Chapter Summaries

After the trial, Suye helped students get comfortable using the unfamiliar New Cutlery at the victory banquet, while stories of his exploits spread through Plato Academy. A warning from Eugene and a notice about a necromantic attack left Suye concerned that trouble was coming, and he decided to report what he knew about Lawrence.

• Laurence announced the rewards, confirming Lake, Rolon, and Hote had taken second through fourth place and that Suye's tablemates claimed the top four spots.
• Suye demonstrated the New Cutlery and reassured Pallas and the other students that they could use it however they found convenient, easing the banquet's initial awkwardness.
• Stories about Suye and Pallas's trial exploits spread around the school, growing more exaggerated as classmates retold them.
• Eugene exchanged Magic Villa cubes with Suye and quietly warned him to be careful before leaving.
• Suye saw a school notice about a resident attacked by necromantic power and resolved to report what he knew about Lawrence.
• Suye gave Albert two thousand Golden Eagles and Jimmy a valuable Bronze Divine Power Equipment, then went to find Niedern.

Suye asked Niedern to appraise his spoils and learned that one of his Soul Book pages was exceptionally valuable. After checking his Magic Tower and reporting his growth, Suye heard about advanced Bronze magic, including the Eight-Armed Mage theory.

• Niedern offered Suye the Magic Cottage, and Suye accepted it before telling him about the undead invasion and Lawrence.
• Suye showed Niedern his spoils, and Niedern identified the Soul Book of the Soul, sealed its pages, and agreed to seek a Spatial Ring in exchange for one page.
• Niedern selected useful Magic Artifacts for Suye and stored the remaining spoils in his Teacher Space.
• Suye entered his Magic Tower, saw Di Aotian playing with a Fat Baby and his Magic Avatar, and checked that his Magic Tree had grown to 2.7 meters.
• Suye reported his growth to Niedern, who explained Elemental Trap magic and the Eight-Armed Mage theory.

Suye learned about the Hydra Legion magic branch and questioned Niedern about Persian Princess Yixinna targeting him during the trial, while two academy elders debated his reward. After Suye and his classmates placed bets, they received a new trial assignment: rescuing students trapped by rioters, and they prepared to leave on warhorses.

• Niedern described the Earth Fortress and Hydra Legion branches, and Suye vowed to seek Demigod Nine-Headed Hydra blood after hearing about their potential.
• Suye asked why Persian Princess Yixinna had targeted him, and Niedern said other members of the Four Geniuses of the Academy had faced similar trial incidents.
• Two elders discussed Suye's reward, including Demigod Nine-Headed Hydra blood, a Legendary Naga, and a King of the Wind Elves.
• Suye, Rolon, Pallas, and Niedern bet Golden Eagles on the Rolon Family's City-state Tournament, and the odds quickly fell from three to one to two to one.
• Suye and his six classmates received an urgent Magic Letter assigning them to rescue Class Three students trapped in a cave by rioters.
• The group returned to the school, chose supplies and warhorses, and Hote received a horse with magical-beast bloodline.

Suye and the other students traveled toward Grey River Town, where rebels were hiding with students they had captured. After the group chose Suye to lead them, he kept his plan private and they approached the town, whose troubles began when Kanmonla forced residents to replace barley with wheat.

• The seven students left Greece City on horseback and stopped after an hour when the ride left them sore and exhausted.
• Suye asked the group how they would deal with the rebels, and the students shared differing views about rescuing civilians, punishing perpetrators, and addressing the nobles’ role.
• The group agreed to select one leader whose plan everyone would follow, and all but Albert chose Suye; Albert abstained but promised not to obstruct them.
• Suye chose Pallas, then announced he would make the final decision privately and called on the group to continue toward the captured students.
• The group passed Grey River Town and learned that its rebel leader, Zackrey, and many rebels were former residents driven into unrest after Kanmonla ordered them to grow wheat instead of drought-resistant barley.

Suye and his classmates reached the hill where Zackrey’s rioters were holding Plato Academy students, and he confronted the men guarding the approach. When they threatened the rescue party, Suye sent Di Aotian to attack, leaving the rioters frozen with fear.

• Suye’s group passed Grey River Town and saw ruined homes, barren fields, and corpses displayed at the entrance.
• The seven students approached the hill, prepared for a fight, and Suye protected everyone with Rock Skin and gave Pallas Magic Armor.
• Suye told the eleven guards that he had come to rescue his classmates and confronted them about their killings and destruction.
• The guards rejected Suye’s offer to stand aside and threatened him, so he summoned three Flame Goblins and ordered Di Aotian to clear the path.
• Di Aotian killed five rioters with his club as the survivors dropped their weapons or froze in terror.

Suye defeated Zackrey and the armed refugees, rescued his classmates from the cave, and then confronted the refugees’ desperate situation. He created ten Bread Fruit Trees to feed them, leaving Zackrey and the others to gather the food.

• Suye ordered the six surviving men to lead him up the mountain, where Zackrey confronted him before a furious crowd of refugees.
• After an archer shot at Suye, Di Aotian caught the arrow and killed the archer and two nearby men with an instant-cast fireball.
• Suye bound Zackrey with the Magic Ox Rope, ordered the refugees away from the cave, and called for his classmates to come out.
• More than a dozen injured classmates emerged, and Suye sent them down the mountain toward Plato Academy.
• Suye warned Zackrey that the authorities would soon kill the refugees, then cast ten Bread Fruit Tree spells to provide them with food.

Suye fed the starving refugees and divided them between a group bound for Green Town and Zackrey’s followers, whom he led back toward Grey River Town. As dusk approached, Suye and his companions reached the town, whose peaceful appearance concealed its decay.

• Suye gave the refugees breadfruit, then promised Zackrey he would help them make their voices heard in Athens City.
• Suye separated the children and their mothers from the other refugees, and Zackrey identified those with clean hands to join them.
• Suye arranged for Rolon, Jimmy, and Albert to escort the forty-one people toward Green Town, while he, Pallas, Lake, and Hote led Zackrey and the remaining rebels toward Grey River Town.
• Zackrey persuaded the rebels to follow Suye, and the three groups set off toward their destinations.
• Suye and his companions reached the northwest side of Grey River Town as evening fell.

Suye explained why he chose to enter Grey River Town and urged the refugees to understand how Kanmonla and the nobles had driven them from their homes. He left his classmates behind and began confronting the rioters with the distance between nobles and commoners, while Pallas promised to take responsibility if he was wrong.

• Suye refused to let Pallas, Lake, and Hote accompany him into Grey River Town, saying he had to follow what he believed was meaningful and valuable.
• Pallas let Suye go and told him to do what he wanted, promising to take responsibility if he was wrong.
• Suye joined the rioters and reminded them of the homes and lives they had lost after Kanmonla arrived and the Grey River froze.
• Suye warned the refugees that Athens's nobles would label them bandits and hunt them for glory, then described the cruelty they could face.
• Suye questioned why nobles kept planting crops that repeatedly failed and recalled Lake's and Pallas's explanations for their treatment of commoners.
• Suye argued that Kanmonla and the commoners were separated by a vast divide, pointing out that Kanmonla lived behind guarded walls while ordinary people risked death merely to speak with him.

Suye explained how nobles used the divide between nobles and commoners to preserve their power, then challenged the refugees to reject the identities imposed on them. He condemned them for murdering innocent commoners and ended by urging them to direct their anger at the nobles instead.

• Suye told the refugees that later generations of nobles had invented and widened the divide between nobles and commoners to protect their privileges.
• Suye described how commoners who accepted the nobles’ definition of them could become resigned to servitude or defend a system that kept them powerless.
• Suye warned that Kanmonla regarded the refugees as beasts, prompting them to shout that they were not beasts.
• Suye rejected the refugees’ claims to be heroes and confronted them over killing innocent villagers, children, and shepherds.
• Suye told the refugees to raise their blades against the nobles, whom he called the source and proper targets of their suffering.

Suye challenged the refugees to reject the nobles’ definition of them as beasts, recording all forty-four of their names and rallying them to return to Grey River Town. They set out to confront Kanmonla, while Suye promised to handle the strongest foes and sent Di Aotian and the other Flame Goblins to destroy the town’s crossbows and archers.

• Suye told the refugees that they had accepted the nobles’ definition of them and urged them to stand up as human beings, citing how Socrates had changed the standing of mages through his strength.
• Suye used his Magic Book to record the names of all forty-four refugees, encouraging each person to shout until the group felt recognized as individuals.
• Suye asked the refugees whether they wanted to return to Grey River Town, plant barley, and cast off the labels of refugees, rioters, bandits, and beasts; they roared yes.
• Suye led the group toward Kanmonla’s town and mansion, promising to deal with the Bronze Warrior and protect the servants from harm.
• Suye ordered Di Aotian and the other two Flame Goblins to destroy the Giant Crossbows and kill the archers, and they raced into town.

Suye and the refugees attacked Grey River Town, where Di Aotian destroyed the defenders’ giant crossbows and led the charge against Kanmonla. Suye’s summoned Flame Goblin defeated Kanmonla’s Bronze Warrior, leaving the refugees poised to capture the noble.

• Di Aotian threw two Little Goblins at the Giant Crossbows, destroying them and setting the low wall ablaze.
• Di Aotian smashed the main gate, and Zackrey led the refugees into Kanmonla’s courtyard.
• Suye ordered Di Aotian to fight the Bronze Warrior while the refugees confronted Kanmonla and his guards.
• Di Aotian used Flame Arrows and a fireball to overwhelm the Bronze Warrior, who was burned to a charred skeleton.

Suye and Zackrey led the refugees in killing Kanmonla and his five Black Iron Warriors, though the victory came at a terrible cost. After Zackrey entrusted Suye with a keepsake and a request to find his daughter Julie, Suye honored the refugees as warriors and people.

• Zackrey rallied the refugees to attack Kanmonla and his five Black Iron Warriors, while Suye told Di Aotian to fight the warriors but avoid Kanmonla.
• Di Aotian helped the refugees kill the five Black Iron Warriors, and the refugees overwhelmed and killed Kanmonla after he cursed them as commoners.
• The refugees mutilated Kanmonla’s corpse and mourned the family members they had lost because of him.
• Zackrey told Suye about his missing daughter Julie, gave him her woven fish, and asked him to find her and pass on a promise about a Pure White Conch.
• Suye bowed to the refugees and told them they were warriors and people, and they smiled through their tears at being respected.

Suye honored the forty-four people who had resisted Kanmonla, then watched as they took their own lives and burned with the manor, sending a message to Athens City. After Suye and his classmates left for Athens, Laurence and the other Mages arrived, silenced Grey River Town’s residents, and concealed what had happened as alarm bells rang across the city.

• Suye promised to preserve the forty-four people’s names in a novel and play, praised them for breaking free of imposed definitions, and said they could not escape responsibility for their crimes.
• Zackrey and the others gathered together, thanked Suye, and killed themselves one by one.
• Suye ordered the hall covered with wood and Bread Fruit Trees, then used Fireball Techniques to set it ablaze so Athens City would see the flames.
• Suye and his three classmates rode back toward Athens City as Laurence and the Mages arrived at Kanmonla’s manor.
• A Golden Mage used a Seven-Stringed Zither to make Grey River Town’s residents collapse, while Laurence erased traces of Suye’s passage and threw a Wooden Sculpture of Plato into the flames.
• Urgent alarm bells rang in Athens City, and riders raced toward Grey River Town.

Suye and his classmates encountered bandits on their ride back to Athens and fought them off. After Pallas revealed her extraordinary combat skill, the group continued on with Di Aotian keeping the bandits’ meager coins.

• Suye told Lake, Hote, and Pallas to report the truth about the trial but keep it private, and invited them to a gathering at Dragon's Fine Things the next day.
• Suye recognized the bandits who had served Lawrence and told them Lawrence was dead, then sent the carriage on while preparing to fight.
• Suye summoned three Flame Goblins and assigned Hote, Pallas, and Lake to practice against the sixteen bandits, with Di Aotian guarding them.
• Hote killed a Black Iron Warrior, while Pallas displayed precise, powerful fighting and helped defeat the bandits; Lake managed only a few magical attacks.
• Suye praised Hote and questioned Pallas about her strength, and she explained that Master Thucydides had dispelled her curse.
• The four left the bodies behind, while Di Aotian searched them and kept the bandits’ coins with Suye’s permission.

Suye and Pallas agreed to establish a chamber of commerce to support people in need, then entered Athens after the City Guard respectfully greeted Pallas as a princess. While Suye walked Pallas home, she recalled being taken by her grandfather Theseus to witness a battle when she was five.

• Suye proposed that he and Pallas invest in farmland and workshops, and they agreed to establish the Suye Chamber of Commerce to help people and promote basic education.
• Suye warned the group about the approaching City Guard, but its Golden Warrior and soldiers dismounted to salute Pallas as a princess; Pallas declined an escort.
• The four reached Athens late at night and received the school’s notice that the trial mission had ended and their reports were due the day after tomorrow.
• Lake and Hote took the horses back to the academy, while Suye offered to walk Pallas home and arranged to meet their classmates the next day.
• Pallas told Suye that the day’s events reminded her of a childhood shock, then recalled how her grandfather Theseus had carried her through a brutal battlefield when she was five.

Pallas recalled the massacre that inspired her to protect others, and told Suye she wanted to become Greece's Female War God. After Suye returned home and received a message declaring Lawrence dead and their grudges settled, Rolon came face-to-face with his severe grandfather, Lord Liobo.

• Pallas told Suye how witnessing an Athenian massacre had shaped her, then declared that she wanted to become Greece's Female War God to protect those she should protect.
• Suye and Pallas parted at her manor, agreeing to watch his play together after it was performed.
• At home, Suye received a Magic Parchment Scroll stating that Lawrence was dead and their grudges had ended; Niedern told him the message was a common mage reconciliation method.
• Suye heard from Rolon, Jimmy, and Albert that they had returned to Athens City and would meet him at the school gate the next day.
• Rolon returned home and entered the family hall to meet Lord Liobo, who ordered him to kneel again after he rose from greeting him.

Rolon endured Liobo’s harsh rebuke over his poor showing in the Black Iron Trial and mourned his dead father alone. Suye discovered that his Spirit Body could enter the Giant Hills through a painting in the Ruined Space, where he explored the Divine Power Plane, strengthened his meditation, and began assessing its resources.

• Liobo compared Rolon unfavorably with Pallas, Suye, and Hote, then told Rolon that his mother had left to become a Saint Realm Warrior because the family feared losing its last Saint.
• Rolon left Liobo’s hall in tears, remembering his father’s final request and the tenth time Liobo had asked why his father had died instead of him.
• Suye entered the lifelike painting in the Ruined Space as a Spirit Body and found himself beneath Giant Tree Peak in the Giant Hills.
• Suye tested his control over the plane, surveyed its settlements and resources, and found that meditation there yielded about a month’s worth of progress.
• Suye inspected the Mountain Goblins’ Herb Garden and warehouse, noting that more than ten thousand Dried Paper Flowers were available for harvest.

Suye moved valuable Magic Herbs from the Divine Power Plane into the Ruined Space and arranged to establish a Magic merchant house with Niedern. After planning the business and his day, he rode out thinking about creating a new play.

• Suye discovered that his mana could carry about 100 kilograms of Magic Herbs into the Ruined Space, where he found the herbs were worth more than 500,000 Golden Eagles.
• Suye tried offering Magic Herbs to the altar, but it did not respond, so he decided to sell the herbs and offer the payment instead.
• Suye contacted Niedern and proposed forming a Magic merchant house with him, negotiating Niedern's share up to ten percent.
• Suye arranged to meet Sigurd and Yixinna that evening and Niedern the next day to establish the merchant house.
• Suye entered Hill's carriage and headed out, thinking about how to create a new play.

Suye drafted the outline of "Zackrey," and Lake was deeply moved by its story and lines. Lake then revealed how a noble family's fraud had ruined his family and led to his mother's death.

• Suye finished most of the outline for "Zackrey" while riding to Plato Academy.
• Suye and Lake discussed Lake's resolve to oppose injustice, and Lake offered to review Suye's play.
• Lake read the outline and praised Suye's writing, calling him the future King of Drama.
• Lake explained that his family's fur business had been destroyed after a noble family's steward switched their goods and blamed them.
• Lake told Suye that the nobles' private soldiers had beaten his mother to death.

Lake told Suye how his father died after being beaten by a noble’s men, and how guilt shaped his resolve to help others. He said he was ready to change, but spotting a Rolon Family silver ornament reminded him that one of his father’s attackers had worn a matching one.

• Lake recounted how his father urged him to run during the beating, then died before Lake returned, leaving Lake convinced his cowardice had caused the death.
• Lake explained that his father’s death drove him to protect others, and thanked Suye for helping him see a way forward.
• Rolon arrived carrying weapons, and Lake noticed the Rolon Family silver ornament at his waist, recalling the matching ornament worn by one of the men who beat his father.
• Jimmy, Albert, Pallas, and Hote joined Suye, Lake, and Rolon before the group divided between two carriages for the banquet.
• In the first carriage, Suye teased Pallas about dressing up and wearing perfume, while Hote’s blunt comment embarrassed her.