Chapter Summaries

Romain used the gold he had acquired to reduce his reliance on Magic Stones and began enhancing the attributes of his army’s leaders. He planned to raise hundreds of apostles to extraordinary ranks by next spring, confident that the Origin Codex’s blessings would explain their sudden improvement.

• Romain considered the difficulty of forging extraordinary materials and concluded that he needed to improve his mineral veins and mining capacity for future wars.
• Gold mining reduced Romain’s demand for Magic Stones by roughly sevenfold, giving him enough resources to enhance more than a hundred apostles.
• Romain selected Company Captains and Squad Leaders and raised different attributes to suit their troop types.
• Romain planned to train and improve at least three hundred apostles to the first rank by next spring, while increasing their training and nutrition.
• Romain dismissed concerns that the apostles’ transformations would attract attention, arguing that the Origin Codex’s blessings explained them and urging the others to reflect on their loyalty and training.

Morey learned that the Perea Family had been branded as accomplices of witches and decided to leave Origin City when spring came. He told Romain that the family was a scapegoat for powerful forces supporting Witch Forest, then began explaining the origins of its earliest witches.

• A merchant told Morey that a witch had escaped after attacking the Holy City and that the Perea Family had been exposed for sheltering witches and stealing the Oak Family's inheritance.
• Morey returned to Origin Manor and reflected on the Perea Family's collapse and the orderly, rapidly growing community in Origin City.
• Morey asked Romain to let him leave when spring began, explaining that his father's fate and the Perea Family's ties to witches were driving his decision.
• Morey told Romain that the Perea Family was a scapegoat and that many powerful forces had secretly supported Witch Forest.
• Morey explained that Witch Forest's earliest witches had been raised in the palace during the Conqueror's era and escaped before the Church could seize them.

Romain learned how Witch Forest began and agreed to help Morey search for the surviving witches, while setting strict conditions for their aid. He then returned to planning Origin City's personnel transfers and worrying over its lack of capable administrators.

• Romain learned that the Conqueror had inspired the witches with the saying that a single tree did not make a forest, which became both Witch Forest's name and the Perea Family motto.
• Morey explained that he felt bound to help the witches despite the danger, and Romain offered him a ship and guards to travel in disguise as a merchant.
• Romain told Morey to bring back the witches if he found them, but required them to stay hidden and negotiate compensation for his help.
• Morey accepted Romain's conditions and left to prepare for his search.
• Romain returned to planning Origin City's promotions and appointments, since Seth, Niriel, and his War Knights could not handle the administrative work.

Romain reorganized his administration, promoting residents while strengthening protections for human rights and requiring officials to answer to the people. He reassigned Hans and Germann to establish a court, then headed to the military camp.

• Romain established promotion quotas and administrative ranks, advancing candidates from humble backgrounds into clerical posts.
• Romain tasked Jimmy with explaining residents’ fundamental rights and warned that administrators had to uphold the law and serve the residents.
• Romain summoned Hans and Germann and told them he needed a court and two judges.
• Romain required the judges to give opposing verdicts, with nine randomly selected observers voting on which judgment to follow.
• Romain raised Hans and Germann’s salaries to three Silver Coins a month and went to the military camp.

Romain inspected his growing army in the final month of winter and reviewed the training and command structure he had built in preparation for war with Gale. The troops performed disciplined formation drills, and the chapter ended with the infantry advancing a hundred meters without breaking ranks.

• Romain reviewed military expenses, troop strength, and the commanders leading his infantry brigades and specialized units.
• Aaron, Green, and the other brigade leaders reported their formations present for inspection.
• Romain watched the infantry, cavalry, shield troops, scouts, and archers demonstrate their discipline and readiness.
• The infantry advanced in formation, thrusting their spears and maintaining their ranks over a hundred meters.

Romain inspected his troops and rallied his officers to fight for the people, then appointed Jet as regiment commander and Dick as his deputy. With the army ready to advance, Romain turned his attention to the apostles’ Job Change.

• Luca led two hundred cavalry past the infantry during a drill, and Romain was pleased that the recruits held their formation.
• Romain reviewed the shield soldiers and archers, then concluded that the army was strong enough for the coming battle.
• Romain urged the noncommissioned officers to protect oppressed people and fight the nobles, promising glory and blessings to those who died for him.
• Romain appointed Jet regiment commander and Dick deputy regiment commander, establishing Jet as the army’s overall commander.
• Romain left the military camp and began considering the apostles’ Job Change.

Romain considered how to use Job Changes to strengthen his troops, while Gale’s failed attempt to win him over led him to mobilize for war. Unaware of Gale’s plans, Romain surveyed peat bogs and weighed the need to reclaim more land to feed his growing population.

• Romain planned Job Changes for his troops, assigning each unit type a profession and focusing its attribute improvements.
• Gale sent Romain a conciliatory letter urging him to unite with the family, but Romain did not reply.
• After receiving no response, Gale began mobilizing his army to destroy Romain, whom he regarded as a rebel.
• Romain surveyed land near Sigg Town and concluded that its existing farmland would not feed the growing population.
• Romain examined the peat bogs, noting that excavated peat could provide fertilizer for farmland and fuel once dried.

Romain surveyed the swamplands and planned a massive project to drain and reclaim farmland as part of Origin City's expansion. After sending Morey away to search for the Witch, Romain set ambitious goals for his third year and recognized that war threatened the stability development required.

• Romain spent more than ten days surveying the swamps and mapping where to drain, reclaim, and protect the land.
• After returning to Origin Manor, Romain learned that Gale had declared war on him and arranged for Morey to leave before fighting began.
• Romain escorted Morey to the docks, warned him to prioritize safety, and sent him off with ten veteran soldiers.
• As the ship carried him away, Morey overcame his fear and resolved to live up to his father's judgment.
• Romain planned to build two towns and five Farming Grounds, grow Origin City's population beyond seventy thousand, expand the army, reclaim farmland, and start a waterway network.
• Romain concluded that development required stable order and peace, and that some people were destined not to be his people.

Romain stopped spring planting after scouts reported that Grand Duke Armor-Splitting's Rebellion Army, numbering more than ten thousand, had arrived, and he mobilized his forces to meet them head-on. His army crossed the river and marched to confront a coalition assembled from Armor-Splitting troops, mercenaries, church forces, and Bechtels.

• Romain directed more than four thousand workers to sow five thousand mu of forage grass with improved farming methods.
• Scouts reported that an army of at least ten thousand had arrived, so Romain halted most production and ordered able-bodied men to move supplies and prepare for war.
• Three days after the warning, Romain completed military mobilization and ordered his army to attack and crush the enemy.
• Romain's soldiers and laborers crossed the river over two days and marched beneath the banner of the King of the River Valley.
• The opposing Rebellion Army included Armor-Splitting troops, Muddy Swamp mercenaries, church forces, and more than a thousand men from Bechtels; Gale remained on the northern front.

Duke Gale assembled a five-figure force of mercenaries, Church troops, and Bechtels's soldiers to suppress Romain's rebellion. When Romain marched out to meet them, the commanders prepared to decide how to fight, while Frant wondered why the usually cautious young lord had taken such a risk.

• Gale's army gathered mercenaries, Church forces led by Bishop Melard, and a thousand soldiers sent by Bechtels, bringing the subjugation force to five figures.
• The commanders met to discuss their attack, and Frant warned that Romain could be more dangerous than the pirates.
• Kate Split Armor said he would shoot Romain, while Judgment Knight Donar Lasol noted that Romain would not be protected by city walls.
• A scout told Kate that Romain had come out to meet them, and Kate declared that they would not need to attack the river valley.
• Frant questioned Romain's decision to risk a battle, recalling how steadily he had held his ground in the War of Attrition.

Romain prepared to fight the approaching Rebellion Army on open terrain and learned from a captured scout that Gale’s force included elite archers, cavalry, and a large Clerical Corps. After assessing the enemy’s strengths and weaknesses with his commanders, Romain sought a way to win while avoiding the heavy casualties of his previous battle.

• Romain chose to prepare for a field battle because the surrounding terrain offered no defensible positions and his army was too large to fight effectively in the ravines.
• The Rebellion Army camped less than three kilometers away, and Dota’s scouts clashed with enemy scouts, capturing one while losing eight men.
• Romain questioned the prisoner and learned that Gale had sent forty Shattering Archers, more than a thousand cavalry, and a Clerical Corps of five hundred Nuns and three hundred priests.
• Romain gathered his commanders, used a sand-table model to assess the enemy’s strengths and organizational weaknesses, and discussed how to reduce his army’s casualties.

Kate's Rebellion Army routed Romain's infantry after Muddy Swamp's crossbowmen struck their flank, then surged forward to pursue and seize the scattered weapons. As the army abandoned its formations to claim the spoils, Granar and the Split Armor Family's mounted troops raced ahead.

• Romain sent four infantry squares to attack the Faithful Army, whose ranks and fighting skills proved inferior despite the choir's encouragement.
• The Faithful Army began retreating, and Kate ordered Granar's mercenaries to advance and support the vanguard.
• Muddy Swamp's crossbowmen unleashed a volley that killed over a hundred men and shattered the infantry squares' formation.
• Romain fled as his troops scattered, and Kate ordered the entire Rebellion Army to pursue at full speed.
• The soldiers rushed across the battlefield to seize the abandoned weapons, while Granar and the Split Armor Family's mounted forces moved ahead to claim the spoils.

Romain’s forces ambushed the Rebellion Army, inflicting a crushing defeat while Kate and the other leaders escaped with their elite troops. Two days later, the remaining rebels chose to continue the war, and Romain prepared for the decisive battle.

• Romain’s soldiers sprang their trap after the Rebellion Army chased the apparent spoils, surrounding the disorganized troops with a volley of arrows and an infantry charge.
• Kate ordered a retreat as the ambush threw the army into chaos, while Romain’s forces captured thousands and killed more than a thousand before letting half the rebels escape.
• Kate and Romain exchanged long-range shots, and Kate recognized Romain before Romain disappeared from the Shattering Archers’ counterattack.
• Two days later, Kate gathered the surviving army, and Sir Frant urged a retreat, but Kate, Bishop Melard, and Nun Maper insisted they had to keep fighting and rescue the captives.
• Romain finished handling the prisoners as both sides prepared for the decisive battle.

Romain's numerically superior army fought Kate's Rebellion Army in the rain, but the Judgment Knights broke through its flank and charged into the central formation. Heavy crossbows knocked many knights from their horses without penetrating their Mountain Copper armor, and Nathson helped drag one down as the battle continued.

• Romain ordered his infantry to advance, and the two armies exchanged arrow volleys that inflicted heavier losses on the Rebellion Army.
• Frant led Bechtels's elite soldiers in a flank charge while the Shattering Archers attacked Romain's heavy troops and tried to open a gap.
• The thirty Judgment Knights charged through the flank infantry formation, smashing the spear line and cutting down its soldiers.
• Jet ordered the central army's heavy crossbows to fire, knocking more than twenty Judgment Knights from their horses but failing to pierce their Mountain Copper armor.
• Nathson clashed with a Judgment Knight, helped pull him from his horse with hooked spears, and struck him with his axe.

Kate’s all-out assault turned the Battle of Spring Rain into a bloody victory for Romain, who lost more than a thousand soldiers and realized his army could not afford another war. As Romain tended to the aftermath and arranged ransoms for his captives, the battle established his standing as the King of the River Valley.

• Kate ordered the Shattering Archers to charge alongside the Judgment Knights, and the battle spiraled into a brutal fight that killed Bishop Melard and many others.
• Romain won the battle but counted 1,323 dead and 1,161 wounded, and he regretted that the fighting had become uncontrollable.
• Romain spent three days clearing the battlefield, then halted the school and military camp so his people could manage the wounded and the aftermath.
• Romain recorded the thousands of prisoners and captured supplies, restricted the prisoners’ food, and planned to ransom Kate, Frant, the Judgment Knights, and the Shattering Archers.
• Romain began restoring his strength and recognized that the Battle of Spring Rain had confirmed his position as the King of the River Valley.

Romain’s victory at the Battle of Spring Rain established a new level of military competition, and he planned to use its spoils to improve living conditions while demanding more labor. In prison, Dick explained to Frant why he had killed Lord Warwick and why he now served Romain.

• Romain’s trained army annihilated ten thousand enemies at the Battle of Spring Rain, marking a turning point in the region’s warfare.
• Romain planned to distribute some of the battle’s wealth toward better living conditions and infrastructure while increasing his workers’ workload.
• Dick tried to persuade the jailer to release Frant, but the jailer refused to disobey Romain’s orders.
• Dick told Frant that Lord Warwick had caused his pregnant wife’s death, and that he had strangled Warwick with the necklace he had meant to give her.
• Dick said his hatred had faded after he imagined his daughter growing up and met a frightened little girl, then urged Frant to speak with his commander.

Romain worked to restore his soldiers’ morale after the Battle of Spring Rain and promised Ed that his comrades’ sacrifices would lead to the creation of the Steel Legion. He then turned to organizing prisoners of war and summoned Nun Maper, demanding to know how he could use her and the other nuns.

• Romain interviewed Ed, who said he would stand firm in another war, and promised to make the survivors into the Steel Legion.
• Romain decided to put prisoners of war to harsh labor and later select suitable workers for the army.
• Romain summoned Nun Maper and told her that he alone was the object of worship in his land.
• Romain threatened Maper with a sword unless she agreed to serve him, and she asked whether he wanted her to kill or harm others.
• Maper described the work the nuns had done at Eve Abbey, including copying books, farming, studying medicine, and caring for the sick and poor.

Romain stripped the captured nuns of their status and planned to use them as labor in Origin City. He began organizing swamp reclamation and crop planting, while Gale and the Holy See agreed to ransom their captives but balked at his price.

• Romain rejected Maper’s objections, declared the nuns his prisoners, and threatened to marry them to his soldiers or kill those who resisted.
• Romain considered the nuns’ and priests’ possible magical value but resolved to use them for Origin City’s development.
• Romain prepared to reclaim the swamp by digging ponds, draining water, and improving the soil, sending thousands of captured laborers to work.
• Origin City began harvesting vegetables and planned to grow cotton, sugarcane, and beets on cleared land.
• Gale and the Holy See replied that they would pay ransom, but they could not accept Romain’s demand of 200,000 Gold Coins.

Romain negotiated ransoms from Dragon's Keep and the Church after his victory, securing valuable supplies for Origin City. He planned to spend the coming year rebuilding and strengthening his forces, with Mountain Copper armor and improved armor production central to his preparations.

• Romain rejected Sir Robert's criticism and insisted that Gale owed him ransom, while Bishop Abella tried to keep the negotiations from turning violent.
• After three days of talks, Romain, Dragon's Keep, and the Church agreed on compensation that included Gold Coins, gems, Magic Stone, saltpeter, and Sulfur; Romain refused to ransom the Church's nuns and clergy.
• Romain signed the agreements and released the prisoners, but kept the Judgment Knights' Mountain Copper armor and the shattered longbows.
• Romain decided to use the supplies to develop Origin City and spend the coming year consolidating his foundations and strengthening his military.
• Romain planned to make half-body Plate Armor standard issue, but he needed more advanced technology before he could manufacture it at scale.

Romain built a hand-operated Rolling Mill in Coal Iron Town, laying the groundwork for mass-producing Plate Armor, then returned to Origin Manor to use the first compensation supplies from Split Armor and the Holy Church. He began using blue gemstones to improve the literacy and production skills of Apostles as Origin City's overloaded administration and production departments needed more capable workers.

• Romain used magical steel to build a primitive hand-operated Rolling Mill, which could produce more uniform steel plates for Plate Armor.
• Romain returned to Origin Manor after the first batch of compensation supplies from Split Armor and the Holy Church arrived, and sent the coins and Magic Stones to be smelted.
• Romain examined the five hundred middling-quality blue gemstones and decided to use them to improve the basic literacy of Apostles in administrative departments.
• Romain planned a ruthless literacy campaign because Origin City's administrative work, including handling casualties and pensions after the Battle of Spring Rain, had overwhelmed its staff.
• Romain gave blue gemstones to administrative Apostles first and planned to improve the production skills of Apostles in the Agriculture, Livestock, Foundry, and Manufacturing Departments.