Chapter Summaries

Zachary manipulated Count Firth into viewing Louis Calvin as an arrogant nuisance and expecting to punish him. When Louis arrived late with burlap sacks presented as gifts, their contents shocked the banquet: severed heads of Snow Oath members.

• Zachary encouraged Count Firth to resent Louis and assign him to dangerous operations.
• An attendant announced that Baron Calvin and Baron Harvey had arrived at the banquet.
• Louis and Joern entered with two knights carrying foul-smelling burlap sacks, prompting Count Firth and the nobles to condemn Louis for breaking etiquette.
• Louis explained that the sacks held gifts prepared for Count Firth, while Zachary mocked him and urged the count to inspect them.
• The knights opened the sacks, and several severed heads of Snow Oath members rolled onto the floor, leaving Count Firth panicked and the nobles stunned.

Louis presented the heads of an elite Snow Oath unit at Count Firth’s banquet, and the nobles recognized one as Haskell, a notorious raider he had killed. As Count Firth prepared to take credit for the victory, Louis praised his supposed support, and Firth accepted the invented credit.

• Louis displayed more than thirty Snow Oath soldiers’ heads, but Zachary and Count Firth accused him of staging a boastful spectacle.
• Joern defended Louis’s account of the battle, and a Northern Frontier noble recognized Haskell among the heads.
• The nobles’ doubts turned to respect as Joern described Louis’s role in killing Haskell, while Zachary withdrew in frustration.
• Louis credited Count Firth with sending scouts and directing the deployment, despite Firth having done neither.
• Count Firth’s self-rewriting memory technique gave him false memories of helping, and he proudly claimed the victory as his arrangement.

Louis shared military credit with Count Firth to gain influence, then learned through the Daily Intelligence System that Snow Eagle City would soon fall to a Snow Oath attack. He planned to use a secret passage to strike the enemy’s undefended rear and earn merit while keeping his own troops safe.

• Louis reasoned that flattering Count Firth and sharing credit could help him influence troop movements under the Fifth Legion’s command.
• Southern nobles praised Louis after his victory, while northern nobles sincerely thanked him for killing Haskell.
• Louis learned that the Snow Oath would attack Snow Eagle City with 2,600 Boiling Blood Warriors in seven days and capture Count Firth when the city fell in ten days.
• Louis discovered a secret passage near Clearfeather Mountain Pass that led to the Snow Oath’s rear camp.
• Louis planned to raid the enemy rear, delay his return, and present himself as a hero while avoiding responsibility for Snow Eagle City’s fall.
• Louis learned that Viscount Fischer was feeding intelligence to the enemy and that seven of the governor’s secret envoys were watching the Fifth Legion.

Louis attended the Fifth Legion’s prewar council, where Viscount Webster announced military rewards and briefed the nobles on three Snow Oath strongholds and the enemy’s dangerous tactics. Louis recognized Clearfeather Ridge from his intelligence and began forming a plan to attack it by a hidden trail and ambush the defenders.

• Louis arrived at the command tent and took a seat in the inner ring as Viscount Webster presided over the council for the dozing Count Firth.
• Viscount Webster announced Duke Edmund’s rewards for military merit, including gold and fiefs, and warned that disobedience or retreat could bring punishment and confiscation.
• Viscount Webster identified three centers of Snow Oath activity near Snowshadow Heights, Clearfeather Ridge, and Icefang Mine, and warned that the enemy used deadly tactics and avoided fair fights.
• Louis recognized Clearfeather Ridge as a location from his intelligence and considered using a hidden mountain trail to strike its stronghold from the flank and ambush returning Snow Oath forces.

Count Firth overruled Viscount Webster and ordered simultaneous advances against three Snow Oath strongholds, assigning nobles as vanguards while he stayed in Snow Eagle City. Louis volunteered to lead a reconnaissance mission to Clearfeather Ridge with Joern and Baron Harvey, and Webster approved the deployment.

• Viscount Webster proposed attacking the Icefang Mine first, but Count Firth demanded that the army strike all three enemy positions at once.
• Count Firth ordered troops from the Southern Frontier Army and Northern Frontier nobles to advance while he commanded from the rear in Snow Eagle City.
• Louis volunteered to lead his troops to Clearfeather Ridge to scout the terrain, and Joern insisted on accompanying him.
• Viscount Webster assigned Baron Calvin and Baron Harvey to Clearfeather Ridge and sent several poorly backed southern Frontier Nobles toward the other strongholds.
• Viscount Webster arranged logistics and supplies, then adjourned the meeting as the nobles left uneasy about Count Firth's command.

Louis led his forces toward Clearfeather Ridge while the Snow Oath prepared to attack Snow Eagle City. After a ritual sacrifice, Barnes received the Cold Abyss god’s permission and ordered his warriors to advance.

• Louis assembled his knights and infantry, recognized Bond as a secret envoy from the Governor’s Office, and ordered Lambert and the other Elite Knights to watch him.
• Joern guessed that Louis had planted an informant in the Snow Oath, and Louis let him believe it.
• Louis mounted his horse and led four columns toward Clearfeather Ridge.
• At Snowshadow Heights, Barnes rallied the Snow Oath forces and vowed to take Snow Eagle City in revenge for the Empire’s destruction of the Snow Kingdom.
• The priests sacrificed captured nobles and Knights, and the Cold Abyss god granted permission for the attack.
• Barnes ordered the Snow Oath army to advance silently toward Snow Eagle City.

Louis led his force along a hidden mountain route toward a Snow Oath stronghold, while Bond questioned the small garrison reported there. That night, Snow Oath wolf riders advanced on Snow Eagle City, and Viscount Webster ordered its defenders to prepare for an assault.

• Louis guided his party along an unmapped trail toward Clearfeather Territory, impressing Bond with his leadership and familiarity with the route.
• Scouts reported a Snow Oath outpost three li ahead with roughly two hundred defenders, and Louis ordered them to assess its defenses and terrain.
• Bond suspected the reported garrison was too small for such a strategic stronghold and felt a foreboding that the main Snow Oath force was elsewhere.
• A messenger told Count Firth that more than a thousand Snow Oath cavalry were approaching Snow Eagle City, and another summoned him to the walls.
• Viscount Webster identified the approaching riders as the vanguard of an assault and ordered archers, spearmen, and several hundred knights to defend the north wall.

Viscount Webster organized Snow Eagle City's defenses against the besieging Snow Oath while Southern Nobles quietly prepared escape routes. Louis and the Red Tide Knights then launched a surprise night raid, killing the enemy commanders and setting the camp ablaze as the Snow Oath's forces collapsed.

• Viscount Webster assigned the Southern Nobles to defend Snow Eagle City's exposed southern wall while Northern Frontier troops took the northern and eastern sectors.
• Southern Nobles complained about the assignment, and nobles' households secretly prepared escape routes through stables, gates, and drainage passages.
• Louis led over a hundred Red Tide Knights through a gap in the Snow Oath patrols and set fires in the rear of the camp.
• Lambert and ten elite Red Tide Knights attacked the command tent and killed the Snow Oath commander, while the deputy was also beheaded.
• The Red Tide Knights spread fires and struck the disorganized camp in repeated charges, routing the Snow Oath soldiers.
• Louis watched the camp burn and declared that the hunt had begun.

Louis captured Clearfeather Ridge in a night assault that nearly wiped out the Snow Oath, and Bond sent Duke Edmund a report praising Louis and requesting reinforcements. As Louis planned to use the Veiled Mist Mirror to ambush a counterattack, Viscount Webster struggled to coordinate the noble contingents defending the city.

• Louis’s forces took Clearfeather Ridge with few casualties, while Joern’s knights helped cut down fleeing Snow Oath soldiers.
• The soldiers found the Veiled Mist Mirror, and Louis planned to use its illusions to conceal an ambush for the Snow Oath’s expected return.
• Bond wrote to Duke Edmund about the victory, the mirror, the threat of a counterattack, and Louis’s command ability, then sent the report by Gale Bird.
• Viscount Webster faced another tense siege night and struggled to make the southern Frontier Lords follow his orders.

Viscount Webster struggled to defend the city as the Snow Oath attacked with curse bombs and the nobles abandoned their posts. When southern nobles tried to flee through the western gate, the Snow Oath ambushed and massacred them, leaving fewer than ten survivors.

• Webster retook the southern wall after the Snow Oath wiped out its garrison, but rumors of betrayal and defeat spread through the city.
• The Snow Oath bombarded the northern gate with curse bombs, poisoning soldiers and corroding the defenses.
• Webster ordered reinforcements to the northern gate, but several nobles refused, and he learned that deserters had opened a gap at the western gate.
• Southern nobles led hundreds of men through the western gate to escape, unaware that the Snow Oath had prepared an ambush.
• The Snow Oath surrounded and slaughtered the fleeing force, with fewer than ten people escaping.

The Snow Oath breached Snow Eagle City and crushed its defenders as the city fell into chaos and flames. Viscount Webster made a final stand against the Mad Wolf Warriors, then fell after entrusting young Firth’s escape to his Knights.

• Barnes led the Snow Oath through the breached wall while its forces overwhelmed the Knights and captured the city.
• Barnes killed Viscount Fischer after Fischer claimed he had supplied Snow Eagle City’s defense map.
• Baron Zachary escaped through a western side gate with fewer than one in ten of his Knights.
• Viscount Webster ordered one squad to escort young Firth out, another to burn the granaries and treasury, and led the third against the Mad Wolf Warriors.
• Webster fought his way toward Barnes but was wounded and fell to his knees, dying as he hoped young Firth had escaped.

The Snow Oath captured Snow Eagle City and subjected its people to a brutal rampage while Barnes ordered Count Firth crippled for a blood sacrifice. Barnes's victory was shaken by news that Clearfeather Ridge had fallen, threatening to isolate the city, so he sent a large force to retake it.

• Barnes ordered his warriors to break Count Firth's arms and legs and take him back for a blood sacrifice.
• The Snow Oath looted and burned Snow Eagle City, killing and torturing nobles and commoners as the city descended into slaughter.
• Barnes watched the city burn without ordering the rampage to stop and celebrated the Snow Oath's victory.
• A wounded warrior reported that Clearfeather Ridge had fallen in a night attack by only about two hundred enemies.
• Barnes realized the fallen ridge could cut off Snow Eagle City's supplies and sent eight hundred wolf-mounted troops and cavalry to reclaim it.

Duke Edmund learned that Snow Eagle City had fallen and its garrison had been destroyed, but Louis Calvin’s capture of Clearfeather Ridge gave him a new plan to block the Snow Oath advance. Bond delivered Edmund’s order for Louis to hold the ridge, while Louis remained calm, having already prepared to confront the approaching eight hundred Snow Oath Elite.

• Duke Edmund received word that Snow Eagle City had fallen, Count Firth was dead, and all three thousand defenders had been wiped out.
• Duke Edmund learned that Louis Calvin had captured Clearfeather Ridge with just over two hundred men and ordered Gibson to lead fifteen hundred knights there as reinforcements.
• Bond received Edmund’s urgent order and told Louis that the Snow Oath’s main force was advancing on Clearfeather Ridge.
• Louis calmly accepted the order to hold the ridge, while Bond wondered at his lack of concern.
• Louis had already used intelligence about the enemy’s strength, route, and arrival time to prepare ambushes and a plan to wipe out all eight hundred Snow Oath Elite.

Louis led Bond and their forces in an ambush at Clearfeather Ridge, where he used Demon Explosive Bombs to devastate the advancing Snow Oath troops. The explosion trapped the enemy in flames, poison, and a rockslide, leaving their fate unclear.

• Bond urged Louis to abandon the ambush, but Louis insisted on remaining in command.
• Garrett led eight hundred Snow Oath troops toward the ruined camp, believing it was an illusion and ordering his forces to surround it.
• Garrett realized the ruins were real and that the Snow Oath troops had entered a trap.
• Louis detonated the Demon Explosive Bombs, unleashing freezing blasts, fire, and poisonous mist on the cavalry.
• The explosions shook the mountainsides, sending rocks and debris crashing down on the Snow Oath troops as they tried to retreat.

Louis’s planned Demon Explosive Bomb attack devastated the eight hundred Snow Oath Elite, leaving the Red Tide Knights to finish off the survivors. The battlefield was cleared, and Louis’s soldiers celebrated their victory and rallied around him.

• After the explosions, Bond and Joern stared in shock at the slaughter in the valley, while Joern felt relieved he had followed Louis.
• Louis called the bombs “Ice and Fire” and ordered the Red Tide Knights to wear protective masks and clear the battlefield.
• The Red Tide Knights advanced through the valley and killed the few Snow Oath Elite who attempted to resist or surrender.
• After half an hour, the Red Tide Knights completed the mop-up and reported that the enemy forces had been annihilated.
• The soldiers celebrated their victory and praised Lord Calvin as they gathered around Louis.

Gibson reached Clearfeather Ridge expecting to find it overrun, but Louis showed him the valley where his forces had destroyed all eight hundred Snow Oath Wolf Riders. After receiving the battle report, Duke Edmund reinforced the ridge and redirected troops toward Snow Eagle City, while Barnes learned of the defeat and feared the Empire’s advance.

• Gibson arrived at Clearfeather Ridge and found its camp intact, then followed Louis to the valley where the Snow Oath forces had been annihilated.
• Louis told Gibson that his forces had ambushed and destroyed the eight hundred Snow Oath Wolf Riders using Demon Explosive Bombs and a mountainside collapse.
• Duke Edmund read the battle report, ordered another thousand knights and six thousand soldiers to Clearfeather Ridge, and directed nine thousand troops to assemble at Snow Eagle City.
• Barnes learned that all eight hundred Wolf Riders had died and worried that his forces would be overwhelmed by the Empire’s reinforcements.

Louis helped Gibson secure Clearfeather Ridge while the Imperial Army destroyed the Snow Oath at Snow Eagle City. With the Snow Oath’s campaign collapsing, Hiro began sacrificing captives to awaken the Ancient God of the Cold Abyss.

• Northern Frontier reinforcements fortified Clearfeather Ridge, and Louis secretly guided Gibson with accurate warnings about enemy movements.
• The Snow Oath’s starving forces attempted to break out of Snow Eagle City, but Imperial archers ambushed them and killed Barnes.
• The Imperial Army stormed Snow Eagle City and slaughtered the remaining Snow Oath, leaving the city in ruins.
• After the Snow Oath lost most of its territory and forces, Hiro ordered his guards to seize Elder Grom and begin a sacrifice at the altar.
• Blood drained from Grom and the other captives as a rumble sounded beneath the altar, suggesting the Ancient God of the Cold Abyss was awakening.

Duke Edmund praised Baron Louis Calvin for his victory at Clearfeather Ridge and seated him among the Northern Frontier’s leading nobles at the campaign commendation ceremony. After honoring Count Albert and Count Grant, the military affairs officer announced a third name that shocked the hall.

• Louis arrived in Frost Glaive City and Duke Edmund praised him for destroying the Snow Oath cavalry at Clearfeather Ridge.
• Edmund told Louis that he had prepared a reward for him at the commendation ceremony.
• Louis sat in the front row among senior Northern Frontier nobles as guests whispered about his southern origins.
• Edmund praised the army’s defense of the Northern Frontier and vowed to defeat the Snow Oath in Ice Sea Commandery and Snowfall Commandery the following year.
• The military affairs officer awarded Count Albert and Count Grant for their campaign achievements.
• The military affairs officer announced the third name, leaving the hall shocked and bewildered.

Louis Calvin received third place in merit for his victory at Clearfeather Ridge, where his small force destroyed eight hundred elite wolf riders without casualties. Duke Edmund awarded him a medal, land, money, and military supplies, then revealed that he had petitioned the Emperor to make Louis a viscount.

• The military official announced Louis Calvin as third in merit, prompting suspicion among the nobles.
• The official read the battle record, explaining how Louis captured Clearfeather Ridge and ambushed eight hundred enemy wolf riders with no losses.
• The nobles reassessed Louis after hearing the details of his victory and began treating him with respect.
• The military official announced Louis's medal, twenty thousand gold coins, additional land, horses, and weapons.
• Duke Edmund pinned the Shield of the Northern Frontier on Louis and said he had petitioned the Emperor to grant him the title of viscount.

Louis received military honors at the victory ceremony while Zachary Diaz was sentenced to death for abandoning Snow Eagle City. At the banquet, Louis cautiously entertained a southern noble’s suggestion to unite the southerners, leaving the conversation open as more nobles crowded around him.

• Duke Edmund’s ceremony honored Louis with the Northern Frontier Shield Medal and rewarded Joern for his knights’ contribution at Clearfeather Ridge.
• Military officials sentenced Zachary Diaz to death for deserting his post when war broke out, and guards dragged him away as Louis watched.
• Duke Edmund announced that the Northern Frontier would go on the offensive against the Snow Oath’s strongholds the following year.
• Louis stayed in Frost Glaive City for the victory banquet, where a southern baron urged him to help unite the southern nobles.
• Louis replied warmly but made no commitment, and other nobles crowded over before the baron could continue.