Chapter Summaries

Li Wei prepared for the New Year's banquet as Kane advised him on staffing and noble customs, while Katie helped him check his formal attire. He left for the palace without a weapon, and Erin hoped the evening would go smoothly.

• Kane gave Li Wei a proposed staff list and recommended an estate manager, male servants, and a chauffeur, but Li Wei said he had no need to fit into noble society.
• Li Wei learned that his investiture would require him to choose a family name and coat of arms, so Kane postponed further arrangements until the title was settled.
• As Fog City's first snowfall arrived, Li Wei tried on his tailored tailcoat, and Katie confirmed that it fit well.
• Li Wei asked whether he could bring a weapon to the Queen's banquet, but Katie warned him against it, and he agreed to go unarmed.
• Katie said she would skip the banquet, and Li Wei drove his Phantom away while Erin wondered who Katie was and wished her master well.

Li Wei attended the Imperial Palace's New Year's banquet, where he reunited with Ovelia, Annie, and Kia and learned that Kia and Dr. Tester had completed a firewall for the Difference Engine. The guests assembled as the Queen arrived, leaving Li Wei waiting for the banquet to begin.

• Li Wei drove his Phantom through heavy traffic and passed the guards' invitation inspection before parking in the palace square.
• Li Wei entered the banquet hall and observed the nobles, honored commoners, and young members of the Empire's military and political circles.
• Ovelia greeted Li Wei and showed him Little Black, which she had brought with the Queen's permission.
• Annie joined Li Wei and Ovelia, and Li Wei learned she had returned from Mericia because conditions there were unstable.
• Kia told Li Wei that she and Dr. Tester had completed a firewall to protect the Difference Engine from data viruses.
• The royal guards assembled, and the Queen entered the banquet hall.

At the New Year’s feast, Queen Victoria II honored contributors to the Empire and awarded Li Wei several medals, including the rare Thistle Medal. She knighted him as a Thistle Knight, binding him to an order that served the Royal Family, and Li Wei wondered whether he could still escape.

• Queen Victoria II praised the Empire’s defenders and began an investiture ceremony at the palace.
• Ovelia was formally recognized as head of the Baskerville family and lord of the Delicat District, while other nobles received titles or appointments.
• Annie received a third-class All-Seeing Eye medal for her research on the sea monster, and Dr. Tester received a first-class medal for protecting the Empire’s Difference Engine.
• Queen Victoria II awarded Li Wei several honors, including the Empire’s highly restricted Thistle Medal.
• Queen Victoria II knighted Li Wei as a Thistle Knight, and he privately considered fleeing despite his new status.

After the Queen made Li Wei the first Thistle Knight of the era, he chose a custom airship and finalized his noble details, wary of the political danger his appointment brought. Back at Military Intelligence Section Seven, he received a cane that transformed into a whip-like blade, then noticed it had a trigger.

• Li Wei reflected on how the Queen’s appointment made him a prominent target and gave his lifetime count title no hereditary fief.
• He chose a custom airship as his command vessel, settled on keeping his surname, and selected a skull surrounded by roses for his coat of arms.
• Li Wei returned exhausted to Military Intelligence Section Seven after completing the paperwork for his title and rewards.
• The old butler presented Li Wei with a sword cane made by Benjamin that split into blades and lashed like a whip.
• Li Wei thanked the old butler for the weapon, then asked why its handle had a trigger, and the old butler chuckled.

Li Wei traveled to Delicat with Annie, Katie, Lavinia, and Joe to help Ovelia investigate a mysterious castle where her previous team had vanished. The group headed toward Ovelia’s estate as Li Wei reflected on his new title and life in the Empire.

• Li Wei received an annual income of about eighty thousand pounds from his nominal fief in Fog City and a Royal Family manor in Delicat.
• Ovelia found that her team investigating a marked castle had disappeared, and the castle appeared abandoned; she decided to seek help from Li Wei and Annie.
• Li Wei drove toward Delicat with Annie and Katie, while Lavinia and Joe followed in another car.
• Katie eagerly asked about playing in the snow, and Li Wei told her they would visit Lady Baskerville after reaching Delicat.

After Delicate’s autumn harvest, Ovelia told Li Wei and Annie about a gigantic, unsettling monastery hidden in the mountains, where an earlier investigation team had disappeared. They agreed to explore it by airship the next day, while Katie amused herself outside by rolling an enormous snowball.

• Ovelia used steam-powered harvesters to finish the Baskerville Family’s fields quickly, then rented the machines to other farmers, who adopted them in growing numbers.
• After harvest, Ovelia described a vine-covered monastery hidden in a remote gorge, with steps nearly a meter high and no mention in the Baskerville records.
• Ovelia said her investigation team had left supplies near the monastery but vanished, and that she had turned back because she and Little Black sensed danger.
• Annie identified the monastery as likely Golden Age architecture and warned that such ancient buildings could contain deadly traps.
• Ovelia agreed to join Li Wei and Annie on an airship trip to the monastery the next day to learn the missing investigators’ fate and recover their belongings if possible.
• Li Wei saw Katie rolling a house-sized snowball outside and watched as she excitedly announced plans to build a snow house.

Li Wei’s party reached a vast, snow-covered monastery deep in the mountains and found the previous survey team’s camp abandoned. After Katie pushed open the enormous stone door, a hand lunged from the darkness toward her.

• Ovelia brought Li Wei’s party by airship to the mountain valley, where their horses refused to enter.
• Li Wei noticed that animal tracks avoided the valley, and the party crossed it to reach the enormous monastery.
• Ovelia showed the group the abandoned survey camp, and Li Wei found no useful clues with Soul Sight.
• Li Wei and Ovelia considered using explosives to open the monastery door, but Katie pushed it open herself.
• A hand suddenly reached out from the darkness and lunged at Katie.

Katie hauled a sunlight-sensitive monster from the shadows, and Li Wei and the others debated its nature after the guards killed it. When a blizzard forced the group to seek shelter, Ovelia led them into the mysterious Monastery despite a warning that a prisoner had been banished there forever.

• A monster grabbed Katie, but she yanked it into the sunlight, where a guard shot it and its body melted, leaving a strange skeleton.
• Annie examined the monster’s hollow bones, while Lavinia mended Katie’s torn coat and Ovelia’s guards urged her to leave.
• Ovelia decided to bring more soldiers, and Joe uncovered an inscription describing a prisoner banished to sleep in the Monastery forever.
• Li Wei questioned Annie’s theory that the monster came from the forest, noting that animals avoided the area and left no tracks.
• A blizzard swept in, forcing Ovelia, Li Wei, and the others to enter the Monastery for shelter.

Li Wei used the Black Cat Doll to scout the Monastery and discovered hundreds of winged monsters hanging from a chapel ceiling, including a much larger one. With the blizzard trapping the group and reinforcements uncertain, he asked Annie whether she had learned how to weaken the creatures.

• Li Wei sent the Black Cat Doll through the Monastery while Annie examined the monster's bones and the others waited at camp.
• Li Wei found a discarded torch with marks suggesting a previous Investigation Team member had been carried off by a monster.
• Li Wei discovered hundreds of winged monsters and a larger creature hanging from the chapel ceiling, then quietly retreated without being noticed.
• Li Wei considered the group's limited options and wondered whether Annie could weaken the monsters.
• Li Wei approached Annie and asked what she had learned about the creature.

Li Wei learned from Annie that the monsters were likely cold-sensitive, rested during the day, and relied on sentries, so he planned to attack them from above rather than face them directly. As the monsters began to stir at dusk, Joe lit the last fuse on the Chapel roof, leaving the charges about to explode.

• Annie examined a monster bone and told Li Wei that the creatures were highly flammable and likely rested during the day and emerged at night.
• Li Wei concluded that the monster Katie had dragged from the doorway had been acting as a sentry, and he proposed attacking the creatures through the Chapel ceiling.
• Li Wei instructed Ovelia to guard the main entrance while he, Katie, and Joe climbed onto the Monastery roof with explosives and fuel.
• Li Wei, Katie, and Joe crossed the snowy roof toward the Chapel while the Black Cat Doll watched the monsters below.
• Joe planted the charges as the hanging monsters began to stir, then lit the final fuse and scrambled down the roof into Katie's arms.

Li Wei and Katie destroyed the monsters in the Monastery chapel, then killed the enormous creature that survived the collapse. Afterward, Li Wei ordered the soldiers to burn the bodies while Annie dissected one, leaving Ovelia too unsettled to accept his offer of tea.

• Li Wei used the Black Cat Doll’s flare and explosives to throw the chapel monsters into chaos, then Katie and Li Wei set the escaping creatures on fire with an exploding fuel barrel.
• Li Wei and Katie returned to the Monastery chapel, where a huge surviving monster burst from the rubble and tried to escape through the roof.
• Li Wei slowed the monster with Death’s Eye and shot it repeatedly, then Katie restrained and killed it with two punches.
• Li Wei summoned the others and directed the soldiers to finish off the remaining monsters and burn their bodies.
• Annie dissected a wounded monster and studied its organs, making Katie feel sick and leaving Ovelia unwilling to join Li Wei for tea.

Li Wei investigated the chapel and found murals that appeared to depict King Solomon turning his subjects into monsters before being executed. He and Ovelia suspected the Luddites were trying to awaken Solomon in the Monastery and transform everyone in Delicate.

• Li Wei examined the chapel's All-Seeing Eye, altar offerings, and eerie murals while Annie studied the monster's corpse.
• Ovelia recognized the murals as depicting King Solomon, a once-beloved lord who supposedly went mad and transformed his people into monsters.
• Li Wei pointed out that the monsters resembled the figures in the murals and suggested the Luddites might be trying to awaken Solomon.
• Ovelia vowed that the cultists would not succeed, while Li Wei worried that the Monastery's connection to King Solomon could cause trouble.

Annie’s examination and Li Wei’s questioning of Ovelia suggested that missing Luddites had transformed into monsters using King Solomon’s power, including Ovelia’s childhood friend William Crent. After seeing King Solomon’s mural eyes move, Li Wei fell asleep and began dreaming of a sealed door opening.

• Annie theorized that magic could alter living creatures and found that the monsters’ teeth and braces suggested they were not ancient beings from King Solomon’s era.
• Li Wei connected the monsters to missing Luddites and learned from Ovelia that William Crent, a wealthy Luddite who had braces, had disappeared.
• Ovelia recognized the monster’s missing left big toe as matching an injury William had suffered as a child, making Li Wei’s theory seem plausible.
• Li Wei wondered why King Solomon’s power had appeared in the chapel, then saw the eyes in the mural seem to glare at him before returning to normal.
• Li Wei went to sleep, dreamed he walked through the dark corridor, and watched a sealed stone door open as a voice called out.

Li Wei, Katie, Ovelia, and Annie found themselves at a dreamlike banquet where they learned King Solomon planned to leave on a campaign with Emperor Arthur and appoint a successor. The banquet ended in catastrophe when Solomon’s wife, Lulana, suddenly collapsed and died after drinking wine.

• Li Wei met the Cheshire Cat in the dream, then followed a servant with Katie, Ovelia, and Annie into King Solomon’s palace banquet.
• Li Wei overheard guests discussing their concerns about Solomon’s alliance with Emperor Arthur, his departure, and the choice of a regent.
• Li Wei told the others that Solomon was preparing to leave and appoint a ruler, and Ovelia wondered whether this was the banquet where Solomon went berserk.
• King Solomon announced his campaign to conquer the continent and served the guests Golden Mead from a barrel gifted by Arthur.
• After drinking the wine, Lulana clutched her throat, spat blood, and collapsed as Solomon rushed to her side.

After Queen Lulana died from poison at the banquet, Li Wei agreed to investigate before dawn or risk being killed with the other guests. His examination suggested the poison was not in the wine, and Annie suspected Lulana had eaten something that delayed the poison’s effects; the investigation ended with a new quest to find her murderer.

• King Solomon grieved over Queen Lulana’s death, accused the guests, and ordered the palace sealed until Li Wei found the murderer by dawn.
• Li Wei introduced himself as a detective and secured permission to question everyone while he investigated the murder.
• Li Wei examined Lulana’s body and the wine, ruled out the barrel and cup as the source of poison, and reconstructed how the royal family had received their drinks.
• Annie found undigested remains in the blood and proposed that Lulana had eaten something containing poison before the wine was served.
• King Solomon forbade anyone from cutting open Lulana’s body, leaving Li Wei and the others to investigate what she had eaten without knowing when.
• The system activated the quest “Sweet Poison,” tasking Li Wei with finding who poisoned Queen Lulana.

Li Wei investigated the Queen’s poisoning and questioned her maid and the Prince, narrowing down when the poison could have been ingested. Annie recognized the scent of roses near the Queen’s mouth, and Li Wei suspected the royal dessert Clecaosua as a possible way to administer the poison.

• Li Wei questioned the Queen’s maid, who said the Queen ate little at lunch, napped, and then spent time in the lounge with the Prince and Princess before the banquet.
• Annie concluded the Queen likely ingested the poison after her nap, leading Li Wei to focus on the people who had been with her in the lounge.
• Li Wei asked Ovelia and Katie to question the maid again separately and record her answers.
• The Prince angrily objected to being questioned but described his day and said he had shared sweets with the Queen and Princess in the lounge.
• Li Wei and Annie examined the sweets, including Clecaosua, a sticky royal dessert that the Queen could have swallowed with concealed poison.
• Annie said she had smelled roses around the Queen’s mouth, and Li Wei prepared to investigate the Princess next.

Li Wei exposed the Princess’s drug dependence and showed that she had unknowingly given the Queen poison hidden in dessert. He accused the Princess’s guard of supplying the drug and manipulating her, prompting King Solomon to order the guard brought in.

• Li Wei had the Princess’s guard removed so he could question her alone, then asked King Solomon whether she had been taking medicine.
• Li Wei described a euphoric but addictive poison, and the Princess’s withdrawal symptoms intensified until she attacked King Solomon and begged to return to her room.
• The Princess rushed to her room, swallowed a pill from a packet, and began laughing and twitching as the drug took effect.
• Li Wei explained that the Princess had likely mixed the poison into dessert for the Queen without knowing it would kill her, citing a maid’s statement and the Queen’s vomit.
• Li Wei identified the guard as the likely source of the Princess’s drug and the person who had used her, and King Solomon ordered him brought in.

Li Wei uncovered that a guard had poisoned the Princess and was a follower of the God of Disaster, who had engineered King Solomon’s tragedy as a test. King Solomon attacked the guard, who transformed into a giant serpentlike monster, and Li Wei’s quest advanced to eliminating the Disaster Herald.

• Li Wei had the unconscious guard searched, and King Solomon tested the pills on a dog, which died after swallowing them.
• King Solomon interrogated the guard, then blasted him into a wall with a burst of wind.
• Li Wei recognized the Disaster Mark on the guard, who revealed that the God of Disaster’s followers had killed King Solomon’s wife and tested his ability to recover.
• King Solomon admitted he might not be fit to rule the continent and attacked the guard with a tornado of fire to avenge his family and people.
• The guard transformed into a giant serpentlike monster with six arms, and Li Wei’s quest advanced to its second stage: eliminate the Disaster Herald.

Li Wei used his dream-creation ability to summon dinosaurs against the Disaster Herald’s serpent army while King Solomon fought the giant Herald. The battle turned when Li Wei created a dinosaur as enormous as the Herald, leaving the group to watch the clash.

• The Disaster Herald summoned serpent soldiers, and King Solomon burned them with a giant fireball.
• Li Wei created a stampede of dinosaurs that trampled the serpent soldiers and gave King Solomon a chance to attack the Herald.
• King Solomon battled the Herald in the air, but his attacks barely damaged it and the Herald taunted him about his fading strength.
• A giant bipedal dinosaur charged out of the darkness and knocked the Disaster Herald down.
• Li Wei sat down and watched as the giant dinosaur roared at the Herald.

Li Wei watched his monster defeat the Disaster Herald, freeing King Solomon and the souls bound by the curse. King Solomon thanked Li Wei and offered him the remaining treasure in his tomb before the dream ended and Li Wei awoke to a system notification.

• Li Wei and Ovelia, Annie, and Katie watched the monster and the Disaster Herald clash while Li Wei said they could only cheer.
• The monster blasted the Disaster Herald with a blue beam, and a fireball struck the Herald's head and interrupted its attempt to dodge.
• The monster forced the Disaster Herald's jaws open and blasted it from within, destroying it.
• King Solomon thanked Li Wei for freeing him and the bound souls, then offered him the treasure remaining in the tomb.
• The dream dissolved, and Li Wei awoke as the system notification sounded.