Chapter Summaries

Prince Charlie seized the Lionheart Kingdom’s throne by killing the Lionheart Queen and announcing reforms that opened the kingdom to Great Xia’s influence. Meanwhile, Derek approved plans for a lunar Spaceport and expanded the Empire’s Transcendent forces to support its growing space program.

• Prince Charlie took the crown and shot the Lionheart Queen, then declared the start of his reign to the shocked nobles.
• King Charlie announced parliamentary reforms, pardoned Haman’s Freedom Revolutionary Army, planned a new military, and opened tariffs to Great Xia.
• The Lionheart Kingdom’s coup disrupted the Western Continent, while its open market funneled resources into the Great Xia Empire.
• The Transcendent Research Institute proposed building a multifunctional Spaceport beyond the moon after gathering data through lunar missions.
• Derek approved the Spaceport plan, expanded the Transcendent forces, and ordered development of a cheaper, mass-producible Angel Mecha replacement.

Derek held the first large-scale Transcendent Knight ceremony at Heaven Base, awakening reserve knights and assigning them to roles across the growing Empire. Mark, a mental-type Transcendent who had hoped to become a knight, became a construction foreman at the Lunar Spaceport and piloted a Soldier Mecha.

• The Empire transported selected reserve knights to Heaven Base and briefed them on the base's rules.
• Derek granted the reserve knights Transcendent Power, and they pledged loyalty to the Empire.
• The new Transcendents registered their abilities and chose work paths, with many assigned to help build the Spaceport.
• Mark joined the Spaceport construction force as a foreman after his mental-type ability ruled out combat service.
• Mark piloted a Soldier Mecha for construction work and watched the Angel Mecha Knights defend the Spaceport from meteors.

The Lunar Spaceport received its first Port Governor, Count Simon, who formally established its government and reorganized its forces. During his tour in an Archangel Mech, Mark saw the new machine and began hoping to pilot one himself.

• Mark noticed an unexpected spaceship approaching the Lunar Spaceport and learned it carried the newly appointed Port Governor.
• Count Simon arrived at the Spaceport, where the Transcendent Knight Mecha unit welcomed him.
• Simon established the Lunar Spaceport Government by imperial order and reorganized the Angel Mecha unit into the Lunar Guard.
• Simon toured the Spaceport in an Archangel Mech, and Mark saw it and began looking forward to wearing one.

Simon established the Lunar Spaceport’s first monthly rest leave after Mark advised him that construction workers were nearing their limits. After Mark returned from visiting his family, the Spaceport announced a first wave of immigration for technical specialists and students, giving Mark’s younger brother a possible path toward becoming a Transcendent Knight.

• Mark told Simon that his mental abilities had eased his team’s anxiety and advised him to give construction workers time off.
• Simon sought Derek’s approval, then issued Order No. 0001 establishing a week of monthly rest leave for construction personnel.
• Mark returned home and learned that his younger brother wanted to leave school and join the military to become a Transcendent Knight.
• The Lunar Spaceport announced plans to recruit technical specialists and students to develop local industries and train reserve knights.
• Mark contacted his family and urged his younger brother to take the Spaceport’s student exam, while other families began considering immigration opportunities.

Mark helped receive and settle the Spaceport’s first hundred immigrants, explaining the community and its facilities while showing them the Empire’s supernatural construction team at work. After arranging their accommodations, he returned to a quieter routine as the new arrivals began life at the Spaceport.

• Mark learned that construction personnel and their relatives received certain privileges, but kept the information from his younger brother and focused on preparing the residential community.
• The Spaceport selected its first hundred immigrants from a large pool of qualified candidates, but Mark’s younger brother was not chosen.
• Simon welcomed the immigrants with a meal, then entrusted their arrangements to Mark.
• Mark guided the newcomers around the inner-ring community, explained its services, and showed them mechas building the Spaceport.
• Mark assigned the immigrants government-provided housing, with space allocated according to population and additional room available through roles, honors, or payment.
• After settling the hundred immigrants, Mark relaxed, confident they would adapt without causing trouble.

While surveying the Moon’s far side, Simon and the Space Guard discovered artificial ruins and explored them, finding abandoned supplies, corpses, crosses, and writing resembling Ancient Great Xia Language. Simon sealed the entrance, posted guards, and reported the discovery to Derek as they awaited the Emperor’s orders.

• Simon formed the Space Guard and began surveying the Moon, eventually sending teams to its far side.
• A team reported finding ruins, and Simon ordered everyone to assemble and the communications to be recorded.
• Simon led the knights in cutting through the ruins’ outer wall and used enhanced vision to check for danger.
• The group found an abandoned residential area containing corpses, supplies, metal crosses, and writing resembling Ancient Great Xia Language.
• Simon ended the exploration, sealed the breach, posted half the Space Guard to guard the site, and reported the discovery to Derek.

Derek punished Simon for concealing information, then granted him a lunar Fief for his survey work. After ruins were discovered, Derek increased the Empire’s investment in the Lunar Spaceport and adjusted its plans to account for potential dangers.

• Derek ordered half of Simon’s Fief reclaimed for concealing information, then read Simon’s detailed report and granted him a lunar Fief.
• Derek ordered preparations for the Lunar Spaceport and increased supplies and personnel as Mark prepared for the expected expansion.
• Derek arrived at the Spaceport, scolded Simon for taking risks, and promised to increase the Empire’s investment and accelerate development.
• Simon questioned whether the Empire could afford the added expense, and Derek said resources would be shifted from elsewhere and the Western Continent could suffer more.

Derek approved plans to expand the Transcendent Research Institute into a bureau and establish a research base for studying the Moon Ruins. Researchers surveyed the ruins, found evidence of a violent evacuation, and began deciphering its inscriptions while delaying activation of the base until it could be studied safely.

• Simon agreed to accommodate the Transcendent Research Bureau and its research facilities in the Spaceport’s planned research zone.
• Tru gathered experts from several fields and proposed sending powered-armored researchers to survey the ruins and building a base around the site.
• Derek told Tru that the civilization behind God posed a greater concern than God’s identity, reassuring the scholars when Tru relayed his words.
• Transcendent Researchers mapped the underground base and found advanced alloy walls, disabled systems, weapons, corpses, and a spacecraft destroyed to prevent its occupants from escaping.
• The Transcendent Construction Team began building a protective base on the Moon, while researchers transported artifacts to the Spaceport and linguists started deciphering the ruins’ inscriptions.
• Researchers discovered a method to activate the base but decided to postpone doing so until they had thoroughly studied the ruins.

Tru reported the researchers’ findings about the alien ruins, and Derek ordered them dismantled for study rather than activated. He then asked Tru to discuss future warfare, leaving the question of how Great Xia should fight open.

• Tru told Derek that the researchers had found little written material, linked the alien script to ancient writing, and recommended studying the ruins in stages without supplying them with energy.
• Tru reported that a spacecraft had vanished from the ruins and that the Holy Cross Kingdom’s royal family might descend from or have inherited from the aliens.
• Derek asked whether Fernandez I had been found, then ordered the Investigation Bureau to search the former territory of the Holy Cross Kingdom for traces of him.
• Derek approved the researchers’ cautious plan and refused to take risks to learn more about the ruins.
• Tru requested continued resources for space battleships and stronger Transcendent Mechs, then described possible forms of future warfare.
• Derek asked Tru what Great Xia’s own form of warfare would be.

Tru secured limited Imperial resources for Transcendent research after explaining how Transcendent Knights and Mechs could change warfare. As the Spaceport grew, Mark visited his younger brother Hadige at a military school and learned that the first students would receive more favorable assessments.

• Tru argued that Transcendent Knights and Mechs could infiltrate enemy territory and make wars too costly to sustain, and Derek approved allocating them some resources.
• Mark handled the growing workload as immigration to the Spaceport increased, and learned that his brother Hadige had passed the screening examination.
• Mark piloted his Soldier Mecha to Hadige's community, then took a rail train to the Military School to visit him without warning.
• Teacher Lacey welcomed Mark and said the school's first students would receive easier assessments, giving Hadige a strong chance to pass.

Mark settled Hadige into the Spaceport school and learned that Teacher Lacey had befriended him in hopes of securing housing in Mark's community. After visiting his brother and meeting his roommates, Mark left impressed by how quickly the Spaceport was developing.

• Teacher Lacey explained that he had applied for a residence in Mark's community and asked Mark to help if anything came up with Hadige.
• Mark met Hadige at the school dormitory, where his brother was overjoyed to see him.
• Mark promised to take Hadige and his roommates on a spaceship tour during a future holiday.
• Mark learned that Hadige's three roommates came from minor noble families and were pioneers with little support in space.
• Mark ate with the students, then left the school and remarked on the Spaceport's rapid development.

Mark attended a meeting where Governor Simon formally appointed Spaceport officials and established the Public Security Bureau and community Security Posts. After learning he had been appointed, Mark welcomed his community’s new Security Post head and offered a central site for the post, while warning that the community had no funds to provide an immediate subsidy.

• Mark arrived at the Governor’s Mansion and learned from Ross that the meeting would establish community committees, appoint officials, and create Security Posts.
• Governor Simon announced the first-level government appointments, and Mark heard his name and received a rank.
• Simon established the Lunar Spaceport Public Security Bureau and appointed heads for the community Security Posts.
• Mark returned home as the community committee’s effective director, and the next morning the new Security Post head reported to him.
• Mark showed the post head a central location he had reserved for a custom Security Post and explained that the community could not yet provide funding.

Mark oversaw Community One’s transition into Dawn Community, including the opening of its Security Post and the transfer of policing from the Space Guard. Once his administrative workload eased, he rented a spaceship to take Hadige and three classmates on a trip, encouraging his brother to work toward joining the Space Guard.

• Mark discussed the Security Post’s future funding needs with its newly appointed chief and arranged for the post to be built.
• Community One was officially renamed Dawn Community, and its Security Post began patrolling with Modified Type-1 Security Mechas before later taking over policing from the Space Guard.
• As Dawn Community’s immigrant population and administrative demands grew, Mark worked to establish its government mechanisms and finally found time to honor his promise to Hadige.
• Mark rented a spaceship under Count Simon’s name and flew to a Spaceport near the military academy to pick up Hadige and three classmates.
• Hadige excitedly said he wanted to buy a spaceship after graduation, and Mark urged him to work hard and join the Space Guard.

Mark took his younger brother and the others on a two-day tour of the Moon Base, a Meteorite Belt, and the Spaceport, using the trip to inspire them to pursue careers in space. After returning his brother to school, Mark went back to Dawn Community to work as a new wave of immigrants arrived.

• Mark and his companions visited a lunar survey base, where Kozakin welcomed them, hosted a meal, and arranged a tour of mineral collection work.
• Mark led the group through a nearby Meteorite Belt and piloted a Soldier Mecha to destroy several meteorite fragments, encouraging Hadige and the others to aspire to join the Space Guard.
• The group toured the Spaceport, saw its expanding construction and arriving immigrant ships, and heard Mark urge them to work hard in their era of space exploration.
• Mark returned his younger brother to school, returned the spaceship, and went back to Dawn Community to begin another round of work.

The Investigation Bureau tracked Fernandez I to a hidden spacecraft, forcing him and Antoine to transmit a signal and flee. After agents uncovered the craft, Derek learned that the Holy Cross Royal Family possessed a spacecraft, though its interior remained unexplored.

• The Investigation Bureau identified Fernandez I as a high-priority suspect, and Antoine urged him to choose a course of action before they were found.
• Fernandez I pressed the signal transmission button, then decided he and Antoine had to leave immediately.
• The Investigation Bureau traced Fernandez I’s routes to a karst cave and discovered statues, a concealed spacecraft hatch, and signs that the craft had been used.
• Derek questioned whether the report was true, and Director Peter confirmed that agents had found a small spacecraft but had not yet entered it.

Derek ordered the Great Xia Empire to investigate the Holy Cross Kingdom’s discovered spaceship while continuing the search for Fernandez I. At the wreck, Knight Burdett confronted evidence that challenged the old Church of God, but reaffirmed his plan to build a New Church.

• Derek accepted that the Holy Cross Kingdom’s Sacred Sanctuary was a spaceship and sent a team to take it over while ordering the search for Fernandez I to continue.
• The Ruins Institute traveled from the Lunar Spaceport through Heaven Base to the spaceship in Hansen County, where researchers began surveying it.
• Knight Burdett learned the Sacred Sanctuary had been found and traveled to Hansen County with Michel, who worried that the discovery might shatter Burdett’s faith.
• The institute’s team breached the spaceship with a Transcendent Mech and translated a Bronze Book that claimed God had been a mortal who died on the cross.
• Knight Burdett read the translation in silence and said that if this was God, it would be better for the true God to rule mortals.

After God’s origins shattered Knight Burdett’s faith, he and Michel proposed creating a New Church centered on humanity’s search for life beyond Earth. Derek approved their plan, and Michel traveled to the Spaceport to begin working with the Transcendent Mech Design Institute.

• Knight Burdett’s faith collapsed, and Michel steadied him by arguing that humanity could create its own heaven beyond the planet.
• Burdett suggested that life might exist on other planets, inspiring him and Michel to devise a New Church god-creation plan.
• Derek approved their proposal, granting them resources, authority to recruit Transcendent Knights, and cooperation from the Transcendent Mech Design Institute.
• Burdett set out to recruit like-minded Monastery Knights while Michel traveled to the Spaceport.
• Michel passed inspection at the Spaceport and boarded an internal aircraft bound for the Transcendent Mech Design Institute.

Michel met with Steve to discuss designing a mech for the New Church, and they agreed to adapt the Soldier Mecha around a unified balance of aesthetics and performance. Michel returned to his villa in Dawn Community, where Mark observed from a distance and saw a mecha take up guard outside.

• Michel passed through strict security to meet Steve at the Transcendent Mech Design Institute.
• Steve asked about the mech’s purpose, and Michel explained that the New Church would use faith to govern future extraterrestrial colonies and wanted a consistent visual style without sacrificing performance.
• Steve proposed developing the new mech on the Soldier Mecha’s base platform, and he and Michel agreed the institute would prepare a design for the New Church.
• Michel declined to stay at the institute and returned to his villa in Dawn Community.
• Mark watched the villa from afar, then went home after seeing a mecha take up guard behind its gate.

Michel organized the New Church around its new Transcendent Knights, rewarding their loyalty with opportunities for their descendants and assigning Burdett to recruit priests and knights. As Michel traveled to Knight Academies to select candidates, Mark watched the church’s busy headquarters and its newly acquired mechas.

• Burdett persuaded ten Transcendent Knights to join the New Church, bringing its total to eleven Mecha Knights, and proposed testing its model on the New Continent; Michel refused to avoid causing trouble on the mainland.
• Michel put Burdett in charge of recruiting elite knights and priests, while reserving part of the Transcendent Knight recommendations for the New Church’s needs and promising loyal members’ descendants a chance to compete.
• The Transcendent Knights welcomed Michel’s promise, and the New Church’s core members began recruiting priests and selecting reserve talents.
• Burdett searched for priests, while Michel traveled between Knight Academies with Transcendent Knights to assess candidates.
• Mark observed the New Church’s headquarters as the Security Post chief increased patrols around the building and tried to establish a connection.

Maple Leaf Mining discovered a star chart and coordinates left behind by its founder and prepared a fleet to investigate them. Meanwhile, Michel tried to recruit students for the New Church at the Lunar Spaceport, but the Military School barred him from contacting candidates before their assessments.

• A signal delivered a star chart and coordinates to Maple Leaf Mining's abandoned base, and the stationed employee reported the discovery to his family.
• Maple Leaf Mining's leadership verified the information, decided the signal likely posed little danger, and approved a fleet to explore the coordinates.
• Michel received a polite rejection from the Transcendent Knight Academy because its students had better prospects and the New Church offered little appeal.
• Michel approached a Military School and learned that it would only let him select unsuccessful candidates after the Transcendent Knight Academy had priority.
• Michel asked whether he could recruit students who made mistakes during assessments, but the school leader prohibited him from contacting students in advance.