Chapter Summaries

Charlotte took Anne shopping in Alexander District, then found Princess Mei waiting at his home and asking about two novels he had invented. Anne offered to have the stories transcribed and published, leaving Charlotte relieved and unaware that she planned to add a happier ending for one of them.

• Charlotte and Anne spent fifty-two écus on luxury goods in Alexander District, with Anne paying for everything.
• Princess Mei visited Charlotte at Baker Street 221B and asked where she could find the two books he had mentioned.
• Charlotte claimed he had read the books in the Duchy of Behemoth, and Princess Mei left intending to search there.
• Charlotte confessed to Anne that he had invented the novels to appease Princess Mei, a novel fanatic.
• Anne offered to hire Fast-Handed Clerks to transcribe Charlotte's stories and arrange for their publication.
• Anne decided she would commission an extra chapter so Duwei and Prince Chen could live happily ever after.

Charlotte’s novels were published under Anne Mecklen’s pen name while he memorized manuscripts, then he joined Kreil Brittany’s expedition and traveled to Machu Picchu to retrieve the West Wind Knight Regiment. He found the city thriving, with its population nearly twenty thousand after Ross Bard moved his family and merchants there.

• Charlotte recited thousands of words each day, and Anne published his novels under the pen name Anne Mecklen.
• Kreil Brittany arrived after settling military matters, and Charlotte packed to join the expedition with a team of clerks and horses prepared by Anne.
• Charlotte traveled with Kreil Brittany’s main army for a day, then received permission to go to Machu Picchu and bring back the West Wind Knight Regiment.
• Charlotte returned to Machu Picchu with Dorothy and his companions, where the residents welcomed him enthusiastically.
• Ross Bard explained that he had moved his family and merchants to Machu Picchu and helped raise its population to nearly twenty thousand.

Charlotte joined Kreil Brittany’s forces and met Menilman at Silver Doveburg, where Princess Mei suddenly appeared and challenged her. Menilman revealed that she had reached Saint Rank, and the two women began a spectacular aerial duel.

• Charlotte brought just over two thousand battle-hardened warriors from Machu Picchu to join Kreil Brittany’s army, leaving Dorothy and Belisa behind.
• At Silver Doveburg, Kreil Brittany gave Menilman supplies and laborers, and Charlotte offered her help if she passed through Cappadocia City.
• Princess Mei arrived, alarming Kreil Brittany and Abner Sumay, then confronted Menilman while Charlotte learned that she had come looking for two novels he had mentioned.
• Menilman accepted Princess Mei’s challenge and revealed her Saint Rank strength through the Dark Breathing Technique and Black Moon Goddess Meditation Technique.
• Princess Mei and Menilman clashed in the sky, their pink battle aura and dark, moonlit aura filling the air as Charlotte watched from below.

Menilman Soumei and Princess Mei fought an hours-long duel that revealed both women to be powerful Saint Rank experts, while Charlotte and the others watched. After Menilman departed, Charlotte learned Baron Filer had abandoned Silver Doveburg, and Kreil Brittany placed the baron’s Knight Order under Anastasia’s command.

• Kreil Brittany and Abner Soumei recognized that Princess Mei had created her own battle qi and that Menilman Soumei had concealed her strength for years.
• Charlotte, Anastasia, Kreil Brittany, Abner Soumei, and Charlotte’s subordinates watched Menilman and Princess Mei battle in the sky for several hours.
• After the duel, Menilman greeted Kreil Brittany, Abner Soumei, and Charlotte, then silently led her party onward.
• Charlotte learned Baron Filer had left Silver Doveburg to ask the Empress for another territory, leaving his Knight Order behind.
• Kreil Brittany requisitioned Baron Filer’s Knight Order and placed it under Anastasia’s command.

Kreil Brittany marched on Mostarburg to take control of Grand Duke Joseph's Knight Order, while Charlotte returned to Silver Doveburg to compensate residents for wartime taxes. At Mostarburg's military camp, Charlotte blasted open the gates after its leaders ignored his demands.

• Kreil Brittany replenished his troops at Silver Doveburg, and Charlotte distributed compensation to residents, sparking interest in moving to Machu Picchu.
• Kreil Brittany headed for Mostarburg to seize Grand Duke Joseph's Knight Order and consolidate his power in the Duchy of Behemoth.
• Kreil Brittany entered Mostarburg and dismissed the nobles fighting over power, then ordered Charlotte to summon the Knight Order's leaders.
• Charlotte and Anastasia went to the military camp, where Charlotte demanded that its three captains meet Kreil Brittany.
• When the camp gave no response, Charlotte fired a Demon-Breaking Armor-Piercing Bullet from Bloody Glory and blasted apart the gates.

Charlotte went to the Mostarburg Knight Order to deliver Kreil Brittany’s message, but after the order ignored him, he destroyed its camp gate and fought Azure Knight Enzo. Charlotte defeated Enzo with House of Asilo’s lance technique, Folding Space, and left him unwilling to continue.

• Charlotte found that the masterless Mostarburg Knight Order ignored his call from outside its camp.
• Charlotte blasted apart the camp gates, prompting Azure Knight Enzo to ride out and challenge him.
• Charlotte told Anastasia to move away, then used Mountain Breaker and House of Asilo’s lance art against Enzo.
• Charlotte feinted Enzo into an upward thrust, changed direction in midair, and smashed him and his horse to the ground, killing the horse.
• Enzo accused Charlotte of a sneak attack, but after seeing his technique, he did not dare fight again.

After defeating Green Knight Enzo, Charlotte invited the Mostarburg Knight Order’s captains to meet with Kreil about sending troops, then reflected with Anastasia on the devastation war had brought to Behemoth and Nansera. He promised to help her recover her mother’s body so she could bury her at Silver Doveburg.

• Charlotte defeated Green Knight Enzo and entered the Mostarburg Knight Order’s camp while Anastasia stayed outside.
• Charlotte told Blood Knight Diak and the other captains that Kreil Brittany had summoned them to discuss dispatching troops, and they agreed to meet Kreil.
• Charlotte left the political meeting to look over Mostarburg’s walls and considered how the war could end Behemoth’s independence and erase Nansera Territory.
• Anastasia asked Charlotte whether Behemoth and Nansera would ever find peace, and Charlotte said peace might come in a form not everyone could accept.
• Anastasia asked Charlotte to help bring back her mother so she could bury her at Silver Doveburg, and Charlotte promised to do his best.

Kreil Brittany reorganized the Mostarburg Knight Order and left to attack Nansera Territory, entrusting Charlotte with the rear. Charlotte then learned that Mostarburg would undergo Labyrinthization, which required him to collect taxes eighteen times, and gathered the city’s nobles to discuss the ducal residence.

• Kreil Brittany won the Mostarburg Knight Order’s support, split it into three new Knight Orders, and transferred strong soldiers to the Purple Finch and Maple Leaf Knight Orders.
• Kreil left Mostarburg with five Knight Orders to attack Nansera Territory and ordered Charlotte to guard the rear and gather the remnants of two other Knight Orders.
• Charlotte’s diary announced that he had gained temporary rule over Mostarburg and had to complete eighteen tax collections without leaving to place the sixth labyrinth.
• Charlotte summoned Mostarburg’s nobles to discuss ownership of the ducal residence, drawing together hundreds of local nobles.

Charlotte auctioned the two dukes’ possessions in Mostarburg, completing two Labyrinthizations before leaving the city. He then split up with Anastasia and headed to his hometown of Seagull City, where he worried she might hear rumors about his past.

• Charlotte persuaded Mostarburg’s nobles to auction the duke’s residence and other possessions, promising to distribute the proceeds among them.
• The auctions completed Mostarburg’s first and second Labyrinthizations, and the diary granted Charlotte passages to Machu Picchu, Silver Doveburg, and Cappadocia City.
• Charlotte left the remaining auctions to the local nobles and took the West Wind Knight Regiment and Silver Doveburg Knight Order to gather two barons’ knight orders.
• Charlotte suggested that Anastasia go to Mount Oude City while he traveled to Seagull City, and she agreed.
• Charlotte worried that old acquaintances in his hometown might tell Anastasia about his romantic rumors.

Charlotte challenged Seagull City’s Knight Captain Freeman Martin after Freeman had humiliated Dobbin and Yellow Bear, then defeated him without serious injury. As Freeman retreated, Charlotte decided to write a novel about him under the pen name Angry Bunana.

• Charlotte learned that Freeman Martin had ordered Dobbin and Yellow Bear shaved bald, and he shot a challenge letter into Seagull City rather than attack it.
• Freeman Martin emerged from the city and charged Charlotte, who recognized him from his past in Seagull City.
• Charlotte dismounted and defeated Freeman Martin repeatedly with his Knight’s Lance, despite Freeman’s rage and Transcendent strength.
• Freeman Martin cursed Charlotte and was helped back into Seagull City by his soldiers.
• Charlotte planned to write a novel starring Freeman Ximen Qing Martin and publish it under the pen name Angry Bunana.

Charlotte met with his brother Mycroft Mecklen and insisted that Baron Valentin obey the order to transfer the Knight Order out of Seagull City. After Dobbin reported that Valentin’s troops were approaching, Charlotte prepared an ambush and offered rewards to anyone who surrendered or captured the baron.

• Mycroft Mecklen visited Charlotte to ask him to withdraw his troops under Baron Valentin’s orders, but Charlotte refused and said he was following Emperor Julius Axel’s command.
• Charlotte urged Mycroft to stay for dinner, gave him gifts and a carriage for the family, and sent him back to Seagull City.
• Charlotte sent Dobbin and men to patrol the area, and Dobbin returned to warn that a force from Seagull City was marching toward the camp.
• Charlotte withdrew half the Knight Order to set an ambush as Baron Valentin led several hundred soldiers toward the camp.
• Baron Valentin promised his soldiers one Centime for victory, and Charlotte countered by offering twenty Centimes to anyone who surrendered and one hundred Écu to whoever captured Valentin alive.

Charlotte captured Baron Valentin’s forces and recognized Yang Melianne, the younger brother of his childhood sweetheart, Talia. After warning Yang that Valentin might retaliate, Charlotte watched him leave with his gang and was overcome by grief for the life Talia’s death had changed.

• Charlotte’s West Wind Knight Regiment surrounded Baron Valentin’s troops, and many surrendered after seeing the guns and the promised reward.
• Yang Melianne and his companions seized Baron Valentin and brought him to Charlotte, who recognized Yang from Charlotte Mecklen’s memories.
• Charlotte spoke privately with Yang and learned that Talia Melianne was buried at the Dark Goddess’s temple outside Seagull City.
• Charlotte warned Yang that Valentin might seek revenge, but Yang said his gang planned to leave and make something of themselves.
• After Yang departed, Charlotte remembered his childhood with Talia and struggled to contain his grief.

Charlotte ransomed Baron Valentin, returned to Silver Doveburg with Anastasia, and learned that Kreil Brittany had conquered most of South Seraph but needed extensive supplies. Charlotte was left considering Kreil’s request.

• Charlotte demanded ten thousand écus for Baron Valentin and left Freeman Martin to negotiate with the Baroness.
• Freeman Martin returned with word that the Baroness would negotiate in person, and Charlotte departed with his Knight Order.
• Charlotte and Anastasia returned to Silver Doveburg, where Anastasia laid her mother’s body to rest in an ancient temple.
• Anastasia reflected on her divided loyalties and found peace in accepting her Farsian identity and future.
• Charlotte received Kreil Brittany’s report that he had captured seven or eight cities and needed food and supplies for his army and the occupied Madame Nanseras.
• Charlotte considered the large amount of supplies Kreil had requested.

Charlotte gathered supplies by selling spoils of war, then received a temporary appointment overseeing five major cities in Behemoth. While hunting outside Silver Doveburg, he spotted an assassin targeting him and pursued the attacker.

• Yang waited for Charlotte at Lady Black Moon's temple for more than ten days, then left with a group of boys to search for him in Strasbourg.
• Charlotte sold maps marking the spoils of war in Nansera Territory to Behemoth's nobles, sending supplies to Kreil Brittany's front lines and the surplus to Machu Picchu.
• Kreil Brittany and Abner Sumay were astonished by the shipment, and Kreil wrote to Strasbourg after deciding Charlotte was still needed to manage supplies in the rear.
• A team from Strasbourg appointed Charlotte temporary Administrator Chief of Mostarburg, Bibury City, Seagull City, Silver Doveburg, and Mount Oude City.
• Charlotte stayed in Silver Doveburg and went hunting with Dobbin, Yellow Bear, and Anastasia, lending her Cat's Mask after she struggled to shoot a wild boar.
• Charlotte detected a rifle-wielding assassin firing at him, deflected the bullet with Unicorn Vulture, and leapt from his saddle to pursue the attacker.

Charlotte learned that a Horse King Tribe Orc Assassin expected a large Orc army to invade Strasbourg, then prepared Silver Doveburg for the threat. The Orc army surrounded the city in the morning, and after Charlotte activated Labyrinthization, its first probing attack failed before a force of more than a hundred Over-the-Back Red Bear Warriors began a second assault.

• Charlotte fought the Orc Assassin, who revealed that the Orc army would invade Strasbourg and then escaped using Ten Thousand Miles Like Wind.
• Anastasia identified the assassin as a Horse King Tribe warrior, and Charlotte decided to send the invasion warning to Strasbourg and Kreil Brittany.
• Charlotte returned to Silver Doveburg, where Dobbin reported that tens of thousands of Orcs had surrounded the city.
• Charlotte activated Labyrinthization and used the West Wind Knight Regiment to repel the Orcs' first probing attack.
• The Orc army launched a second attack less than half an hour later, this time sending more than a hundred Over-the-Back Red Bear Warriors.

Charlotte defended Silver Doveburg from repeated orc assaults, transformed captured orcs into Labyrinth Guardians, and advanced to ninth-order Transcendent. After the orc army appeared to retreat, an Orc Assassin ambushed him, and Charlotte launched a rapid counterattack.

• Charlotte killed several Over-the-Back Red Bear Warriors with his rifle and lance before the West Wind Knight Regiment helped repel the attackers.
• After Silver Doveburg completed its third Labyrinthization, Charlotte transformed more than a hundred captured orc warriors into Labyrinth Guardians and broke through to ninth-order Transcendent.
• Charlotte rallied Silver Doveburg’s defenders, then lured the orcs into the Labyrinthized city and repelled their assaults repeatedly.
• When the orc army began retreating toward Mostarburg, an Orc Assassin attacked Charlotte with a spiked mace.
• Charlotte blocked the mace with Mountain Breaker and countered with twenty-eight rapid thrusts.

Charlotte saved Silver Doveburg from the three Saint Rank Orc Shaman Mages by hiding the city and its residents in its labyrinth layers. He then left for Strasbourg disguised among five Transcendent Over-the-Back Red Bear Warriors, alarmed by the vast number of orc armies he encountered.

• After the Orc Assassin failed to kill Charlotte, three Saint Rank Orc Shaman Mages unleashed a gale that buried Silver Doveburg beneath sand and dust.
• Charlotte restored Silver Doveburg by revealing the city after hiding its residents and the destroyed city in its labyrinth layers.
• Charlotte asked Anastasia to guard Silver Doveburg and set out for Strasbourg with five Transcendent Over-the-Back Red Bear Warriors.
• Charlotte encountered at least five immense orc armies and disguised himself as an orc to blend in with their ranks.
• The orc vanguard briefly clashed with Strasbourg's Royal Knight Regiment before both sides withdrew.

Charlotte struggled to turn the orc army into Labyrinth Guardians and learned that Agmilas’s labyrinth power was limited, especially against ordinary Transcendents. He left Machu Picchu with the Guardians to witness the war at Strasbourg, leaving Dorothy and Belisa to defend the hidden city.

• Charlotte tried to corrupt orc warriors into Labyrinth Guardians, but larger groups and stronger Transcendents resisted the transformation.
• Dorothy warned Charlotte against relying on Agmilas’s Fel Energy, while Charlotte reflected on how his predecessor’s choices had left him on a dark path.
• As the orc armies departed Machu Picchu, Charlotte discovered that NPC markers wore away and concluded that labyrinth power was less reliable than he had believed.
• Belisa reflected on how much happier she was in Machu Picchu than in Grand Duchess Joseph’s service.
• Charlotte took his transformed orc Guardians to witness the war at Strasbourg and asked Dorothy and Belisa to protect Machu Picchu with the West Wind Knight Regiment.
• Dorothy watched Charlotte leave and said that war was truly terrifying.

Charlotte stayed with the orc army outside Strasbourg, unable to warn the besieged capital about the Shaman Mages preparing to bury it. When Shanda Tribe wolfmen brought human prisoners to serve as food, Charlotte intervened after they brutalized a captive woman and led his warriors into battle.

• Charlotte realized that at least twelve to fifteen Saint Rank orc Shaman Mages intended to bury Strasbourg, but the sealed gates left him no way to warn the city.
• A Shanda Tribe force arrived with nearly a thousand human prisoners, whom Charlotte recognized as the orcs’ intended food.
• Charlotte heard fighting and found wolfmen beating a badly injured female prisoner who had killed more than twenty of their warriors.
• Charlotte claimed the woman, killed the wolfman who threatened him with a thrust from Mountain Breaker, and ordered his warriors to attack.
• Charlotte’s warriors struck the Shanda Tribe force, and the elderly wolfman leader was killed before he could raise an alarm.

Charlotte rescued Sophia Garland and a group of Sheffield University students from the Shanda Tribe, then led them away from the orc armies. After revealing that he was a Sheffield alumnus posing as a civil servant, Charlotte was recognized as the man who had run off with Gorgia University's West Wind Goddess.

• Charlotte defeated the Shanda Tribe's wolfmen, freed the human captives, and agreed to let the one-armed Sophia Garland fight alongside him.
• Most of the freed captives left, but Sophia and more than ten Sheffield University students stayed with Charlotte, who led them away from the orc armies.
• Sophia explained that the students had been captured while searching for a medicinal herb near Strasbourg, after an encounter with orcs killed nearly half their classmates.
• Charlotte told Sophia that he had graduated from Sheffield University and explained that his orc subordinates were Blood Puppets made with the Spirit Spider Technique.
• Charlotte gave Sophia his name, Charlot Mecklenburg, and a golden-haired student recognized him as the man who had run off with Gorgia University's West Wind Goddess.