Chapter Summaries

Ryan offered to rescue Viscount Whitman in exchange for his slaves and soldiers, but Whitman refused to surrender his holdings. Ryan declared war, killed the viscount, and spared Sarah Azur after she offered her help as a Mage Apprentice.

• Ryan offered to take Viscount Whitman and his family to a warmer place if he received Whitman's slaves and soldiers, but Whitman tried to negotiate for slaves and a manor.
• Ryan revealed that Brandt was a Knight and offered the people in the cave the chance to become his subjects and receive the Deer Spirit's Blessing, but they stayed silent.
• Ryan declared war on Viscount Whitman, and Brandt and eight Knight Retainers defeated Whitman's forces.
• After Brandt shattered Whitman's magic barrier, Whitman agreed to Ryan's terms, but Ryan killed him and a youth beside him.
• Sarah Azur identified herself as the viscountess and a Mage Apprentice who could help Ryan, so Ryan lowered his sword and reached toward her.

Ryan killed Viscount Whitman’s soldiers and claimed the Viscount’s property, including the Viscountess, her unborn child, and a cache of refined iron. He brought the Viscountess to Frozen Earth Territory and tried to learn her magical arts, but gave up meditation after half a month.

• Ryan spared the pregnant Viscountess but had Brandt and the others kill Viscount Whitman’s soldiers, then claimed the survivors and the Viscount’s wealth as his slaves and property.
• Ryan learned that Viscount Whitman had spent six thousand Gold Coins on a Beast-Taming Mark to control the Great Horned Deer and asked the Viscountess about her Magic Weaving and Meditation Technique.
• Ryan’s men found seven or eight thousand jin of Refined Iron hidden by the Goblins, and Ryan ordered the slaves to carry it all back to Frozen Earth Territory.
• Ryan brought the Viscountess and her unborn child to the Baron's Castle on Rhino Horn Mountain and attempted to learn meditation from her.
• Ryan struggled with the Meditation Technique for half a month, then abandoned it and hoped for divine blessings that would grant him magical talent.

As Ryan celebrated his fifteenth birthday, Deren discovered Black Goat Orc scouts near Frozen Earth Territory, prompting Ryan to extinguish the settlement’s fires. The scouts noticed the territory but their captain ordered caution, and their conversation revealed the Black Goat Tribe was leading the southward orc campaign to seize food and human children.

• Ryan celebrated his fifteenth birthday as the Bain Family completed reclaiming 110 acres of terraced farmland.
• Deren spotted lights on the mountain, sent guards to investigate, and found signs of orcs.
• Ryan identified the scouts as likely Black Goat Orcs and ordered every fire in Frozen Earth Territory put out.
• Ryan reassured the Viscountess and the maids that the orcs were probably only a scout unit.
• A Black Goat scout proposed raiding the territory, but his captain struck him and explained that the tribe was leading the orc army south by choosing places rich in food and children.

Ryan learned that the Black Goat Tribe had appeared in Northwind Province and traveled to Zero Crossing City to prepare for the threat and conduct business. He reached Viscount Miles’s estate and began a cordial meeting with the elderly noble.

• Ryan ordered Brandt to prepare for a trip to Zero Crossing City and expanded his army by blessing fifty more people.
• Ryan left Beard in charge of the Frozen Earth Territory, warning him to defend Rhino Horn Mountain if orcs attacked.
• Ryan traveled toward Zero Crossing City with Brandt, thirty soldiers, slaves, and a convoy, then passed through Baron Hatton’s territory without revealing the Black Goat Tribe’s arrival.
• Ryan arrived in Zero Crossing City and waited until the next day to meet Viscount Miles at the Miles Family estate.
• Ryan greeted Viscount Miles with praise for the Miles Family’s lineage, and Miles welcomed him to sit beside him.

Ryan visited Viscount Miles, governor of Zero Crossing Prefecture, and offered important information about the orcs marching south. The viscount invited Ryan and his eldest son Kristan to discuss it privately, but Ryan challenged the exclusion of Rag, who had tried to pressure him into revealing the information.

• Viscount Miles criticized his family’s lack of capable heirs and offered Ryan grain for his Frozen Earth Territory.
• Ryan said he had important information for the governor and asked what reward Miles would offer for it.
• Rag Miles demanded that Ryan immediately reveal intelligence concerning the Empire’s security.
• Ryan praised Rag as a worthy successor, implicitly provoking the other Miles heirs.
• Viscount Miles invited Ryan and Kristan to his study, and Ryan asked why Rag was not included.

Ryan negotiated with Viscount Miles over the value of his report that orc scouts had moved south, securing food and warhorses in exchange for the information. After learning the scouts belonged to the Black Goat Tribe, Miles and Kristan reacted grimly, while Ryan left for the merchant guild street.

• Ryan told Viscount Miles that his soldiers had discovered orc scouts moving south and bargained over the information's price.
• Ryan demanded twenty thousand jin of food and one hundred warhorses, while Viscount Miles countered with smaller offers.
• Ryan and Viscount Miles settled on twenty thousand jin of food and seventy warhorses for the information.
• Ryan named the Black Goat Tribe, and Viscount Miles and Kristan reacted with unease.
• Ryan left the manor and led his men toward the merchant guilds in Zero Crossing City.

Ryan brought goods to the Imperial Merchant Guild, rejected its low offer, and sold them to the Blade Rose Merchant Guild for a higher price. Irina paid extra for clues about the Imperial Merchant Guild’s preparations for the Orcs’ advance south, and Ryan left her with enough information to infer the situation.

• Ryan brought Baron Hatton’s bearskin rug to the Imperial Merchant Guild, where Chandler offered him only three hundred gold coins.
• Ryan guessed that the guild was lowering its purchase prices after learning that the Orcs were marching south, and Chandler raised his offer to seven hundred gold coins.
• Ryan refused to sell the rug and took his goods to the Blade Rose Merchant Guild across the street.
• Irina offered Ryan six thousand gold coins for the goods, explaining that the extra payment was part of a deal for information about the Imperial Merchant Guild’s purchases from Baron Kendra.
• Ryan said he had promised Viscount Miles not to tell anyone else, but Irina inferred enough to complete the deal and paid him six thousand gold coins.

Ryan arranged a major grain and labor purchase from Irina’s Blade Rose Merchant Guild while preparing Frozen Earth Territory for the coming orc invasion. As he sought supplies and allies, Irina revealed the history behind Viscount Miles’s hatred of the Black Goat Orcs and hinted at a conflict between the Clayton family and Grand Duke Mayers.

• Ryan ordered two hundred thousand jin of grain, three hundred slaves, and ten blacksmiths from Irina, offering future trade and giving her three days to prepare the goods.
• Ryan sent Rosen to Dragoon Viscount’s Territory with a letter, hoping to obtain more supplies from Viscount Dragoon.
• Ryan asked Irina where he could buy enchanted armor and learned that the Black Goat Orcs had killed Viscount Miles’s eldest son during an invasion fifteen years earlier.
• Irina explained that Viscount Miles’s current children were born to his second wife, while his talented firstborn son had died in the attack.
• Ryan asked about the Clayton family’s conflict with Viscount Miles, and Irina said Count Clayton had helped prevent Grand Duke Mayers’s family from establishing a presence in Northwind Province.

Ryan suspected that Northwind Province’s nobles had arranged the attempt on his life and hurried his group back toward Frozen Earth Territory. On the journey, Brandt used Ryan’s Deer Spirit’s Blessing to break through to Bronze Knight, leaving Ryan’s territory with its first powerful knight and his soldiers inspired by promises of rewards.

• Ryan connected Viscount Miles’s hostility and the old assassination attempt to the Clayton Family’s conflict with Grand Duke Mayers, then asked Irina to speed up preparations to leave.
• After two and a half days, Ryan’s group set out with warhorses for the knights and soldiers, and Brandt’s aura deepened during the journey.
• At the frozen Swampland, Ryan gave Brandt a three-hundred-point Deer Spirit’s Blessing as Brandt attempted to advance.
• Brandt broke through to Bronze Knight and demonstrated his new combat skills, including Fearless Guard and Agile Steps.
• Ryan promised Brandt the first suit of armor forged after their return and offered equipment, houses, and fields to the first ten soldiers to become knights.

Ryan secured grain and warhorses for the Frozen Earth Territory and continued planning its development as concern grew over an orc invasion of Northwind Province. At the province-wide military conference, nobles argued over Ryan’s absence and divided into rival factions before Count Winter intervened.

• Ryan returned with grain and warhorses, and Rosen reported that Viscount Dragoon had agreed to his request; Ryan rewarded Rosen with a warhorse.
• Ryan considered expanding farmland and orchards, while Brandt trained soldiers and more than a thousand slaves reclaimed farmland.
• Ryan noted that he had asked Irina to investigate Count Clayton, while news of the Black Goat Orcs’ southward march spread among Northwind’s lords.
• At the military conference in Northwind City, Viscount Miles reported that Baron Ryan Clayton was absent, and Viscount Dragoon argued that Ryan’s territory was closest to the orcs.
• Viscount Miles and Viscount Dragoon’s dispute divided the nobles into rival factions, and Count Winter ordered them to stop.

At the military council, Muya Soron urged the nobles to confront the Black Goat Orcs on the Fragrant Mountain Plains, while Viscount Hogg argued for county defenses. Count Winter ended the dispute with a vote, and the majority backed Hogg’s plan.

• Muya Soron described the devastation caused by the Black Goat Orcs fifty-three years earlier and recommended taking the initiative on the Fragrant Mountain Plains.
• Viscount Hogg rejected Soron’s proposal and called for each county to build defensive lines and coordinate forces.
• The nobles argued over the plans as northern and southern territorial interests split them into factions.
• Count Winter called for a vote, and more than sixty percent of the nobles supported Hogg’s defensive proposal.

Ryan refused to send soldiers from Frozen Earth Territory to support the defensive lines at Zero Crossing City and Viscount Dragoon's territory, arguing that Orcs were already threatening his lands. After Brandt's soldiers captured a group of Gnolls, Ryan decided to put them to work carrying lumber for future road construction.

• Count Winter assigned nobles to establish a defensive line against the Orcs while keeping responsibility for their advance at a distance.
• Ryan learned that Northwind Province had received thirty million Gold Coins for fortifications on the Fragrant Mountain Plains, but no defenses had been built.
• Ryan refused Viscount Miles's demand for five hundred soldiers and offered five hundred Gold Coins instead, citing attacks on Frozen Earth Territory.
• Deren reported a Minotaur army in the north, and Rosen reported about five hundred Hyena-men approaching from the west.
• Ryan refused Viscount Dragoon's request for troops and sent Woolf back with five hundred Gold Coins.
• Ryan learned Brandt's soldiers had captured more than a hundred Gnolls and ordered them to carry lumber.

Orcs swept into Northwind Province, overrunning Baron Berner’s territory and killing its inhabitants before a much larger force reached Cold Mountain City County. The nobles sheltered in Cold Mountain City saw the Black Goat Orcs split their forces and realized that some were heading for their undefended territories.

• Led by the Black Goat Orcs, a vast orc army invaded Northwind Province and slaughtered the fleeing defenders of Baron Berner’s territory.
• Costa urged Baron Berner to retreat to his fortress, but the orcs overwhelmed the territory before its defenders could mount an effective defense.
• Viscount Landa refused to attack the approaching orcs and kept Cold Mountain County’s fifty thousand soldiers behind its defensive line.
• After a small nighttime attack was repelled, the nobles saw thousands of Black Goat Orc cavalry among the immense army outside Cold Mountain City.
• The orc army split, with forces heading east and west, and a noble realized they were moving toward the lords’ exposed territories.

The Black Goat Orcs overran most of Cold Mountain County and revealed an extraordinary force of more than ten thousand Black Goat Warriors, leaving Northwind Province’s nobles alarmed. Count Winter agreed to send the Flying Wolf Cavalry and soldiers against them, while Viscount Landa offered to persuade Count Soron to deploy the Dragonblood Warriors.

• Viscount Landa tried to reassure Cold Mountain County’s nobles, but a noble warned that Black Goat Orc cavalry could climb city walls as the Orcs charged.
• The Black Goat Orcs swallowed eighty percent of Cold Mountain County’s territories in three days, and Flying Wolf Cavalry carried news of their advance to Frozen Earth Territory.
• Ryan realized that only Count Winter’s Flying Wolf Cavalry and Count Soron’s Dragonblood Warriors could likely defeat the more than ten thousand Black Goat Warriors.
• Northwind Province’s nobles blamed Viscount Hogg for not attacking the Orcs earlier on the Fragrant Mountain Plains.
• Viscount Landa confronted Count Winter in Northwind City, and Count Winter agreed to send the Flying Wolf Cavalry with 50,000 soldiers but complained that Count Soron had not committed his Dragonblood Warriors.
• Viscount Landa offered to persuade Count Soron to deploy the Dragonblood Warrior Legion, recognizing that the counts expected benefits in exchange.

Count Winter and Viscount Landa negotiated a costly alliance to destroy the Black Goat Orc Warriors, and the human armies joined battle with the Orc Army at Golden Wheat County. The Dragonblood Warriors and Flying Wolf Cavalry gained the upper hand until Catfolk Assassins appeared and began killing the flying cavalry, leaving the battle's outcome uncertain.

• Count Winter rejected Viscount Landa's initial offer, but accepted the promise of payments from Northwind Province's counties and gave Landa three days to secure their contracts.
• Count Winter and Count Soron marched with their forces to Golden Wheat County after the Black Goat Orc Warriors arrived there.
• The human armies reached the battlefield as the Orc Army attacked the city, and the Dragonblood Warrior Legion charged into the orc ranks.
• The Dragonblood Warriors fought the Black Goat Orc Warriors while Count Winter's Flying Wolf Cavalry struck from the air, exploiting the orcs' inability to reach them.
• Blue Catfolk Assassins leapt across the backs of falling flying wolves and attacked the Flying Wolf Cavalry, shocking the watching nobles.

Count Love Weiss revealed his plan to make Northwind Province suffer defeat in the orc invasion so the Empire would abandon it and he could establish the Weiss Kingdom. He relied on the Catfolk Assassins to aid the orcs, but warned Appia not to provoke Count Clayton after their earlier failed assassination.

• Count Love Weiss recalled the Weiss Family’s royal heritage and the kingdom’s crown and Catfolk Assassin inheritance.
• Count Weiss explained that he wanted the orcs to devastate Northwind Province so the Empire would sever it, allowing him to claim the land as king.
• Count Weiss worried that Count Winter’s Flying Wolf Cavalry could threaten his plan and asked Appia whether the Catfolk Assassins would succeed.
• Appia assured Count Weiss that the Catfolk Assassins never failed, and Count Weiss reminded him that they had failed to kill a Clayton boy.
• Appia offered to attempt another assassination, but Count Weiss refused because Count Clayton had returned to the Empire and warned Appia against escalating the war.

Ryan considered who had sent the assassins that killed the body’s original owner while Northwind Province reeled from the orc invasion. After the orcs retreated, he amassed slaves and plunder for the Frozen Earth Territory, then revealed that his Blaze Dragon Knight Breathing Technique had reached Formal Knight level and made him terrifyingly powerful.

• Ryan suspected Count Weiss of commanding the blue-furred catfolk assassins, while fighting between the orcs and Northwind Province’s nobles devastated the region.
• Viscount Miles used Spell Scrolls to inflict heavy losses on the Black Goat Orc Warriors, but the orcs ravaged Zero Crossing Prefecture after Ryan’s information helped draw them there.
• The orcs breached another prefectural city and wiped out Viscount Skinner and dozens of other nobles, prompting Count Winter and Count Soron to resume the hunt.
• As the orcs retreated, Ryan ordered his soldiers and serfs to intercept them, capturing more than two thousand as slaves and seizing grain, gold, and other valuables.
• Ryan discovered that his Blaze Dragon Knight Breathing Technique had broken through to Formal Knight level, granting him overwhelming strength and an aura that weakened opponents.

Ryan oversaw road construction and spring preparations in Frozen Earth Territory while arranging for the pregnant Viscountess Whitman to move off the mountain. Little Beard returned with a Clayton Family convoy bearing soldiers, supplies, and wealth for Ryan, leaving his territory newly strengthened.

• Ryan agreed to have a small estate built at the foot of Rhino Horn Mountain so Viscountess Whitman could live there and avoid gossip.
• Ryan reassured Beard that his selected youths were loyal and that he had sent people to find Little Beard, who had been detained in Winged Gorge.
• As spring planting began, displaced people in Northwind Province became slaves, and merchant caravans arrived to buy them.
• Rosen brought Little Beard to Ryan after the Clayton Family lords released him.
• Five Clayton Family knights delivered Ryan fifty thousand Gold Coins, soldiers, armor, weapons, grain seeds, linen, cloaks, and a carriage.

Ryan received a valuable convoy from Count Clayton, which signaled that his family had accepted Ryan’s rise despite burying Count Clayton’s achievements. When Harrington challenged Brandt for command of the army, Brandt defeated him and established his authority over the five newcomers.

• Ryan recognized that the convoy’s arrival changed his standing among the nobles and resolved to make their political decision a mistake.
• Harrington and the other four Claytons inspected Ryan’s well-developed military camp and admired its finely made armor.
• Brandt told the five newcomers that they would serve as commanders under him and offered the Legion Commander position to whoever could defeat him.
• Harrington challenged Brandt to a duel to the death, but Brandt refused to kill a fellow Clayton and fought him instead.
• Brandt overpowered Harrington in front of the soldiers, and Ryan praised him as his Guardian Knight.

Ryan equipped himself with Mithril Armor, delegated a major slave-buying mission to Beard, and opened the Planar Gate to Axeniel. He found the plane trapped in deadly eternal winter and spotted lights at a distant noble’s territory.

• Ryan put on his powerful Mithril Armor and decided to award another suit to the territory’s strongest knight in a year-end tournament.
• Ryan sent Beard to Northwind Province with an army and thirty thousand gold coins to buy craftsmen, farmers, and orc slaves.
• Ryan summoned Brandt, Harrington, five Bronze Knights, and ten soldiers to cross the Planar Gate with him.
• Ryan and the group arrived on Axeniel and found it bitterly cold despite the season.
• Ryan saw lights in a distant tower and recognized that the dying plane’s people might depend on the passage he controlled.