Chapter Summaries

Roland confirmed that Seris incantations worked, while Lunifis continued developing level 1 True Word Spells. As the Orthodox School’s phonetic-symbol campaign gained public support, Lunifis sent Roland three sets of spell materials for their counterattack.

• Roland told Lunifis that he had successfully cast the three level 0 True Word Spells, and she urged him to rest while she continued the research.
• The Orthodox School’s Ous Alphabet Phonetic-Symbol Scheme gained momentum across the Magic Network, and Gallo urged his allies to develop matching magical incantations for level 0 spells.
• Gallo assigned Oksaya to cloud the opposition’s judgment and promote the phonetic-symbol scheme as superior to Seris Pinyin.
• Roland asked Ovesto whether paid posters were driving the public debate, and Ovesto explained that the Magic Network made organized anonymous campaigns traceable.
• Lunifis reassured Roland that their modified True Word Spells were nearly ready and sent him materials for three level 1 spells.

Roland mastered and simplified three Level 1 True Word spells, prompting Ovesto to suggest he was awakening a legendary destiny. Meanwhile, Lunifis prepared their joint research paper for submission to Magic, where its publication could help counter the Ous Alphabet Phonetic-Symbol Scheme.

• Roland told Lunifis he was awaiting her results, and she said they would submit their Level 1 findings together to Magic.
• Roland successfully cast simplified versions of Stabilize, Repel, and Shock after mastering the spells in only a few days.
• Skord and Yvonne were astonished by Roland's simplified incantations, and Yvonne suggested he might be awakening a legendary destiny.
• Ovesto examined Roland's spellcasting records and said his apparent legendary destiny might fade as he advanced.
• Lunifis told Roland she had written their paper using his spellcasting records and offered him half the proceeds from their coauthored work.
• Lunifis informed Roland that their joint results had officially been submitted.

At Magic’s headquarters, Novis and the journal’s other reviewers examined Lunifis and Roland’s research into using Seris Pinyin as a spell incantation system. They verified that the incantations could cast spells and began investigating whether the method extended to higher-level magic.

• Novis received a manuscript proposing a magical adaptation of Seris Pinyin and began reviewing it.
• Novis read that Lunifis and Roland had tested the method and registered its spells with the magic network.
• Novis constructed a spell model for True Word Spell: Halt and successfully cast the level 0 spell using mana.
• Novis concluded that Seris Pinyin showed the traits of an ultra-magic language and could theoretically work for spells up to level 9.
• The other reviewers learned the paper’s level 0 spells from Lunifis’s analyses and Roland’s recordings, then studied its level 1 results.

Gallo learned that Roland’s Seris Pinyin incantations had already surpassed the Orthodox School’s research, but he resolved to continue developing their own approach. Meanwhile, Novis’s ten-year-old nephew Hans studied the Seris Incantations material and successfully cast a True Word Spell, shocking Novis.

• Gallo’s colleagues told him that Magic had received a paper reporting successful conversion of Seris Pinyin into incantations.
• Novis confirmed to Gallo that the new incantations were concise, powerful, and more efficient, then tested Gallo’s work and said it had been completely outclassed.
• Gallo urged the Orthodox School’s researchers to keep working, believing Atrelin’s widespread use could help them overcome Seris Pinyin.
• Hans found the Seris Incantations material Novis had left on his desk and studied it while waiting for his uncle at the editorial department.
• Hans cast True Word Spell: Shock at a chair, and Novis arrived and exclaimed that Hans had learned the spell.

The Arcane Committee reviewed Novis and his colleagues’ proposal to test Seris-language education and recognized the completion of Roland’s Seris magical-language system. Roland received a higher expert title and allowance and was nominated for the prestigious Morningstar Award, to be announced on June 15.

• Antonia and the commissioners discussed testing Seris-language education in the homeland and the Lainer Kingdom, where children could learn the language and be screened for magical aptitude.
• Antonia praised Roland’s completion of Seris’s sound, form, meaning, and magical application, and raised his allowance to 3,000 gold coins per year.
• The commissioners agreed to nominate Roland for the Morningstar Award despite his being an Apprentice Mage.
• The Arcane Committee notified Roland that his title had changed from Chief Authority Expert on Oracle to Chief Authority Expert on Seris and that he had been nominated for the award.
• The tower’s residents celebrated Roland’s nomination and remarked that the award usually went to older, highly accomplished arcanists.

Roland’s nomination for the Morningstar Award delighted his friends and fellow tower residents. As the news reached Lunifis, Cynthia, Polina, and Sophia, they each reacted with surprise and excitement.

• Froya, Skord, Yvonne, and other tower residents celebrated Roland’s nomination, while students and senior wizards sent him congratulations.
• Lunifis congratulated Roland and sent him a revealing photograph, leaving him flustered and wondering why her enthusiasm had grown so intense.
• Roland told Atali and Cynthia about the nomination, and Cynthia searched the arcane news and discovered the extent of his achievements.
• Polina learned of Roland’s nomination while checking her mail, and Sophia froze before tears welled in her eyes.

Roland’s Morningstar Award nomination strengthened his standing in the Mage Tower and helped spur new spell research. The first major follow-up came from outside the tower, as Pano developed a Level 1 Mage Armor Spell Scroll based on Roland’s papers and joined the emerging Seris camp.

• Gallo brooded over Roland’s nomination, while members of the Orthodox School feared Roland would overshadow Gallo and threaten their standing in Arcana.
• Roland’s growing influence inspired more than a dozen senior students to develop practical Level 0 Spell Scrolls, and they credited him at a celebratory gathering.
• The senior students concluded that other mages had either dismissed the small-scale opportunities or were still learning oracle-bone characters.
• The Arcana Communications Journal reported that Pano had improved a Mage Armor Spell Scroll and received acceptance from Characters.
• Pano’s work cited Roland’s papers, and Roland recognized the outside Arcanist as a friend who had joined the emerging Seris camp.

Roland read a newspaper’s estimates of his spell-scroll royalties, then built a friendly working relationship with Pano while they discussed spell development. On June 1, Roland received his first royalty payment of 1,575 gold coins, sent 100 gold coins to his predecessor’s family, and was summoned by Ovesto for a lesson in managing money.

• Roland read a newspaper report estimating his earnings from Oracle spell-scroll royalties and contacted Pano.
• Roland welcomed Pano’s work on spell scrolls and shared Oracle vocabulary and runes to help him improve the Mount Spell.
• Roland and Pano exchanged ideas over the following days and agreed to keep in touch.
• On June 1, Roland received 1,575 gold coins from the Hilt Company as his net income for the first half of the year.
• Roland sent 100 gold coins to his predecessor’s family, and Ovesto summoned him to teach him about personal finances.

Ovesto summoned Heduo Voluptas, the Silver Moon Queen, and requested an equal contract for Roland with a greater succubus companion. Heduo granted the request, leaving a succubus companion contract on the altar, and Roland realized how carefully his teacher had arranged help for his needs.

• Roland followed Ovesto into an empty room and recognized the Infernal Script engraved on an altar.
• Ovesto explained how mages used devils’ Pacts to protect wealth and prepared offerings for a summoning.
• Ovesto invoked Heduo Voluptas and asked her to provide Roland with a greater succubus companion in exchange for payment of equal value.
• Heduo granted Ovesto’s request, and a contract written in Abyssal, Infernal, and Atrelin appeared on the altar.
• Ovesto explained why a succubus companion could handle Roland’s financial and personal needs, and Roland felt moved by his teacher’s thoughtfulness.

Ovesto explained the Succubus Companion Contract and lent Roland a copy, which Roland used at home to select a greater succubus companion. A dice roll chose Aier, who answered the Pact and greeted Roland with a hug and kiss.

• Ovesto described the contract’s origins, its rules, and the risks of entering Pacts with devils, then let Roland take a copy home.
• Roland browsed the succubus profiles and struggled to choose among the many companions.
• Roland rolled a hundred-sided die and landed on profile 233, Ail Lilith Anzankata, also called Aier.
• Roland reviewed Aier’s profile, accepted her terms, and chanted the summoning words to form the Pact.
• Aier appeared before Roland, introduced herself as his companion, and embraced and kissed him.

Roland hired Aier as a succubus maid, then sought Ovesto’s advice about their contract and received a bawdy lecture on economics and sharing. After enjoying Aier’s cooking and pampering, Roland remembered his Legendary Destiny and resumed his work on Oracle-Bone Characters.

• Roland escaped Aier’s embrace and told her to cook while he went to report to Ovesto.
• Ovesto advised Roland about the cost of Aier’s long contract, then argued that short-term hires and open competition were better.
• Roland returned home, enjoyed Aier’s dinner, bath, ear cleaning, and massage, and considered how succubi had adapted to modern society.
• Roland recalled his Legendary Destiny, stopped the massage, and went upstairs to work on Oracle-Bone Characters.

Roland decided that Chinese civilization’s historical and cultural heritage could provide the foundation for Seris, and he began planning how to introduce it to Atrelin through fiction. At his nineteenth birthday gathering, he recruited Yvonne and Froya to explore turning Oracle inscriptions and Bronze Script into magic.

• Roland concluded that terms such as “Nine Cauldrons” and “Pursuit of the Deer” needed Chinese historical context, and considered presenting that heritage as fiction.
• Roland celebrated his nineteenth birthday with friends and senior students at his Mage Tower residence.
• After the party, Roland gathered Froya, Skord, and Yvonne to discuss future research projects.
• Roland asked Yvonne to help develop Oracle Inscriptions and record inscriptions into a usable grammatical system and magic.
• Roland introduced Skord to Bronze Script, but Skord chose to continue working on Spell Scrolls.
• Roland encouraged Froya to try studying Bronze Script and turning its inscriptions into magic.

Roland explained bronze script and its possible magical uses to Froya, Skord, and Yvonne, then sought funding for their research. After Rick offered an unusually generous sponsorship, Froya warned Roland about merchants using research grants to skirt the law, so Roland decided to discuss the project with his teacher instead.

• Roland introduced bronze script and described how its inscriptions might support alchemy of constructs and magical applications.
• Froya agreed to proceed gradually and asked how Roland would fund the collaborative research.
• Roland contacted Rick, who offered to provide up to ten thousand gold coins as a personal sponsorship without asking about the project.
• Froya warned that wealthy merchants could use arcane research funding to skirt the law, and Roland agreed not to accept Rick's money indiscriminately.
• Roland told his companions where he was going and left to find his teacher on the ninth floor.

Roland discussed delegating research and securing funding for his Seris studies with Ovesto, who advised him on applying to the Arcane Committee. After returning home with application materials, Roland learned that Skord had signed an outrageous loan contract summoning a devil.

• Roland told Ovesto he planned to assign Froya and Yvonne research tasks and seek investment from Rick, and Ovesto encouraged him to delegate and pursue research funding.
• Ovesto explained how Roland could apply to the Arcane Committee for foundational research funding and offered him old application forms to study.
• Roland discovered that Ovesto had covered a half-orc maid in oracle-bone characters, and he explained how the character for “upright” had developed.
• Roland returned home with Ovesto’s application forms and receipts, then Froya contacted him through a video connection.
• Froya urged Roland to go to Skord’s place because Skord had summoned a devil to borrow money and signed an outrageous Usurious Loan Contract.

Roland discovered that Skord had signed a chain of predatory loan Pacts with a Lizh Demon and faced an enormous debt. He found a peculiar flaw in the Oracle script Skord had added, giving them hope of escaping the contracts.

• Froya confronted Skord after discovering that a devil had trapped him in a high-interest loan.
• Roland examined the Pacts and found that linked contracts had raised Skord's debt to five thousand gold coins, with more than twelve thousand due in total.
• Skord admitted he had signed the additional contracts because he thought they were all the same.
• Roland and Froya discussed borrowing money, hiding in the Mage Tower, or destroying the Pacts as possible solutions.
• Roland noticed Oracle script in the Pacts, saw that Skord had written a crucial character incorrectly, and told him there was hope.

Roland used an ambiguity in Skord's Pact to seek its annulment, then summoned the devil Aexip Nos and tried to force him to renegotiate. The confrontation ended when Aexip Nos invoked the Planar Court, revealing that he had a powerful background.

• Roland argued that the word 'jie' in Skord's Pact could mean Skord had lent gold to the devil, creating a textual ambiguity.
• Roland contacted Ovesto, who agreed the ambiguity might provide grounds to challenge the Pact and advised Skord to seek the devil's voluntary cancellation.
• Skord summoned Aexip Nos, and Roland offered to return the principal and pay ten gold coins in exchange for canceling the Pact.
• Aexip Nos rejected the offer and threatened the group, so Roland used Ovesto's Projection to forcibly summon the devil's true body to the Mage Tower.
• Roland transformed into a juvenile Gold Dragon and beat Aexip Nos until the devil invoked the Planar Court, which Ovesto identified as Dikastirio Epipedon.

The Planar Court convened to hear Aixipu Nos’s case against Skord Nomshivich over an allegedly broken contract, and Ovesto challenged the contract’s wording and translation. The court summoned Roland as an expert witness on Seris, leaving the devils stunned.

• Nomos’s ruined Divine Kingdom manifested as the Planar Court, where Aixipu Nos accused Skord Nomshivich of breaking his promise and repudiating their contract.
• Ovesto agreed to defend Skord, while Aixipu summoned a high-ranking Dickigo Devil to serve as counsel for the plaintiff.
• Ovesto argued that the contract’s languages contained discrepancies and that its Oracle text established Aixipu had borrowed 10,000 gold coins.
• The Dickigo Devil challenged the use of one authoritative language and objected when Ovesto offered to testify as an expert in four languages.
• Ovesto asked Nomos to summon an expert on Seris, and the god’s gaze fell on Roland as a beam of light illuminated him.

Roland testified as Seris’s Chief Authority Expert that Skord’s contract was ambiguous, leading Nomos to void it and dismiss Aixipu’s claim. The ruling returned both parties to their original locations, where Aixipu found himself back in Skord’s residence with the Dickigo Devil begging for mercy.

• Nomos overruled the devils’ objections and summoned Roland to testify as an expert on Seris.
• Ovesto cautioned Roland not to give false testimony in the Divine Kingdom, and Roland explained that the contract could mean either party had lent gold to the other.
• Nomos’s divine spells found Roland’s testimony truthful and authoritative.
• Nomos voided the contract and dismissed Aixipu’s claim that Skord had borrowed gold coins from him.
• Nomos sent both parties back to their original locations, leaving the Dickigo Devil kneeling before Skord and pleading for mercy.

After Ovesto resolved the devil-summoning incident, Roland received Aixipu’s soul-bound oil lamp and watched his teacher reassure the students while making Skord pay for the trouble. Back at his residence, Roland learned that Nomos, the God of Law, had offered him a blessing.

• Ovesto explained Nomos and made Aixipu sign a costly Pact before Aixipu surrendered part of his soul to an oil lamp and returned to Hell.
• Ovesto gave Roland the oil lamp, counseled Skord, Froya, and Yvonne, and encouraged them to call him Teacher.
• Froya ordered Skord to copy the tower rules and surrender his gold coins, while Roland charged him a hundred gold coins.
• Roland returned home, let Aier massage his foot, and boasted about how the mage lords had dealt with Aixipu.
• The Tower Spirit announced that Roland had received Nomos’s blessing and asked whether he wished to accept it.

After receiving Nomos’s Blessing and accepting work as a Planar Court consultant, Roland rediscovered his love of calligraphy and resolved to spread civilization in the magical world. As he continued his studies and research, Ovesto reminded him that he had been nominated for the Morningstar Award and invited him to Sky City Nevis.

• Nomos offered Roland a permanent blessing and unlimited divine uses of Read Law in exchange for serving as a special consultant, and Roland accepted after consulting Ovesto.
• Roland wrote Chinese characters on Aier’s back and, inspired by practicing calligraphy again, resolved to pass on civilization and bring prosperity to the magical society.
• Over the next few days, Roland practiced calligraphy while continuing his Arcana studies, inscription research, dictionary work, language development, and spell accumulation.
• Roland used Read Law to analyze legal documents and made rapid progress.
• On June 14, Ovesto invited Roland to Sky City Nevis for the Morningstar Award judging, explaining that Roland had been nominated and would receive his vote.