Chapter Summaries

Iver learned that Julio Alexander and Anne Alexander were his biological parents and discovered how the Demon Scholar’s curse led to their deaths. After Mathers revealed Iver’s grandfather’s hometown, Sherlock said it was also Hai Na’s hometown.

• Mathers and Mina told Iver that Julio and Anne were his biological parents and recalled their romance and Anne’s friendship with Mina.
• Mathers explained that the Iron Hook Demon killed Iver’s parents after a curse struck the Alexander family, and that he sent Iver to an orphanage rather than adopting him.
• Mathers said Iver’s grandfather lived in Eagle Cape Village and warned Iver against investigating there while he was still weak.
• Mathers described how the tragedy made him abandon the pursuit of advancement and focus on his role as a Spiritual Councilor.
• Sherlock came downstairs and recognized Eagle Cape Village as Hai Na’s hometown.

Sherlock explained how the Noble Red Society grew out of the Scaleless Hand, an organization of illegal transcendents formed under Tudor III. He revealed that Iver’s grandfather Jacob had belonged to the group as a Ritual Mage, leaving Iver and Bishop Mathers astonished.

• Sherlock recovered from the effects of the Illumination Spell with honey tea, hot brandy, and biscuits, then told Iver that Hai Na had known his grandfather Jacob.
• Sherlock explained that Jacob had been a reporter and writer in Mubay County who encountered transcendents and witnessed the founding of the Scaleless Hand, predecessor to the Noble Red Society.
• Sherlock described Tudor III’s harsh rule and the gallows, while Bishop Mathers recounted jokes mocking the king’s cruelty and inability to count past ten.
• Sherlock and Bishop Mathers discussed how hatred of Tudor III helped Queen Sophia gain support for her reforms, and Sherlock identified the Scaleless Hand as a product of that era.
• Sherlock revealed that Jacob had been a Ritual Mage of the Path of Transcendence and a member of the Scaleless Hand, surprising Iver and Bishop Mathers.

Iver learned that his grandfather Jacob had belonged to the Ritual Mages, an old faction of the Scaleless Hand, and Sherlock connected Jacob’s death to a bloodline curse and the Noble Red Society. After Sherlock drunkenly revealed that he had identified Iver as Mr. Fox, he urged him to investigate Jacob’s death at Eagle Cape Village, leaving Iver to suggest they ask Hai Na first.

• Sherlock explained that the Scaleless Hand began as a society of Ritual Mages before Demon Scholars took control and renamed it the Noble Red Society, while Jacob withdrew from the organization.
• Sherlock traced the Noble Red Society’s origins through a smuggling investigation and concluded that Jacob’s family had been targeted by a curse, which the Iron Hook Demon may have followed to kill him and steal his manuscripts.
• Sherlock deduced that Iver was Mr. Fox and explained how clues, including the key to the Small Chapel and Bishop Mathers’s reaction, led him to the truth.
• Sherlock revealed he was already drunk after half a cup of Hot Apple Brandy and enthusiastically invited Iver to investigate Jacob’s death at Eagle Cape Village.
• Iver expressed interest but reminded Sherlock that they should ask Hai Na before making plans.

After Sherlock sobered from Ms. Mina’s medicinal liquor, Iver discussed a planned expedition to Eagle Cape Village with Bishop Mathers. Mathers lent Iver the Small Chapel key longer, and Iver understood that the bishop’s concern came from guilt over failing to take him in after the Alexander family’s deaths.

• Sherlock drank Ms. Mina’s Hot Brandy, became unusually talkative about his cases, then excused himself to sober up.
• Bishop Mathers asked whether Iver would go to Eagle Cape Village, and Iver agreed but said he would not bring Yulia.
• Iver planned to wait until after his advancement, and Mathers advised him to delay a few more days so the Holy Sword Art in the Small Chapel key could recover.
• Mathers extended Iver’s loan of the key until the end of the year, saying he would go looking for Iver if he had not returned by December twenty-fifth or twenty-sixth.
• Iver recognized that Mathers’s generosity stemmed from remorse over not adopting him after the Alexanders died, and he accepted the bishop’s concern while promising to return safely.

Iver recognized that Sherlock’s explanation of the Alexander family killings was incomplete, while Sherlock revealed that his uncle York Holmes might have framed his father and orchestrated the attack on him. Sherlock asked Iver to investigate York before his false death was discovered, hoping to uncover the curse-user’s identity and protect Avalon and Princess Isabel.

• Iver recalled that Aziz Ben Abdul, a Parthian Curse Master working for Professor Moriarty, had killed the Alexander family, complicating Sherlock’s theory that the Noble Red Society was responsible.
• Sherlock explained that someone had concealed Lloyd’s ties to the Strangulation Gang and that the likely source of his poisoned intelligence was York Holmes, his uncle and a senior Lloyd’s figure.
• Sherlock recounted how his father, Arthur Holmes, had been accused of cursing Prince Kant and was nearly subjected to a fatal memory search before the Queen pardoned him.
• Sherlock described how York visited him shortly before a bomb destroyed his home, then failed to return to help, prompting Sherlock to fake his death and watch York’s reaction.
• Sherlock told Iver that York might be connected to the royal-family curse and the attack, and asked him to investigate quickly while Sherlock’s death remained concealed.

Iver explained why York Holmes had to target Sherlock and showed that Sherlock’s plan to lure York into retrieving evidence could endanger them. Sherlock revised the plan, asking Iver to befriend York at his funeral and help Edward capture him within the next two weeks.

• Iver reasoned that York had to kill Sherlock after Sherlock’s raid on Lloyd’s exposed York as the likely source of the leaked information.
• Sherlock explained that he had planned to fake his death and use a genuine cache of Lloyd’s evidence to lure York into acting.
• Iver warned that York could have the Noble Red Society destroy the Safe House, making Sherlock’s plan unreliable and dangerous for Edward.
• Sherlock asked Iver to pose as his friend, gain York’s trust, and arrange for Edward to capture him alone.
• Sherlock said they had at most three weeks before his continued absence became difficult to conceal, and urged Iver to finish the plan within two.

Iver asked Ms. Mina to divine where he could find a weapon suited to him, and her dream revealed a book called the Book of Law in Eagle Cape Village. The vision left Iver with a new lead as he prepared for the coming operation.

• Ms. Mina explained that she was a prophet on the Path of Adaptation and offered Iver a free divination.
• Iver asked where he could obtain a suitable weapon, and Ms. Mina used the Dreamseeing Method to seek an answer.
• While Ms. Mina slept, Iver discussed Grimoires and his party’s lack of proper weapons with Lily.
• Ms. Mina awoke and said she had seen Iver summon flame butterflies and find a book that was not a Grimoire.
• Ms. Mina warned that Iver’s fate was unusually difficult to read, then identified the book’s location as Eagle Cape Village in Mubay County and its name as the Book of Law.

At Sherlock’s funeral, Iver spoke with his elder brother Mycroft and uncle York about the bombing that had supposedly killed Sherlock and the Alchemy Bomb smuggling case. York said Sherlock had left words for Iver and invited him to Lloyd’s headquarters to discuss them.

• An elderly bishop conducted Sherlock’s funeral while Mycroft’s wax figure stood in the open coffin in place of his body.
• Iver spoke with Mycroft and suggested Sherlock’s death was revenge connected to the Sweater Brotherhood and the Alchemy Bomb smuggling case.
• York Holmes arrived, comforted Mycroft, and said Sherlock had been a talented young man he had hoped to recruit to Lloyd’s.
• Lily sensed a brief trace of killing intent from Mycroft as York spoke about Lloyd’s.
• York told Iver that Sherlock had left words for him and invited him to Lloyd’s headquarters to talk.

Iver and Lily accompanied Lawyer York to Lloyd's headquarters, where York began explaining the Lloyd Prince's history and the rise of Lloyd's. York's account left Iver learning how the former merchant built a powerful insurance and intelligence empire that still resisted the Round Table Hall.

• Lawyer York took Iver and Lily by train to Lloyd's headquarters in Lloyd District.
• York brought them up the building's rickety elevator and showed them into his office.
• Iver asked about the Lloyd Prince, and York explained how Lloyd built his influence through shipping news, intelligence, marine insurance, loans, and royal connections.
• York described how Lloyd's grew into an entrenched institution and how the Lloyd Prince's marriage to the Queen weakened the royal family's power.

Lawyer York revealed Lloyd's ties to the knights and recruited Iver into the Noble Red Society, identifying him as a fellow Transcender. He announced that James Moriarty had reportedly died, leaving Iver to recognize that Avalon was about to face upheaval.

• Lawyer York explained that Lloyd's was protected by the shared will of the knights and that many knight families secretly had members affiliated with it.
• Lawyer York showed Iver the Devouring Demons hidden in his arm, and Iver recognized him as a Parasitic Fiend.
• Lawyer York invited Iver to join the Noble Red Society and accepted that Iver's Noble Red ring had come from Veronica.
• Iver pressed York about whether the Moriarty family belonged to Lloyd's, and York confirmed that Professor James Moriarty was a member.
• Lawyer York told Iver that James Moriarty had disappeared and was presumed dead, warning that Iver could face resistance inheriting his estate.

Iver challenged Lawyer York’s motives for announcing Professor Moriarty’s death and drew Vice President Boca into the conversation. Boca offered Iver a chance to rise beyond King, but the chapter left their proposed alliance unresolved as Boca explained the forces behind the Royal Curse.

• Iver reasoned that Lloyd's might have helped fake Professor Moriarty’s death or might only need society to believe he was dead, and concluded that Lloyd's had little goodwill toward him.
• Iver accused Lawyer York of pressuring him because York was anxious to recruit him and might be trying to make up for a recent mistake.
• Iver revealed that he had informed Mr. Mycroft and Butler Oswald, then guessed that Vice President Boca was waiting outside the door.
• Vice President Boca entered and offered Iver the opportunity to become King or even an Emperor, arguing that Lloyd's wanted to preserve Avalon’s order and unite against the Royal Family.
• Iver asked whether Lloyd's had created the Royal Curse, and Boca said that several groups had wanted it before describing Avalon’s four centuries of uninterrupted rule.

Iver learned that Lloyd’s and the Noble Red Society were divided into rival factions, then agreed to join Lloyd’s and secretly infiltrate Noble Red as their spokesperson. He left the meeting considering how to exploit the factions against one another and advance his own plans.

• Iver questioned Lawyer York and Vice President Boca about Lloyd’s ties to the Noble Red Society, and learned that only some Lloyd’s leaders belonged to it.
• Boca and York explained that President Lloyd was an adopted Mixed-Blood Giant whose inheritance followed the Serpent’s Many Sons ritual.
• Boca proposed that Iver investigate Noble Red, build his reputation by fighting Demon Scholars, and let some attackers escape while secretly receiving advance intelligence.
• Iver realized Lloyd’s contained multiple competing factions and that its leaders wanted him to serve as a figurehead in their struggle.
• Iver agreed to join Lloyd’s openly and Noble Red secretly without undergoing a ritual, while York praised him as a younger Moriarty.

After joining Lloyd's through Vice President Boca, Iver inferred that Boca and Lloyd President were on the verge of conflict and that his recruitment could be blocked by an attempt to silence him. Iver planned to fake his abduction with evidence of a Shadow Demon attack, provoke both sides into blaming each other, and use the confusion to attack Lloyd's.

• Vice President Boca introduced Iver to Lloyd's mid-level corporate members and publicly tied him to Boca's faction.
• Iver deduced that Boca was maneuvering against Lloyd President and that Lawyer York was caught between them.
• Iver reasoned that Lloyd President might reject his admission and kill him to undermine Boca's plan.
• Iver devised a scheme to stage his own abduction with Shadow Demon evidence and make Lloyd's and the Noble Red Society suspect each other.
• Iver planned to use his Shadow Demon to attack Lloyd's while both organizations were distracted by the false accusations.

Iver inferred that Dean Meg was preparing to challenge Lloyd's influence and asked Hai Na to carry a message to Sherlock about his forced recruitment and planned disappearance. He also learned that Hai Na had known his biological grandfather, Jacob Alexander, in Eagle Cape Village.

• Iver realized Lloyd's cautious tracking suggested that its political influence was weakening and suspected Dean Meg was preparing to act against it.
• Iver returned home, then went to the girls' dormitory and asked Hai Na to come with him.
• Iver told Hai Na to inform Sherlock that Lloyd's had forced him to join and that he might fake his death the week after next.
• Hai Na offered to tutor Iver for the Final Exam, and Iver asked to visit Eagle Cape Village with her after the exam.
• Iver told Hai Na his biological grandfather was Jacob Alexander, and Hai Na recognized him as Grandpa Jacob, who had taught her to read.

Hai Na told Iver about her childhood in Mubay County, prompting him to explain the hidden history behind her favorite animal story. He revealed that Avalon’s Path of Authority arose from a war between a Crowned Angel and Supreme Heaven, and that this history was the true reason Avalon prohibited the Path of Transcendence.

• Hai Na recalled growing up in Eagle Cape Village, visiting Bagpipe Town, and listening to Grandpa Jacob’s story about animals who fought for power.
• Iver recognized the story’s connection to the Paths of Transcendence and Authority, then asked Hai Na and Lily to swear they would keep his explanation secret.
• Iver explained that the story’s second layer represented the destruction of the Arctos Kingdom and the Herasul Empire, with the white horse, Green Deer, golden lion, and mole symbolizing key groups and figures.
• Iver revealed that the Path of Authority had once been the Path of Strength, ruled by Supreme Heaven, whom giants worshiped as the Red Bear.
• Iver recounted how a Crowned Angel allied with elves and formed the Round Table Knights to overthrow the giants, while battling Supreme Heaven in the Dream Realm.
• Iver said the war ended with Supreme Heaven’s fall and the path’s change of masters, and that this history explained Avalon’s reverence for Authority and its ban on Transcendence.

Iver explained to Hai Na how the paths and Pillar Gods had changed over time, including how the rise of Authority replaced ancient warrior professions. Hai Na left with Iver’s letter for Sherlock, and Iver wondered whether her hidden talent for Transcendence might mean she would survive her country’s future calamity.

• Iver told Hai Na that the Silver Crowned Dragon had possessed traits of Transcendence and explained that mortals could theoretically become Pillar Gods by surpassing the current pathfinders.
• Iver described how the rise of Authority transformed or replaced ancient Strength professions, including warriors, berserkers, and swordsmen.
• Hai Na asked about the Superintendent and Arbiter, and Iver revealed that they had once been called the Warlord and Dictator.
• Iver connected the disappearance of warriors to the age of Authority and considered how forbidden knowledge about multiple paths could unsettle extraordinary individuals.
• Hai Na recovered from the revelations, took Iver’s letter for Sherlock, and left his dormitory.
• Iver wondered whether Hai Na’s strong affinity for Transcendence meant she might appear later in the game under another name and path.

Iver learned from Professor Bard that the Red Hilt Sword was a cursed weapon once wielded by Galahad and that its fragments had been sealed separately. He discovered that one fragment was stored in the Edward Museum and suspected the sword contained a powerful Light Attribute Greater Phantom Demon he could capture.

• Iver arrived early and spoke with Professor Bard about teaching and the Primordial Language.
• Professor Bard identified Iver’s weapon as the Red Hilt Sword and explained that it had cursed past wielders who harbored evil intentions.
• Professor Bard explained that Galahad belonged to the Camelot Family and that Mordred’s descendants became the Moriarty Family.
• Professor Bard said Merlin had shattered and separately sealed the Red Hilt Sword, and that its hilt made its wielder more vulnerable to the curse.
• Iver learned that a sword fragment was kept at the Edward Museum and considered retrieving it to prevent Bishop Mathers from reforging the weapon.
• Iver concluded that the sword might contain a Light Attribute Greater Phantom Demon he could capture.

Isabel watched Iver lecture from outside the classroom, struggling with her fear of being scrutinized and her wish to become more confident. After Iver told her he needed her help with a plan, she entered the classroom and painted without faltering, determined to become someone who could face the rain like him.

• Iver lectured about Valentine I and the Stibium Kingdom while Isabel secretly watched and painted outside the classroom.
• During the break, Iver found Isabel standing in the cold and encouraged her to observe him and the students from inside.
• Iver told Isabel that he needed her help with his plan for the following week, and she agreed to do her best.
• Isabel painted inside the classroom as her juniors watched, keeping her hand steady and completing every stroke.
• Isabel finished a painting of Iver in the evening glow and resolved to face scrutiny with confidence one day.

Iver and Lily prepared for the New Moon Ritual and began their promotion together after a quiet week. The ritual succeeded, though the chapter left its final effects unknown.

• Iver spent the quiet week studying and advanced naturally to Level Nine, while Lily reached the peak of the First Level.
• Iver admired the newly delivered “Golden Dawn” and Isabel’s portrait, which he valued as a personal record of his memories.
• Iver and Lily prepared two sets of ritual materials, arranged the Ritual Arrays, and agreed on a password to confirm each other’s identities.
• After night fell, Iver and Lily performed the New Moon Ritual, using different ritual actions on their respective animals and offerings.
• Eight masses of black-and-red flames appeared, the Ritual Array shone crimson, and the ritual succeeded.

Gordon joined the New Moon Ritual and formed a temporary alliance with Red Lady and Antlers, while Iver entered disguised as a demonized human. Antlers tried to recruit Iver, who introduced himself as Aleister and claimed to be a newcomer from the Noble Red Society.

• Gordon woke in the New Moon Ritual and greeted Red Lady and Minister Drost, who used the codename Antlers.
• Red Lady chose the Path of Love, Antlers chose the Path of Twilight, and Gordon revealed he was advancing on the Path of Dedication.
• Red Lady, Antlers, and Gordon agreed to cooperate against the other participants and conceal their identities and Paths.
• Iver appeared covered by the Shadow Fiend, and Gordon suspected he was a Demon Scholar from the Noble Red Society.
• Antlers recognized Iver as a demonized human and invited him to join their alliance.
• Iver had the Shadow Fiend introduce him as Aleister, a newcomer from the Noble Red Society attending his first Promotion Ritual.