Recaps

Number Seven toured Giantwood University with Number Six and reflected on Number One’s plans to conquer the Southern Region and secure an heir. Later, Goff received praise for the 516 Military Uniform Factory’s productivity, though he privately suspected its doubled workforce explained the output.

• Number Seven saw the university’s military students and concluded that Number One was building toward war and an empire.
• Number Seven realized that Number One needed their younger brother’s child to secure her political position.
• Number Six showed Number Seven their father’s old laboratory and wondered whether Number One had found the hidden glacier laboratory.
• Number Seven asked Number Six to arrange a family meal and speak to Number One about the Coming-of-Age Ceremony.
• Number Seven and Number Six parted, with Number Seven promising to bring her better perfume.
• Reporters praised Goff’s management after he credited the factory’s productivity to his methods, while he privately wondered whether the workforce’s growth from four thousand to eight thousand was responsible.

Lina encountered Little Wood, the former owner of Wood Farm who had violated and abused her, on a deserted street in Giantwood City. Little Wood stole her money and taunted her as Lina froze in terror.

• Lina hurried through the cold with dinner for her father, Charles, when a homeless man confronted her for money or food.
• The homeless man recognized Lina, and she realized he was Little Wood, who had violated her when she served his household.
• Lina recalled how Little Wood’s wife had stripped him of his assets, leaving him and the servants destitute, and how the Head Chef had later driven him away for harassing her.
• Little Wood mocked Lina by asking where the Head Chef was and demanded spending money from her.
• Little Wood snatched Lina’s wallet, took its few resource points, and taunted her about being her first man as she cried.

Lina confronted Little Wood, resisted his attempt to take the meal she was carrying for her father, and left feeling that she had reclaimed her courage. As she walked toward the Funeral Association, someone crept up behind her and stabbed her.

• Little Wood’s words brought Lina back to the abuse he had inflicted on her and her father in the Southern Region.
• Little Wood tried to take the food Lina was carrying and claimed that she still belonged to him.
• Lina refused to hand over her father’s meal, pushed Little Wood down twice, and told him he could not take it.
• Little Wood ordered Lina to go away, and she walked toward the Funeral Association, newly confident in her ability to resist.
• Someone approached Lina from behind and stabbed her before she could turn around.

Charles waited for his daughter Lina at the Funeral Association, worried about the cold and haunted by his inability to protect her after her past trauma. When a body arrived from a nearby murder, he recognized the victim and learned that Lina had been taken into custody as the killer.

• Charles waited outside the Funeral Association for Lina, watching the streetlights because she feared the dark.
• A dispatch call sent a crew to collect a murder victim, but Charles stayed behind so he would be there when Lina arrived.
• When Lina still had not come back, Charles agreed to search for her after the crew unloaded the body.
• Charles lost his grip on the stretcher, and the victim’s face made him recognize the corpse.
• The middle-aged man said the victim had been found nearby and that a woman had been arrested at the scene.
• Charles realized the arrested woman was Lina and asked the driver to take them to the Police Station.

Kafka and her companions visited Lina at the police station after she killed her attacker, encouraging her to trust them and hold to her claim of self-defense. Lina regained hope and stopped stuttering, but Charles arrived at the station before they could keep her detention from her father.

• Kafka, Stelle, March 7th, and Silver Wolf met Lina at the police station and learned she feared she would die for killing her attacker.
• Kafka pointed to the cut in Lina's clothes and the man's past crimes as evidence supporting self-defense, and promised to find lawyers to clear her.
• Silver Wolf and Kafka reassured Lina that killing the man did not make her guilty, and Lina resolved not to give up for her father and friends.
• Kafka urged Lina to state consistently that the man attacked first and that she acted in self-defense.
• Kafka noticed Lina had stopped stuttering, and Lina was surprised and relieved by the change.
• Charles arrived at the station as Kafka and the others were leaving, revealing that they had not kept Lina's detention from him.

Chu Mu and Herta learned that Lina had killed the farmer who abused her, but as a Temporary Resident she had no legal right to self-defense. They concluded that the law upheld the city's social order and considered using chaos to force the authorities to change it.

• Chu Mu noticed Lina was missing after someone else prepared breakfast, so Herta went downstairs and questioned the cook.
• Herta learned that Lina had killed the farmer who had repeatedly hurt her, and Chu Mu regretted that she had risked her future.
• Chu Mu and Herta discussed how Lina's lack of Formal Citizen status denied her the right to claim self-defense.
• Chu Mu explained that law served to maintain social order, while Herta recognized how the city's laws enforced a hierarchy between Formal Citizens and Temporary Residents.
• Chu Mu proposed that chaos could force those in power to amend the law, noting that several members of his family excelled at creating it.

Chu Mu and Herta discussed the Stellaron Hunters’ crimes and agreed that Kafka and the others would act, while they tried to persuade Number One to help Lina. Number One refused to intervene in Lina’s case, but Herta and Chu Mu left her with the idea that changing the law was another option, leaving the outcome dependent on Kafka and the others and Number One’s response.

• Herta listed the Stellaron Hunters’ offenses, and Chu Mu said he had missed the incidents while away from the Space Station.
• Chu Mu told Herta that Kafka and the others would pass along their plan because they were his family, though he and Herta would still act themselves.
• Herta asked Number One to release Lina, but Number One explained that Lina’s status as a Temporary Resident left her without legal protection against a manslaughter charge.
• Number One said changing the law would take too long to help Lina before her verdict, and she left after arranging better food for Herta.
• After Number One left, Chu Mu said their conversation had planted the possibility of legal change in her mind, while Herta worried about whether the coming chaos could be contained.

Kafka turned Lina’s case into a public sensation, exposing Little Wood’s history and sparking a fierce debate over Temporary Residents’ rights. The controversy grew into a major social conflict as refugees made up an increasingly large share of Giantwood City’s population.

• Herta woke from her dream and realized that Kafka and the others had changed the course of this life’s events.
• Kafka organized a campaign of leaflets and fabricated letters that drew major media attention to the Lina Incident.
• Reporters uncovered Little Wood’s past through interviews with his ex-wife and former servants, turning him into a public disgrace.
• Experts and citizens argued over whether Temporary Residents should have the right to self-defense, intensifying divisions over social status.
• The growing refugee population in Giantwood City raised doubts about whether Temporary Residents would continue accepting their inferior rights.

The Lina Incident intensified conflicts between Formal Citizens and Temporary Residents, spreading unrest from poor neighborhoods to factories and wealthy districts. As Giantwood City approached the year-end trial, Number One faced mounting pressure to quell the chaos and wondered how to repair the failures behind it.

• The Lina Incident’s protests over Temporary Residents’ rights provoked hostility from poor Formal Citizens, and clashes escalated into armed brawls.
• The unrest spread into factories, halting production, and into wealthy districts as gangsters and thugs joined the violence.
• The upper classes sent letters demanding that the Big Shots intervene, forcing Number One to confront the crisis.
• Number One recognized that Lina was only a catalyst and that her past failure to protect local workers had helped create the conflict.
• Herta asked whether Number One was worrying about Lina, and Number One admitted that the greater fault was hers and wondered how she could make amends.

Number One explained that neglecting the lower classes had thrown society’s order out of balance, but she chose temporary concessions to contain unrest before the coming war. That evening, new laws calmed the immediate crisis, while Number One recognized that deeper conflict remained and urged Herta to have a child soon.

• Number One told Herta that poverty and unequal resources had driven the lower classes into conflict, and that giving them benefits could encourage further demands and weaken social order.
• Number One recalled her father’s teaching that order was the art of balance and realized that her focus on the military had contributed to society’s imbalance.
• Number One decided to offer benefits to the lower classes to contain the unrest, despite expecting greater problems later, and urged Herta to have a child as soon as possible.
• The evening news announced temporary residents’ right to self-defense and rules requiring factories to hire a proportion of full citizens at mandated wages.
• Full citizens initially grew angry, but factory owners accepted the regulations as a way to prevent unrest from spreading, and the immediate crisis subsided.

Lina was acquitted and released at her closed trial as the new regulations took effect. Meanwhile, Number Seven abducted factory director Goff and went undercover at the 516 Military Uniform Factory to investigate the Southern Women's Mutual Aid Association, despite having no concrete evidence against it.

• Number One watched the crowds celebrating Lina's trial from Giantwood Tower, then left to inspect a factory.
• Lina saw Charles, Stelle, and March 7th in the courtroom, but understood Kafka and Silver Wolf were away handling another matter.
• The judge declared Lina's actions self-defense and acquitted her, allowing her to regain her freedom.
• Number Seven brought the cuffed and gagged Goff to the 516 Military Uniform Factory and accused the Southern Women's Mutual Aid Association of organizing the unrest.
• Number Seven removed Goff's restraints, ordered him to take her to the workshop, and disguised herself as a factory worker.

Number Seven infiltrated the factory to investigate the Mutual Aid Association, but discovered that Factory Director Goff had betrayed her and Kafka and Silver Wolf had trapped her. Kafka revealed that the Association had come to rescue Herta, Chu Mu, and Lina, leaving Number Seven to reconsider what the group was really fighting for.

• Number Seven searched the factory’s empty workshops and realized the workers had left only recently.
• Number Seven entered a workshop and surrendered when Kafka and Silver Wolf aimed their guns at her.
• Goff admitted he had brought Number Seven in so she could not escape, and Kafka greeted her as an honored guest.
• Kafka argued that the Lina incident had exposed tensions already building within the Alliance, rather than creating them.
• Kafka told Number Seven that the Association’s goal was to rescue Herta and Chu Mu, while also rescuing Lina.
• Silver Wolf revealed that Chu Mu and Herta had been imprisoned for an evil breeding program, and Kafka said Number Seven would witness three people regain their freedom.

Number Seven questioned the order that had deprived her brother of freedom and chose to join Kafka’s operation to rescue him. The group infiltrated Giantwood Tower amid a massive crowd gathered to support Lina, and they prepared to confront a guard as the elevator doors opened.

• Number Seven reflected on how those in power violated the order they claimed to uphold, then told Kafka she wanted to join the rescue operation for her brother.
• Kafka welcomed Number Seven, and the group traveled with a convoy carrying workers from the Military Uniform Factory toward Giantwood Tower.
• The convoy passed Number One’s official cars, and Kafka decided they would leave Giantwood City after the rescue rather than return to the factory.
• Kafka and her companions entered the tower disguised as cleaners while Goff caused a public disturbance to draw security and reporters away.
• The group descended by elevator, and Kafka warned them to prepare to fight the guard waiting downstairs.

Kafka, Silver Wolf, and Number Seven infiltrated the facility and found Chu Mu with Herta, who claimed she had been reading to him. Kafka briefly embraced Chu Mu and said she was glad he was back by her side as they prepared to leave.

• Number Seven disarmed and restrained the security officer while Kafka and Silver Wolf headed toward the monitoring room.
• Silver Wolf failed to kick down the monitoring-room door, so Kafka shot its lock and forced it open.
• Kafka and Silver Wolf learned that one monitoring operator had gone upstairs, then left Number Seven to guard the remaining operator.
• Kafka and Silver Wolf entered Chu Mu and Herta’s room, where Herta hastily explained that she had been reading to him.
• Chu Mu recognized Kafka by her footsteps, and Silver Wolf teased Herta before urging everyone to leave with Number Seven.
• Kafka hugged Chu Mu and told him she was glad he was back, while Silver Wolf demanded that he stay and play games with her.

Goff escaped the courthouse crowd and joined the convoy heading toward the Southern Region. Number Seven vowed to keep Chu Mu from being taken back across the Border, while Chu Mu remained unsure how to relate to his newly reunited sister.

• Goff watched Kafka and the others leave, then spat at the crowd and shouted that he was contagious to make them scatter.
• Goff searched the cheering crowd for the cleaners, and a familiar female factory worker gave him blue work clothes and pointed him toward an escape route.
• Reporters learned that Lina and her party had left through a side door, but the crowd outside kept them from finding her.
• The convoy drove toward the Southern Region, and Goff suggested traveling through his hometown near the Border with a circus troupe.
• Number Seven urged the group to hurry before the Border was sealed and promised Chu Mu she would not let anyone take him back.
• Chu Mu accepted Number Seven's concern but privately felt uncertain about their relationship and hoped she would not cling to him.

Number One realized that Number Seven’s group had infiltrated Giantwood Tower and escaped with Chu Mu, then tried to intercept them as they fled toward the Southern Region. On the truck, March 7th said she wanted Chu Mu to be happy, while teasing over who had come first turned into a dispute that Kafka interrupted to announce the night’s arrangements.

• Number One found the 516 Military Uniform Factory deserted, suspected a plot, and hurried to Giantwood Tower after getting trapped in a traffic jam.
• Number One found the room in the tower’s basement empty, concluded an absent guard had helped the intruder, and recognized Number Seven’s role.
• As the truck headed toward the Border, the news announced stricter entry and exit controls, and Number Seven realized Number One had anticipated their route.
• March 7th said she wanted Chu Mu to be happy, prompting Stelle to tease her about her feelings for him.
• Stelle suggested Herta might have been with Chu Mu first, Silver Wolf objected, and Kafka interrupted the argument to explain the night’s arrangements.

Kafka taught Stelle to drive and discussed her choices and uncertain future with her. As the group traveled beneath a clear starry sky, Chu Mu noticed his vision might be improving, while Silver Wolf teased him about Kafka and then argued with Herta.

• Kafka took Stelle into the truck cab to teach her to drive and warned her not to taunt enemies who were too powerful.
• Stelle asked Kafka about her future, whether they had known each other before, and whether she and Chu Mu worried Kafka; Kafka called them the best.
• The travelers admired the stars, and Charles remembered watching them with his wife before their lives grew harder.
• Chu Mu told Silver Wolf that his vision seemed clearer after he skipped Number One's medicine, and Silver Wolf suggested he save his first clear look for Kafka.
• Silver Wolf accidentally implied Kafka had raised a child alone, then denied that she meant Kafka had married or had a baby.
• Herta challenged Silver Wolf for whispering with Chu Mu, and Silver Wolf told Herta not to be so full of herself.

Number Seven convinced Chu Mu that his looks made him popular with girls, while Herta fell asleep and dreamed of a bloody uprising in the Northern Region. In the dream, Herta realized she had helped engineer the unrest, and Chu Mu accused her of deceiving him before she woke.

• Number Seven asked March 7th, Herta, Silver Wolf, Stelle, and Kafka whether Chu Mu was handsome, and they all confirmed it in their own ways.
• The group settled down to sleep in the vehicle, and Herta eventually drifted off despite trying to stay awake.
• Herta dreamed of a snow-covered city where workers surged through gunfire and Giantwood Tower burned as she and Chu Mu were escorted toward the Southern Region.
• Herta learned in the dream that Lina had detonated a bomb at the courthouse after her father was shot, sparking a violent uprising that left countless people dead.
• Herta realized her dream self was a Southern Region strategist who had deliberately stirred up the unrest, and Chu Mu accused her of lying and said his freedom was only another cage.

Herta was teased over allegedly stealing Chu Mu’s blanket until she revealed that her hands were tied to the headboard while sleeping with him, and Chu Mu clarified that it was only to keep her from hogging the blanket. He then discovered that his eyesight was beginning to recover after he stopped taking Number One’s medicine, leaving everyone hopeful that he might soon see clearly.

• Silver Wolf, Stelle, and Kafka teased Herta about stealing Chu Mu’s blanket, but Chu Mu insisted she had not done so.
• Herta claimed her hands were tied to the headboard when she slept with Chu Mu, provoking scandalized reactions from Silver Wolf, Kafka, and Stelle.
• Chu Mu explained that the restraints were only meant to prevent Herta from taking the blanket, and Silver Wolf praised him for holding out.
• Chu Mu told everyone that his eyesight had started recovering after he stopped taking the medicine Number One gave him.
• Silver Wolf confirmed that Chu Mu’s pupils responded to changes in light, and Chu Mu reassured Kafka that she would always be beautiful to him.

Goff returned to his hometown and reunited with his parents, who agreed to flee with him to the Southern Region. Traveling with a smugglers’ convoy led by his old classmate Daisy, Goff reminisced about the summer when they were young, while Number Seven envied the warmth of his family.

• Goff secretly returned to his hometown and told his parents he had to flee to the Southern Region.
• Goff’s parents agreed to leave with him, and his father contacted smugglers preparing to head south.
• Goff, his parents, and the truck joined the smugglers’ convoy outside town the next morning.
• Number Seven watched Goff’s parents support him and envied their family warmth.
• The group met Daisy, the convoy’s towering leader and Goff’s former classmate.
• While the group shared a meal, Goff reminisced with Daisy about their childhood dreams and the summer they traveled with the Circus.

After the banquet, Daisy told Kafka how smuggling had shaped her life and kept her from Goff, while Kafka encouraged her to face her past and consider a future with him. Daisy learned that Goff’s supposed wife was actually much older and his child was his stepson, and she laughed as the others teased each other before sharing grilled meat.

• After Goff’s parents helped their drunken son to the car, Kafka and Daisy talked beside the bonfire, and Daisy recounted joining smugglers to afford her father’s medicine and avoiding Goff for more than ten years.
• Daisy told Kafka that her father died after discovering her smuggling, and that she could not leave the dangerous work or imagine starting an ordinary family.
• Kafka shared how finding a family had changed her outlook and urged Daisy to consider Goff, revealing that he still cared for her.
• Daisy said she had heard Goff was married and had a child, but Kafka clarified that his wife was nearing sixty and his stepson was about his age, making Daisy laugh and call him a clown.
• March 7th, Silver Wolf, Number Seven, and Herta traded jokes about Goff and “leftover rice,” before Stelle and Lina arrived with grilled meat for a late-night snack.

After Goff woke up in Daisy’s vehicle and learned nothing had happened, he realized he might have romantic feelings for his best buddy and decided to pursue her. By the time the convoy left the desert, they were inseparable, while Silver Wolf noticed Chu Mu and Herta had developed an unusually effortless understanding.

• Goff woke up in Daisy’s vehicle and worried that he had done something to her, but Daisy told him nothing had happened.
• Goff’s parents apologized for steering him away from the circus, and his mother urged him to pursue Daisy after he admitted he would feel awful if she married someone else.
• Goff decided to pursue Daisy, and the smugglers watched in disbelief as Daisy welcomed his attentions and let him sit beside her in the convoy.
• Goff and Daisy became inseparable by the time the convoy left the Great Desert, while Silver Wolf observed Chu Mu and Herta communicating with uncanny ease.

The convoy traveled south through the Southern Region, where Chu Mu and the others learned how the Redemption Army had weakened slavery and were now fighting the Logging Association. After Daisy delivered her weapons shipment to the Redemption Army, an excited figure welcomed Herta back as their great strategist.

• Herta quietly helped Chu Mu with his morning routine, prompting Silver Wolf to complain to Kafka and threaten to upgrade Faf.
• The convoy entered the Southern Region, where March 7th tried local bananas and Lina cooked them into dishes for the group.
• Charles learned that the Redemption Army had freed slaves and forced farm owners to abandon shackles and fences.
• Daisy told Goff that the Redemption Army had ordered her weapons shipment and suggested they settle on a farm near the sea after the delivery.
• The convoy crossed war-torn territory and brought its weapons to the Redemption Army, where someone excitedly greeted Herta as their great strategist.

Herta realized that her dreams cast her as a Redemption Army strategist, and she struggled to reconcile the dream world's tragedies with the happier life she experienced while awake. At the Redemption Army headquarters, Ena explained that he had fomented unrest in the Northern Region to prepare for a possible Alliance invasion.

• Ena praised Herta's operation in the Northern Region, and Herta recognized her role in the dreams as the Redemption Army's strategist.
• Herta recalled how the dream timeline diverged from reality, with Goff and Daisy executed and herself fleeing across the Northern Region.
• Herta kept her dreams secret from Chu Mu because she feared that learning painful memories could harm him.
• Herta left Ena's company coldly, while Number Seven challenged him over the Redemption Army's plot against the Alliance.
• Ena told Number Seven that the Alliance was arming both sides and said he had sparked Northern Region unrest to protect the Southern Region from a future invasion.

Number Seven challenged Ena over the Redemption Army’s ideals, then discovered she and Chu Mu were confined in the camp. Kafka reassured her that his faction supported the Alliance and revealed that Ena came from the Northern Region.

• Number Seven argued with Ena, who described his plan for a society of equal farming households without industry and accepted that many people would die in war.
• Ena implied he knew Number Seven’s family, and Number Seven realized she and Chu Mu could not leave the camp because soldiers had surrounded them and taken their weapons.
• Kafka told Number Seven that his Strategist Faction favored the Northern Region and had disobeyed Ena’s orders, easing her suspicion of him.
• Kafka suggested Ena might know Number Seven because he had encountered her family before, then revealed that Ena came from the Northern Region and secretly led the Redemption Army.