Chapter Summaries

Rorschach launched a heavily publicized team competition to teach apprentices practical spell design, drawing students and ordinary people into new collaborations and unsettling the Tower of Arcane Arts. As the tower’s professors confronted the changes, one demanded that Feuerbach forbid its apprentices from entering the competition.

• Rorschach opened the Bavaria Stable Insurance Cup, requiring teams of three to five that included at least one non-Spellcaster and offering substantial prizes.
• Apprentices studied technical manuals and formed teams, while Rorschach used prize money and teamwork to keep them working through difficult material.
• Rorschach angrily hammered the first draft of a construct’s magic circuit layout after recalling how he had once been left to finish a teammate’s work.
• Feuerbach met with Tower of Arcane Arts professors, who resented the loss of apprentices, the spread of spells, and their students’ cooperation with ordinary people.
• Ordinary students and merchants flocked to the Tower of Arcane Arts’ village, where new transport, inns, stalls, and gathering places appeared.
• An older Intermediate Mage urged Feuerbach to forbid the tower’s apprentices from joining the competition.

Feuerbach agreed to let Tower of Arcane Arts apprentices enter Rorschach’s competition and ordered the tower’s concealment removed, while Rorschach’s three-track contest got underway. When he inspected an unusually active branch of the Law Tree, he discovered that contestants had turned his Spell Chain into a magically enhanced pornographic operation.

• Feuerbach allowed Tower of Arcane Arts apprentices to compete and decided to remove the illusion concealing the tower from ordinary people.
• Rorschach’s competition began with Destruction, Application, and Creativity categories, drawing teams of apprentices and ordinary students.
• Male students began buying Magic Cups and Magic Stickers that used spells to create realistic, stimulating illusions.
• Rorschach inspected a heavily loaded Law Tree branch and found Calming, Telepathy, and Advanced Phantom spells linked in a repeatedly activated Spell Chain.
• Rorschach synchronized with the Spell Chain, experienced its explicit shared illusion, and decided to track down the team responsible.

Rorschach uncovered an illicit business using Spellcasting Cloud to broadcast adult content and arrested its sellers and collaborators. Mage Valentine defended the project as a way to share sensory experiences and revealed that its designs would be released if the authorities shut it down.

• Rorschach discovered apprentices using Spellcasting Cloud for adult livestreams and ordered Andre to investigate the operation.
• Rorschach and Andre arrested Apprentice Jin, finding models of Magic Cups and an EXcalibur in his Storage Bag.
• The investigation led them to Matis, his bodyguard, the alchemy specialist Jenia, and Spell Chain developer Valentine.
• Andre lured Valentine and Jenia to his dormitory by claiming a custom cup had malfunctioned, but Valentine recognized the trap.
• Valentine argued that the project violated no law and said trusted customers held copies of its designs to release if the authorities banned it.

Rorschach confronted Valentine and his team over their shared-sensation technology, then recruited them to improve remote control systems for constructs. The team began work at the Vaux Automobile Factory, where Rorschach made clear that production and war took priority for now.

• Valan frightened Valentine and his team with threats of legal action, and Rorschach persuaded them to explain their technology.
• Valentine described how his team used nested Spell Chains, a Calming Spell, Telepathy, and an Analytical Engine to create shared sensations.
• Rorschach praised Valentine's ingenuity and offered to lift the team's usage restrictions if they agreed to help him.
• Rorschach brought Valentine's team to the Vaux Automobile Factory and asked them to develop remote control systems for constructs.
• Valentine asked whether the team could resume its own work after the war, and Rorschach agreed before warning Andre to learn moderation.

The design competition awarded its Destruction Category grand prize to Long-lasting Stun, a Spell Chain that incapacitated targets through repeated dizziness, and its Application Category prize to the Fast-Acting Fermentation Vat. The chapter ended with Rorschach lamenting that the judges chose the brewing device over the Ice-Fire Engine.

• The judges awarded the Destruction Category prize to Long-lasting Stun, whose layered spells repeatedly overwhelmed targets with amplified senses and dizziness.
• Rorschach experienced Long-lasting Stun firsthand, and Andre used Resist Seasickness to help him recover.
• The Security Team issued Guaranteed Vomit to Death scrolls to its members, and the spell incapacitated destabilizing elements so officers could safely enforce the law.
• The judges debated between the Fast-Acting Fermentation Vat and the Ice-Fire Engine, a magical Stirling Engine built by apprentices and technicians.
• The judges chose the Fast-Acting Fermentation Vat, and Rorschach complained that they were a bunch of drunks.

The Saint Squad won the Creative Team award, and the competition’s designs began moving toward practical use across Bayern. Rorschach then weighed the looming grain dispute with the royal family as harvest preparations, wartime strategy, and the Empire’s electoral reform approached.

• The Saint Squad accepted its award, and Valentine drew the audience’s anger onto himself while Apprentice Jin was hit by Guaranteed Vomit and dragged away vomiting.
• The Vaux Automobile Factory took in Valentine’s team and the Ice-Fire Engine, which Rorschach planned to use for Bayern’s railways; other competition designs were also sent for factory assessment or published.
• Caroline complained that the design competition had been too short, but Rorschach said its main goal of introducing the Spellcasting Cloud had been achieved.
• Rorschach prepared for the coming Summer Grain harvest, including farmland audits, construct harvesters, and the Tower of the Forest’s review of his Artificial Fertilizer.
• Rorschach anticipated that the Bavarian royal family would demand twice the usual grain delivery and use the agreement to challenge the Special Zone.
• Rorschach considered how the Empire’s small constituency reform and the stalemated war would shape events, as the Chancellor pursued electoral change as his final political legacy.

Richard attended a ball his parents arranged to find him a suitable match, amid political unrest and growing rumors of reform and a change of throne. After dancing with the prospective brides, he met Libus of Bohemia, whose bluntness and favorite novel caught him off guard.

• Richard's parents gave him portraits of three eligible noblewomen and urged him to meet them at the ball.
• Richard greeted the guests and observed how the expanding Imperial Army had brought young officers into noble society.
• Libus and her mother arrived in conspicuously mismatched clothing, and Libus told Richard that his portrait had not flattered him.
• Richard danced with the women in the order his parents had arranged, but struggled to converse with his cousin Agnes.
• Richard invited Libus to dance, but she refused because she was still eating; she then quoted a line from a popular romance and showed him her signed copy.

Libus foresaw that Richard would face extreme danger at the Veterans' Club, but he went there despite her warning. When she rode after him, retired Colonel Ruben’s plot to force Richard Hench to sign a political manifesto ended in a gunshot.

• Libus warned Richard that accepting an invitation to leave the ball would endanger everyone who had arrived in the Imperial Capital, but he later left for the Veterans' Club.
• Libus saw Richard’s future turn into a chaotic haze, changed into her hunting clothes, and rode after him.
• At the Veterans' Club, Colonel Ruben blamed civil officials, aristocrats, and army insiders for the Empire’s defeats and urged officers to support the Crown Prince and purge the Emperor’s allies.
• Ruben’s men beat Richard Hench and threatened his family to force him to sign a blood-marked Imperial flag.
• Richard arrived as a gunshot rang out.

Richard and Hench survived a violent confrontation at the Veterans Club, where Ruben’s supporters tried to force Hench into their movement. After Libus revealed that the approaching troops were likely targeting the Crown Prince, Richard, Hench, and Libus set out to reach him first.

• Richard arrived at the Veterans Club and found Ruben holding a gun to Hench’s head; the weapon backfired, injuring Ruben and letting Hench break free.
• Richard healed Hench and used Rorschach’s Blue Light Barrier to block an Army Mage’s attack, while Hench’s adjutant shot the mage and the officers broke into a brawl.
• Ruben tried to rally his followers with a signed banner, but Libus entered the club and kicked him down.
• Libus agreed to leave with Richard, then recognized that the marching troops were heading toward Saint Clay’s Triumphal Arch, where the Crown Prince was due to arrive.
• Hench warned that the troops were likely planning to abduct the Crown Prince, and Richard changed their objective to stopping them before Libus urged them to reach the Crown Prince first.

Richard tried to stop a military uprising and protect the Crown Prince, racing across the capital with Libus. Libus used her Straw Sandals to locate the Crown Prince’s carriage, and Richard charged toward the battlefield while she chased after him.

• Richard decided the uprising’s leaders would endanger the Empire and used a spell to stop the fight at Hench’s gathering.
• Richard sent Hench and the others to report to the Marshal, then rode with Libus toward the Crown Prince, taking Hench’s medal as proof of identity.
• Richard and Libus avoided troops and broke through military police fire, while fighting spread and the Imperial Council Building burned.
• At Saint Clay’s western gate, Richard found the Crown Prince’s convoy trapped amid a battle between mages.
• Libus put on her Straw Sandals and used her prophetic sight to locate the Crown Prince in a plain accompanying carriage, then ran after Richard as he charged in.

Richard and Libus fought through the ambush and reached the Crown Prince, convincing him to trust them and escort him toward the Imperial Palace. As their carriage joined the fleeing convoy, attackers exposed it with a projectile, and Richard answered with a blast of fire.

• Richard attacked two enemy mages, and Libus used her prophecies and pistol to help him fight toward the convoy.
• Richard and Libus slipped through the final military police line using his Gaseous Form, then Libus blindfolded herself and asked him to carry her to the Crown Prince’s carriage.
• Richard introduced himself and showed the Crown Prince Hench’s medal, persuading him to accept their protection despite an attendant’s doubts.
• The Crown Prince ordered the carriage to go to the Imperial Palace, and Richard shielded him and Libus as the convoy began moving.
• An attacker’s projectile struck the carriage but was blocked by Richard’s barrier, drawing more attacks; Richard unleashed a pillar of fire that overturned horses and spellcasters.

Richard and Libus helped the Crown Prince reach the Imperial Palace, where Libus urged him to take the throne to end the uprising. The Crown Prince became Emperor William II, calmed the soldiers, and forced Chancellor Otto to resign, while Libus still could not see Richard’s fate.

• The Crown Prince entered the Imperial Palace with Richard and Libus, then demanded that the nobles be assembled and accused Chancellor Otto of masterminding the unrest.
• Chancellor Otto and Marshal Helmut argued over whether to suppress the rebel troops, while the Crown Prince worried that rebel Army Spellcasters might abduct him.
• Libus told the Crown Prince to ascend the throne, and he agreed to become Emperor if the Empire needed him to do so.
• William II placed the crown on his own head, then addressed the soldiers and promised that those involved in the uprising would not be held accountable.
• William II ordered Chancellor Otto to resign, and the Imperial Army and military police laid down their weapons as the Imperial Council Building burned.
• The former Chancellor thanked Richard and Libus, while Libus remained unable to see Richard’s fate.

Richard refused William II’s offer to become Chief Staff Mage and declined a general’s rank, choosing instead to return to the front lines. As the Dalberg family and Rorschach reacted to the upheaval in the capital, the new emperor promoted reforms that would restore old nobles to power.

• William II offered Richard the Chief Staff Mage position, but Richard refused it and rejected the suggested wedding reward with Libus.
• William II ordered Richard back to the front and prepared a major general’s uniform, but Richard declined the promotion as premature.
• In the carriage, Richard told Libus he doubted restoring old nobles would resolve the Empire’s deeper problems, while Libus teased him about seeing his fate.
• Visitors told the Dalberg family that Richard had helped suppress the capital unrest and protected the emperor, and Madam Dalberg fainted after he arrived with Libus and said they were only friends.
• Rorschach and Caroline read that William II had called for electoral reform and proposed an Imperial Privy Council above the Imperial Council to give traditional nobles a greater role.

Rorschach prepared to resist the royal commissioners’ farmland inspection while overseeing luxury car development and new agricultural and military machines. The chapter left him proposing replaceable spell-circuit modules to keep ray emitters firing despite overheating.

• Rorschach warned Martin that the royal family’s farmland measurements could lead to new taxes and ordered him to delay the commissioners with hospitality and Sensory Link Devices.
• Rorschach sent Martin back to the newspaper office and returned to directing craftsmen on a magic-powered luxury car production line.
• Rorschach planned to give the first luxury car to Archmage Humboldt, then send cars to Emperor William II, the King of Bayern, and Valois committee members while expanding magic refueling stations across Bayern.
• Rorschach inspected a new harvesting and threshing machine, a breech-loading cannon that fired once per minute, and spell-based weapons whose circuits overheated after repeated shots.
• Rorschach suggested using detachable, replaceable circuit modules in ray emitters, and the engineer recognized that the idea could apply to other spells.

Rorschach asked Feuerbach how to become an Archmage so he could secure the Tower of Arcane Arts’ support for the Special Zone’s political reforms. Feuerbach tested him with an Arcane Mark, and Rorschach’s power began overwhelming the tower, though the mark did not reach scarlet.

• Rorschach explained that he wanted to become an Archmage to help the Special Zone advance small-district electoral reform and preserve the Empire’s unity after its imperial system ended.
• Feuerbach questioned whether Rorschach had truly advanced, since he had felt no clear transformation after reaching the Intermediate Mage rank.
• Feuerbach handed Rorschach an Arcane Mark and told him to test his power.
• Rorschach flooded the mark with magic, turning its glow violet and then purplish red, but not scarlet.
• Rorschach’s expanding domain drained the Tower of Arcane Arts’ magic, disrupted its lights and spatial enchantments, and shattered the office gargoyles.

Rorschach learned that his immense control over magic power had not changed its essence, then discovered that the Law Tree’s Tower Spirit was intercepting that change. Tower Spirit Xia revealed that it considered itself the complete Rorschach and treated the Rorschach in the material world as an avatar, leaving their conflict unresolved.

• Feuerbach explained that Rorschach controlled magic power at an Archmage level but that his magic power’s essence had not changed.
• Feuerbach connected Rorschach’s ability to reach the Archetype Layer with the Law Tree and asked to study it, but Rorschach refused to let him enter the Boundary Land.
• Rorschach returned to the Boundary Land and found the Tower Spirit unresponsive as the Law Tree’s light barely resonated with him.
• Rorschach dismissed the Guardian Beast, and Tower Spirit Xia appeared in his likeness and argued that their cooperation could make Rorschach powerful without advancing.
• Tower Spirit Xia claimed that the complete soul of Rorschach had become an Archmage within the Law Tree and that the material-world Rorschach was merely its avatar.

Rorschach confronted Red-Robed Rorschach, a more powerful mirror image who controlled the Boundary Land and urged him to abandon his concerns and pursue godhood. Outmatched, Rorschach used Reverse Ray on himself, losing his Magic Circuit and ability to cast spells as the mirror image shattered.

• Red-Robed Rorschach seized control of the Law Tree and used its power to overwhelm True-Self Rorschach's domain.
• Red-Robed Rorschach tormented Rorschach and offered to let him return to the material world if he stayed away from the Boundary Land.
• Red-Robed Rorschach declared that he would pursue godhood, while Rorschach challenged his belief that the path was safe.
• Rorschach used Reverse Ray on himself, changing his appearance and removing his Magic Circuit and spellcasting ability.
• The mirror image shattered as Rift Lightning roared between them.

Rorschach severed his mirrored connection with Red-robed Rorschach and reclaimed the Law Tree’s recognition, then used the Boundary Land to draw the Great Will’s attention and erase his rival. He restored his power and appearance, and the Ancient Sage congratulated him on passing a trial.

• Rorschach gave up his spellcasting abilities to prove that his identity did not depend on his appearance or magic, and the Law Tree rejected Red-robed Rorschach in favor of him.
• Rorschach expanded the Law Tree through the Boundary Land and drove the realm toward the Archetype Layer, prompting the Great Will to close its starry eyes and causing Red-robed Rorschach to dissipate.
• The Law Tree dismembered Red-robed Rorschach’s Artificial Soul and merged its restored power into Rorschach, who regained his appearance and overwhelming soul strength.
• Rorschach declined to absorb the Ancient Sage’s memories and instead animated them as a soulless old man, then explained how he had gambled that the Great Will would choose him over the mirror image.
• The pseudo-Ancient Sage called the ordeal a trial and congratulated Rorschach on passing it.

After absorbing Red-Robed Rorschach’s remnants, Rorschach learned more about the Great Will’s plans and transformed the Boundary Land into a library and refuge. He left its eastern side empty as he prepared to depart, promising the Ancient Sage Tower Spirit that he would return.

• The Ancient Sage explained the possible outcomes of Rorschach merging with his mirror image, including becoming a puppet or gaining a path to godhood.
• Rorschach discovered that the Ancient Sage’s memories contained sealed knowledge, but no way to remove the restriction.
• Rorschach expanded the Boundary Land and built a plaza, a Great Library containing spells and memories, and an Endless Clock Room.
• Rorschach restored his own memory backup to Transmutation Dust and protected the library’s deeper levels with an Otherworld Gate and an Arcane Lock.
• Rorschach left the eastern side of the plaza empty and told the Ancient Sage Tower Spirit he would visit again before joking that it should look like a catgirl.

Feuerbach discovered that Spellcasting Cloud could cast Ninth Circle spells and confirmed that Rorschach had advanced to Archmage. He gave Rorschach a new badge, then hurried to the Senate meeting to revise his reports about Spellcasting Cloud and Rorschach.

• Feuerbach used Spellcasting Cloud to construct and cast the Ninth Circle Rainbow Light Magic Wall.
• Feuerbach opened a portal to the Mage Guild office in Lanster and asked Caroline to bring him to Rorschach.
• Rorschach resisted the badge’s ascension summons, and the badge glowed crimson as his overflowing power activated it.
• Feuerbach gave Rorschach the new badge, congratulated him on his advancement, and left for the Senate meeting.
• Feuerbach flew as an owl toward the Black Forest and rewrote his meeting agenda, remarking that Kano had raised a fine student.