Chapter Summaries

Louis received the Daily Intelligence System while traveling to the Northern Frontier and learned that a rare fish could be caught nearby and Knight Roy planned to poison his dinner. He left his carriage and approached the camp meal, knowing one of his knights meant to kill him.

• Louis reflected on being sent to establish a territory in the dangerous Northern Frontier with few resources and little support from Duke Calvin.
• The Daily Intelligence System activated and revealed four pieces of intelligence, including a rare fish surfacing nearby and Roy poisoning Louis's dinner broth.
• Louis recognized the Northern Crystal Cod as a valuable resource that could earn money and strengthen his knights.
• Louis spotted Roy stirring the broth and realized the knight was plotting to kill him.
• Louis stepped out of his carriage as the knights waited for him to eat, then eyed the pot with a faint smile.

Louis exposed Roy’s attempt to poison him and learned that his brother Selton had ordered the murder. After Louis urged the knights to build a future with him in the Northern Frontier, they began swearing their loyalty to him.

• Louis ordered Roy to drink the poisoned broth, and Roy tried to flee before confessing that Selton had instructed him to poison Louis.
• Lambert executed Roy on Louis’s command, leaving the knights uneasy about their own fate in the Northern Frontier.
• Louis offered the knights a chance to leave but warned that deserters would face Roy’s punishment.
• Louis told the knights they could claim opportunity and glory in the Northern Frontier instead of surrendering to their family’s plans.
• Lambert knelt and swore to follow Louis to the death, and the other knights followed his lead.

Louis led the knights to catch Northern Crystal Cod beneath the frozen river and shared half the catch with them, using the fish soup to give them a tangible reward. Two Apprentice Knights advanced to Official Knights, and the grateful soldiers united behind Louis as their lord.

• Louis’s knights broke through the frozen river ice and hauled up twelve Northern Crystal Cod.
• Louis promised half the fish to the knights and had them make fish soup.
• The knights drank the soup and practiced their breathing techniques as its energy transformed their bodies.
• Two Apprentice Knights advanced to Official Knights, while the other knights also grew stronger.
• The knights praised Louis and pledged to unite behind him in the Northern Frontier.

Louis advanced to Mid-Rank Official Knight and ordered his party to reach Frost Glaive City sooner, where he planned to recruit two promising talents. In Frost Glaive City, Duke Edmund condemned the noble families for sending useless scions to the northern frontier and resolved to rely on his own forces.

• Louis absorbed the northern crystal cod’s essence, advanced to Mid-Rank Official Knight, and won the knights’ cheers.
• Louis ordered Lambert to accelerate their journey and reach Frost Glaive City in three days so he could select territory and pursue Vale and Silco.
• Duke Edmund raged over the noble families’ reports, including one about Duke Calvin’s eighth son, and denounced the scions sent north.
• Duke Edmund dismissed the newcomers as a burden and decided his forces would have to defend the northern frontier themselves.

Louis Calvin arrived in Frost Glaive City to register as a reclamation lord and chose a territory in the southeastern Northern Frontier. Duke Edmund approved the choice and officially confirmed Louis’s sovereignty over the land, whose true value Louis believed the Daily Intelligence System had revealed.

• Louis Calvin arrived in Frost Glaive City with his party and told the gate guards he had come to pay his respects to Duke Edmund.
• Duke Edmund received Louis, examined his Reclamation Certificate, and showed him a map of the Northern Frontier territories available for reclamation.
• Louis used intelligence from the Daily Intelligence System to choose a territory where the Blue-Rock Rift met the Gray Moss Tundra.
• Duke Edmund praised Louis’s choice and stamped his registration document, confirming his sovereignty over the territory.
• Louis accepted the document, inwardly confident that the territory was far more valuable than Duke Edmund realized.

Louis secured the Red Tide Fief, a Northern Frontier territory rich in food, geothermal vents, and minerals, and traded six Northern Crystal Cod to Duke Edmund for people to help develop it. After signing the contract, he headed to the slave market, where he hoped to find two talented individuals.

• Louis named his three-hundred-square-kilometer pioneering territory the Red Tide Fief and considered its fish, geothermal vents, and mineral deposits.
• Louis gave Duke Edmund three Northern Crystal Cod as a gift and offered three more in exchange for people to develop his fief.
• Duke Edmund agreed to provide Louis with 120 recruits, 30 craftsmen, ten apprentice knights, and three full-fledged knights.
• Louis signed the territory contract, and Duke Edmund advised him to buy slaves and sent an official to guide him to the slave market.

Louis bought 500 slaves and supplies in Frost Glaive City, leaving himself with only 68 gold coins. Two days later, he led his procession toward the Red Tide Fief to begin developing his territory.

• Louis visited the slave market and identified Vale, a boy with the potential to become a Peak Knight, and Silco, a fugitive alchemist's apprentice.
• Louis purchased 500 slaves for 380 gold coins, then bought grain, seeds, tools, weapons, and other necessities.
• Louis spent two days in Frost Glaive City, meeting other nobles sent to develop new territory and dismissing their complaints.
• Louis gathered nearly a thousand people outside Frost Glaive City and ordered them to set out for the Red Tide Fief.

Louis learned that 70 Tundra Wolves were waiting to ambush his convoy and turned the canyon into a killing ground. His forces killed the entire pack with almost no casualties, and he ordered the meat shared among the soldiers.

• Louis ordered Lambert to scout the canyon after his daily intelligence warned of a Tundra Wolf ambush.
• Lambert found wolf tracks and reported them to Louis, who ordered traps laid throughout the canyon.
• The Tundra Wolves charged the convoy and fell into the traps, where soldiers and knights attacked them.
• Lambert killed the wolf king with a single strike, and the knights wiped out all 70 wolves with almost no casualties.
• Louis ordered the wolves skinned and their meat shared among the men, earning the soldiers’ wholehearted acceptance.

Louis arrived at the desolate Red Tide Fief and began organizing its development after discovering its geothermal resources, hot springs, fisheries, and valuable mineral deposits. When he saw the local residents living in extreme poverty, he offered them food, shelter, and work, and they cautiously agreed to try.

• Louis arrived at the Red Tide Fief, ordered his soldiers and slaves to establish a camp, and inspected the land.
• Louis found geothermal vents and hot springs in the south and chose to build his manor nearby.
• A scouting squad reported cold iron and demon marrow ore deposits in the mountains, and Louis noted that mining them would have to wait until the fief developed.
• Louis and his party found the settlement in a decayed state, with hungry residents and children suffering from the cold.
• Louis shared dry rations with the children and offered the locals food, shelter, and work; they cautiously accepted.

Louis oversaw the construction of the Red Tide Fief’s first homes and joined the workers to encourage them. After the dwellings were completed, he held a celebration and announced rewards for the most diligent and loyal people, leaving the crowd fearful as Silco read out their names.

• Louis chose to build residential dwellings before a castle and designed semi-subterranean communal houses suited to the cold northern frontier.
• Louis worked alongside the soldiers, slaves, and displaced people, encouraging them as construction progressed.
• The Red Tide Fief completed its first homes near a geothermal vent, giving its people a foothold in the northern land.
• Louis held a celebration and told the crowd that the new houses made the land their home and them its true masters.
• Louis announced rewards for the most diligent and loyal people, and Silco began reading names as those called feared punishment.

Louis freed several slaves and promised that at least ten contributors would earn freedom each month, then rewarded soldiers with warm gear and shared a feast with everyone in the Red Tide Fief. The celebration ended with Louis resolving to lead his people to survive and prosper in the frozen North.

• Louis burned the contracts of the named slaves and declared them free.
• Louis promised to free at least ten contributing slaves each month and said they could eventually own land.
• Louis gave soldiers leather armor and northern boots, with wolf pelts for the knights.
• Louis distributed roast meat to everyone as the people celebrated around the bonfire.
• Louis watched the celebration and resolved to lead his people to survive and prosper in the frozen land.

Silco completed Louis’s survey of the Red Tide Fief’s residents while reflecting on how he had gone from a wanted alchemy apprentice to the lord’s assistant. Louis reviewed the residents’ skills and considered how to assign them as the fief developed.

• Silco recorded the residents’ occupations and abilities, despite their uncertainty and his exhaustion.
• Silco recalled stealing an alchemical formula, being exposed to the Golden Marrow Guild, and hiding among slaves until Louis bought and freed him.
• Silco delivered the completed ledger to Louis, who appreciated its thorough organization.
• Louis kept Silco’s criminal past secret because he valued his administrative work and wanted to see whether Silco would confess.
• Louis reviewed the fief’s varied workforce and decided that the next step was assigning residents to suitable work.

Louis organized fishing, farming, animal husbandry, forest patrols, and crafts in the Red Tide Fief, then oversaw the first preparation of its fields for planting. After hot spring water thawed the soil, the farmers plowed and fertilized it, leaving the land ready for sowing in four days.

• Louis assigned fishermen to prepare boats and a temporary dock, farmers to clear and irrigate land, and arranged plans to buy more livestock.
• Louis directed hunters to patrol the forest and assigned craftsmen to make winter clothing, farming tools, and houses while training apprentices.
• Louis's plans set the Red Tide Fief's people to work, and the settlement began to awaken with fishing preparations, hunting, and construction.
• Louis appointed Mick, a formerly enslaved farmer, as agricultural officer, and Mick confirmed the fields were ready for plowing and fertilizing.
• The farmers plowed the soil thawed by hot spring water and spread Louis's prepared fertilizer, while Mick said they could sow in four days.
• Louis left the fields after checking their progress because his daily intelligence system had updated with three useful pieces of information.

Louis used the Daily Intelligence System’s reports to send Lambert and two Elite Knights to Frost Glaive City to buy rare Frostblood Redberry seeds, while he led an expedition to Blue-Rock Rift to capture Tundra Wolf cubs. His knights killed the adult wolves guarding the den, leaving the cubs within reach.

• Louis learned that the Cold Moon Tribe’s chief had been poisoned, that Tundra Wolf cubs were at Blue-Rock Rift, and that Jack would sell Frostblood Redberry seeds in Frost Glaive City.
• Louis ordered Lambert and two Elite Knights to reach Frost Glaive City early, buy Jack’s entire stock of cranberry seeds, and deliver a letter to his family’s trading company.
• Louis rode to Blue-Rock Rift with hunters and Official Knights after learning the wolf pack had lost its leader and was sheltering cubs in a den.
• Louis’s party used animal remains to lure five adult Tundra Wolves away from the den.
• Louis’s knights turned on the wolves and killed them all.

Louis and his party captured more than twenty Tundra Wolf cubs and brought them to the Red Tide Fief, where Louis named the strongest cub Cold Fang. After Aig outlined how to tame the cubs, Louis appointed him responsible for beast-taming in the fief.

• Louis's hunters fed the Tundra Wolf cubs meat treated with sedative herbs, then secured them in leather bags and carried them back to the fief.
• Louis placed the cubs in a prepared enclosure and noticed that the strongest, most defiant cub stood apart from the others.
• Louis named the distinctive cub Cold Fang.
• Aig advised Louis to tame Cold Fang first so the other cubs would follow, and described using food, discipline, and pack hierarchy to establish obedience.
• Louis praised Aig and made him responsible for all beast-taming work in the Red Tide Fief, prompting Aig to kneel and accept the duty.

Jack sold his seeds to three knights in Frost Glaive City for five gold coins and planned to return with a much larger supply. Meanwhile, Louis inspected the sowing in the Red Tide Fief and approved the planting of hardy crops as the land began to recover.

• Jack arrived in Frost Glaive City and set up a seed stall despite his doubts about the city's prospects.
• Three knights bought all of Jack's seeds for five gold coins, unaware that the wagon included Frostblood Redberry seeds worth over a thousand gold coins.
• Jack realized the coins were genuine, celebrated his profit, and planned to borrow money to become the Northern Frontier's leading seed merchant.
• Louis rode through the Red Tide Fief's farmland and observed farmers sowing seeds and tending the soil.
• Mick told Louis that fertilizer had improved the fields and that rye, turnips, and potatoes could yield a harvest in three months.
• Louis approved the hardy crops and envisioned expanding cultivation after greenhouse techniques were perfected.

Sif fled south after her family was killed, while Sigel stayed behind to face their pursuers. At the Red Tide Fief, Louis organized the settlement’s first large-scale fishing operation, and the fishermen began working in teams as the expected schools of fish arrived.

• Sif escaped on horseback after Sigel ordered her to flee and turned to fight the pursuers using Blood-Boiling Berserker.
• Louis used information from the Intelligence System to prepare the Red Tide Fief’s fishermen for schools of fish expected in the river.
• Louis addressed the fishermen at the riverside dock and urged them to seize the chance to end hunger.
• Luke confirmed the preparations, and Louis ordered the fishing operation to begin.
• The fishermen divided into three groups, setting seine nets from boats, casting nets in the shallows, and using harpoons and traps.

Louis’s fishing teams caught more than three thousand fish, easing the Red Tide Fief’s food crisis. He planned sustainable fishing rules, fish-farming areas, a celebratory feast, and a way to preserve the surplus for winter.

• Luke led ten boats in a seine-net operation that hauled in more than two thousand fish.
• Fishermen on the opposite bank caught several hundred fish, while local teams added more with spears and baskets.
• The fishermen tallied more than three thousand fish, and they praised Louis for predicting the catch.
• Louis planned larger net openings, fixed fishing hours, weekly rest days, and designated fish-farming areas.
• Louis decided to hold a feast for the Red Tide Fief’s contributors and thought of a way to preserve the remaining fish.

Louis approved Sally’s hot-spring-smoked fish and put her team in charge of expanding production to help the Red Tide Fief survive winter. After Lambert and two elite knights returned from their mission with seeds, Louis identified one as the valuable Frostblood Redberry, a magical crop with the potential to strengthen knights and enrich the fief.

• Louis praised Sally’s smoked fish and explained that preserving food for winter was vital because the northern rivers froze and fishing stopped.
• Louis approved expanding production and entrusted Sally and the experienced women with overseeing the smoking of fish.
• A knight informed Louis that Lord Lambert had returned, and Lambert reported that he and the other two knights had completed their mission.
• Louis thanked the three knights, promised them rewards at the next day’s commendation ceremony, and had their seed bundles brought to his office.
• Louis used the Intelligence System to identify a seed as Frostblood Redberry, a magical fruit that could strengthen the body and refine a knight’s battle aura.

Louis held the Red Tide Fief’s first commendation ceremony, honoring workers from humble backgrounds and freeing slaves who had excelled. He established regular rewards for contributions, leaving the gathered people hopeful about their prospects.

• Louis opened the ceremony by praising the people for building homes, catching fish, and reclaiming fields during the fief’s first month.
• Louis promoted Mick to chief agricultural steward and granted Mike authority over the craftsmen’s team and greater financial support.
• Louis awarded labor medals to more than a dozen people from different trades and invited the crowd to applaud everyone’s contributions.
• Louis announced the names of exemplary slaves and had the knights burn their slave documents, granting them freedom.
• Louis established a regular reward system for anyone who contributed to the fief, then led the crowd in a toast to the Red Tide Fief’s prosperity.