Chapter Summaries

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.

After being pressed into handling Leyndell’s affairs, Horace met Messmer and Melina and decided to take the troubled children with him to Caria. The chapter ended with Horace preparing to secretly smuggle them out, despite Rellana recognizing that he was effectively kidnapping royal children.

• Horace and Rellana returned to the embassy after spending the day dealing with the Golden Dynasty’s affairs.
• Messmer visited Horace with his younger sister Melina to thank him, and asked whether Caria had beautiful lakes and moonlight.
• Horace invited Messmer and Melina to visit Caria, but Messmer hesitated because he believed his mother would not agree.
• Horace claimed Marika had already agreed and suggested they make a secret trip, while Rellana realized he intended to abduct the children.

Hesa disguised Messmer as a maid and smuggled him and Melina out of Leyndell with the diplomatic convoy. They reached the road to Caria, while Messmer learned that his mother had helped arrange the escape.

• Hesa stuffed Messmer and Melina into sacks, then persuaded Messmer to wear a maid's dress as a disguise.
• Hesa hid Melina beneath a cloth on a supply cart and instructed Messmer to pose as his mute maid.
• Hesa's convoy left Leyndell late at night, and the gate captain let them pass after inspecting their papers and supplies.
• The knights gossiped about Hesa's supposed tastes as the convoy departed, mortifying Messmer and embarrassing Rellana.
• In the carriage, Melina told Messmer that Mother and Uncle had arranged the escape together.

Marika and Godfrey accepted Hesa’s letter as proof that he had thoughtfully taken Messmer and Melina to Caria, while Hesa returned to Lakeside Town believing he had forgotten only a minor farewell. In Leyndell, Froesanks remained trapped doing endless archival paperwork and silently waited for Hesa to remember her.

• Marika found Hesa’s letter explaining that he had taken Messmer and Melina to Caria to recuperate, and she interpreted his departure as considerate.
• Marika told Serosh to send the children’s belongings to Caria, and Serosh withheld his doubts.
• Godfrey recalled Hesa supposedly taking the children out for fun, then returned to sparring without questioning the story.
• In Caria, Messmer burned the women’s clothes he had been forced to wear and isolated himself, while Melina remained quiet and withdrawn.
• Hesa reviewed his trip to Leyndell and failed to remember Froesanks, who was still buried in archival work and hoped he would come for her.

Rennala and Rellana discussed Messmer’s growing notoriety before turning to sorcerers exploiting Albinaurics to secretly build armies. Rennala tasked Rellana with investigating the persecution, then suggested Horace could join the royal family.

• Rennala and Rellana discussed how Messmer’s work with Horace had drawn attention from young nobles and made him reluctant to leave his lodgings.
• Rennala and Rellana discussed corruption at the academy, including sorcerers and noble families secretly pursuing power despite Horace’s laws.
• Rellana told Rennala that some sorcerers were targeting Albinaurics to study their artificial nature and produce cheap soldiers.
• Rennala ordered Rellana to investigate the persecution, gather evidence, and send the guilty sorcerers to prison through Horace’s Inquisitor Knights.
• Rennala told Rellana that she could entrust the matter to Horace if she wished, as long as he became a member of the royal family.

Hesa struggled to advance his blood moon research until Ymir suggested investigating ancient ancestor-spirit worship. He then learned that the Formless Mother had apparently taken his claim about the pain of losing one's virginity as a doctrine and inspired dangerous new worship, leaving him horrified and helpless.

• Hesa considered Messmer’s potential as a judicial officer and sent Melina to the True Magic Academy to investigate her unusual abilities.
• Ymir told Hesa about ancient faiths that worshipped ancestor spirits, giving him a new direction for his blood moon research.
• Hesa ordered Ymir to search royal and academy collections for records about ancestor spirits.
• Uriel reported that groups in Leyndell and the lake region were preaching that the Formless Mother cherished women’s pain during their first sexual experience.
• Hesa realized the Formless Mother had apparently endorsed his careless theory, and he feared the resulting rumors would bring shame and further harm.

Horace sought Queen Rennala’s help reaching Nokstella, the Eternal City, while Rellana struggled with her feelings after he ignored her. Rennala said opening Caria’s route would require Horace to meet her terms, and the chapter ended with a note about Kaiden’s possible connection to the Wasteland.

• Rellana brooded over Horace and the investigation her sister had assigned her.
• Horace ordered Messmer to burn out the distorted Formless Mother sects, then left Uriel in charge of Lakeside Town’s paperwork while he traveled to Caria Manor.
• Rellana saw Horace arrive and head straight to Queen Rennala’s study, then followed him after he ignored her greeting.
• Horace asked Rennala for a route to Nokstella and explained that he hoped the Eternal City could help him create a new moon.
• Rennala warned that Caria would not open its route to Nokstella without conditions, and Horace agreed to hear her terms.
• The narrator described Kaiden as a snowy Highland region and suggested it might share a continent with the Wasteland.

Rennala offered Horace access to Nokstella in exchange for his loyalty to Caria, while privately hoping he would marry Rellana and secure Caria’s future. Horace accepted the offer and began considering the possibility of a relationship with Rellana as he prepared for his journey.

• Rennala weighed Caria’s political future and hoped a daughter of Horace and Rellana could inherit the throne with Horace as regent.
• Rennala asked Horace to pledge loyalty to Caria and offered to open a portal to Nokstella in return.
• Horace accepted the terms and agreed to return in three days, then left to prepare for the dangerous journey.
• Rellana asked Rennala what she meant by loyalty to Caria and worried about Horace going to Nokstella, but Rennala told her she would understand in time.
• Horace considered Rennala’s hints about Rellana and admitted to himself that he had no clear reason to refuse a possible marriage.

Horace returned to his castle and learned that Messmer had clashed with Gaius, an Albinauric warrior, while stopping a distorted Formless Mother ritual. Gaius defended the ritual as a source of hope for Albinaurics, leaving Horace to confront the gap between its fleeting blessing and their desperation.

• Horace returned to Lakeside Town and found Messmer, Gaius, and Gaius’s boar under the Inquisitor Knights’ guard.
• Messmer reported that a church’s ritual used pain to seek a Formless Mother blessing that briefly let Albinaurics stand or walk, but could worsen their weakness.
• Messmer said he tried to stop the ritual and warn its participants, but Gaius attacked to protect the Albinaurics’ hope of walking.
• Gaius explained that even a harmful, fleeting blessing gave Albinaurics a moment of strength and hope, and challenged Horace to understand their suffering.

Horace offered the Albinaurics an autonomous village and a chance to walk by joining the Order of the Great Rune Knights, in exchange for labor, loyalty, and the burden of oaths. Gaius accepted, and Horace assigned Messmer to help settle and integrate them.

• Horace warned Gaius that the Formless Mother's doctrine exploited Albinauric suffering and refused to let it spread through his territory.
• Horace offered Albinaurics who followed Caria Law an autonomous village, and promised those joining the Order of the Great Rune Knights a Great Rune that could let them stand and walk.
• Gaius accepted Horace's terms on behalf of the Albinaurics he could persuade and agreed to stop their dangerous rituals and count who wanted to join the order or remain in the village.
• Horace excused Messmer's conflict with Gaius but ordered him to compensate for the burned granary and oversee the Albinaurics' settlement and integration.
• Uriel questioned whether Albinaurics could bear three Great Runes, but Horace said they deserved the chance to choose that path.

Horace traveled through Rennala’s portal to Nokstella, where two Nox monks stopped him and escorted him to meet a Night Witch. He presented Rennala’s crest and letter as proof of his peaceful intentions, but the chapter ended just as the witch turned to face him.

• Horace accepted Rennala’s letter of introduction and an old Carian crest before entering her portal with Rellana present.
• Horace arrived at Nokstella and crossed the Ainsel River into the ruins of the Eternal City.
• Two Nox monks confronted Horace, and he showed them the crest and explained that Queen Rennala had sent him to seek knowledge.
• The monks agreed to take Horace to the Night Witch, while warning him not to wander or touch anything.
• Horace followed the monks through Nokstella’s ruins, passed wandering primal tears, and reached a circular hall where a Nox woman turned to face him.