Chapter Summaries

John tested the Mark of Extraction with Tolovsky and learned that the Sealing Casket amplified it while intercepting most of the stolen magic power. After Tolovsky sent him away, John was trapped in an illusion of a monstrous church and silent nuns, but a golden magical hand destroyed the vision before the gray-robed nun focused on the Mark of Extraction and the illusion collapsed.

• Tolovsky explained the Mark of Extraction and let John test it on him, then judged that it could strip a transcendent Mage of magic power within ten seconds with the Sealing Casket's support.
• The Sealing Casket transferred some of Tolovsky's stolen power to John, and Tolovsky said he could not identify the force restraining the curse in John's body.
• After a mysterious telepathic exchange, Tolovsky told John to leave, and John wondered why the original John von Maslow had surrendered his immense power.
• John found the grounds empty and became trapped in an illusion where a gray-robed nun and her phantoms tried to expose and transform him through a twisted prayer.
• A golden magical hand shattered the illusory church and destroyed its monsters, while the gray-robed nun stared at John's Mark of Extraction and dispelled the illusion.

After surviving Famiu’s Phantom Realm attack, John left the academy with Bruno for Frostahe Manor, concealing the Mark of Extraction and resolving to retaliate against those who threatened him. Tolovsky confronted Famiu over the attack, then suspected she might have been trying to release John’s curse before returning to his Astral Realm studies.

• John woke from the illusion and realized the danger hidden within his body, then decided to use Tolovsky’s Mark of Extraction to grow stronger.
• John asked Bruno to drive him to Frostahe Manor, and he hid the Mark of Extraction beneath his gloves as they departed the academy.
• Tolovsky shattered Famiu’s magical defenses and ordered her out of his Mage Tower for attacking John.
• Famiu claimed she had tested whether John could contain his curse, then left through a glowing door after Tolovsky dismissed her.
• Tolovsky suspected Famiu had intended to release the curse but set the thought aside and returned to exploring the Astral Realm.
• Bruno drove John to the gates of Frostahe Manor, where the guards watched their car arrive through the autumn rain.

John visited Frostahe Manor, presented Lothar West with a rare Drow-forged rapier, and received a swift magical warhorse in return. He trained Lothar in military discipline and guerrilla tactics, then prepared to leave without meeting Olivia—until a woman called him back.

• John arrived at Frostahe Manor and exchanged formal greetings with Count Lothar West.
• John gave Lothar a rare Frost Type One rapier, and Lothar presented him with the magical Frostplain Horse Swiftbolt.
• John deduced that Lothar's sister Olivia West was secretly evaluating him and hoped to build a partnership with him.
• John gave Lothar a copy of Maslow Quotations and taught him military discipline, command, and guerrilla tactics.
• John accepted Lothar's dinner invitation, but Olivia did not appear, so he called for Bruno and prepared to leave.
• A woman called out to John, asking him to wait.

Olivia West approached John Maslow with the West Family’s political crisis and proposed an alliance, arguing that he could become the leader of a reorganized Reformist Faction. John accepted her invitation, and they sealed a pact to help each other through the coming political upheaval.

• Olivia West met John in Lothar’s study and explained that the Old Guard Party was moving against the Reformist Faction while the West Family faced political isolation and the loss of its Winter Wolf Legion.
• Lothar condemned the Reformist Faction’s allies for abandoning the West Family, while Albrecht clarified that the family’s loyalty belonged to the Empire rather than any political salon.
• Olivia argued that John’s background, record, and standing with William made him a likely candidate to lead a new Reformist Faction after Ostan Duke’s death, though he might have to enter a political marriage.
• John said he could offer the West Family only military instruction, commercial exchanges, and administrative experience, but Olivia insisted that her family was investing in his long-term prospects.
• John accepted Olivia’s alliance proposal, and they clasped hands to formalize their pact.

After forming an alliance with Olivia, John decided he could not remain trapped in the Reformist Faction and resolved to recruit Conrad Slavert to help build a stronger faction of his own. He confronted Conrad about the Empire’s impending destruction and invited him to discuss how to lead it toward greatness.

• John reflected that the Reformist Faction would likely lose power after Dries Ostan’s death and resolved to build his own faction instead of relying on a political marriage with Olivia.
• John decided that Conrad Slavert was the ally he needed and went to visit him at Orte Manor.
• Conrad personally welcomed John, and they spoke privately about the failed Phantom Legion project and John’s growing favor with William.
• John challenged Conrad’s claim that the Slayfort Family could endure by maintaining neutrality, warning that factional conflict could destroy the Empire within ten years.
• John asked Conrad to work with him to free the Empire from its internal and external crises and lead it toward greatness.

John tried to recruit Conrad by arguing that the Reformist Faction could survive Ostan Duke’s impending death and continue the political struggle. Conrad refused to commit the Slayfort Family but agreed to secretly assist the Reformist Faction in his personal capacity, while John planned to use Conrad’s participation to win Olivia and the West Family’s confidence.

• Conrad told John that Ostan Duke had only two months and twenty-three days left to live and refused John’s proposal on behalf of the Slayfort Family.
• John argued that Bob’s rising naval prestige, the Reformist Faction’s new intelligence position, and his own abilities would prevent the Old Guard Party from winning quickly.
• Conrad explained that an ancestral oath prevented him from defecting as a Slayfort heir, but offered to assist secretly as Major General Conrad.
• John accepted Conrad’s personal participation and welcomed him aboard, while privately planning to present the alliance in a way that would reassure Olivia and the West Family.
• Conrad shook John’s hand and pledged to clear obstacles for the Reformist Faction and lead the Empire toward greatness.

The Allied Special Operations Division gathered for its first operational meeting, where Orco assigned the squad a dangerous infiltration mission in Ereno. The chapter ended with the team learning they would have three days during Demon King Ivan Daovich Tolovsky’s seclusion to carry out sabotage and assassination plans before withdrawing.

• Anna Splinter allowed Mark Johnson and five other late members to take their seats, then told them Royce would oversee their make-up punishment.
• Mark asked about the empty chair, and Anna explained that the famous Spectral Spirit Painter had declined the department’s invitation for now.
• Orco arrived and announced that the squad’s first mission would assess their abilities and determine who could remain in the division.
• Orco revealed that the squad would infiltrate Ereno and carry out sabotage and assassination plans, alarming the members who feared the Demon King would detect them.
• Orco explained that Ivan Daovich Tolovsky would withdraw his surveillance Formula during three days of closed-door seclusion, giving the squad a limited window to frame the Old Guard Party and the Reformist Faction before withdrawing.

Meyer questioned whether her past-life memories were real as the Allied Special Operations Department prepared to send its members to Ereno for their first mission. Orco set the operation’s rules and timeline, while Anna planned to use the trip to investigate the Binote Family and Orco regretted failing to recruit Celestine.

• Meyer compared the current war and John’s unexpected role with her past-life memories, leaving her unsure whether she was truly reincarnated.
• Anna asked whether the team could choose its own targets, and Orco said he would assign targets and warned that he would tolerate no unforeseen factors.
• Anna decided she would try to visit the Binote Family in Ereno to investigate what the red-haired female Half-Dragon had told her.
• Margaret asked whether support members had to conduct assassinations, and Orco exempted her from those missions but assigned her infiltration and intelligence work.
• Orco reflected that Celestine had been his preferred recruit until a dean rejected his plan, and he worried she could become a threat to Victoria Kingdom.
• Orco ordered the team to rendezvous with the negotiating delegation in four days and begin its infiltration and assassination mission in Ereno in seven days.

As the Empire prepared for peace negotiations with the Allied Forces, John anticipated their attempts to cause trouble and planned to use the coming party conflict to build a hidden popular movement. He left the chapter determined to establish his own party and seize control of the Empire’s future.

• During the seven days before the negotiations, John recruited potential allies, trained Lothar, monitored the 303rd Division’s reserve selection, and studied magecraft while avoiding Ailafia’s invitation to meet the Rose Witch.
• John estimated that the peace negotiations would take fourteen to twenty days and suspected the Allied Forces, possibly through Orco’s Special Operations Division, would attempt assassinations and other sabotage.
• John resolved to oppose threats to his plans, even if that meant fighting former comrades, and concluded that he needed Momentum—the collective will of the people—to gain greater power.
• John planned to use the Old Guard Party’s conflict with the Reformist Faction to introduce popular reforms, support veterans through Mutual Aid Societies, and secretly grow his own party and Maslowism.
• John intended to let the two major factions undermine each other while his movement expanded in secret, and he declared that the Empire’s fate would soon be in his hands.

After Kevin reported that evidence pointed toward the Ementraut Family’s involvement in the formalwear trap, Laiya decided to assassinate Zeke Ementraut and frame the Allied Forces, believing Wendy’s book had secretly guided her. Meanwhile, Anna received orders to assassinate a target far from the Binote Family estate, thwarting her plan to investigate her origins, and accepted the mission under surveillance.

• Kevin told Laiya that Raven Beak Forces intelligence linked the formalwear trap to Count Zeke Ementraut, but that investigators lacked evidence.
• Laiya concluded that Zeke was the mastermind and resolved to kill him without exposing herself.
• Laiya interpreted Wendy’s gift of Phantom Biography as guidance to imitate Lucas and frame the Allied Forces for the assassination.
• Laiya imagined John praising her plan, then steadied herself and reaffirmed her intention to kill Zeke and blame the Allied Forces.
• Anna learned that her assigned assassination target was in the southern suburbs, far from the Binote Family estate where she hoped to investigate her origins.
• Anna accepted General Orco’s mission in front of a senior spy who had been assigned to watch her.

Count Zeke Ementraut grew anxious as the Raven Beak Forces and Royal Guard investigated his role in framing John Maslow, while his secretary Alitt secretly considered how to report the matter to the Moses Family. On the way to Zeke’s salon, Anna Splinter’s planned assassination was interrupted by a hidden attacker, and the chapter ended as Anna turned her blade against them.

• Zeke worried that the investigations into his forces and his movements meant he had been abandoned or discovered after helping frame John Maslow.
• Alitt reflected that he was a Moses Family agent planted through the Infiltrator Program and decided to report Zeke’s troubled behavior to his superiors.
• An explosion jolted Zeke’s carriage, and Alitt saw that a cloaked figure had slaughtered the six guards accompanying it.
• Anna Splinter, waiting to ambush Zeke, realized that another concealed attacker had struck first and killed the guards with a powerful spell.
• Anna drew her blade and attacked the cloaked figure as it prepared to continue its assault on Zeke’s carriage.

Laiya discovered that Anna wielded the Binote Family’s Severance of All Things power and diverted her attention from assassinating Zeke to confronting her. As Zeke escaped, Anna unleashed her strongest attack, but Laiya’s vastly more controlled slash overwhelmed it.

• Anna ambushed Laiya with a Severance of All Things slash, but Laiya redirected it into the sky and recognized the power’s familiar origin.
• Laiya suspected Anna might be her kin and paused her pursuit of Zeke, while Alitt and Zeke tried to escape in their carriage.
• The carriage bell gave away their escape, and Anna turned to attack Zeke, but Laiya blocked her and demanded to know where she had obtained her power.
• Anna formed a Severance Lance and attacked Laiya with a devastating silver-white storm, but Laiya countered with a massive crescent slash that tore through it.

Laiya defeated Anna and believed she needed to discipline her wayward Binote clanswoman, but Anna was rescued before Laiya could continue. Royce then revealed that the Demon King Ivan had never entered seclusion, and the death of a powerful mage who spoke his true name showed that Ivan still ruled the magic world from the pinnacle of power.

• Laiya overwhelmed Anna in battle, recognized that Anna's formula matched the Binote Family's power, and insisted that Anna had taken the wrong path.
• Anna rejected the possibility that she was a Binote descendant and attacked Laiya with increasing fury, but Laiya kicked her down.
• An ally ambushed Laiya with a shadow attack and used the Shadow Domain to extract Anna, while Laiya memorized the attacker's aura and ended her pursuit.
• Royce pulled Anna through the Shadow Domain and told her that their intelligence was wrong: the Demon King had never entered seclusion.
• After Royce's ally identified Demon King Ivan by his true name, Ivan's power killed the mage instantly, demonstrating that the Demon King still stood at the pinnacle of power.

After surviving an assassination attempt, Count Zeke sought help from the Shadow Alliance, only for his deputy Alitt to kill him and discover that Hans Gruber had uncovered Alitt’s secret identity and family. Gruber coerced Alitt into serving the Shadow Alliance as a double agent and began outlining a cover story for Zeke’s death.

• Zeke concluded that his manor was likely compromised and rode toward Ereno with Alitt to seek help from someone powerful.
• At an abandoned warehouse, Zeke confronted Hans Gruber and demanded protection from the assassins who had attacked him.
• Alitt suddenly stabbed Zeke to death, then asked Gruber to reveal his identity as an inspector.
• Gruber exposed Alitt’s codename, Agent 014, and revealed that his mother was alive in a Northern Border Monastery.
• Alitt accepted Gruber’s demand to return to Duke Mosesiris as a loyal agent while secretly following Shadow Alliance instructions, in exchange for seeing his mother.
• Gruber told Alitt to memorize a prepared account of Zeke’s death and deliver it to the outside world and the Duke.

John read that Zeke Ementraut had died while trying to defect and suspected Hans Gruber’s role in the incident had been planned, not coincidence. After finding no notable recruits at the 303rd Division training base, John spotted Meyer Sistana in the Imperial Capital and ordered Bruno to stop the car.

• John read a report claiming Zeke Ementraut had tried to defect with classified documents, been stopped by Hans Gruber, and died by suicide.
• John found the account suspicious and decided to have Bruno investigate Hans Gruber’s background.
• John visited the 303rd Division training base, added Maslow Quotations to his plans, and found no familiar or notable recruits among the arriving soldiers.
• John left the base for the West Family after finalizing the recruit training plan and lamenting his failed good-fortune ritual.
• John recognized Meyer Sistana walking past the car and ordered Bruno to stop.

Meyer, convinced that her memories of a past life explained the world’s altered course, tried to find John and test whether he shared them. John recognized her as a Special Operations Division member and deliberately let her approach, but dodged when she threw herself at him.

• Meyer fled after the Demon King killed the curse caster supporting her failed assassination mission, then went to the Imperial Grand Hotel hoping to find John.
• Meyer saw a veiled Drow at the hotel and escaped, shocked because she believed the Drow had perished with the Dark Elf Kingdom.
• Meyer encountered John and planned to pose as a stranger so she could test whether he was a reincarnator.
• John secretly followed Meyer, inferred that the Special Operations Division was operating in Ereno, and planned to use her to lure in its members.
• John let Meyer rush toward him, then stepped aside and left her falling to the ground.

Meyer Sistana tried to approach John Maslow using a staged collision, but his cold response convinced her that he was nothing like the man she remembered. She shifted to a plan based on exchanging special information, leaving John to decide whether to hear her out.

• Meyer deliberately let herself fall after John dodged her, then watched him walk away without helping her.
• John explained that the collision was an accident and advised Meyer to seek medical treatment, while Meyer questioned his lack of concern.
• Meyer confronted John and threatened to draw the Old Guard Party's attention to their dispute unless he apologized.
• John reached for his missing Magic Rifle and realized Meyer had taken it; she revealed it concealed in her dress.
• Meyer posed as a professional seer offering a deal based on special information and asked John what he would choose.

Meyer offered John intelligence in exchange for Ian and Sellviya, while secretly intending to recruit them and lure John away from the Empire. John recognized that Meyer was reborn but chose not to reveal that he had seen through her deal.

• Meyer told John that someone in the Ostan Family had poisoned the Ostan Duke and offered to sell him evidence.
• John feigned shock at Meyer's revelation, while she mistook his silence for genuine surprise.
• Meyer offered intelligence about the Empire's coming political struggle and demanded that John transfer Ian out of the Third Navy and secretly release Sellviya.
• Meyer believed her deal would benefit her side and eventually lead John to abandon the Empire.
• John deduced that Meyer was reborn after hearing her demands, but decided not to tell her that she had exposed herself.

John revealed to Meyer that he shared her memories of a previous life, rejected her plea to return to the Allied Forces, and explained that he sought a true victory over the privileged classes. He captured and imprisoned Meyer, then learned that Ailafia had summoned him to Mirror Spring Manor.

• John identified Ian Grant and Selvia Reinhart as Meyer's intended hostages and revealed that he remembered their previous life.
• Meyer confronted John for joining the Empire and begged him to return to the Allied Forces, but he argued that both sides oppressed ordinary people and declared his aim to defeat the privileged class.
• John refused Meyer's plea, bound her with magical chains, knocked her unconscious, and ordered Bruno to place her under house arrest with magic-suppression restraints.
• John considered using Meyer's capture to draw Anna and the other Special Operations Division members out, but Bruno arrived with a ceremonial official representing Ailafia.
• The official invited John to meet Ailafia at Mirror Spring Manor, leaving him facing the trouble he had hoped to avoid.

John met Ailafia at Mirror Spring Manor, where she recalled their childhood bond and revealed their agreement to marry after he gained influence and helped build a device to protect their future home. John admitted his memory loss, refused to hand over control of the Astral Orbital Field for now, and left with a mysterious pocket watch as Ailafia watched him go.

• John arrived at Mirror Spring Manor and found Ailafia waiting in the garden among black roses.
• Ailafia recounted how she and John met at an orphanage and described the memories that made her grow attached to him.
• Ailafia revealed that John had promised to ask the Emperor to cancel her political marriage and build a future with her.
• Ailafia explained that she had secretly supported John's military career and helped him construct the Astral Orbital Field, then asked whether their agreement still stood.
• John said he had lost his memories, accepted the pocket watch Ailafia returned, and declined to hand over the project's authority until he could investigate it.
• John left the manor, and Ailafia returned to the garden as the roses bloomed and a black Raven watched before flying away.