor and commander of eastern military affairs, and sent troops to confront the Gatu force in Kewen Village.
• Raphael bound the awakened Charles and demanded an explanation; Charles said he had been forced into cooperating but had not betrayed Li Ang.

Li Ang trapped the Gatu people, negotiated a goat-for-goods trade with Zakar, and released the captives after the Gatu withdrew and delivered goats. The trade expanded under Andongjia, while Li Ang’s poisoned goods and goat-only exchange were designed to weaken and reshape the Gatu people over time.

• Li Ang left Dalion to contain the Gatu people in the Griffin Knights’ stronghold and learned that Charles had built a tomb and statue devoted to him; Dalion insisted Charles remained loyal, and Li Ang agreed to hear his explanation.
• Raphael reported that he had confined Charles at White Deer Fortress under guard, while Li Ang went to Fletcher to negotiate with Zakar.
• Li Ang and Zakar agreed to trade Gatu goats for goods at Fletcher, and Li Ang assigned Andongjia to manage the market.
• Half a month later, Zakar’s people delivered twenty thousand goats, and Li Ang released the trapped Gatu force as promised.
• Shazha reported that Zakar had defeated Judas, who died in battle, and absorbed his tribe; the Gatu people then submitted to Zakar and traded peacefully at Fletcher.
• Li Ang’s goat-only trade and harmful goods began steering the Gatu toward goat raising and dependence, with serious health and environmental consequences expected over time.

Sarah confronted Kadan and Emil Xixis at Martyr’s Fortress over their treatment of her father’s legacy and forced them to surrender to the New Kingdom of Pendor. After the kingdom stood down from war, Li Ang returned to White Deer Fortress, where his unexplained anxiety over Charles led him to order Charles confined until Wendy returned.

• Sarah summoned Kadan and Emil Xixis to Martyr’s Fortress, condemned them for letting Sharavan Sheikh bear the blame for Dexia’s defeat, and demanded they surrender to Li Ang.
• Kadan and Emil Xixis signed a surrender document after Sarah threatened that Li Ang would retaliate if she died in Dexia.
• Li Ang divided Dexia into the Earldoms of Narda, Toba, and Dexia, appointing Kadan, Emil Xixis, and Sarah as their respective earls and limiting the brothers’ forces.
• On October 16th, 358, the Gatu people had withdrawn, Dexia had become part of the New Kingdom of Pendor, and Li Ang declared the kingdom stood down from war readiness.
• After meeting Charles at White Deer Fortress, Li Ang ordered Risadiran Aino to confine Charles in the fortress bank until Wendy returned, while remaining troubled by an unspecified problem.

Charles explained that divine dreams had led him to let the Gatu enter Lion Territory, while Li Ang realized Eunomia had been trying to eliminate him as a possible future god. Li Ang decided to wait for Wendy to return before attempting to contact Eunomia from his soul space, and locked himself in the bank vault with Charles in the meantime.

• Charles told Li Ang that Eunomia's statue had warned him against an otherworldly evil spirit, after which he dreamed of events in Li Ang's life and received instructions from a younger-looking version of Li Ang.
• Charles said he had obeyed the dream's order to cooperate with Zakar and let the Gatu enter through Noldo Forest, while restraining them from looting Lion Territory.
• Li Ang realized that Eunomia's warning referred to his own soul and that she had used Charles's prophetic dreams to make the Gatu threaten Long River City.
• Li Ang concluded that Eunomia feared he might become another Kavala and wanted to stop his conquest before he gained enough faith to become a god.
• Li Ang chose to wait for Wendy to return so she could summon Maltis before he opened his soul space to communicate with Eunomia, and he locked himself in the bank vault with Charles.

Amy, Wendy, and Alina planned a royal marriage that would preserve Bacchus’s independence and bind the nations through a new currency bearing Alina and Li Ang’s portraits. Meanwhile, Eunomia confronted Li Ang and demanded that he leave Pande Continent, threatening to erase everything about him if he refused.

• Amy urged Alina to marry Li Ang, and Alina explained that Bacchus had to remain an equal, independent nation.
• Amy and Wendy proposed using the new currency, marked with Alina and Li Ang’s portraits, as a betrothal gift that established their equal sovereignty.
• Amy ordered the three queens’ wealth sent to Pande Bank so the mint could produce currency across the continent.
• Charles gave Li Ang a silver pendant bearing the Goddess of Order’s statue after it spoke to him, and Eunomia used it to tell Li Ang to return to Buckley.
• Li Ang refused to leave Pande Continent, and Eunomia warned that she would erase everything about him.

Li Ang rejected Eunomia’s claim over his fate and decided to oppose her by becoming a God of Wealth, whose followers would prosper through their own work and abilities. When Wendy returned to White Deer Fortress, he found that New Currency bearing his portrait was already circulating and that merchants had begun treating him as a god of wealth; he then assigned Charles to establish Fortress of Wealth at Seven Forks.

• Li Ang denounced Eunomia’s control over fate, declared her his enemy, and cut her silver idol in two.
• Li Ang resolved to become a God of Wealth and explained that true wealth came from work, creation, trade, and using one’s abilities rather than expecting free riches.
• Risadiran kept Li Ang in the underground warehouse until Wendy returned to White Deer Fortress in early November with Amy and precious metals for Pande Bank.
• Li Ang learned that Amy had begun trial circulation of new ten-denar silver coins bearing his and Alina’s portraits, and merchants had nicknamed the coins Kings and started worshipping Li Ang as a God of Wealth.
• Li Ang cleared Charles of the charge of collaborating with the Gatu people and appointed him to build and guard Fortress of Wealth at the former site of Seven Forks Fortress.

Risadiran Aino described Li Ang’s plan to end poverty across the New Kingdom of Pendor, while Li Ang assessed the people and problems his five-year plan would need to address. The chapter ended with Li Ang turning to the large refugee population gathered near Lion City.

• Risadiran Aino recounted how Li Ang and Wendy organized paid workers to clear ash from frozen Lake Alaclay and explained Li Ang’s goal of ending poverty through work.
• Risadiran Aino recalled his own experience of poverty and noted that Sir Roland had sworn loyalty to Li Ang’s ambition.
• Li Ang made eliminating poverty within five years a national policy and sent noncommissioned officers to explain the plan across his territories.
• Li Ang identified housing as the main problem for poor residents of Long River City and proposed row houses, cheap rentals, and guaranteed housing loans.
• Li Ang reviewed the Duchy of Lionheart’s population and learned that at least 300,000 people unable to support themselves had gathered near Lion City.

Amy resettled displaced people around Lion City by giving farmers reclaimed fields and city guards estate buildings, while Li Ang addressed food security and poverty through trade, loans, and the planned Fortress of Wealth. The chapter ends with Li Ang’s effort to employ the jobless by clearing ice at Lake Alaclay running into a major problem.

• Amy distributed former noble estates’ buildings to city guards and assigned reclaimed farmland to displaced farmers, who paid a fixed grain tax per acre.
• Li Ang identified the risks of relying on a few staple crops and of farmers being unable to sell their harvests for cash.
• Li Ang sent Lesley to Mistveil City to acquire businesses and gather merchants around her as part of his plan to destabilize Fieltzwe’s economy.
• Li Ang planned grain-purchasing stations and a trading and logistics hub at the Fortress of Wealth to help farmers sell diverse produce and find other work.
• Charles began building the Fortress of Wealth according to Li Ang’s blueprint.
• Li Ang sent unemployed people to clear ice and trash at Lake Alaclay, but the simple job caused a major problem.

After Alaclay’s invisibility array failed just after the humans cleared Lake Alaclay, Li Ang and Wendy investigated the magic tower and found its magic source still functioning. Li Ang suspected Wendy’s awakening had disrupted the array, and he wondered whether Alice might also gain divine power from the coins bearing her portrait.

• Alaclay suddenly appeared when its invisibility array failed, shocking the elves and the humans gathered by Lake Alaclay.
• Li Ang sent the human workers to the forest market and suspected the Ring of the Supreme King at the bottom of the lake might be connected to the failure.
• Li Ang and Wendy inspected the magic tower and found no damage or sign of intrusion, while the Dragon Tear continued to glow normally.
• Wendy determined that the array’s magic was circulating but could not be released, and Li Ang compared the effect to magic suppression.
• Li Ang theorized that Wendy’s blood circuits had stopped functioning because she was awakening through Faith Power from coins bearing her portrait.
• Li Ang wondered whether Alice might also become a “Horse God” because her portrait appeared on Dirham coins.

Li Ang learned that Eunomia was guiding him toward godhood so she could have his soul exiled and turn Amy and Wendy into her messengers, and Kavala offered to help stop her. Months later, Li Ang and Kavala prepared to destroy Eunomia’s Supreme King Ring while Long River City’s square honored the people who had served its inhabitants.

• Kavala told Li Ang that becoming a god would violate the Creator God’s rule against occupying another person’s body, allowing Eunomia to have him exiled and replace his soul with Leon’s.
• Kavala warned Li Ang that Eunomia intended to manipulate Amy and Wendy into becoming her messengers, and he revealed that images on coins could be used to gather faith.
• Li Ang realized Eunomia had likely influenced Amy to put portraits on the coins and had also arranged for Alina’s portrait to appear with his.
• Kavala renewed his offer to help Li Ang avoid exile and defeat Eunomia, and Li Ang cooperated with him.
• Several months later, Long River City displayed statues of the world’s deities and deceased heroes around a central group of ordinary people, honoring those who had sought the people’s well-being.
• Kavala and Malbert prepared to destroy Eunomia’s Supreme King Ring; Kavala promised to make Malbert the abyss’s new gatekeeper and free him from his soul contract.

Li Ang tried to destroy Eunomia's codex by releasing the griffin beneath Lake Alaclay, while planning to redirect worship of the God of Wealth toward Amy, Wendy, Alina, and Alice. When the statue broke free from its chain, Li Ang waited helplessly as Kavala and Malbert faced the griffin underwater and failed to return.

• Risadiran Aino recounted how a statue of Kavala vanished from a chain in Lake Alaclay, after which His Majesty planned an annual Merman Festival.
• Li Ang recognized that his growing Faith Power could make him a god, so he planned to shift worship toward Amy, Wendy, Alina, and Alice and take on unpopular work himself.
• Li Ang arranged for Kloze and John to help prepare a ship and a five-hundred-meter chain for the attempt to destroy Eunomia's codex.
• Li Ang lowered Kavala's statue into Lake Alaclay, triggering a violent disturbance that likely freed the griffin.
• Li Ang discovered the statue had detached from the chain and waited through the afternoon, but Kavala, Malbert, and the griffin did not reappear.

Li Ang learned that Kavala had sealed Griffins but had been left with a shattered soul, then planned ways to monitor the lake and weaken gods by redirecting faith toward human achievements. The chapter ended with Pendor Academy opening in Long River City on the day of Li Ang and Alina’s upcoming wedding.

• Li Ang contacted Althea with a Dragon Tear and learned Kavala, Malbert, and Griffins had returned to the temple, though Kavala’s soul was badly damaged.
• Althea explained that Griffins had broken out of Kavala’s weak soul space after Kavala trapped it, leaving Kavala a fragmented soul unable to bear Faith Power for a long time.
• Li Ang declared April 1st the Merman Festival and arranged for Risadiran to release a fish carrying a King's Coin each year so visitors would watch Lake Alaclay and stimulate its economy.
• Li Ang planned to weaken false gods by encouraging people to commemorate heroes and judge worship by what a figure had actually contributed to society.
• Disabled Noldo Elves hung a plaque for Pendor Academy at Long River City’s former inner fortress gate, and the school was set to begin accepting students on May 10th, Li Ang and Alina’s wedding day.

Li Ang was crowned Emperor of the Pande during his wedding to Alina, while the New Pendor Empire displayed its military strength to visiting rulers. With Fieltzwe collapsing under economic crisis and famine, Amy prepared to use Pendor’s grain reserves to pressure its leaders, and Li Ang ended by offering the gathered rulers a chance to get rich.

• On May 10th, 359 Pendor Calendar, armies gathered outside Long River City for Li Ang and Alina’s wedding and Li Ang’s coronation.
• Amy, Wendy, and Alice crowned Li Ang Emperor of the Pande, making his rank equal to Alina’s imperial title.
• Lesley bought businesses in Mistveil City with more than six hundred thousand Old Dinar, and the sellers fled with their money, leaving the city without necessities and facing extreme inflation.
• Amy prepared to use Pendor’s abundant grain reserves to rescue Fieltzwe and persuade Vidis or one of its factions to surrender.
• Vidis, Ursula, and Gregory IV watched the military parade and wedding as Li Ang asked them whether they wanted to get rich.

At his wedding banquet, Li Ang proposed a World Peacekeeping Force and used its protection and access to grain to broker political settlements and trade deals with the continent’s rulers. He ended by announcing that the force would escort a hundred million pounds of grain to Cliff Bay for trade.

• Li Ang told the rulers that poverty and migration were straining his empire, then proposed a joint New Pendor–Bacchus World Peacekeeping Force and invited their forces to join.
• Li Ang offered to divide the former Raven Territory between Ursula and Gregory IV, recognizing the Falcon Kingdom in the east and the Raven Kingdom in the west.
• Li Ang offered Vidis support against the rebels in Cliff Bay but warned that his pirate fleet would have to be cleared of pirates.
• Ursula and Gregory accepted Li Ang’s proposed spheres of influence, while Vidis considered his terms.
• Li Ang offered to barter grain for sheep and minerals from Raven Territory and ships and seafood from Fieltzwe, in exchange for their participation in the Peacekeeping Force.
• Li Ang announced that the force would escort a first shipment of one hundred million pounds of grain to Cliff Bay for trade.

Li Ang deployed the Peacekeeping Force to Cliff Bay, where its military pressure helped dismantle the New Vanskery Alliance and force Fieltzwe into a food-for-ships trade. He also arranged a ceasefire and divided Raven Territory into rival kingdoms whose lords and troops became dependent on his force, leaving control of the region uncertain.

• Li Ang assembled seven legions and the Noldo Guard into a Peacekeeping Force representing the Pande Empire’s major groups, with knight orders attached as mutual checks.
• The Peacekeeping Force’s arrival at Cliff Bay caused the New Vanskery Alliance to collapse; Hakon and Haraven fled, Horosga surrendered, and Hakon and Haraven were killed after being intercepted.
• King Vidis traded more than sixty large ships to Li Ang for food, while Li Ang reorganized Fieltzwe’s forces into the Eighth Legion under officers loyal to him.
• King Gregory and Queen Ursula signed a ceasefire at Cliff Bay, dividing Raven Territory between the Raven Kingdom and Falcon Kingdom.
• Li Ang placed Raven and Falcon forces into the Ninth and Tenth Legions and drew their rival lords into the Peacekeeping Force, making the balance of power in Raven Territory uncertain.

Five years after Mistveil City’s upheavals, Andrew retired as mayor and traveled toward Long River City with his son Ryan and Bieber. As they discussed Li Ang’s rule and the people who prospered under it, Ryan began to understand how much the emperor’s choices had shaped their lives.

• Andrew delivered his final speech as Mistveil City’s mayor and left for Long River City with Ryan and Bieber.
• Andrew explained that Mistveil City’s first term had been easy because Li Ang’s policies had driven its recovery, while future growth depended on capable officials.
• Bieber told Ryan that Li Ang had helped ordinary people like him rise from poverty and described his past with the Drunkards’ Brigade.
• Ryan recalled how Alaric’s brewery grew into a continent-wide success with help from Amy and Alina, and Bieber praised the queens’ influence.
• Andrew told Ryan that Li Ang decided who would become a goddess, leaving Ryan to consider why the goddesses gathered around the emperor.

Ryan recounted how Amy’s generosity and his good fortune led him from the Pendor Imperial Academy to a career as a historical editor, then brought him to Fortress of Wealth to interview Li Ang. He reached Li Ang with Alice’s help, but the emperor demanded payment before answering Ryan’s questions.

• At eleven, Ryan was caught reading Memoirs of a Pendor Officer, and Amy gave him a cartload of books instead of scolding him.
• Ryan’s knowledge from Amy’s books helped him graduate, secure a position at the Imperial Institute of Literature and History, and become the head of its historical editing group.
• Ryan traveled from Long River City to Fortress of Wealth to ask Li Ang about disputed events and questions in the empire’s history.
• After Ryan arrived, Alice recognized him and led him to Li Ang, who greeted him and asked after his father, Andrew.
• Li Ang joked that he had not received his salary for fifteen years, and Risadiran advised him to wait until Alina oversaw the treasury.
• Li Ang told Ryan that the interview would require extra payment because his questions would be troublesome.