Recaps

Rellana woke at the Church of Vows after Horace Loux left, regretting that she had ignored her sister Rennala’s advice and refusing to accept any bond with him. When Hesa returned with his people settled nearby, he tended her wounds while she kept her distance, leaving their relationship and his hopes of reaching Caria unresolved.

• Horace Loux left the Church of Vows at dawn to bring his people near it, while Rellana pretended to sleep beneath a blanket.
• Miriel spoke to Rellana about fate and unexpected bonds, and Rellana admitted that she regretted coming and not listening to Rennala.
• Hesa returned after settling his people near the church and tried to reach an understanding with Rellana, who rejected his overtures.
• At Miriel’s suggestion, Hesa changed Rellana’s wound dressings, and she endured the treatment in silence.
• Uncle Uge reported that the camp was stable, while Hesa considered using Rellana to open communication with Caria.

Horace Loux used the shamans’ possible Numen ancestry to open negotiations with Rellana, who agreed to a cautious, restricted stay for his tribe near the church. The chapter ended with a tentative handshake and an unrelated note questioning why Queen Yadira forbade research into the primeval current.

• Horace Loux told Rellana that rescued shamans among his people called themselves Numen and suggested they might share distant ties with Caria.
• Rellana reconsidered the tribe’s intentions and agreed that the Carian Family could not leave the shamans to fend for themselves.
• Rellana allowed Horace Loux’s tribe to stay near the church while Caria verified their origins and restricted their movements.
• Horace Loux offered Rellana his hand, and she briefly accepted, saying the reconciliation was only for her family’s interests.
• The narrator noted that Azur, Lusat, and Sellen had been expelled after pursuing the primeval current, and questioned why Queen Yadira forbade that research.

Rellana returned to Caria Manor with Horace Loux, a tribal leader she had met and fought, and Rennala questioned her about their encounter and the mysterious pull connected to the moon. Rennala considered the tribe’s possible ties to Caria and teased Rellana about marrying Hesa, leaving her sister flustered and suspicious.

• Rennala worried when Rellana returned late from investigating the pull, then hurried to greet her and found Horace Loux accompanying her.
• Rennala welcomed Horace Loux to Caria Manor and invited him to discuss his tribe’s circumstances and Rellana’s report.
• After Horace Loux went to rest, Rennala took Rellana to her study, where Rellana recounted meeting, fighting, and being defeated by him, along with the tribe’s situation and its Numen shaman.
• Rennala learned that Rellana’s moonlike pull had reacted strongly to Horace Loux and considered whether his tribe might naturally favor Caria over the Academy.
• Rennala teased Rellana by suggesting a marriage alliance with Horace Loux, prompting Rellana to angrily deny liking him.

Rennala assigned Rellana to handle further contact with Horace Loux and his tribe as Caria investigated their background. Horace Loux learned that the Formless Mother had sensed the sealed Scarlet Rot beneath Liurnia, and he placated her curiosity while putting off any visit to the seal.

• Rennala told Rellana to coordinate with Horace Loux while Caria investigated his tribe and discussed their settlement.
• The Formless Mother contacted Horace Loux and revealed her excitement at sensing rot beneath Liurnia.
• Horace Loux recognized the presence as the sealed Scarlet Rot in the underground Lake of Rot and explained its danger to the Formless Mother.
• The Formless Mother asked to see the rot's wounds, but Horace Loux urged careful preparation and long-term consideration to delay her request.
• The Formless Mother rewarded Horace Loux with a surge of cursed-blood, which he channeled into the Gate of Myriad Laws.

Horace Loux secured Caria’s support for his tribe in exchange for opposing the Academy of Raya Lucaria and providing Caria with a rune-enhanced force. He began forming the Order of the Great Rune Knights, binding its members to virtues and a strict prohibition on killing in return for powerful collective combat abilities.

• The Carian Family granted Horace Loux’s tribe territory on the Eastern Tableland, access to True Magic and practical skills, and asked them to draw the Academy into costly negotiations while supporting Caria’s operations.
• Horace Loux accepted the arrangement and returned to the tribal camp, where he announced cooperation with Caria and began selecting recruits as Carian mages and artisans arrived to teach.
• Horace Loux named his planned force the Order of the Great Rune Knights and attempted to place Great Runes on the organization itself rather than on individual warriors.
• With energy supplied by the Formless Mother, Horace Loux established the [Uphold the Knightly Virtues] Great Rune, which strengthened the order as members practiced its eight virtues.
• Horace Loux also established the [Never Take a Life] Great Rune, forbidding members from actively killing in battle in exchange for exceptional defense, poise, and regeneration.

Horace Loux established a nurses' corps to support his growing force and continued building the Eastern Tableland settlement while learning Carian True Magic from Rellana. The first fifty recruits developed into a disciplined, heavily armored Inquisitor Knight Order, though Horace Loux had to postpone his plans to equip them with greatbows.

• Horace Loux formed the Blood Sorcerer Order, publicly presenting the rescued Numen witches as battlefield healers while they secretly used enemy blood to heal warriors and sustain the Great Runes.
• Horace Loux oversaw the Eastern Tableland camp's construction and began training young tribesmen as knights under the influence of the [Observe Knightly Virtues] and [Never Kill] Great Runes.
• Rellana reluctantly taught Horace Loux Carian True Magic beside the lake, but his quick understanding and questions frustrated her attempts to make him struggle.
• The first fifty recruits became disciplined shield-bearers and spearmen, impressing Carian observers with their heavy armor, formations, and resilience against arrows and True Magic.
• Horace Loux shelved his plan to equip the knights with greatbows because the tribe lacked skilled bowyers and Caria could not provide a quick solution.

Horace Loux negotiated with the Academy of Raya Lucaria for glintstone artisans, using Caria’s support to pressure the academy into lending five artisans to his tribe. He signed a restrictive magical contract, though the contract’s true power remained uncertain.

• Horace Loux demanded sorcery knowledge and ten glintstone artisans from the academy’s envoy, who refused and returned to report.
• Horace Loux urged Rellana to have Caria increase its support, and Rennala supplied combat sorcery scrolls while Caria sent artisans and helped plan fortifications.
• The academy offered increasingly generous terms, but Horace Loux continued to insist on glintstone artisans and hinted that he might accept a politically significant marriage proposal from Caria.
• The academy agreed to lend five artisans for a year under a contract restricting the tribe’s use of their techniques and requiring neutrality in conflicts between Caria and the academy.
• Horace Loux signed the magical contract, which took effect, while the narrator noted that its actual force was unclear.

Horace Loux used the Great Runes System to weaken the True Magic contract’s binding and burned it without triggering backlash. Rellana left in a fury and embarrassment, while Horace Loux still expected to receive five Glintstone Artisans.

• Rellana confronted Horace Loux for signing a contract that promised her sister, but he said it had secured five Glintstone Artisans.
• Horace Loux briefly overrode the contract’s rules with a Great Rune, damaging its binding link and weakening its ability to punish him.
• Horace Loux burned the contract, and no True Magic backlash occurred, leaving Rellana stunned.
• Horace Loux teased Rellana about her anger, and she hit her head on the doorframe while trying to storm out.
• Rellana rushed away in embarrassment, and Horace Loux remarked that she had not changed as he anticipated receiving the five artisans.

Several years passed as Horace developed Lakeside Town, studied sorcery with Lusat, and refined rituals that shaped the Formless Mother's response. His companionship with Rellana grew less hostile, while the chapter also noted Rennala's close ties to the academy's sorcery masters.

• Horace transformed the Eastern Tableland into Lakeside Town and sent promising tribal youths to the academy to train as future Great Rune Knights.
• Lusat gave Horace the scroll for Ruinous Stars, a sorcery linked to the Primeval Current that Lusat had never taught anyone.
• Horace developed healing bloodletting rituals to redirect the Formless Mother's attention, and he sensed Her Grace becoming gentler and Her power more freely given.
• Over several years, Rellana watched Horace lead Lakeside Town and gradually became accustomed to living and working alongside him, though neither addressed their unspoken feelings.
• The chapter described Rennala's knowledge of sorceries from the Karolos and Olivinus Conspectuses as evidence of her good relationships with Azur and the academy's primeval sorcerers.

As Lakeside Town prospered, the Academy and Caria grew more wary of Horace, while tensions between them intensified. Horace and Rellana discussed the coming conflict and their loyalties, leaving Rellana to reaffirm her duty to Caria.

• Lakeside Town's trade brought wealth and growth, but the Academy tightened controls on knowledge and sensitive supplies.
• Caria's rising ambitions and fear of Horace made his position as an ally to both sides increasingly precarious, while Rennala sent Rellana more frequent and specific instructions.
• Rellana warned Horace that the Academy was investigating his contact with Master Lusat and that the masters faced pressure over Primeval Current True Magic.
• Horace told Rellana he would support whichever side let Lakeside Town and its people survive, or leave to build a new home.
• Rellana said a decisive conflict was near and declared that, as Rennala's sister and a knight of Caria, her duty and path were already chosen.

Horace sent one hundred Inquisitor Knights to Caria Manor as hired, temporary support for Rellana, strengthening Rennala’s plans against the Academy while preserving Lakeside Town’s deniability. Rennala teased Rellana about her ties to Horace, and rumors about their relationship spread through the manor as Rellana focused on the coming operation.

• Horace reasoned that many Academy sorcerers might stay neutral or secretly favor Rennala, then sent Uriel and one hundred Inquisitor Knights with Rellana to Caria Manor.
• Uriel explained that the knights were hired for temporary assistance and would have no knowledge of Caria’s plans until it officially acted.
• Rennala welcomed the support, arranged for the knights’ deployment, and teased Rellana about whether she had given in to Horace.
• Rumors about Horace and Rellana’s relationship spread through Caria Manor, frustrating Rellana as she concentrated on planning the operation.
• A note cited Sellen’s words about fate moving with the stars and suggested that she might belong to the Carian royal family.

Horace watched Rennala’s forces take the Academy of Raya Lucaria with almost no resistance, then weighed whether to accept her offer of a noble title and bring Lakeside Town under the Kingdom of Caria. The chapter left him considering the terms of joining, while raising questions about Sellen’s place in Caria’s succession and who controlled the academy.

• Horace watched moon-white light rise above the Academy of Raya Lucaria as Rennala’s takeover began.
• Uriel returned with the Inquisitor Knights and reported that the academy’s defenders offered almost no resistance and suffered no casualties.
• Uriel told Horace that Rennala had declared the Kingdom of Caria and invited him to an investiture ceremony.
• Horace considered how accepting or refusing Rennala’s title would affect Lakeside Town’s independence and security.
• Horace reflected on Sellen’s succession rights and wondered who had silenced the sorcery professors and held the academy’s supreme power.

Horace Loux was invested as Marquess Horace of the Eastern Tableland and Lakeside Town at Raya Lucaria, where Rellana unexpectedly embraced him during the celebration. After leaving the banquet, Horace saw Rellana waiting by a courtyard fountain but chose not to approach her, while Rennala arranged further talks for the next day.

• Horace Loux traveled from Lakeside Town to Raya Lucaria for his investiture.
• Rennala granted Horace Loux the title of marquess, the Eastern Tableland and Lakeside Town as his domain, and authority to maintain a knightly order.
• Rellana embraced Horace while returning his toast, then blushed and fled the hall after Rennala teased her.
• Rennala gave Horace permission to leave the banquet and said she would meet with him for more in-depth talks the next day.
• Horace passed Rellana sulking beside a fountain but continued on to his guest room without speaking to her.

Horace and Rellana reconciled after she thanked him for supporting Caria, and he prepared to negotiate the terms of his vassalage. The next morning, Horace asked Queen Rennala for broad autonomy over his troops and territory, especially the power to establish local laws and courts, leaving Rennala to weigh his demands.

• Horace reassured Rellana that her gratitude had reached him and thanked her for helping his knights serve in Caria.
• Rellana welcomed Horace as Caria’s new marquis, while he said he would accept vassalage only if the terms suited Lakeside Town and his people.
• Horace met Queen Rennala privately and asked for military autonomy, with command of the Order of the Great Rune Knights under his control.
• Horace sought authority over civil administration, taxation, territorial courts, and local laws in Lakeside Town and the Eastern Tableland.
• Rennala considered Horace’s request for independent judicial and legislative authority, recognizing both its risks and its potential value to Caria.

Horace secured provisional Judicial Authority for Lakeside Town under a three-year royal review, while Rennala pressed him about Rellana and hinted at a future royal marriage. After leaving the meeting, Horace focused on his duties as the chapter shifted to speculation about Radahn’s horse and possible interference in Rennala’s and Blaidd’s minds.

• Rennala granted Horace Judicial Authority subject to royal legal oversight, approval of death sentences, and a three-year assessment.
• Rennala asked Horace how he felt about Rellana, and he said he had no time to pursue romance; Rennala revealed that the royal family had begun forging a Moonlight Greatsword.
• Rennala told Horace that his investiture document and agreement would be ready within three days, and Horace left the council chamber focused on Lakeside Town’s reforms.
• The narrator speculated that Radagon had given young Radahn his frail red-maned horse and that Radahn soon learned gravity magic.
• The narrator questioned who had allowed the White King to come to the academy and suggested that light might have been used to interfere with Rennala’s mind and drive Blaidd mad.

Horace discovered that the Formless Mother’s power had begun changing his body and used a Great Rune to resist further erosion. Seeking reliable information about the Outer God, he traveled to Caria Manor and encountered Royal Knight Loretta.

• Horace noticed red eyes, streaks of dark red hair, and blood-related urges, then realized the Formless Mother’s power had started affecting him.
• Horace imposed a Great Rune vow never to use Golden Order incantations, suppressing the influence on his will and fading the red from his eyes.
• Horace decided to research the Formless Mother and left Uriel in charge of Lakeside Town’s administration and new laws.
• Horace traveled to Caria Manor with two Inquisitor Knights, choosing its secluded collections over the academy library.
• Horace encountered Royal Knight Loretta in the manor’s corridors.

Horace visited Caria’s Archives to search for records about ancient faiths and the Formless Mother, while Rellana repeatedly tried to get his attention. He gave her old legal records to organize, leaving them to work together as he continued his research.

• Horace greeted Loretta at the Manor, and Rellana arrived dressed up after hearing he was there.
• Loretta noticed Rellana’s jealousy and tactfully left Horace and Rellana alone.
• Horace told Rellana he had come to consult records, then walked past her toward the Archives when she hesitated to say more.
• Horace searched the Archives for records about ancient faiths, rituals, blood, wounds, and pain while Rellana repeatedly passed by the entrance.
• Horace invited Rellana to help organize records of Caria’s ancient laws and territorial customs for his plans to draft laws for Lakeside Town.
• Rellana accepted the work, and Horace thanked her as they began sorting the records.

Horace finished researching ancient texts about the Formless Mother in Caria Manor and invited Rellana to join him at the Academy's Grand Library. As they traveled together, Rellana asked about his changed hair, but Horace claimed he had dyed it, leaving her suspicious.

• Horace selected ancient texts that might mention the Formless Mother, while Rellana helped organize the legal records.
• Horace thanked Rellana and prepared to leave Caria Manor, and Rellana awkwardly offered to help if he encountered trouble in Lakeside Town.
• Horace invited Rellana to accompany him to the Academy's Grand Library, and she eagerly accepted while pretending to do him a favor.
• Rellana asked Horace whether his hair color had changed, and he casually said he had dyed it.
• Rellana doubted Horace's explanation and decided to watch which materials he consulted at the Academy.

Horace searched the Academy's Grand Library for a way to resist the Formless Mother's corruption while Rellana noticed an unusual attraction to his newly red hair. After days of finding only vague references, Horace concluded that ordinary research would not be enough and decided to use cheats.

• Rellana watched Horace in the library and, after he caught her staring at him, nervously pretended to study an upside-down book.
• Horace asked Rellana whether she thought something was wrong with him, and she described feeling drawn to him like a cold traveler to a bonfire since his hair changed color.
• Horace considered whether bloodflame or an inherited instinct toward fire explained Rellana's reaction, then thanked her and resumed searching.
• Horace and Rellana spent several days looking through the library, finding scattered, vague references to the Formless Mother, blood rituals, and Outer Gods.
• Horace worried about leaving Lakeside Town without his leadership and decided to use cheats after conventional research failed to find a way to resist the corruption.

Horace learned that the path to countering the Formless Mother's corruption was to create his own blood moon, then left the Grand Library to return to Lakeside Town and pursue the research. Rellana resolved to search for clues in moon-related records, while rumors about Horace and the princess spread through Liurnia.

• Horace asked the Gate of Myriad Laws how to overcome the Formless Mother's corruption and received the words “Night and flame, moon and blood.”
• Horace learned three possible paths: embrace the Formless Mother, pass the corruption to his children, or balance and master it by creating his own blood moon.
• Horace told Rellana he had found a direction involving the moon, thanked her for her help, and said he needed to return to Lakeside Town.
• Rellana offered to help with his research and decided to search records about the moon after Horace left the Grand Library.
• Rumors about Horace's red hair and his relationship with the second princess spread between Caria Manor and the Academy.

Over several years, Horace’s legal reforms helped stabilize Caria, and he developed a nonlethal combat skill to help the Great Rune Knights enforce the law. The chapter leaves Caria prosperous and orderly, while a note connects dragon-given Dragonbolt to being loved by a dragon.

• Rennala expanded Horace’s revised legal code across Caria, and Horace Loux became the kingdom’s highest Judicial Officer.
• Horace recruited Academy scholars and combat officers to develop a nonlethal version of the Life-Taking Fist, offering extra pay and public recognition.
• The researchers created the “Absolutely Not Life-Taking Fist,” which Inquisitor Knights learned to incapacitate offenders without causing lasting harm.
• The Inquisitor Knights used the Chummy Fist to reduce violent confrontations and curb disorder within the Academy.
• Caria’s trade and Lakeside Town’s prosperity grew as a new generation of sorcerers, including Sellen, Miriam, and Seluvis, gained recognition.
• Horace noted that Vyke could wield an Ancient Dragon’s Dragonbolt only after winning Lansseax’s affection, suggesting that Dragonbolt was bestowed on those loved by dragons.

After the Golden Dynasty was founded, Horace secured Queen Rennala’s approval to lead a diplomatic mission there, with Rellana as his deputy. The delegation reached the Altus Plateau and began the closely scrutinized journey toward Leyndell, while Horace wondered what awaited him and his brother Godfrey.

• After reading news of the Golden Dynasty’s founding, Horace argued that Caria should establish ties with its powerful new neighbor.
• Rennala appointed Horace chief envoy and Rellana deputy envoy, then privately encouraged her sister to take the journey as an opportunity to grow closer to him.
• Horace selected fifty elite Inquisitor Knights, and the delegation departed Lakeside Town for the Altus Plateau.
• The delegation rode the Grand Lift of Dectus and saw the Erdtree, whose golden presence awed Rellana and unsettled Horace.
• Leyndell knights inspected the delegation’s documents and equipment at checkpoints as Horace and Rellana answered their questions with composure.

Horace and Rellana met Marika and Godfrey in Leyndell, where a formal audience gave way to a private reunion between Horace and his big brother. The chapter ended with Godfrey teasing Horace about whether Rellana was his wife, followed by a note about the origins of Erdtree beliefs and the births of the demigods.

• Horace and Rellana arrived in Leyndell and waited three days before being summoned to meet Marika and Godfrey.
• Horace delivered Queen Rennala’s greetings and diplomatic proposals, but he could not bring himself to address Godfrey as his big brother during the formal audience.
• A Crucible Knight invited Horace and Rellana to the palace’s rear courtyard, where they found Godfrey washing, Marika checking grain accounts, and Serosh doing paperwork.
• Godfrey greeted Horace warmly, and Horace finally called him big brother as they reunited.
• Marika welcomed Horace and Rellana more informally, and Godfrey teased Horace by asking whether Rellana was his wife.

Horace treated more than ten thousand shamans rescued from the Hornsent and arranged for them to recover in Liurnia rather than remain under the Erdtree’s influence. The chapter ended with an author’s note wondering how to keep the protagonist young over a story spanning thousands of years.

• Godfrey mistook Rellana for Horace’s wife, leaving her stunned and prompting Horace to explain her role as Caria’s second princess and a capable fighter.
• Marika asked Horace to heal the shamans rescued from the Hornsent, and he agreed to treat them.
• Horace set up a guarded camp near Leyndell and treated the shamans in batches, while Rellana helped organize supplies and comfort them.
• After nearly a month, Horace restored the shamans to basic human form and clear consciousness, though they still needed time to recover.
• Horace persuaded Marika to let the shamans settle in Liurnia, where they could recover and begin new lives.

Horace used Great Runes to ease Messmer’s pain and suppress the serpent within him, then got roped into handling the Golden Dynasty’s government paperwork. The serpent remained sealed rather than cured, while Horace was left sorting through confidential reports for Marika and Godfrey.

• Marika introduced Messmer as her and Godfrey’s son and asked Horace to help suppress the serpent inside him.
• Horace placed several Great Runes on Messmer, easing the pressure on his body and allowing him to stand more upright, though the serpent’s essence remained.
• Marika hoped Messmer could learn to control the flames Horace had directed the serpent’s manifestations toward.
• Godfrey pulled Serosh from his paperwork and made Horace take over the stack of Golden Dynasty documents.
• Marika and Godfrey asked Horace to review border disputes and an Erdtree sapling report while Serosh rested.