Chapter Summaries

John learned from Ernest how crushing taxes and debt trapped Stone Village’s villagers, deepening his doubts about serving the Empire. When Mike accidentally insulted Imperial soldiers in front of him, John calmly warned the boy to stay alive and left the village.

• Ernest denied that the villagers’ injuries came from the Allied Forces and claimed they had fought over water.
• John promised to arrange a new well and asked Ernest about Stone Village’s taxes.
• Ernest described eleven taxes and predatory loans that forced families to mortgage their children, and John realized how close villagers were to starvation.
• John reflected that the Empire’s noble-driven policies made its downfall inevitable and that he had no power to reform it.
• Mike arrived with canned meat and called Imperial soldiers “dogs” in front of John, terrifying both Mike and Ernest.
• John patted Mike’s head, advised him not to insult people to their faces if he wanted to stay alive, and left the village.

Ernest decided to risk trusting John, the Xianqin descendant, to protect Stone Village from the Imperial Army and summoned his son and the other villagers. Back at camp, John began writing a report to General Dormammu about the old noble system.

• Ernest scolded Mike for wanting to eat the canned food, then sent him to fetch his father and Uncle Pulida.
• Ernest hid Mike’s two cans and chose to gamble on John’s goodwill rather than trust the Kingdom’s or Empire’s nobles.
• Mike ran to find his father, while Ernest watched children returning from gathering intelligence and resolved to risk everything for Stone Village.
• John returned to camp, found the soldiers training or studying, and told Wendy not to disturb him.
• John sat down to write a report titled “On the Harm of the Old Noble System to the Empire's Unification.”

John wrote a reform bill targeting the old noble system and planned to use it to transfer from the military into government service, advance reforms, and eventually retire. As he prepared to send the bill to Dormammu, he sensed explosive magic and suspected Wendy had found Allied Forces troops.

• John detailed how the old noble system harmed citizens, commerce, and the Empire, then sealed the reform proposal in three copies for Dormammu.
• John reasoned that Dormammu might take the bill to Emperor William and push through some reforms despite opposition from the Old Guard Party.
• John planned to use the reform campaign and his expected political setbacks to leave the battlefield, enter the administration, and later retire.
• John emerged from his tent and learned from two soldiers that Sergeant Wendy had left to carry out a task he did not remember assigning her.
• John sensed thickening magic power, saw a dark crimson magic circle on a distant hill, and wondered whether Wendy had found Allied Forces troops as an explosion sounded.

Wendy mistook nine Stone Village men for Allied Forces spies, then learned they had come to report an enemy hiding place. Their leader, Siegfried, offered to guide the Imperial Army to the Allied Forces soldiers in Horseshoe Mountain and fight alongside them.

• Wendy guarded John's tent while planning to cook him a Stargazy Pie.
• Two auxiliary soldiers told Wendy that Stone Village villagers had arrived with important intelligence, and she arranged extra guards before meeting them.
• Wendy recognized the nine sturdy men and concluded they were Allied Forces spies.
• Siegfried recounted how he gained Wild Hunt Power, fled persecution, and secretly strengthened himself to protect his family and village.
• Siegfried told Wendy that Allied Forces soldiers had plundered Stone Village and revealed their hiding place in the valley at the center of Horseshoe Mountain.
• Siegfried offered to guide the Imperial Army to the enemy and join the fight.

Wendy recognized Siegfried as a rare mutated mage and led him and nine Mage Soldiers toward the Allied Forces concealed in the Horseshoe Mountain valley. After reconnaissance revealed 431 enemy troops and a major, Wendy ordered the squad to attack without a plan, convinced the ten Imperial soldiers had the advantage.

• Wendy examined Siegfried's magic and concluded he possessed unusual solidified magical formula circuits, then decided to bring him along to eliminate the Allied Forces.
• Wendy selected nine Mage Soldiers from the 14th Squad and ordered Siegfried to lead them to the enemy, despite his warning that more than 300 elite troops were waiting.
• A soldier from the 14th Squad reported that 431 Allied Forces troops, including a major, were in the valley and that they belonged to the Fifth Legion.
• Wendy punished Charlie Mambo for previously questioning Captain John and ordered him to copy the Maslow Quotations one hundred times.
• Wendy dismissed Siegfried's request to discuss an attack plan and ordered the 14th Squad into Level One Combat Status to annihilate the enemy and capture the major alive.

John praised Wendy for capturing an Allied Forces major, then warned her about the Empire’s enemies and the duties of its soldiers. His speech drew the admiration of Siegfried Fafner, whose unexpected appearance left John pale and desperate to believe he was only seeing an illusion.

• Wendy credited John’s influence among Stone Village’s civilians for helping her capture an Allied Forces major and explained her view of the Empire’s mission.
• John accepted that the capture disrupted his plans and instructed Wendy that the Empire’s enemies included exploiters and anyone undermining its development.
• Siegfried Fafner applauded John’s speech, and John recognized him as a future villain he thought was still living in seclusion five years before.
• John asked Wendy who the newcomer was, but she admitted she did not know and asked him his name.
• Siegfried introduced himself as Ernest Fafner’s eldest son and thanked John and the Imperial Army for helping Stone Village.

John stopped Siegfried from asking to enlist, urging him to protect his family and promising Stone Village would improve. Knowing Siegfried’s tragic future as the Empire’s experimental weapon, John hoped to keep him out of the army, though he feared the political consequences if the Empire’s leaders targeted him.

• John interrupted Siegfried before he could ask to join the Empire and urged him to remain a civilian for his family’s sake.
• John promised that Stone Village would improve and refused to approve Siegfried’s enlistment.
• John recalled how, in the original storyline, Duke Mosesiris had arranged for Siegfried’s family to be killed and made him the core subject of the Imperial New Mage Combat Corps.
• John remembered Siegfried’s experiments, his transformation into the source of the Twelve Guardians, and his eventual death after his final arrow failed to stop Damocles.
• John feared that enlisting Siegfried could draw him into Duke Mosesiris’s plans and force John into a dangerous confrontation that would ruin his hopes for a peaceful life.

John rejected Siegfried’s enlistment, then tried to keep Wendy from turning his remarks into Maslowist doctrine. He headed to interrogate the captured Allied Forces major, suspecting the major knew where another shipment of gold was hidden.

• Siegfried thanked John and left Stone Village after John declined his enlistment application.
• Wendy urged John to reconsider, but he cited recruitment rules and warned her against favoritism and abusing authority.
• Wendy recorded John’s remarks in her green notebook and embellished them as new Maslowist teachings.
• John redirected Wendy toward interrogating the captured Allied Forces major and wondered why the Allied Forces had come to the area.
• John suspected the major was connected to a shipment of gold and hurried toward the tent, eager to question him.

Major Will Hoffman was captured after his unit’s raid failed, and he was shocked when John Maslow appeared to interrogate him. John believed Will knew where a huge sum of Allied Forces gold was hidden and tried to persuade him to reveal it.

• Will Hoffman remembered that his soldiers’ looting of Stone Village had exposed their hidden position and led to their defeat.
• Will resolved to remain silent, believing Lieutenant General Roxy would later exchange prisoners and rescue him.
• John Maslow entered the interrogation tent, and Will was stunned to see the assassination target in front of him.
• John claimed he already knew Will’s plan and interpreted Will’s shock as proof that he was guarding a fortune in Allied Forces gold.
• John urged Will to hand over the gold in exchange for his life, while imagining how he would invest the money after the war.

John tried to break Major Will's resistance and learn where the gold was hidden, using insults, pressure, and a staged threat of execution. Just as Will began to offer information, a female Imperial soldier brought in a man who looked almost exactly like Baron Myka, leaving Will stunned and resentful.

• Will denied knowing about the Allied Forces' plan, so John taunted him about Lieutenant General Roxy and the failed mission.
• Will attacked John in anger, and Hawk struck him with a rifle butt, breaking his teeth before hauling him up by the hair.
• Will continued to deny knowledge and demanded prisoner treatment, while John stopped questioning him and created a tense silence.
• John checked his watch and remarked that the timing was right, prompting Will to begin offering information.
• A chestnut-haired female soldier entered with a flattering man whose face nearly matched Baron Myka's, shocking Will.

Dick Hardman and Will both mistook John’s actions for deliberate, ruthless manipulation and decided to submit to him. John realized that Will’s force had been sent to assassinate him and began wondering why Roxy had ordered the attack, as Will offered to help eliminate the Allied troops in the other three villages in exchange for one condition.

• Will accused Dick of betraying the Allied Forces by colluding with the Empire, and Dick realized John had put him on the spot during the interrogation.
• Believing John would punish all of House Hartman unless he proved their loyalty, Dick promised to hang his father, Myka Hartman, and begged John to spare the family’s younger members.
• Will concluded that John was dangerous enough to threaten his family and resolved to surrender and lead the Imperial Army against the other Allied forces.
• John realized Dick was a local named Dick Hardman and that capturing him had accidentally disrupted an assassination plot involving Roxy and Myka.
• John wondered why Roxy had resorted to assassination, and Will offered to guide the Imperial Army against the troops in the other three villages if John granted him one condition.

John offered to let the captured Will Hoffman escape back to the Allied Forces as a covert Imperial spy, believing the plan would protect his retirement ambitions and help identify who ordered the assassination attempt. Will mistook John's scheme for proof of an all-seeing Imperial conspiracy and accepted, leaving him bound to serve the Empire while his family remained in the Victoria Kingdom.

• Will offered his loyalty to the Empire if John sent agents to rescue his family from the Victoria Kingdom.
• John silently reconsidered Will's offer, rejected a public surrender, and decided to turn him into a spy to avoid attracting military honors and test whether Roxy had ordered the assassination.
• John proposed that Will pretend to escape into the mountains and return to the Allied Forces as an Imperial agent.
• Will interpreted John's proposal as evidence of a powerful Imperial network and feared that his spy role would disgrace the Hoffman Family.
• Will blamed Roxy for the failed assassination mission, then knelt and kissed John's boot before agreeing to serve the Empire.

After Will became an Imperial spy and revealed Allied positions, he mistakenly attributed John’s success to an elaborate intelligence plan. Wendy and Hawk’s fervent praise turned John’s supposed doctrines into a military cult, while Will secretly vowed to resist them.

• Will marked the Allied Forces’ locations in three villages and towns on a map, and Wendy urged John to kill him.
• John reassured Will while warning him not to betray the Empire, and Will deduced an elaborate plan that John had never made.
• Hawk praised John’s supposed foresight, and Wendy punished Hawk with a copying assignment for questioning John’s wisdom.
• Hawk eagerly accepted John’s approval and carried away the New Maslow Quotations as though they were sacred scripture.
• Will concluded that John had permission to spread cult propaganda and swore privately that he would never be brainwashed.

John ordered Wendy to report Will’s recruitment as a spy to General Dormammu, while Wendy invented an elaborate story about John’s supposed secret agent. After Wendy left, Hawk volunteered to spread the Maslow Spirit to Will, setting up a new round of unwanted indoctrination.

• John stopped Wendy from departing to attack Allied Forces units and told her to report Will’s recruitment to General Dormammu.
• Wendy imagined that John had become handler to a former academy classmate secretly planted in the Allied Forces, and John reluctantly let her believe it.
• Wendy went to the 14th Squad, where Hawk announced that he had memorized all the New Maslow Quotations.
• Wendy avoided testing Hawk and instructed him to spread the Maslow Spirit while she reported to General Dormammu.
• Hawk decided to teach Will about the Empire and the Maslow Spirit.

Wendy manipulated Hawk into spreading Maslowism, and Hawk gave Major Will a copy of New Maslow Quotations. Will read it despite his suspicions and began questioning his noble identity and loyalty to the Kingdom.

• Wendy privately celebrated that she had tricked Hawk into taking on more work, then had Mia contact General Dormammu as John had instructed.
• Hawk overcame his reluctance to part with his handwritten copy of New Maslow Quotations and delivered it to the recovering Major Will.
• Hawk explained John's teachings about opposing oppression and challenged Will to a fair fight after the mission if Will resented being beaten.
• Will tried to dismiss the book as enemy propaganda but curiosity led him to read it.
• As Will read the passages about soldiers and the people, he felt his inherited beliefs shatter and realized he might never again be the same Will Hoffman.

Laiya Binote mistook Bahamut Town’s empty walls for an Allied Forces ambush and ordered an explosive assault, while Baron Myka interpreted the attack as a show of force and prepared to meet the Imperial Army at the western wall. The chapter ended with Myka heading toward the ruined defenses, still confident that he could carry out his plan to kill John Maslow.

• Laiya Binote suspected the Allied Forces were hiding inside Bahamut Town and ordered her troops to prepare an attack.
• Laiya commanded the Mage Soldiers to use Explosive Magic against the town wall, and the blast destroyed the western wall.
• Tom reported the attack to Baron Myka and feared that the Imperial Army had mistaken the town for the force behind an earlier ambush.
• Baron Myka reasoned that John Maslow might be trying to intimidate him, but believed his secret agreement with the Allied Forces remained undiscovered.
• Baron Myka ordered Tom to gather the guards and accompany him to the western wall to meet the Imperial Army.

Baron Myka brought two thousand guards to Bahamut Town and expected John Maslow to negotiate, but Laiya mistook them for the Allied Forces’ surface garrison and ordered her troops to fire. Myka escaped the gunfire in terror, realizing John was a far more dangerous opponent than he had assumed.

• Baron Myka arrived near Bahamut Town with two thousand guards and demanded that John Maslow explain the Imperial Army’s attack.
• Baron Myka waited for John to negotiate, while Laiya wondered why the Allied Forces had not appeared as expected.
• Laiya recalled John’s orders to attack the town’s surface garrison without wiping it out and identified Myka’s force as the target.
• Laiya ordered the Imperial troops to fire armor-piercing rounds at Myka’s guards.
• Baron Myka activated a magic item and threw himself to the ground as bullets killed his guards, then fled under their protection.
• Baron Myka concluded that John was a terrifying monster like Roxy, or perhaps even more dangerous.

Baron Myka ordered his forces to surrender when the Imperial Army’s attack threatened to destroy his estate’s guards. Laiya mistook the surrender for a trap, ordered an orderly retreat, and left Myka unsure what to do next.

• Baron Myka realized he had become bait in the assassination plan and ordered his guards to stop firing.
• Myka ordered his men to raise white flags and announce their surrender to halt the Imperial Army’s attack.
• A scout told Laiya that the enemy had raised white flags and appeared to be surrendering.
• Laiya suspected the surrender was a trap and ordered the Imperial troops to retreat while the Mage Soldier Squad watched for pursuers.
• After the Imperial Army withdrew, Tom asked Myka whether they should pursue them.

Baron Myka planned to use Sellviya as a stand-in negotiator to assassinate John Maslow, while John woke with a bad feeling that Wendy had caused trouble. The chapter ended as a familiar magical presence approached and someone announced that the troops had returned.

• Baron Myka ordered a withdrawal and assigned Tom to negotiate with the Imperial Army, dangling the vacant steward position to secure his cooperation.
• Baron Myka decided to turn the planned negotiations into an assassination trap, sending Sellviya disguised as his daughter to meet John Maslow.
• John woke with his right eyelid twitching and worried that Wendy had disrupted his plans again.
• A familiar magical aura appeared in the sky, and someone told John, "Captain, we're back!"

After Wendy’s squad returned with supplies worth about 80,000 D, John ordered the exhausted soldiers to rest and found himself moved by Wendy’s faith in him. He realized he might not be able to abandon his soldiers when the Empire fell, and prepared to march with them to Bahamut Town.

• Wendy reported that the 14th Squad had destroyed three Allied Forces strongholds and recovered communications equipment and supplies worth about 80,000 D.
• John praised Wendy, then ordered her and the squad to rest despite Wendy’s insistence that they were ready for more missions.
• John sent the squad to their tents and made Wendy rest, while she told him he was the best commander and that serving under him was her greatest fortune.
• After Wendy shut herself in her tent, John questioned whether he could let his soldiers die when the Empire was destroyed and realized he might need to change his retirement plans.
• John ordered all personnel to organize their equipment and prepare to march to Bahamut Town.