Recaps

Bruno considered the planned railway expansion and his own prospects at Red Soil Town Station before ordering his crew to prepare for another ore train. At Woodfort City Station, Bask unexpectedly reunited with his former comrade Military Judge Gutierrez, and they went to a bar to catch up.

• Bruno reflected on the vassal nobles’ proposal for a railway linking their territories and his hope to remain deputy stationmaster at Red Soil Town.
• Bruno checked the time and sent his subordinates to prepare water and fuel for the fourth ore train.
• Bask left a Harvest Festival scheduling meeting and realized he would have to spend the night in Woodfort City.
• Bask recognized Military Judge Gutierrez, and the two warmly embraced and exchanged news.
• Bask and Gutierrez left the station together to have drinks.

Bask and Gutierrez discussed the territory’s military reforms and learned that its vassal nobles planned to capture Barbarian slaves to reduce the cost of building a third railway. They ended the evening reminiscing and drinking, while the nobles’ plan remained underway.

• Bask warned Gutierrez that the crowded bar could bring trouble, but veteran enforcers quickly restrained two caravan guards who drew weapons.
• Gutierrez explained that the bar belonged to a well-connected veteran whose enforcers used the army’s Capture-and-Control Technique.
• Bask recalled his heavy losses at Rotten Tree Beach and told Gutierrez he had retired to help establish the Railway Bureau.
• Bask asked why military trains were taking passenger slots, and Gutierrez said they were moving troops and supplies for the vassal nobles.
• Gutierrez revealed that the nobles planned to capture Barbarian slaves to cut labor costs for the expensive third railway.
• Bask and Gutierrez dropped the subject, shared old military stories, and went to sleep at an inn after drinking.

Bask and Bruno prepared for the Railway Bureau’s projects, while Victor ordered the rapid construction of Line One’s second track using Segmented Construction as preparation for a new railway line. Victor also explained to Veronica that Alex wanted to borrow startup funds to build more than six hundred kilometers of railway in the Iron Birch territories, offering future canal tolls as collateral.

• Bask told Bruno that his work on Line One’s second track could help him earn a stationmaster position on the planned new line.
• Victor instructed Bob to complete Line One’s second track quickly using Segmented Construction and ensure the Bureau learned from the project.
• Victor told Veronica that improved engines and construction machinery could help finish the 140-kilometer second track before October.
• Victor explained that Alex wanted to borrow startup funds for railway lines connecting towns in his northern and Central Region territories.
• Veronica considered Alex’s proposal and judged that lending the money might be worthwhile if he offered the completed canal’s tolls as collateral.

Victor negotiated a loan for Alex with Veronica, then agreed to assign thirty-five of the territory’s first middle-school graduates to the Research Institute. He left Woodfort City and visited a remote village where the First Battalion of the Internal Security Bureau greeted him.

• Veronica proposed lending Alex money against six years of canal tolls, and Victor insisted the lien could be lifted once the loan was repaid.
• Victor redirected Veronica’s attention to the Research Institute’s reciprocating Steam Engine, whose working prototype was ready for orders by year’s end.
• Veronica asked for the territory’s first middle-school graduates, and Victor agreed to assign thirty-five to the Research Institute, including fifteen for the New Materials Department.
• Victor told Veronica to prioritize supernatural materials, then left the Lord’s Mansion with guards for a remote village that grew medicinal herbs for the Medical Department.
• Farmers at the village entrance formed ranks and saluted Victor as the First Battalion of the Internal Security Bureau.

Victor visited the Medical Department’s heavily guarded base after Isaac reported first-stage results. He discovered that Arcane Beast Number One had been pretending to sleep, and the beast attacked him with powerful tungsten-alloy spikes before the chapter left Isaac explaining how its attacks had changed.

• Victor praised Vajic’s security measures and entered the Medical Department’s base with him.
• Vajic explained that Isaac had ordered stricter lockdown ahead of experiments expected to conclude within half a month.
• Victor met Isaac, who introduced the sleeping Arcane Beast Number One as the first-stage result.
• Victor tested the beast with Vajic’s sword, revealing that it had been feigning sleep, and Isaac realized Parker had not overdosed it with sedative.
• Arcane Beast Number One fired tungsten-alloy spikes at Victor, who dodged them and examined one embedded in the floor.
• Parker told Victor that the beast’s attacks had previously required glowing pupils and several seconds to charge, with a range of only seven or eight meters.

After Arcane Beast Number One attacked Victor, Isaac explained its origins and suspected that it was entering a new stage of growth. Victor ordered stronger security for the research base and approved Isaac’s next phase of research, including human experiments.

• Isaac recounted how his team found Arcane Beast Number One as a cub beside the corrupted Rockskin Fruit Tree after killing its protective mother.
• Isaac and Vajic accepted responsibility for failing to anticipate the lynx’s attack, but Victor assured them he would not punish them or kill the specimen.
• Isaac concluded that Arcane Beast Number One’s attack marked a new stage of development, and Victor noted that the attack had left it dormant.
• Victor ordered Vajic to station elite soldiers in the laboratory with heavy plate armor and ironvine mail to protect the researchers and base.
• Victor approved Isaac’s proposal to begin the next phase of research, including human experiments.

Victor visited the Magic Energy Research Base, approved its continued creature research and gave it broad authority, then traveled to Woodfort City’s new Government Affairs Office. There, he asked Powell about making the Railway Bureau a county institution, pursuing greater influence over the county’s vassal territories through the railway network.

• Victor asked Isaac about the progress of animal experiments, and Isaac said stable results from field mice would precede human trials.
• Victor authorized Isaac and Vajic to use the base’s resources and stationed troops in urgent cases, then urged Isaac to keep overseeing the Medical Department.
• After Victor left, Isaac told Vajic he wanted to resign as head of the Medical Department, but agreed to first find someone suitable to handle its daily work.
• Victor visited the Government Affairs Office, where Powell welcomed him as governor of the newly established Two Rivers County.
• Victor asked Powell how the Railway Bureau’s transfer to the county government was progressing, aiming to extend county authority and resource development along the railway routes.

Victor secured twelve nobles’ agreement to place railway operations under Two Rivers County and planned further railway development, then confronted soaring slave prices that threatened the rewards for the Great Expansion. He ordered Baron Jack to seek farming-capable slaves in the Scorching Sun Islands.

• Powell presented Victor with a declaration signed by twelve noble houses, placing railways in their territories under the Railway General Bureau.
• Victor ordered Bob to complete the double-track plan for Line One and arrange a survey of Line Three through the centers of the nobles’ territories.
• Victor asked Powell to advance rewards for the Great Expansion, but learned that buying the planned 10,000 local slaves could cost more than 60,000 gold coins.
• Powell proposed capturing more Barbarian slaves, but Victor rejected the idea because they were poorly suited to farming and would burden the nobles.
• Victor ordered Baron Jack to take the ocean-going fleet to the Scorching Sun Islands and buy island slaves from the Xister Kingdom or the Island Federation.

Victor decided to delay ocean trade with the Southern Kingdoms while the fleet went to the Scorching Sun Islands to buy slaves, after dishonest deals and attacks had cut into profits. He pressed the Intelligence Department to investigate the hostile forces as the territory’s telegraph network neared completion.

• Powell warned Victor that the slave-buying voyage would delay the Southern Kingdoms trade, and Victor accepted the delay because local nobles had cheated the fleet and sent pirates against it.
• The ocean-going fleet’s southern voyages had once earned over 40,000 gold and supplied resources such as Eucommia Gum, helping fund the Great Expansion and telegraph construction.
• The Telegraph Merchants' Guild proposed an undersea line connecting Songsea City, Sunset City, and Golden Sunflower Territory, and Vidocq allowed them to prepare for a trial.
• Two Rivers Territory’s low-priced ironware and textiles disrupted Southern Kingdoms markets, while recent voyages brought defective goods and faced attacks.
• Victor used the slave-buying expedition to pause ocean trade and ordered the Intelligence Department to identify the forces hostile to Two Rivers Territory.

Victor welcomed his uncle, Viscount Soros, to Two Rivers County and was surprised to find his grandfather, Viscount Luowei, with him. Seeing how much Luowei had aged, Victor arranged for his family to meet them and urged his grandfather to rest as they traveled to Woodfort City.

• Victor found the schedule showing that Viscount Soros planned to visit Two Rivers County and its factories.
• Victor learned that Soros had transformed Edelweiss Territory through cooperation with the Golden Sunflower Family and the cashmere and wool trade.
• After receiving word of Soros’s arrival, Victor met him at the border and welcomed him personally.
• Soros revealed that Viscount Luowei had come with him, and Victor hurried to greet his grandfather.
• Victor was moved by Luowei’s frail appearance, sent word to Baron and Baroness Wembley and Ron, and persuaded Luowei to ride in the carriage to Woodfort City.

Victor learned that the Snowflake Family had come to Two Rivers Territory to visit his family and discuss expanding the cashmere industry in Edelweiss Territory. He hesitated to agree because he and Powell had just decided to reduce overseas trade, while the chapter left him suspecting that Viscount Thoros was pursuing broader ambitions.

• Viscount Thoros told Victor that Luowei wanted to visit his daughter, son-in-law, and grandson for Lady Ellie’s birthday, and that he hoped to expand the cashmere industry in Edelweiss Territory.
• Victor welcomed the chance to see his grandfather but gave no immediate answer to Viscount Thoros’s proposal because he had just agreed with Powell to reduce overseas trade.
• Victor recalled that cashmere textiles had struggled in northern markets, but cashmere carpets had found buyers and sweaters had become fashionable among nobles in the Southern Kingdoms.
• Victor noted that overseas sales had earned the Snowflake Family at least 30,000 gold coins and that Viscount Thoros had repaid the canal loan and was considering extending the canal and expanding his private army.
• Victor concluded that the reports about Viscount Thoros’s ambitions were probably true.

Victor welcomed Viscount Roy and the Snowflake Family to Woodfort City, then showed Viscount Thoros a wool mill whose scale impressed him. Their discussion ended with Thoros revealing a plan to depress grain prices, buy up commoners’ fields, and redirect their families into cashmere herding and factory work.

• Victor and Viscount Thoros helped Viscount Roy out of his carriage, and the family welcomed him at Woodfort City with Veronica and Little Charlie present.
• Victor arranged for the Edelweiss Territory troops to stay at the military camp and let the exhausted Snowflake Family rest at the Lord’s Mansion.
• Victor took Viscount Thoros through a wool mill and described its machinery, production capacity, and output.
• Viscount Thoros admired the mill’s scale and considered how its production compared with Edelweiss Territory’s cashmere industry.
• Viscount Thoros explained that he planned to buy grain from outside, lower local grain prices, purchase commoners’ fields cheaply, and move their men into herding and women into factory work.

Viscount Thoros described plans to expand Edelweiss Territory’s cashmere industry by capturing Barbarian slaves, buying grain, and turning farmland into pasture. Victor challenged the plan’s threat to farming and food security, leaving Thoros’s proposal unresolved.

• Viscount Thoros explained that he would capture Barbarian warriors to sell as war slaves and keep other Barbarian slaves to raise cashmere goats.
• Viscount Thoros proposed buying cheap grain to bankrupt Freemen and small landowners, then using their labor and farmland to expand the cashmere industry.
• Victor warned that converting farmland and redirecting serfs would leave the Golden Sunflower Family’s estates without farmers and might undermine future grain supplies.
• Viscount Thoros argued that grain was plentiful, affordable, easy to transport, and readily available from allied nobles.
• Victor remained opposed because losing Freemen and cultivated farmland would weaken Edelweiss Territory’s self-sufficiency and war potential.

Victor persuaded Viscount Thoros to protect Edelweiss Territory from declining cashmere sales by returning to farming and offered him Two Rivers Territory's wool textile factory on favorable terms. The chapter ended with Victor and Thoros leaving the factory as plans began to relocate and operate it in Edelweiss Territory.

• Victor explained that Southern Kingdom trade had weakened and warned Viscount Thoros that Edelweiss Territory could not rely solely on cashmere income.
• Victor urged Edelweiss Territory to keep farming its fields so it could secure grain and weather the downturn, and Thoros agreed.
• Victor offered Thoros the old wool textile factory's equipment for 1,000 gold coins, payable once production began, and arranged water transport and six months of technical support.
• Thoros accepted the offer and promised to assign reliable people to manage the factory and learn its operations.
• Victor and Thoros watched the factory's orderly shift change, and Victor explained the need for strict management and safety procedures.
• Victor noted that Edelweiss Territory could obtain wool from surrounding territories, then led Thoros out of the factory.

Victor explained why the Golden Sunflower Family’s old woolen mill would be transferred cheaply to the Edelweiss Territory: it had to be removed from Riverside Town’s crowded industrial district and its hydraulic machinery would become obsolete. He planned to build a modern steam-powered mill near Line One, leaving his parents with an explanation for the sale.

• Old Baron Wembley and Lady Ellie challenged Victor’s plan to sell Riverside Town’s woolen mill to the Edelweiss Territory for one thousand gold coins.
• Lady Ellie offered to stop the transaction, arguing that the mill still earned the family several thousand gold coins each year.
• Victor explained that expanding canals and reservoirs had lowered the Lime River and disrupted the hydraulic machinery serving Riverside Town’s factories.
• Victor said the mill would be rebuilt near Line One between Muyuan Town and Songsea City, where it could use local materials and ship goods by rail.
• Victor explained that the new mill would use mature steam engines and new equipment from the Machine Factory, making the old machinery outdated and worth selling cheaply rather than destroying.

Victor explained to Baron Wembley and Lady Ellie why the old wool mill’s production capacity had to be sent outside Two Rivers County, then showed his visiting relatives the territory’s industries and infrastructure. His grandfather and uncle departed with the mill’s management team, and Victor planned to visit Edelweiss Territory later in the year.

• Victor told Baron Wembley and Lady Ellie that limited wool supplies meant Two Rivers County could not support its existing mill capacity alongside local workshops, so the excess capacity had to go elsewhere.
• Baron Wembley and Lady Ellie understood Victor’s decision, and Victor reassured them that he would manage the family and territory well.
• Victor showed Viscount Roy and Viscount Thoros the factories, railway, schools, and other developments in Two Rivers County; Roy worried about the influence of its large workforce.
• Thoros proposed a telegraph line between Edelweiss Territory and Two Rivers County, and Victor explained that it could be built as part of a planned route through North York County and the Central Region.
• Victor saw Viscount Roy, Viscount Thoros, the Snowflake Family’s party, and the wool mill’s management team off, and said he would visit Edelweiss Territory later in the year.

Victor inspected the fast-moving double-track construction on railway Line One and ordered that speed not compromise quality or worker safety. On the way back to Woodfort City, he found Barbarian slaves being driven through brutal forced labor, and Bob explained that they had been captured and assigned only unskilled work.

• Bob showed Victor the construction crews laying the second track beside the original railway near Riverside Town.
• Bob reported that the Steelworks had redirected its production to supply the project, and Victor ordered traction tests and strict attention to safety.
• Victor rode west toward Woodfort City with Bob to inspect more of the railway construction.
• Victor saw elderly people, women, children, and other Barbarian slaves moving earth with crude tools while an overseer whipped those who collapsed.
• Bob told Victor that the workers were captured Barbarian slaves who could only perform hard labor.

Victor inspected the railway laborers and learned that lax management had caused heavy losses among the newly captured Barbarian slaves. He ordered Bob to place them under Two Rivers Territory’s standard slave rules and provide basic rest and clothing.

• Victor inspected the Barbarian slaves assigned to railway construction and asked Bob how many had died.
• Bob estimated that fewer than a thousand had died, many of them already wounded during the campaign.
• Victor learned that the Labor Department’s lax oversight had left the newly captured slaves worse off than other slaves in the territory.
• Victor ordered Bob to place the laborers under standard slave management rules and provide them with clothes and brief rest when sick or injured.

Victor inspected the new station under construction southwest of Woodfort City and learned how its layout would support expanded rail traffic. He told Bob that high-precision machine tools could eventually increase production of steam engines, and Bob showed him the station’s facilities.

• Victor returned to Woodfort City with the group and inspected the larger station being built southwest of the city.
• Victor examined tractors and bulldozers powered by Steam Traction Engine assemblies, and Bob explained how they improved construction work despite their limited numbers.
• Victor explained that the Machine Factory was developing high-precision machine tools that could enable mass production and raise engine output.
• Bob welcomed the prospect of more engines, saying the railway could buy more locomotives and run more trips.
• Bob showed Victor the station’s three platforms, fueling and water facilities, turntable, roundhouse, and maintenance workshop.

Victor investigated the sudden appearance of a large Barbarian tribal coalition near Greenplain Territory and ordered his intelligence officials and troops to respond. As Orlando and Walens went to seek contacts among the tribes, Victor sent Ron’s cavalry to reinforce the border.

• Powell informed Victor that Greenplain Territory and nearby vassal territories had begun assembling troops after a Barbarian force appeared near the border.
• Victor demanded answers from the intelligence chiefs after learning the coalition numbered at least ten thousand warriors and threatened the Redrock Iron Mine district.
• Orlando reported that the coalition included the Iron Hoof Tribe and Blood Scorpion Tribe, with nearly two hundred thousand herders and poorly equipped warriors.
• Victor sent Orlando to contact Blood Scorpion Tribe chief’s son Dane and authorized Walens to seek intelligence from the Grey Falcon Tribe.
• Victor ordered Gattuso to involve the Internal Security Bureau in the crisis.
• Ron reported that troops were assembling, and Victor ordered him to lead his cavalry and the cavalry from James’s First Regiment to reinforce the border.

Victor prepared Two Rivers County for a possible Barbarian invasion, assigning troops to the northwest and northern defenses while arranging emergency war funds and railway support. He warned that a prolonged campaign could strain the territory’s finances.

• Ron left to lead cavalry from the First and Second Regiments to the border, where they would join the armies of three noble houses.
• Victor ordered Powell to organize the Government Affairs Office, arrange a war budget, and fetch Bob to prepare railway support for the deployment.
• Victor sent Marvin and the Fourth Regiment north to defend Blue Lake Bay, with permission to abandon nearby strongholds and the copper mine if necessary.
• Marvin promised to defend Blue Lake Bay and protect the copper mine, while Victor considered how to provide follow-up forces with limited regular troops.
• Weber arrived with a reserve of about twenty thousand gold for bonuses and expenses, but warned Victor that a prolonged operation could strain the territory’s finances.

Victor secured 20,000 gold coins from Weber to fund the mobilization against the newly arrived Barbarian Tribe, though he knew the sum would not cover a large-scale war. He tasked Bob and the Railway Bureau with transporting troops and supplies to the front as Two Rivers Legion forces prepared to deploy.

• Victor calculated that wages, casualties, equipment, supplies, and the Golden Sunflower Family's vassal forces would make 20,000 gold coins insufficient if the fighting escalated.
• Victor accepted Weber's funding limit and decided not to remove him as head of the Finance Department.
• Weber left to withdraw 20,000 Raine Kingdom Standard Gold Coins and send them to the front without delay.
• Victor told Bob that the Two Rivers Legion's cavalry had already set out with three days of supplies and outlined the remaining forces' deployment.
• Victor ordered Bob to have the Railway Bureau transport troops and supplies to the front.

Victor ordered the Railway Bureau and military units to rapidly prepare troop and supply trains, while James's outnumbered forces assembled near Redrock Iron Mine. The chapter ended as a messenger arrived with urgent military intelligence.

• Victor instructed Bob to coordinate military trains and ordered units to assemble at the stations, with Luoza's logistics auxiliaries ready to support them.
• James inspected his troops near Redrock Iron Mine and questioned Sulke about the poorly prepared militia recruits.
• Sulke warned James that their force lacked enough experienced soldiers and defensible ground to withstand a Barbarian attack.
• James said he trusted Victor to come to their aid and insisted they hold the position to protect Two Rivers County and his territory.
• A messenger rode up to James and shouted that he had urgent military intelligence.

James received Viscount Brown's and Viscount Markut's reinforcements at Redrock Iron Mine, where they prepared to face a far larger Barbarian force. The viscounts had brought all their troops, but help from Woodfort City remained uncertain and the mine still lacked fortifications.

• A messenger told James that Viscount Brown's and Viscount Markut's troops had arrived, lifting the soldiers' spirits.
• James rode out and welcomed the two viscounts, who had brought more than five thousand soldiers from their territories.
• James explained the threat of at least a hundred thousand Barbarians, and the viscounts recognized how badly outnumbered they were.
• James said Woodfort City had promised reinforcements, but the mine had no telegraph connection to learn their status.
• Viscount Brown offered to lead the cavalry to distract the Barbarians while the others finished building fortifications.

James and the other viscounts prepared the Temporary Camp for a possible Barbarian attack, but Konedia revealed that the Barbarians were refugees fleeing pursuers. The chapter ended with James riding out to meet a delegation of Barbarian envoys.

• James had Markut's and Brown's troops rest, ordered the miners to help build defenses, and patrolled the camp perimeter with his cavalry.
• Anpeimu returned with the rangers and explained that he had withdrawn them on Konedia's advice to avoid alarming the Barbarians.
• Konedia told James, Brown, and Markut that the Barbarian settlement was fleeing pursuers and that more Barbarian forces were holding them off behind it.
• The three viscounts agreed to trust the intelligence cautiously, strengthen their defenses, and take turns standing watch.
• At one in the morning, Konedia reported that a delegation of Barbarian envoys was approaching to speak with them.
• James left the camp with Konedia and a small cavalry unit to meet the envoys while Markut and Brown stayed behind to guard the camp.