Chapter Summaries

Ligo recounted how an unknown attacker rescued her after nine people ambushed her, and Hesta suggested the rescuer was the woman they had fought near the engine room. Silei realized Helen had already been a guardian before registering Gustav, while Anna learned Helen planned to bring Gustav to the banquet.

• Ligo told Hesta and Silei that nine strangers attacked her, but an unknown person stopped them by removing her earrings and later left her in the safe room with her injuries treated.
• Hesta proposed that the attacker was the woman they had fought near the engine room and suggested the banquet trial had an evacuation mechanism in case its danger exceeded their limits.
• The three women read the Detailed Rules, and Silei realized Helen must have been a guardian before she registered Gustav because she had known the guardian rules the previous night.
• Zero told Anna that Bernhard was dismantling the elevator and that Helen planned to take Gustav to the banquet.
• Anna told Zero not to stop Bernhard and praised Helen for recognizing the ship's ironclad rules.

Anna explained to Zero that women aboard the ship were destined to receive absolution, calling the experience a double pleasure. Meanwhile, Bernhard’s team broke into the hidden deck and cut the elevator’s hoisting cables, while Hesta and Officer Silei questioned his actions.

• Anna told Zero that women aboard the ship were destined to be saved regardless of their qualities or actions, and described the experience as a double pleasure.
• Bernhard ordered his soldiers to break through the space between the sixth and seventh decks and send an armed team into the hidden deck.
• Bernhard invited Hesta to the restaurant, where Hesta and Ligo challenged his account of the recent death and questioned why he had not shared the detailed rules.
• Bernhard said he wanted to find the person behind the ship’s events and revealed that his team had cut the elevator’s hoisting cables.

After soldiers vanished from the empty deck above, Hesta warned Bernhard that the monsters could use the destroyed elevators to reach the inhabited decks at night. As Hesta left, Bernhard revealed that Gopelin had disappeared again and admitted he did not know where he had gone.

• A soldier reported that the deck above was empty of furniture, then returned to say that the people searching there had vanished.
• Silei questioned the soldier, learned that the group had dismantled the walls, and went to investigate with Ligo while Hesta stayed with Bernhard.
• Bernhard suspected Hesta had known the searchers would die, but Hesta denied knowing and told him to keep the inhabited decks' stairwell doors locked after dark.
• Hesta warned Bernhard that the monsters could climb to the other decks because the elevators had been destroyed.
• Bernhard told Hesta that Gopelin had disappeared again and said he did not know where he had gone.

Hesta offered to become Bernhard’s guardian in exchange for his honesty about why he boarded the ship, while Tasia sought help restoring order in the fifth-floor cabins. The chapter left Tasia confronting Helen, who had just returned from playing tennis despite the chaos and the upcoming banquet.

• Hesta promised to protect Bernhard and trusted subordinates if he obeyed her, then offered to become his guardian without requiring him to surrender his Ship Card.
• Hesta asked Bernhard to explain why he had boarded the ship before they decided how far they could cooperate.
• Tasia told Silei that fighting had broken out in the fifth-floor cabins, and Silei sent her back with soldiers to control the passengers.
• Tasia and the soldiers reached the cabins as fighting continued, while Helen came upstairs from playing tennis with Gustav carrying her sports bag.
• Tasia reminded Helen that she would attend the banquet alone that night and questioned how Helen could play tennis during the unrest.

Helen urged Tasia to become a guardian and gave her a staff member’s contact information, while Bernhard registered as a Risk Passenger and received a separate safety manual from Hesta. Bernhard discovered that pages had been torn from the manual, then began reading its strict food rules.

• Helen gave Tasia a card for a Fourth Deck staff member and encouraged her to seek services and become a guardian.
• Hesta gave Bernhard a black manual after he registered as a Risk Passenger, warning him to read it alone and keep its contents from other passengers.
• Bernhard hid the manual from someone who called to him, returned to the Third Deck, and read it in a locked bathroom.
• Bernhard found that several pages had been torn from the manual and suspected Hesta was hiding information from him.
• Bernhard read Rule One, which restricted Risk Passengers’ meals and prohibited restaurant meat and dairy products.

Bernhard considered whether to accept the Risk Passenger rules, deciding he would discuss the strict food limits with Hesta. At the Hard Rock Bar, Hesta asked Anna to write a maxim for Ligo, then coaxed Anna into letting her read the notebook.

• Bernhard reread the Safe Version Fine Print and judged its four rules less restrictive than the earlier versions, though he refused to give up his sidearm.
• Bernhard decided to raise the meal limits with Hesta when she returned at three, insisting that he could not go without cheese.
• Anna arrived at the Hard Rock Bar and found Hesta drinking alone; Hesta said Ligo had wanted to meet Anna and asked for a maxim for her.
• Anna said none of that day's maxims suited Ligo, but Hesta grabbed the notebook before Anna could put it away.
• Anna let go of the notebook, causing it to strike Hesta on the head, then allowed Hesta to read it.

Hesta warned Anna that Bernhard and Gopelin had been sent to kill her during the voyage, disguising her death as collateral damage in an attack on Bo Shanfu. Hesta concluded that Anna—not Bo Shanfu or Rob Green—was the true target of the voyage’s schemes.

• Hesta and Anna compared their notebooks, and Meishijin snatched Anna’s notebook away when Hesta began reading a poem in Hesta Tribe writing.
• Hesta told Anna that Bernhard and Gopelin planned to kill her and make it appear that she had died during an attempted assassination of Bo Shanfu.
• Anna asked Hesta who had ordered the killing, and Hesta reasoned that the person behind Bernhard likely knew little about Anna’s background.
• Hesta argued that Bo Shanfu was protected by Miss Chiba and AHgAs, while Anna’s place on the voyage gave the plot’s organizer room to act.
• Hesta concluded that Bo Shanfu and Rob Green were smokescreens and that Anna was the core target of the schemes.

Anna explained that Robogriye arranged the Supreme Praise voyage to immerse his followers in a dangerous, isolated new world that would suppress their old attachments and make them endure loneliness for his ideal. Hesta grasped the purpose behind the voyage, became sick, and then agreed to continue drinking with Anna.

• Anna revealed that Robogriye’s rules and preparations reflected his belief that emotional closeness could weaken those he wanted to train.
• Anna explained that Robogriye selected loyal, educated young men for the voyage and surrounded them with dangers to replace their former experiences with a new world.
• Hesta realized that the Supreme Praise voyage was designed to make Robogriye’s followers endure the loss of their old lives and attachments.
• Hesta vomited as the revelation overwhelmed her, while Pujina brought her a bag, water, and tissues.
• Hesta told Anna she was fine and agreed to keep drinking.

Anna told Hesta about her hometown in Vyborg and why the memory of its ancient frozen lake changed her perspective on the world. They also discussed how passengers were selected for Robogriye's ship, and Anna revealed that women were assessed for altruism.

• Anna described her childhood home in Vyborg and recalled learning that the frozen lake where she once got lost was at least 420,000 years old.
• Hesta understood that the discovery had changed how Anna saw herself and the vastness of the world.
• Anna said she was returning to Vyborg to fish, hunt, and live there for a while.
• Hesta asked Anna about the trials passengers took to board Robogriye's ship and suggested that Tasia and Meyers had been exempted.
• Anna explained that Tasia and Meyers had passed the trials without realizing it, and that the sole criterion for evaluating female passengers was altruism.

Hesta explained how the ship’s succession rules prevented women from quietly inheriting the adjudicator’s role and asked Anna whether she had once served as an adjudicator. Anna admitted that someone had been torn apart before her, and Hesta fell asleep after declaring that they were aboard the Alecto, the Sea of Promise.

• Anna questioned whether Tasia had run for adjudicator out of obedience or concern for everyone’s safety, and Hesta concluded it was the latter.
• Hesta described how adjudicators could secretly designate male successors with uncontaminated invitations, while women who became adjudicators faced elections, Safety Inspections, and possible casualties.
• Pujina told Hesta that an uncontaminated-invitation passenger could serve as a guardian to waive a Safety Inspection.
• Hesta asked Anna whether she had been an adjudicator and whether anyone had been torn apart in front of her, and Anna said yes.
• Hesta said that aboard the Alecto, every stretch of sea that had raised a storm would be Alecto’s Sea of Promise, then closed her eyes as Anna recalled memories.

Ligo brought the unconscious Hesta back to their room and learned that alcohol could interact dangerously with Hesta’s medication. Officer Silei then received a frightened call from Gustav at the Night Banquet, where he had been brought by Helen and was wearing the Sapphire Earrings.

• Ligo carried Hesta from the empty Hard Rock Bar to the Fifth Deck and found the hallway door barricaded from inside.
• Ligo pushed past the furniture and returned Hesta to their room with Officer Silei.
• Officer Silei checked Hesta’s medication leaflets and discovered that drinking could worsen side effects or cause breathing difficulties.
• Gustav called Officer Silei from the Night Banquet and said Helen had brought him there and was dancing with a woman.
• Gustav told Officer Silei that he was wearing the Sapphire Earrings.

Silei and Ligo tried to reach Gustav after he was forced to wear dangerous earrings and attend a banquet, but the banquet had vanished from its expected location. By morning, Gustav was still missing, and Silei wondered why Anna targeted him.

• Gustav told Silei that Helen had made him wear the earrings and warned him that refusing meant certain death.
• Ligo searched the hidden deck but found no banquet or people, so Silei told Gustav to stay on the phone while she and Ligo searched elsewhere.
• Hesta accidentally hung up Gustav’s call while she was half-asleep.
• The next morning, Ligo told Hesta that Helen had returned alone and that she and Silei had searched for Gustav until after three without finding him.
• Silei asked Hesta what she and Anna had discussed, then wondered why Anna targeted Gustav, who was only fifteen.

Hesta and Ligo went to Bishop Restaurant, where the returned Gustav claimed that the Night Banquet passengers were fellow passengers connected to Mr. Robogriye’s “Eden.” The gathering ended in alarm when crew members disarmed and pinned Bernhard after finding his gun.

• Ligo found Hesta sick and helped her eat, then wondered whether she was too cold-blooded after Silei had left.
• Ligo wheeled Hesta past the broken elevator, where they noticed unfamiliar passengers relaxing on the deck.
• At Bishop Restaurant, Gustav returned and told Hesta he was safe, then said the Night Banquet guests were passengers rather than monsters and many had experienced Mr. Robogriye’s “Eden.”
• Bernhard threatened Gustav at gunpoint, but crew members swiftly seized his pistol and restrained him, reporting him as a Risk Passenger carrying a firearm.

Hesta questioned Gustav about what happened at the Night Banquet while crew members took Bernhard away for supervision. Gustav described losing track of Helen and being comforted by passengers, leaving Hesta to investigate what had happened after the banquet ended.

• Crew members subdued Bernhard and his rescuers, then agreed to take Bernhard for supervision until Hesta could retrieve him.
• Hesta resumed questioning Gustav, who said he had attended the Night Banquet with Helen while wearing earrings supplied by the crew.
• Gustav said Helen vanished from his view and that his call to Officer Silei disconnected, while Helen insisted she had stayed on the dance floor and later saw Gustav's seat empty.
• Helen said she had not gone looking for Gustav because she assumed he wanted to enjoy himself, and Hesta questioned whether leaving him alone was appropriate.
• Gustav said he waited until the banquet ended, then cried and told nearby passengers he was separated from his companion.
• Gustav said the passengers offered him tissues and snacks and invited him to stay with them until dawn because it was dangerous to go outside alone.

Gustav told the group that the Night Banquet rules affected the ship’s passengers as well as their own, and described the guardian system as a way for most people to avoid the cruise ship’s dangers. Helen confirmed that she was already a guardian, leaving the group to consider the system and its restrictions.

• Gustav explained that the other passengers had suffered deaths whenever no one from their group attended the Night Banquet, and that the deaths stopped after Silei and Ligo attended.
• Gustav said the other passengers had avoided casualties for over a month by choosing guardians to fulfill passenger obligations for people under their care.
• Hesta identified the system as guardianship and explained that Risk Passengers had to follow restrictions, including limits on food and carrying weapons.
• Gustav revealed that Risk Passengers could eat freely at the Night Banquet with a guardian’s permission, and the group realized Helen had attended as a guardian.
• Helen confirmed that she was a guardian and told Hesta she would not have pretended otherwise if she had known Hesta was one too.

Helen challenged Hesta and Officer Silei over the Scepter Brooch and the Iron Rules, while Hesta warned that Helen was probing for ways to make others suffer the rules’ consequences. Helen left the dining hall with Gustav, and Hesta kept Tasia behind.

• Hesta questioned Helen about hiding that she was a guardian, and Gustav explained that the guardian system was meant to help people endure until they could leave the ship.
• Officer Silei asked who had received an invitation to the Night Banquet and told Helen to give Tasia the Scepter Brooch, but Helen claimed she had lost it.
• Helen suggested that Tasia get another brooch on Deck Minus Two, then challenged Officer Silei about how she had obtained hers.
• Hesta and Tasia clarified that Officer Silei had never said she obtained the brooch from Deck Minus Two, and Hesta warned Helen to stop probing the Iron Rules.
• Helen taunted Hesta and Ligo, then left with Gustav as the others watched; Hesta adjourned the meeting and asked Tasia to stay.

Hesta advised Tasia to attend the Night Banquet with a carefully chosen Risk Passenger and accepted information Tasia had about Helen. After Tasia left to carry out another risky task concerning Helen, Hesta and the others waited for news and discussed Officer Silei's sudden guardianship.

• Hesta told Tasia to find a Thorn Monk she could hold her own against to accompany her to the Night Banquet, and to return if she could not find one by five.
• Tasia gave Hesta the card Helen had offered her, and Hesta praised her for sharing information relevant to the detailed rules.
• Hesta reassured Tasia that becoming a guardian would not make her like Helen and pointed out that Officer Silei was a guardian too.
• Hesta asked Tasia to take another risk involving Helen, then returned to her room with Ligo and Officer Silei to await news.
• Hesta said Helen needed a warning, while Officer Silei said she believed becoming a guardian had only been a matter of time; Hesta doubted Gustav's claim.

Hesta, Silei, and Ligo discussed the ship’s worsening divisions and Helen’s conduct as Hesta defended her position as arbiter. Hesta concluded that Helen had challenged her authority by acting out the role of someone above her.

• Ligo reminded Silei that she could not become a Quicksilver Needles in the combat ranks because Office No. 2 would not send her to the front lines.
• Ligo criticized Helen for taking Silei’s Scepter Brooch, pressuring her to reveal she had gone to Level Minus Two, and relying on others while living comfortably.
• Silei apologized for her past decisions, while Hesta refused Ligo’s suggestion that she step down and hold another election.
• Hesta recounted Robogriye’s advice that leaders had to preserve the mystery and distance that sustained their authority.
• Hesta connected Rene’s behavior and Helen’s conduct to the roles they expected others to accept, and said Helen had challenged her authority at Bishop Restaurant.

Hesta, Silei, and Ligo discussed how Jane becoming Arbiter had changed the Night Banquet from a death trap into a chance to survive. Tasia asked Helen to lend her a gemstone brooch, and Helen agreed in exchange for Tasia’s Ship Card, leaving Tasia to verify Helen’s card before handing hers over.

• Hesta explained that letting Gopelin control events would have killed the Thorn Monks and prevented them from learning about the ship’s mysteries.
• Hesta and Silei suspected the Night Banquet changed when Jane became Arbiter and noted that guardians would now come from the ship’s female passengers.
• Tasia confronted Helen about the missing brooch and said she needed to become a guardian before the next Night Banquet.
• Helen offered to lend Tasia the brooch only if Tasia gave her Ship Card to Helen.
• Tasia accepted the condition but insisted on checking Helen’s Ship Card first.

Tasia exchanged Ship Cards with Helen to verify her identity and arranged to meet her outside the infirmary that afternoon to register a guardian and receive the brooch. Hesta freed Bernhard from confinement and authorized him to eat as much as he could at Bishop Restaurant.

• Tasia insisted that she and Helen verify each other's Ship Cards before trusting one another, and they exchanged cards briefly.
• Helen agreed to give Tasia the brooch at two thirty outside the infirmary when Tasia brought her Risk Passenger to register a guardian.
• Hesta arrived to collect Bernhard from the confinement room and took his confiscated weapons into safekeeping.
• Bernhard apologized to Hesta for losing his temper with Gustav, and Hesta reminded him to listen to Gustav's account of the Night Banquet.
• Bernhard told Hesta that his limited meals left him starving, and she authorized him to eat as much as he could at Bishop Restaurant.