Chapter Summaries

Wei Ge and Shade attended the Charming Lady Club under the name Lady Red Stone, mingling with its guests while waiting for the Skin Crafter. The Club’s evening activities began with a blood-infused drink for the women, but neither Shade nor Wei Ge had yet found the person they were seeking.

• Butterfly Lady welcomed Wei Ge and Shade, explained the evening’s schedule, and accepted Wei Ge’s choice to be called Lady Red Stone.
• Wei Ge and Shade stayed close on a sofa as guests arrived, and Wei Ge entertained herself by identifying noblewomen and sharing gossip with Shade.
• Shade noticed Mr. Bernhardt arrive with an unfamiliar Advanced Bloodkin companion, and the two men exchanged nods without speaking.
• At seven thirty, Butterfly Lady opened the Club’s activities, and the guests began card games, viewings, divination, and singing.
• A maid served Wei Ge red wine containing animal blood essence, and Shade confirmed that it was a Bloodkin brew.

Shade and Wei Ge attended The Club’s masked gathering, then followed a group seeking the Skin Crafter to a relic-manifested mansion outside the estate. Shade identified the relic as [Martha's Old Mansion Oil Painting], and he and Wei Ge confirmed they could still contact their allies as they entered its scenery.

• Wei Ge enjoyed the gathering with Shade, joined Butterfly Lady’s reading club, and received an address for future invitations after donating forty Crowns to The Club.
• Shade and Wei Ge followed the maid and nine other guests through a garden path to meet the Skin Crafter, while Mr. Bernhardt and his companion headed to a separate secret activity involving the Bloodkin.
• The group left the estate and reached a yellow-lit building near the Barren Mountain Forest, where the scenery shifted into a nostalgic, melancholy landscape.
• Shade recognized the area as the manifestation of the Document Level Relic [Martha's Old Mansion Oil Painting] and warned Wei Ge that Martha might appear and trap them inside.
• Shade found he could not use First Time to locate the Skin Crafter within the relic, so Wei Ge checked whether she could contact Iluna and the others; she confirmed that she could.

Shade and Wei Ge entered the Skin Crafter’s house, where a trap forced them to prove they would not kill for Skin Objects. After they escaped the attic without skinning each other, the maid revealed herself as the Skin Crafter and asked what they wanted.

• A maid led Shade, Wei Ge, and the other guests into the house, then summoned each group separately to the attic.
• Shade found the bald woman in the attic dead beneath a Skin Object and recognized that the Skin Crafter had mistaken them for prey.
• A note trapped Shade and Wei Ge in the attic unless one of them skinned the other, but they refused and searched for another way out.
• Shade found a map and key among the mannequins’ Skin Objects and used them to reach a hidden third-floor room with Wei Ge.
• The maid revealed herself as the Skin Crafter, explained that they had passed her test, and asked what they had come to trade for.

Shade and Wei Ge confronted the Skin Crafter over Nicola Lemay’s Skin Object, but she attacked them and trapped them inside a shifting scene. They found a corpse-filled ball where the Skin Crafter explained that the dead guests still craved admiration through the Skin Objects they wore.

• The Skin Crafter refused to modify Shade and Wei Ge’s Skin Object, then agreed to take Nicola Lemay’s marked heirloom to the [Skin Object Hall].
• The Skin Crafter attacked Shade as they left the room, and he blasted her away with the Heaton Seal, but she vanished into the shifting scene.
• Shade and Wei Ge tried to leave the building but found themselves trapped inside the Skin Crafter’s altered Relic scene, where they had to locate its oil painting.
• Wei Ge chose a corridor that opened onto a ball attended by corpses wearing Skin Objects, and Shade used a Light Spell to suppress them.
• The Skin Crafter offered Shade a drink and explained that the dead guests willingly followed her because they remained obsessed with being seen and admired.

Shade and Wei Ge fought the Skin Crafter inside the oil painting, while the Great Sin Chains drained Life Fire Seeds from him and the Skin Objects he controlled. Vanessa pulled them out when the painting began to lose control, leaving them outside with Iluna and Siris stabilizing the relic.

• The Skin Crafter attacked Shade and Wei Ge, but Shade restrained him with the Great Sin Chains and began extracting his Life Fire Seed.
• The Skin Crafter shed successive Skin Objects and commanded corpses wearing them to fight, while Wei Ge used Chaos Torrent to destroy the attackers.
• Shade and the Skin Crafter's battle spread through the building, and the damaged relic shifted between black-and-white and dim yellow as Wraith Martha appeared and fled.
• The painting shook, and giant hands reached through its walls to seize Shade and Wei Ge and pull them outside.
• Wei Ge realized Vanessa had rescued them, while Iluna and Siris used their powers and the Core of the Old Days to stabilize the oil painting.

Shade and his allies captured the Skin Crafter and brought it to the Mermaid, who found the location of Skin Object Hall. The Mermaid also revealed a possible way to cure Wei Ge by using Shade’s Witch’s Delight to help her reach the Thirteenth Order.

• Vanessa explained how Siris and Iluna used the Core of the Old Days to remove Martha’s Old Mansion Oil Painting and trap the Skin Crafter inside it.
• Shade, Iluna, Siris, and Vanessa left the city to summon the Mermaid, while Flora took Wei Ge back to Fragrant Residence.
• The Mermaid pulled the Skin Crafter from the painting, consumed it, and said she had found the location of Skin Object Hall.
• The Mermaid offered Shade a method to restore Wei Ge’s health by using Witch’s Delight to help the Great Witch of Chaos break through to the Thirteenth Order.
• Shade acknowledged that he possessed Witch’s Delight, but Wei Ge was still only at the Eleventh Rank.

Shade learned temporary ways to treat Wei Ge Astley’s condition and found out that her sister might be able to cure her completely. After Desire revealed the Skin Object Hall’s location, Shade received a trove of Skin Objects and arranged for their containment at Saint Byron’s.

• Desire told Shade that Fusion or medicine brewed from his bodily fluids could temporarily repair Wei Ge Astley’s soul, and confirmed that finding her sister could provide a complete cure.
• Desire directed Shade to the Skin Object Hall on a boat in Oakham Park’s lake and warned that others would visit it the next day.
• Desire left behind many chests of Skin Objects, along with the knife the Skin Crafter had used to cut through space.
• Shade decided the Skin Objects should be stored at Saint Byron’s until their Whisper-tainted Life Force could be purified.
• Shade informed Daniste, who returned to the Academy and summoned professors to inspect and contain the Skin Objects.

Shade delivered the recovered Skin Objects to the Academy, where Daniste stayed to oversee their processing, then returned home to learn the results of a divination about Peggy Lemay and Wei Ge. The group confirmed that the female Alchemist’s soul had awakened and was moving nearby, while warning Shade to avoid deepening his relationship with Wei Ge until she was cured.

• Shade and Daniste brought crates of Skin Objects to the Academy, where Professor Pigman agreed to gather help processing them.
• Daniste stayed at the Academy, arranged for Ellie to accompany Shade into the Skin Object Hall, and kissed him before he left.
• Shade returned to Fragrant Residence and learned that the Witches had gone to the Council to investigate activating Chaos Bestowal.
• Luvia warned Shade that intimacy with Wei Ge could worsen Peggy Lemay’s influence on her soul until Wei Ge was cured.
• Luvia reported that the Fate Base’s divination confirmed the female Alchemist’s soul had awakened, was acting locally in a female form, and would meet Shade soon.

Shade and the others discovered that the liquid in a sealed bottle was one-quarter of Wei Ge Astley’s sister, Aurora Le May, and learned that Aurora remained alive but dormant. The chapter ended with Wei Ge celebrating both the discovery and the news that she could activate Chaos Bestowal for Shade next Monday.

• Luvia revealed that divination had located one-quarter of Wei Ge’s sister inside the house, and Shade identified it as the red-glowing liquid in the Curved Neck Bottle.
• Shade examined the liquid and realized that Wei Ge’s mother had transformed flesh, spirit, and soul into an active solution through alchemy.
• Angelina used Heart Sound of Chaos to sense that the being in the bottle retained curious instincts but had mostly fallen into slumber.
• Shade examined Wei Ge’s Life Detector notes and the Fate Manual, which identified the being as Aurora Le May and described her Destiny as divided into four parts.
• Wei Ge returned, hugged Shade, and announced that she could activate Chaos Bestowal for him next Monday.

Shade and the Witches prepared for the operation at the Skin Object Hall while Wei Ge watched over the Curved Neck Bottle and tried to keep Shade from spending the night with the others. The next morning, Shade brought Sister Devlin and Ellie to Fragrant Residence, where Wei Ge learned that the Nun considered Shade her Hero and Shade discovered Angelina had secretly bought books.

• Wei Ge said she would restore the child in the Curved Neck Bottle, and the group planned to seek the remaining solutions during the operation at the Skin Object Hall.
• Wei Ge proposed a pajama party while the Witches planned the operation, then called Shade away from the others; later, Galina, Sivie, and Vanessa welcomed him back to his room.
• Shade left Fragrant Residence early Saturday and returned with Sister Devlin and Ellie after bringing Sister Devlin to the Blue Ink Library to touch the statue.
• Wei Ge asked Sister Devlin what her relationship with Shade was, and Sister Devlin called him her Hero.
• Shade asked Angelina about books she had arranged to buy through Wei Ge's maid, and Angelina begged him not to tell her elder sister.

Shade and his companions set out to find the pleasure boat concealing the [Skin Object Hall] and prepare to enter it. They boarded Wei Ge’s yacht on a crowded spring day in Oakham Park, where Little Mia unexpectedly joined them.

• Angelina offered Shade rare forbidden books, but he declined after learning they were about dragon maids and hearing that her big sister had told her he liked girls with big tails.
• Shade’s group finalized their plan to locate the [Skin Object Hall], with Shade, Wei Ge, Vanessa, Iluna, and Sister Devlin set to board the boat and the others ready to provide support.
• Wei Ge rented a yacht using her family’s privileges, and the group traveled to Oakham Park as crowds gathered for the exposition’s warm-up event.
• The group boarded the yacht at half past eight while The Church’s detection rituals and Ring Arcanists monitored the park.
• Shade discovered Little Mia inside his violin case, and the cat jumped onto his lap as the yacht departed and Wei Ge admired the spring weather.

Shade and his companions circled the lake until a strange exhibition yacht appeared, then entered a fog-covered space that seemed to be [Skin Object Hall]. A mysterious boatman recognized Wei Ge as a descendant of the “Redstone Baroness” and demanded she board alone.

• Shade received Winnie's Temporary Blessing Of Ice And Snow through a kiss, while Winnie weakened and rested.
• Shade and his companions spotted the Silent Steam Yacht and prepared to board it after checking for danger.
• Wei Ge discovered that Nicola Le May's Skin Object was glowing as strange fog surrounded their yacht.
• The yacht entered the Great Fog and emerged somewhere that seemed to be the outskirts of [Skin Object Hall].
• A figure in a Small Wooden Boat invited Wei Ge to enter the hall alone as a descendant of the “Redstone Baroness.”

Shade and Wei Ge led their companions across the fog-covered lake to Skin Object Hall, where they were forced to confront the hall’s rules. The group reached the manor, but its gatekeeper demanded that visitors wear Skin Objects, leaving Shade and Wei Ge debating whether to use the damaged ones in the courtyard or force their way inside.

• Wei Ge persuaded the guide to let her companions accompany her, and the group followed the boat toward the lake’s center.
• Shade and Iluna identified that all five people on a nearby boat wore Skin Objects, and the terrified passengers turned on one another and died.
• The guide confirmed their answer and led them to Lake Heart Island, where Shade, Vanessa, Iluna, Sister Devlin, and Wei Ge went ashore while Winnie and the other maids stayed with the yacht.
• At Skin Object Hall, a young woman told the group that only people wearing Skin Objects could enter and warned them that the scarecrows would attack if they took their damaged coverings.
• Iluna and Vanessa refused to wear Skin Objects, and Wei Ge resisted the idea, prompting her to suggest that Shade force the entrance instead.

Shade used the Mermaid’s techniques to create a conceptual Skin Object that let him enter the Skin Object Hall without wearing a physical one. He and Wei Ge entered the Relic while the other women stayed outside, and the Hall welcomed them with a tour before granting Wei Ge the item entrusted to it.

• After the Hall refused to admit Shade without a Skin Object, he returned to the yacht and used Desire, Pink Essence, his blood, the Life Fire Seed, and Vanessa’s hair to create a conceptual Skin Object.
• Shade explained that his new Skin Object represented his desire and let him pass as wearing one, then asked Vanessa, Iluna, and Sister Devlin to explore the island while he and Wei Ge went inside.
• Sister Devlin and Iluna offered to accompany Shade, but he declined and said they could gather information about the Hall and its surroundings.
• Shade and Wei Ge returned to the entrance, where the young girl welcomed them and allowed them inside.
• Inside the Hall, Wei Ge presented the Redstone Baroness’s token and asked for the item the Hall had safeguarded for over twenty years, but the young girl first invited them on a tour.

Shade and Wei Ge toured the Skin Object Hall with a group of other visitors, learning that each had been drawn there by personal ties and purposes. The tour reached an exhibition of powerful Skin Objects, where the group saw a stripped Unicorn and learned that purchases could be made through barter.

• Shade and Wei Ge entered the Hall’s exhibition rooms, where corpses displayed basic Skin Objects and portraits represented missing exhibits.
• They joined Mr. Gerald Delong, a Doppelganger, and other high-ring visitors, then received badges revealing the quality of their worn and natural skins.
• The guide said the other visitors had longstanding connections to the Hall and that Skin Divination had written their destinies there.
• The guide led the group into the first-floor exhibition of supernatural Skin Objects, including the skin of a dead Unicorn.
• An old gentleman asked how guests could pay, and the guide said the Hall accepted barter, including exchanges of Skin Objects.

Shade and Wei Ge explored the Skin Object Hall, learned that several factions had come for their own purposes, and agreed to cooperate with Gerald Delong. After rejecting the Guiding Young Lady’s offers, they followed the tour to the second floor, where the hall’s workshops and core area awaited.

• Shade and Wei Ge met Gerald Delong, who revealed that he had come to collect the stakes from an old wager with the hall, and they agreed to be temporary collaborators.
• Gerald Delong suspected the Saint Alliance might be seeking technology to create something dangerous, while Shade revealed that his companions could provide support.
• Shade learned through the Doppelganger network that a High-Level False Man carried a beacon intended to let the House of False Men force its way into the Skin Object Hall.
• Shade discovered that a Twelve-Ring Arcanist from The Church was among the visitors, and he and Wei Ge worried that The Church might have been monitoring the area.
• The Guiding Young Lady offered to buy Wei Ge’s skin and invited Shade to sleep with her, but both offers were refused.
• After touring the first floor’s exhibits, Shade and the others rode an old elevator to the second floor, where the smell of preservatives and flesh grew stronger.

Shade and the others watched five gruesome stories showing how envy and vanity led to the creation of Skin Objects, while the relic intensified their sins and disturbed their sanity. The guide then presented a guessing game about whether an awakened girl would use leatherworking tools to take a beautiful stranger’s skin.

• The guide showed the group five stories of people driven by envy, vanity, and obsession to create or steal Skin Objects.
• Shade learned that the relic increased visitors’ sins and sensed that it might contain the power of a Great Sin Imprint.
• After the stories ended, the guide explained the club’s practice of waiting for people’s desires to bring them to Skin Crafters.
• The guide revealed two unconscious girls and a toolbox behind the glass, then invited the visitors to guess whether the less attractive girl would use the tools to obtain the beauty she desired.

Shade refused to join a game that tempted a young woman to harm her companion, then agreed to bear the pair’s accumulated sin in exchange for their release. After signing the hall’s contract and gaining insight into vanity, he continued the unsettling tour with Wei Ge.

• Shade declined to participate in the guessing game, and four other guests also sat it out.
• When the Black-haired Girl reached for a knife under the Relic’s influence, Shade stopped the game and offered to buy the two women’s freedom.
• All five game participants agreed to abandon the game, and Shade chose to save both women despite learning they had entered the hall more than six hundred years earlier.
• Shade signed an agreement to bear the women’s accumulated sin, gaining a Whisper and increased Envy and vanity while secretly using [Cherished Item] to track the scroll.
• The Guiding Young Lady led the guests through unsettling Skin Object exhibits and held more games that increased participants’ sin and acceptance of Skin Objects.

Shade and Wei Ge explored the third floor of the Skin Object Hall, where they discovered Lady Connaught had taken refuge. Lady Connaught recognized Wei Ge and explained that she could identify her by her beauty, while Shade and Wei Ge continued seeking the Hall’s hidden secrets.

• Miss Skin Rack welcomed the visitors to the third-floor banquet hall and explained that many guests had chosen to stay there, while others served as potential Skin Crafters or raw materials.
• Shade asked Wei Ge what was on her mind, and she said she was thinking of her mother, who had visited the Hall alone more than twenty years earlier.
• Shade and Wei Ge left the banquet halls and entered a luxurious bedroom suite, where they found a woman whipping a young girl on a bed.
• The woman recognized Wei Ge as Miss Astley, and Wei Ge realized she was Lady Connaught, who had escaped the Church’s investigation by coming to the Hall.
• Lady Connaught said her lost original skin made her especially able to recognize and appreciate high-quality skin, which was how she identified Wei Ge.

Shade and Wei Ge retrieved a metal box from the Skin Object Hall, but discovered that the Curved Neck Bottle inside held only half the promised solution. As the Hall vanished into silence around them, Shade sensed that a Demon had also acted there.

• Shade killed Lady Connaught, and the Hall Master, who called herself Pi, led Shade and Wei Ge to the box entrusted to the Hall.
• Wei Ge sensed her younger sister in the box, and Shade took it as they left without confronting Pi.
• Shade suspected the Hall had deceived them and planned to meet Iluna and the others before acting against it.
• An explosion shook the Hall, then the banquet hall emptied and fell silent around Shade and Wei Ge.
• Shade broke open the box, and Wei Ge found that the Curved Neck Bottle inside contained only half the solution in the bottle at Fragrant Residence.
• Shade sensed a Demon and a wave of Withering as the Demon’s presence appeared and vanished.