Chapter Summaries

After learning that Dries Ostan had died and Liana Ostan had taken over the duchy, John prepared to act and called an evening meeting at Binote Manor. Meanwhile, Duke Mosesiris revealed his plan to exploit the Empire’s power struggle, march on the capital, and seize the throne.

• Ian told John that Dries Ostan was dead, Ivel had disappeared, and Liana Ostan had inherited the duchy.
• John decided to attend Dries’s burial at Storm Fortress and summoned Barnabos and the other members to a meeting at Binote Manor that night.
• Duke Mosesiris’s supervisors reported on the power vacuums left by Dries’s death and the rival factions’ expected struggle.
• Mosesiris ordered his agents to make William, Wolf, and Liana weaken one another before the Blood Lion Legion marched east under the pretext of defending the throne.
• Mosesiris declared that he would take the throne and rule the Empire.

John summoned the 303rd Division’s officers and intelligence allies to reveal the threat of revived forbidden experiments and reject both sides in the coming party struggle. He announced that he would found a third faction, the People’s Party, and left the attendees to decide whether to join.

• Laiya secured the Binote Manor secret chamber for John’s meeting with the 303rd Division’s officers, Sellviya, Galil, Ian, and Barnabos.
• John announced that Ostan Duke had been poisoned, his heir Iver had vanished, and his daughter Liana had inherited the title.
• John revealed records showing 130,000 victims of the Empire’s forbidden experiments and warned that Old Guard Party members planned to revive the program in pursuit of long life and immortality.
• Sellviya vowed to stop the experiments, while John said he would support neither the Old Guard Party nor the Reformist Faction because both preserved the Empire’s oppressive class system.
• John condemned inherited privilege and declared that honor and power should belong to the people rather than noble families.
• John displayed the People’s Party flag and announced his plan to establish the party, leaving everyone free to choose whether to join.

John secured the support of all fourteen founding members for the People's Party, including Laiya after promising to protect the imperial family while insisting that power be returned to the citizens. After they signed a confidentiality contract, he announced that he planned to revise the Maslow Quotations because he had falsified some of their core ideas.

• Miles joined the People's Party after Igonila threatened him with a dagger beneath the table.
• Sellviya rejected the idea of being a follower, then joined as an equal member after John refused her demand for special status.
• Laiya asked whether John would kill William and the Perus Imperial House, and he promised to protect them if real power was returned to the citizens.
• Laiya joined the People's Party, bringing the founding membership to fourteen.
• John and the other founders marked a confidentiality contract with their blood and magic.
• John told the group that he had falsified ideas in the Maslow Quotations and proposed revising them.

John revealed that he had altered the Maslow Quotations to conceal their true message of humanity’s liberation, then urged the People's Party’s founders to unite against oppression despite their weakness. The thirteen pledged to follow him, leaving the party committed to its dangerous struggle.

• Hawk supported John’s decision to revise the quotations, and the others unanimously agreed.
• John projected the original passage calling for humanity’s liberation, and the group recognized the quotations’ true doctrine.
• John described the party’s political and military weakness and the powerful enemies it faced.
• John urged the founders to use the coming conflict between the Reformist Faction and the Old Guard Party to grow the People's Party and unite anyone who shared its convictions.
• John vowed to pursue liberation despite the danger, and all thirteen pledged to stand beside him until death.

John organized the People's Party's development plan and prepared to approach Liana Ostan, who had unexpectedly inherited the dukedom. At Dries Ostan's burial at sea, he watched Liana's composure and found her alone afterward, where he offered her his umbrella and condolences.

• John adopted Hawk's three-year plan for expanding the People's Party, assigned responsibilities to its members, and decided he alone would contact Liana Ostan.
• Parliament announced Dries Ostan's death and Liana's succession, and William, Wolf, Mosesiris, and John attended the duke's burial at sea.
• Liana maintained a composed public bearing at the funeral, honored her father with a speech, and sent his coffin and naval cap into the sea.
• After the funeral, John stayed aboard the ship while Liana stood alone in the rain, then approached her with an umbrella and offered his condolences.

At Duke Dries Ostan's funeral, John Maslow negotiated an alliance with his daughter Liana, offering Faoken's resources and military support in exchange for shipbuilding expertise and backing for his local reforms. Liana accepted his token and agreed to receive his envoy in three days, while warning him about Duke Mosesiris.

• John identified Liana as the Reformist Faction's only naval banner and argued that she needed a dependable ally to secure her authority.
• John offered Faoken's timber, salt, steel, and possible Lizardfolk troops in exchange for Ostan shipyard technology and 350 skilled craftsmen.
• John proposed publicly supporting reforms in Faoken, including common-born officers' promotion, nonhuman troops, and a Local Council Consultative System; Liana asked for time and a detailed proposal.
• John recalled Duke Dries's final signed document praising him, and Liana accepted his badge and agreed to meet Major Wendy in three days.
• Liana warned John that Duke Mosesiris sought the throne, while John shared intelligence about Count Glendor's meetings with navy lieutenant generals.

After securing Liana’s cooperation, John prepared Wendy to negotiate a secret alliance with the Ostan Duchy and returned to Ereno. There, he told Galil that the time had come to lift the curse and keep his promise to her.

• John assigned Wendy to lead Faoken’s trade talks with Liana and drafted three documents, including a secret plan to counter the Old Guard Party.
• John explained that Liana needed his support and ordered Wendy to investigate Ostan Territory’s finances for signs of tampering.
• John attended Dries Ostan’s funeral banquet, then returned to Ereno with Wendy aboard William’s train.
• After organizing his outstanding business, John summoned Galil and told her to gather the Drow warriors in Ereno so he could lift their curse.

Galil led a disguised Drow caravan to Lunalia to take part in a purification ritual, while Mayor Buller tried to keep his town safe from the dangerous visitors. After sensing Amikan forces nearby, Galil ordered her mages to attack and kill them.

• Kalia paid Mayor Buller to lodge her caravan at the Laurel and Silver Coin and arrange a private visit to Moon Lake.
• Buller warned his nephew not to provoke the caravan, then speculated that its members might die near Moon Lake and leave their wagons behind.
• Galil revealed her Drow identity and told her deputy that nine other caravans were traveling to Lunalia for the cleansing ritual.
• Galil sensed an unfamiliar presence in the western forest and identified it as Amikans who had attacked Governor John.
• Galil ordered Jaba to gather every Mage of Upper Tier or higher and kill all the Amikans.

Galil and the Drow ambushed an Augmented Corps unit from the United States of Amika near Lunaria Town, killing nearly all of its soldiers. They captured a technician carrying valuable intelligence and technical files, then prepared to return to Officer John.

• A hundred Augmented Corps soldiers advanced toward Lunaria Town to test their equipment and capture people with a Unique Formula.
• The soldiers detected a Transcendent Tier mana source, and Galil and the Drow attacked them under cover of darkness.
• Galil killed the captain and the Drow eliminated most of the unit, while their Shadow Arts defeated the soldiers’ targeting systems.
• A technician offered intelligence files and technical data in exchange for his life, and Galil chose to take him prisoner.
• Galil ordered the Drow to collect equipment, clean up the battlefield, and keep the surviving technician alive for Officer John.

Galil reported that she and the Silver Moon Legion had freed the Drow from their curse and destroyed an Amikan Augmented Corps unit, leaving John alarmed by the consequences and Galil’s newfound admiration for him. In Ereno, Prime Minister Wolf suspected John was helping the Emperor and ordered the Cabinet to approve the formation of John’s 303rd Independent Division.

• Galil reported that her troops had lifted the Drow’s curse and eliminated an Amikan unit, capturing a prisoner with valuable intelligence.
• John praised Galil and the Silver Moon Legion, then dismissed them before Galil’s reverent attention made him fear she had romantic feelings for him.
• Michel told Wolf that John had met with Liana Ostan and that John’s deputy had visited her and toured an Ostan shipyard.
• Wolf concluded that John was clearing the way for someone else and said Emperor William was testing John’s loyalty and political instincts.
• Michel explained that the Cabinet and Defense Department had delayed equipment and personnel approvals for John’s 303rd Independent Division, and Wolf ordered him to approve it.

Wolf arranged for the 303rd Independent Division to be equipped and formed ahead of schedule so John Maslow would have to leave Ereno, with plans to arrange his death at Fauken Bay. John recognized the Old Guard Party’s scheme but decided the posting would let the People's Party grow beyond the capital’s political struggle.

• Wolf ordered the 303rd Independent Division formed with priority equipment and personnel, intending to send John to Fauken Bay and later stage an assassination there.
• John received the division’s approval and discovered it had been formed at full strength with exceptional equipment and supplies.
• John concluded that the Old Guard Party had expedited the formation to isolate him from Ereno and make him vulnerable to an apparent accident at Fauken Bay.
• John explained to Wendy that the Old Guard Party mistook his contact with Liana Ostan for an attempt to help William control the navy, and that informants in the division could threaten their plans.
• John decided to obey the order and leave Ereno, believing Fauken Bay would give the People's Party room to grow during the coming party struggle.

Emperor William rejected the attempt to turn him against John Maslow and recruited Bob Ariel as navy minister, tasking him with stabilizing the navy and advancing a bill granting border military districts special autonomy. William’s moves prepared Faoken as a protected base for John while he positioned the Empire’s factions against one another; Wolf recognized the plan but judged that he could not stop it yet.

• William pieced together Wolf’s plan to make him distrust John, burned the Inspection Forces’ reports, and summoned Bob Ariel.
• William offered Bob the navy ministry on the conditions that he restore order in the navy and advance the Special Autonomy Regulation for Border Military Districts, agreeing to trade approval of three Old Guard Party governors for support.
• Bob accepted William’s proposal, which would give John Maslow authority in Faoken beyond the Old Guard Party’s interference.
• William visited the loyal fleet marshals, prompted Carlos to place the First Fleet on combat readiness, and assigned the Royal Magic Artillery Brigade to Reynard’s Fifth Fleet.
• William promoted Bob to navy minister and began pushing the autonomy bill, while Wolf concluded that Faoken could become the Imperial House’s retreat in a crisis.
• William dismissed Wolf’s understanding of his strategy and planned to let his opponents exhaust one another before the Perus Family crushed them.

John left Ereno for Faoken after Emperor William granted him sweeping autonomy, making him both a powerful ruler and a target for the Old Guard Party. As the city disappeared behind him, he looked ahead with renewed resolve to develop Faoken.

• John reviewed William’s appointment document and recognized that Faoken’s autonomy gave him broad military and lawmaking powers while exposing him to political and economic threats.
• John prepared to return with trade agreements from twenty-six families and relied on his economic preparations and the protection of Balga and Galil against sanctions and assassination attempts.
• John recounted Conrad’s transfer into Imperial Military Intelligence, Krauser’s list of fourteen Nameless Society members, and Hartmut’s first progress toward studying party ideas.
• John left the Imperial Grand Hotel amid an honor guard and a crowd of supporters, then departed Ereno with Wendy.
• John looked back at Ereno as the car passed through its gates, remarked that the storm had ended, and turned his attention toward the road ahead.

John welcomed Doran, who had secretly resigned from the army to lead a mining association team in Faoken, and the two exchanged false courtesies while plotting against each other. He then met Priest Lucius, sent by Archbishop Famiu to establish a Church parish, and remained wary despite the priest’s modest aid and polished manners.

• John learned Wendy had failed her academy exam again, so he brought her back to Faoken instead of leaving her at the academy.
• Doran delivered Marquis Arias’s letter, which revealed that he had resigned as a lieutenant general and become president of the Imperial Mining Management Association.
• John and Doran greeted each other warmly in public while privately blaming each other and anticipating revenge in Faoken.
• Priest Lucius arrived with twelve monks and introduced himself as the Church’s representative tasked with establishing a parish in Faoken.
• Lucius presented Holy Spring Town water, cheap saint statues, and alchemy equipment as aid, while John inspected the gifts and resolved to investigate the priest later.

John negotiated the Faoken diocese’s establishment with Lucius but suspected the priest was carefully disguising his intentions. After Lunebo warned that Lucius might be waiting for a specific condition, John ordered an inspection of the Church’s supplies while considering the distant Archbishop Famiu.

• Lucius presented the Church’s permit for a Faoken diocese and explained its clauses, including the limits on Church property and armed guards.
• Lucius proposed a Foundation Blessing for John, but Wendy suggested holding it publicly after they reached Faoken, and Lucius agreed.
• John probed Lucius about ancient texts and Faoken’s ruins, then agreed to arrange an investigation subject to Imperial rules.
• After Lucius left, Wendy urged John to eliminate the Church party, but John explained that Lucius had been testing and shaping his impressions throughout their conversation.
• Lunebo warned that Lucius might be waiting for a particular condition and asked to inspect the Church’s supplies for hidden traps.
• John approved Lunebo’s discreet inspection and watched the others leave before turning his attention toward the Empire and Archbishop Famiu.

John investigated Lucius's suspicious supplies and nightly ritual during the voyage, then prepared to restrict the monks' activities in Faoken and undermine Lucius. Lucius secretly sent a message to a distant black stone tablet before the fleet reached Faoken's harbor, where John anticipated the next stage of his rule.

• Marda reported that the monks' supplies contained Energy-Channeling Runes and that Lucius's nightly prayer gesture caused an unexplained fluctuation, so John ordered constant surveillance and instructed his team to capture Lucius if he slipped up.
• After weeks of monitoring Lucius without finding further evidence, John met with him about plans for a Church branch in Faoken and deflected his proposal to hold purification ceremonies at old battlefields.
• John told Lunebo to control the monks' local contacts and records, and they plotted to frame Lucius for sacrilege; John also ordered the Drow Clan to provide the monks' assistants and interpreters.
• Lucius secretly used a pebble to send a message to a black stone tablet in the Empire, reporting that the seed had been sown and the True God would soon descend.
• John woke with an unexplained sense of unease, then saw Faoken's harbor at dawn and welcomed the approaching land.

John returned to Faoken and ordered immediate measures to address food, health, construction, and security while planning to build ties with neighboring clans. The chapter ended with Ace Darkmoon arriving at the Governor's Residence and offering to betray the Darkmoon Clan in exchange for his life.

• John returned to Faoken, where Duke reported on construction in Furnace Town, the Darkmoon Clan's growing warren, and the lack of contact with the Morning Star and Black Marsh Clans.
• Lunebo, Wendy, Marda, and Laiya reported Faoken's urgent food, disease, building, and security problems to John.
• John ordered the 303rd Division to prepare campsites, issued a tax-exempt reclamation edict, and sent Miles and Igonila to trade with the Black Marsh and Morning Star Clans.
• John assigned Wendy and Laiya to secure the Church supplies in a warehouse until Priest Lucius could verify them as safe.
• Ace Darkmoon entered John's conference room, begged him not to kill him, and pledged allegiance in exchange for revealing the Darkmoon Clan's plans to rebel.

John learned from Ace Darkmoon that the Darkmoon Clan had secretly expanded its caverns, stockpiled food, and discovered a large Magic Crystal Vein, then offered Ace a job. Later, Miles and Igonila negotiated with Lizardfolk at the Black Marsh border for Netherwater Grass and marsh guides.

• John mistook Ace’s claims of rebellion for a desperate attempt to save himself, but kept questioning him instead of correcting the misunderstanding.
• Ace told John about the Darkmoon Clan’s hidden Magic Crystal Vein, and John decided to reward him and considered making him the clan’s new leader.
• John praised Ace’s loyalty and invited him to work for him, leaving Ace stunned.
• Miles and Igonila met six Lizardfolk at the Black Marsh border and offered refined salt in exchange for Netherwater Grass and guides.
• The Lizardfolk demanded iron tools as well as salt, and Miles agreed to provide shovels and axes in exchange for a week of help.
• The Lizardfolk hunter gave Miles some Netherwater Grass and agreed to return the next day with three guides, while Igonila restrained himself from fighting him.

John assigned his officers five plans to develop Faoken, including building a road, registering residents, expanding trade and reconnaissance, and forming an elite Rapid Response Force. The next morning, he approved a site for Priest Lucius's church branch, but Lucius accepted the remote location without objection.

• John ordered Marda to build Faoken's first road, funded construction with grain seized from the Darkmoon Clan, and arranged for food shipments from the Perus Trading Company.
• John tasked Wendy with registering residents and recording their skills, sent Igonila and Miles on separate expeditions, and assigned Lunebo to scout nearby clans.
• John ordered Laiya to form a hundred-person Rapid Response Force, demanding absolute loyalty and destructive power.
• Priest Lucius requested a foundation ceremony, and John proposed a remote headland east of the port as the site for the Church branch.
• Lucius accepted John's proposed site without objection.

John attended the Church’s foundation ceremony in Faoken and ordered the clergy secretly monitored after sensing something unsettling about Lucius. In the Cocobia Rainforest, Ace led Imperial troops to seize Root Nest and force the Darkmoon Clan elders to surrender, while Dimis endorsed Ace’s decision to pledge the clan’s loyalty to John.

• John joined Lucius in the temple foundation ceremony, sensed something strange when their hands touched, and later ordered Wendy to watch the priest and arrange for Shadow Eyes to spy on him.
• Ace led three hundred Faoken Security Forces troops to Root Nest and demanded that the Darkmoon Clan elders surrender over their secret excavation of Magic Crystal Ore.
• Major Duke fired a warning shot and set a twenty-six-minute deadline, after which Ace threatened the clan until seven elders, including Grom, surrendered.
• Ace argued that pledging loyalty to John was the Darkmoon Clan’s only chance to survive, and Grom warned that Ace would destroy the clan.
• Dimis arrived, explained that John’s military power made resistance futile, and publicly supported Ace’s decision to pledge the Darkmoon Clan’s loyalty to John.