Chapter Summaries

Duchess Elena and Emily arrived in Red Tide City for the wedding and were reassured by its prosperity, order, and the people’s devotion to Louis. Pal Calvin also arrived, and what he saw challenged his belief that Louis’s success was merely luck, though he left clinging to his resentment.

• Elena and Emily entered Red Tide City and saw clean streets, orderly markets, disciplined guards, and a relief station that kept displaced people fed.
• Elena admitted to Emily that she had feared the marriage would bring hardship, but the city’s people and preparations reassured her.
• Pal arrived intending to dismiss Louis’s achievements, but Red Tide’s orderly streets, soldiers, and residents’ respect unsettled him.
• Pal met Veris, who described how Louis’s support had helped his fief develop, while Pal concealed how badly his own territory was struggling.
• Pal returned to the guesthouse, acknowledged privately that Louis’s accomplishments were more than luck, then insisted Louis’s success would not last.

As wedding preparations filled Red Tide City, Louis received his brother Eduardo, who had come both as a family envoy and to investigate Archmage Jurgen Loken’s disappearance. Louis fed Eduardo a carefully chosen account of corpse-controlling insects, leaving him convinced the report was connected to his investigation.

• Louis received Count Grant’s deputy steward Obert and accepted a deep-blue magic crystal as a wedding gift.
• Bradley told Louis that his third older brother, Eduardo, had arrived with Duke Calvin’s letter and a Family Core badge.
• Louis welcomed Eduardo and discussed the wedding gifts, Red Tide City’s recovery, and affairs in the Imperial Capital while gauging his brother’s questions.
• At dinner, Louis told Eduardo about a mage attacked by insects that controlled living people and corpses, describing their coordinated behavior and the traces left at the scene.
• Eduardo left for his quarters believing Louis’s account was connected to his investigation, unaware that Louis had deliberately led him into a trap.

Vic Glanser and his Northern Frontier knights discovered a Brood Mother nest filled with Insect Corpses and the remains of missing people. After the swarm targeted them, Vic stayed behind to hold it off while his squad retreated to summon reinforcements.

• Vic Glanser tracked faint signs of a swarm through the forest and found evidence that it had deliberately concealed its traces.
• Vic led his knights to a vast nest where Insect Corpses carried bodies into a Brood Mother, whose surface bore the face of Baron Haldor Blo.
• Vic ordered the squad to mark the nest’s location and retreat because they could not defeat it without reinforcements.
• The Insect Corpses turned toward Vic and his knights, then surged off the nest to attack them.
• Vic unleashed his battle aura and ordered his squad to retreat at full speed and get word out, while he remained behind to face the swarm.

Louis Calvin and Emily Edmond married in a formal ceremony attended by their families and the people of Red Tide. Louis ended the celebrations with a fireworks display prepared for Emily, and she took his hand as their relationship began to move beyond political obligation.

• Red Tide residents gathered before dawn to celebrate Louis Calvin's wedding and offer him their blessings.
• Louis Calvin and Emily Edmond exchanged oaths to their families, the Empire, and the Dragon Ancestor, then completed the wedding rites and banquet.
• Pal Calvin watched the ceremony with jealousy and resentment, while Duke Edmund and Duchess Elena shared in Emily's farewell.
• Louis led Emily and the guests onto the balcony, where alchemical fireworks lit the sky with symbols of Red Tide and House Edmund.
• Louis told Emily he had prepared the fireworks for her so she would not feel like a bargaining chip, and Emily took his hand.

On their wedding night, Louis and Emily grew closer, and the following morning Louis learned that Vic had died while the Northern Frontier knights discovered a Brood Hive. The intelligence revealed the hive was an experiment by the Despair Witch and could be destroyed with extreme heat, so Louis began planning an attack before meeting Duke Edmund.

• Louis reassured Emily on their wedding night, and they consummated their marriage.
• Louis woke beside Emily and checked the Daily Intelligence System.
• The intelligence reported that Vic had died covering the retreat from the Brood Hive and that Knight Karl would reach the Red Tide Fief to report to Louis and Duke Edmund.
• Louis learned that the Brood Hive was the Despair Witch's experimental subject No. 2 and that explosions producing extreme heat could destroy its central sac core.
• Louis decided his Red Platinum Demon Explosive Bombs could help destroy the hive and began considering how to approach its core.

At breakfast, Duke Edmund praised Louis’s rule in the Red Tide Fief before warning that unrest had forced him to postpone the campaign against the Snow Oath. Karl returned wounded with a report of the Brood Hive’s horrifying powers, and Louis set out to lead an attack with Edmund and reinforcements, believing they had a strong chance of destroying it.

• Edmund questioned Louis about his marriage to Emily, and Louis promised to treat her sincerely and never let her suffer injustice.
• Edmund praised Louis’s prosperous fief and castle, then announced that the Northern Frontier’s troubles had led him to postpone the campaign against the Snow Oath until spring.
• A wounded Karl reported finding a living Brood Hive near the Dark Mountain Forest, where it created Insect Corpses that retained combat skills and could infect people.
• Louis argued that the Brood Hive had to be attacked before it expanded, and Edmund agreed to accompany him and place thirty Elite Knights under his command.
• Edmund ordered the adjutant to have Gibson muster a legion for possible support, while Louis assessed his forces and judged they had a strong chance of destroying the hive.

Louis prepared to lead the Red Tide Knights against the Brood Hive, reassuring Emily before assembling his forces and presenting a detailed battle plan. He set the expedition to march at noon, with Duke Edmund’s son Eduardo joining the force.

• Emily worried that Louis would not return, and he promised to retreat if the expedition went wrong.
• Louis ordered Lambert to summon all stationed Elite and Official Knights, then had Silco prepare thirty Red Platinum Demon Explosive Bombs.
• Louis briefed 140 knights on the Brood Hive, its Insect Corpses, and the danger of infection, explaining that their target was the hive’s Sac Nucleus.
• Eduardo recognized a possible connection between the hive and a missing Archmage, then agreed to accompany Louis.
• Louis assigned the Official Knights to draw out the enemy, the Frost Glaive City squad to create a fire blockade, and the Red Tide Fief squad to attack the central hub with bombs.
• Duke Edmund applauded Louis’s command, and the knights answered his order to prepare for their noon march.

Louis led his knights to the Brood Hive and launched a plan to draw its defenders away from the hive. After the Red Tide Knights successfully lured the insect corpses outward, Louis ordered them to prepare for the second phase.

• Vale and Duke Edmund saw the Brood Hive and its corpse-filled valley, and Edmund warned Louis that the threat was beyond his force.
• Louis ordered his knights to throw explosive spears at the hive, but its tentacles intercepted the attack.
• The Brood Hive roused thousands of insect corpses, which charged toward the hillside.
• Louis sent the Red Tide Knights to harass and lure the swarm away, and the disciplined riders endured heavy dangers while maintaining their formation.
• The Red Tide Knights drew many insect corpses to the outer perimeter, and Louis told them to continue and prepare for the second phase.

Louis coordinated the fireline and Assault Squad to breach the Brood Hive and destroy its sac nucleus, causing the Insect Tide to collapse into chaos. After the victory, he ordered a withdrawal and casualty count, while Duke Edmund came to respect Louis’s command and Louis mourned the knights who had died.

• Louis ordered the fireline to split and trap the insect corpses, while the Elite Knights fought them and lost several comrades, including Sean and Benito.
• Louis gave the assault signal, and Lambert led the Assault Squad through the burning battlefield into the Brood Hive’s core.
• Lambert ordered the squad to fire Red Platinum Demon Explosive Bombs at the sac nucleus, then led the survivors out as the hive collapsed.
• The Brood Hive’s destruction sent the Insect Tide into uncontrolled frenzy, and Louis ordered the knight orders to withdraw and establish defensive lines.
• Duke Edmund realized Louis had destroyed the hive and regarded him with new respect as the insect corpses died off.
• Louis learned that the Red Tide Knight Order had lost three Elite Knights and twelve Official Knights, and he remained troubled by the casualties.

After touching the destroyed Brood Hive, Eduardo discovered that a woman had planted its eggs and that at least a dozen seeds might remain. He concealed the source of his ability but warned Louis and Duke Edmund, leaving them to face the threat of more Brood Hives.

• Eduardo used his divine grace to read the dead Brood Hive's memories and saw a woman in white robes burying eggs in a snowy valley.
• Eduardo realized the hive had been deliberately planted and that other eggs might still be out there.
• Eduardo doubted the Church would help the Empire and decided to report the danger without revealing the true source of his ability.
• Eduardo told Louis and Duke Edmund that a female mage had created or controlled the swarm and that at least a dozen seeds existed.
• Duke Edmund feared the Brood Hives could threaten Snow Eagle City, while Louis felt relieved that Eduardo had raised the warning himself.

After the Brood Hive’s destruction, Duke Edmund and Louis considered how to prepare the Northern Frontier for more hives, and Louis returned to Red Tide City, where Emily welcomed him. The Despair Priestess revealed that the destroyed hive was only an experiment and that a finished Brood Hive was nearly ready, with Vick Glanser among the dead figures in his audience.

• Eduardo confirmed to Duke Edmund that more than a dozen seeds had been deliberately planted, and Louis pointed out that the current Insect Corpses were more organized than those in the disaster three years earlier.
• Duke Edmund concluded that the Northern Frontier might contain multiple Brood Hives and planned a special operations unit, imperial reports, and a wartime mobilization of the local nobles.
• Louis identified the hive’s weaknesses and ordered faster weapons research, then told his attendants to seal the site and burn the Insect Corpses before returning to Red Tide City.
• Emily rushed to embrace Louis at the city gates, and Lady Elena teased her about having a grandson.
• The Despair Priestess acknowledged the hive’s destruction, called it a failed experiment, and revealed that the finished product was almost ready to transform the Northern Frontier into his stage.
• The Despair Priestess’s audience included the dead Vick Glanser, recognizable by his silver-black armor and ashen-gray eyes.

Louis received intelligence about incoming Magewood mages, Vick Glanser’s transformation, and Fire-Scaled Vipers in the fief, then used a Knight Growth Potion to break through to mid-tier Elite Knight. He and Emily began cultivating together as they prepared to face the dangers ahead.

• Louis learned that Magewood’s investigating mages would arrive that evening, Vick Glanser had become a special Insect Corpse, and Fire-Scaled Vipers had been found in the geothermal region.
• Louis considered steering the Magewood mages toward other Brood Hives and planned to secure the Fire-Scaled Vipers for weapons against the swarms.
• Louis drank Silco’s Knight Growth Potion and broke through from low-tier to mid-tier Elite Knight.
• Emily woke, celebrated Louis’s breakthrough, and teased and bantered with him.
• Louis began meditating, and Emily joined him to practice House Edmund’s Blueglow Breathing Technique.

Louis and Emily discussed the wedding gifts and the military and material support their families had sent to Red Tide. Louis worried that the Northern Frontier’s instability made it urgent to turn those resources into strength, then revealed his next task: catching snakes.

• Louis and Emily ate breakfast together and recalled that Eduardo Calvin had left to look for clues about the Brood Hives.
• Emily asked about their wedding gifts, and Louis described the money, supplies, workers, weapons, horses, and Knights provided by the Calvin Family and House Edmund.
• Louis said that their new resources would be useless unless they were turned into real strength, and Emily agreed they should prepare before the blizzards arrived.
• Emily praised Louis’s foresight, patience, and looks, and they finished breakfast in an easy mood.
• Emily asked what Louis planned to do, and he answered that he had to catch snakes.

Louis led Emily and the Knights into the Red Tide Fief’s geothermal core, where they captured and subdued more than seventy Fire-Scaled Vipers using a Frostleaf Vine Lure. Silco refined the snakes’ fat into a powerful fuel for explosives, while Louis prepared to meet a group calling themselves the “Mage of Mages.”

• Louis explained to Emily that he planned to capture Fire-Scaled Vipers alive for experiments and domestication.
• Louis’s Knights used Frostleaf Vine Lure to calm the vipers, and Adrian guided the first snake safely into the domestication area.
• The Knights captured more than seventy Fire-Scaled Vipers, including a nine-meter-long Fire-Scaled Viper King, and moved them into a prepared lava cave.
• Silco processed three old vipers’ fat into fire-scaled viper grease and tested its steady burn and explosive reaction with demon marrow.
• Louis instructed Silco to develop combat-ready Demon Explosive Bombs and Blazing Explosive Oil from the grease.
• A Knight reported that several people calling themselves the “Mage of Mages” had arrived to request an audience, and Louis told him to take them to the meeting hall.

Louis met with Flora Holden, an Archmage from Magewood, and showed her evidence of the Brood Hive threat, prompting her to investigate the ruins. He also demonstrated his magic and earned a recommendation to take Magewood’s entrance examination.

• Flora Holden thanked Louis for rescuing Leichir and presented him with enchanted nebula-steel armor.
• Louis explained that his Knights had destroyed a Brood Hive and showed Flora its remains and preserved Corpse Insects.
• Flora sensed strange, hostile magic in the samples, and Louis warned that a dozen or so other Brood Hives might exist.
• Flora agreed to inspect the ruins the next morning while Louis arranged an escort for her.
• Louis asked to join Magewood, demonstrated a controlled fireball, and received Flora’s recommendation to take its entrance examination.
• After Flora left, Louis was pleased that he had drawn Magewood into the investigation and secured a path to the entrance exam.

Flora led Magewood’s mages to investigate the destroyed Brood Hive, where Dilin traced its magical remains and identified traces of a deliberate, unfamiliar control system. The search party prepared to use the Brood Hive’s frequency to scan the surrounding wilderness for other nests or lingering signals.

• Flora’s party reached the valley and saw the Brood Hive reduced to charred fragments among insect corpses and fallen knights.
• Flora ordered the mages to sense the remains, and they experienced hostile magical erosion and an inhuman presence.
• Dilin reconstructed the Brood Hive’s final magical fluctuations and discovered that it had synchronized the insects through a shared control frequency.
• Dilin scanned the damaged cores, preserved the frequency model, and warned that the Brood Hive’s organized magic resembled an experiment using a system from another world.
• Flora ordered Dilin to recover before the party searched the surrounding mountains and wilderness for matching magical traces.

Louis commissioned Mike’s War Workshop to build sealed, protective armor for fighting the Brood Hive’s insect corpses. After the prototype passed its tests, Louis approved it, suggested minor improvements, rewarded the craftsmen, and ordered mass production.

• Louis identified the Brood Hive’s parasitic larvae as a threat and gave Mike requirements for sealed, ventilated, comfortable, modular armor.
• Mike and his craftsmen built a prototype using layered lining, replaceable armor sections, ventilation, and heat-resistant materials.
• Vale tested the armor against sword blows, strenuous movement, and a wall of fire, and emerged unharmed.
• Louis tried the armor, found it flexible and suitable for the task, and recommended cushioning around the neck and knees.
• Louis rewarded the workshop’s craftsmen and told Mike to begin manufacturing the armor.

Louis oversaw the test of Silco’s new Demon Explosive Bomb, then assigned Mike to build a long-range launcher and proposed a flamethrower using Fire-Scaled Viper Grease. The chapter left Silco and Mike preparing to develop the new weapon as Louis anticipated needing it soon.

• A messenger told Louis that Silco had finished the prototype Demon Explosive Bomb, so Louis brought Mike and others to inspect it.
• Louis tested the bomb on three Ice Wasteland Boars and saw it incinerate targets nearby while its shockwave killed at greater distances.
• Louis ordered Silco to develop three bomb formulas, including a limited high-powered version and cheaper versions for mass production.
• Louis showed Mike a launcher design and tasked him with building a stable, adjustable weapon with greater range and accuracy.
• After Silco demonstrated burning oil made with Fire-Scaled Viper Grease, Louis proposed a pressurized flamethrower and gave Silco and Mike their respective design tasks.

Takalin tried to escape the Brood Hive’s control with his son Aike, but died covering the boy’s flight, and Aike froze to death near Winter Dawn Ridge. Louis discovered the intelligence and sent Eduardo a secret letter, hoping his brother could recover Aike’s memories and locate the Brood Hive.

• Takalin noticed his comrades in the Snow Oath acting strangely and realized the Brood Hive was controlling them.
• Takalin fled with Aike, but pursuers caught up, and he stayed behind to fight while his son ran south.
• Aike escaped the valley but froze to death outside Winter Dawn Ridge.
• Louis read intelligence reports about Takalin and Aike, along with news that Duchess Elena was pregnant and the Red Tide Fief’s harvest was near.
• Louis recognized that Aike might know the Brood Hive’s location and sent Eduardo a secret letter asking for his help.

Louis inspected Red Tide’s bumper harvest as Mick and Bradley reported abundant crops, food stores, and improved yields across the fiefs. He ordered grain distributed to local tulou and more purchased from the south, preparing for possible war, disaster, or plague.

• Mick showed Louis the plentiful rye, potatoes, turnips, and trial crops, crediting the improved farming methods and hot-spring irrigation.
• Farmers praised Louis for helping them secure enough food and knelt to thank him as he toured the fields.
• Bradley reported that seventy percent of Red Tide’s staple crops were stored and that preserved food could feed six thousand people for more than three months.
• Bradley told Louis that the other fiefs were adopting improved farming methods and expected yields two to three times higher than those of other lords.
• Louis ordered half the grain sent to the Red Rock Storehouse and the rest distributed to tulou across the lands for faster access in an emergency.
• Louis instructed Bradley to buy additional grain from the south through the Calvin Trading Company as a further reserve.