Chapter Summaries

Adrian’s fleet grew wealthy from confiscations and taxes in the White Sand Archipelago, while he ordered reconnaissance ships to guard against retaliation. On a deserted island, nobles, merchants, and pirates formed an alliance and agreed to gather two hundred warships to fight the Northern Duchy fleet.

• For two weeks, the duchy fleet seized ships and cargo, and Port Governor Ben expanded White Sands Port with the proceeds.
• Adrian reviewed the fleet’s profits, worried that its victims would retaliate, and ordered reconnaissance ships to investigate.
• Nobles, merchants, and great pirates gathered on a deserted island and complained about the Northern Duchy’s taxes and seizures.
• The pirates hesitated to fight because they feared losing ships, but the nobles offered them shipyard quotas, including Iron-ribbed Warships.
• The factions agreed to assemble two hundred warships with a combined tonnage exceeding twenty-three thousand tons.

Adrian led the Duchy’s ironclad fleet against a massive Combined Fleet attacking the White Sand Archipelago, while Ben defended White Sands Port. By nightfall, most of Adrian’s warships had been lost or disabled, the port still held, and both sides faced a costly final struggle.

• More than two hundred ships gathered beyond the White Sand Archipelago to challenge the Northern Duchy, and Adrian ordered his fleet out of White Sands Port.
• Ben stayed behind to defend the port as Adrian sailed out with the Warrior-class warship.
• Adrian ordered the ironclads to cross the T and open fire, while part of the Combined Fleet attacked White Sands Port.
• The battle raged from dawn until nightfall as the ironclads destroyed enemy ships but suffered heavy damage and dwindling ammunition.
• Ben repelled repeated landings at the port, while the Combined Fleet endured losses exceeding half its force and Adrian was left with only four warships still able to fight.

As the Combined Fleet nearly overwhelmed Adrian’s four battered ironclads, a hidden fleet of twenty Northern Duchy ironclads arrived under cover of darkness and attacked. The Combined Fleet collapsed into despair, and Adrian declared victory.

• The Combined Fleet’s leaders sent their ships into a desperate close-range assault, convinced they had nearly defeated Adrian.
• Adrian waited for the ambush fleet while Ben continued defending White Sands Port from repeated landings.
• The hidden ironclad fleet approached the battlefield after nightfall, having concealed itself near the White Sand Archipelago for nearly half a month.
• The ironclad fleet fired flares to reveal the Combined Fleet, then began attacking from the darkness.
• Adrian saw the flank attack and declared victory as the Combined Fleet’s command system and morale collapsed.

After the Northern Duchy won the naval battle at the White Sand Archipelago, Adrian ordered the fleet to collect tolls and news of victory spread. In Digen Port, Andre decided to cooperate with the Northern Duchy and agreed to help it obtain a port in exchange for weapons production equipment.

• Adrian ordered his fleet to clear the battlefield, report to the Duke, and send patrol fleets to collect taxes from ships passing through the White Sand Archipelago.
• The duchy messenger's arrival brought news of victory, and merchants in Digen Port celebrated the Northern Duchy's control of the maritime route.
• After reading the newspaper about the battle, Andre summoned Peter to discuss cooperation with the Northern Duchy.
• Andre demanded production lines for muskets, cannons, ammunition, and shells, but Peter offered only a rifle production line at first.
• Andre agreed to help the Northern Duchy obtain ownership of a port and asked Peter to honor the agreement.

Peter reached an unwritten agreement with Count Andre, while Derek ordered Virut to invade the Southern Three Kingdoms, beginning with the Locke Kingdom. As Northern Duchy forces advanced and the continent scrambled to respond, a wooden sailing ship arrived at the White Sand Archipelago.

• Peter and Count Andre agreed to work together, and Peter left Andre at Digen Port.
• Derek ordered Virut to make his move and use the Southern Three Kingdoms as targets for conquest.
• Northern Duchy troops began advancing into the Locke Kingdom, while King Arthur sealed the Royal Capital, mobilized his army, and sent a crown and letter to Prince Radick.
• Virut's divisions opened fire and pushed into Locke territory as officials and laborers followed to establish Northern Duchy rule and lay railway tracks.
• Merchants rushed to buy cheap assets as countries across the Southern Continent sent messengers and envoys to form connections.
• A wooden sailing ship arrived at the White Sand Archipelago as war spread across the Southern Continent.

A white-skinned merchant ship entered the White Sand Archipelago, now controlled by the Northern Duchy, and was intercepted by its patrol fleet. After registering and paying taxes at White Sands Port, the captain gathered intelligence about the region and the war.

• A Northern Duchy patrol fleet intercepted the white-skinned merchants and ordered them to disarm and sail to White Sands Port under supervision.
• The captain agreed to the inspection, and the navy seized the ship’s weapons and escorted it to the port.
• Adrian received word of the unusual ship and sent to the homeland for instructions, then waited half a month for a reply.
• Derek ordered the port to register the merchants as usual and let them travel wherever they wanted.
• A port official charged the captain two thousand gold coins in taxes and warned him not to plunder merchant ships.
• The captain paid the taxes, bought supplies, and sent his sailors ashore to gather intelligence about the Southern Continent.

Count Andre received a firearms production line from the Northern Duchy and oversaw its successful trial run, giving him the means to arm his private soldiers. Meanwhile, white captain Sanger arrived in the Griffin Kingdom after learning that civil war had broken out on the Southern Continent.

• White captain Sanger learned that war had broken out on the Southern Continent and chose to sail to the Griffin Kingdom first.
• Count Andre's private soldiers secured the harbor as Peter delivered the machines and engineers, and Andre pressed him about their agreement.
• Count Andre hurried the engineers to install the firearms production line at his prepared factory.
• A week later, the engineers produced ten working Type Zero Rifles and reported a daily capacity of up to 120 rifles and about 1,000 cartridges.
• Count Andre tested a rifle and began preparing to arm his private soldiers as part of his plan to change the Griffin Kingdom.
• After more than eight months at sea, Sanger and his group arrived in the Griffin Kingdom, where the war on the Southern Continent made him feel pressed for time.

Sanger secured a title and foothold in the Griffin Kingdom, while Peter uncovered his group’s plans and boarded Sanger’s ship to investigate. As the Northern Duchy’s army approached the Locke Kingdom’s Royal Capital, King Arthur’s blockade trapped the nobles inside, and he rejected their pleas to leave.

• Sanger bribed Griffin Kingdom nobles and officials to obtain a court Baronet title and establish long-term business operations.
• Peter investigated Sanger’s group, learned about its dealings, and arranged to travel aboard Sanger’s ship to Digen Port.
• Peter boarded the merchant ship Flying, questioned Sanger about his motives, and hinted that he could introduce him to business contacts.
• Virut’s army advanced toward the Locke Kingdom’s Royal Capital with artillery and infantry attacks.
• King Arthur sealed the Royal Capital, trapping nobles who wanted to escape or return to their fiefs.
• The nobles pleaded with King Arthur to open the gates, but he accused them of wanting to surrender to Derek and abandon him.

King Arthur forced the nobles and ministers to watch as he terrorized the royal family and ordered the Palace Guards to attack Viscount Karim’s home. The guards looted the estate and destroyed it with gunpowder while the Northern Duchy’s army had yet to attack the Royal Capital.

• Viscount Karim urged King Arthur to flee with him, but Arthur dismissed the nobles’ pleas and ordered them to the inner city wall.
• King Arthur had the Queen, the princes, and the princesses brought to the pavilion as gunfire and screams sounded from the palace.
• King Arthur shot an attendant, threatened the royal children into silence, and boasted that he had promised the Palace Guards permission to slaughter and loot.
• King Arthur recognized Viscount Karim and ordered the Palace Guards to set off fireworks at his home.
• Viscount Karim’s private soldiers exchanged fire with the Palace Guards, who brought up cannons, stormed the residence, looted it, and set off a massive explosion.

King Arthur massacred the nobles, ministers, and royal family before ordering the Palace Guards to burn the Royal Capital, ending his reign in the flames. Three days later, Virut entered the ruined city and turned the Northern Duchy's efforts toward disaster relief.

• King Arthur had Viscount Karim thrown from the battlements after destroying his family, then killed half the gathered nobles and officials as supposed traitors.
• King Arthur shot the princes and princesses, then ordered his Palace Guards to kill the surviving ministers and burn the attic with him inside.
• The Palace Guards slaughtered people across the Royal Capital, looted the city, and set fires that left it in ruins.
• Virut arrived at the Royal Capital three days later, found the city devastated, and led the Northern Duchy's army in to provide disaster relief.

Prince Radick accepted the royal seal and decided to claim the throne, seeking weapons and allies among the Southern Nobles. Baron Cliff walked into an ambush arranged around his meeting with Radick, while Viscount Chavez had already recognized the danger and prepared for trouble.

• Prince Radick discarded his brother’s letter, accepted the royal seal, and chose to inherit the throne rather than remain dependent on the Northern Duchy.
• Prince Radick asked Baron Cliff to arrange an artillery purchase and considered Count Lovett a potential ally against the Northern Duchy.
• Baron Cliff agreed to meet Prince Radick, unaware that the two sides were at war, while Viscount Chavez ordered his agent to prepare for contingencies.
• Baron Cliff arrived at the pier with guards and attendants, then followed shadowy figures into an encirclement.
• A group suddenly surrounded Baron Cliff and his men before he could meet Prince Radick.

Radick’s attempt to capture Baron Cliff failed when a death warrior detonated explosives, while Viscount Chavez confirmed Radick still intended to oppose the Northern Duchy. Count Lovett then pledged support for Radick’s claim and received authority to unite the nations against their common enemy.

• Radick’s soldiers surrounded Baron Cliff, but one of Cliff’s attendants detonated explosives, killing Cliff and exposing the attempted arrest as his entourage’s ship escaped.
• Radick concluded Cliff had been a pawn and suspected a hidden spy organization behind the escape.
• Viscount Chavez heard the explosion across the river and declared that Radick was still preparing to oppose the Duchy, making war inevitable.
• Count Lovett urged Radick to claim the throne and unite the neighboring nations against the Northern Duchy, and Radick agreed.
• Radick gave Count Lovett sealed blank papers authorizing him to negotiate and act in the King’s name.

Peter returned from his mission to the Griffin Kingdom, where he had helped secure cooperation and learned that its king had little time left to live. The director assigned him to investigate Sanger’s white outsiders, and Peter opened a file detailing their arrival in the White Sand Archipelago.

• Sanger saw Peter off, then learned from Peter’s business card that he worked for the Ninth Investigation Department, whose headquarters were listed as Swan Castle.
• Peter returned to the Ninth Investigation Department and reported that Griffin nobles and officials had agreed to deepen their cooperation, the Senate would help pass the Lease Act, and the King of Griffin had at most half a year to live.
• The director reassigned Peter from Griffin and tasked him with handling the white outsiders under the Duke’s new instructions.
• Peter opened the file at his residence and reviewed information on Sanger’s group, including their numbers, weapons, goods, wealth, and personalities.

Peter sold Captain Sanger technical books and a first-generation Steam Engine for fifty thousand Gold Coins, presenting the deal as legal commerce. Sanger paid and fled that night, hoping the United Kingdom could use the technology to catch up with the Northern Duchy.

• Sanger struggled to gather intelligence and acquire technology while facing hostility from Northern Duchy merchants.
• Peter confronted Sanger with hard-to-find books about steam and machinery and accused him of trying to steal technology.
• Peter offered the books and a Steam Engine in exchange for fifty thousand Gold Coins, claiming the sale was legal.
• After lengthy negotiations, Sanger agreed to the deal and paid for the books and engine.
• Sanger had the Steam Engine delivered to his ship and fled overnight without Peter's escort.

Derek monitored the rival nations’ military preparations and deliberately planned to let war weaken their old powers. Meanwhile, the Pontiff seized control of the Church through a massacre and prepared forces for the coming conflict, while King Bruno mobilized against the Northern Duchy.

• Derek heard that the Church, the Holy Cross Royal Family, and the Griffin Kingdom were secretly expanding their armies and weapons production.
• Derek ordered his forces to leave their enemies some hope rather than defeat them all at once, intending to prolong the conflict and let old powers destroy one another.
• The Pontiff used armed fanatics to kill Church leaders who opposed him, then ordered surviving officials to gather and train more recruits with firearms.
• The Pontiff agreed to help King Bruno fight the Northern Duchy and kept the Church’s newly trained forces ready for use against either the duchy or the Bruno Royal Family.
• King Bruno prepared for war and complained that Derek had failed to tightly control the steam engines and weapons of national importance.

King Bruno appointed Duke Fernandes to lead a new campaign against the Northern Duchy, while Fernandes reorganized his forces and prepared a cautious advance. At the Connor Family, Barin secretly returned despite the danger, determined to pursue greater ambitions.

• King Bruno summoned Duke Fernandes and gave him command of one hundred thousand royal troops, along with noble and church forces, ordering him to fight Derek and weaken rival factions where possible.
• Duke Fernandes accepted the command without promising victory, took control of the new army, reorganized the church forces, and built defensive lines before considering an offensive.
• Duke Fernandes’s return to command unsettled nobles who remembered his earlier defeat, but his swift control of the royal troops silenced their objections.
• As war approached the Connor Family, Viscount Barin stopped escorting smuggling caravans, while Corison urged Earl Connor to return the family to the kingdom’s side.
• Barin emerged from a hidden passage in Earl Connor’s study, dismissed his brother’s naïveté, and said he wanted to see greater things despite the risks of returning.

Barin saw the war between the Holy Cross Kingdom and the Locke Kingdom as a chance to earn merit, while Duke Fernandes warned his commanders to watch Earl Connor. Duke Fernandes then launched a broad offensive, and a Holy Cross Kingdom regiment attacked Boke Town.

• Barin welcomed the prospect of a prolonged war, while Earl Connor worried about his descendants’ safety and warned him that Duke Fernandes and the Northern Duke were plotting.
• Duke Fernandes ordered troops near the Connor Family’s territory to monitor Earl Connor for unusual moves.
• Duke Fernandes assembled an army of two hundred thousand and began attacks intended to reclaim territory and wear down the opposing forces.
• A Holy Cross Kingdom infantry regiment carrying eight cannons marched toward Boke Town and rushed to meet its two o’clock attack deadline.
• The regiment bombarded Boke Town, exchanged artillery fire with the defenders, and then sent an infantry battalion forward to fight in skirmish lines.

The Northern Duchy’s Staff Department analyzed Duke Fernandes’s probing attacks and devised a counterattack plan, which General Man Niu approved with orders to keep the main force in place. The next day, Fernandes’s elite troops attacked towns they believed were weakly defended, only to find the defenders prepared and modestly reinforced.

• Holy Cross forces and Northern Duchy troops fought low-intensity battles across the eastern front, with little movement and limited casualties.
• The Northern Duchy formed a temporary command headquarters under Man Niu, and its Staff Department identified Fernandes’s probing strategy and likely attack points.
• The Staff Department completed a counterattack plan, and Man Niu approved it while accepting the chief of staff’s advice not to move the main force.
• Fernandes spent the night refining his plan using limited battlefield reports.
• The next day, Fernandes’s elite units intensified attacks on towns thought to lack reinforcements, but Northern Duchy defenders had anticipated the assaults and received support from nearby towns.

The Holy Cross Kingdom’s intensified assaults inflicted heavy losses on the Northern Duchy, but its troops were repeatedly repelled at key positions. After Northern Duchy headquarters ordered a nighttime withdrawal from Boke Town and other posts, the Holy Cross Kingdom broke through the weakened front and reclaimed territory.

• Holy Cross Kingdom forces attacked with increased numbers and firepower, but Northern Duchy defenders repelled their assaults at several breakthrough points.
• Fernandez concluded that the Northern Duchy’s manpower was its weakness and decided to expend the noble coalition and church army rather than spare casualties.
• At Boke Town, the Northern Duchy battalion commander fought off fanatical Holy Cross soldiers as his regiment dwindled to fewer than six hundred men.
• The regimental commander ordered his officers to withdraw from Boke Town that night despite their protests, insisting they obey headquarters.
• The Holy Cross Kingdom found Boke Town abandoned the next day, and similar withdrawals and overrun positions opened a gap in the Northern Duchy’s front.
• Holy Cross Kingdom forces broke apart the front line and reclaimed part of their lost territory.

After the Holy Cross Kingdom reclaimed territory, Duke Fernandes’s victory weakened the Northern Duchy’s aura of invincibility and stirred political maneuvering across the region. As the Griffin Kingdom and its nobles secretly built up their forces, the war economy boomed and even Derek found himself profiting.

• The Holy Cross Kingdom celebrated its victory, while Duke Fernandes remained wary and let the Northern Duchy withdraw without pursuing it.
• Man Niu lamented that the cautious retreat had foiled his planned ambushes and worried that he would bear the blame for the defeat.
• Corison urged Earl Connor to prepare to side with the rising Kingdom, but Earl Connor dismissed him and sent Barin to act amid the Northern Duchy’s setback.
• The Griffin Kingdom covertly turned soldiers into Mercenaries, leased warships to Prince Radick, and arranged for Count Andre to seize and lease a port to the Northern Duchy.
• The Church, royal family, and nobles expanded their military strength, driving a boom in weapons production and trade that left Derek making a profit from the war.