Chapter Summaries

Edward and the convoy traveled through the wilderness toward Andara Kingdom while Appia’s Catfolk Assassins secretly followed and gathered information about the mission. After five more days, the exhausted convoy left the Griffin Mountains and spotted a griffin overhead.

• Edward told his companion to call him Trade Official and discussed searching for the Catfolk Assassins, who were secretly listening nearby.
• Appia learned that the convoy would reach Andara Kingdom in about five days, carrying weapons and Frozen Earth Territory goods to open a trade route.
• Appia examined a list of Andaran nobles and considered how to expand the thirty Catfolk Assassins under his command.
• Five days later, as the exhausted convoy emerged from the Griffin Mountains, Harrington spotted a griffin circling overhead and reached for his beast bow.

Harrington Clayton led Frozen Earth Territory’s convoy to a secret arms handover in the Griffin Mountains, where Grand Duke McReynolds’s forces accepted the weapons. He then decided the convoy would stay in the Andara Kingdom and buy grain, using the cover story to conceal the transaction.

• Folk Thorne arrived on a griffin and guided Harrington Clayton’s convoy through the mountains to a military camp.
• The camp’s soldiers and Folk inspected the weapons, and Harrington recorded the quantities and received Frank’s fingerprint on the handover parchment.
• Folk told Harrington that Viscount Fragoso’s territory lay east of the mountains and questioned why the convoy planned to remain in the kingdom.
• Harrington explained that the convoy would claim to be buying grain, arguing that returning without grain would invite suspicion about the secret arms deal.

Harrington discussed the Empire’s Legendary Knights and Andara’s strained royal-noble relations with Digran Fragoso before testing the strength of the Fragoso soldiers. The Imperial cavalry crushed their opponents in a training match, and Viscount Fragoso watched in fury.

• Digran Fragoso asked Harrington about the Empire’s Legendary Knights, and Harrington learned that Andara’s royal family feared nobles forming ties with Legends.
• Digran asked Harrington to teach the arrogant Fragoso soldiers a lesson and gave him magical beast crystal cores.
• Harrington led more than a hundred Imperial cavalrymen against three hundred Fragoso cavalrymen in a training match.
• Harrington’s cavalry scattered the opposing formation and knocked seventy or eighty riders from their horses in one clash.
• Viscount Fragoso crushed his crystal goblet as he watched the defeat from the castle.

Viscount Fragoso’s elite troops failed to defeat the Frozen Earth Territory’s cavalry, prompting nearby nobles to reconsider their ties with Fragoso. Appia followed Baron Huffman and discovered he was secretly writing to Prince Hernan, while Huffman ordered a search for a suspected intruder.

• Viscount Fragoso watched his forces lose to Baron Ryan’s army and urged Mihai to persuade Harrington to let them win.
• Harrington refused Mihai’s request to hold back, saying the army could not surrender its honor or Baron Ryan’s reputation.
• Fragoso’s troops charged again but suffered casualties, and nobles watching the exercise discussed contacting the Frozen Earth Territory.
• The next morning, Appia followed Baron Huffman and saw him write a letter addressed to His Highness Hernan about Fragoso’s meeting with an Imperial merchant caravan.
• Knight Roserett told Huffman that Miss Poppy suspected a thief had entered the territory, and Huffman ordered him to search for strangers.
• After Roserett left, Huffman hid his letter in a rune-covered compartment, and Appia concluded Hernan was likely the kingdom’s prince.

Grand Duke McReynolds condemned King Erdo Andara for inviting The Church’s Feather Dragon Legion into the kingdom and proposed driving The Church out without relying on the Empire. The counts refused to commit to opposing the royal family, leaving McReynolds without their support.

• Grand Duke McReynolds recalled Erdo Andara’s past ambitions and accused him of betraying the kingdom by yielding to The Church.
• Count Wilcox argued that the Feather Dragon Legion might be targeting the Empire, but McReynolds dismissed the claim.
• McReynolds declared that the royal heirs were unfit to rule and warned that The Church would turn the kingdom against the Empire.
• McReynolds said he would drive The Church out and insisted the nobles would have to rely on themselves, not the Empire.
• The counts refused to betray the Andara Royal Family or commit to McReynolds’s plan.

Grand Duke McReynolds decided to strengthen ties with the Frozen Earth Territory and the Empire after realizing that his existing noble allies might not support him. Roland went to arrange the trade and encountered his elder brother Otto, who wanted to join the dangerous southern battlefield.

• Roland suggested that someone in the Grand Duke's family had exposed their weapons trade with Northwind Province, and Grand Duke McReynolds suspected his blood relatives.
• Roland confirmed that the second shipment of Northwind Province weapons had arrived and that the Baron of the Frozen Earth wanted to trade for grain.
• Grand Duke McReynolds decided to sell the Frozen Earth Territory resources, beast-raising potions, and priest scrolls, and to arrange future exchanges of regional specialties.
• Grand Duke McReynolds told Roland that the royal family would oppose the McReynolds family regardless, and ordered him to bring over the Frozen Earth Territory's merchants.
• Roland went to find the merchant caravan and encountered Otto McReynolds, who asked him to help secure permission to fight on the southern battlefield.
• Roland warned Otto that the southern battlefield was too dangerous, as the Grand Duke's army had already clashed with forces seeking access to the Griffin Mountains.

Appia discovered Baron Huffman was secretly writing to Prince Hernan, a flame-worshipping contact named Lamores, and Grand Duke Mayers while supporting Grand Duke McReynolds’s southern war. Appia sent his findings to Frozen Earth Territory, while Ryan, already burdened by the war’s aftermath, delayed the Otherworldly Plane expedition for at most half a month.

• Appia observed Baron Huffman send a letter to His Highness Hernan and then continue writing to him each night.
• Baron Huffman wrote to Lamores about a god associated with flame and questioned whether the god had answered Lamores’s prayers.
• Baron Huffman drafted a letter to Grand Duke Mayers describing the Church’s arrival in Andara, McReynolds’s anger, and the war in the South, then burned it without sending it.
• Appia learned that Huffman had supplied McReynolds’s army with provisions, building materials, slaves, and soldiers, and sent his observations to Frozen Earth Territory.
• Ryan told the nobles that he would begin developing the Otherworldly Plane within at most half a month because the war’s aftermath had made him busy.

Ryan refused to help the Northwind nobles develop the Otherworldly Plane because the Frozen Earth Territory faced too many demands and an approaching harsh winter. Horace Winter then revealed that the Empire had granted Northwind Province only one year of tax exemption and crowned an imperial family member Marquis of Northwind.

• Ryan rejected the nobles' request to develop the Otherworldly Plane and told Beard to prepare winter supplies.
• Ryan ordered the territory to preserve its forests and planned to obtain firewood from the Other Plane in Thundercloud County.
• Horace Winter told Ryan that the Empire had exempted Northwind Province from taxes for only one year and planned to buy its iron weapons.
• Horace explained that the Empire's war in Thousand Lakes Province had gone badly, with a naval fleet severely damaged and Legion Commanders assassinated.
• Horace revealed that the imperial family had crowned one of its members Marquis of Northwind, shocking Ryan.

Ryan learned that marquises across the Empire served as imperial watchers over the nobles and that the Empire had now appointed a Marquis of Northwind during its renewed war with the Church. The new marquis was said to be a Grace Bearer and had been granted everything within a hundred li of Thundercloud Mountain, leaving Ryan and Horace stunned.

• Ryan reflected on how the Empire had reserved the marquis rank for the Imperial House, limiting other nobles' chances to rise in rank.
• Ryan recalled that the marquis system had begun during the first war between Divine Authority and Royal Authority, when marquises were appointed to watch provincial nobles and prevent them from aiding the Church.
• Ryan asked Horace why the Empire had appointed a Marquis of Northwind after Northwind's nobles resisted the Church and killed a thousand Holy Kingdom Knights.
• Horace said the Columbus Royal Family had used the renewed war with the Church to appoint a Marquis of Northwind, publicly presenting him as a powerful Pioneer of Light favored by the God of Light and a Grace Bearer.
• Horace told Ryan that the Marquis of Northwind had no territory befitting his rank and had instead received everything within a hundred li of Thundercloud Mountain.

Ryan rode Fierce Winter across the Svadilfari Plains and planned winter preparations with Aethelred in Frozen Earth Territory. After Edward and Harrington returned from the Andara Kingdom, Ryan learned that the kingdom’s Royal Family, rather than Grand Duke McReynolds, was colluding with The Church.

• Ryan visited Fierce Winter on the Svadilfari Plains, rode the horse across the plains, and strengthened their bond through the Knight Breathing Technique.
• Ryan and Aethelred planned winter food storage, militia patrols, crafts, and the purchase of strong liquor for Frozen Earth Territory.
• Edward and Harrington returned late from the Andara Kingdom after struggling to transport wagonloads of grain.
• Ryan read letters from Appia and the Catfolk Assassins and learned that the Andara Royal Family was colluding with The Church and had allowed the Feather Dragon Legion to station itself in the kingdom.

Ryan assessed the Andara Kingdom’s royal weakness and the brewing conflict over the Griffin Mountains while preparing to benefit from the kingdom’s instability. He welcomed a group from the Clayton Earldom into the Frozen Earth Territory and learned that the Marquis of Northwind’s mother came from the Mayers Grand Ducal Family.

• Ryan concluded that the Andara Royal Family’s lack of capable heirs and extraordinary power made its conflict with Grand Duke McReynolds likely to destabilize the kingdom.
• Ryan recognized Baron Huffman as a resourceful noble and set aside his letter in case it proved useful.
• Ryan received word that people from the Clayton Earldom had arrived at Winged Gorge, then ordered houses prepared for them.
• Ryan accepted the loyalty of 130 people from the Clayton Earldom, easing the Frozen Earth Territory’s labor shortage.
• The newcomers brought news that the Marquis of Northwind’s mother was a daughter of the Mayers Grand Ducal Family.

Ryan realized that noble political struggles could continue for decades because powerful transcendents lived far longer than ordinary people. The new Marquis of Northwind’s ties to the Imperial House and the Mayers Family threatened Northwind Province’s nobles’ claims to land and the Otherworld gateway.

• Ryan inferred that Grand Duke Mayers and the Clayton Family still considered old disputes over war merits unresolved, despite the titles awarded decades ago.
• Ryan concluded that the War of the Deities Across Planes had likely changed powerful beings’ lifespans, allowing political struggles to stretch across generations.
• Ryan recognized that the Marquis of Northwind was an Imperial House member closely connected to the Mayers Family and had come to govern Northwind Province.
• Ryan saw that the marquis’s Light Pioneer territory included the Other Plane gateway at Thundercloud Mountain and land already claimed by local nobles, including some of Ryan’s crop plots.
• Ryan considered how Northwind Province’s nobles would resist the marquis, whose arrival threatened their share of the spoils after the province had concealed the Holy Kingdom Knights and Legendary Knight Damon from the Empire.

Ryan traveled to Thundercloud County to lead another expedition through the Planar Gate before the Marquis of Northwind arrived. He gathered his forces and allies, then led five thousand soldiers into the Otherworldly Plane.

• Ryan ordered Rosen to patrol Frozen Earth Territory and monitor visiting nobles so they would not uncover too much about his domain.
• Ryan decided to secure more benefits from the Otherworldly Plane before the Marquis of Northwind arrived.
• Ryan rode with three hundred Knight Retainers to Thundercloud County, reaching Thundercloud Mountain after two days.
• Ryan met the gathered nobles, including Viscount Hogg, and postponed the expedition until the next day so his troops could rest.
• Most nobles left their men behind and returned home, while Baron Enzo agreed to accompany Ryan and accepted that his son would inherit if he died.
• Ryan led five thousand soldiers through the Planar Gate early the next morning.

Ryan led an army into Count Weiss's Mountain Forest World, where Native attacks and a ruined camp revealed the danger of the local tribes. He surrounded the Azure Lion Tribe and tried to make its warriors reconsider fighting by threatening the fate of their families, leaving them shaken.

• Ryan left a thousand soldiers to guard the entrance and led the rest to Count Weiss's damaged camp, where he ordered its reconstruction.
• Natives attacked the camp at night, wounding several soldiers, and Horace used his flying wolf to locate a huge lake to the east.
• Ryan's army reached the Azure Lion Tribe, surrounded its fortifications, and found that the Natives had built defenses using tools from Count Weiss's former soldiers.
• Ryan approached the fort alone and spoke with the tribe's leader after an arrow narrowly missed him.
• The leader declared that the Azure Lion Tribe feared neither death nor war, so Ryan warned that their elderly, women, and children could suffer if the tribe's warriors died, leaving them pale and shaken.

Ryan negotiated a blood-sealed deal with the Native warriors, promising their people would be spared in exchange for help hunting beasts in the Mountain Forest. He let them go to retrieve their families, intending to use the agreement to deal with the arriving Marquis of Northwind.

• Ryan warned the Native warriors that rival tribes might threaten their families and offered them a deal instead of fighting.
• Ryan killed an ox and used its blood to seal a promise that his soldiers would not enter the tribe or harm its people if the Natives helped hunt beasts in the Mountain Forest.
• The burly Native leader agreed to the deal and ordered his warriors to lower their weapons.
• Ryan told the Natives that the agreement did not mean they had surrendered, then ordered his soldiers to let them pass so they could retrieve their families.
• Baron Enzo asked whether Ryan planned to capture the Natives after they returned, but Ryan insisted the deal was genuine and revealed that he meant to use it against the Marquis of Northwind.

Ryan captured the Black Bear Tribe and questioned Cao about the tribes’ supposed gods, concluding that their messengers were likely magical beasts. He later threatened the Black Bear chief, Xiong, with killing the men and giving the women to the Azure Lion Tribe, prompting Xiong to call him back.

• Ryan ordered the captured Black Bear Tribe warriors locked up and assured Cao that the Azure Lion Tribe would receive promised trade goods.
• Cao explained that the tribes worshipped powerful animal messengers, including a fire-breathing azure lion and a giant black bear.
• Ryan and Baron Enzo concluded the messengers were likely valuable magical beasts and discussed using the natives to resist Marquis of Northwind.
• Five hours later, Ryan threatened to kill the Black Bear Tribe’s men and give its women to Cao and the Azure Lion Tribe.
• Xiong pushed the gag from his mouth and shouted for Ryan to wait.

Ryan persuaded Xiong and the Black Bear Tribe to become his friends, exchanging gifts and securing their cooperation. As Ryan led his army away, he explained to Baron Enzo how controlling the Native tribes could give them access to the divinity-touched beasts and magical beasts in the world.

• Ryan convinced Xiong to befriend him by promising not to send the Black Bear Tribe’s women to the Azure Lion Tribe, then asked for beast hides, glowing plants, and bones.
• Ryan gave Xiong spears and tools, and Xiong promised that his people would not provoke Ryan’s army and would trade with Ryan when he returned.
• Ryan led the army away, and Baron Enzo reported that Lord Horla’s men had hunted giant black bulls to take back to the Earldom for breeding.
• Ryan told Enzo that the beasts might have bathed in divinity and that controlling the Native tribes would give them access to prey and magical beasts.
• Enzo realized the Natives could help them secure profits without competing with Lord Horla, while Ryan wondered if Viscount Dragoon had neglected his younger sons.

Ryan returned from exploring the Otherworld’s northern Mountain Forests with gifts from Native tribes and realized the land held valuable resources beyond animals and pelts. He planned to share the gains with Northwind Province’s nobles, while hinting that he and Enzo would keep a portion of the newly discovered jade and gold.

• Ryan concluded that the Otherworld’s many Native tribes and powerful mountain regions had prevented Count Weiss from fully occupying it.
• Xiong welcomed Ryan back to the Black Bear Tribe and presented him with forest deer and fawns.
• Cao’s Azure Lion Tribe gave Ryan a captured black bear and goats, and Ryan sent attendants to search for more goats to trade for.
• Ryan allocated most of the tribes’ animal pelts and prey to the nobles whose forces had joined his expedition, while keeping goats and forest deer.
• Ryan showed Enzo Amber Jade and gold found in the Otherworld, then implied that he and Enzo would retain some of its wealth.

Ryan divided the wealth from developing the Otherworldly Plane among the nobles and urged them to protect their lands from the incoming Marquis of Northwind. The Marquis’s procession arrived at Thundercloud Mountain, with sunlight summoned by divine power and Gargoyles accompanying it.

• Ryan distributed gifts, wealth, and Native contracts to the nobles, who supported him and asked about another expedition.
• Ryan warned that the Marquis of Northwind’s new fief overlapped their territories and argued that the nobles needed to coordinate with the Counts or negotiate with the Marquis themselves.
• Lord Horace objected to Ryan speaking for the Counts, but Ryan revealed that the Marquis had already arrived in Thundercloud County.
• A Flying Wolf Cavalry messenger reported that the Marquis’s party was heading for Thundercloud Mountain, while sunlight pierced the clouds through divine power.
• The nobles realized the Marquis was a Grace Bearer, and Ryan saw his procession arrive with kneeling commoners and flying Gargoyles.

Marquis of Northwind Coresna Columbus arrived in Northwind Province under a display of divine favor and declared the province stained by the Church’s invasion. Ryan and the local nobles challenged his claim to their lands, leaving the marquis to lecture Ryan while the dispute remained unresolved.

• Coresna Columbus traveled to Northwind Province beneath golden sunlight created by divinity, prompting the Pope and the Church to denounce the display as blasphemy.
• Coresna declared that Northwind Province had been profaned by the Church and said he would cleanse it, while Ryan realized the province’s military victory had been diminished because the marquis regarded it as a religious disgrace.
• Ryan greeted Coresna and offered soldiers to guard him and help identify the nobles’ lands within his fief, but Coresna insisted that all land within a hundred li of Thundercloud Mountain belonged to him.
• Baron Enzo and other nobles asserted their ownership of the disputed lands, citing their flags and the military merit system that had awarded them the territory.
• Ryan argued that the lands could not be reclaimed without stripping Count Weiss of his noble title, startling Coresna, who then assumed Ryan was acting as the nobles’ pawn and began lecturing him.