Recaps

Graycastle nobles and Church leaders blamed Johnny the Actuary for the Steel Futures collapse after discovering he had disappeared with his family. As they joined the search, Foster Mining warned that falling steel prices and stranded workers threatened its survival.

• Graycastle nobles rushed to the Futures Trading Gazette and found Church representatives already there.
• The Garden Pope said Johnny the Actuary, his wife, and his children had disappeared, prompting the crowd to accuse him of manipulating Steel Futures and flee with the profits.
• Nobles and Church leaders joined forces to search for Johnny the Actuary.
• Foster Mining posted that it had hired many workers and gathered refugees to fulfill steel orders, but feared unsold steel, collapsing prices, and the cost of supporting the workers.

Viscount Rost redirected public anger toward Johnny the Actuary as the Steel Futures crisis deepened and Enron Mining was exposed as having sold far more steel futures than it could fulfill. He and Nidhogg discussed their enormous profits and Rost’s plan to buy up the contracts cheaply before the Ultra-High-Speed Rail Transit System revived the steel market.

• Investors blamed Johnny the Actuary for their losses and speculated about where he had fled.
• Viscount Rost celebrated as public attention shifted toward Johnny after a night of turmoil.
• An Enron Mining employee revealed that the company had little steel but had sold futures for more than eight million jin, leaving it unable to deliver.
• The Futures Market froze Enron Mining’s margin deposits, and the company’s stock plunged below its floor price.
• Nidhogg told Viscount Rost that the Dragons had earned eighty million gold coins from the trading markets.
• Viscount Rost admitted he planned to buy up the futures contracts at low prices so their holders could not profit when the rail system revived demand for steel.

As nobles despaired over their trapped Steel Futures investments, the Great Dragon Bank announced that it would lease its vast landholdings at just 10% of the harvest. Nidhogg defended the low rent as a way to attract tenants and ensure nobles would give up their mortgaged land.

• The Great Dragon Bank announced that it would lease its lands across the continent at a uniform 10% harvest rent.
• Nobles feared the cheap rent would make their lands worthless, while ordinary people began to see how farmers and city residents could benefit.
• Viscount Rost argued on the Magic Net that farmers barely kept any grain after taxes and that cheaper food would help city workers.
• Nidhogg rejected advice to set rent higher, saying 10% was only the starting point and low rent would help attract enough tenants.
• Nidhogg explained that his goal was to make nobles who had mortgaged their land let go of it, not to maximize rent.

Viscount Rost’s campaign and Destruction Black Dragon Nidhogg’s intervention pushed nobles into despair as steel and land values collapsed. The Great Dragon Bank collected debts and collateral, ending with control of nearly half the land in human territory.

• Viscount Rost’s paid commentators voiced nobles’ fears that cheaper Dragon-owned land would make their holdings impossible to lease.
• Destruction Black Dragon Nidhogg urged the nobles to sell land, buy bonds, invest, or build factories instead of clinging to inherited ways.
• Steel prices fell below three percent of their peak, and many nobles surrendered their collateral because they could not repay their debts.
• Land prices collapsed as nobles abandoned their holdings and transferred them to the Great Dragon Bank to offset debts.
• The Great Dragon Bank entered a cycle of acquiring more land and came to control nearly half the land in human territory.

Viscount Rost bought back nearly all the Steel Futures at a fraction of their peak price, then invited influential guests to the Southlands to reveal vast steel rails stretching from the city. The Clarkson Family Patriarch suspected the rails were part of a major new Magitech project that could drive steel prices back up.

• Viscount Rost offered to buy Steel Futures for 2% of their peak price, and most holders sold to recover what they could.
• The Clarkson Family Patriarch questioned why Viscount Rost was buying steel before prices had fallen further and persuaded his family not to sell.
• Viscount Rost bought back more than 99% of the Steel Futures and prepared to reveal his plans to influential guests.
• Viscount Rost welcomed his guests in the snowy Southlands, where they saw steel rails stretching far beyond the city.
• The Clarkson Family Patriarch suspected the rails would support a powerful new Magitech Device and that its reveal could restore steel prices.

Viscount Rost demonstrated the completed Ultra-High-Speed Rail Train to nobles, merchants, and other influential figures, who experienced its speed and stability firsthand. As the train reached normal operating speed, the passengers began asking about its capacity and capabilities.

• The head of the Clarkson Family saw the rails and believed his family might soon rise again.
• Viscount Rost invited the gathered figures and merchants to board the twenty-four-carriage train for its completion ceremony.
• Viscount Rost led the important figures into the luxurious Carriage No. 1 while other passengers boarded the ordinary carriages.
• The train accelerated out of the city, frightening many passengers before its smooth ride and passing scenery amazed them.
• After the train reached normal operating speed, an influential passenger asked Viscount Rost about its cargo capacity, passenger capacity, and speed.

Viscount Rost explained the Ultra-High-Speed Rail Transit System’s speed, capacity, and costs to powerful leaders, who realized it could transform trade and transport across the continent. He proposed connecting major cities with rail main lines and using Magitech Vehicles to extend the network, leaving the gathering to consider the cooperation such a project required.

• Viscount Rost told the leaders that the rail system could reach 600 kilometers per hour and carry twenty-four passenger or freight cars.
• The leaders calculated that the system could move people and goods across the continent in hours and recognized its enormous potential for trade.
• Viscount Rost estimated that a railway could cost around ten million gold coins and argued that its economic value would outweigh the expense.
• Viscount Rost proposed building north-south and east-west main lines between important cities, then connecting smaller cities and territories with Magitech Vehicles.
• The gathering recognized that building the network would require agreement and cooperation from everyone along its routes.

Viscount Rost presented the Ultra-High-Speed Rail Transit System’s speed, capacity, and investment plan to powerful figures, inviting them to join its company. After the train reached the Graycastle Empire border in twenty minutes, he reflected that sharing control and profits would help secure cooperation across territories and countries.

• Viscount Rost explained that multiple Ultra-High-Speed Rail Trains could run on the tracks and outlined plans for an independent company with shares open to new investors.
• The powerful figures realized they had been invited to invest in the rail system, whose construction was too costly and complex for one faction to manage alone.
• The train stopped at the border between Dawn Southlands and the Graycastle Empire after barely twenty minutes, compared with at least three days by carriage.
• Viscount Rost considered how cooperation and shared profits could overcome foreign regulations, local lords’ demands, and resistance to railway construction.
• Viscount Rost planned to retain control of the network while sharing profits, and considered creating parent and subsidiary companies as the project expanded.

Viscount Rost saw the Ultra-High-Speed Rail Transit System as a way to create vast markets at every station and attract nobles who had suffered losses from Steel Futures. After news of the system spread on the Magic Net, people imagined how faster transportation would expand trade and daily life, leaving them eager to learn where the rails would be built.

• Viscount Rost reasoned that rail stations would become major markets and that nobles would eagerly compete to build factories near them.
• News of the Ultra-High-Speed Rail Transit System appeared on the Magic Net, and users reacted to its speed, capacity, possible routes, and connection to the Steel Futures losses.
• People discussed how the system could let them travel farther, reach better markets, and receive goods more cheaply.
• Viscount Rost's earlier promotion of Magitech Vehicles had helped people understand that improved transportation expanded their range of activity.
• Merchants recognized that the rail system could make long-distance trade profitable for goods beyond luxury items.

The head of the Clarkson Family planned to recover his finances and build a business selling City-State Alliance specialties as the ultra-high-speed rail system expanded. Viscount Rost returned to the Rost Territory because Rost Academy had been completed, launching a long-planned effort to cultivate magitech researchers and business talent.

• The head of the Clarkson Family decided to sell his Steel Futures after prices stabilized, safeguard most of the recovered funds, and start selling local specialties through Taobao Mall and video promotions.
• The head of the Clarkson Family planned to grow the business as the ultra-high-speed rail system connected the Golden City with more regions across the continent.
• People sought Viscount Rost to learn about the rail system’s plans, but Viscount Rost left the Southlands and flew back to the Rost Territory on a Dragon.
• Viscount Rost returned to oversee the completed Rost Academy, created to cultivate scientific, technological, and business talent for the Technology God Church.

Viscount Rost inspected Rost Academy, a modern, well-equipped school built to accommodate thirty thousand students, and then announced its opening at a livestreamed press conference. He introduced its research-focused education and religious independence, leaving viewers astonished by the prospect of studying and developing divine arts across church boundaries.

• Viscount Rost toured Rost Academy with its principal and checked its classrooms, laboratories, sports facilities, dormitories, library, and grounds.
• Viscount Rost approved the completed academy and ordered preparations for a public announcement.
• Viscount Rost held a livestreamed press conference with Rost Territory Group Company and the World Economic News Agency.
• Viscount Rost announced that Rost Academy would admit students with a foundation in their studies and involve teachers and students in original research.
• Viscount Rost said students could study free from religious and political interference and that churches could teach and research divine arts at the academy.
• Church members explained that divine arts could be modified within the limits of priests’ traits and Faith Power.

Viscount Rost explained that Rost Academy would contain colleges across many fields and support interdisciplinary research between them. He left the audience considering how the academy’s broad educational program would adapt to a changing world.

• Viscount Rost announced that Rost Academy would include colleges such as the Theological Academy, Magic Academy, Magitech Academy, Economics Academy, and Medical Academy.
• Viscount Rost explained the colleges’ various majors and said the churches would decide what to teach in the Theological Academy.
• Viscount Rost described how colleges and churches could apply to collaborate on research in dedicated laboratories.
• Viscount Rost said the academy was founded to help people adapt to changes in medicine, transportation, and other areas.
• Viscount Rost reflected that his influence had grown, so he now favored gradual change over openly provoking powerful opponents.

Rost Academy's admissions announcement stirred excitement and debate across the Magic Net as people considered its many fields of study. The Shepherd Pope wondered whether the Shepherd God Church should join the academy, worried that nobody would apply to its theology major.

• Rost Academy opened admissions with two interview rounds before classes began in the Month of Renewal.
• Magic Net users debated the academy's colleges and specialties, including agriculture, law, magic, business, and Magitech.
• Rost Academy attracted support from mage apprentices, nobles, free citizens, and the emerging working class, while some nobles criticized the spread of knowledge.
• The Shepherd Pope asked whether the Shepherd God Church should join Rost Academy and worried that its theology major might attract no applicants.

Wool Ryan convinced the Shepherd Pope that the Shepherd God Church had to participate in Rost Academy to secure opportunities, build connections, and spread its faith. The Pope agreed that churches unwilling to join risked being displaced by new branches fostered at the academy.

• Wool Ryan insisted that the Shepherd God Church should participate in Rost Academy, even if it initially attracted no students.
• Wool Ryan argued that Rost Territory would draw the world's leading talents and offer the church opportunities to build social and commercial connections.
• Wool Ryan explained that cooperation with the Agricultural Academy and Business Academy could expand sheep farming, wool trade, and the church's influence.
• The Shepherd Pope agreed that the church should go to Rost Academy and address any difficulties rather than miss its opportunities.
• Wool Ryan warned that churches that stayed away could be replaced if Viscount Rost supported people who interpreted and spread their scriptures.
• The Shepherd Pope recognized the risk that academy-backed branches could become regarded as the orthodox churches.

The Shepherd Pope and other churches realized Rost Academy could reshape religious authority and began considering joining it. The Graycastle Emperor decided to establish academies of his own while sending exchange students to Rost Academy to learn from its advances.

• The Shepherd Pope feared that a Shepherd God Church founded under Rost Academy could split the faith and eventually eclipse the existing church, so churches began contacting Viscount Rost about joining the academy.
• The Graycastle Emperor asked his ministers about Rost Academy, and the Chief Justice and Grand Marshal warned that it could threaten the empire's security and military advantage.
• The Finance Minister argued that Viscount Rost posed no fundamental threat and urged the empire to send exchange students to learn Magitech technology.
• The ministers argued over whether to restrain Rost Academy or cooperate with it, and the Graycastle Emperor ordered the creation of military and scientific academies while allowing Rost Academy to develop.
• The Graycastle Emperor decided to send ordinary students and priests to Rost Academy, accepting that some exchange students might choose to remain there.

The emperor of Graycastle ordered that students be sent openly to Rost Academy to learn advanced technology. After profiting from Steel Futures, the Clarkson Family patriarch proposed new businesses and asked to send many young relatives to study magitech science.

• The emperor of Graycastle rejected the grand marshal’s proposal to send intelligence agents and ordered students to study openly at Rost Academy.
• The Clarkson Family patriarch’s decision to hold Steel Futures until prices rose allowed the family to sell for a profit of roughly 800,000 gold coins.
• The patriarch proposed selling Golden City specialty goods online and expanding shipments once the ultra-high-speed rail reached the city.
• The patriarch announced that the family should send many talented young members to Foster Academy to learn magitech science at Rost Academy, prompting an uproar.

The Clarkson Family decided to send as many eligible children as possible to Rost Academy, while the academy’s first day of online interviews drew over 100,000 applicants. As interviews continued, Viscount Rost outlined a plan to separate the rail network’s infrastructure and operations from train manufacturing, but the gathered influential figures pressed him for details on construction and management.

• The Clarkson Family patriarch told the elders to have every eligible family member interview for Rost Academy, and the elders debated which academies to prioritize.
• Ordinary people across the continent eagerly pursued the opportunity to attend Rost Academy as its online interviews began.
• More than 100,000 people applied on the first day, and Viscount Rost was relieved that interviewers would make final first-round decisions only after all interviews were complete.
• Rost Academy interviewers shared stories about unusual applicants, including an Orc who had been blown up by a Mana Bomb and a forty-year-old who wanted to become a combat mage.
• Influential figures arrived in Rost Territory and asked Viscount Rost how he planned to develop the Ultra-High-Speed Rail Transit System.
• Viscount Rost said a new Rail Transit General Company would build and operate the tracks and stations, while the Southlands Development Company would manufacture the trains, and the visitors asked how the network would be built and managed.

Viscount Rost presented the nobles with a blueprint for a continent-wide Ultra-High-Speed Rail Transit System, laying out centralized management, sixteen trunk routes, and rules for noble-built branch lines. The nobles accepted the proposed arrangements and began considering how to participate in the enormous project.

• Viscount Rost shared the Rail Transit System blueprint and explained that the Rail Transit General Company would manage connected routes.
• The nobles questioned the corporation’s authority over privately built railways, and Viscount Rost said he would not interfere with lines that did not connect to the trunk network.
• The nobles examined a plan for seven east–west and nine north–south corridors spanning 38,000 kilometers, and Viscount Rost said construction would proceed gradually.
• The blueprint allowed nobles to build connecting branch lines with the corporation’s approval, technical support, inspection, and scheduling requirements.
• The nobles agreed to uniform fares and freight charges, with trunk-line revenue going to the corporation and branch-line builders retaining most of their revenue.
• The plan assigned trunk-line stations to the corporation while leaving branch-line station profits largely to their builders, and the nobles read the remaining provisions carefully.

Viscount Rost explained how the Rail Transit General Company would fund its railway network through shares, bonds, loans, and station leases. He agreed that the company could also build railways in territories that transferred their operating rights and land, then began establishing the company.

• Viscount Rost told the gathered figures he would raise initial funds by listing the Rail Transit General Company and issuing one billion shares, then use bonds, loans, and station leases to finance construction.
• The figures praised his funding plan and said they would prepare to buy shares, while Viscount Rost explained he would first confirm buyers could take all the shares before listing.
• A noble proposed transferring railway and station rights in his territory to the General Company for ninety-nine years and donating land in exchange for the company building a railway.
• Viscount Rost agreed the company could take on promising branch lines and potentially list them or issue bonds.
• After the meeting, Viscount Rost began establishing the Rail Transit General Company to start construction as soon as possible.

A young outsider visiting Rost Territory’s Mechanical Plaza learned from a passerby about its public gatherings, new Magitech Devices, and the value residents placed on education. After passing Rost Academy’s online interview, he left with a new understanding of Rost’s commoners and their confidence in learning and ability.

• A young outsider asked a passerby why a large crowd had gathered at Mechanical Plaza, and the passerby explained Rost Territory’s regular events and product demonstrations.
• The passerby described a new Magitech Device that cooked roast meat and said it was nearing mass production.
• The young man revealed that he had passed Rost Academy’s online interview and would be staying there for several years.
• The passerby explained how education had helped his son advance at work and encouraged the young man to study hard at the academy.
• The young man realized the passerby’s respect for education was sincere and reconsidered his assumptions about Rost Territory’s commoners.

The heir to the Bay Duchy met a marquis’s heir in Rost Territory and explained that he had come to study Magitech Devices rather than magic. After witnessing a projection of Viscount Rost and learning how quickly Rost Territory developed new devices, he resolved to study at Rost Academy and bring magitech talent back to his family’s lands.

• The heir to the Bay Duchy encountered the marquis’s heir at a stall and learned that he had come to study combat magic at Rost Academy.
• The heir to the Bay Duchy explained that he wanted to study Magitech Devices and hoped his duchy could develop its own magitech industries.
• A giant projection of Viscount Rost appeared in Mechanical Plaza, welcomed visitors, and explained local rules and encouragement for reserve students.
• The stall owner told the heir to the Bay Duchy that Rost Territory had developed over three thousand Magitech Devices in the past year, with more than seven hundred in mass production.
• The heir to the Bay Duchy became determined to study at Rost Academy, recruit magitech geniuses, and bring them to his family’s territory.

Two noble heirs visiting Rost Territory witnessed a test flight of a Single-Soldier Flying Magitech Device that crashed, then met its designer, Apprentice. Apprentice explained the experimental craft and invited them to learn about it if they enrolled at Rost Academy.

• The Baylands heir and his companion toured Rost Territory and saw an inverted-triangle aircraft flying overhead.
• The aircraft became unstable, its rider floated free, and the craft crashed nearby.
• Apprentice checked that the heirs were unharmed and confirmed he was testing a Single-Soldier Flying Magitech Device.
• The Baylands heir said he planned to apply to the Magitech Academy, while his companion planned to apply to the Magic Academy.
• Apprentice described the craft’s experimental design and invited the heirs to inspect it.

The heir to the Baylands learned how the Technology Laboratory helped Magitech inventors develop devices safely, while the Apprentice revealed that one young man at Rost Academy was far stronger than a gifted Mid-Order Mage. As young visitors praised Rost Territory online, the academy’s final interviews began.

• The Apprentice explained to the heir to the Baylands that the Technology Laboratory let inventors test Magitech Devices safely, and that the Legendary Incendiary Bomb’s creator had died repeatedly during development there.
• The Apprentice said the Single-Soldier Aircraft had already been verified in the Technology Laboratory and would be improved there before the heir to the Baylands and his companion left.
• The Apprentice used a Monitoring Device to identify the quiet young man as an accomplished Mid-Order Mage, then told a staff member that a young man at the Magitech Academy was far stronger.
• The staff member wondered whether the Magitech Academy student could be a teenage High-Order Mage or even near Legendary status.
• Young people gathered in Rost Territory and posted online about its factories, development, Single-Soldier Aircraft, and residents’ confidence.
• Rost Academy began its final interviews.

Viscount Rost secured powerful allies and finalized plans for the Rail Transit General Company, then oversaw its successful share subscription. The company was set to list the next morning as publicity began across the Magic Net.

• Viscount Rost and the Destruction Black Dragon Nidhogg traveled to the City-State Alliance after Viscount Rost reached cooperation agreements with influential figures and settled the railway company's development plans.
• Viscount Rost explained that the nobles had accepted the railway plan because he had balanced incentives, pressure, and freedom, while Nidhogg doubted the project would proceed smoothly.
• Viscount Rost assured Nidhogg that the Battle Priests and Dragons would intervene if problems arose, and Nidhogg became convinced of the railway system's importance.
• The Rail Transit General Company raised five hundred million gold coins in half a day, and the Dragons disclosed that they had subscribed for 280 million shares.
• Viscount Rost agreed that the company would list at nine the next morning and told Newsbird Megan to begin the publicity plan, prompting news to spread across the Magic Net.

As the Rail Transit General Company prepared to go public, the Shepherd Pope and Wool Ryan planned to invest their liquid funds while using the stock purchase to protect their family from desperate Westlands nobles and bring in the Golden Merchants' Guild. When trading opened, the shares surged from 0.5 to 1.2 gold coins, surprising Nidhogg and exciting Viscount Rost.

• The Shepherd Pope told Wool Ryan that they should put nearly all their remaining liquid funds into the Rail Transit General Company's shares because Westlands nobles might target the Wool Guild to recover their debts.
• Wool Ryan proposed bringing in the Golden Merchants' Guild as an investor and sales partner for the Wool Guild's ranch products.
• The Shepherd Pope and Wool Ryan discussed joining other wealthy investors in buying Rail Transit General Company shares when the company went public.
• At market opening, the Rail Transit General Company's share price jumped from 0.5 to 1.2 gold coins per share.
• Nidhogg said the stock had more potential than he had expected, while Viscount Rost claimed it had only exceeded Nidhogg's expectations.