Chapter Summaries

Hudson’s expeditionary army defeated the Ancient Remnants Alliance, but a hidden altar’s explosion caused casualties and raised suspicions about who had planned it. Meanwhile, the Elves and the Alpha Kingdom reached a preliminary non-aggression agreement, which awaited the high-ranking officials’ signatures as an elf arrived with urgent news.

• The North Continent Allied Forces attacked the exhausted Ancient Remnants Alliance, whose troops faltered under a three-sided assault.
• Hudson confronted Delis, but she fled after Maxim intercepted her attack and the encirclement threatened to close around her.
• The Giant King ordered a retreat as the Ancient Remnants Alliance’s morale collapsed, while elderly elves surrendered under the Pact of Ten Thousand Races.
• Hudson ordered Beldens, Maxim, and the human experts to destroy a hidden altar, but its explosion killed hundreds and wounded over a thousand soldiers.
• Hudson suspected the Elves or members of the Ancient Remnants Alliance had arranged the altar, while negotiations between the Elves and the Alpha Kingdom reached a preliminary agreement.
• An elf rushed into the negotiation venue to report urgent news before the agreement could be formally signed.

Count Francis and Priest Meg agreed to sign a non-aggression treaty after the Ancient Remnants Alliance was defeated. Meanwhile, Hudson maneuvered to secure postwar gains in the Warhammer Kingdom for himself and the Moxi Duchy, and urged Rackel to win over commoner-led resistance forces by offering them noble titles.

• Priest Meg accused Count Francis of scheming after the allied forces were destroyed, but Count Francis argued that the battlefield outcome did not breach the unsigned treaty.
• Count Francis and Priest Meg agreed to sign the treaty, with the Alpha Kingdom set to withdraw from the Warhammer Great Plains while acknowledging it could not control local forces or other nations.
• Hudson faced competing demands from the Warhammer Kingdom's exiled nobles and resistance forces, while his secret arrangement with King George and Caesar IV aimed to divide the kingdom's territory among the Moxi Duchy, the royal house, and Hudson.
• Hudson told Rackel that the Moxi Duchy needed to secure control of cities before the expeditionary army withdrew, but warned him not to use the army to force the issue.
• Hudson advised Rackel to draw commoner-led resistance forces into the Moxi Duchy by granting them noble titles, then denied having proposed the idea directly.

Rackel reported Hudson’s hint to the Royal Capital, while the Moxi Duchy’s leaders considered using noble titles to draw Warhammer Kingdom powerholders into their expanding influence. Hudson signed a non-aggression treaty with the Elves and ordered his expeditionary army home; meanwhile, resistance forces attacked returning Warhammer leaders, leaving Marshal Borg to suspect a Moxi plot and struggle to find a viable king.

• Rackel reported Hudson’s hint to the Royal Capital, and Moxi officials discussed investing commoners and Warhammer leaders as nobles to help absorb the kingdom’s territory.
• Hudson signed the treaty with Delis, refused to release the Elven prisoners, and ordered the expeditionary army to break camp and return home.
• Baxter and the Tegusta Resistance Organization debated accepting the Moxi offer of noble titles in exchange for an ambush mission.
• Marshal Borg led his forces back toward the Warhammer Kingdom, where resistance fighters ambushed him and other returning nobles.
• After surviving the battle, Borg suspected the Moxi people had plotted against the Warhammer rulers and considered restoring the monarchy, but could not find a suitable candidate.

Hudson returned slowly with the loot-laden Expeditionary Army while the Alpha Kingdom struggled to contain a Beastfolk invasion of the Northern Frontier. In the Royal Capital, Caesar IV agreed to let Marquis James keep command temporarily, with Hudson expected to take over after the Expeditionary Army rested and reorganized.

• Hudson dismissed news that the Beastfolk had captured a hastily built defensive line, accepting the Kingdom Army's losses while expecting the enemy to keep advancing.
• Caesar IV learned that the Expeditionary Army would take about ten more days to reach the Royal Capital and declined to hurry its return.
• Grand Duke Newfoundland warned that thirteen counties had fallen and the Northern Seven Provinces might be lost within three to six months, while Marquis Delgado and Duke Affierro argued that the kingdom could not afford nationwide mobilization.
• Grand Duke Newfoundland proposed replacing Marquis James as commander, and Caesar IV agreed to let him remain in command until Hudson had rested and could take over.

Charles III decided that the Frankish Kingdom would abandon its Northern Continent exclaves, evacuate their people, and loosen trade restrictions while seeking an early end to the Continental War. Meanwhile, the Orc Empire prepared a decisive battle against the Alpha Kingdom before Hudson and the Expeditionary Corps arrived.

• The nations of the Human Alliance refused to commit substantial reinforcements against the advancing Elven army, leaving Charles III to weigh the Frankish Kingdom’s obligations to its Northern Continent lords.
• Duke Bergson advised Charles III to abandon the kingdom’s two exclaves, while Marquis Hesius urged him to end the Continental War before rival human powers could resolve their own conflicts.
• Charles III ordered the exclave lords to evacuate with their subjects, arranged naval transport for Northern Continent refugees, and authorized negotiations with the Elves and a relaxation of trade restrictions.
• The Orc Empire’s military reforms elevated Duke Daniel to commander-in-chief and heir of the Silvermoon Wolf Tribe after his successful campaign against the Alpha Kingdom’s defenses.
• Duke Daniel proposed a decisive battle before Hudson’s Expeditionary Corps arrived, aiming to recover the Orc Empire’s lost territory and severely weaken the Alpha Kingdom.

Hudson returned victorious to the capital, where Princess Madelena tried and failed to enlist his help in stopping a royal marriage alliance. Meanwhile, the Orc Empire launched a sweeping night raid on Alpha Kingdom’s northern rear, and Marquis James realized the enemy cavalry had crossed the defensive lines without returning.

• Caesar IV welcomed Hudson and the expeditionary army, whose victory had forged them into an elite force despite heavy casualties.
• Hudson left the banquet after Princess Madelena teased him, and she told her maid she had failed to persuade him to oppose her marriage alliance.
• Count Teoren discovered that enemy forces had attacked Purple Thistle Pass and set its strategic supplies ablaze, then led his guards into battle.
• Duke Daniel used Beastfolk cavalry and magic scrolls to attack Betelune Port as similar raids struck more than ten Alpha Kingdom strategic locations.
• Marquis James ordered heightened vigilance, then learned that enemy cavalry had crossed the lines at Bogusburg and suddenly realized the danger.

Duke Daniel’s Beastfolk forces raided Betelune Port and supply depots across the Northern Frontier, leaving Alpha Kingdom’s front-line army short of supplies. At court, Hudson refused to replace Marquis James immediately and proposed land bonds to finance the war, which Caesar IV approved for an initial issue.

• Duke Daniel ordered his troops to destroy Betelune Port and withdraw while Beastfolk cavalry elsewhere pulled back after burning strategic supplies and capturing Purple Thistle Pass.
• Caesar IV received reports of nearly thirty thousand Kingdom Army casualties, the destruction of Betelune Port, and the loss of seventy percent of the kingdom’s front-line strategic supplies.
• Hudson urged the court to restore transport, consider contracting the front, evacuate civilians, and allow border nobles’ forces to withdraw with the main army.
• Duke Newfoundland proposed removing Marquis James and appointing Hudson as commander, but Hudson declined to leave the Expeditionary Corps before it had rested and replenished.
• Hudson proposed land bonds backed by land on the Orc Great Plains, with minor and middle-ranking nobles prioritized for fiefs after victory, and argued that the plan would help fund the war.
• Caesar IV approved issuing an initial batch of land bonds after the ministers raised no objections.

Hudson led the Alpha Kingdom’s nobles in converting debts and wealth into land bonds to ease the kingdom’s wartime finances, while the Five Great Emperors debated how far the Orc Empire should continue its offensive. Back in Mountain Territory, Hudson investigated a decline in immigrant arrivals and ordered officials to prioritize settling the refugees already there.

• Hudson subscribed to six million mu in land bonds and converted his kingdom bonds and government debts into them, prompting Caesar IV and the ministers to contribute as well.
• The Lion Emperor argued that the Orc Empire should protect its remaining interests rather than seek to destroy the Alpha Kingdom, but Duke Daniel urged the emperors to maintain the offensive and inflict a heavy blow.
• Hudson questioned Jacob about the drop in immigrants, and Jacob explained that fewer refugees were available as the Warhammer Great Plains recovered and neighboring nobles competed for settlers.
• Hudson ordered Tom to obtain the latest Northern Continent war reports and directed the Department of Political Affairs to resettle immigrants and find work for them.

Alexander V struggled to organize a Central Continent response to the elven advance while Hudson prepared to exploit the Black Forest Kingdom’s wartime crisis for refugees. Recalled to the Royal Capital amid mounting defeats, Hudson demanded a hundred thousand reinforcements, and Duke Affierro questioned whether that would be enough.

• Alexander V accepted that the Alpha Kingdom and Moxi Duchy would not send troops and ordered efforts to form a Central Continent coalition.
• Marquis Krasna argued that the alliance’s major powers would not provide meaningful aid because they were pursuing their own interests.
• Hudson ordered the Immigration Office to covertly bring refugees from the Black Forest Kingdom to the Mountain Territory, using bribes if necessary.
• The kingdom recalled Hudson to replace Marquis James as commander after hundreds of noble lords petitioned for a change.
• Hudson demanded five Standing Army legions and five newly recruited legions for the front, but Duke Affierro asked why they would not send two hundred thousand troops.

Hudson took command of the front and held the Alpha Kingdom’s forces behind their fortified defenses, leaving the Beastfolk army trapped in a month-long standoff. After reinforcements arrived, he reorganized the forces and kept five standing legions as a reserve, then asked Count Oran what he wanted to discuss.

• Hudson took over command from Marquis James, reassured him, and ordered the army to maintain a stable defensive posture.
• The Beastfolk army and the Alpha Kingdom’s defenders remained in a standoff for more than a month, straining the Beastfolk’s supplies and camp conditions.
• Duke Daniel urged patience, while Behemoth Emperor Alex warned that the Continental War and possible Moxi intervention could worsen the Orc Empire’s position.
• Hudson’s reinforcements arrived after intensive training, and he ordered five recruited legions distributed among existing units while forming five standing legions into a reserve Seventh Army Group under his command.
• After the other generals left, Hudson asked Count Oran why he had stayed behind.

Hudson rejected the Northern Aristocrats’ demand for a decisive battle, citing the kingdom’s logistical limits, while the beastfolk’s attempts to draw the Kingdom Army out also failed. The stalemate ended when Daniel learned that more than ten thousand human cavalry had landed at Behemoth Port and were devastating the beastfolk rear, prompting the Five Great Emperors to accept his command.

• Count Oran asked Hudson to fight a decisive battle, but Hudson refused to let the refugees’ hardship influence his military decisions and offered only limited help with rising prices.
• Hudson told the Northern lords they could send refugees home, explaining that the army could not advance until its logistical problems were resolved.
• Two months later, Daniel’s officers and allies grew impatient as the Kingdom Army continued to ignore the beastfolk’s provocations, and Daniel proposed a feigned flanking maneuver to lure the enemy out.
• Alex urged the Five Great Emperors to support Daniel by describing the Alien Race Alliance’s gains on the central continent.
• A messenger reported that human cavalry had landed at Behemoth Port and ravaged the grasslands, and Daniel urged the emperors to conceal the news and act under his plan.

Hudson directed the Expeditionary Corps to devastate the Orc Empire’s rear, destroying tribes and creating chaos while Beastfolk leaders struggled to respond. With supplies and the Empire’s foundations threatened, Daniel took fifty thousand cavalry to confront Hudson, leaving the front under the emperors’ command.

• Gareth and his Eaglefolk squad found the Kagu Tribe destroyed, then were ambushed by reanimated corpses; the middle-aged company commander escaped with Gareth after most of the squad died.
• Hudson ordered his commanders to divide their forces and keep striking tribes that had not yet gathered, while the Expeditionary Corps continued wrecking the Orc Empire’s production and supplies.
• The Beastfolk high command debated the contradictory reports of massacres, refugees, Undead, and tribal gatherings as the threat to the rear and the supply crisis grew.
• The Lion Emperor warned that the Empire might run out of food and fodder, and Daniel proposed returning to the grasslands with fifty thousand cavalry to defeat Hudson’s force.
• The Silver Moon Wolf Emperor gave Daniel command of the rear troops and ordered him to destroy the invading force and, if possible, kill Hudson.

After the Central Continent coalition collapsed, Alexander V faced the Black Forest Kingdom’s weak mobilization and seized the crisis as an opening for political reform, while seeking foreign aid. On the grasslands, Hudson exploited Beastfolk migration and learned their reinforcements had split up, ordering his commanders to strike migrating tribes but avoid a decisive battle with the reinforcements.

• Count Nicholas reported that the Elves-led coalition had defeated the allied forces, leaving the Black Forest Kingdom exposed and short of troops.
• Count Nicholas explained that the kingdom could assemble twenty legions and proposed withdrawing five more from the Stone People Race front to defend its cities.
• Count Nicholas and Duke Milton blamed the kingdom’s slow mobilization on its cumbersome procedures and the Noble Council’s veto powers.
• Alexander V used the crisis to call for administrative reform, while Duke Milton and Marquis Krasna redirected attention toward securing foreign aid.
• Hudson used undead creatures to contaminate grasslands and water sources, forcing Beastfolk tribes to migrate and weakening their camps.
• After learning the Beastfolk had split their forces, Hudson ordered his commanders to attack migrating tribes and avoid a decisive battle with the reinforcements.

Charles III’s government planned to use the Central Continent crisis to secure immigrants and strengthen the Frankish Kingdom, while Hudson anticipated a continental joint army and moved his forces to avoid a decisive battle. Duke Daniel discovered that the Alpha Kingdom’s attacks had repeatedly spawned Undead and decided to use the news to damage its standing with the Dawn Holy See.

• Charles III ordered the Foreign Affairs Department to push for a joint army and set a goal of bringing refugees from the Central Continent into the Frankish Kingdom.
• Hudson concluded that a continental joint army was imminent and ordered his troops to bypass the beastfolk reinforcements and raid tribes to the east.
• Duke Daniel arrived at the abandoned battlefield too late to catch the Expeditionary Corps and ordered his troops to destroy the newly risen Undead.
• Daniel learned that this was the seventh encounter with Undead created after the enemy slaughtered a tribe and blamed Hudson for bringing Undead Mages.
• Daniel decided to publicize the Alpha Kingdom’s use of Undead to worsen its relationship with the Dawn Holy See and hinder its access to Alliance aid.

The Expeditionary Corps continued devastating Beastfolk tribes as Duke Daniel confronted the Orc Empire’s infighting and crushing supply burdens. Meanwhile, the Black Forest Kingdom debated Elven peace terms after losing two provinces, but the demand to connect alien territories threatened its strategic position.

• Hudson ordered the Expeditionary Corps to regroup and carve a bloody path southwest after slaughtering a Beastfolk coalition.
• Duke Daniel’s troops captured Leopardmen who had killed Boarmen, and Daniel ordered the Leopardmen beheaded after their leader cited heavy grain quotas and food shortages.
• Alexander V berated the Black Forest Kingdom’s military leaders after the kingdom lost two provinces to the Elves.
• Marquis Krasna revealed that the Elves had offered peace talks and demanded a land exchange linking alien territories.
• Count Nicholas opposed the demand, while Count Baxterstrom and Duke Milton argued that negotiations were necessary given the kingdom’s military weakness.
• Marquis Krasna circulated the Elven letter, which threatened to destroy first any nation that opposed the proposal.

The Black Forest Kingdom's leaders considered how to stall the Elves' demands while their military position remained precarious. Meanwhile, humanity captured the Ghoul Royal City at enormous cost, shifting the Continental War further in humanity's favor as Hudson prepared for trouble on the road home.

• Alexander V asked how long the Black Forest Kingdom could resist if the Elves focused their forces on it, and Count Nicholas warned that it could not hold out much longer.
• Duke Milton advised Alexander V to negotiate with the Elves to buy time and coordinate with neighboring kingdoms, and Alexander V agreed.
• Human forces breached the Ghoul Royal City's walls and fought for seventeen days before wiping out its defenders, at a cost of eight hundred thousand lives.
• King Bordeaux VIII received the costly victory report, while news of the Ghoul Royal City's fall encouraged humanity's forces across the continent.
• Hudson ordered scouts to build beacon towers and await his command, anticipating that the Orc Empire would act as the war's balance shifted against the Alien Race Alliance.

Hudson’s Expeditionary Corps attacked and devastated a large Behemoth tribe before Duke Daniel’s cavalry could arrive. With the enemy closing in, Hudson ordered the corps to destroy supplies, handle the corpses, and retreat south.

• Hudson learned of a migrating Behemoth tribe and led the Expeditionary Corps to attack it.
• Duke Daniel received reports that the tribe was under attack and ordered the cavalry to ride to its rescue.
• Hudson killed key Behemoth fighters with cursed arrows as the Expeditionary Corps overwhelmed the tribe.
• Daniel asked Tito and the Venerable Council to capture Hudson, but accepted that killing him would suffice.
• When scouts reported enemy cavalry approaching, Hudson ordered his troops to destroy the tribe’s supplies, contaminate corpses if needed, and withdraw south with their casualties.

Hudson’s Expeditionary Corps unexpectedly clashed with a Beastfolk cavalry force and routed it before Daniel could bring reinforcements. The battle left the Beastfolk army devastated and appeared to awaken a Military Soul in Hudson’s troops, while Daniel faced the task of explaining the defeat to the emperors.

• Duke Daniel turned his cavalry back to rescue the infantry corps, while Hudson discovered a Beastfolk force approaching his Expeditionary Corps.
• The Expeditionary Corps met the Beastfolk cavalry on the grasslands and gained the upper hand as tribal rivalries and Eaglemen losses weakened the enemy’s coordination.
• Daniel halted his army amid misleading signal smoke and ordered the Eaglemen to scout, delaying his response to the battle.
• Hudson’s troops broke the Beastfolk force, pursued its fleeing soldiers, and inflicted at least thirty thousand casualties before withdrawing at nightfall.
• Daniel received news of the defeat too late, blamed the Eaglemen’s failures in part, and summoned the five corps commanders for a meeting.

Hudson ordered the Expeditionary Corps to retreat after explaining that destroying the Orc Empire would leave the Alpha Kingdom weakened and exposed to its rivals. The beastfolk struggled to decide how to pursue, giving Hudson’s force time to travel hundreds of li; as the corps neared the front lines, an officer asked whether they should take a detour.

• Hudson rejected his officers’ proposal to destroy the remaining beastfolk cavalry and ordered the Expeditionary Corps to withdraw the next day.
• Duke Daniel asked his generals for advice after learning that fifty thousand beastfolk cavalry had been wiped out, and they agreed not to divide their forces.
• Duke Daniel ordered nearby tribes to strengthen their defenses while the Expeditionary Corps traveled several hundred li without revealing its whereabouts.
• The Five Great Emperors blamed one another and refused to take sole responsibility for pursuing Hudson, so the Silver Moon Wolf Emperor proposed sending their forces together.
• The Expeditionary Corps approached the front line, and an officer asked Hudson whether they should take a detour.

Hudson’s Expeditionary Corps camped while the Orc Empire’s emperors weighed an ambush against their worsening logistical crisis. Meanwhile, the three Central Continent kingdoms negotiated a ceasefire with the Alien Race Alliance, but the talks stalled over demands that would force them to abandon their core lands.

• Hudson ordered the Expeditionary Corps to establish camp and assess the beastfolk forces before acting.
• Alex and the other emperors discussed the risks of attacking the Expeditionary Corps, then agreed to feign a troop withdrawal and lure the enemy into battle.
• The alien allied forces advanced across the Central Continent, prompting the Black Forest Kingdom, the Dante Kingdom, and the South Bank Kingdom to seek negotiations.
• The Alien Race Alliance demanded territorial terms that would effectively force the three kingdoms to relocate, and Count Bruno and Marquis Pierluigi rejected them.
• Marquis Krasna offered territorial concessions and proposed using the Alpha Kingdom’s treatment as a reference, but Delis rejected the comparison and negotiations remained deadlocked.