Chapter Summaries

Rowan awoke in Boralus in the body of a sixteen-year-old nobleman who had spent eight years mentally impaired after a cannon accident. He realized he had transmigrated into Azeroth as Jaina returned from Dalaran, and watched the Daughter of the Sea arrive at Tradewinds Market.

• Rowan regained memories of his former life and learned that his name was Rowan.
• Rowan recognized Boralus and recalled that he had once been gifted before a cannon recoil injured his head at age eight.
• Rowan remembered that his father, Lord Adeodatus Norvington, was close to Admiral Daelin and had once hoped Rowan would marry Jaina.
• Crowds gathered at Tradewinds Market to welcome Jaina, famed as the Daughter of the Sea for having summoned the fleet home through the mist as a child.
• Jaina disembarked in a mage robe and waved to the cheering crowd as Rowan admired her appearance.

Rowan scattered gold coins in Tradewinds Market to get close to Jaina, then became distracted by a newly unlocked system and missed her greeting. On his way home, he witnessed wounded soldiers returning from a battle with Freehold pirates and realized that life in Azeroth was not a game.

• Rowan threw hundreds of gold coins into the crowd and ran toward Jaina.
• Jaina recognized Rowan, greeted him happily, and gave him 1000 surprise value, unlocking the Legendary Hero Emotion Value System.
• Rowan stood dazed for most of the day and realized Jaina had left without him responding.
• Rowan watched wounded soldiers arrive in Boralus after their fleet fought the Freehold pirate group.
• Rowan asked the system whether he could run his corpse back, learned that human life was only once, and hurried home to the Norwington mansion.

Rowan enjoyed the Norwington family’s wealth, then surprised his parents by recovering his memories and clear speech after eight years. When Aldrius insisted he attend the Military Academy, Rowan refused and hinted that he could get the family’s ships moving himself.

• Rowan asked Alyssa where Aldrius was and went to the council chamber, where Aldrius and Elena discussed the family’s struggling shipyards and business disputes.
• Rowan told Elena and Aldrius that his illness might be cured and that he remembered much of his childhood, prompting them to embrace him in relief.
• Rowan explained that a cannon’s recoil had thrown him into a pillar when he was eight, revealing that Daelin had misled Aldrius about the accident.
• Aldrius ordered Rowan to attend the Military Academy, but Rowan said he wanted to become a mage or Paladin and refused to enlist.
• Rowan suggested he might be able to get the Norwington family’s ships out to sea, drawing on his engineering knowledge.

Rowan began preparing a plan to prove himself by working at a shipyard, and chose one near Hatherford after learning about the region’s Blackstone mines. He invited Jenny to accompany him, reassured her that he was not sending her away, and established that they would sleep in separate rooms from now on.

• Aldrius and Elena discussed Rowan’s confidence after he left to prepare a plan before choosing a shipyard.
• Rowan studied his father’s industrial map over dinner and invited Jenny to sit and eat with him.
• Rowan learned that Jenny came from Hatherford and that her parents had sold her to the Norwington family when she was six.
• Rowan told Jenny he planned to take her with him to Hatherford, and she thanked him tearfully.
• Rowan chose Morris Shipyard near Hatherford and wrote a list of preparations while Jenny fell asleep at his desk.
• When Jenny assumed they would sleep together as before, Rowan told her to use the bedroom next to his.

Rowan woke late and spoke with Jaina about his plans, her magic studies, and whether he could become a mage. He revealed he would visit the Morris Town shipyard to build different kinds of ships, and Jaina left after telling him that a prince really did like her.

• Jaina visited the Norwington Family mansion and learned that Rowan had regained his senses.
• Jaina met Rowan in the garden, teased him about sleeping late, and asked why he had rejected the Military Academy.
• Rowan learned that Jaina was top of the Transmutation department in Dalaran and asked whether a prince was courting her.
• Jaina explained that Rowan lacked the ability to sense magic, then reminisced with him about stealing his cake as a child.
• Rowan told Jaina he planned to build different kinds of ships at the Morris Town shipyard, and she gave him a Magic Messenger Pigeon.
• Before leaving after lunch, Jaina told Rowan that a prince really did like her.

Rowan secured Lord Aldrius’s approval and resources for an expedition to develop Morris Town, where he hoped to find valuable blackstone. His party departed the next morning, and Paladin Byron’s blunt remark about Rowan’s spending left Leonard dragging him away.

• Rowan asked Lord Aldrius for gold, guards, craftsmen, and supplies to travel to Morris Town, and his father agreed.
• Aldrius and Elena discussed Rowan’s plans, while Aldrius said he wanted his son to gain experience and find a way to move the family’s ships.
• Terry assembled Rowan’s party, including Paladin Byron, guard deputy Leonard, and two blacksmiths, and Rowan led them out of Alliance Square.
• Rowan asked Byron why he seemed happy to go, and Byron admitted he wanted to escape the chapel and follow a young master with more money than sense.
• Byron tried to explain his remark, but Leonard stopped him from riding alongside Rowan.

Rowan tested whether Byron could use the Holy Light to heal an injury and witnessed Flash of Light close his wound. After eight days of travel, Rowan and his party reached Morris Town, where he planned to begin preparations.

• Byron argued with Leonard over whether he had walked for two or three days, then learned Rowan planned to continue straight to Morris Town.
• Rowan asked Byron whether Holy Light magic could heal a broken leg, then cut his palm to test its healing power.
• Byron forgot how to cast Flash of Light and admitted he was only level four, so Jenny bandaged Rowan’s hand while Byron retrieved his handbook.
• Byron cast Flash of Light, and Rowan watched the wound heal completely in three seconds.
• Rowan and his party continued south along the coast and reached muddy Morris Town on the eighth day.

Rowan took charge of the troubled Morris Shipyard, where a shortage of wind runes had left ships idle and workers unpaid. After assessing the town’s scarce labor and costly iron, he began designing a steam engine as an alternative source of power.

• Baron Delin acted as though he was heartbroken to leave Morris Town, but Rowan arranged for him to take his new post in Boralus.
• Rowan sent Byron to investigate local smithies and taxes, then inspected the shipyard with Leonard and Kande.
• Rowan learned that the ships could not sail without wind runes, the workers had been unpaid, and the shipyard faced mounting financial and maintenance problems.
• Byron reported that Morris Town had three barely operating smithies and that iron and steel were expensive because Lady Ashvane controlled the industry.
• Rowan promised to pay the workers and began drawing plans for a simple steam engine to provide power without wind runes.

Rowan used the system’s engineering skills to complete plans for a steam engine suited to the Morris Shipyard’s warship, then began arranging the materials and workers needed to build it. He learned that the Norwington Family owned a smelting plant and mine near Whitewater Forest, offering a possible solution to the shipyard’s steel shortage.

• Rowan spent 1,200 emotion points on twelve engineering skill books, which helped him solve the engine’s technical problems and finish its plans.
• Rowan invited Jenny to share his bed rather than have her sleep at the table, and she agreed.
• Rowan summoned Byron and Leonard to the council hall and ordered Byron to gather Morris Town’s blacksmiths, offering each a one-gold-coin deposit.
• Rowan asked Kande about obtaining more steel and learned Ashvane Munitions supplied the shipyard only once a year.
• Kande told Rowan the Norwington Family had a smelting plant beside the Blackstone Mine below Whitewater Forest on North Mountain.

Rowan took charge of Morris Town’s coal trade and confronted the Venture Company’s Puzik over its low purchase price. Puzik paid ninety gold coins for the coal, then Dunk suggested telling the pirates in Freehold about Rowan.

• Rowan learned that Morris Town’s miners spent most of their time hauling coal to the harbor and decided to take over the trade negotiations.
• Puzik offered only four gold coins for Morris Town’s coal, but Rowan refused to sell it at that price.
• Rowan challenged Puzik with the coal’s higher value in the Eastern Kingdoms, and Dunk accidentally confirmed his claim.
• Rowan demanded ninety gold coins, and Puzik paid rather than leave without coal and risk losing money on the voyage.
• After the fleet sailed, Puzik beat Dunk, who proposed telling the pirates in Freehold that Rowan was in Morris Town.

Rowan organized coal mining and smithy construction in Morris Town, then began planning a small steam engine to test the local ironwork. Jaina arrived by long-distance teleportation and challenged Rowan over what he had accomplished in twenty days.

• Rowan told Kande to raise the miners' wages by 50% after selling coal for ninety gold coins.
• Byron paid the blacksmiths deposits, and they began building a smithy beside the shipyard.
• Rowan visited the Whitewater Forest smelter and decided to build a small steam engine to test the quality of its iron.
• Rowan drew a steam engine schematic, and Jaina teleported into his room.
• Jaina asked Rowan why he had spent twenty days in Morris Town and only built a smithy.

Jaina confronted Rowan for spending half a month in Morris Town building only a blacksmith’s shop and said she planned to return to Dalaran. Rowan showed her his steam engine design and persuaded her to give him three more days to develop it, leaving their plans—and Jaina’s departure—open.

• Jaina criticized Rowan for neglecting his potential and said she would return to Dalaran next month.
• Rowan stopped Jaina from leaving and showed her his steam engine schematic.
• Rowan explained how the steam engine could power paddle wheels and move Kul Tiras’s ships.
• Jaina agreed to give Rowan three days to work on the engine and postponed deciding whether to leave.
• Rowan vowed to become commander of a powerful fleet and called himself a possible sea’s son-in-law, making Jaina blush.

Rowan found the Whitewater River Smelter wrecked after troggs from the northern mountain attacked and injured Esenk and several others. After learning that nearly a hundred troggs lived in the old mine tunnels and that earlier campaigns had failed, Rowan ordered Byron and Leonard to investigate before planning their next move.

• Rowan and Leonard arrived at the smelter and found its furnace out, the yard wrecked, and Esenk and others wounded.
• Byron told Rowan that troggs had attacked during the night, and Rowan ordered Leonard to bring soldiers to the smelter.
• Leonard brought thirty soldiers and militia, and the investigation revealed nearly a hundred troggs were hiding in the northern mountain's abandoned mine tunnels.
• Leonard explained that three earlier campaigns had failed because the tunnels were too complicated to navigate without maps.
• After Leonard warned that their force could not safely attack the troggs, Rowan ordered Byron and Leonard to investigate the mountain and report back the next morning.

Rowan devised a way to exploit the Troggs’ hunger and overcome their advantage in numbers and terrain. The chapter ended with Byron and Leonard preparing to carry out Rowan’s plan to poison flour with croton and laxatives.

• Byron and Leonard surveyed the Troggs’ abandoned mines, and Leonard explained that Rowan had been sent to Morris Town to solve problems beyond setting up a smithy.
• Byron reported that the Troggs were raiding townspeople’s granaries because their stored food had spoiled in the prolonged rainy season.
• Leonard and Byron urged Rowan to report the Troggs to the estate and request a larger force, but Rowan chose an unconventional strategy.
• Rowan ordered Kande to grind the shipyard’s grain into flour and told Byron to buy croton and laxatives to mix into it.
• Byron and Leonard went to carry out Rowan’s plan, and Byron praised Rowan as a genius.

Rowan’s plan to poison flour lured the Troggs into stealing it, leaving them too sick to fight when the soldiers attacked their mine. He spared Gorlick and the Troggs, ordering them sent to Morris Town as miners, where Byron was celebrated as a hero.

• Leonard and Byron baited the Troggs with flour laced with croton and laxatives, and York led them back to their lair with the stolen sacks.
• Rowan led thirty soldiers to the North Mountain Mine the next morning and found the Troggs weakened by the poisoned flour.
• Gorlick accused the humans of poisoning the flour and charged Rowan, but Leonard knocked him down before Rowan stopped Leonard from killing him.
• Rowan ordered Byron to confiscate the Troggs’ weapons, make them wash, and escort them to Morris Town to work as miners.
• The townspeople welcomed Byron and the soldiers with food and flowers, while Byron credited Rowan and the Norwington Family for the victory.

Rowan brought Jaina to the blacksmiths to show her the steam engine’s progress, but they learned that the smiths could not form and seal its cylinder to the required specifications. As Jaina prepared to give up on their childhood promise, Rowan realized her magic could solve the problem.

• Rowan told Jaina he had entrusted the steam engine plans to Kobi and his son, then brought her to the smithy.
• Wrench Kobi reported that the blacksmiths had forged most of the parts but could not shape and join the cylinder’s iron plates airtight.
• Jaina lost faith in Rowan and recalled their childhood promise to bring a powerful fleet to Proudmoore Keep for her.
• Ironhammer proposed heating and hammering the plates, but Jaina began to end her relationship with Rowan.
• Rowan realized Jaina’s magic could help make the steam engine and declared that she was the key to it.

Rowan enlisted Jaina’s magic to shape and weld iron plates for his steam engine. After helping him assemble the parts, Jaina wondered whether all that work had produced a bottomless bucket.

• Rowan asked Jaina to use heat and magic to shape iron plates according to his steam engine plans.
• Jaina heated the plates and used an arcane spell model to shape them precisely.
• Jaina processed the remaining plates, then used her combustion talent to weld two together into an airtight cylinder.
• Rowan assembled the engine parts while Jaina continued helping him weld the plates.
• After half an hour, Jaina looked at Rowan’s contraption and asked if she had made a bottomless bucket.

Rowan demonstrated that his experimental steam engine could run, convincing Jaina that it could eventually propel ships without wind or magical aid. Jaina later defended Rowan to Lady Catherine, who said she would only consider their marriage if Rowan became Commander of the First Fleet.

• Rowan had Wrench fill the steam tank with water, then asked Jaina to heat it until the steam engine started turning its wheel.
• Kobi, his son, and the blacksmiths watched in amazement as the engine ran, while Jaina recognized its potential to move ships without Wind Runes or the Tidesages' blessings.
• Jaina teased Rowan about still needing to prove his plans, then hurried away from the smithy after he teased her in return.
• That night, Jaina told Lady Catherine that Rowan was wonderful and had found a way to move warships without wind or magical aid.
• Lady Catherine said she would not discuss Jaina's marriage unless Rowan became Commander of the First Fleet, and Jaina eagerly agreed that he would work hard.

Rowan planned to build Morris Town into a coastal industrial city, but the trogg prisoners were rapidly consuming the council residence’s food. He used poisoned flatbread to force King Gorlick to agree to lead the troggs in mining coal, though Gorlick collapsed before the negotiations were settled.

• Rowan planned to develop Morris Town’s coal reserves and build coastal steelworks, then headed to the council hall.
• Kande warned Leonard and Byron that the trogg prisoners had nearly eaten through the food supplies.
• Rowan summoned Gorlick and had Jenny bring flatbread, using Gorlick’s fear of poisoned food to pressure him into submission.
• Rowan demanded that Gorlick lead the troggs to mine coal on North Mountain for at least twenty years.
• Gorlick protested the terms, so Rowan ordered Byron to keep feeding him flatbread until he slumped to the floor.

Rowan reorganized the North Mountain Mine and turned to Jaina for help obtaining supplies for his steam engine. Jaina agreed to find trade contacts and arrange purchases, while Rowan discovered that giving her gold earned him emotion points.

• Gorlick submitted to Rowan's terms, and Leonard shackled him before soldiers took him to work at the North Mountain Mine.
• Rowan made the former miners overseers and promoted Hammer to mine manager, then offered to help him find a wife through Byron.
• Rowan summoned Jaina to the shipyard and asked her to help secure iron plate, cannons, trade contacts, blast furnaces, and grain.
• Jaina complained she lacked money, so Rowan gave her gold to pay her debts and asked her to arrange purchases without using the Norwington Family's name.
• Jaina proposed claiming the blast furnaces and iron ore were for Dalaran's magical research, and Rowan gave her another hundred gold coins after she teased him.