Chapter Summaries

Talia cornered Lanchi with a knife and ordered him to read romantic dialogue from Holy War Romance, leaving them both mortified when Hughberlian and three Great Demons caught them together. Lanchi realized the final line had not come from the book, and the chapter ended with Talia hiding her face while he felt he was going crazy too.

• Talia confronted Lanchi with a knife and demanded that he take responsibility, then ordered him to read lines from Holy War Romance.
• Lanchi read the male lead's romantic lines while Talia read the female lead's replies, and both grew increasingly flustered.
• Antanas accidentally pushed the door open, revealing Hughberlian, three Great Demons, and a cat listening outside.
• Talia recited a Great Demon’s suggestive inner thought, and Lanchi answered with a line that was not in the script.
• Talia dropped her knife and covered her face as Lanchi realized what he had said and covered his eyes.

After an embarrassing morning with Lanchi, Talia struggled to face him and wondered what their relationship meant. Antanas helped her repair her broken door and advised her to give the awkwardness time to pass.

• Planai signaled Antanas and Sinora to begin the restaurant's business while Hughberlian took Lanchi back to school.
• Left alone, Talia replayed her mortifying exchange with Lanchi, hid Holy War Romance beneath a stack of books, and waited until she felt calmer.
• Antanas returned with a toolbox to repair Talia's door, and Talia helped her despite Antanas's surprise.
• Talia told Antanas that she supposed she and Lanchi were friends, but admitted she still found her feelings and their relationship difficult to understand.
• Antanas advised Talia to give Lanchi some space until time eased their awkwardness, and Talia felt better and hungry again.

Lanchi and Hughberlian returned to Ikelite Academy after escaping Cat Boss Restaurant, reflected on their completed graduation project, and discussed their next journey to the Krui Di Empire. Hughberlian agreed to keep protecting Lanchi, despite worrying that his antics with Tata would get him into trouble again.

• Lanchi and Hughberlian walked through the quiet campus and bought cold-pressed juice at a familiar shop.
• Lanchi said they would challenge the Shadow World once more before preparing to travel to the Krui Di Empire.
• Lanchi thanked Hughberlian for getting him out of Cat Boss Restaurant, and she accepted his thanks.
• Hughberlian asked what Lanchi thought of Tata, and Lanchi called her his respected master and an old friend from another generation.
• Hughberlian urged Lanchi not to provoke Tata, but he insisted they had always gotten along that way.
• Lanchi asked Hughberlian to save him, and she promised to protect him despite her misgivings.

Hughberlian and Lanchi returned to Iketerite Academy to complete their return procedures and discuss their futures. They planned to challenge the Blood Moon Ruined World together, then visit Krui Di Empire, while Frei remained missing and under possible investigation.

• Hughberlian asked whether Lanchi would work at Iketerite Academy again, and he said he would accept a role if the school needed him, especially under Duchess Hughberlian.
• Hughberlian resolved to work hard to inherit the Aransal Family and become a trustworthy duchess.
• Lanchi and Hughberlian went to the Magic Engineering Institute to ask Professor Bora Ao to process their return procedures because their Shadow World Challenge Licenses had been frozen.
• Lanchi and Hughberlian discussed visiting the Northern Continent again and agreed to challenge the Blood Moon Ruined World before traveling to Krui Di Empire.
• Hughberlian learned that Frei was missing and that the Kingdoms United Council might investigate those close to her, leaving the upcoming Shadow World challenge to Hughberlian and Lanchi.

Lanqi and Hughberlian visited Professor Bora Ao, who told Lanqi his Platinum Tier Card Maker certification was nearly complete and that he would serve as an examiner in the Bosen Kingdom. The chapter ended with Bora Ao asking why Dimensional Bishop Toliado had donated twenty thousand pounds, and Lanqi suggesting the school send him a Silk Banner in return.

• Lanqi and Hughberlian returned to the Magic Engineering Institute and agreed to have lunch at Cat Boss Restaurant with Tata.
• Lanqi and Hughberlian greeted Professor Bora Ao in his office, where he told Lanqi that his Platinum Tier Card Maker certification was nearly complete.
• Professor Bora Ao said Lanqi would travel to the Bosen Kingdom next semester to finish certification and serve as an examiner, and Lanqi asked Hughberlian to accompany him as his assistant and bodyguard.
• Professor Bora Ao asked why Dimensional Bishop Toliado had donated twenty thousand pounds to the school.
• Lanqi suggested sending Toliado a Silk Banner, and Professor Bora Ao agreed.

Lanchi and Hughberlian completed their return-to-school procedures and spoke with Professor Bora Ao, who discussed Loren’s absence and considered whether to teach Lanchi and Poet of Great Love. The chapter left Bora Ao’s decision unresolved as Lanchi offered to help with the work burden caused by Loren’s problems.

• Professor Bora Ao approved Lanchi and Hughberlian’s return-to-school procedures and unfroze their Shadow World Challenge Licenses.
• Lanchi asked why students never gossiped about him, and Hughberlian suggested that people feared being sent to prison for offending the Duchess.
• Lanchi asked Professor Bora Ao to teach him Magic Engineering next semester, but Bora Ao said Lanchi was better suited to management and questioned whether he could take students.
• Lanchi proposed that Bora Ao teach both him and Poet of Great Love, and Bora Ao said he would consider it because he was busy.
• Lanchi offered to help with Bora Ao’s workload, and Bora Ao said Lanchi had nearly helped him escape a major predicament involving Loren.

Lanchi learned that Loren was facing criticism and political pressure over his leadership, so he resolved to prove Loren’s worth by challenging a Tier 7 Shadow World. He asked Professor Bora Ao for special approval to be treated as Tier 5, leaving Professor Bora Ao wary of the danger and the consequences for Loren if the challenge went wrong.

• Professor Bora Ao explained that Iketerite Academy was falling short of its targets and that Lanchi’s Platinum Tier Card Maker status would not count toward the Magic Engineering Institute’s achievements.
• Professor Bora Ao told Lanchi that Loren was being criticized at home and abroad, partly for allowing Asina to pursue her dream of becoming a chef.
• Lanchi decided to help Loren and asked Professor Bora Ao to obtain special approval for him to be treated as Tier 5 when challenging a Shadow World.
• Lanchi confirmed that he wanted to enter a Tier 7 Shadow World with Hughberlian and Cat Boss.
• Professor Bora Ao warned that failure could worsen Loren’s predicament, while Hughberlian worried about the dangers of the challenge.

Lanchi and Hughberlian planned to enter a Shadow World the next day with Cat Boss, whose excitement about possibly reaching Tier 8 overshadowed the risks. Hughberlian quietly realized that if Cat Boss became a Nation-Protecting Divine Beast, it might serve a different nation than it imagined.

• Lanchi and Hughberlian left Professor Bora Ao's office after arranging to collect their Special Approval Letter and credentials the next morning.
• Lanchi and Hughberlian reminisced about the Shadow World where they first became close friends.
• Cat Boss emerged from Lanchi's shadow and learned that Lanchi had arranged for it to enter the Shadow World as a logistics Magic Artisan.
• Cat Boss eagerly imagined reaching Tier 8, obtaining powerful Magic Cards, and becoming a Nation-Protecting Divine Beast.
• Lanchi encouraged Cat Boss and promised to help it claim rewards, while Hughberlian considered that Cat Boss might protect a different nation.

Lanchi and Talia cautiously reconciled over lunch after their awkward encounter that morning. Their fragile peace collapsed when Cat Boss and Antanas recognized the restaurant’s new abstract painting as a depiction of the three of them tangled together.

• Lanchi, Hughberlian, and Cat Boss went to Cat Boss Restaurant, where Lanchi insisted he was ready to face Talia despite his lingering embarrassment.
• Talia came downstairs for lunch, and the three sat together in silence until Talia apologized and thanked Lanchi for bringing Antanas and the others back.
• Lanchi accepted Talia’s apology and suggested they make up, easing the tension between them.
• Antanas showed Cat Boss an abstract painting she had bought, and they realized its figures resembled Lanchi, Hughberlian, and Talia.
• Cat Boss learned the painting was based on a Sand Painting divined by the Kingdoms United Council, saw the three staring at it, and fled into the kitchen in terror.

Hughberlian, Lanchi, and Talia awkwardly concealed their connection to an embarrassing painting at Cat Boss Restaurant before Lanchi and Hughberlian prepared to enter a Shadow World with Cat Boss. The trio passed the academy’s checks and entered the Void Gate, where the challenge began at the Blood Moon Ruined World’s new anomalous node, “Firefly Glimmer.”

• Hughberlian, Talia, and Lanchi silently agreed to pretend they had not recognized themselves in the painting displayed at Cat Boss Restaurant.
• Lanchi told Talia he and Hughberlian would enter the Shadow World the next day, and Talia wished him luck before he left.
• Lanchi and Hughberlian obtained the required approvals and licenses, then brought Cat Boss along as a member of their Civilized Exemplar Squad.
• Lanchi explained that entering a Tier 7 Shadow World could divert attention from Dean Loren and Senior Asina, and said he wanted to help them.
• Lanchi, Hughberlian, and Cat Boss registered for a challenge at Iketerite Academy and passed through the Void Gate.
• The trio’s Shadow World challenge began at the Blood Moon Ruined World’s new anomalous node, “Firefly Glimmer,” after its historical projection had been unraveled.

Lanchi entered the Tier 7 Shadow World Darkest Eclipse Demon Realm as the newly appointed prime minister of the Plant Empire, sixteen years after the events of Sanctuary Villain's Banquet. With the Honing Empire poised to invade and the challengers scattered, Lanchi and Cat Boss learned they had 45 days to find a way to defeat the vampires, improve humanity’s odds of victory, and survive.

• The Open-Air Mega Screen showed Lanchi as the new prime minister of the Plant Empire, drawing students at Iketerite Academy to watch his Shadow World.
• Lanchi awoke in his office with Cat Boss and identified the setting as the Blood Moon Ruined World, tens of thousands of years in the past.
• Lanchi explained to Cat Boss that the Shadow World continued the story of Sanctuary Villain's Banquet, sixteen years after the vampires hunted the surviving conspirators.
• The Shadow World revealed that the Honing Empire threatened the Plant Empire and that Lanchi had taken office after years of political maneuvering.
• Lanchi and Cat Boss learned their objectives were to find a way to defeat the vampires, raise humanity's chance of victory above one percent, and keep all challengers alive for 45 days.

Lanchi searched for clues to Hughberlian’s whereabouts and concluded that she might have returned to the Demon Realm. As prime minister of the weak Plant Empire, he learned that the Honing Empire had attacked a neighboring kingdom and began preparing for the threat.

• Lanchi studied the Blood Race and Demon Realm’s history and deduced that Hughberlian might have fallen into the Demon Realm.
• Lanchi explained to Cat Boss that it should usually pretend to be an ordinary cat, then reviewed the Plant Empire’s alarming metrics and its zero odds against the Blood Race.
• Lanchi’s secretary reported that the Honing Empire had begun attacking the northern border of the Bliss Kingdom.
• Lanchi warned that the Plant Empire could be the Honing Empire’s next target and began instructing his secretary on his upcoming schedule.

Lanchi entered a Tier 7 Shadow World as a prime minister while students and political opponents feared the consequences of failure. Duke Akares and Marquis Gasiges saw the crisis as a chance to undermine Loren, unaware of how Lanchi would handle his role.

• At Iketerite Academy, students watched Lanchi and Hughberlian enter a Tier 7 Shadow World and worried that a failure would bring disaster and put Loren at risk.
• Students saw Lanchi, assigned the role of prime minister, chatting with his secretary about matters unrelated to the war and judged him an amateur.
• Marquis Gasiges promised Duke Akares that he would use Loren's decline in education to help impeach him.
• An attendant informed Duke Akares of the Tier 7 Shadow World, and the duke blamed Loren for indulging his students.
• Duke Akares and Marquis Gasiges planned to publicly support Loren while letting the Shadow World crisis and political pressure ruin his reputation.

Hughberlian woke on the Demon King’s throne in the Shadow World and learned she was the Demon Realm’s princess, the last royal able to open the ancestral land. After recognizing Kali Yella as the formidable Fallen Lord, she gave up trying to escape for the moment, though she still hoped to find Lanchi.

• Hughberlian awoke in the Demon King’s Throne Hall surrounded by powerful demons and tried to hide her fear.
• Kali Yella confronted Hughberlian about attempting to flee Demon King City and warned her not to leave again.
• Hughberlian learned that the Demon King had died, leaving her as the only royal capable of opening the ancestral land, and received missions concerning the Bloodkin and the challengers’ survival.
• Hughberlian discovered that Kali Yella was the ninth-tier demon whose Gentle Land she had encountered in Helrom Prison.
• Hughberlian agreed not to trouble Kali Yella by trying to escape, and decided to see what the demons wanted.

Hughberlian faced pressure from Kali Yella to choose a fiancée within a month, as the demon race prepared for a possible conflict with the Blood Race. She proposed choosing based on artistic talent and allowed unnamed Great Demon Races to compete, leaving the outcome of her gamble uncertain.

• Kali Yella told Hughberlian that the demon race needed her to choose a fiancée soon to safeguard the ancestral land and prepare for a possible war.
• Kali Yella explained that the Blood Race had demanded Hughberlian marry a Blood Race Marquis and warned that she would choose a fiancée if Hughberlian refused to decide.
• Hughberlian tried to set conditions based on hair, eyes, and light attribute, but Kali Yella rejected them as impractical or divisive.
• Hughberlian proposed that the Great Demon Races submit paintings and that she marry whoever drew the best.
• Hughberlian agreed to include unnamed Great Demon Races, and Kali Yella accepted the terms while warning her not to regret them.

Prime Minister Lanchi Wilford called for victory over the Honing Empire and rejected Duke Moretti’s proposal to seek peace talks. He argued that the vampires, rather than the Honing Empire alone, might be the true enemy, leaving the legislators divided and uncertain.

• Lanchi Wilford delivered his first national address, insisting that the Plant Empire had to fight for victory at any cost.
• Duke Moretti and the Conservatives gathered with Lanchi in a conference room, where Moretti criticized the delay and warned that the next month might be their last chance for peace talks.
• Lanchi rejected negotiations and said the Plant Empire could not submit before the Honing Empire attacked.
• Duke Moretti proposed asking the Southern Pruno Empire to help secure negotiations that would preserve the Plant Empire’s freedom and independence.
• Lanchi questioned whether the vampires, who might control the Honing Empire, were the real enemy and warned that they would never grant humans freedom.

Lanchi resisted Duke Moretti’s push for peace talks while avoiding a trap that could have given the Conservative Faction grounds to impeach him. Outside the Shadow World, professors judged his odds of winning to be zero, while Loren grew increasingly anxious about Lanchi and Hughberlian’s predicament.

• Duke Moretti argued that the Plant Empire could not win a war and urged Lanchi to consider negotiations, but Lanchi insisted the empire must resist.
• Lanchi left the meeting without explicitly rejecting peace talks, explaining to Cat Boss that he had avoided giving Moretti evidence to use against him.
• The Shadow World’s public support and finances had risen slightly, while Parliament’s support had fallen sharply and the overall odds remained zero.
• Professors at Iketerite Academy assessed the Shadow World’s indicators and concluded that Lanchi had little time to improve military strength, finances, or diplomacy.
• Loren sat anxiously through the discussion as the Ice Witch worried about Hughberlian, whose situation remained unknown.

Lanchi met Empress Kexiya for their first private luncheon and eased her initial wariness with casual conversation. They discussed his speech about the Honing Empire’s threat, and the chapter left Kexiya feeling guilty for questioning his decision to rally Porant.

• Lanchi arrived at Shaleim Palace and sat down to lunch with Empress Kexiya.
• Lanchi asked whether Kexiya was hungry and explained that he hoped to make their quiet meal less awkward.
• Lanchi offered to answer Kexiya’s questions about the state of Porant and said he hoped the empire would never need his talents.
• Kexiya told Lanchi that the Conservatives regretted choosing him after his speech, then challenged him for not telling the public about the Honing Empire’s attack on Bliss Kingdom.
• Lanchi defended his speech as a way to inspire Public Sentiment and prepare Porant to resist, and Kexiya apologized for not considering the burden he carried.

Lanqi reassured Empress Kexiya that he would support her and resist the Honing Empire, building her trust despite admitting the Plant Empire had no chance of victory. He left Shaleim Palace with her backing and went to his next engagement, while Cat Boss worried that Lanqi was winning people over in a global strategic Shadow World.

• Lanqi and Empress Kexiya discussed her fear of him and her concern about his position in the council.
• Lanqi criticized Duke Moretti, then presented himself as isolated, prompting Kexiya to soften her response.
• Lanqi and Kexiya discussed the war and the nation’s future, and their mutual trust grew.
• Kexiya asked about the Plant Empire’s chances of victory, and Lanqi answered that they were zero.
• Lanqi vowed to sacrifice himself to find a chance of victory, and Kexiya agreed to support him.
• Lanqi left Shaleim Palace for his next engagement as Cat Boss remarked on his influence over others.

After leaving Shaleim Palace, Lanchi weighed how to secure support amid the Plant Empire’s political crisis and decided against a direct assault on parliament. He planned to build a church and restore absolute monarchy for Hughberlian’s sake, but first needed a powerful ally and intended to seek one in the Demon Realm.

• Lanchi left Shaleim Palace, greeted citizens who supported resistance to the Honing Empire, and privately considered how to balance Public Sentiment and parliament.
• Cat Boss feared Lanchi would seize power by force, and Lanchi described a scheme to use Stormtroopers and a staged parliament fire to crush the Conservative Faction.
• Lanchi reassured Cat Boss that he was tired of political struggles and wanted Hughberlian to be happy.
• Lanchi planned to win over imperial nobles, support the anti-vampire church, and transform the Plant Empire into an absolute monarchy and religious state.
• Lanchi decided he needed a powerful ally and would go to the Demon Realm, though finding Hughberlian there came first.