Chapter Summaries

Victor asked Rabik to assess the Telegraph Office's early revenue after its managers worried that 110 gold coins over three days was not enough to justify their investment. Rabik predicted much lower earnings over the next month, and Victor reassured the managers that the telegraph project could develop gradually.

• Victor questioned Powell, Weber, and Octavia for treating the Telegraph Office's 110 gold coins in three days as a major success.
• Powell argued that the revenue showed the telegraph line could repay its construction costs and become a major source of income.
• Victor summoned Rabik and asked him to forecast the Telegraph Office's revenue for the next month.
• Rabik explained that early curiosity had driven revenue, while repeat demand and the limited route would likely keep next month's total below 150 gold coins.
• Victor told the managers not to rush to recover the investment and said the telegraph project could develop over time.

Victor inspected the transplanted crops in Two Rivers Territory and urged the Agricultural Department to develop high-yield fiber crops for local clothing and textile production. He offered substantial rewards for successful results as Red Hemp and Long-Staple Cotton began adapting to the territory.

• Victor praised Sam and the Agricultural Department for helping the crops collected during the Civil War take root in Two Rivers Territory.
• Sam and the agricultural experts had worked with experienced serfs to plant and adapt the crops, and most varieties were growing well.
• Victor emphasized the importance of Red Hemp and Long-Staple Cotton for providing affordable clothing materials and supporting a future textile industry.
• Victor told the technicians to select the best seeds and promised noble titles, land, or wealth for outstanding results.
• The technicians reacted with excitement and looked forward to earning Victor's rewards.

Victor discussed the sugar trade and crowding in Wood Fort Town with Rabik, then directed him to preserve existing contracts and find space for more lodging. Rabik agreed to arrange accommodation for visiting merchant guilds while the Sugar Refinery continued selling its surplus.

• Victor chose to visit the beet fields instead of the crowded Sugar Refinery, where merchants were clamoring to buy white and brown sugar.
• Victor told Rabik to fulfill signed orders first and protect the territory's business reputation.
• Rabik assured Victor that he had delivered orders on time and was selling visiting guilds only part of each sugar batch.
• Rabik reported that Wood Fort Town's inns and campsites were full, with some guild leaders waiting aboard ships at Sea Song Town.
• Victor ordered Rabik to arrange inns or hotels for visitors and told him to ask Levant for a plot of under ten mu on land reserved for town development.

Victor visited the Sugar Refinery and learned that merchants had caused a disturbance while competing to buy scarce white sugar. After approving Rabik’s response, Victor decided the territory needed a dedicated security department to handle law enforcement.

• Victor saw more than thirty merchants’ carriages gathered outside the Sugar Refinery, where the merchants waited in the heat to buy white sugar.
• Rabik told Victor that merchants had tried to seize a shipment after most of the sugar was reserved for contracts with nobles.
• Rabik explained that the garrison had arrested the troublemakers, fined each one hundred gold coins, banned them from land, and given their caravans ten days to leave.
• Rabik revealed that the deadline would give the refinery time to prepare stock for the merchants’ subordinates to buy.
• Victor praised Rabik’s plan, then realized the territory lacked a proper law enforcement agency and considered establishing a security department.

Victor heard merchants struggling to buy enough white sugar and learned how Rabik managed sales with a price limit, purchase caps, and a randomized queue. He approved the system and explained that sharing profits with other powers would help protect his young territory from stronger nobles.

• Merchants with numbers fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen collected their white sugar while the others worried about long waits and purchase limits.
• Victor asked Rabik about the merchants' complaints, and Rabik explained the two-hundred-kilogram transaction limit and randomized queue.
• Victor praised Rabik for selling to many merchant guilds while keeping the price controlled and preventing auctions.
• Victor explained that his territory monopolized white sugar but could not keep all the profits without risking conflict with powerful nobles.

Victor watched merchants compete for newly purchased White Sugar, then visited Two Rivers Territory’s sugar beet plantation and ordered its planting area doubled despite concerns about labor, processing capacity, and sales. He planned to use the kingdom’s three-year tax exemption to expand sugar sales and said he would seek markets in the kingdom’s heartland in August.

• Victor and Rabik watched merchants bid against one another for White Sugar outside the Sugar Refinery before heading to the Sugar Beet Plantation.
• Victor’s tax benefits and reduced White Sugar price helped him plan to use the three-year exemption to expand sales across the Vela Region and into the kingdom’s heartland.
• Rabik reported that more than three thousand mu of sugar beets should yield over eight thousand tons of crops and about fifteen hundred tons of refined sugar.
• Victor judged the expected output insufficient and ordered the sugar beet planting area doubled again next year.
• Rabik warned that expansion would strain the plantation’s labor, the Sugar Refinery’s capacity, and the market for White Sugar.
• Victor said Powell could send immigrants, the Agricultural Department could provide tools and animals, and the Machine Factory could increase refinery capacity; he planned to find buyers in the kingdom’s heartland in August.

Victor ordered Rabik to expand sugar production and proposed a profit-sharing bonus for workers and department staff. Rabik accepted the plan, and Victor urged him to increase production quickly to fund the territory’s coming needs.

• Rabik doubted the market could absorb a major increase in sugar, but he prepared to follow Victor’s order.
• Victor proposed forming a sugar merchants’ guild and distributing part of its profits as bonuses.
• Rabik realized the bonuses would include plantation serfs and refinery workers, making the individual shares more reasonable.
• Victor explained that bonuses across the territory would give more people money to spend and strengthen the local market.
• Victor told Rabik to expand production quickly because the territory needed funds for its plans over the next two years.

Victor inspected the Sugar Beet Estate, praised Rabik’s work, and set expectations for the sugar industry and its bonuses. He also checked the rapidly advancing dam project before reminding Zarack that he would leave the territory in August to travel to the Raine Kingdom with Duke Alex.

• Victor pulled a beet from the newly cultivated field, questioned Rabik about its planting and harvest schedule, and teased him about his stewards’ flattery.
• Victor told Rabik he could earn a share of the Sugar Industry Merchants' Guild profits, but required him to ensure every worker, including the serfs, received at least one gold coin.
• Victor stressed that the sugar industry would become a major source of funds and said Rabik’s success could bring an even greater reward.
• Victor inspected the dam construction, praised Zarack’s progress, and learned that the smaller dam should be finished by the end of July.
• Victor told Zarack he would be leaving the territory in August to travel to the Raine Kingdom with Duke Alex.

Victor inspected the dam construction and learned that brittle stone from a nearby quarry could not provide the large blocks needed for the project. Zarack explained that Levant planned to import cut stones by sea, and Victor left without finding fault with their solution.

• Zarack promised Victor that he would complete the river dredging, dam construction, and immigration work.
• Victor noticed that workers were focused on excavating the reservoir rather than building the dam and asked Zarack about the delay.
• Zarack explained that stone from the nearby quarry fractured too easily to make large blocks for the mortared stone dam.
• Zarack said he had used broken stones to build a temporary wooden crib dam while the team sought a solution.
• Zarack reported that Levant planned to have the sea fleet buy and transport cut stones from elsewhere.
• Victor recognized that the plan would not delay the project or exceed its budget and did not blame Zarack or Levant.

Victor helped Levant and Zarack solve a construction delay by proposing concrete cut stones made from cement and brittle local stone, then established technical standards with them. After reviewing problems across the territory and spending time with Veronica, he left for Iron Tree City in late July.

• Victor discovered that Levant and Zarack had stalled dam construction because the local stone was too brittle and replacement cut stone would take a month to arrive.
• Victor proposed using cement and the brittle stone to cast concrete blocks as substitutes for cut stone, and Levant and Zarack agreed to test the method.
• Victor reassured Levant and Zarack that he was not punishing them and praised their contributions to the territory.
• Victor spent two days testing concrete cut stones and dam bodies with Levant and Zarack until they established technical standards.
• Victor reviewed problems across the territory, returned to the Lord's Mansion, and spent time with Veronica.
• Victor said farewell to Veronica and his family and set out for Iron Tree City in late July.

Brando Great Oak waited at Sunset City’s docks for Victor’s fleet, hoping to leave his territory and travel to the Raine Kingdom under his godfather’s protection. Victor’s ships appeared on the Blackwater River, and Brando prepared to welcome them.

• Viscount Sonanda told Yellen and Brando Great Oak that Victor’s fleet was nearing Sunset City.
• Brando said he wanted to leave the territory and travel to the Raine Kingdom with his godfather.
• Viscount Sonanda recalled that Victor had protected Brando’s succession and that the retainers trusted him to keep the young count safe.
• Ships bearing the Golden Sunflower Crest appeared on the Blackwater River.

Victor arrived in Sunset City, reunited with his godson Brando, and learned that the East Sea Alliance was making provocations along the coast. He prepared to take Brando to Raine Kingdom while Viscount Sonanda and Great Oak Territory’s officials stayed behind to handle the threat.

• Victor was welcomed at the docks, where he reunited with Brando and teased him about his candy and messy hair.
• Viscount Sonanda spoke with Sodoma aboard the flagship and learned that Sodoma would take the Golden Sunflower Family fleet south on an undisclosed assignment.
• Victor attended a family dinner at the count’s residence, where Viscount Sonanda told him that suspected East Sea Alliance-linked pirates were attacking coastal villages.
• Victor offered to leave Sodoma’s fleet in Sunset City to help, but Viscount Sonanda declined and said they could handle the probes themselves.
• Victor promised to keep Brando safe when he took him to Raine Kingdom, while Magnus and the others remained in Great Oak Territory.

Victor discussed the pirate raids in Suffolk County with his advisers and considered whether an East Sea Alliance noble was secretly supporting them. He decided to discuss the unconfirmed suspicion privately with Duke Alex rather than raise a public alarm.

• Victor sent Count Brando to rest while he continued discussing Suffolk County with the others.
• Baron Magnus said the former loyalist nobles were occupied with surrendering their goods and people, while southern pirates were secretly attacking coastal fishing villages.
• Viscount Sonanda agreed that someone might be supplying the pirates but ruled out a major East Sea Alliance fleet attacking the Raine Kingdom.
• Victor suggested that an East Sea Alliance great noble might be acting alone.
• Viscount Yellen proposed reporting the suspicion to Duke Alex in Count Brando's name, but Victor decided to speak to Alex privately during their journey.

Victor arranged for Viscount Sonanda to lead an anti-pirate campaign while he and Brando traveled toward Iron Tree City. Alex learned that Victor and Brando would arrive the next day and eagerly prepared to welcome them.

• Victor ordered Viscount Sonanda to destroy the pirates, authorized attacks on East Sea Alliance ships, and planned to fund the campaign with contributions from Suffolk County's nobles.
• Magnus, Yellen, and Sonanda agreed to wait until Victor and Brando had left before preparing the campaign, while Yellen planned a sweep of Sunset City's black market.
• Victor issued a mobilization order, then departed by ship with Brando, who excitedly recounted the exaggerated puppet-show tales about his godfather.
• Victor carried Brando into the cabin during a strong gust and promised to tell him a truthful story instead of the puppet-show version.
• In Iron Tree City, Alex ordered grain sent to Notting County and learned that Victor and Brando would arrive the next day, prompting him to plan a welcome.

Alex reunited with Victor at the river dock near Iron Tree City and invited him back to the city. On the ride, Alex and Victor caught up while Brando greeted Alex formally, not remembering that they had met before.

• Alex recognized Victor's fleet outside the dock and ordered his cavalry to let Victor and his guards through.
• Alex and Victor dismounted and embraced happily after more than half a year apart.
• Alex and Victor remarked on each other's changed appearance, and Alex explained that his duties as duke and his father's death had left him exhausted.
• Alex led Victor and Brando toward Iron Tree City, while Brando asked Victor to teach him how to dismount from a horse.
• Brando introduced himself formally to Alex, who joked that he had held Brando when he was younger, and Victor said it was normal for a child not to remember.

Victor visited Alex in Iron Tree City and learned that rebellion across the Central Three Counties had forced Alex to deploy most of his Scarlet Feather Guard. With spring planting delayed and the autumn harvest uncertain, Alex asked Victor to lend grain, leaving Victor aware that food shortages could threaten nearly two million people.

• Alex explained that he had formed the two-thousand-man Scarlet Feather Guard because the Iron Birch Family lacked enough special warhorses to rebuild the Iron Knight Regiment.
• Victor saw that Iron Tree City had recovered much of its prewar bustle, and Alex showed him the renovated conference room and promised copies of books from the Silver Maple Family treasury.
• Alex asked Victor to lend autumn grain, and Victor realized Alex’s unusual cavalry force suggested trouble in the Central Three Counties.
• Alex revealed that people in all three counties had rebelled and attacked garrison camps, forcing him to send nearly all the Scarlet Feather Guard to suppress them.
• Alex said the rebels had delayed spring planting, making the autumn harvest uncertain, and noted that sending prisoners of war to Notting County had kept matters from worsening.

Alex proposed redistributing the Central Region’s population by building a canal from Milan County to North York County, using prisoners and conscripted labor. Victor found the plan workable and saw that it could ease rebellions while developing the canal route and rewarding Northern Frontier nobles.

• Alex regretted rejecting Victor’s earlier proposal to exchange the populations of Iron Birch Territory and the Central Three Counties.
• Alex said he intended to redistribute the population across the lands.
• Alex proposed a 140-kilometer canal connecting the Central and Northern Regions, built with nearly fifty thousand prisoners and conscripted workers.
• Alex planned to settle people in sparsely populated Sykes County and war-damaged Notting County, and grant most canal-side towns and villages to distinguished nobles and officers.
• Victor traced the route on the map and judged the plan workable, believing it would reduce rebellions and win support from Northern Frontier nobles.

Alex explained Casimian’s canal plan to Victor, who agreed to support the project with grain. After nobles from across the Vela Three Provinces gathered, Alex led them west to board the Kingdom Navy’s fleet for their journey to the Raine Kingdom.

• Alex told Victor how Casimian had proposed a canal connecting Iron Tree City and Northwind City, and showed him the engineer’s detailed survey and plan.
• Alex explained that the canal would use prisoner labor and support from nobles along the route, while Victor pledged thirty thousand tons of wheat each year until construction ended.
• The Vela Three Provinces’ great nobles arrived in Iron Tree City, and Alex departed with them on July 24.
• The party traveled through war-ravaged Ent and Strath Counties before reaching the better-preserved Fude County and its seat, Traca.
• After learning the Kingdom Navy’s fleet was ready, Alex led the gathered nobles to the port, where they boarded that night to sail the next morning.

Victor watched the calm, sunlit Tears of God Inland Sea at dawn while the others slept, then spoke with Count Edmund Longbloodvine on deck. The two compared the inland sea with other waters as Victor described his journey through the Shattered Ice Ocean.

• Victor admired the mirror-like sea at sunrise and regretted that Brando and the others were asleep and would miss the view.
• Count Edmund Longbloodvine joined Victor on deck and explained that he wore practical sailor's clothes whenever he led a fleet.
• Victor praised Edmund's simplicity and told him how remarkable the calm inland sea seemed compared with the Eastern Sea and the Shattered Ice Ocean.
• Edmund asked about the waters Victor had seen, and Victor described sailing north with Captain Jack to witness the Shattered Ice Ocean's drifting ice fields.

Victor learned from Earl Edmund how the Kingdom Navy's Gassel-class oared sailing ships navigated the dangerous Tears of God Inland Sea, while Edmund revealed an internal dispute over replacing them. After returning to his cabin, Victor suspected Edmund wanted him to pass information to Alex.

• Victor and Edmund discussed the Shattered Ice Ocean and Edmund's naval career as the fleet prepared to lower its sails and secure its ropes.
• Edmund explained that the fleet used Gassel-class oared sailing ships to maneuver around thunderstorms and sudden wind corridors in the Tears of God Inland Sea.
• The Lombardy used its oars to bypass a thunderstorm cluster and cross a fierce wind corridor as Edmund described the ship and its crew to Victor.
• Edmund told Victor that some naval officers wanted to replace the Gassel ships with Balati Galleons, while his father and Fleet Commander Lawrence opposed the plan.
• After the fleet entered rain, Victor returned to his cabin, saw Brando asleep, and suspected Edmund had revealed the Navy's dispute so Victor would tell Alex.