Chapter Summaries

Louis welcomed fifteen hundred newly arrived slaves to the Red Tide Fief and promised they could earn Freeman status through hard work. As the newcomers began to trust him, overcrowded housing and poor sanitation emerged as problems requiring attention.

• Louis told the slaves that the Red Tide Fief would provide food, shelter, and work, and promised they could shed their slave status if they worked hard.
• The slaves saw former slaves living as Freemen and began to believe Louis’s promise and work with greater effort.
• The newcomers shared the fief’s existing semi-subterranean longhouses while craftsmen began building more homes.
• Louis inspected the new residential district and found rubbish and foul-smelling waste, worrying that poor sanitation could spread disease.

Louis introduced public toilets, purified drinking water, and regular cleaning to improve sanitation in the Red Tide Fief. As residents saw the fief grow cleaner and illness decline, Bradley’s respect for Louis increased.

• Louis ordered public toilets with alternating waste pits and illustrated rules for their use.
• Louis built a sand-and-charcoal water filtration system and assigned soldiers and stewards to inspect the water daily.
• Louis formed a cleaning crew and established a monthly cleanup day for everyone in the fief.
• Louis joined the first cleanup himself, prompting soldiers and residents to begin cleaning the streets, alleys, livestock pens, and market.
• The fief became cleaner, the water tasted better, and residents fell ill less often, changing their view of Louis’s sanitation rules.
• Bradley observed the transformed fief and thought more highly of Louis.

Duke Calvin read Bradley’s report on Louis’s successes in the Red Tide Fief and reconsidered his son’s potential. He decided to offer limited financial and military support while leaving Louis to establish himself independently in the Northern Frontier.

• Duke Calvin read Bradley’s account of Louis’s agricultural, housing, mining, and slave-management achievements and the residents’ loyalty to him.
• Duke Calvin recognized that Louis planned to give the family the demon marrow ore sales rights while keeping control of its processing techniques.
• Duke Calvin judged Louis promising but noted that the Red Tide Fief remained distant, uncertain, and not yet firmly established.
• Duke Calvin decided to allocate Louis another 1,000 to 1,500 gold coins and send two more squads of knights to protect the mine and support the fief.
• Duke Calvin chose to send a few alchemy apprentices but no official political backing, leaving Louis to build alliances and prove his ability without troubling the family.

Louis used the Blood-Drop Stone to test children in the Red Tide Fief for the aptitude to become Bloodline Knights. Lilia became the first child chosen, while the testing continued and Vale waited anxiously for his turn.

• After the Red Tide Fief’s development advanced, Louis tested his own blood with the Blood-Drop Stone and confirmed his potential to become a Bloodline Knight.
• Louis gathered more than two hundred children in the square and began screening them to find candidates for knights loyal to him and the fief.
• Most children showed no reaction when they placed their blood on the stone, but Lilia’s blood made it glow and tremble.
• Louis congratulated Lilia as the first knight the Red Tide Fief would train, and she promised to protect the fief.
• Nearly half the children had been tested and only three had passed as Vale watched nervously, hoping to become a knight.

Vale, a former slave freed by Louis, was chosen as one of eight children with knightly potential and began training for the Red Tide Fief. Under Barnes's instruction, the children learned the basics of the Breathflow Breathing Technique and took their first steps toward becoming knights.

• Vale remembered how Louis had bought and freed him and his mother, and he pledged loyalty to Louis after the Blood-Drop Stone glowed in response to his blood.
• Louis completed the testing and selected eight children as knight candidates, including Vale.
• Louis assigned the children to Barnes, an Official Knight, to train as future knights for the Red Tide Fief.
• Barnes taught the children the Breathflow Breathing Technique and explained how it drew energy into the body to form battle aura.
• Vale sensed energy entering his body first, and after several days all eight children had gained an initial understanding of the technique.

Louis learned that Duke Edmund planned a campaign to wipe out the Snow Oath, and prepared to answer the summons while looking for ways to protect and strengthen the Red Tide Fief. He also ordered a hunt for Ice Armor Bears, while Duke Edmund mobilized the Northern Frontier for war and made clear that southern development lords would be sent into the campaign too.

• Louis read that Duke Edmund would summon his vassals to destroy the Snow Oath, and resolved to use his intelligence system to reduce losses and gain resources.
• Louis learned that Vale had awakened his bloodline and become an Apprentice Knight, and noted his future potential.
• Louis learned that Ice Armor Bears would pass through the Red Tide Fief the next afternoon and ordered Lambert to gather the knights and archers for a hunt.
• Duke Edmund received word that the Snow Oath had attacked another fief, killing civilians and abducting nobles and knights, and called an emergency meeting.
• Duke Edmund ordered his vassals to assemble for a decisive campaign against the Snow Oath and insisted that the southern development lords join the army.

Louis led Lilia and Vale to watch the Knights hunt a pack of nine Ice Armor Bears, which the hunters lured into a gorge and weakened with traps and fire. The Knights charged to finish the bears, but one wounded bear unleashed icy flames and crystalline spikes, forcing them to retreat as the fight turned dangerous.

• Louis brought Lilia and Vale to observe the bear hunt and told them to stay beside him.
• The hunters lured nine Ice Armor Bears into a gorge, where concealed stakes trapped them and fire weakened their armor.
• The Knights charged the bears and an Elite Knight drove his spear into a crack in one bear's throat armor.
• Vale celebrated the apparent victory, but Louis warned that it was only the first stage.
• The wounded bear entered a frenzy, unleashed icy flames and crystalline spikes, and forced the commander to order the Knights to fall back.

Louis and his knights defeated nine berserk Ice Armor Bears without suffering any casualties, then collected the valuable spoils. Louis announced a feast for the knights as he prepared his force for the coming bandit campaign.

• Louis ordered phase two, and the knights lured the nine Ice Armor Bears into exhausting themselves with their rampaging energy.
• Lambert led six Elite Knights and twenty-three Official Knights in attacks on the bears’ cores, triggering a massive eruption before the knights retreated.
• The Ice Armor Bears’ shells shattered, leaving all nine beasts dead, while Louis’s soldiers and warhorses remained unharmed.
• The knights collected the bears’ meat, crystals, armor, claws, and teeth, and Louis decided their resources could strengthen his forces.
• Louis announced a feast made with Ice Armor Bear meat, and the knights cheered their lord.

After Duke Calvin sent reinforcements and approved Louis’s demon marrow project, Louis held a feast to celebrate the hunt and welcome the new knights. Eating Ice Armor Bear meat strengthened several knights, and Vale broke through to become an intermediate Apprentice Knight.

• Duke Calvin sent Louis six Elite Knights, twenty Official Knights, sixty Apprentice Knights, and three Alchemy Apprentices, and approved Louis’s plan to control demon marrow mining and processing.
• Louis hosted a roast Ice Armor Bear feast for his knights, welcoming the new arrivals and celebrating their victory.
• Louis promised to share the fruits of victory with his knights, who responded with cheers and renewed loyalty.
• Vale ate the roast meat, practiced his breathing method, and broke through to become an intermediate Apprentice Knight.
• Several other knights felt their vitality surge during the feast, and a few also broke through.

Louis visited the Red Tide Fief’s demon marrow factory, where Silco showed him its first batch of refined demon marrow. A messenger from Duke Edmund ordered Louis to muster at Snow Eagle City for the campaign against the Snow Oath rebels, leaving him a few days to prepare.

• Silco showed Louis the factory’s first barrel of demon marrow, and Louis rewarded Silco and the three alchemy apprentices with gold coins.
• Louis asked Silco to make Demonflame Bombs and supplied Ice Armor Bear crystals, despite Silco warning that using the valuable materials that way would be wasteful.
• Louis ordered Silco to finish the bombs by the day after tomorrow, and Silco sent the apprentices to begin work.
• A knight reported that Duke Edmund’s messenger had arrived, and Louis went to meet him.
• The messenger delivered Duke Edmund’s order for the Northern Frontier lords to muster against the Snow Oath rebels at Snow Eagle City.
• Louis accepted the order, promised to arrive on time, and reviewed the letter to calculate his remaining preparation time.

Louis inspected the Red Tide Fief's new infantry formations and cavalry swarm tactics with Sif, who worried about what the Empire's military strength could mean for the Northern tribes. Satisfied with the army's progress, Louis rode with Sif to the alchemy workshop to check whether Silco's team had developed magic flame bombs.

• Louis showed Sif the layered infantry formation, which used archers, spearmen, and swordsmen and axemen to counter enemy cavalry.
• Louis explained that the formation could threaten lower-ranking Knights but would not easily defeat Knights above the Official Knight rank.
• Louis watched the Red Tide Fief's Knights practice swarm tactics built around harassment, feints, and concentrated attacks.
• Sif wondered whether the Empire could overwhelm the Northern tribes if its Knights fought like those of the Red Tide Fief.
• Louis headed with Sif to the alchemy workshop to check on Silco's progress developing magic flame bombs.

Louis tested Silco’s devastating new bomb, named it “Ice and Fire,” and kept it as his final trump card. Meanwhile, Count Firth agreed to use the campaign against the Snow Oath to sacrifice southern nobles and seize their lands.

• Louis watched Silco’s Demonflame Bomb freeze, burn, and poison the magical beasts at the testing ground.
• Silco told Louis that each bomb cost four hundred gold coins and that only seven remained.
• Louis named the weapon “Ice and Fire” and regarded it as his final trump card.
• Count Firth worried about leading the campaign against the Snow Oath, but his adviser urged him to send southern nobles into danger and take their territories.
• Count Firth accepted the adviser’s plan and imagined gaining power and respect by sacrificing the southern nobles.

Louis led an elite force out of the Red Tide Fief to join the campaign, using his Daily Intelligence System to find magical beasts as they traveled. The expedition reached a comfortable rhythm of hunting and feasting, and Louis reunited with Joern, who eagerly accepted some roast meat.

• Louis rode at the head of eight Elite Knights, twenty-five Official Knights, sixty Apprentice Knights, and two hundred infantrymen as the residents of the Red Tide Fief cheered their departure.
• During the journey, Louis used his Daily Intelligence System to guide the knights to magical beasts, which they hunted for food.
• The troops grew accustomed to traveling, hunting, and feasting on roasted magical beast meat at camp.
• A knight told Louis that Baron Joern's party was approaching, and Joern arrived calling Louis "Boss."
• Joern noticed the roast meat, and Louis offered him a piece that he devoured eagerly.

Louis learned that Zachary Diaz had invited the southern-born Frontier Nobles to a send-off banquet while excluding him, and went with Joern to see Zachary’s fief. Seeing its hardship gave Louis a new perspective on how prosperous the Red Tide Fief was before he and Joern continued toward the coming conflict with the Snow Oath.

• Joern complained to Louis about the barren land, struggling subjects, and hardships of supporting his fief in the Northern Frontier.
• Joern told Louis that Zachary Diaz had invited the southern-born Frontier Nobles to a send-off banquet, and Louis said Zachary was trying to establish himself as their leader.
• Louis asked Joern when and where the banquet would be, then decided to go see Zachary’s fief.
• Louis and Joern traveled with Louis’s knights and found Zachary’s fief to be barren, with poor crops, ramshackle houses, and weary subjects.
• Louis realized that such conditions were normal for newly established Northern Frontier fiefs and attributed the Red Tide Fief’s prosperity to his Daily Intelligence System.
• Louis invited Joern to visit the Red Tide Fief after they defeated the Snow Oath, and Joern agreed.

Louis interrupted Zachary Diaz’s banquet for the Frontier Nobles and challenged his attempt to control their alliance against the Snow Oath. He left after questioning whether Zachary expected others to fight first, leaving the nobles doubtful of Zachary’s leadership.

• Zachary Diaz gathered southern Frontier Nobles and promoted unity while planning to use them to build his influence and send reluctant rivals into danger.
• A noble asked whether the Frontier Nobles should act together against the Snow Oath, and Zachary agreed so he could arrange who advanced and who stayed behind.
• Louis arrived with Joern, criticized the banquet’s food, and questioned why he had not been invited.
• Zachary invited Louis to travel to Snow Eagle City with the other nobles, but Louis challenged his bid to lead the alliance and accused him of wanting others to fight for the rewards.
• Louis left the banquet with Joern, and the nobles began to doubt whether Zachary was dependable.

Louis left the banquet confident that he had weakened Zachary Diaz’s influence over the frontier nobles, then rode out with Joern to gather their forces and earn military merit. Meanwhile, Hiro learned that Duke Edmund was preparing to march against the Snow Oath, but a mysterious voice warned him that the ritual to awaken the Ancient God of the Cold Abyss was still incomplete.

• Louis reflected that his words had made the frontier nobles doubt Zachary Diaz’s motives, while Joern celebrated Zachary’s humiliation.
• Louis inspected the nobles’ poorly equipped and demoralized troops and contrasted them with the disciplined army of the Red Tide Fief.
• Joern warned Louis that Zachary might appeal to Count Firth, but Louis said he had a way to handle it and rode back to camp with Joern.
• Hiro read a report that Duke Edmund had assembled the Northern Frontier lords to eradicate the Snow Oath and vowed to avenge his mother.
• A mysterious voice touched Hiro’s shoulder and told him not to rush because the ritual to awaken the Ancient God of the Cold Abyss was still not enough.

Louis and Joern ambushed a company of elite Snow Oath Warriors in White Feather Canyon using hidden tripwires and falling boulders. The attack killed and injured some of the warriors, but the disciplined company regrouped as the battle began.

• Louis assured Joern that the Snow Oath Warriors would arrive and waited with his soldiers in the prepared canyon ambush.
• The Snow Oath company entered the canyon, and its leader grew suspicious of the quiet surroundings.
• A hidden tripwire tangled the lead horses and briefly disrupted the company, but the warriors quickly formed a defensive ring.
• Louis's forces released boulders from the cliffs, crushing warriors and horses and throwing the company into chaos.
• The Snow Oath captain rallied his warriors and led them away from the falling rocks, preparing to face the ambushers.

Haskell and the Snow Oath were overwhelmed by the Red Tide Knights’ successive attacks, but Haskell and the surviving warriors activated boiling blood frenzy and charged at Lambert. Lambert ordered his knights to retreat as the frenzied Snow Oath warriors surged toward them.

• Haskell formed the Snow Oath into a shield wall against the Red Tide Knights’ javelins and arrows, but one warrior was killed.
• The Red Tide Knights feigned a flank attack, broke the Snow Oath’s formation, and killed or wounded many warriors.
• Lambert led Elite Knights and High-Rank Official Knights into the assault, fought Haskell, and cut down another Snow Oath warrior.
• With only a dozen or so warriors left, Haskell urged them to fight to the last warrior, and they answered his call.
• Haskell and the survivors activated boiling blood frenzy, then charged at Lambert, who ordered the Red Tide Knights to fall back.

The Red Tide Knights defeated the Snow Oath ambush after adapting to the warriors’ boiling blood frenzy, though one Knight died and Haskell fell in battle. Louis ordered the enemy’s heads sent to Count Firth as a gift and worried about how to counter the frenzy in future fights.

• Lambert changed the Red Tide Knights’ tactics to mounted harassment, outlasting the Snow Oath warriors’ boiling blood frenzy as they suffered its backlash.
• Haskell charged Lambert, but his axe shattered and a Red Tide Knight severed his arm before Haskell died.
• Joern watched the victory and decided to attach himself to Louis, while Louis acknowledged that losing one Knight meant the ambush had not been a success.
• Lambert reported that the enemy had been wiped out, and Louis ordered their heads packed in sacks for Count Firth.

Count Firth hosted an extravagant Snow Eagle Muster banquet, ignoring the resentment of his veteran retainers while basking in praise from southern nobles. Zachary Diaz then mocked Louis Calvin for missing the gathering, leaving Firth angry at Louis’s apparent disrespect.

• Count Firth feasted and accepted exaggerated praise from southern nobles, especially Zachary Diaz.
• Veteran retainers of the Firth Family quietly criticized Count Firth for neglecting the Northern Frontier and ignoring their advice.
• Count Firth dismissed the veteran nobles as stubborn old fossils who had no useful work to do.
• Zachary Diaz asked Count Firth whether he knew Louis Calvin and suggested Louis had skipped the muster out of arrogance.
• Count Firth slammed down his wineglass and declared that Louis had shown disrespect to him as governor of Snowpeak Commandery.