Chapter Summaries

At Rivet Town Orphanage, Chu Mu teased his teacher about the promise of spring, prompting her to admit how desperately the Underworld needed hope. He reassured her and learned that she planned to open a clinic as Doctor Natasha after her volunteer work ended.

• Teacher read the children a picture book about Jarilo-VI's lost forests and told them that spring would eventually return.
• Chu Mu joked with Xiao Bu, who had copied the orphanage rules in his handwriting to spare him punishment, and the teacher scolded them for whispering.
• After class, Chu Mu told Xiao Bu not to copy punishments for him, then spoke with Teacher about whether spring would ever come.
• Teacher confessed that she taught the children to hope despite doubting they would ever see forests or daylight, and Chu Mu comforted her.
• Teacher gave Chu Mu bread and revealed that she would open an Underworld clinic after her volunteer term and be called Doctor Natasha.

Chu Mu gave Xiao Bu the white bread Teacher Natasha had given him and stayed hungry so she could eat it. After recalling how he had defended Xiao Bu from bullies as a child, he asked her to cover for him while he went to the mine, leaving her worried but waiting for his return.

• Chu Mu found Xiao Bu waiting outside the classroom and made her take the bread he had saved for her.
• Xiao Bu ate the bread while remembering how Chu Mu had fought the children who bullied her, costing him the chance to be adopted.
• Chu Mu reassured Xiao Bu that they could not stay in the orphanage forever, then asked her to tell Teacher Natasha she did not know where he was.
• Xiao Bu guessed Chu Mu was going to the mine, and he told her not to worry and promised to return before six.

Six-year-old Chu Mu went to the Great Mine for dangerous work, where a recurring, painful vision struck him in a collapsed tunnel. Oleg caught him working, punished the foreman, and left Chu Mu expecting to be blacklisted from the mine.

• Chu Mu negotiated ten Winter City Shields with the foreman before crawling into a collapsed tunnel to retrieve Geomarrow.
• In the darkness, Chu Mu suffered a painful episode filled with battle cries, a starry vision, and a voice asking whether it was the might of a god.
• Chu Mu recalled that these attacks and strange memory fragments had haunted him for two years, and hoped to live long enough to send Xiao Bu away.
• Oleg stopped Chu Mu from returning to the tunnel and confronted the foreman for hiring a six-year-old orphan under false pretenses.
• Oleg ordered his subordinates to take the foreman to the security office and lock him in the dark cell.
• Chu Mu feared the foreman’s punishment would get him blacklisted from the mine, leaving the Northern Great Garbage Dump as his only likely source of work.

Chu Mu was caught working in the mines, but Oleg let him go and barred him from returning, leaving Chu Mu to scavenge for scraps in the Great Dump. There he visited Svarog and told the battered robot that he was going to die soon.

• Oleg confronted Chu Mu about sneaking into the mines and warned him about the dangers of mining.
• Chu Mu argued that orphans had little chance of a safe or happy childhood, and Oleg let him go without reporting him to the director.
• Oleg ordered the Silvermane Guards to keep children out of the mines and felt powerless after hearing their remarks about Chu Mu's future.
• Chu Mu entered the Great Dump to search for scrap parts he could sell.
• Chu Mu cleared snow from Svarog and apologized for missing their weekly visit.
• Chu Mu told Svarog that he was going to die soon, and they looked together toward the Core Furnace.

Chu Mu visited Svarog, then worked in a scrapyard and sold his scrap to Sampo after catching him rigging the scale. The chapter left Chu Mu planning to return to Svarog in a week, while Svarog counted the seconds until his promised return.

• Chu Mu joked about repairing Svarog, but Svarog granted him permission after completing its calculations.
• Chu Mu told Svarog he felt powerless to change the world, and Svarog said the world required reform.
• Chu Mu promised to return in a week, and Svarog began counting down the seconds until he came back.
• Chu Mu used a two-stage search plan to collect scrap more efficiently in the scrapyard.
• Sampo offered to buy Chu Mu's scrap and weighed it, but Chu Mu found a magnet beneath the scale and exposed his attempt to cheat.
• Sampo admitted he had tried to skim a jin, and Chu Mu took the nine coins he was owed.

Chu Mu retrieved his woven sack from Sampo, who warned him about Cocolia's plan to adopt an orphan from Rivet Town and urged him to seize the chance. Later, hungry in Boulder Town, Chu Mu passed up a cheap meal and bought a broken Snow Globe for Xiao Bu.

• Chu Mu demanded that Sampo return his woven sack and denied being from the Rivet Town Orphanage.
• Sampo told Chu Mu that Supreme Guardian Cocolia Landau planned to adopt an Underworld orphan and hinted that a major event was coming.
• Sampo privately realized that Chu Mu had guessed his plan to rob Kliperburg while Cocolia visited the orphanage.
• Chu Mu wandered through Boulder Town, considered buying a bowl of vegetable soup, and decided to save his Winter City Shields instead.
• Chu Mu bargained for a broken Snow Globe and bought it for one Winter City Shield to take back for Xiao Bu.

Chu Mu found Seele trapped by a contract at Scott’s fight club and attacked Scott to help her escape. He sent Seele to find Oleg while he charged the club’s enforcers.

• Chu Mu remembered Xiao Bu’s broken snow globe and looked forward to giving her a new one.
• Scott tried to recruit Chu Mu for the fight club and led him backstage to see the child fighters.
• Chu Mu found Seele there and learned she had signed a contract she could not read.
• Scott refused to let Seele leave and threatened to force her to fight Chu Mu, so Chu Mu attacked him with her knife.
• Chu Mu shoved Seele toward safety, told her to find Oleg, and charged the enforcers.

Seele sought Oleg’s help after Scott’s men began beating Chu Mu at the Fight Club. As Oleg rushed to the rescue, Scott ordered the beating to continue and fired Kruzer for objecting, leaving him struggling with the loss of his livelihood.

• Seele ran barefoot and bleeding to the Public Security Office and begged Oleg to save Chu Mu from Scott’s Fight Club.
• Oleg carried Seele out and ordered his subordinates to gather their equipment and follow them.
• Scott dismissed a thug’s plea to spare Chu Mu and threatened to kill the boy, despite his connection to the Orphanage.
• Kruzer objected to Scott’s order and reminded him that Chu Mu was only a child.
• Scott fired Kruzer and offered the other thugs Winter City Shields to beat Chu Mu to death.
• Kruzer left the Fight Club and wept in the street, worried about how he would support his wife and child.

Chu Mu survived Scott’s beating and asked Oleg to save the children Scott had lured to the Fight Club. Oleg arranged treatment for Chu Mu and began taking steps to rescue the children, while Scott tried to obstruct them.

• Oleg arrived at the Fight Club and found Chu Mu gravely injured, with Seele and the frightened children nearby.
• Chu Mu asked Oleg to save the children, and Oleg promised to help them.
• Oleg cited the law to reject Scott’s demand for compensation from six-year-old Chu Mu, then agreed to let the Fight Club’s doctor treat him temporarily.
• Oleg sent subordinates to notify the Old Director and summon reinforcements, and he arranged for Seele to leave and help him.

Natasha learned that Chu Mu had gone to the mines to earn money by crawling into collapsed tunnels, and she offered to become the Orphanage’s next Guardian. The Old Director refused to hand over the role yet, resolving to fight one more battle and bring Chu Mu home.

• A Silvermane Guard delivered an urgent message to the Old Director and left the Orphanage.
• Natasha told the Old Director that Chu Mu had gone missing, and the Old Director explained that he worked in dangerous mine tunnels to earn money.
• Natasha realized how painful the children’s lives were and offered to become the Orphanage’s next Guardian.
• The Old Director recalled her lifelong devotion to the Orphanage and accepted Natasha as her eventual successor.
• The Old Director set out to fight one more battle as Guardian and bring Chu Mu home.

Xiao Bu waited through the night for Chu Mu, while the Old Director and Natasha concealed that he was in trouble and went to confront Scott at the Fight Club. They arrived to find Oleg and Scott arguing, and Scott demanded one hundred thousand Winter City Shields from the Old Director.

• Xiao Bu waited outside the Orphanage for Chu Mu, growing cold and distraught when he failed to return by nightfall.
• The Old Director and Natasha assured Xiao Bu that Chu Mu was safe, and Natasha used her power to put the exhausted girl to sleep.
• The Old Director recognized Natasha as a Pathstrider of the Path of Abundance, and they set out for Boulder Town to confront Scott.
• The Old Director and Natasha reached the crowded Fight Club, where the Silvermane Guards had sealed the premises and onlookers supported them.
• Scott blamed Oleg for the lost business and demanded that the Old Director pay one hundred thousand Winter City Shields.

Scott demanded that the Old Director hand over the Orphanage’s ancestral estate to cover his losses, while Natasha treated Chu Mu’s worsened wounds and rejected his terms. Natasha took charge of the confrontation just as Seele arrived with reinforcements.

• Scott demanded a hundred thousand Winter City Shields and proposed taking the Orphanage’s estate in exchange for compensation.
• Natasha discovered that Chu Mu’s wounds had been treated with oil that worsened them, and Oleg suspected Scott had arranged it.
• Natasha carefully cleaned and bandaged Chu Mu’s wounds, while he endured the painful treatment without complaint.
• Natasha told the Old Director to stop negotiating with Scott and declared that she would handle him.
• Scott threatened Natasha by invoking his powerful connections, but Seele entered the fight club and announced that she had brought them.

The Chief Stoker arrived with the Architect’s Code to judge the dispute over Scott’s contracts and Chu Mu’s injury. He ruled that the accusation of deliberate deception lacked sufficient evidence, but invalidated contracts signed by children under eight, leaving Scott’s claim in jeopardy.

• The Chief Stoker entered with the original Code and agreed to judge the dispute impartially.
• Oleg presented Scott’s contracts first, honoring Chu Mu’s wish to free the children before addressing his own situation.
• Scott argued that the contracts were valid because the children’s fingerprints were genuine, while Seele said he had tricked them.
• The Chief Stoker ruled that Seele’s accusation of deliberate deception lacked sufficient evidence.
• The Chief Stoker ruled that contracts signed by children under eight were invalid, leaving Scott stunned.

The Chief Stoker ruled that Chu Mu’s guardians owed Scott thirteen thousand Winter City Shields for his injured eye, while rejecting most of Scott’s other claims. When Scott refused the Old Director’s plea for a year to pay, Chu Mu invoked the Great Code’s rule of an eye for an eye and offered him justice.

• The children thanked Chu Mu for saving them and left with the Silvermane Guards, while Scott angrily challenged the outcome of the case.
• The Chief Stoker heard both sides and ruled that Chu Mu was too young for criminal punishment, but that the Rivet Town Orphanage owed Scott thirteen thousand Winter City Shields in compensation.
• Scott protested the amount, and the Old Director asked him to accept payment in installments over a year because the Orphanage lacked funds.
• Scott mocked the Old Director, provoking Natasha, Oleg, and the others, then retreated while accusing them of bullying him.
• Chu Mu cited Article Ten of Act No. 1 of the Great Code and told Scott he would give him justice.

Chu Mu invoked the barbaric First Act to make Scott pay an eye for an eye, despite the pain and pleas of those around him. After the ruling, Chu Mu gouged out his own right eye and bit into it, while Seele awakened to the power of a Path.

• Chu Mu requested that the adjudicator apply Article Ten of the First Act, and the chief stoker amended the ruling to require an eye for an eye.
• Oleg, Seele, Natasha, and the Old Director urged Chu Mu not to sacrifice his eye, but he stood by his decision.
• Scott demanded that Chu Mu gouge out his right eye and crush it underfoot, while Seele's grief and desire to protect others awakened the power of a Path.
• Chu Mu picked up a knife and gouged out his right eye as Scott watched.
• Chu Mu bit the eyeball off the knife, leaving Scott horrified.

After Chu Mu defeated Scott, Scott contacted his Upper District patron, who refused to avenge him or let him attack the Orphanage in Rivet Town until an important event there was over. Scott agreed to wait a month, but secretly vowed to kill Chu Mu afterward.

• Scott woke alone in the Fight Club and swore to kill Chu Mu before the boy could grow up.
• Scott called his patron, an obese Upper District noble, and described how Chu Mu and the others had injured him.
• The noble refused to confront Oleg and the Adjudicator over Scott’s lost eye, and warned him not to touch the Orphanage in Rivet Town.
• The noble said a major event at the Orphanage would be over within a month and promised Scott could pursue revenge afterward.
• Scott ended the call and resolved to wait a month before going after Chu Mu.

After the Fight Club, Chu Mu and the others stayed at the Goethe Grand Hotel, where Natasha explained the Aeons and their Paths to him. Learning that Aeons truly existed made Chu Mu question his origins and his strange memories, while Natasha revealed that she was a Pathstrider.

• Gertie gave the Old Director, Chu Mu, and the others the Goethe Grand Hotel’s finest suite and supplied Chu Mu with pajamas.
• Oleg left with Seele, who had fallen asleep, while the Old Director, Natasha, and Chu Mu stayed in the room.
• Chu Mu struggled to adjust to losing his right eye and to judging distance with only one eye.
• Natasha told Chu Mu that Aeons existed, explained Paths and Pathstriders, and described the war involving Nanook’s followers that had begun seven hundred years earlier.
• Chu Mu connected Natasha’s explanation to his strange episodes and fragmented memories, then asked whether she was a Pathstrider.
• Natasha confirmed that she was a Pathstrider and praised Chu Mu for guessing.

Natasha’s treatment healed Chu Mu’s wounds but failed to restore his right eye and left his remaining vision blurry and green. Chu Mu hid the strange dream he experienced during treatment and tried to reassure Natasha, who resolved to keep helping him.

• Natasha healed Chu Mu’s wounds, but in his dream a six-handed woman with eyes in her hands attacked his eyes.
• Chu Mu woke to find his right eye still missing and his left-eye vision blurred and tinted green.
• The Old Director explained that Natasha’s attempt to regrow Chu Mu’s right eye had failed and had affected his left eye.
• Chu Mu comforted the crying Natasha and thanked her, while the Old Director urged Natasha to keep working to change the children’s fates.
• Natasha tested Chu Mu’s vision, and he admitted it had worsened after trying to hide the problem to avoid the cost of glasses.

Chu Mu learned that his remaining eye would soon go blind, received a black prosthetic eye, and returned to the Orphanage. There, Xiao Bu welcomed him back, but noticed his eyes looked strange and began to cry.

• The Old Director learned Chu Mu’s eyesight was rapidly failing and took him to have a black Prosthetic Eye Lens fitted.
• The Old Director decided to save money for a Mechanical Prosthetic Eye as Chu Mu’s coming-of-age gift.
• The Old Director brought Chu Mu back to the Orphanage, where Natasha had resumed the morning lessons.
• Chu Mu returned to class and reunited with Xiao Bu, apologizing for missing their promised meeting and offering her a present.
• Xiao Bu noticed Chu Mu’s green left eye and suspected his other eye was fake, then began to cry.

Chu Mu explained his artificial eye to Xiao Bu, then asked Natasha to let him spend his remaining month of sight studying and learning his way around the Underworld. The chapter ended as Xiao Bu opened the gift he had left for her and began to cry.

• Chu Mu reassured Xiao Bu that his black artificial eye was not fake and told her to wait until class ended before opening the cloth bag.
• Natasha moved Chu Mu to a desk beside the teacher's platform, and he endured class while thinking about how little time he had left to see.
• Chu Mu asked Natasha to let him skip classes for a month so he could study in the library and memorize routes around the Underworld.
• Natasha agreed on the condition that Chu Mu tell her where he went and never leave the academy gates without her, then kissed his forehead.
• Chu Mu returned to the classroom, where Xiao Bu opened the gift from his cloth bag and burst into tears.