Chapter Summaries

At Arthur Eberg’s coming-of-age ceremony, Leon privately pitched Duke Andre Castellion on transforming Bailu District into an industrial hub to restore the Empire’s manufacturing and trade. Andre was intrigued but withheld his commitment until Leon proved the plan could work.

• Arthur Eberg nervously invited Ophelia Castellion to dance and dedicated his tournament victory to her, but she refused him while longing for Leon.
• Leon left the banquet hall with Andre to discuss the Dantes Group’s project in Bailu District, and Andre warned him that the district’s land issues made it risky.
• Leon proposed turning Bailu District into a baron territory and partnering with Andre, whose family controlled a nearby port.
• Leon explained that industrial production of sugar and rum could undercut vassal-state goods and return wealth to the Holy City.
• Andre said the plan was enticing but demanded proof before investing, and Leon told him to wait and see.

Baron Ralph Devour pressured Saen into selling his farm for 1,100 gold coins, using his influence and threats to drive off other buyers. Ralph left with the deed, planning to develop the land according to Prince Colin’s interests, while Baron Wilson Lud arrived too late to buy it.

• Ralph Devour offered Saen 1,000 gold coins for his indebted farm, and Saen pleaded for more.
• Ralph’s servants intimidated three townsmen who came to inspect the property, while the cleric and judge offered Saen no help.
• Mira persuaded Saen to accept 1,100 gold coins, and the lawyer completed the deed with the cleric’s and judge’s seals and the tax stamp.
• Ralph told Frey the farm would become a winery, though he would choose what to plant based on what Prince Colin liked.
• Wilson Lud arrived after the sale, confronted Ralph, and left after seeing the completed contract.

Edmond learned that the Dantes Family’s Bailu District land purchases were part of a larger plan, while Colin Prince’s lecture on abstract art drew a captivated crowd at the Imperial Royal Academy of Arts. The chapter left Bailu property prices soaring and Colin’s influence poised to spark a new artistic trend.

• Edmond questioned Tichy and Lumir about the public land-buying campaign, and Lumir explained that the Dantes Group had not spent any money yet.
• Lumir told Edmond to meet the Imperial Royal Bank president privately and reassure him that the one-million-gold-coin loan could not be approved for now.
• Residents of Bailu Town sold homes and businesses at rapidly rising prices as city buyers competed for property, and they credited Colin Prince for making them rich.
• Colin Prince delivered a lecture on abstract painting at the Imperial Royal Academy of Arts, using a work by Baron Harvey Midia despite knowing little about painting himself.
• Colin answered the students’ questions graciously, then ended the lecture and directed aspiring artists to seek advice from Baron Midia.
• The students applauded Colin, while the new interest in abstract painting threatened to sweep through the Empire’s art world.

Kawenna decided to promote abstract art after hearing Colin’s lecture and persuaded Baron Ralph Devour to fund her plans. Meanwhile, Leon returned to Sage's Court Manor exhausted from his lecture and social obligations, where Sarah took Taff away to let him rest before his final engagement in the Holy City.

• Kawenna told Baron Ralph that Colin’s lecture had inspired her to organize an art salon and an exhibition devoted to abstraction.
• Ralph gave Kawenna a pouch of gold coins, warned her not to use the Devour name at the exhibition, and promised further support if she succeeded.
• At Sage's Court Manor, Stein apologized to Leon for the unexpected attention at the academy and promised to convey Leon’s request for advance notice of future arrangements.
• Leon rested in his room and thought about the day’s social obligations, including Miss Ophilia Castellion’s persistence.
• Taff woke and enthusiastically described the roast geese and pork knuckle she had eaten, while Leon teased her before asking Sarah to keep her company.
• Sarah carried the protesting Taff into the next room so Leon could rest before attending a funeral the following day.

Leon held a grand funeral in the Holy City for his supposed father, Nanfu Colin, while concealing that the coffin contained no real remains. Afterward, he prepared to announce the founding of the Templar Knights with support from Granville and Duke Albert Valencia.

• In Hell, Vivian wondered how her brother was doing, while Nanfu admitted he hoped to meet Leon someday.
• Leon attended the funeral at Saint Clement Cathedral as Pope Gregory IX performed rites for the supposedly deceased Nanfu Colin.
• Leon comforted the Dantes Family, gave Sophia a handkerchief, and directed Edmond to report to Lumir about their work.
• Granville and Duke Albert Valencia offered condolences and affirmed their support for Leon's plans.
• Leon announced that he would unveil the Templar Knights at the funeral, and Granville and Duke Valencia agreed to accompany him.

After the New World Daily’s serialized account of Baron Kosia’s shipwreck captivated Holy City readers, Leon visited the overwhelmed newspaper office and encouraged its staff. He approved their plan to promote a young artists’ exhibition with illustrations, then prepared to leave for the Empire’s Academic Federation while White hoped he would return.

• The New World Daily reported Prince Roxsey Colin’s funeral for Nanfu Colin and began serializing Tichy Kosia’s story of surviving a shipwreck, ending its prologue with “To be continued.”
• Mr. Clark and other Holy City readers became eager for the next installment, and the paper’s limited print run quickly sold out.
• Leon arrived at the New World Daily office, where Corsair helped calm the crowd seeking updates and publication rights.
• Leon inspected the office and learned that White was reporting on an abstract-painting exhibition and had proposed using young artists’ illustrations in the newspaper.
• Leon praised White’s plan and approved the four-panel illustrations of Baron Kosia, which reminded him of The Adventures of Tintin.
• White asked Leon to adopt him, but Leon declined because he would soon leave for the Empire’s Academic Federation and encouraged White to make his mark in the Holy City.

Lucien Dantes announced that he would join the Templar Knights and, with his family’s reluctant support, enlisted at Holy City’s harbor. A letter of recommendation bearing the Dantes family crest changed his assignment from New John Port to Baron Kosia’s Withered Wood Port, and Lucien eagerly prepared to leave for the Gana Continent.

• Edmond punished Emily for soaking her new tutor, then comforted her and apologized to Madam Sylvie.
• Lucien declared at dinner that he would enlist in the Templar Knights to follow Colin’s example and spread Saint Siss’s faith across the Gana Continent.
• Edmond accepted Lucien’s decision and wrote him a sealed letter of recommendation, while Anna and the family said their farewells the next morning.
• Lucien joined the long queue at the harbor and was assigned to the First Regiment at New John Port, where he learned that the order’s lands were shared and undeveloped.
• After seeing the Dantes family crest on Edmond’s letter, registrar Dodgy reassigned Lucien to the Seventh Regiment at Withered Wood Port, Baron Kosia’s territory.

Leon departed the Holy City for the Academic Federation after a month of building influence and establishing alliances. His carriage headed north while his friends watched him leave, and Ophelia resolved to pursue him despite his departure.

• Leon declined Marshal Lako’s offer of a Griffon Knights escort and chose to travel north by carriage.
• Granville and Duke Valencia wished Leon a safe journey and discussed how his Templar Knights plan had balanced relations with the Senate and Officer Faction.
• Duke Andre promised the Castellion Family’s support for Leon’s ventures, and Ophelia gave him a handmade amulet and a shy farewell.
• Leon hinted that a political show concerning Bailu District would unfold after he left, then completed his farewells and departed the Holy City.
• After Leon’s carriage disappeared, Ophelia confessed that she would not give up on him and decided to hire another magic teacher.

The New World Daily’s reports about Baron Kosia’s claim to his land and the Imperial Royal Bank’s rejection of the Dantes Group’s loan stirred up Holy City. Baron Ralph Devour’s attempt to secure more land left his family overleveraged, and he collapsed after learning Mira had taken a second mortgage from Spire Bank.

• The New World Daily published Baron Kosia’s declaration that he would return to reclaim his land and honor, alongside an article criticizing the Imperial Royal Bank for refusing the Dantes Group’s million-gold loan.
• Hake Orton defended the bank’s refusal, Edmond Dantes threatened to move the investment elsewhere, and Spire Bank offered to finance the project.
• Baron Wilson Lud proposed that he, Ralph Devour, and Baron Tecom divide Bailu District’s remaining land, but Ralph rejected the deal and mocked Wilson as he left.
• Mira brought Ralph a Holy City Daily report about the loan dispute, prompting him to suspend further land purchases and worry that Colin had angered a powerful figure.
• Mira revealed that she had used their liquid funds to buy shops and residences and mortgaged land already pledged to the Imperial Royal Bank to Spire Bank.
• Ralph realized the second mortgage could ruin the Devours, then collapsed on the lawn as Mira screamed.

Holy City speculators panicked as Bailu District land prices threatened to collapse, while Andre and Edmond learned how Colin’s apparent financing failure was part of a plan to expose nobles’ fraudulent mortgages and take control of their land. The chapter ended with Tichy sending Edmond to meet Spire Bank director Barkley, who had come seeking an opportunity.

• Investors at the Golden Griffin café feared Colin would abandon Bailu Town and rushed to sell their land, triggering panic-driven selling.
• Andre recognized Colin’s financing failure as a calculated move and reassured Ophilia that Colin would be fine.
• Edmond asked Tichy and Lumir how Colin’s plan would work if the barons refused to sell, and Lumir explained that nobles had repeatedly mortgaged the same land without depositing the deeds.
• Edmond realized he was meant to expose the barons’ fraudulent loans through the newspapers, prompting the Imperial Royal Bank to send the issue to the Senate.
• Tichy told Edmond to stop associating with Director Hack Alton and sent him to meet Spire Bank director Barkley on Colin’s behalf.

Tichy and Dantes helped trigger an investigation that froze Baron Devour’s assets and intensified the debt crisis for Bailu District’s nobles. Meanwhile, Leon reached Quartz City in the Rod Kingdom, learned more about Taff’s people, and recognized signs that popular demands for change were shaping events.

• Tichy wrote a new chapter of The Drifting Adventures of Baron Kosia while helping Spire Bank target the Devour Family’s assets.
• Dantes publicly challenged Hogan Nora over unequal lending practices, prompting an investigation into Bailu District’s loans.
• The Imperial Procuratorate uncovered Hake Orton’s bribes and procedural misconduct, and the Senate ordered Baron Devour’s debts repaid and his assets seized.
• Leon questioned Taff about the Zeta Clan’s meat-lizard farming methods as the carriage traveled through the snow toward the Rod Kingdom.
• Leon arrived near Quartz City and chose to stay at an inn without notifying the local lord.
• Leon heard the Ballad of the Crimson Disaster Star and recognized the song as a sign of the Rod Kingdom’s history and the people’s desire for change.

Leon traveled through the Rod Kingdom's northern frontier toward the Academic Federation, where he planned to take the Magic Apprentice examination as an ordinary applicant. While Sir Kyle waited vainly to welcome him, undead attacked Pompeii Village and kidnapped several children, but Kyle dismissed the report.

• Leon explored Dragon's View City, registered as Colin at the Adventurers' Guild, and gained a level after taking Sarah and Taff into a nearby dungeon.
• Sarah frightened Julian and Liana away when they tried to hitch a ride on Leon's carriage in Eagle Rock Territory.
• At an inn, Leon heard the bartender tell him how the mage-tower system had exploited Cartel and left his sister Amy searching for him; Leon bought Amy a meal.
• Leon decided to take the Academic Federation's apprentice examination without using Earl Hilfen's recommendation, while news of Colin Prince's arrival reached Sir Kael Richter.
• Sir Kyle waited outside Eagle Rock Fortress to welcome Colin, then returned indoors when the carriage failed to appear.
• A servant told Kyle that undead had attacked Pompeii Village and kidnapped children, but Kyle dismissed the matter and resumed praying for Colin.

Leon, traveling as Colin, joined Phinick and his companions on a mission to rescue a miller’s son from undead near Pompeii Village. After helping them defeat the attacking undead, Leon insisted they enter the forest that night to confront the necromancer.

• Leon learned that the Academic Federation’s winter apprentice recruitment was about to begin and met Phinick, Barrett, Leo, and Ilala at a tavern.
• Phinick invited Leon to join his group on a bounty mission to rescue the miller’s missing son in Pompeii Village, and Leon accepted.
• The miller said a skeleton had taken his son and that Lord Richter had refused to help.
• Undead attacked the village and mill; Leon secretly drew them there, then destroyed their Skeleton Mage with a fireball when the young adventurers were in danger.
• After the group debated waiting until dawn, Leon agreed to enter the forest that night and pursue the necromancer.

Phinick and his companions entered the Black Forest to rescue the missing child and were trapped by Hecajelin, a deranged former mage who planned to use the child in an ascension ritual. Sarah killed Hecajelin and her undead forces collapsed, leaving the rescued party alive and even more uncertain about Mr. Colin’s true power.

• Phinick, Barrett, Leo, Ilala, and Mr. Colin’s group followed undead tracks to an abandoned logging yard, where Leon realized the villagers had concealed what awaited them.
• Hecajelin surrounded the party with more than a hundred undead, introduced herself as Green Fang, and revealed that she had entered the Academic Federation before being cast aside and that the missing child was intended as ritual material.
• Leo fired a Flintlock Gun at Hecajelin, but her shield stopped the bullet, and she drew on the forest’s dark energy to summon powerful skeletal warriors and order the undead to attack.
• Leon called Sarah, who dashed through the battlefield and killed Hecajelin before the undead could reach the party; Taff was briefly tossed into the snow and gathered back up afterward.
• Hecajelin’s death released the undead from her control, and Phinick and his companions realized Mr. Colin and his guard had saved them.

After returning the missing boy to Pompeii Village, Leon and the young adventurers reflected on the battle with Hecajelin, and Leo decided to abandon his dream of becoming a mage. Back at camp, Leon read Hecajelin’s notebook and discovered that the Academic Federation was investigating otherworldly planes called virtual realms.

• Leon and the adventurers returned the sleeping boy to his parents, and the grateful villagers celebrated their rescue and paid Leon the agreed-upon thirty silver coins.
• Barrett, Phinick, Ilala, and Leo returned to camp, where Leo told his companions he would not take the Academic Federation examination because he no longer wanted to become a mage.
• Phinick, Barrett, and Ilala tried to persuade Leo to reconsider, but he remained resolved to return to his ordinary life and wished them success.
• Phinick invited Leon to celebrate with the young adventurers, but Leon declined and agreed to meet them the next morning at the border registry office.
• Leon read Hecajelin’s notebook and learned that her former mentor, Professor Uriel Akley, was leading research into virtual realms and ways to access their powers.

Leon accompanied Phinick, Ilala, and Barrett to the Academic Federation’s snowfield examination, where tens of thousands of candidates gathered for the winter apprentice test. After the Federation’s grand arrival, the written test began as a ruthless contest, and Leon completed his answers while withholding Earl Hilfen’s recommendation until after the results.

• Leon joined Phinick, Ilala, and Barrett at the registration camp, where they registered their preferred Mage Towers and received numbered tokens for the examination.
• Phinick decided that the group would camp on the snowfield for three days, while Sarah arrived in a luxurious carriage and kept other candidates away from it.
• The Academic Federation’s griffin and pterosaur riders, Magic Constructs, and flying platform arrived, and the candidates learned that the thirteen core Mage Towers had sent representatives.
• Hector Rayne announced the written test and its rules: candidates had to submit answers before dawn, score at least sixty to qualify for interviews, and avoid answers too similar to others.
• Candidates scrambled for better views of the Stone Tablet and began competing over positions, while Phinick, Ilala, and Barrett copied down the questions and worried about matching answers.
• Leon finished an answer sheet of more than six thousand words and decided to keep Earl Hilfen’s recommendation letter until after the written and interview results were announced.

Sir Richter rushed across Eagle Rock Territory trying to find Colin, but arrived too late and returned home with a group of prostitutes he had arrested. At the Academic Federation’s written examination results, Leon discovered he had received zero points, then retrieved his exam paper and found that someone had replaced his answers with a poem.

• Sir Richter learned that Colin had dealt with the undead in Pompeii Village and rode there with his guards, only to hear that Colin had gone to the Travelers' Camp.
• Sir Richter found the Travelers' Camp nearly empty, arrested the prostitutes there, and returned to his castle, where his wife threatened to leave him.
• Ilala, Phinick, and Barrett passed the written examination, but they could not find Colin's number on the list.
• Leon learned that Colin had received zero points and suspected his exam paper had been destroyed or switched.
• Leon sent Sarah to retrieve his paper before the Academic Federation destroyed it, and she brought back a scroll bearing his number but containing an unrhymed poem instead of answers.

Professor Hector Rayne discovered a full-mark examination paper that convinced him to seek out the supposed genius Marco Gage, while apprentice Milos secretly arranged to pass Marco by swapping papers. The real author of the remarkable paper remained unidentified, and Milos’s fraud had already drawn the attention of the Tower of the Great Sage.

• Professor Hector Rayne read the full-mark paper, marveled at its theories about source power and the Virtual Realm, and decided to recruit Marco Gage in person.
• Milos sneaked into Eagle Rock Territory, hoping to obtain money and a way to raise his Soul Level beyond his Bronze-level limit.
• Milos and Dorian Gage’s steward, Yankov, exchanged money for Milos’s help getting Marco accepted by replacing his examination paper.
• Milos assured Yankov that the original papers had been destroyed and gave him a copy of the replacement paper for Marco to memorize.
• Milos learned that Sir Richter’s guards had removed the women from the travelers’ camp and returned to the tavern disappointed.
• The graders’ full-mark paper prompted Professor Hector and other senior mages to pursue Marco, unaware that Milos had swapped the paper and that its real author was someone else.

Leon helped Marco Gage escape the Academic Federation’s examination scandal and set him on the road to the Holy City, while the Federation discovered its perfect-score paper had been swapped. After Professor Hector apologized to Leon, he offered him an instructor position, which Leon accepted.

• Professor Hector Rayne, Professor Boris Cru, and Professor Leo Sterling arrived to recruit the supposed perfect-score candidate Marco Gage, while Milos realized the paper-switching scheme had gone disastrously wrong and fled.
• Marco’s stolen examination paper turned out to contain a crude poem, prompting Hector to order an investigation into the admissions scandal.
• Leon, traveling under the name Mr. Colin, learned that Marco had run away to pursue poetry and gave him a letter for Dantes and thirty silver coins to support his journey to the Holy City.
• Sarah asked Leon why he had not killed Marco, and Leon said the young poet might become a useful chess piece before continuing toward the Holy City.
• Assistant Instructor Giselle and Professor Hector caught up with Leon, apologized for the swapped paper, and promised an official explanation of the scandal.
• Hector offered Leon a position as an Academic Federation instructor, and Leon accepted.

Lina negotiated a profitable arrangement with the dungeon guard, while Milos hid in Eagle Rock Territory and found comfort in the camp’s new “nuns.” After Carbin located him, Milos was captured and executed alongside Marco Gage, allowing the authorities to close the case of the stolen property.

• Lina persuaded the guard to let the women return to business in exchange for a share of their earnings, and he proposed that they dress as nuns and hear confessions.
• Milos, hiding in Eagle Rock Territory, discovered the women’s new operation and began visiting Lily to confess and ease his fear.
• Sir Richter learned that Milos had impersonated the Imperial Prince and ordered a search, then appointed Carbin commander after Carbin identified Milos at the camp.
• Carbin’s associates drugged and captured Milos while he was relaxing with Lily, and he awoke bound and gagged.
• A judge from Dragon's View City condemned Milos and Marco Gage for stealing the Imperial Prince’s property, and both were executed.
• Milos’s senior met the judge afterward and reflected that Milos could have escaped if he had taken the three hundred gold coins and disappeared.