Chapter Summaries

Charlotte and Hughes continued honing their skills through repeated Dreamscape duels while Nanny Karen discovered that a hidden Saint Rank Transcendence had joined Madame Nansera’s camp. After returning to Silver Doveburg, Charlotte agreed to leave for Interlaken City to save Grand Duke Joseph.

• Charlotte comprehended the seventh Angelic Movement, All Things Obscured, and continued dueling Hughes, who grew stronger and defeated him in every round.
• Nanny Karen realized that another Saint Rank Transcendence was concealed in Madame Nansera’s camp and suspected the newcomer was a vampire from Byron.
• Hughes and Charlotte awoke and separately vowed to defeat each other if they met in reality; Charlotte had also mastered Blazing Corrosion and Dark Corrosion.
• Belisa pleaded with Charlotte to save Grand Duke Joseph, warning that he could no longer hold out.
• Charlotte agreed to leave for Interlaken City the following day.

Charlotte learned that Silver Doveburg had completed its Labyrinthization, allowing him to leave and giving him access to a hidden overlap between the city and Machu Picchu. As he prepared for other duties, Frederica said goodbye because the southern orcs had joined Byron’s alliance, and Charlotte received an unexpected group from Strasbourg.

• Charlotte explained that Silver Doveburg’s completed Labyrinthization had created a hidden connection with Machu Picchu and allowed the city to undergo a second Labyrinthization later.
• Charlotte decided to leave Silver Doveburg after learning another Saint Rank had joined the South Seraph Restoration Army and that his military reward would arrive the next day.
• Frederica told Charlotte that the southern orcs had joined Byron’s New Order Treaty International Alliance, then accepted twenty Écus and left Fars.
• Dorothy asked Charlotte what to do with Frederica’s combat squad, and Charlotte told her to take command while he arranged an expansion of the force.
• The next morning, a group arrived from Strasbourg, including Louis Smythe and Ross Bard.

Baron Filer arrived to take possession of Silver Doveburg, unaware that Charlotte had prepared the city through Labyrinthization and planned to exploit the new lord’s wealth. After Filer settled in, the labyrinth converted him into an NPC, but Archpriest Augsladin resisted conversion as a Saint Rank.

• Charlotte welcomed Baron Filer and his lavish delegation, then flattered him and urged him to enter the city safely.
• Baron Filer revealed that Archpriest Augsladin was accompanying him, and Charlotte arranged lodgings for the Archpriest.
• Augsladin asked Charlotte to arrange a young, beautiful virgin man as his guard, and Charlotte thought of Huse.
• Baron Filer entered Silver Doveburg and declared that he would rule the city as he pleased.
• The labyrinth converted Baron Filer into an NPC, but Augsladin’s conversion failed because he was a Saint Rank.

Charlot accepted a special decree granting him a five-member Private Knight Regiment and an estate, then left Silver Doveburg for the front lines with his troops. Baron Filer discovered that the city’s wealth and property had vanished into debt, while Louis Smythe and Ross Bard followed Charlot uneasily.

• Baron Filer told Charlot Mecklenburg that the Emperor had promoted him, authorized a Private Knight Regiment of up to five members, and ordered him to the front lines.
• Charlot decided to give the three cat cubs he was raising Knight identities and accepted an estate deed bestowed by the Empress.
• Charlot promptly marched out of Silver Doveburg with the West Wind Knight Regiment and the Silver Doveburg Militia.
• Baron Filer entered Doveburg and learned from Butler Datt that Madame Nansera had taken the cash, valuables, and furniture.
• Baron Filer examined Charlot's forged account books, discovered that the properties were mortgaged and the city was deeply in debt, and angrily blamed the former Baron Filer and Madame Nansera.
• Louis Smythe and Ross Bard followed Charlot out of Silver Doveburg and felt uneasy.

Charlotte reorganized his forces and marched toward Machu Picchu, leaving Belisa to report to the Duchess. In Silver Doveburg, Baron Filer discovered that Hughes and the South Seraph Restoration Army had stolen his collected taxes and remaining wealth, deepening his hatred of Madame Nansera.

• Louis Smythe told Charlotte he had used the luxury goods to acquire a detective agency, while Ross Bard regretted betting against Charlotte and abandoning his business partners.
• Charlotte sent Belisa and her guards to report to the Duchess, then expanded his and his allies’ combat squads and incorporated the Silver Doveburg militia into the West Wind Knight Regiment.
• Charlotte led the more than thirteen-thousand-strong West Wind Knight Regiment toward Machu Picchu, leaving Duke Joseph to his fate.
• Baron Filer collected taxes from Silver Doveburg’s resentful residents, then found his treasury empty when he went to count the money.
• Baron Filer discovered Hughes’s message claiming the South Seraph Restoration Army had taken all his wealth, and swore vengeance against Hughes and Madame Nansera.

Charlotte reorganized the West Wind Knight Regiment in Machu Picchu and counted the fortune he had seized from Baron Filer. When an orc squad from the Overback Red Bear Tribe infiltrated the labyrinth, Charlotte confronted them and learned they had come to assassinate Grand Duke Ferdinand.

• Charlotte rested and reorganized the West Wind Knight Regiment in Machu Picchu, where a secret passage to Silver Doveburg secured the regiment’s supplies.
• Charlotte counted roughly 120,000 Écus and more than 40,000 Flor in banknotes taken from Baron Filer and another baron.
• Charlotte sensed an orc party entering Machu Picchu and used the labyrinth to trap and redirect them before they could escape.
• Charlotte confronted the Overback Red Bear Tribe squad, but a powerful warrior attacked him with spiked Meteor Hammers.
• The warrior told Charlotte that the squad had come to assassinate Grand Duke Ferdinand and threatened to kill him because he had discovered them.

Charlotte discovered that the Over-the-Back Red Bear Warriors had arrived too late to assassinate Grand Duke Ferdinand, who had already been killed and buried. He persuaded them he was a Byronian ally and agreed to lead them to Mostarburg after Machu Picchu’s maze was finished, while planning disguises for their journey.

• Charlotte told the Over-the-Back Red Bear Warriors that Grand Duke Ferdinand had been assassinated and that the war had already spread across Fars.
• Great Bear Tyrant doubted Charlotte’s story, but accepted his claim that he was a Byronian after Charlotte demonstrated House of Asilo’s secret art, Colorless Blade.
• Charlotte introduced himself as Qian Nan and claimed he had distant beastman ancestry, winning the warriors’ favor.
• Hundred Bear Chief refused to go to Strasbourg and asked Charlotte to take the group to Mostarburg to see Ferdinand’s corpse.
• Charlotte agreed to guide the warriors after the triple maze of Machu Picchu was completed and proposed disguising them as Demon Hunters.
• Charlotte considered the warriors’ usefulness as a major merit and reflected that his cultivation had slowed after reaching the seventh rank.

Charlotte brought the Over-the-Back Red Bear Warriors to Machu Picchu’s growing market, fed them, and put them up in an abandoned barracks. After considering whether he could recruit them as guards, he abandoned the idea because the orcs were aligned with Byron and their reliability was uncertain.

• Charlotte explained how vampires advanced by condensing Blood Cores and how humans cultivating Bloody Glory differed from true vampires.
• Charlotte led the Over-the-Back Red Bear Warriors to the West Wind Knight Regiment’s tax-free market in Machu Picchu and ordered a feast for them.
• Charlotte summoned Yellow Bear, who had experience disguising orcs as Demon Hunters, and considered how orcs might pass as Demon Hunters.
• The bearfolk ate more than two hundred portions of food and drank heavily before Charlotte kicked them awake and took them to an abandoned barracks.
• Charlotte compared the rough bearfolk with Frederica and the Orc Assassin Alliance, then dismissed the idea of recruiting the warriors as guards.

Baron Filer blamed Hughes the Phantom Thief for the relentless thefts from Dove Castle, while Charlotte waited for Machu Picchu’s third Labyrinthization to finish. He converted eighteen Overback Red Bear Warriors into Labyrinth Guardians and was startled by what he saw when he went to find them.

• Hughes’s escalating thefts drove Baron Filer to purge his staff, flee to Archpriest Augsladin’s residence, and then return to the emptied Dove Castle.
• Charlotte learned that Machu Picchu had completed its third Labyrinthization and could convert one hundred beings into Labyrinth Guardians.
• Charlotte chose to convert the eighteen Overback Red Bear Warriors rather than kill them or send them to Mostarburg.
• The Hundred Bear Chief agreed to remain in Machu Picchu forever, and he and the other bearmen appeared in armor that had belonged to Baron Filer.
• Charlotte found the newly converted guardians and felt a chill at the sight of them.

After discovering that Labyrinth Guardians were living beings transformed into Evil Spirits, Charlotte questioned the diary and the evil gods’ promises. Unable to reach Nanny Karen, he sought answers from Archpriest Augsladin, who revealed that he knew the ancient painting Charlotte mentioned and where it was kept.

• Charlotte used Insight to realize that the Over-the-Back Red Bear Warriors had lost their lives and become Evil Spirits as Labyrinth Guardians.
• Charlotte questioned why he trusted the diary and feared that his Blood Kindred arts and labyrinths were drawing him into an evil gods’ conspiracy.
• Charlotte called for Nanny Karen for two hours, but she did not appear, so he went to Silver Doveburg to consult Archpriest Augsladin.
• Charlotte entered the Temple of Radiance and learned from an attendant that Augsladin had been waiting for him.
• Charlotte told Augsladin that he had seen an ancient painting of an overseas evil god, and Augsladin said it was kept at 25 Mignon Avenue.

Charlotte sought Archpriest Augsladin’s guidance about his connection to Agmilas and the labyrinth in Silver Doveburg. Augsladin explained the New Continent’s dependence on Evil God powers, reassured him that the city’s people were safe, and asked him to deliver the promised guard.

• Charlotte learned that the woman who took the ancient painting of the Evil God was a widowed Princess, a taboo subject in the Empire.
• Charlotte admitted to Archpriest Augsladin that seeing the painting had affected him, and Augsladin revealed that Charlotte had already turned Silver Doveburg into a labyrinth.
• Archpriest Augsladin explained that people on the New Continent used Evil God powers to survive amid extreme hardship, and that Agmilas could no longer create Labyrinth Guardians in Silver Doveburg.
• Archpriest Augsladin assured Charlotte that the city’s residents would not become Evil Spirits and warned him not to rely too heavily on Labyrinth Power or cause Baron Filer more trouble.
• Charlotte thanked Archpriest Augsladin, who asked him to bring the promised guard sooner.

Charlotte questioned the rules of Agmilas’s Labyrinth Power but chose not to Labyrinthize Silver Doveburg again, determined to protect its people and resist the invasion. After learning that Grand Duke Joseph had died in battle and the Behemoth army had been defeated, Charlotte set out for Mostarburg with a smaller force.

• Charlotte wondered why Agmilas’s Labyrinth Power contradicted Archpriest Augsladin’s claims, then resolved not to turn Silver Doveburg’s residents into Labyrinth Guardians.
• Nanny Karen told Charlotte she knew he had Labyrinthized Silver Doveburg and warned him not to rely too heavily on Agmilas’s power.
• Nanny Karen informed Charlotte that Grand Duke Joseph had died at Interlaken, the Behemoth army had been crushed, and Madame Nansera was preparing a counteroffensive.
• Charlotte agreed to go to Mostarburg and decided to help protect the Behemoth People after learning Madame Nansera intended to massacre them.
• Charlotte left Dorothy at Machu Picchu and departed with Dobbin, Yellow Bear, selected squads, and a reduced supply train.

Charlotte gathered routed soldiers and scouted the South Seraph Restoration Army’s camps near Mostarburg with Dobbin. He watched a young Behemoth noblewoman lead a surprise attack on one camp, where a vampire Knight stopped her assault.

• Charlotte recruited defeated soldiers until he had more than five thousand men and approached the besieged city of Mostarburg.
• Charlotte and Dobbin scouted the Restoration Army camps, where Charlotte heard Behemoth People being tortured but decided he could not help them.
• Charlotte and Dobbin hid as a force of Behemoth People passed by, led by a young noblewoman wielding two swords.
• The young woman attacked a camp and killed seven soldiers before a vampire Knight blocked her swordsmanship.

Charlotte rescued Anastasia and her troops from Karon’s camp, killing the enemy’s two Transcendents and scattering the remaining soldiers. After learning that Anastasia’s mother had been tortured to death by Madame Nansera, he offered her a poem to comfort her.

• Dobbin tried to help Anastasia, but Charlotte killed the South Seraph Knight blocking him and shot Karon with six psionic bullets.
• Charlotte urged Anastasia to retreat, then covered her escape with Dobbin and scattered the camp’s soldiers.
• Charlotte sent the camp’s supplies to Machu Picchu through the Mind Channel and caught up with Anastasia’s troop.
• Anastasia recognized Charlotte as the commander who recaptured Silver Doveburg and identified herself as Baron Filer’s illegitimate daughter.
• Anastasia told Charlotte that Madame Nansera had tortured her mother to death, and Charlotte recited a poem to comfort her.

Anastasia joined Charlotte’s West Wind Knight Regiment, and he rebuilt and reinforced his forces while the South Seraph Restoration Army besieged Mostarburg. After receiving a new appointment and Baron Filer’s order to submit to his command, Charlotte attacked a nearby enemy unit and asked Filer for support.

• Charlotte invited Anastasia to join the West Wind Knight Regiment, and she accepted.
• Charlotte brought Anastasia to camp, gave her about five hundred routed soldiers, and expanded his own forces as well.
• South Seraph commanders demanded that Hughes send a Saint Rank to kill Charlotte, but Hughes refused because the Saint Rank had gone to Ferlanden and he feared damaging morale.
• Charlotte sent carefully worded letters to Mostarburg, his father, and his elder brother, but the South Seraph encirclement prevented replies from reaching him.
• The South Seraph Restoration Army attacked Mostarburg for five or six days while Charlotte held back with his regiment.
• Baron Filer ordered Charlotte to move closer and submit to his command, so Charlotte attacked a nearby South Seraph unit and asked Filer for support.

Charlotte received a major promotion and a residence in Val-d'Oise District while Baron Filer's Knight Order was trapped inside Mostarburg. As Hughes attacked the city, Charlotte launched a successful night raid against a weak South Seraph Restoration Army camp.

• Baron Filer ordered his Knight Order into Mostarburg, and Hughes sealed the city behind them.
• Charlotte was promoted to first-grade Administrator Chief and appointed Lucavaro District Political Affairs Bureau Director; he also received a twenty-member Knight Order and a residence in Val-d'Oise District.
• Charlotte's promotion raised morale among the West Wind Knight Regiment, whose members valued his generosity with meals and equipment.
• Hughes kept one force watching Charlotte and led the main Restoration Army in an assault on Mostarburg, where the defenders struggled to hold out.
• Charlotte sent his troops on a dark, windy night to raid three weak enemy camps, crushing one before the watching force reacted.

Charlotte led the West Wind Knight Regiment in a nighttime raid that destroyed three South Seraph Restoration Army camps. The victories spread his reputation throughout Mostarburg and beyond, while Hughes arrived too late to stop him.

• Charlotte attacked a second camp with eighteen Overback Red Bears, who broke through the barricades and slaughtered the defenders.
• Oley confronted Great Bear Tyrant but was fatally wounded when Bear Honey hurled a Knight's Lance into his back.
• Charlotte's troops swept through the fleeing soldiers and destroyed a third camp before withdrawing.
• Hughes arrived to find three camps ruined, and Charlotte's raid made his reputation spread throughout Mostarburg and beyond.

Charlotte returned to camp after Hughes withdrew, but Hughes later confronted him in the Dreamscape and pressured him to agree to a public duel beneath Mostarburg. Charlotte accepted, fought Hughes briefly, then escaped the Dreamscape, while Nanny Karen discovered Hughes’s compromising dossier on Charlotte was incomplete.

• Hughes gathered the routed soldiers from the three camps and withdrew, while Charlotte returned to camp and reviewed the raid.
• Charlotte encountered Hughes in the Dreamscape, where Hughes demanded a public duel in exchange for military merit and threatened Charlotte’s family and reputation.
• Charlotte agreed to fight Hughes, and the two exchanged blows with their swords and martial techniques.
• Charlotte withdrew from the Dreamscape before Hughes could continue attacking, leaving Hughes holding his lance in an unfinished stance.
• Nanny Karen appeared after both men left, destroyed the dossier Hughes had brought, and noted that its list of Charlotte’s exploits was incomplete.

Charlotte prepared to kill Hughes in the coming duel, then comforted Anastasia by telling her that she was Farsian rather than defined by her origins. Hughes agreed to let Zolman fight Charlotte instead, while the two generals aimed to keep Hughes from gaining prestige.

• Nanny Karen recalled that the Count had wanted to kill Charlotte after reading the investigation documents, and the Dreamscape shattered.
• Charlotte realized Hughes had threatened to expose his secret and resolved to kill him in the duel using his trump cards and Demon-Breaking Armor-Piercing Bullets.
• Anastasia asked whether she belonged to the Behemoth People or the Madame Nansera, and Charlotte told her that they were all Farsians who should not fight over identity.
• Charlotte lent Anastasia Anne's handkerchief, then asked for it back after she wiped away her tears.
• Zolman and Limbersen Rock argued over who would duel Charlotte, and Hughes chose Zolman, a level-fifteen Knight.
• Zolman and Limbersen Rock privately agreed that either could take the duel, but Hughes must not gain prestige.

Charlotte prepared for a formal duel with Hughes, but Hughes changed the opponent to Zolman, a senior South Seraph Restoration Army general. After Zolman mocked Charlotte with an embarrassing story from his past, Charlotte entered the duel determined to kill his enemies.

• Charlotte arranged a duel agreement witnessed by Grand Duchess Joseph, Archpriest Augsladin, and Vigo, while Hughes revised it to allow a South Seraph general to duel.
• Grand Duchess Joseph, Archpriest Augsladin, and Baron Filer watched as Charlotte and his allies arrived beneath Mostarburg to face Hughes and the South Seraph generals.
• Zolman stepped forward as Charlotte’s opponent, and Charlotte’s baffled question about who he was enraged him and boosted the South Seraph troops’ morale.
• Charlotte examined the agreement and realized Hughes had changed the opponent from himself to an unspecified South Seraph general.
• Charlotte accused Hughes of sending Zolman because of infighting, then grew furious when Zolman threatened to make him run naked and prepared to fight with Blood Rose.