Chapter Summaries

Sif considered telling Louis that she was the last princess of the Cold Moon Tribe, but decided to wait until he was stronger. Later, Louis reviewed Red Tide Fief’s winter preparations with Bradley and ordered more greenhouses as the first snowfall approached.

• Sif watched Louis sleep, reflected on her people’s deaths and her burden of vengeance, and chose to keep her true identity secret for now.
• Bradley reported that Red Tide Fief had distributed winter supplies, harvested sixty-seven baskets of greenhouse greens, and begun under-ice fishing.
• Bradley said most residents of Red Tide Fief should survive the winter comfortably, while the other four fiefs faced greater hardship and the Northern Frontier risked losing more than half its population.
• Louis asked about the greenhouses, learned that seventeen now covered about three thousand four hundred square meters, and ordered more built to grow vegetables and medicinal herbs.

Silco tested Turtle Allure Incense, a potion that calmed male Fireback Turtles and made them generate heat through courtship behavior. After the successful experiment, Louis sent twelve tamed turtles to the four new vassal fiefs to provide warmth through the winter, while noting that breeding and transport remained challenges.

• Silco completed Turtle Allure Incense after seven failed attempts, using female turtle urine and herbs to induce courtship while tempering the males' aggression.
• Louis and Sif watched Silco test the incense on a male Fireback Turtle, which heated its shell and remained docile during a close inspection.
• Louis declared the experiment a success and rewarded Silco with one hundred gold coins.
• After several days of training, the Red Tide Fief's Knights prepared twelve tamed Fireback Turtles for delivery, assigning three to each of the four new vassal fiefs.
• Louis arranged for the turtles to rotate between the fiefs and the Red Tide Fief for recharging, and said they would need to improve breeding efforts the following year.

Louis showed Sif how Red Tide Fief produced food through the winter, inspecting its greenhouses and under-ice fishing grounds. He ordered further agricultural expansion and returned to the castle with Sif.

• Louis brought Sif to seventeen greenhouses, where they saw lettuce and winter radishes growing with the help of reflective materials and lightstones.
• Mick reported the greenhouse harvest and plans, and Louis praised his work and ordered experiments with medicinal herbs and cold-hardy grains as well as more greenhouses.
• Louis and Sif visited the Winter Fishing Grounds, where Fisheries Officer Luke reported that each ice hole yielded about thirty fish a day.
• Louis told Luke to refine the fishing layout and improve efficiency, then gently pinched Sif's cheek and headed back to the castle with her.

As winter struck the Northern Frontier, Louis’s preparations kept the people of the Red Tide Fief warm and fed, while Baron McKinney’s fief suffered hunger, exposure, and deaths. The chapter ended with McKinney learning that even his manor’s food might not last the winter.

• The people of the Red Tide Fief stayed warm in their homes, and residents and officials praised Lord Louis for providing food, clothing, and shelter.
• A Red Tide official declared that Louis had made everyone in the fief his subjects and urged them to unite through the coming extreme cold.
• In Baron McKinney’s fief, commoners and slaves suffered freezing conditions and starvation, and several people died without aid.
• Baron McKinney feasted and gambled in his warm manor while people outside endured the winter.
• McKinney’s steward warned him that the granary might not last through winter and that even the manor’s food stores could run short.

Baron McKinney planned to solve his grain shortage by disguising his knights as bandits and raiding a Red Tide Fief convoy bound for Gray Deer Fief. His men seized several wagons, but most of the convoy escaped, leaving McKinney uneasy that Lord Louis might trace the attack back to him.

• After his steward warned that his extravagant feasts would exhaust the grain stores, McKinney announced he would raid shipments traveling from Red Tide Fief to Gray Deer Fief.
• McKinney gathered the knights remaining in his fief, masked them, and led them into a snowy valley to ambush the convoy.
• The red-robed knight guarding the convoy ordered the soldiers to withdraw while the Red Tide Fief knights formed a defensive line to protect them and the wagons.
• McKinney's drunken, poorly coordinated knights fought the convoy's disciplined defenders and captured several grain wagons, while most of the convoy escaped.
• McKinney celebrated the stolen food but worried that the surviving escorts might identify his involvement, then ordered his raiders to take the wagons home.

After learning Baron McKinney had ambushed the Red Tide Fief’s grain convoy, Louis mobilized two hundred knights and rode to McKinney’s territory. McKinney learned the Red Tide cavalry had reached his castle, leaving him and his knights stunned.

• A red-cloaked knight reported that masked attackers with dark blue Battle Aura had stolen the grain convoy’s cargo in Pale Deer Forest, and Louis said the Snow Oath was not responsible.
• Louis used the Daily Intelligence System’s report to identify Baron McKinney as the ambusher and ordered Lambert to assemble two hundred knights.
• Louis led the knights toward McKinney’s territory, while Vale rode beside him, eager to earn merit.
• McKinney celebrated the stolen grain and mocked Louis and the Red Tide Knights with his men.
• McKinney’s steward announced that Red Tide cavalry was approaching the castle, and McKinney rushed to a window to look.

McKinney faced an assault by Louis and the Red Tide Fief after his men stole their grain and killed their soldiers. The Red Tide Knights breached the castle walls and captured McKinney, who pleaded for his life while secretly believing Louis would not dare kill a noble.

• McKinney spotted Red Tide Fief cavalry approaching and ordered his guards to prepare the castle for defense.
• A Red Tide Knight accused McKinney of stealing grain and killing soldiers, while McKinney denied the charges.
• Louis ordered the attack, and the Red Tide Knights blasted a breach through the castle wall with Demon Explosive Bombs.
• The Red Tide Knights stormed the castle, defeated the defenders, and found McKinney hiding in the wine cellar.
• The knights dragged McKinney before Louis, and McKinney begged for mercy while plotting revenge in secret.

Louis executed McKinney and ordered the Red Tide Knights to kill his remaining followers. After seeing the starving, numb people in McKinney's territory and recalling his own past, Vale looked to Louis for help, and Louis sent Duke Edmund a letter reporting McKinney's crimes and asking how to proceed.

• Louis ordered McKinney beheaded, then commanded the Red Tide Knights to kill the more than seventy knights who surrendered or resisted.
• Louis invited the disappointed Vale to walk with him through McKinney's territory, where they saw people living amid starvation, decay, and death.
• Vale remembered the hunger and despair he and his mother had endured before Louis rescued them, and silently asked Louis to help the people.
• Louis wrote Duke Edmund an account of McKinney's attack on the grain convoy, his death in the ensuing battle, and the territory's dire conditions.
• Louis sealed the letter to Duke Edmund and sent it away with the Gale Bird.

Louis took control of McKinney’s fief, fed its starving survivors, and arranged for them to be relocated to Red Tide’s four settlements. He renamed the wasteland Winter Dawn Fief, marking a new beginning for its people.

• Duke Edmund told Louis to administer McKinney’s fief, leaving further arrangements for later.
• Louis ordered food distributed, and the starving freemen and slaves hailed him as their savior.
• Louis learned that only 132 people in the fief could still move and ordered them relocated to Gray Deer Fief, Ice Ridge Fief, Snowfield Fief, and Cold Fir Fief.
• The people of Red Tide welcomed the new arrivals with food and bedding.
• Louis named the wasteland Winter Dawn Fief.

Louis spent the winter cultivating Battle Aura and magic while growing closer to Sif, and the refugees settled into safe homes in his fief. As winter ended, he checked the Daily Intelligence System’s latest update.

• The refugees thanked Louis for saving them and settled into their new homes, where they received warm meals.
• Louis focused on cultivation, using Ice-veined Giant Snake gallbladder soup to approach the Mid-Rank Elite Knight threshold while practicing the Primordial Meditation Art without guidance.
• Louis and Sif continued their intimate relationship through the winter, and Sif asked him to ensure their children would have a safe, stable home.
• As spring approached, Louis woke beside Sif and opened the Daily Intelligence System’s new update.

Louis learned about a rare herb that could help tame magical beasts, the emperor’s Northern Frontier Reclamation Edict, and a looming crisis tied to the Snow Oath. He planned to prepare for the coming winter while considering how to exploit the new settlers and the frostleaf vines.

• Louis read that frostleaf vines had appeared in Rock Valley and considered how they could help calm and breed high-mana magical beasts.
• Louis learned that Emperor Ernst August had issued the Northern Frontier Reclamation Edict and considered the possible arrival of Southern nobles.
• Louis read that sinister beings nurtured by the Snow Oath were stirring and that the coming winter’s crisis could rival the Great Rebellion.
• Louis recalled the devastation of the Great Rebellion and wondered what the Snow Oath worshipped, resolving to prepare for the threat or flee with his people if necessary.
• Louis dismissed the intelligence interface and woke Sif.

Louis led the knights to harvest Frostleaf Vines from a terrace occupied by eight Snowvale Mad Bulls, using Beast-Luring Incense and traps to drive the beasts into a cold iron chain net. The bulls were killed in the net, leaving Louis’s force in control of the battlefield.

• Louis spotted eight Snowvale Mad Bulls sleeping among the Frostleaf Vines and warned the knights that approaching them would trigger their berserk state.
• Louis ordered the knights to prepare Beast-Luring Incense, hooked ropes, and a cold iron chain net to trap the charging bulls.
• Louis had the knights light the incense, rousing the bulls and drawing them uphill into the hooked-rope traps.
• The knights bombarded the bulls and lured them with a red cloth toward the chain net, which held them fast.
• Louis ordered the knights to spear the trapped bulls, and after half an hour the last bull died.

Louis arranged for Mick to transplant Frostleaf Vines, while Duke Edmund received the second Northern Frontier Reclamation Edict and discussed Emily’s planned marriage to Louis. Duke Calvin selected Pal and Veris to join the new expedition, intending to test whether Louis’s success came from his ability or the Calvin family’s aptitude for the frontier.

• Louis ordered Mick and experienced workers to transplant Frostleaf Vines carefully so they could be cultivated without exhausting the wild grove.
• Duke Edmund read the second reclamation edict and reflected on the emperor’s political motives and House Edmund’s weakened position.
• Edmund told Emily that Louis Calvin was her intended husband, and Emily agreed while insisting she wanted to meet her fiancé first.
• Duke Calvin reviewed the edict’s stricter selection criteria and chose Pal and Veris to depart for the Northern Frontier within three weeks.
• Duke Calvin told Pal and Veris to establish themselves in the north or die there, explaining that he wanted to test Louis’s abilities and the Calvin family’s suitability for the frontier.

Veris and Pal prepared for their assignments to the Northern Frontier, where each hoped to build a domain of his own. Veris began studying in earnest, while Pal received substantial support from his family but remained overconfident as he set out to follow Louis.

• Veris reflected on his lack of family influence and recognized his Northern Frontier appointment as both exile and opportunity.
• Veris resolved to make his own name and spent his final week before departure studying frontier defenses, logistics, uniforms, and warfare.
• Pal welcomed his assignment and went to Selton and their mother for resources to establish his domain.
• Selton warned Pal to keep a low profile and cooperate with Louis if needed, while privately recognizing Louis as a serious rival.
• Pal's mother gave him eight thousand gold coins and provisions, and Selton assigned him five veteran stewards and thirty Official Knights.
• Pal dismissed Selton's warnings, convinced that his resources and talent would let him surpass Louis in the Northern Frontier.

Louis and Silco developed a Frostleaf Vine potion that could suppress Berserk Rabbits’ explosive instincts, then used it to capture one safely. The Red Tide Fief began raising the rabbits in a facility so their Red Platinum Magic Crystals could supply future Demon Explosive Bombs.

• Mick showed Louis the thriving Frostleaf Vines and Frostblood Redberries, which were expected to fruit within three to five months.
• Silco finished a Frostleaf Vine potion, and Louis chose Berserk Rabbits as test subjects for a plan to harvest their explosive Red Platinum Magic Crystals.
• Louis’s team’s first capture attempt delayed a rabbit’s detonation by about a second, but the rabbit still exploded before it could be secured.
• Silco increased the potion’s concentration and changed the mist dispenser, allowing the team to capture a second Berserk Rabbit without triggering its self-detonation.
• Louis and Silco established a small rabbit-taming facility where the potion mist kept captured Berserk Rabbits docile and Silco oversaw plans to collect their crystals.

Louis tested Silco’s first Demon Explosive Bomb before receiving the title of Viscount for his military service in the Northern Frontier. Meanwhile, Emily secretly traveled toward the Red Tide Fief to judge Louis for herself, and Duke Edmund sent Victor to protect her without her knowledge.

• Silco demonstrated that his first Demon Explosive Bomb could shatter a large boulder, and Vale told Louis that the emperor’s envoy had arrived.
• The Imperial envoy formally granted Louis the title of Viscount, and Louis escorted him away with a chest of gold as a token of respect.
• Emily decided to visit the Red Tide Fief in disguise with her maid Nora so she could meet Louis and form her own opinion of him.
• Duke Edmund learned that Emily had left Frost Glaive City and ordered Victor to escort her secretly.

Emily traveled in disguise from Frost Glaive City toward the Red Tide Fief to judge Louis for herself, while Louis learned of his arranged marriage and his family’s plans for the Northern Frontier. As spring approached, he handled local preparations and planned a celebration for the whole fief.

• Nora disguised Emily as an itinerant merchant, and Duke Edmund secretly sent Victor to escort her as she left Frost Glaive City for the Red Tide Fief.
• Louis read Duke Calvin’s letter announcing his intended marriage to Emily Edmond and assigning his brothers Veris and Pal to develop new territories under Louis’s lead.
• Louis replied to his father and ordered measures to manage rising river water, muddy roads, and surplus winter clothing.
• Louis planned a Celebration Day for spring, the Red Tide Fief’s first anniversary, and his investiture as viscount, intending to involve the entire community.
• Bradley praised the festival plan and agreed to arrange its implementation.

Emily arrived at the Red Tide Fief expecting a desolate settlement, but its orderly streets, thriving market, workshops, and contented residents astonished her. As preparations began for the fief’s first anniversary and Louis’s elevation to Viscount, Emily’s wariness gave way to awe and curiosity about him.

• Emily and Nora saw the Red Tide Fief’s well-kept streets, sturdy homes, busy market, and prosperous residents as their carriage entered town.
• Guards stopped the carriage, and Nora introduced the group as merchants seeking an audience with the lord.
• Emily watched residents prepare decorations and a stage for the Spring Opening Festival celebrating the fief’s first anniversary.
• A villager told Emily that Lord Louis had rescued the residents from hardship, taught them to support themselves, and become a Viscount.
• Emily learned that Louis had risen from pioneering baron to Viscount in less than a year and wondered what kind of person he was.

Louis prepared children to perform a play at the Spring Opening Festival while Emily, disguised as a traveling merchant, met his secretary Sif and was invited to stay. At the festival, Emily saw the residents’ orderly, well-fed community and began to reconsider what she had heard about Louis.

• Louis coached children rehearsing a play about his victory over the Snow Oath and asked Sif to receive a traveling merchant in his place.
• Emily introduced herself to Sif as Amy, found no goods the Red Tide Fief needed to buy, and accepted an invitation to stay for the festival.
• Sif showed Emily and her caravan to a warm, clean underground house, where Emily hoped to see Louis at the celebration.
• Emily joined the residents for the festival’s breakfast and learned they received enough grain each week to eat three full meals a day.
• A local woman described an upcoming contest, leaving Emily curious about the festival’s activities.

Emily watched the Red Tide Games and saw how the contests and knightly displays had fostered pride, unity, and devotion to Louis among the people. As the crowd celebrated the Red Tide Knights, Louis judged the event a success and prepared for the banquet, while anticipating a greater disaster that winter.

• Emily stayed to watch the Red Tide Games, where residents of every status competed, cheered one another, and won small prizes.
• During the tug-of-war championship, Emily recognized the crowd’s joy as a deep sense of belonging to the Red Tide Fief and began imagining what Louis might change in Frost Glaive City.
• The Red Tide Knights demonstrated their discipline and combat skills, including mounted jousting, foot combat, and a staged fight against a Glacier Boar.
• The knights shouted their loyalty to the Red Tide and Lord Louis, and the crowd joined in, leaving Emily struck by their sincere reverence for him.
• Louis watched the celebration from a pavilion, said the displays gave residents confidence in their knights, and asked Bradley about preparations for the banquet.