Chapter Summaries

Ryan struggled to persuade adventurers to exchange orc heads for Gold Coins, then found inspiration in Borgeld’s chaotic Winter City tournament. He arranged a Hero Tournament in Zero Crossing City with a Frozen Earth Territory warhorse as the prize, drawing knights eager to prove themselves and showcase their equipment.

• Ryan explained that hiring adventurers and paying for orc heads would advertise Frozen Earth Territory’s economy, but he remained frustrated that nobody had claimed the offered Gold Coins.
• The Viscountess told Ryan that nobles were fiercely fighting over hereditary lands and titles, while Ryan fell asleep atop his newly delivered fortune.
• Borgeld sparked a violent frenzy in Winter City by offering a valuable sapphire to whoever won an arena brawl, leaving hundreds injured.
• Ryan realized that regular events and rewards could attract adventurers, so he announced a winter Hero Tournament and promised a warhorse to the victor.
• In Zero Crossing City, Valentine claimed the roaming warhorse as his future prize, while Hunter prepared to challenge him with a new Knight’s Greatsword made in Frozen Earth Territory.
• After hearing that his previous victories over Hunter had relied on his superior weapon, Valentine decided to buy a Frozen Earth Territory sword of his own.

After the arena tournament, Ryan and the Northern Kingdom's Braveheart Guild sent the eight surviving knights to hunt orcs, offering Gold Coins for each kill and a warhorse to the most successful. At a gathering with Northwind Province’s nobles, Ryan warned that the Emperor and Meyers might exploit the province’s iron and land, leaving the nobles wary of what would come next.

• The Northern Kingdom's Braveheart Guild ended the duels and sent the eight knights, including Lynn, in separate directions to hunt orcs for half a month.
• The Guild displayed more than ten thousand Gold Coins and announced that every orc killed would earn one Gold Coin.
• A hunter brought an orc head to Zero Crossing City, received a Gold Coin, and bought a dagger after the bard explained the Guild’s equipment discount.
• Ryan met with Haton, Viscount Miles, and other nobles, then warned them that the Emperor would requisition Northwind Province's iron cheaply to rebuild the West Sea Fleet.
• Baron Hatton argued that the nobles would have to compromise with the Emperor over abandoned territories, while Ryan cautioned that Meyers might drain the province’s wealth.
• Ryan reassured the nobles that they should wait and see what Meyers did, then proposed betting on whether Lynn would win the warhorse.

Ryan drove a vast effort to reclaim frozen wasteland and build a road through the Swampland, aiming to make the region productive and secure Northwind Province’s food supply. He left the first fields in the hands of officials and Mage Yelena, demanding three thousand mu of land and seeds for a trial harvest.

• Harrington sent tens of thousands of newcomers from Zero Crossing City to reclaim frozen land, while Aethelred inspected the pits and reported their difficulties to Ryan.
• Ryan ordered workers to fill the pits with heated swamp soil, ash, manure, and leaves, while other crews used stone, frozen earth, and scrap metal to build a road through the Swampland.
• Ryan visited the reclaimed fields and ordered the civil officials to complete exactly three thousand mu within a month, warning them that Mage Yelena would hold them accountable.
• Ryan told Yelena he had paid off her debts and promised to fund her advancement if her seeds could grow on the reclaimed land, while demanding enough seed for three thousand mu.
• Ryan considered how food production would strengthen his political, military, and economic influence in Northwind Province, then declared that he should not be regarded as merely a Baron.

Ryan declined Volvo’s offer to become deputy commander of the West Sea Fleet, then used the Elector’s arrival to draw Northwind Province’s nobles into Zero Crossing City. As Volvo became entangled in disputes over land and iron ore, Viscount Hogg warned Ryan that accepting land from Volvo could be dangerous if he lost the imperial succession struggle.

• Volvo asked Ryan to become deputy commander of the West Sea Fleet and help secure Northwind Province’s iron ore, but Ryan refused and offered to notify the nobles of Volvo’s arrival.
• Volvo stayed in Zero Crossing City to avoid Shaya Meyers, while Ryan’s letter brought many nobles from Thundercloud County to meet him.
• Norton Clayton asked Ryan for Glimmer Territory, but Ryan refused and arranged for Norton to join land reclamation in Frozen Earth Territory with the promise of three hundred households.
• Volvo received the arriving nobles’ requests for land and iron ore, leaving him unable to make decisions while Ryan watched him become caught in the local dispute.
• Viscount Hogg privately told Ryan he feared accepting land from Volvo could bring trouble if another Elector became Emperor, and he sought Ryan’s help instead.

Ryan used Uma’s victory in the Braveheart event to support Viscount Hogg’s plan to secure Anto Town for his nephew, while the deaths and returns of the Eight Knights stirred Zero Crossing City. Ryan then persuaded Volvo to invest one hundred thousand Gold Coins in the adventurers’ enterprise, seeking the elector’s status and influence to expand the Northern Kingdom’s Braveheart Guild.

• Ryan explained why the emperor had not answered his request for a higher title, then heard Viscount Hogg ask for help obtaining land and part of a mine.
• Valentine, Hunter, and Lynn returned to Zero Crossing City with their orc tallies, and Uma arrived with the largest haul so far.
• Viscount Hogg revealed that Uma was his nephew and proposed giving him Anto Town; Ryan publicly backed Uma’s qualifications while noting that the town belonged to Baron Ellis.
• Bards announced the deaths of Knight Meli and three other knights, and the crowd continued celebrating Uma as the leading candidate to become a noble.
• Ryan told Volvo that the Eight Knights had killed more than three hundred orcs and offered him a share in the adventurers’ enterprise.
• Volvo agreed to contribute one hundred thousand Gold Coins, while Ryan aimed to use the elector’s influence to expand the Braveheart Guild.

Kaan Meyers tried to bring Northwind Province’s nobles and trade under the Mayers Family’s control, but Ryan challenged him over expelling Count Pascal’s gargoyles and the nobles refused to abandon the Northern Territory Merchant Guild. Volvo explained that the nobles relied on Ryan to protect them from the orcs, and Ryan urged them to build courage and wealth through the Northern Kingdom’s Braveheart Guild.

• Kaan Meyers arrived in Northwind Province, where the nobles welcomed his support for their land plans, but he immediately expelled Count Pascal from the province.
• Ryan questioned Kaan about the expulsion and rejected his proposal to join the Northern Territory Merchant Guild, warning that the dispute could threaten his territory’s grain supply.
• Kaan failed to persuade Northwind Province’s nobles to move their goods into a new merchant guild, and Volvo explained that they needed Ryan’s protection against the orcs.
• Ryan toasted the survival of the nobles with Baron Hatton and argued that courage had enabled a small force to defeat hundreds of orcs.
• Ryan proposed the Northern Kingdom’s Braveheart Guild as a way to raise soldiers, create wealth, and secure Northwind Province’s future.

Ryan openly challenged Kaan Meyers’s attempt to gain control of Northwind Province’s mineral trade and learned that the conflict extended beyond local politics. Count Soron explained the legend of the Curse of Northgar and the Northgal River’s importance, leaving Ryan suspicious that Meyers had deeper motives tied to the Gargoyles.

• Ryan burned Kaan’s letter from the Marquis of Northwind and declared that Northwind Province’s nobles would decide who profited from its mineral wealth.
• Ryan told Viscount Hogg that Grand Duke Fleming had warned him about the severe losses suffered by the Mayers Family’s Nightmare Knight Legion, and Hogg revealed that Meyers had invited local nobles to join a competing trade guild.
• Ryan told Hogg that he planned to learn more about the Curse of Northgar, and Hogg directed him to Count Soron.
• Count Soron explained that the curse arose from a failed prince’s dying vow, while past attempts to establish a kingdom in Northwind Province had also been defeated by political opposition.
• Count Soron connected Northgar’s former prosperity to the Northgal River and its route toward the East Coast, where other races lived.
• Ryan questioned whether Gargoyles could sense souls trapped in stone and suspected that Meyers’s interest in the province went beyond money.

Ryan was drawn into the Empire’s growing struggle with the Church as Meyers’s representative offered a million gold coins and Count Pascal asked for his help spreading the faith of light. After Ryan realized the emperor might be making him a second standard-bearer against the Church, Farrell arrived with fifty thousand soldiers bound for the Andara Kingdom and introduced Otis Brooks.

• Kaan told the nobles that Meyers and the Clayton Family sought the Northlands’ wealth, then offered Ryan a million gold coins for the Braveheart Guild with no added conditions.
• Ryan accepted the funding as an admission fee for the Northwind Trade Guild, while continuing to oppose Meyers over the Northern Territory Merchant Guild.
• Count Pascal visited Ryan and asked for his help connecting the faith of light in Northwind Province to the gargoyles.
• Ryan concluded that Emperor Flor might be positioning him as a second Blasphemer against the Church, and worried that he would be caught in the conflict between royal and divine authority.
• Farrell arrived outside Zero Crossing City with fifty thousand soldiers ordered to help the Andara Kingdom resist the rhino orcs, and introduced Otis Brooks as their commander.
• Otis offered the Brooks Family’s goodwill and promised Ryan a flame fish from the southern peninsula during the Divine Grace Festival.

Chrysos arrived in Northwind Province and secured the nobles’ agreement to supply iron ore for the West Sea Fleet’s reconstruction, while Count Pascal prepared to move the wonder for Emperor Florian. As Ryan weighed five overlapping political crises and considered intervening in the eastern kingdoms, noble descendants flocked toward Zero Crossing City, and Ryan pressed Farrell about obtaining a title and land.

• Kaan learned that Count Pascal had entered the wonder, and Chrysos told him that Emperor Florian had promised the Mayers Family Northwind Province’s taxes for thirty years.
• Chrysos exempted Northwind Province’s nobles from taxes for five years, securing their agreement to provide iron ore for rebuilding the West Sea Fleet.
• Ryan assessed five major webs of conflict, decided to approach the eastern kingdoms from the outside, and received a message from Beard.
• The Eight Knights’ fame spread among the people and nobles, drawing ambitious noble descendants toward Zero Crossing City.
• Farrell told Ryan that Otis Brooks had led his troops to the Andara Kingdom’s royal capital, and Ryan asked Farrell how his plan to obtain a Noble Title and land was progressing.

Ryan considered how to turn the noble youths arriving in Zero Crossing City into a usable force, then tested Lawrence Xavier and offered him a dangerous path into the Northlands. Lawrence had to decide whether to stake his future on becoming a soldier, while Ryan risked the goodwill he had built with the Xavier Family.

• Farrell told Ryan that he had been offered a baronetcy and land, but Ryan warned that refusing it would not secure him a higher title; they discussed noble adventurers and Ryan’s plan for an army of noble-blooded soldiers.
• Ryan tested Brock’s newly forged, ice-blue longsword, named it Frostmourne, and shattered it because its materials were not strong enough for his needs.
• Ryan instructed Rhode to keep the Northern Kingdom’s Braveheart Guild operating normally despite noble youths demanding admission, then reviewed Appia’s list of candidates and focused on Lawrence Xavier.
• Lawrence impressed the crowd by defeating slaves in a fight, then met Ryan and Lynn, where Ryan overwhelmed him in combat and offered him a fine Knight’s Greatsword.
• Ryan told Lawrence to enter the true Northlands and return alive, promising to bear the consequences if he died; in exchange, Lawrence would become a soldier and Ryan would stake his standing with the Xavier Family.

Ryan sent Lawrence alone to the Northlands after granting him five blessings, while Ryan worked to influence the eastern kingdoms. In Northwind Province, Chrysos negotiated taxes and mine profits with the nobles before Ryan revealed that more than a hundred thousand Dawn Fanatics had been displaced into the Sera Kingdom and that some had entered the Empire.

• Lawrence accepted Ryan's transaction, received five blessings and a Bearskin Cloak, then set out alone for the Northlands.
• Ryan explained that he hoped to use soldiers like Lawrence to influence the Andara Kingdom and the Sera Kingdom and secure support from their nobles.
• Chrysos and the Northwind nobles negotiated the cost of moving the wonder, with Chrysos proposing lower taxes in exchange for ten percent of the nobles' mine profits.
• Ryan agreed to contribute a thousand Gold Coins and told Chrysos that Frozen Earth Territory had no operating metal mines and that he had gained its wealth through earlier wars.
• Ryan showed Chrysos Count Fragoso's letter reporting that over a hundred thousand displaced Dawn Believers had become Fanatics, with some already entering the Empire.

Archbishop Adriana urged the Faith of Dawn in the Sera Kingdom to purify the Florian Empire, while Bishop Nelson plotted to use believers against Ryan’s troops. As Borgeld’s force entered the kingdom, Dawn Believers ambushed them near Count Fragoso’s domain, and Appia and Borgeld faced down the Church’s forces.

• Adriana proclaimed that the Empire’s faith in Light had been corrupted and called for its purification, while Bishop Nelson resolved to exploit believers against Ryan’s troops.
• Borgeld led five hundred people, including fifty Armored Bears, into the Sera Kingdom and traveled along the developing Sera Avenue toward Unicorn Fortress.
• Dawn Believers led by Holy Light Knights ambushed the party, and Borgeld’s soldiers formed a defensive circle as the fighting intensified.
• Count Fragoso’s knights arrived and demanded that both sides stop fighting on the Count’s land, but the battle continued.
• Appia threatened a knight who tried to intervene and warned the Church’s clergy to retreat, while Borgeld continued fighting among the believers.

Borgeld’s forces reached Ryan’s estate and fortified it after discovering valuable platinum beneath its lake. In the Sera Kingdom, Bishop Nelson failed to persuade the royal family to attack Ryan, while Archbishop Adriana declared that Nelson and the princes had lost Dawn’s favor.

• Borgeld’s soldiers killed the remaining fanatics, then advanced to Ryan’s estate as the knights let them pass.
• Borgeld’s people assembled ballistae to fortify the estate, where surveyors had discovered platinum ore beneath the lake.
• Bishop Nelson accused Ryan’s army of massacring Dawn’s clergy and believers, but Roland countered that the believers had attacked Ryan’s soldiers first.
• Roland refused to let Nelson draw the Sera Kingdom into war with Ryan, and Nelson left after failing to gain an audience with the King.
• Archbishop Adriana told the princes that Nelson’s faith had faltered and that Dawn would not protect those who refused to believe.

Ryan planned to exploit the Sera Kingdom’s fragile noble factions by using outsiders as a spark for conflict. Alberto offered the wandering Valencia Family a chance to regain noble standing through Ryan, and Kaeld pledged the family’s lives before learning what Ryan wanted them to do.

• Ryan studied the Sera Kingdom’s divided noble factions and decided he needed a spark and soldiers to set their conflicts in motion.
• Kaeld Valencia and his family struggled to earn an audience with the Sera King while overseeing construction in the royal city.
• Alberto Obres met Kaeld on Ryan’s behalf and explained that the Valencia Family needed a bargaining chip to obtain land and noble status.
• Alberto offered the family Ryan’s support, and Kaeld accepted, pledging the Valencia Family’s lives before hearing the details of Ryan’s request.

Kaeld accepted Ryan’s covert plan and sent Zar Valencia to kill Tony Deane, triggering a feud between the Mendes and Deane families. Connie learned that his brother was dead, admitted he had wanted to kill him to preserve his place in the Deane Family, and set out for the Northlands to gain strength and avenge him; Ryan’s letter about the Mendes Family reached the Carlos Family.

• Apia tasked Kaeld with sending a Valencia family member to kill a Deane descendant, warning that failure would leave the family exposed to both noble houses.
• Zar Valencia killed Tony Deane during a clash between the Mendes and Deane families, then took his own life, and Kaeld told the panicking Valencias to deny Zar’s identity.
• Borgeld questioned Connie about his brother’s death and his motives, and Connie admitted he had wanted to kill Tony rather than be cast out of the Deane Family.
• Borgeld gave Connie Frostmourne and sent him to the Northlands to gain strength, and Connie vowed to return alive and avenge Tony.
• Ryan’s letter concerning the Mendes Family reached the Carlos Family.

Ryan arranged for his army to escort the Carlos Family’s Obsidian caravan to the Woodlands, while Lawrence searched the Northlands for the Mayers Family and fell into a Rift containing numerous dragon skeletons. The chapter left Lawrence facing a charge of Goblins as the frost dragon Arryris roared above the Rift.

• Huo Nan Carlos ended the family’s dispute by accepting Ryan’s offer to escort the Obsidian to the Woodlands.
• Appia sent fifty Armored Bear Warriors and fifty soldiers to the Carlos Family, and the family prepared to transport the Obsidian before Divine Grace Festival.
• Ryan discussed a rumor with Avril about a northern noble whose body was transforming into an Elemental Body.
• Lawrence survived a Werewolf attack, then decided to search for the Mayers Family adventurers in the Northlands.
• Lawrence fell into an ice cavern during an avalanche triggered as the frost dragon Arryris roared, and the collapsing ice opened a vast Rift.
• Lawrence discovered ten frozen dragon skeletons and a crowned dragon seated on a throne, then turned to face a charging Goblin and its companions.

Lawrence and Connie discovered Dragon Bone Marrow inside a dragon skeleton in the Rift and used it to advance, while signs of a terrifying power watching over the frozen dragons grew stronger. They escaped the Rift past a mountain of dead Goblins as a Frost Dragon watched them leave.

• Lawrence encountered knights from the Mayers Family, and they fought off gray-white Goblins before discovering frozen dragon skeletons and the remains of a Dragon Monarch.
• After Goblins ambushed them again and their escape ropes vanished, Lawrence met Connie, and the two decided to seek extraordinary resources rather than return to Lord Ryan.
• Lawrence and Connie spent days breaking the ice around a dragon skeleton and found Dragon Bone Marrow, which they collected before retreating from the ominous site.
• The two used their gains to advance to a new stage, then fought their way past Goblins and escaped the Rift over a slope covered with thousands of Goblin corpses.
• A Frost Dragon watched Lawrence and Connie flee toward human civilization, then roared while staring into the depths of the Rift.

Ryan traveled to Count Winter’s Domain for Castor Winter’s succession ceremony while investigating why the Spirituality Panel’s new world rejected its connection. After Lawrence and Connie returned from the Northlands with Dragon Bone Marrow, Ryan heard a dragon roar from the Spirituality Panel, leaving the source and significance of the connection unresolved.

• Ryan discussed the Spirituality Panel’s rejection with Avril and learned that a deity might reject another powerful being or deity.
• Count Soron told Ryan that Castor Winter had mediocre talents, resented the Soron training method, and was an arrogant heir; Ryan later saw Castor defeat ten knights at the Divine Grace Festival.
• Ryan assessed the shifting alliances across Northwind Province and planned to expand his influence, while Lawrence and Connie decided to report their Northlands discovery to him.
• Lawrence and Connie returned alive and told Ryan about the Rift, the dragon bones, and their discovery of Dragon Bone Marrow.
• Ryan took the Dragon Bone Marrow and heard a soul-shaking dragon’s roar from the Spirituality Panel rather than from the marrow.

Ryan investigated the dragon bones and learned from the Frost Dragon Arryris that the remains belonged to a defeated dragon civilization and its Dragon Emperor. Arryris asked Ryan to send an army against the followers of the evil god Hobii, while the Dragon Emperor’s fate pointed toward a power capable of challenging the gods.

• Ryan ordered Lawrence to choose between returning to Baron Xavier’s territory or pledging himself fully to Ryan, and Lawrence chose to follow him after witnessing Ryan’s fiery arrow.
• Connie pledged himself to Ryan while remaining committed to the Deane Family, and Ryan gave him a blessing.
• Ryan sent gifts and questions about the Dragon Tomb to Arryris, who warned that the Northlands belonged to him and demanded an army to clear Hobii’s kin from the underground caverns.
• After receiving Arryris’s message through a crystal, Ryan decided to visit the dragon with Knight Mulan and asked Arryris why the dragon remains lay beneath the Rift.
• Arryris revealed that he came from another world, where a war had left him among the last surviving dragons, and said the remains belonged to a Dragon Emperor who had sought power capable of contending with the gods.

Ryan arranged for troops to clear the Northlands’ goblin caverns while maneuvering the Deane and Mendes families into conflict through Connie’s return. Alberto revealed the next stage of Ryan’s plan to Kaeld: the Valencia Family would stake its remaining status by declaring war on Mendes, with the Deane Family prepared to support its account.

• Ryan persuaded Arryris to keep other outsiders away from the Northlands and sent two thousand Stag Legion cavalrymen to clear the goblins and retrieve dragon bone marrow.
• Connie returned to the Deane Family, rallied its people to avenge his brother, and led its troops against Baron Mendes’s forces, defeating them in battle.
• Baron Mendes sought help from the Carlos Family, which sent knights to fight for him while insisting the dispute remain an open war between knights rather than slave soldiers.
• Kaeld Valencia visited Alberto and asked how the Valencia Family could help Ryan, but Alberto told him the family needed to declare war on Mendes and stake everything it had.
• Alberto asked Kaeld whether the Deane Family would confirm the Valencia Family’s account as true, leaving Kaeld stunned.