Chapter Summaries

John planned to use Meyer to gain leverage over the Saga Kingdom, while Meyer decided to escape and return to the Allied Forces to stop him. She freed herself from her shackles and prepared to flee, but an icy-voiced woman arrived to deliver her food and confront her.

• John decided to frame Meyer as an Imperial agent so the Allied Forces would reject her and she would have to serve the Empire.
• Meyer recalled John's hidden power and feared his plans would plunge the world into war, so she resolved to stop him at any cost.
• Meyer broke her hand bones to slip out of her anti-magic shackles, then secretly began restoring her strength and preparing an escape.
• Meyer planned to incapacitate the food-delivery soldier, escape through the hotel's kitchen and sewers, and warn the Allied Forces to evacuate.
• A woman arrived to take Meyer's food tray and said she wanted to ask the prisoner a few questions, making Meyer's smile stiffen.

Selvia confronted Meyer in her locked room, ate the meal John had brought for her, and demanded to know what Meyer’s relationship with John was. When Meyer tried to manipulate Selvia with an ambiguous answer, Selvia cut her cheek and threatened to kill her.

• Meyer recognized Selvia and panicked, abandoning her escape plan when Selvia kicked a dent into the reinforced door.
• Selvia shut the door, sat down, and ate the meal John had prepared for Meyer despite Meyer’s protest.
• Selvia asked Meyer to explain her relationship with John, and Meyer saw an opportunity to exploit Selvia’s jealousy.
• Meyer began giving an evasive answer, but Selvia slashed her cheek and threatened to kill her if she tried to lead Selvia on.

Meyer tried to use her future knowledge to gain Selvia’s trust and win her over, but Selvia revealed John already knew most of the information. When Meyer let slip that Celestine had become an evil spirit’s vessel, Selvia demanded the full truth as John arrived at the Imperial Supreme Research Institute.

• Meyer told Selvia that she was an Allied Special Operations Department assassin whose mission had been to frame the Old Guard Party and provoke conflict between the parties.
• Meyer offered intelligence about Mephisto Dragon, but Selvia already knew he was in Gooseberry Town posing as Doctor Plante and conducting transformation experiments.
• Selvia warned Meyer that John had already passed Ian the intelligence Meyer hoped to use to win his loyalty.
• Meyer tried to bargain with information about Celestine, but Selvia claimed John had already told her they would meet later.
• Meyer revealed that Celestine had become an evil spirit’s vessel after her death, prompting Selvia to demand every detail.
• John’s car arrived at the gates of the Imperial Supreme Research Institute.

John visited the Imperial Supreme Research Institute and used information about the Floating City Ruins to draw Manny Copperfield into a negotiation. Manny nearly offered him the institute in exchange, but Jonathan stopped him, leaving John to continue talks with the overeager researcher.

• John arrived at the Imperial Supreme Research Institute and was led by Jonathan Jost to Manny Copperfield's office.
• Manny finished a calculation, mistook John for Jonathan, and became wary when he realized he was a stranger.
• John introduced himself and offered information about the Floating City Ruins, sending Manny into an uncontrolled surge of mana before he calmed himself by smashing his head into his desk.
• Manny eagerly tried to trade the entire institute for John's information, but Jonathan returned and stopped him from making the offer.
• John waited in the Central Tower conference room as Jonathan brought the chastened Manny back to begin negotiations.

John negotiated with Chief Dean Manny and Jonathan over information about the Astral Orbital Barrier Device, revealing that Ailafia had told him about the secret experiment. Manny agreed to consider granting him limited access in exchange for verified Floating City Ruins intelligence, and John asked for further support to develop his territory.

• Jonathan apologized for Manny’s earlier joke and prepared to reject cooperation because of the Research Institute’s political sensitivities.
• John explained that he wanted information about an abandoned experiment, the Astral Orbital Barrier Device, in exchange for goods rather than the Institute’s political support.
• Manny ordered Jonathan to seal the conference room, then confirmed the experiment had been classified under His Majesty William’s Silence Edict.
• John said Ailafia had told him about the experiment after explaining that his childhood memories of her had been lost during the Commander-Type Mage Soldiers modification program.
• Manny offered John limited access to the experiment in exchange for genuine information about the Floating City Ruins, and John insisted that the offer was insufficient.
• John proposed that the Institute provide Faoken Territory with five hundred professional scholars and workshops for magical facilities.

John negotiated an annual scholar exchange between Faoken and the Imperial Supreme Research Institute, securing a research team for his territory while concealing his plans to recruit them permanently. He then gave Manny a map to the Floating City Ruins, revealing that the ruins lay beneath the dangerous Kogass Rift and leaving Manny eager to pursue his lifelong wish.

• John replaced his demand for five hundred academicians with three years of scholar exchanges and donations, and Manny agreed to the terms and signed the contract.
• John privately planned to use Faoken’s research freedom, resources, and funding to persuade visiting scholars to stay, while considering coercive schemes if they chose to leave.
• John gave Manny a map showing the Floating City Ruins beneath the Zhen Dan Empire ruins in Kogass Rift, thirty kilometers underground.
• John revealed that the meteor that fell 392 years earlier had been the shattered Floating City and assured Jonathan that Manny’s Crown Tier power could protect an excavation team from the radiation.
• Manny recognized the opportunity to pursue the Floating City Ruins, and John asked whether he was satisfied with the gift.

John learned the location of the Astral Orbital Barrier Device’s research facility but hesitated to investigate because he sensed danger. After spotting and identifying foreign agents surveilling him, he decided to prepare a trap before visiting the facility, then found an unexpected person in his hotel room.

• John received a Level Three laboratory access card and one personal favor from Manny in exchange for information about the Floating City Ruins.
• John reviewed the facility’s location and security, but his danger sense and questions about the Obsidian Pocket Watch made him hesitate to go there.
• John spotted a raven watching him near the Imperial Grand Hotel and asked Bruno to expand the Inspection Forces’ security perimeter.
• A woman in a suit tried to question the raven about whether John had retrieved the coordinates, but it refused to cooperate and vanished with her.
• John used his Magic Eye to observe the woman and raven, inferred they were agents from the Amika Continent seeking the authorization coordinates, and decided to prepare a capture trap before visiting the facility.
• John entered his hotel room and found an unexpected figure inside.

Sellviya visited John and traded her promised plantation reward for military training at Imperial First Military Academy, then confessed her love and kissed him. John was left uncertain how to handle their feelings, while a painful scene began at the Beyat Family estate.

• Sellviya told John she wanted to study military command at Imperial First Military Academy instead of receiving a plantation.
• John agreed to arrange her admission and proposed sending promising officers from Faoken and allied groups to train in Ereno.
• Sellviya said she would tolerate John keeping Meyer Sistana confined, then kissed him and confessed that she loved him and could not bear him leaving.
• John thanked Sellviya using her childhood nickname, Via, and she left the room smiling.
• John realized Sellviya had learned the truth about Celestine and that his efforts to spare her pain had revealed his feelings.
• At the Beyat Family estate, someone screamed after being struck.

After learning that John Maslow had outmaneuvered Doran, Arias whipped his son and gathered the Beyat Family’s senior members to announce his plan to leave the Old Guard Party for the Reformist Faction. He revealed that John had been chosen by the Demon King as a candidate and had begun the Demon King Trial, winning the family’s enthusiastic support.

• Arias punished Doran for losing his command and handing over three developed mineral veins after being tricked by John Maslow.
• Arias announced that he intended to lead the Beyat Family out of the Old Guard Party and establish close ties with John Maslow and Faoken Territory.
• Nethers Beyat warned that joining the Reformist Faction could leave the family exposed to destruction if the Old Guard Party won the coming power struggle.
• Arias praised Nethers’s analysis but said he would not change course because he knew a secret about John Maslow.
• Arias revealed that the Demon King had chosen John as a candidate and that John had begun the Demon King Trial.
• The senior members cheered Arias’s decision to join the Reformist Faction and stand against the Old Guard Party.

John reasoned through the likely outcome of the peace talks before Wendy’s malfunctioning Mage Pack sent her crashing into him and breaking three of his ribs. After he forgave her, Wendy returned to Ereno with an important matter to tell him, leaving him braced for her news.

• John predicted that the peace talks would lead to territorial compromises, mutual reparations, and renewed trade between the Empire and the Allied Forces.
• John sensed Wendy approaching, confirmed Sellviya was elsewhere, and went outside the hotel to meet her.
• Wendy’s Mage Pack malfunctioned during her dive, and she misheard John’s warning before crashing into his abdomen and breaking three of his ribs.
• After receiving medical treatment, John reassured Wendy and told her not to blame herself for the accident.
• John asked why Wendy had returned early, and she said she had something very important to tell him.

Wendy revealed to John that she was a wandering princess of the Brown Kingdom and explained her family's royal ancestry, while John warned her against trying to reclaim the throne during the ongoing peace talks. When Wendy claimed her father had uncovered the truth behind the royal family's mysterious deaths, John confirmed the killings were tied to a noble of the Loran Kingdom.

• Wendy told John she was a descendant of the Brown Kingdom's Stoneheart King and showed him her family crest and family tree.
• John accidentally destroyed his chair while trying to conceal an unstable binding spell, and Wendy blamed the chair's poor quality.
• John warned Wendy that helping her claim the Brown Kingdom's throne could get him punished for interfering in another country's affairs.
• Wendy swore that her father had discovered the royal family's deaths were not caused by illness but were connected to a noble.
• John confirmed the deaths were connected to a noble of the Loran Kingdom.

John explained to Wendy how the De Vries Family had been manipulated into helping bring down the Brown Royal Family and why she could not safely reclaim the throne yet. He promised to help her return as queen when the Empire was strong enough, and after the peace talks ended, he received an unexpected invitation.

• John told Wendy that the De Vries Family had been turned into a pawn through a long conspiracy involving the Sankaster and Valdren Families and the Loran Kingdom.
• John warned Wendy that attempting to restore the Brown Kingdom without overwhelming Imperial support would bring several powerful factions together against her.
• John offered Wendy another path: remain at his side and reclaim her throne when the Empire was ready to support her; Wendy accepted his promise and kissed his cheek.
• Twenty-five days later, the peace talks ended with the First Imperial Air Force Army withdrawing from the Slock Kingdom border and the Loran Kingdom returning Gordon Town.
• The Allied Forces and the Empire agreed to roughly equal reparations, and John received an unexpected invitation after sending Sellviya and her companions to the Imperial First Military Academy.

John accepted an invitation to lecture at the Royal Women's Academy of Arts, where he recognized the event as a trap prepared by undercover Amikan commander Viola Sterling. Viola pressed her partner Evan Montana to help capture John, but Evan warned her that John was more dangerous than the Demon King and left her to face the mission alone.

• John agreed to attend the academy discussion after Bruno told him Ailafia wanted him to help the students understand war.
• John summoned Serbia and Galil, arranged for a forbidden device to be delivered, and identified Vienna Pavlova as an Amikan agent preparing to ambush him.
• Viola, whose real identity was Viola Sterling, planned to capture John and force him to reveal the Empire's secret weapon coordinates.
• Evan Montana confronted Viola and warned her not to act, saying the danger he sensed from John surpassed what he had felt from the Demon King.
• Viola refused to abandon her plan, and Evan transformed into a Death Omen Crow and left the academy office.

John brought Sellviya and Galil to a symposium at the Imperial Royal Women's Academy of Arts, suspecting that enemy agents would try to capture him there. When Professor Vienna appeared and feigned a broken projector, John recognized the danger and ordered Sellviya and Galil to attack her.

• John persuaded Sellviya to accompany him to the symposium and kept his counter-capture plan from Bruno.
• John decided that Dean Linus should have greeted him, while the assistant instructor led the group to the fourth-floor classroom.
• Professor Vienna announced that a broken magical projector would delay the symposium, then saw Sellviya and Galil and worried that her plan had become harder.
• John ordered Sellviya and Galil to take Vienna, and they lunged at her in the corridor.

Viola’s identity as a transcendent Mage was exposed, and Sellviya pursued her while John anticipated an attack on the academy. Sellviya pinned Viola with her Crimson Flame Erosion Spear, but a masked Crown Tier swordsman appeared and struck toward Viola, leaving Sellviya stunned by what she saw.

• Viola revealed her transcendent magic, attacked the approaching students with wind blades, and escaped through a window while Sellviya pursued her.
• John destroyed the wind blades before they reached the students and took Galil and a teaching assistant toward the Music Academy, expecting the enemy’s attack to begin.
• An academy-wide warning announced that unidentified attackers had invaded the Music Academy.
• Viola fled from Sellviya, but Sellviya struck her shoulder with a Crimson Flame Erosion Spear and pinned her against a wall.
• A masked figure attacked with Crown Tier sword energy, and Sellviya realized the strike was aimed at Viola, who was supposed to be pinned to the wall.

A silver-masked Crown Tier mage rescued Viola, learned that her unit had no coordinates for the Star Spell target, and killed her. Tolovsky failed to catch the mysterious mage after the Crown of Omniscience disrupted his magic, then ordered an investigation and began considering the Astral Orbital Barrier Device.

• Sellviya survived the mysterious mage’s warning slash and hurried back to report the encounter to John.
• The silver-masked woman questioned Viola, cut off her arm, and learned that the United States of Amika had ordered surveillance and sabotage but had no coordinates.
• The silver-masked woman killed Viola and escaped Tolovsky when the Crown of Omniscience interfered with his attack.
• Tolovsky bound the unresponsive Crown of Omniscience, memorized the woman’s magical aura, and ordered the Eye of Truth Corps to investigate spatial Crown Mages.
• Tolovsky learned that John was at the Royal Women's Academy of Arts, asked Kaspar to arrange a meeting, and turned his attention to the Astral Orbital Barrier Device.

John learned that the failed attack on him had involved Fiona Lesco, an unidentified Crowned Rank swordswoman, and the Arcane Ring he had once hidden in the Astral Realm. Tolovsky explained the ring’s origins and suspected Fiona wanted its coordinate, leaving John to face a conspiracy tied to his lost memories and an ancient arcanist bloodline.

• John identified the attackers’ communications devices as belonging to the United States of Amika and ordered Galil to collect them for research.
• Galil suspected Amika had targeted John to reignite the war and resolved to hunt down its agents.
• Sellviya reported that Fiona Lesco had helped Vienna escape after defeating her with a strange spatial sword technique.
• John recognized Fiona from the sequel’s background material and was summoned to the Stargazing Spire by Tolovsky.
• Tolovsky said Fiona had escaped his attempt to kill her and identified the Arcane Ring as the likely object of her search.
• Tolovsky explained that John had hidden the Arcane Ring in the Astral Realm and anchored it to someone in the Empire, while Fiona might descend from an ancient arcanist.

John secured Tolovsky’s agreement to send Balga Istania to Faoken Territory as his protector, in exchange for fixing the flaws in Temporal Stasis within two years. Meanwhile, Dries Ostan confronted his heir Iver about his mistress and revealed that he knew Iver had been poisoning him.

• John asked Tolovsky about the Arcane Ring’s anchor point, and Tolovsky gave him an Astral Realm Chart that John could not yet safely study.
• John offered to fix Tolovsky’s Temporal Stasis Star Spell in exchange for a combat-focused Crown Tier mage to protect him in Faoken Territory, and Tolovsky agreed to assign Balga Istania for two years.
• John accepted the agreement despite anticipating trouble from Balga’s hatred of Beastfolk and volatile temperament.
• Dries Ostan summoned Iver and demanded that he kill his lowborn mistress or let Dries have her killed.
• Iver promised to deal with his mistress, while fearing that Dries had uncovered her role in supplying him with poison.
• Dries asked Iver whether he was frightened because Dries knew he had been poisoning him for years.

Dris exposed and killed his son Ivel for conspiring with Theodore, then witnessed Liana awaken the Ostan Glory War Soul and appointed her his successor. After Dris died, Liana accepted command of the navy and issued her first order as duke.

• Dris revealed that he had monitored Ivel's poisoning attempts and secret alliance with Theodore, then defeated Ivel despite his corrupting potion.
• Dris used his Crown Tier power to annihilate Ivel and explained that Theodore had intended to manipulate him and seize the Ostan Family's power.
• Liana arrived in time to witness Ivel's death, awakened the Glory War Soul, and received Dris's support as his heir and the navy's next grand marshal.
• Dris ordered the six fleet marshals to begin the Purge Operation against Theodore and his followers, then gave Liana his final instructions before dying.
• Liana took the Sea Dragon Seal, saw the Reformist Faction's flag raised at the port, and announced her first order as Ostan Duke and commander of the navy.

After Dries Ostan’s death, Prime Minister Wolf Caster ordered his faction to withdraw and warned that Emperor William would exploit the succession to expand imperial power. William mourned Dries, ordered surveillance of Wolf and protection and testing for Liana, and vowed to pursue reform even if it turned him into a monster.

• Wolf learned that Dries Ostan was dead, Theodore Ostanen had been captured, and Liana Ostan had secured the navy’s support.
• Wolf rejected Michel Lart’s proposal to attack the Ostan Family and ordered their agents to lie low for at least three months.
• Wolf burned the reform plan he had once made with Dries and predicted William would use the succession to bring the navy under imperial control.
• William heard the reports of Dries’s death and recalled how Dries had once defied orders to save the Empire’s eastern coast.
• William ordered the Inspection Forces to monitor Wolf Caster, sent The Nameless to protect and test Liana, and arranged to attend Dries’s burial at sea.
• William vowed to carry out Dries’s reforms despite becoming a brutal ruler, then shattered the mirror before him.