Chapter Summaries

Roland used a probability-altering Wish to get croton seeds into the Purple-Skinned Orcs’ breakfast, then led an ambush against Kunnis Ding and his forces. The battle turned against Kunnis Ding as the seeds incapacitated his guards, but their loyalty kept him from escaping alone.

• Roland had Jonis arrange for a spy to add croton seeds to the Purple-Skinned Orcs’ food, then secretly used Limited Wish to improve the plan’s odds.
• The spy successfully got the seeds into the orcs’ meat soup, and Kunnis Ding and his guards ate breakfast without checking for poison.
• Roland used Limited Wish to reveal Kunnis Ding’s hidden resources, then prepared with Linge, Naldo, and the others for battle.
• Roland’s forces surrounded Kunnis Ding in the western valley, where Linge and Naldo summoned elemental elders and the mages attacked with coordinated spells.
• Trina and Roland blocked Kunnis Ding’s advance while the Mage Corps defeated his guards, many of whom were overcome by the croton seeds.
• Kunnis Ding’s guards urged him to escape, but he refused to abandon his loyal companions, leaving him trapped with them.

Roland’s forces killed Kunnis Ding and uncovered the Deni Orcs’ alliance with devils, while Jonis exploited the orcs’ sudden illness to rout the Feilie Army. Feilie died by suicide as Blackstone Keep fell, and Rosa learned the war was over the next morning.

• Roland, Linge, and Naldo killed Kunnis Ding and the remaining orc warriors, then divided the spoils and discovered evidence of the Deni Orcs’ plans with devils and the Abyssal Legion.
• Roland ordered the evidence sent to Atrelin and found an upper-rank Deni training manual, which he planned to have Jados and Sakari study alongside the orcs’ bodies.
• Jonis learned that more than half the Deni Orcs had diarrhea and launched an all-out attack, routing the Feilie Army after the orcs fled.
• Roland sent Jonis the Legendary Card Xingtian as the Feilie Army retreated into Blackstone Keep.
• Feilie slit his throat rather than face capture, and his confidants set a fire before escaping; Jonis reported Feilie’s death to Roland.
• Rosa heard Roland’s account of the victory through the Magic Network as dawn broke over Terry City.

After the victory, Roland rewarded Vian and Pamir by taking them as personal disciples, then reviewed the battle and developed plans for military strategy and a new Runic Studies profession called History Recorder. He returned to the Mage Tower and learned that an envoy from the Scroll Association had arrived in Terry City seeking a meeting.

• Roland invited Vian and Pamir to become his personal disciples and told them to learn under Jonis, recognizing their help in resolving the conflict.
• Roland reflected on the battle, strengthened his Xingtian Battle Spirit and True Word Spell: Cleave, and decided to circulate The Art of War among his allies.
• Linge gave Roland research on the Deni Orcs, and Roland discussed applying Strategic Deduction and The Art of War to the School of Military Strategy.
• Roland told Linge he intended to write Feilie's biography and proposed History Recorder as an advanced Signature Profession in Runic Studies.
• Roland returned to the Mage Tower, where Rosa reported that an envoy from the Scroll Association had arrived in Terry City and requested a meeting.

Roland negotiated compensation from the Scroll Association and learned that its withdrawal from the low-end scroll market was an overt gambit to preserve its dominance in higher-tier products. As postwar problems mounted, Rosa presented an ambitious national reform plan, which Roland supported while advising her on its details.

• Roland demanded ten million gold coins or scroll-making technology from the Scroll Association, and its envoy agreed to provide low-end ink formulas and copying techniques as partial compensation.
• Roland, Lie Yi, and Blaise confirmed that the Scroll Association was cutting back its Lainer branches to abandon the low-end market and protect its advantage in higher-tier scrolls.
• Roland received reports about postwar threats and unrest in the western region, while Queen Rosa continued managing both the kingdom and the academy despite his concern that she was overworked.
• Rosa presented a reform proposal to replace Northsen's old noble fiefs with prefectures and counties and to standardize government, education, and magical technology.
• Roland reviewed Rosa's proposal, praised its promise, and offered guidance to help her carry out the reforms.

Roland chose to answer the Scroll Association’s scheme by building alliances, and he welcomed representatives of the Magic Guidance School to discuss arcane cooperation. Their partnership helped launch the Capel Company’s spell scroll workshop, where Carlo was recruited and began training as an apprentice.

• In Terry City, Carlo read a newspaper report about Queen's rewards for those who crushed the rebellion, including Commander Jonis’s promotion to marquis.
• At Seris Academy, Roland met Professor Aisen, Nogin, and Bernal, accepted a rare magical pocket watch, and discussed cooperation between their schools.
• Aisen and Nogin praised how Seris writing could support industrial production of magical devices and scrolls.
• At the Capel Company’s magic paper factory, a supervisor recruited Carlo and other literate workers for the new spell scroll workshop.
• Carlo began lessons in using magical tools and copying rune patterns for basic spells.

Roland launched the Tyrell Spell Scroll Company while planning to use its research to strengthen Seris magic cards and develop a distinct talisman system that could bypass the Scroll Association’s patent barriers. After the opening ceremony, Rosa discovered she was pregnant, and Roland felt his legendary destiny calling him to advance toward transcendence.

• Roland explained to Ovesto and Lunifis that entering the scroll industry would build expertise, distribution channels, and talent for Seris magic cards, while he promoted Seris literacy and Mandarin.
• Roland learned that adventurers and mages were arriving in the Lainer World, where Rosa’s immigration and commercial policies had helped attract workers and businesses.
• Roland attended the opening of the Tyrell Spell Scroll Company with Rosa and told Nogin, Bernal, and Moberon that the school should develop Seris talismans to evade the Scroll Association’s patent barriers.
• Roland promised to devote more effort to Seris Rune Compilation, which he expected to support a distinctive talisman magic system.
• Rosa examined herself after feeling tired and told Roland she thought she was pregnant, prompting him to feel his legendary destiny urging him toward advancement.

Roland prepared for the political consequences of his unborn child with Queen Rosa, securing support from Atrelin’s influential figures and building an alliance around the child’s future inheritance. Meanwhile, Seris Rune research made major advances, culminating in the development of the Elemental Talisman and drawing attention from the Arcana community.

• Roland warned Rosa that their child’s claim to the East Lainer throne could provoke political opposition, and he began assessing how the child’s birth would affect his supporters.
• Roland told Pollas, Ovesto, Watson, and Antonia about the child; Antonia supported the child’s right to inherit, provided Roland resolved the resulting problems himself.
• Lunifis, Lie Yi, Blaise, Moberon, Jonis, and others reacted to the news, and Moberon and Jonis pledged their descendants’ loyalty to Roland’s bloodline.
• Roland resumed selection for the Blood Eagle Warriors and ordered Jonis to train Pamir and Vian, who had shown promise in martial arts and magic cards.
• Roland’s researchers made progress adapting Seris into runes, developed melee spells such as Frost Palm and Flame Blade, and later created the Elemental Talisman.
• News of the Elemental Talisman spread through the Arcana community as Seris Runes gained foundations for wider use and transmission.

The Seris School outlined a new talisman system that could open a field distinct from spell scrolls, while Rawls planned to use lawsuits to hinder its development and seize its secrets. In early June, the Spell Scroll Association brought Pendus and other researchers before the Planar Court over alleged patent infringement.

• Mages discussed the prospects of elemental talismans after research papers from the Seris School received approval and an Arcana Review article analyzed the new technology.
• Roland welcomed open discussion and the school members proposed a framework dividing talismans into talisman treasures for storing, summoning, and sealing magic, and register books for locating and forming pacts with entities.
• The East Lainer Mage Tower set out initial training and rank requirements for producing talismans, raising the value of Seris proficiency and prompting regret among mages who had not studied it.
• Rawls decided to file lawsuits against talisman researchers to freeze their funding, intimidate collaborators, and uncover the technology, even though he did not expect to win.
• The Spell Scroll Association sued talisman research institutes under the Seris School, and Pendus and other mages were summoned to the Planar Court over alleged patent infringement.

Roland pushed back against the Scroll Association’s patent lawsuit while seeking new plant-based materials to support the Seris School’s magical industries. As Rosa’s pregnancy became visible, unfavorable reports about her and Roland appeared in Atrelin’s media.

• Roland instructed the Seris School to contest the Scroll Association’s lawsuit and keep its research and production moving despite the dispute.
• Mages rallied behind the Seris School, while Pendus handled the lawsuit through a representative and continued his laboratory work.
• A paper mill manager reported supply and quality problems, but said Varnonado-like plants had been found in several regions.
• Roland asked Mr. Sakari and the Adventurers’ Association to search for related trees and survey woodlands for new papermaking materials.
• Roland reassured Pendus that the Seris School would prevail, and later shared a quiet visit with pregnant Rosa, who mentioned Lacey Capel as a possible companion.
• A communication warned Roland that Atrelin’s media had begun publishing unfavorable reports about him and Rosa after her pregnancy became visible.

Roland and Rosa countered attacks on her pregnancy by redirecting public attention and launching a lavish palace project that brought support and jobs to Lainer. As Roland prepared to establish the Seris School’s standing, Alodi Loki Rulanir gathered Great Nobles and secured their pledge to rise against the Royal Family’s legacy falling to an outsider.

• Rawls continued the Scroll Association’s public opinion campaign, but Roland reassured Rosa and gave her a magical pocket watch as a promise of support.
• After learning that Pollas’s grandson had welcomed twins, Roland announced plans for the Pearl and Shell Palace, a million-gold-coin project intended to spur development and employment in Lainer.
• Roland’s allies and industries defended the palace project, while laborers and refugees, especially around Northsen Territory, received construction jobs.
• Roland arranged for the media to name him as the father of Rosa’s child, and the public barely reacted after months of controversy had exhausted its interest.
• Roland told Rosa that the conflict would not be settled until their child took the throne, and said he would finish Seris Rune Assembly Language and compete for the Arcane Star Award.
• Alodi Loki Rulanir persuaded several Great Nobles to sign a blood pact and pledged to lead them in building a future for the Lainer People.

Carlo witnessed rising unrest against Queen Rosa as Prince Alodi, Duke Del, Duke Chad, and the Lier Party challenged her rule. Roland urged Rosa to avoid a rash purge and explained that stable order and material prosperity, rather than bloodline alone, would secure public support.

• Carlo saw a protest speaker arrested, then watched police apologize after reporters revealed the man was Duke Del's legal adviser.
• Carlo received an anti-Queen leaflet and later learned that Prince Alodi, Duke Del, Duke Chad, and the Lier Party were openly opposing Rosa.
• Rosa resolved to arrest those involved and use force if they continued threatening the realm, saying she wanted to protect her child.
• Roland warned Rosa that the public figures were likely pawns and argued that economic development and infrastructure would win ordinary people's support.
• Roland told Rosa that political power rested on an established order and its benefits, and that the rebels' desired order needed to be exposed.

Roland used Strategic Deduction to expose the Scroll Association’s covert network supporting unrest in Lainer, then prepared a coordinated crackdown while planning to confront a sixth-rank Warlock from the Black Dragon Dynasty himself. Trina agreed to help after Roland promised her first pick of the enemy’s treasure.

• Roland and Bona tightened controls over Lainer’s residents and recruited mages for administrative work, while using rewards and threats to steady merchants, artisans, and nobles.
• Roland’s investigators arrested dozens of suspected foreign agents and uncovered the Scroll Association’s support, prompting Rawls to order merchants and clerks to stir up trouble as the Old Nobles challenged Rosa’s rule.
• Roland showed Rosa his semantic-network model and explained how Strategic Deduction identified the Scroll Association’s key agents and the connections sustaining its coalition.
• Roland and Rosa prepared to close Lainer’s trade routes and deploy forces against the exposed agents, while Roland chose to face a hidden sixth-rank Warlock from the Black Dragon Dynasty himself.
• Roland asked Trina to accompany him, and she eagerly agreed after securing first pick of the treasure.

Roland and Trina ambushed and killed the Black Dragon Warlock Delanite, then searched his mansion for treasure. In the underground prison, they discovered a shackled prisoner who was a pure-blooded elf.

• Roland located Delanite with Detection Spell, then attacked him with illusions and summoned creatures while Trina remained hidden.
• Delanite transformed into a dragon-like form and fought back, but Roland transformed into a Gold Dragon and defeated him with martial techniques.
• Roland killed Delanite with a Battle Aura Strike, and Trina emerged to help search his mansion.
• Roland and Trina found Delanite's treasure chamber and gathered gold coins and magic equipment.
• Roland and Trina discovered an underground prison holding corpses and living captives, including a shackled pure-blooded elf.

Roland uncovered Delanite’s role in the interplanar slave-trading organization Kongel, rescued the captives, and forced Rawls to cooperate after threatening to expose his connection to the mutilated pureblood elf. Trina suggested Roland use his dream authority and Tiniara’s Divine Spark Fragment to help restore the elf’s damaged mind.

• Roland and Trina found a blinded, silenced elf chained in Delanite’s mansion, and Roland freed her with magic.
• Roland learned from Delanite’s records that he had been a franchisee of Kongel, while Gang Jide and the others rescued the abducted girls and sent them to safety in East Lainer.
• Roland and his companions took the mansion’s available treasure, burned the property, and dealt with its servants and lackeys.
• Rawls learned that his intelligence network had been wiped out and that Roland had registered the divination spell Strategic Deduction.
• Roland confronted Rawls about the pureblood elf and reached an agreement to receive information and resources from him in exchange for keeping the scandal quiet.
• Trina advised Roland that the elf’s mental collapse might be self-protective and that dreams, aided by Tiniara’s Divine Spark Fragment and Yellow Millet Dream, might heal her.

Roland repeatedly entered Kana’s dreams until he helped her awaken from her mental trauma, then reunited her with the Gossus elves. His rescue earned him the elves’ friendship and improved his reputation, while he began exploring whether they could help with his printing materials.

• Roland repeatedly modified the Yellow Millet Dream model and entered Kana’s traumatic memories until he reached a peaceful dream and learned her name.
• Roland used Tiniara’s power to reverse dream and reality, awakening Kana and easing her mental suffering.
• Roland learned that the Gossus elves had advanced alchemical technology and arranged for their officer Verlina to collect Kana.
• Verlina and her guard arrived in a spacecraft, took custody of Kana, and thanked Roland for rescuing her from the Kongel Organization.
• The Gossus elves sent Roland a rare wooden-bead bracelet as a token of friendship, improving his standing among elves.
• Roland spoke with Verlina and considered whether the elves could help him find materials for magic paper and ink.

Roland completed the Seris Runes Compendium and submitted it to the Arcane Committee, which praised its quality and moved to award him the Arcane Star. He also considered what resources and innate abilities to pursue when advancing to the seventh rank, leaving the story with the Committee poised to grant him long-delayed recognition.

• Roland consulted Lie Yi, Blaise, Lunifis, and Ovesto about advancement resources, supernatural traits, and spell-like abilities, then considered whether fusing with Tiniara's divine core would help him.
• Trina came to boast about dragons' natural talents, and Roland decided that awakening dream-related abilities through Tiniara's divine core might bring unwanted complications.
• On January 1, 10033, Roland finished compiling 3,600 Seris runes into the Seris Runes Compendium and notified the Arcane Committee and his colleagues.
• Arcane Commissioners and Runic Studies experts, including Ovesto, Lunifis, and Watson, evaluated the compendium and praised its completeness and quality.
• Antonia argued that Roland deserved the Arcane Star Award, noting that his nomination had been delayed for nearly ten years.

Roland learned that the Grand Mages had agreed to award him the Arcane Star Award, then rushed to Holy Song Hospital when Rosa went into labor. After their son was born, Roland named him Rowan Seris and publicly acknowledged his lineage, while the name’s announcement stirred the Kingdom and gave the house-arrested Prince Adilo hope of challenging the succession.

• Antonia and the Grand Mages agreed to nominate Roland for the Arcane Star Award, and Ovesto sent him a letter that strongly implied he would win.
• Roland received word that Rosa was giving birth and hurried to Holy Song Hospital, where Sister Alela delivered a healthy baby boy.
• Roland and Rosa named their son Rowan Qin Yin Seris, and Roland formally gave him the Seris surname.
• Roland’s spoken naming of the prince resonated through the Kingdom, and the Royal Family announced the birth while newspapers spread the news.
• Prince Adilo realized that Rowan Seris’s name publicly acknowledged Roland’s paternity and celebrated the possibility of turning the Kingdom against the prince.

After Rowan Seris’s birth, Roland and Rosa discussed royal power, modernization, and the future of Leiner while preparing the prince’s first-month celebration. At the ceremony, Rosa named Rowan Crown Heir, Roland acknowledged his paternity, and three senior ministers agreed to serve as the prince’s tutors and advisers.

• Jonis and others returned to Terry City and saw that Roland’s month-long celebrations had won public praise while stimulating trade and tax revenue.
• Rosa reviewed how fines and confiscated estates from Great Nobles had funded the festivities and strengthened royal authority.
• Roland persuaded Rosa to keep the first-month celebration lavish and explained his plans for centralization, magical development, education, and the Royal Family’s long-term survival.
• At the February 4 ceremony, Rosa declared Rowan Seris Crown Heir and announced that Roland was his father.
• Roland asked Uboer, Jonis, and Moberon to serve Rowan, and the three ministers accepted.

Roland learned that the Elements School planned to back Professor Xiagengsi for the Arcane Star Award to preserve Aziz’s age record, and he began rallying his own supporters. He returned to Atrelin to pursue the award, leaving Rosa and Rowan in Lainer, while Prince Adilo saw his departure as an opportunity.

• Opani Aziz Ent urged the Elements School’s senior figures to support Professor Xiagengsi rather than Roland, hoping to protect his ancestor Aziz’s record as the youngest Arcane Star Award recipient.
• Froya and Professor Kingsley told Roland that the Craid Mage Tower was building support for Xiagengsi, and Roland assessed his backing on the Arcane Committee before contacting potential supporters.
• Roland arranged for Lie Yi and Blaise to manage the mage tower and continue hunting demons while he returned home to contend for the award.
• Rosa encouraged Roland to pursue his future, promised to safeguard the kingdom and raise Rowan, and asked him to remember them in Lainer.
• Roland departed for Atrelin with his official staff, leaving his other companions behind, and wistfully said farewell to Lainer.
• Prince Adilo heard that Roland had returned to his country and declared that their chance had finally come.

Rosa ordered the execution of Adilo’s household and three generations of the Del and Chad families after an assassination attempt, while Jonis carried out the purge. In Nevis City, Roland contained the resulting controversy and then heard Ovesto urge him to advance the Runes School by pursuing deeper laws and systems.

• Jonis’s guards ambushed the assassins targeting the Summer Palace, and High Mage Linge summoned the dead for interrogation while the captured survivor revealed the plot.
• After reading the report, Rosa ordered Adilo’s household executed and three generations of the Del and Chad families exterminated; Jonis and Rabio accepted the task.
• Bona warned Duke André about the purge, prompting André to urge Bona to adapt to the new order, build wealth through workshops, and marry so their children could study magic.
• Jonis’s Magic Knights crushed the nobles’ resistance, killed their families, and Jonis strangled Adilo outside Terry City.
• Roland learned of Rosa’s actions, suppressed coverage through Oksaya and media contacts, and helped end the public dispute after it spread through Atrelin’s newspapers.
• Ovesto told Roland that the Runes School needed his leadership and urged him to investigate rune laws and advanced systems as a path toward higher advancement.