Chapter Summaries

Count Weiss surrendered to the victorious nobles of Northwind Province and negotiated over the Weiss Family’s fate and wealth. He revealed that his heir Hector had escaped to the West Coast and offered the Divine Key and information about other nobles who traded with The Church.

• Count Winter accused Count Weiss of colluding with The Church and said he would send the Weiss Family before the Council of Elders and the Imperial Court.
• Count Weiss led Count Winter, Count Soron, and Baron Ryan into his study, where a catman claimed responsibility for his crimes.
• Count Weiss revealed that his eldest son Hector had gone to the West Coast to live as the Weiss heir and wait for a chance to restore the family.
• Count Weiss offered the nobles everything in his earldom and promised to divide the Weiss Family’s wealth among them.
• Count Weiss handed over the Divine Key to the Otherworldly Plane entrance and offered to identify other nobles who had traded with The Church.

Ryan and the victorious nobles forced Count Weiss’s defeat into a settlement, sending him toward trial while dividing Thundercloud County’s lands and wealth. The chapter ended with the nobles assessing further reparations from Thundercloud County and Silver Stream County.

• Ryan praised Hector’s renunciation of his noble rights, and Count Weiss accepted the settlement before leaving for the Imperial Capital to face trial.
• Count Winter announced that the Weiss family and Thundercloud County’s heirs would also face trial, but Count Soron questioned whether Thundercloud County’s nobles had truly colluded with the Church.
• Ryan presented a division of Thundercloud County’s lands and benefits that satisfied the nobles, while positioning their holdings as a buffer around his territory and those of Count Winter and Count Soron.
• The nobles estimated Count Weiss’s reparations at about 3.5 million Gold Coins, excluding his Otherworldly Plane, and planned to collect further reparations from Thundercloud County’s nobles.
• Ryan called for Viscount Hogg as the nobles turned their attention to Silver Stream County and continued dividing the spoils.

Ryan received valuable land, nearly three hundred thousand Gold Coins, and a stake in developing an Otherworldly Plane, but the nobles also assigned him to help pressure Silver Stream County. At a private meeting, Northwind Province’s leaders planned to use Viscount Landa’s testimony against Count Weiss to seek tax relief, then divided the captured Catfolk Assassins among themselves.

• The nobles accepted Ryan’s large share of the war’s spoils, while the two counts ordered him to take part in dealing with Silver Stream County.
• Viscount Landa and Viscount Walter joined a private meeting with Ryan and the counts in Thundercloud County.
• The nobles planned to blame Count Weiss for Northwind Province’s losses and seek allies in the Council of Elders to remove the province’s annual tax burden.
• Count Winter promised Viscount Landa slaves and a chance to join the Otherworldly Plane’s development in exchange for his cooperation.
• Count Soron raised the Catfolk Assassins, and the five nobles decided to divide them among themselves while claiming they had all been wiped out.

Count Winter opened a Divinity Portal to the Otherworld, and Ryan crossed it with ten Knight Retainers despite the other nobles’ hesitation. They emerged on a fortified mountain platform in Count Weiss’s territory, where Ryan suspected hostile natives still remained.

• Count Winter activated the fang’s divinity on the mountaintop, creating a portal to the Otherworld.
• Count Winter, Countess Winter, Count Soron, and their legions entered the portal while the other nobles stayed behind.
• Ryan led ten Knight Retainers through the portal and endured its disorienting, crushing passage.
• Ryan and the soldiers arrived on a fortified mountain summit, where Ryan noticed the troops had collapsed and were still recovering.
• Ryan concluded that Count Weiss had not fully conquered the Otherworld and that its snowy forests favored the native savages.

Ryan and the northern nobles entered a valuable but dangerous primeval forest world, where giant beasts and possible divine power made military conquest costly. Ryan offered to contact the Natives peacefully, hoping to find the world’s spirit and secure its blessing.

• Ryan and the nobles saw that the forest world’s terrain and enormous beasts would make their legions vulnerable.
• Count Soron and Countess Winter worried that their weakened territories could not spare soldiers or afford heavy losses, while the world’s unspoiled state made it immensely valuable.
• Countess Winter suspected that divine power nourished the world’s creatures and that its deity might still live or be creating a successor.
• Ryan proposed following Count Weiss’s example by contacting the Natives and developing the world through exchange rather than war.
• Ryan offered to lead negotiations with the Natives using the Flying Wolf Cavalry and Dragonblood Warriors, while secretly seeking the world’s spirit and its divine blessing.

Ryan took charge of exploring the Otherworldly Plane after Count Winter and Count Soron left troops to guard its entrance and divine key. As Ryan set out with Brandt, Native soldiers attacked them from the forest.

• Count Winter agreed to leave the plane's affairs to Ryan but demanded that the Winter Family be informed of any magical materials.
• Count Soron asserted that the plane belonged to all nobles and left ten Dragonblood Warriors with Ryan while his troops guarded the divine tusk.
• Count Winter and Count Soron returned through the Divinity Portal, leaving garrisons at the mountaintop castle.
• Ryan discovered that his Planar Gate still worked and recognized that Giants had made the broad road through the forest.
• Brandt charged into the forest to meet a Native ambush, and Ryan's knights fought more than a hundred iron-spear-wielding Native soldiers who kept attacking despite heavy losses.

Ryan interrogated captured Native warriors after they ambushed his party and learned that their tribe had been captured and sacrificed by Count Weiss. He refused to take the survivors as slaves, judging them too dangerous to bring into the Frozen Earth Territory.

• Ryan ordered Rosen to torture the captured Natives until a youth revealed that their tribe had been captured and sacrificed by demons.
• The youth accused Ryan and Count Weiss of being invaders who had let demons consume their people’s souls and use their bodies to attack the tribe.
• Ryan broke the captives’ legs and left them as bait, drawing three enormous black bears and other beasts out of the Mountain Forest.
• Ryan’s knights fought the bears, killing one while the other two fled wounded.
• Brandt suggested using the surviving Natives as laborers, but Ryan rejected the idea because he feared they would endanger the Frozen Earth Territory’s people.

Ryan explained to Brandt that the Norris Continent’s wealth and power came from resources and people drawn from many Otherworldly Planes, and that the deities’ pan-planar war had affected countless worlds. He left Brandt with a broader understanding of the origins and power of the Empire’s noble families.

• Ryan told Brandt that Count Weiss’s actions had made the natives Rosen was killing enemies who hated them, and that they had to grow stronger to survive.
• Ryan explained that the Empire and the Norris Continent relied on resources from many Otherworldly Planes, whose people had also settled there and become ancestors of present-day inhabitants and nobles.
• Ryan reasoned that Count Winter’s family likely came from an Otherworldly Plane, since its ancient lineage had not formed the broad network of connections expected of a long-established noble family in the Norris Continent.
• Ryan considered how the Columbus Royal Family and the Four Grand Dukes had profited from the pan-planar war, and how Count Clayton’s wealth and strength might also have come from such gains.

Ryan led Zero Crossing Prefecture’s army to Silver Stream County to negotiate war reparations with Viscount Hogg and the county’s nobles. He demanded substantial payments, waived his own share, and prepared to set out a condition that Hogg and the others would have to consider.

• Ryan shared the black bear meat from the Otherworld with the nobles at his castle and then led his army toward Silver Stream County.
• Viscount Hogg welcomed Ryan and several knights into his castle, where he hinted that they should stand together as political allies.
• Ryan called the Silver Stream County nobles to settle reparations before the evening banquet, and Baron Poole argued that their war had only been a conflict with Iron Mountain County.
• Ryan demanded one hundred thousand Gold Coins from each Baron and three hundred thousand from Viscount Hogg, saying the reparations had been decided by the nobles of five counties.
• Ryan crossed out his own share, reducing each noble’s contribution by roughly a tenth, then said he had a condition; Viscount Hogg held back his refusal to hear it.

Ryan returned to Frozen Earth Territory after securing a war indemnity and a free-trade agreement for goods from his lands. Back home, he celebrated with his people and reviewed plans to expand farmland, hunting grounds, and defenses.

• Ryan persuaded the nobles of Silver Stream County to sign a contract allowing goods from Frozen Earth Territory and Zero Crossing Prefecture to compete fairly there, officially ending the war in Northwind Province.
• Ryan traveled home through Thundercloud County and Zero Crossing Prefecture with contracts and riches, then led his soldiers north from Zero Crossing City.
• Ryan returned to Frozen Earth Territory, where he and the people celebrated the war's end and his homecoming for three days.
• Ryan told Beard that the territory needed more farmland to become self-sufficient and asked about militia watchtowers and designated hunting grounds.
• Beard explained that Aethelred had chosen three rotating hunting grounds and planned to introduce horned deer, while Brock had selected two sites for watchtowers and was developing giant crossbows.

Ryan prepared Frozen Earth Territory to expand its trade, while he offered Mage Luna land to develop magical crops and considered the need for powerful mages to defend his wealth. Mage Luna selected six crops to cultivate, leaving Ryan to arrange seeds and use Life Magic to start their growth.

• Ryan agreed with Beard to prepare trade officials from Aixnier for the arrival of the Lantern Merchant Guild and the Blade Rose Merchant Guild.
• Ryan planned to sell Frozen Earth Territory’s textiles, crafts, ironware, wooden tools, agricultural goods, livestock, and other Northlands specialties.
• Ryan offered Mage Luna five plots of land in Thundercloud County for magical crops and explained the difference between Noble Mages and Commoner Mages.
• Mage Luna chose six magical crops, including Lion Stone Flower, Dragonhide Pine, and Wolf Fang Grass, for the plots.
• Ryan planned to buy the initial seeds and use Life Magic to stimulate their growth.

Ryan struggled to manage Frozen Earth Territory’s expanding responsibilities with too few trusted officials, so he began seeking more members of the Clayton Family and ordered further training for local youths. After signing a major weapons contract with the Blade Rose Merchant Guild, he was left short of cash and questioned whether his earlier secret arms deal with Mihai had been smuggling.

• Ryan realized that Frozen Earth Territory lacked enough capable people to handle its growing administrative, military, and commercial workload.
• Ryan wrote to the Clayton Family to recruit relatives to Frozen Earth Territory and told Beard to keep training local youths.
• Irina received ten Snow Dragon's Roar greatswords forged by Brock and signed another weapons contract with Frozen Earth Territory.
• Ryan agreed to a 250,000-Gold-Coin trade with the Blade Rose Merchant Guild, leaving him with less than 10,000 Gold Coins available.
• Ryan considered the limits on trade between nobles and wondered whether the secret weapons transaction with Mihai had amounted to smuggling.

Ryan received Mihai and Roland MacReynolds, the second son of the Griffin Grand Duke, in Frozen Earth Territory. Roland claimed he sought weapons for a dragon hunt, leaving Ryan to consider a heavily financed request backed by Roland’s friends and father.

• Ryan welcomed Mihai and met the golden-cloaked Roland MacReynolds, who identified himself as the Griffin Grand Duke’s second son.
• Roland said he was an adventurer and did not represent the Andara Kingdom, though Ryan suspected his visit was politically significant.
• After Ryan dismissed the servants, Roland presented his griffin signet ring and said his father supported him as a parent, not as a noble.
• Roland asked Ryan to provide weapons powerful enough to pierce a dragon’s scales, explaining that his friends and father had supplied ample money for the hunt.

Ryan discussed the Fragoso Viscount Family’s large weapons order with Roland and Mihai, who offered one million Gold Coins. He demonstrated a top-tier Earth-tier Knight’s Greatsword, leaving Mihai eager and Roland newly aware of its value.

• Roland explained that Mihai Fragoso’s family had supported his father and that Mihai’s ancestor had once dreamed of becoming a Dragon Knight.
• Roland offered Ryan one million Gold Coins for weapons, astonishing him with the size of the order.
• Ryan summoned Beard to bring two Knight’s Greatswords and presented Brock’s Snow Dragon’s Roar to Roland and Mihai.
• Ryan described the sword’s craftsmanship and explained that few noble families could forge a Knight’s Greatsword of its quality.
• Mihai identified Snow Dragon’s Roar as a top-tier Earth-tier weapon that could help knights pursue higher Transcendence, and Roland grasped its value.

Ryan used stories and the prestige of Frozen Earth Territory’s weapons to negotiate a major arms trade with the Fragoso and MacReynolds Families. The three parties finalized the deal, opening a westward trade route through the Andara Kingdom.

• Ryan told Mihai the story behind Snow Dragon's Roar, and she judged it a Knight's Greatsword with the potential to become a legendary weapon.
• Ryan promoted Frozen Earth Territory’s weapons by emphasizing their craftsmanship, names, and stories, while planning to use bards from Aixnier to increase their value.
• Ryan offered to meet the MacReynolds Family’s weapon needs and said Frozen Earth Territory could supply the Fragoso Family as well.
• Roland realized that weapons from Frozen Earth Territory could greatly strengthen the MacReynolds Family’s soldiers.
• Ryan, Roland, and Mihai finalized the contract, and Ryan gifted each noble a Snow Dragon's Roar series Knight's Greatsword.

Ryan increased Brock’s production of Knight’s Greatswords through a more flexible forging process, while Roland and Miss Mihai prepared to leave Northwind Province with weapons and a deposit. Roland’s secretive dealings led Ryan to suspect that Grand Duke McReynolds might have the Church’s backing, though he was left uncertain.

• Ryan’s advice helped Brock adapt his process and forge several ordinary Knight’s Greatswords each day, but Brock then went to the Wilderness World to shoe horses for Grand Mage Macken.
• Miss Mihai failed to meet the master who had climbed the Great Snow Mountain, and Roland hurried to leave Northwind Province, paying Ryan a deposit of one hundred thousand Gold Coins.
• Roland used a Space Magic artifact to carry away a large quantity of Ryan’s war spoils, making Ryan suspect the McReynolds Family was determined to keep their dealings secret.
• Ryan considered how the Carlos Family had broken with its former royal family and established the Carlos Kingdom, with the Church’s influence helping it rise.
• Ryan connected the Church’s forces in the Empire’s northeast to the Andara Kingdom and wondered whether Grand Duke McReynolds also had the Church’s support.

Ryan recruited Appia and the Catfolk Assassins, promising safety for the catfolk in exchange for their loyalty. He kept Appia close and prepared to send the assassins on a mission to Andara Kingdom after a month of training.

• Ryan visited Appia in the dungeon and explained how the catfolk tribes had dwindled after crossing into another plane.
• Ryan offered to protect all 225 catfolk if Appia pledged loyalty, and Appia accepted.
• Ryan released the catfolk, while Harrington led 195 of them away and Ryan took the 30 Catfolk Assassins into his service.
• Ryan learned that humans could not use the catfolk Breathing Technique because attempts to enter the shadows had killed them.
• Ryan ordered Appia to learn reading and writing within a month, then follow a team to Andara Kingdom on a mission.

Appia explored the Frozen Earth Territory and observed how its streets, workers, and officials served Baron Ryan’s plans. At the largest blacksmith shop, he met Master Brock, who mistook him for a newly recruited Catfolk.

• Appia visited the Catfolk homes and reflected on their improved treatment and new duties tending mountain terraces and medicinal herbs.
• Appia walked through the clean streets and watched carpenters argue with officials over orders to build watchtowers on the mountain.
• Appia passed Blacksmith Street, where smiths worked under Lord Ryan and the Chief Artisan’s authority.
• Appia entered Brock’s blacksmith shop to collect goods for Lord Ryan, and Brock lifted him up and asked whether he was a newly recruited Catfolk.

Brock made Appia thirty rapiers and enlisted Geilst to weave a Shadow Cloak while worrying about Ryan’s new ironmaking method. Fifteen days later, Ryan praised Yelena’s wheat research and sent Appia and his Catfolk Assassins to spy on nobles in the Andara Kingdom.

• Appia asked Brock for thirty rapiers and useful cloaks, and Brock assigned Geilst to weave a cloak for him.
• Geilst continued working under Brock, while Brock worried that Ryan’s boiler ironmaking would produce weak iron.
• Fifteen days later, Ryan praised Yelena’s wheat seedlings and promised her fifty thousand Gold Coins for six months of research.
• Ryan gave Appia a list of nobles in the Andara Kingdom and ordered him and his men to travel there with a supply convoy and record what they learned.
• Appia questioned whether the mission required anything more dangerous, and Ryan told him to find Edward, who would accompany the convoy.

Shawkat Melendez visited Frozen Earth Territory with grain and learned that Melendez Family had also provided magical herb seeds and potion formulas. After inspecting Ryan's army, administration, and defenses against magical beasts, Shawkat recognized the territory's wealth and strength, while Ryan asked him to help bring a trade caravan south.

• Shawkat delivered grain, magical herb seeds, and potion formulas on behalf of the Viscount, and told Ryan the herbs could add thousands of Gold Coins to the territory's annual income.
• Shawkat inspected Ryan's army, fought Brandt, and saw the clean streets and organized terraced farming that left him unable to understand the territory's management.
• Shawkat visited the northern watchtowers and saw a massive ballista, which Brock explained was used to defend against magical beasts.
• Beard told Shawkat that Ryan's gift included materials from two second-tier magical beasts, and Shawkat realized the Northlands held considerable wealth.
• Ryan asked Shawkat to let a trade caravan travel with him to exchange southern resources for Frozen Earth Territory's goods, but Shawkat decided not to believe Ryan's claim that Northwind Province had nothing.