Chapter Summaries

Victor arrived with five Vela legions to reinforce the Raine Kingdom’s exhausted army and agreed to launch an immediate counterattack against the Central City-State Alliance. At the front, Marquis Stanley explained the enemy’s deployment and the defenses around Gourd Pass as they prepared their plan.

• Duke Barick told Victor that shortages, heavy losses, and pressure from the Prime Minister threatened the army’s position, and asked him to help drive back the enemy so the troops could withdraw.
• Victor offered to lead his newly arrived troops into battle at once, and Duke Barick agreed despite concerns that the legions needed rest.
• Victor inspected Duke Barick’s well-organized logistics camp before reaching the front and meeting Marquis Stanley.
• Victor and Marquis Stanley discussed a counterattack after the marquis identified gaps between the Central City-State Alliance’s attacking columns.
• Marquis Stanley explained the enemy’s strength and the strategic defenses at Gourd Pass, which had been expanded by the Raine Kingdom.

Victor and Marquis Stanley planned to draw the Central City-State Alliance army away from a fortress and fight it on a prepared plain, hoping to capture a high-ranking Berlay State relative. The enemy pursued the Vela Army into the trap, but the Berlay commander arrived and prepared to attack, leaving the decisive battle ahead.

• Marquis Stanley explained that his forward fortress position pinned down enemy forces, then proposed capturing a Berlay State royal relative to force the Alliance to withdraw.
• Victor brought the Vela Army to relieve the Raine Kingdom troops, assessed the enemy over two days, and planned to abandon the fortress for a prepared defensive line on the basin plain.
• Victor ordered the Vela Army to retreat from the fortress, and the pursuing Alliance troops rushed after them in disarray and suffered losses against the temporary defenses.
• The Berlay State commander restored order and chose to attack the defenses with his nearly twenty legions, including three legions he had borrowed to earn military merit.

Victor’s Vela Army shattered the Central City-State Alliance’s assault with a massive artillery bombardment and a cavalry counterattack, then recaptured Gourd Pass and helped the Raine Kingdom Army destroy the trapped enemy forces. After counting the prisoners and captured commanders, Victor and Marquis Stanley withdrew their troops rather than pursue fleeing soldiers into the mountains at night.

• After two days of fighting weakened the alliance’s attacks, Victor ordered the Vela Army to rest in shifts and prepare a nighttime counterattack.
• Before dawn, the Vela Legion’s artillery devastated the enemy’s forward formations with ordinary and High-Explosive Shells, and Victor sent the Vela Army charging into the collapse.
• The Iron Knights led the Vela cavalry through the routed alliance troops, drove them into their rear formations, and helped break the enemy lines.
• The Vela Army pursued the enemy for more than half a day and recaptured Gourd Pass, trapping over half the alliance force in the valley.
• The Raine Kingdom legion joined the Vela Army in encircling and annihilating the trapped troops, while scattered survivors fled into the mountains.
• Victor and Marquis Stanley ordered a withdrawal for the night; the following day’s tally included more than two hundred thousand prisoners, two captured rulers, and the Berlay Grand Duke’s uncle.

After defeating the Central City-State Coalition’s central army, the Raine Kingdom negotiated an armistice and began withdrawing from much of its occupied territory while retaining key border positions. Both sides treated the agreement as temporary, and Fonte vowed the conflict was not over.

• Marquis Stanley urged ending the fighting, and the Raine Kingdom used Jeralit’s capture to propose armistice negotiations with Berlay.
• The Coalition’s armies on the other fronts withdrew, and both sides concluded an armistice agreement after five days.
• Duke Barick ordered the Raine Kingdom’s armies to withdraw and prisoners to be released in stages, while keeping strategically important positions.
• Marquis Stanley wrote to comfort Duke Barick, who accepted that the withdrawal was temporary and that the kingdom could later reclaim its gains.
• Fonte welcomed his uncle Jeralit after his release and told him to prepare to marry the Grand Duchess of Alaine as part of Berlay’s annexation plan.
• Fonte watched toward the Raine Kingdom camp and declared that the conflict was not over.

Duke Barick explained how the kingdom’s successful withdrawal preserved valuable spoils and protected its forces, easing the financial and political burdens facing him. The other three armies were also retreating with losses below thirty percent, and the withdrawal was proceeding smoothly.

• Duke Barick thanked Victor and Marquis Stanley for securing a victory that helped the kingdom retain spoils and reward its soldiers.
• Duke Barick described the financial strain of compensating the troops and the political obstacles he expected from the Noble Council.
• Duke Barick told Marquis Stanley that valuable goods, art, and antiques had been evacuated to help cover the campaign’s costs.
• Duke Barick assured Marquis Stanley that the other three armies had suffered no losses exceeding thirty percent and were withdrawing toward the kingdom.

The Raine Kingdom withdrew from the Central City-State Alliance’s territory and built a fortified border line while its armies suppressed resistance in the newly incorporated region. After a month of negotiations, both sides agreed to limit and report their border garrisons, allowing the kingdom’s troops to begin returning home.

• Duke Barick assured Marquis Stanley that four legions had supplies, reinforcements, and defenses to hold the remaining border cities.
• Victor and Marquis Stanley retreated with their armies, monitoring the Central City-State Alliance as they reached the new border fortress five days later.
• The returning Kingdom Army suppressed resistance in the occupied borderlands while the Raine Kingdom built linked fortifications and prepared the region for defense.
• By the end of May, the Central City-State Alliance had stationed more than forty legions near the border, while the kingdom had fewer than twenty.
• Duke Barick negotiated an agreement limiting the kingdom to five border legions and the alliance to twice the kingdom’s number, with both sides required to report their garrisons.
• After the agreement, the kingdom’s troops began withdrawing so they could return to the interior.

Victor agreed to return to the Raine Kingdom with Duke Barick and Marquis Stanley’s forces, while the Vela provinces remained stable. Duke Barick used the returning army’s strength to suppress opposition and reassign the fiefs of nobles and royal relatives, leaving his path to the throne largely unchallenged.

• Victor agreed to bring the Vela Army back into the kingdom alongside Duke Barick and Marquis Stanley’s forces.
• Victor learned that Vela’s three provinces were stable, with only occasional clashes on the Eastern Sea Province border.
• Duke Barick executed three minor noble families and reassigned six others to Eastern Sea Province, silencing rumors and deterring further dissent.
• Backed by more than forty Kingdom Regular Army corps, Vela’s forces, and Royalist nobles, Duke Barick overwhelmed the Noble Faction’s opposition to his succession.
• Duke Barick sent troublesome Royal Family members to Eastern Sea Province with titles higher than their small fiefs warranted, limiting their influence.

Duke Barick, worried that a conspiracy within the kingdom had caused his father’s death, sought a more trustworthy personal guard. Victor proposed that noble scions from Vela serve as guards, and Duke Barick considered accepting the plan.

• Duke Barick learned that his father’s death was likely tied to a conspiracy within the kingdom and asked Marquis Stanley for protection.
• Marquis Stanley assigned his Personal Guard to protect Duke Barick, while the Imperial Guard guarded the palace perimeter.
• Duke Barick decided to recruit a new guard from overseas garrisons and sent a courtier to Vela to begin recruiting a regiment.
• Victor consulted Alex by telegram, then asked Duke Barick to accept five hundred Vela noble scions as guards who would serve for several years before returning home.
• Duke Barick welcomed the proposal’s political and security benefits but considered whether the noble scions had enough fighting ability to protect him.

Victor secured Duke Barick’s approval for a guard made up of Vela noble scions, an arrangement meant to strengthen ties between the Vela Nobles and the Raine Royal House. Alex began organizing the young men, who would serve and train in the kingdom’s heartland for three years before choosing whether to return to Vela.

• Duke Barick agreed to Victor’s request and offered promising scions the chance to remain in the Imperial Guard Legion or royal court after their service.
• Victor left assured that the guard could align the Vela Nobles with the Royalist Faction and help unite their families.
• Victor sent Alex a telegram about Duke Barick’s approval.
• Alex instructed the Vela Nobles to select brave, skilled scions aged eighteen to twenty for the king’s guard.
• Alex planned for the scions to serve and train for three years, after which outstanding members could remain in kingdom service or return to Vela.

Alex opened selection for five hundred Vela noble scions to serve in the Raine Kingdom's Imperial Guard, drawing more than two thousand applicants to Iron Tree City. After the examinations eliminated many candidates, over a thousand strong prospects remained, leaving Alex unsure how to fill the limited places.

• Vela nobles eagerly sought places for their children after Alex announced that successful scions could join the Raine Kingdom's Imperial Guard or pursue court service.
• Alex invited every eligible noble child to register in Iron Tree City, where more than two thousand scions arrived, including Marquis Great Oak-Brando, whom Victor had urged to participate.
• Alex entrusted officials with screening the applicants through written and martial examinations to choose five hundred for service in Golden Tree City.
• The three-day examinations eliminated around eight hundred weak candidates, but more than a thousand qualified scions remained, troubling Alex because the quota was only five hundred.

Victor asked Duke Barick to expand the Vela Nobles’ Guard Corps recruitment, and Duke Barick agreed to take one thousand candidates. As his coronation approached, Duke Barick also considered rewarding Marquis Stanley and other supporters while consolidating his control of the kingdom.

• Alex struggled to handle requests for Guard Corps places and sent Victor a telegram asking him to seek more places from Duke Barick.
• Victor told Duke Barick that the qualified Vela noble candidates exceeded the original five hundred places, and Duke Barick approved recruiting one thousand guards.
• Victor explained that Brando Great Oak would join the candidates and that ranks would be assigned by test results, while Duke Barick would appoint a trusted Imperial Guard officer as battalion commander and instructor.
• Duke Barick accepted Victor’s formal boundary between sovereign and subject, while Marquis Stanley kept his distance and agreed to patrol the Royal Domain before the coronation.
• Duke Barick planned to promote Marquis Stanley to duke and reward other wartime contributors, using retained border lands and military merits to benefit the Royalist Faction.