Chapter Summaries

Ryan gathered support from nobles across the Northlands and western provinces for an exchange between the Imperial Knight Academy and the Northern Kingdom Knight Academy, while questioning whether academy graduates were ready to serve as officers in the Imperial First Legion. As a Legendary Knight appointed to lead the Imperial Knight Academy prepared to travel to the capital, Ryan identified her as the Lost Valkyrie, who had once stopped an Orc invasion in Blazing Snow Province.

• Ryan invited nobles from several provinces to support his proposal, while the Marquis of Hot Springs and Count Ferguson discussed how the Imperial First Legion’s expansion affected their interests and considered placing Ferguson knights in key army positions.
• The Marquis of Hot Springs and Count Ferguson agreed to visit the Knight Academy in the Imperial Capital alongside representatives of the Northern Kingdom Knight Academy.
• Count Gardner’s Twilight Province nobles hesitated to support Ryan’s doubts about the academy until Harald Columbus approved the proposed exchange.
• Count William told Ryan that Purple Mountain Province’s nobles were still fighting Orcs after the Imperial Capital refused their requests for help, and Ryan wondered why the Behemoth and Raven royal clans had fled toward the sea.
• Ryan learned that a female Legendary Knight would travel to the Imperial Capital and become a head of the Imperial Knight Academy, and he recognized her as the Lost Valkyrie who had stopped the Orcs’ first full-scale invasion of Blazing Snow Province.

Brandt led the Northern Kingdom Knight Academy delegation south and met Hether, who challenged the quality of the officers the Emperor planned to send to Blazing Snow Province. Count Clayton explained the political dangers surrounding Ryan’s initiative and sent Kaz and Ivar to accompany Brandt to the Imperial Capital, where the Northlands nobles’ arrival unsettled Emperor Columbus IV.

• Brandt entered Calais Province with nearly a thousand people and met Hether, who rejected the noble passengers and questioned whether academy students were fit to lead soldiers.
• Brandt and Hether reached Clayton County, where Count Clayton welcomed them and explained Hether’s age, history, and concern for the soldiers of Blazing Snow Province.
• Count Clayton warned Brandt that the Northlands provinces brought political complications, then arranged for Kaz and Ivar to accompany him to the Imperial Capital.
• As Brandt’s delegation entered Imperial Capital Province, Northlands nobles contacted their southern allies and formed a new faction in the Empire’s political struggle.
• Emperor Columbus IV raged at the Northlands nobles’ arrival, while Grand Duke Mayers urged him to accept the academy exchange and the Emperor asked whether the Imperial Knight Academy students could win.

Hether arrived at the Imperial Knight Academy to take up her appointment as headmaster, bringing Brandt and students from the Northern Kingdom Knight Academy for an academic exchange. Their first day ended in a mass brawl between the northern and imperial students, leaving Brandt and the academy instructors to determine what had happened.

• Hether unleashed her legendary aura at the academy gates, forced the Sky Knights to stand aside, and entered after Adebayor opened the way.
• Adebayor welcomed Hether and the northern visitors, gave her the headmaster’s robes and ring, and explained that Emperor Volvo would not receive her.
• Hether criticized the Imperial Knight Academy for never producing a Legendary Knight, and Adebayor proposed that its students test themselves against the northerners.
• Imperial students confronted Zack after he stopped Joanie from taking his sword, and northern students rushed in to defend him, sparking a brawl involving hundreds.
• Brandt and Instructor Wick questioned the fighters, who blamed the conflict on Zack’s attempt to protect his weapon and the imperial students’ effort to defend Joanie.

Brandt presented Ryan’s demanding plan for an exchange between the Imperial and Northern Kingdom Knight Academies, turning a political contest into a test of combat, terrain, strategy, obedience, and endurance. The Empire’s nobles argued over the cost and danger, but Grand Duke Mayers’s remark about there being too many nobles showed that Ryan’s proposal had gained unexpected support.

• Brandt read Ryan’s proposed exchange requirements to the students and officials, including duels, battlefield adaptation, tactical assessments, absolute obedience, and endurance under severe casualties.
• Adebayor and Lord Hether questioned whether Ryan had truly intended an academic exchange, while Brandt explained that Ryan had summarized ideas from Miklagard’s ancient Wizard inheritance.
• Brandt defended Ryan’s methods as a way to reduce deaths caused by weakness and described the people and military potential of the Frozen Earth Territory.
• Great nobles and Grand Dukes debated Ryan’s proposal at the Emperor’s palace, arguing over noble casualties, army reform, and other political threats.
• After a Count objected that a Baron could not dictate policy, Grand Duke Mayers said the Empire had too many nobles, and the room fell silent rather than rejecting Ryan’s plan.

Ryan planned a formal exchange between Northern Kingdom Knight Academy and the Imperial Knight Academy, while Chrysus explained to the southern nobles how Ryan could use the Imperial First Legion to extend his influence. The nobles resolved to oppose Ryan through the academy exchange, while Grand Duke Meyers revealed that their deeper goal was to reduce the number of nobles.

• Ryan considered an academic exchange between the Knight Academies a way to establish Northern Kingdom Knight Academy's reputation.
• At Grand Duke Meyers's residence, Chrysus argued that Ryan understood the Imperial First Legion's political consequences and intended to gain influence through its officers.
• Chrysus described Ryan's proposed exchange methods, convincing the nobles that Ryan's military ideas could help him extend his prestige into the South.
• The southern nobles agreed to make the academy exchange an opportunity to thwart Ryan's plan.
• After the nobles left, Grand Duke Meyers told Chrysus to persuade nobles to enter the Imperial Knight Academy as part of a broader effort to reduce their numbers.

The Imperial Knight Academy exchange became a political contest, and Joanie Edwards was ordered by Count Edwards to lose her opening match to Zack. Zack defeated her, and Joanie left believing she had lost her chance to continue knight training, while her father revealed a possible marriage arrangement with a minor noble from Purple Mountain Province.

• The nobles set the formal exchange tournament to begin in three days, and Count Edwards told Joanie she must lose her match against Zack.
• At the tournament, Count Edwards tried to intervene when a noble insulted Zack, but Count Pascal stopped him.
• Brandt reminded Zack that Ryan protected him, and Zack charged Joanie after shouting, “For Ryan’s glory!”
• Joanie cooperated with Zack and lost, then left the grounds believing she could no longer continue knight training.
• Joanie’s father comforted her and said he had found her a marriage arrangement with a fallen minor noble from Purple Mountain Province.
• Joanie’s father explained that the nobles had followed the Northern Kingdom Knight Academy’s party south before separating, and that His Majesty had driven them out at the Imperial Palace gates.

The Imperial Knight Academy’s exchange with the Northern Kingdom Knight Academy exposed the harsh realities of battlefield fighting, and the Northern students’ early victories bruised the Imperial Capital’s pride. The academies then began a larger, magically engineered battle in extreme conditions, with two hundred students from each side entering the forest.

• Volvo Columbus dismissed the Northlands nobles’ opposition to the Imperial First Legion and allowed the Knight Academy exchange to proceed.
• Thirty students from each academy fought ten battles, and the Northern Kingdom Knight Academy won most of them before the Imperial Knight Academy claimed a brutal victory in the final round.
• Count Pascal asked Adebayor to test the students in extreme environments, and Adebayor arranged for mages to transform the battlefield with rain, wind, cold, forest, and Magical Beasts.
• The Northern students refused Life Potions while the Imperial students drank theirs, and two hundred students from each academy entered the magically created forest for the next battle.

The Imperial Knight Academy’s Apprentice Knights battled Magical Beasts in a flooded Mountain Forest, then discovered that the Northern Kingdom Knight Academy had used the chaos to ambush them and claim victory without fighting. The Northern nobles argued that the Imperial students were unfit for service in the Northlands, while the nobles debated whether to proceed with the final command exercise.

• Heavy rain and a landslide trapped the Imperial Knight Academy students in mud, and Magical Beasts emerged to attack them.
• A count’s son organized the Apprentice Knights into a charge, and the students fought and killed several beasts, including Cassol’s killer.
• Count Edwards condemned the students’ choices, while Count Pascal urged him to let the demonstration continue; Northern knights waited around the battlefield’s perimeter.
• After the Imperial students defeated the remaining beasts, Northern Kingdom Knight Academy students emerged from hiding and blocked their retreat, revealing that they had won without fighting.
• The Northern nobles criticized the Imperial students’ ability to survive in the Northlands and proposed sending their own knights to serve as officers.
• The nobles hesitated to hold the final command exercise because the Northern academy’s contender was a count’s heir.

After the Northern Kingdom Knight Academy’s exchange in the Imperial Capital, the Emperor granted its students a share of Imperial First Legion officer positions to appease the Northlands nobles. Ryan’s academy gained new allies and prospective students, while Hether learned that Blazing Snow Province’s army would also be reorganized.

• The Northlands nobles pressed the Emperor for influence in the Imperial Army, and he ordered Grand Duke Russell to reserve lower- and mid-ranking Imperial First Legion officer positions for Northern Kingdom Knight Academy students.
• Ryan wrote to Grand Duke Russell about their partnership, invited his troops to conduct Northlands reconnaissance, and offered local supplies and guidance.
• Brandt began the return journey, and Zoke asked him to enroll Purple Mountain Province’s young knights at the Northern Kingdom Knight Academy; Brandt agreed under Ryan’s policy of welcoming students.
• More groups joined Brandt’s procession, and Ryan learned in Zero Crossing City that the academy’s reputation had attracted prospective students from several provinces, prompting him to plan an expansion.
• Hether questioned an Imperial Knight Academy knight about Blazing Snow Province’s army and learned that it would be reorganized, while some mountain tribes could keep a militia force.

Bennett and Scott traveled through the Corland Kingdom, where new roads and the stories of Bards were changing village life. Scott interpreted a village painting as evidence of the growing separation between divine and noble authority, while the travelers joined the baron's son and his fellow Northern Lands Knight Academy students on their way to the baron's territory.

• Hili brought news that a road from Austin City to Kenan Viscount Territory would pass through Firefly Town, and Scott confirmed the plan in a letter bearing the king's and Frozen Earth Territory's signatures.
• Scott promised to speak to the baron about letting Hili travel, then painted the Lord of Dawn and villagers into his landscape of the village.
• Scott told Bennett that Cleric Sven had made divine authority distant while noble authority governed mortal life, and suspected Baron Ryan wanted his paintings to help advance that arrangement.
• Bennett explained that roads were being built to connect the Corland Kingdom with the Andara Kingdom, the Sera Kingdom, and Gerald Noble Territory.
• Scott and Bennett met a patrol from the Northern Lands Knight Academy, whose members included the baron's son, and traveled with them to the baron's territory.

Ryan managed the growing demands on the Northern Kingdom Knight Academy while planning how to accommodate its students. At the Corland Kingdom’s southern border, Borgeld recognized that fleeing noble families meant war with the Abyssal Servants and set out to fight them.

• Ryan rejected a viscount’s request for places at the academy, ordered students sent out to clear space, and considered loans rather than tuition for those who could not pay.
• Ryan reviewed the debts owed by Northwind Province’s lords and praised the smooth work of the followers in Frozen Earth Territory.
• Borgeld refused to return Countess Jinze to the knights at the Corland border, and her soldiers prepared to fight when the opposing knight threatened war.
• Garick learned that Count Jinze was leading an army against the Abyssal Servants in Brady Canyon and that noble families were fleeing north.
• Borgeld concluded that the fleeing families signaled a larger war, then rode out with the Armored Bear Legion to attack the Abyssal Servants while Garick stayed to guard the border.

Borgeld and the Armored Bear Legion reached Brady Canyon, where Count Jinze’s forces were trapped in a war against Abyssal Servants. As the nobles debated how to escape, Count Jinze offered Zacharia a title and noble status if he could win the battle, while insisting they could not keep holding their ground.

• Borgeld’s forces crossed land altered by Abyssal influence and found two human armies fighting at Brady Canyon.
• Halan explained that the Abyss Church had corrupted people across the region, driven the allied nobles from their territories, and trapped them in the canyon.
• Borgeld hesitated to join the battle because she feared Ryan would confine her again if the Armored Bear Legion suffered heavy losses.
• Zacharia argued with the nobles that their decision to remain in Brady Canyon had left the army trapped, and Count Jinze admitted they had made a mistake.
• Zacharia proposed staying behind to delay the Abyssal Servants while the nobles sought aid, but Count Jinze rejected the plan because the people left behind would be corrupted.
• Count Jinze promised to make Zacharia a noble and the first Lordship of Count Lu Rui’s Territory if he could win the battle, while declaring that they could not keep holding their ground.

Zacharia burned the granaries and used the resulting crisis to drive the starving army into a desperate attack on the Abyssal Servants, hoping to secure Count Lu Rui’s promise of a lordship. As Zacharia led the charge and the nobles quietly withdrew with their wealth, Borgeld watched from the northern heights while enormous foreign things appeared to the south.

• Count Jinze promised Zacharia a lordship, and Zacharia pledged to protect Count Lu Rui’s wealth.
• Zacharia distributed food to the soldiers, then the granaries burned, and he blamed Abyssal believers for corrupting guards and setting the fire.
• Zacharia used the soldiers’ fear and hunger to rally them into attacking the Abyssal Servants, while he asked the nobles to withdraw north with their valuables.
• Count Jinze realized Zacharia had likely burned the granaries to win Count Lu Rui’s favor, but he could no longer stop the desperate battle.
• Zacharia led the army’s charge as the nobles moved toward the northern high ground, and Borgeld watched from above.
• Massive things unlike anything on Norris Continent appeared on the southern highlands as sunset deepened.

The Noble Allied Army collapsed under the assault of Abyssal monsters, and the nobles’ retreat plunged the soldiers and Zacharia into despair. As the battle seemed lost, a burly girl atop an Armored Bear led an Extraordinary Legion into Brady Canyon.

• Abyssal Cultists transformed into hulking monsters and attacked the charging Noble Allied Army as Zacharia urged his soldiers to fight for Lu Rui’s glory.
• Zacharia ordered the army to burn all its fire oil, briefly slowing the monsters but illuminating the nobles as they fled Brady Canyon.
• The soldiers saw the nobles’ retreat and lost hope, while Abyssal Servants slaughtered them and some turned against their former comrades.
• Zacharia despaired as his forces disintegrated and the battlefield fell under the monsters’ control.
• A burly girl riding an Armored Bear led an Extraordinary Legion into Brady Canyon, crushing the Abyssal forces in their path.

The Armored Bear Legion defeated the Abyssal Servants at Brady Canyon and joined the nobles fleeing north. Zacharia was rewarded with a lordship after revealing he had saved most of the granary’s stores, while Borgeld wondered whether more battles awaited.

• Borgeld and the Armored Bear Legion crushed the Abyssal forces at Brady Canyon and ended the battle before dawn.
• Borgeld dismissed Zacharia’s thanks and explained that the Legion came from the Frozen Earth Territory, then Zacharia reported that Madam had reached the Corland Kingdom safely.
• Count Jinze and the other nobles returned after learning of the victory, and Knight Halan explained how the Legion had come to Brady Canyon.
• Zacharia revealed that he had diverted underground water into the granaries, saving six to seven hundred thousand jin of grain.
• Count Lu Rui granted Zacharia an estate and the title of Lordship, while Borgeld accepted grain and secretly hoped Ryan would not learn of it.
• Borgeld asked Count Jinze whether many nobles were fleeing north.

Bennett and Scott arrived in crowded Corland Royal City, where Princess Gwendoria summoned Scott to paint a banquet between King Corland and the Southern nobles. At the banquet, the King offered the displaced Southerners land for thirty thousand people and work for the rest, while Grand Duke Gelan worried about the King gaining their support.

• Bennett and Scott discussed Corland Royal City’s restoration and the possibility of obtaining its blueprints through the Ryan Treasury.
• Princess Gwendoria summoned Scott to the Royal Palace to record the King’s friendship with the Southern nobles, and he went despite his unease.
• Scott listened to lesser nobles discuss Corland Kingdom’s roads, politics, and plans before painting the banquet as King Corland, Grand Duke Gelan, and the Southern nobles arrived.
• Grand Duke Gelan told Count Jinze and the other Southern nobles that Corland Kingdom could not accommodate tens of thousands of people, and Count Lu Rui argued that they could not be sent back to lands overrun by the Abyss.
• King Corland offered land for thirty thousand people, proposed work for the rest, and asked the Southern armies to station at Brady Canyon; Count Jinze and the others accepted.
• Grand Duke Gelan did not oppose the agreement but resolved to win over the Southern nobles so they would not become wholly dependent on King Corland.

The King, Grand Duke Gelan, and the nobles debated whether the Corland Kingdom Legion should move south and occupy land near Brady Canyon to secure resources and defend against Abyssal Servants. The King questioned whether the army could withstand an invasion without the Church of Dawn, and Grand Duke Gelan said the answer was unknown, leaving the kingdom dependent on its allies.

• Grand Duke Gelan proposed moving the Corland Kingdom Legion south of the kingdom's borders to occupy defensible land and use its resources.
• The Crown Prince challenged the proposal by raising questions about command, vulnerable borders, the Northern Military Council, and the Armored Bear Legion.
• Count Jinze offered two hundred thousand Gold Coins in food and equipment materials to support stationing the legion north of Brady Canyon.
• The King asked Grand Duke Gelan whether the Corland Kingdom Legion could withstand an Abyssal invasion without support from the Church of Dawn.
• Grand Duke Gelan admitted that the army's ability to defeat Abyssal monsters was unknown, and the King called for the kingdom's allies to give their opinions.

Ryan responded to the Abyssal Faith’s invasion of the Corland Kingdom by pledging Northern support and sending aid, troops, and political backing through a series of letters. As Dawn Followers began feeding and comforting displaced people, Cleric Sven led missionaries to approach the nobles.

• Ryan argued with Grand Mage Macken over using unsuitable wild horses for transport, then warned him that Dead Silence would eventually reach Svadilfari.
• After learning that Borgeld had taken the Armored Bear Legion to the Corland Kingdom, Ryan authorized her to act in his name and promised King Corland that the Northlands would stand with him.
• Ryan ordered letters to Grand Duke Gelan, Count Jinze, Count William, Count Pascal, and King Sera to offer political support and seek forces for the struggle against the Abyssal Faith.
• Dawn Followers gave bread and eggs to displaced commoners and urged them to survive rather than surrender their wealth for faith.
• Cleric Sven led missionaries to the nobles’ residences and offered a blessing against the Abyss.

Cleric Sven led a Dawn mission and Ryan’s extraordinary troops toward the Abyss-corrupted South, where Borgeld’s Armored Bear Legion launched an attack on a village. The villagers transformed into Abyssal monsters, and Borgeld cut one down as her forces pressed forward.

• Cleric Sven cleansed the southern nobles of Abyssal auras and explained that the traces came from an Evil God’s gaze.
• A messenger reported that Baron Ryan had pledged northern armies, supplies, and one hundred Griffin and Gargoyle warriors to support the war, with the force placed under Cleric Sven’s command.
• Cleric Sven announced that he would travel South, accepted Count Jinze’s family ring, and set out with the extraordinary troops and Dawn Followers.
• Borgeld welcomed Cleric Sven at the southern border and hurriedly led the Armored Bear Legion onward, ordering her warriors to leave Abyssal Servants to them.
• At dawn, Cleric Sven reached the mist-covered South, while Borgeld’s Legion charged a village and discovered that its villagers transformed into Abyssal monsters when struck.

Borgeld and the Armored Bear Legion destroyed Abyssal forces across the land, refusing to be swayed by their whispers and turning every battle into fuel for the next. After cutting down a warrior corrupted by the Abyss, Borgeld led the Legion toward a city, where its nobles mistook their attack for corruption.

• Borgeld led the Armored Bear Legion in destroying an Abyss-corrupted village and its altar, then fought Abyssal Servants who tried to weaken the soldiers with whispers.
• The Legion spent the night eating and resting before resuming its campaign against Abyssal Kin, cultists, and other monsters, while taking supplies from a human army’s granary.
• Borgeld and the Legion crushed Abyssal forces across the region, including a legendary dragon, and Borgeld consumed Abyssal blood without being corrupted.
• When an Armored Bear Warrior succumbed to Abyssal power, Borgeld killed him and ordered Volibear to kill his bear as well.
• Borgeld led the Legion toward a city, and the human knights and nobles inside called them an evil legion corrupted by the Abyss and ordered them stopped.