Light Novel Volume 17/Summary

Chapter 1: The First Mission
Ariel's group, including Sylphiette, Luke, Elmore, Kleene, Rudeus, Eris and Ghislaine leave Sharia, and take a magic teleportation circle to Sky Castle Chaos Breaker. After greeting Perugius, they take a magic circle that transports them to a ruin near the Red Dragon’s Upper Jaw. Because it is almost night, the group rest near the road.

On Rudeus's turn for night patrol, he goes into the forest and meets Orsted, who is following the group. Rudeus reports on the events of the past few days. Orsted advises that the forest of the Red Dragon’s Upper Jaw is the most likely place for Darius to send soldiers to kill Ariel, as it is still within Asura Kingdom's jurisdiction, while being distant enough to avoid creating big news. They speculate that the North Emperor Auber Corvette is likely to appear there as well. When they discuss the matter of Luke being an apostle, Orsted reveals that Hitogami can only reassign his apostles at certain turning points in the future. In this case, the turning point is when Ariel does or does not become queen. Until then, apostles cannot be swapped or changed, and any apostles that die cannot be replaced. Rudeus is annoyed at not having received this crucial information earlier. They finish their conversation and Rudeus returns to camp.

Chapter 2: The Red Wyrm’s Upper Jaw
The group arrives at the forest of the Red Dragon’s Upper Jaw, which is the most likely place to be ambushed, according to Orsted. The group stop for a moment at the location where Ariel's group was ambushed when she was fleeing Asura Kingdom to Ranoa. She pay her respects for the people that she lost that day.

The next day, the group is ambushed by a group of soldiers. Ghislaine, Eris and Sylphiette fight the group of soldiers. Meanwhile, Luke protects the carriage, with Rudeus in the rear. Using his Eyes of Foresight to monitor the situation, he is looking for and anticipating a surprise attack from Auber. The North King Wii Taa appears and challenges Ghislaine to a duel. He uses his polished armor to reflect the sun's light to periodically blind Ghislaine's, and so Ghislaine struggles to fight Wii Taa. Rudeus sees this and summons Mud Rain, therefore nullifying Wii Taa's strategy and allowing Ghislaine to take the opportunity and deal a serious injury to him.

After helping Ghislaine, Rudeus looks to the rear and unexpectedly finds that Auber has appeared from a hole in the road, Auber tries to kill Rudeus, but Auber is repelled. Auber and Rudues briefly fight. When Ghislaine, Eris, Sylphi arrive to support Rudeus, Auber and his group decide to retreat. Luke stares in disbelief as he sees that the soldiers they just fought have the Milbotts crest, meaning that his father Philemon Notos Greyrat has betrayed Ariel.

Chapter 3: Suspicions and Theories
Luke is still in disbelief at the fact that his father betrayed Ariel. Ariel, in contrast, had fully expected this. Because Auber and his group may continue to ambush them, Rudeus proposes that they try to smuggle themselves into the country. By doing this, Rudeus thinks to himself that he would also be able to complete one of his objectives, which is to find Trish.

Luke voices out loud that he feels Rudeus's recent actions were strange, and that he doesn't distrust to him. Luke suggests to Ariel to retreat temporarily, and to ask for further reinforcements from Perugius. However, Ariel decides to follow Rudeus plan. They change their course to find smuggling bandits.

During Rudeus's turn for night patrol, he meets Orsted again. They talk about recent events. They are now more certain than ever that Luke is an apostle, but they agree to leave him alone for now. After returning to camp, Rudeus finds that Ariel up and awake. She asks him to accompany her on a walk in the woods.

Chapter 4: Ariel’s Choice
After entering the forest, Rudeus and Ariel sit on a trunk and start with some trivial small talk. Suddenly, Ariel brings up Luke and the fact that she believes that he is betraying them. Rudeus says that he is probably being manipulated, but he hesitates to reveal that Hitogami is behind this. Ariel requests to meet Orsted to understand why he is helping her. Before Rudeus can give an answer, Orsted appears. Even after being affected by Orsted's curse, Ariel regains her composure and they start to talk.

Orsted explains that a being called Hitogami is his enemy and is currently siding with Darius and Grabell the First Prince. Orsted reveals that in 100 years into the future, if Grabell becomes king, this leads to events where the kingdom of Asura will fall, but if Ariel becomes king, the kingdom will survive. Hitogami wants Asura kingdom to perish because the person who will defeat him is born in Asura Kingdom. Ariel learns that there are only 3 Hitogami apostles at one time, and that Luke, Darius and either the North Emperor Auber or Water God Reida are the current candidates. Ariel decides to became a Orsted's subordinate.

Chapter 5: Tristina
The group enter to the territory of the band of thieves, where they are surrounded and the leader appears. Using code phrases learned from Orsted, Rudeus indicates that he wants their group to be smuggled and to meet Tris. They arrive to a hut and the group rests while they wait for Tris.

Some hours later, Tris arrives. Rudeus engages with her, but she comes across as guarded and suspicious. Thinking to himself, Rudeus tries to comes up with a plan to gain her trust over time and slowly reveal their group's goal to overthrow Darius. Ariel sees Tris and instead goes for the straightforward approach. She identifies Tris as Tristina Purplehorse, a noble daughter that she met several years ago. Tris also recognizes Ariel in return and immediately lets her guard down. Ariel asks about the fact that Tris had gone missing and how she came to be a bandit. Tris reviews her life story, starting with how she was kidnapped and became a sex slave for Darius. She was then sold to bandits to become their boss's concubine, then trained as a thief, and then became a free woman when the boss changed. After hearing her story, Ariel promises to exact revenge on Darius on Tris's behalf. Ariel asks Tris to testify against Darius about being his sex slave. Tris accepts and joins their group. Rudeus looks at this exchange in admiration at how Ariel was able to skillfully and easily get Tris on their side.

Chapter 6: On the Road
The next day, led by Tris, they arrive at a lake and a cliff with a secret cave. After several hours of walking through its labyrinthine tunnels, they leave the cave and arrive in Asura kingdom territory. As the group passes by the Fedoa Region, Rudeus, Sylphi and Eris reminisce about the past.

The group then arrives at a town named Rickett, which connects to the Asura capital. They stop at an inn associated with the thief guild to rest, while Tris goes out to gather information. Tris returns and goes to delivers her news to Ariel, while Rudeus and Ghislaine are on guard duty. Rudeus then hears some arguing in Ariel's room and goes to investigate. He enters to the room to find Ariel and Luke arguing. Rudeus learns that Tris has confirmed that Philemon was one of the culprits in the execution of Sauros, and that Ariel will keep her promise with Ghislaine to kill him. Luke is angry as he still believes that Rudeus is aiming to take over the Notos house. Ariel states that after taking power, she has no intention of granting nobility to Rudeus. The next day, Luke admits that he did indeed receive advice from Hitogami. The advice was a warning of Rudeus's betrayal; that Rudeus's goal is to be lord of Notus House and that he will defect to Darius's side.

Days later, with Luke still hostile against Rudeus, they arrive at the capital city Ars.

Chapter 7: Ars, the Royal Capital
The group goes to the Ariel's second house within Asura, which will be their base. As they travel through the commoner district, they see that Ariel is still popular with the common people. When they enter the noble's district, a soldier runs up to them. They reveal themselves to be Isolte, one of Eris's acquaintances from the Holy Land of the Sword, and they chat for a bit. The group then arrives at Ariel's second house.

Ariel says that she needs ten days to gather her allies and prepare her Venue to take down Darius and the first prince's faction. They decide to use Sylphy disguised as Ariel as bait to draw in the enemy, giving them an opportunity to launch their attacks to reduce the enemy's forces.

Chapter 8: Duel at Dusk
Ariel works on her preparations to gather her allies. Their group is frequently attacked by assassins targeting Sylphi, who is impersonating Ariel, while the real Ariel hides as a maid. At one party, Luke meets his father, Philemon. They discuss why he betrayed Ariel. Luke pleads for him to return to Ariel's faction, but Philemon refuses.

On day nine, preparations for the Venue have been completed. The plan is for Ariel to host a party, with all nobles in attendance, where she will supposedly nominate Grabell as the king. That evening, as the group returns to their base, an assailant blocks the road and announces himself as the North King 『Twin Swords』 Knuckle Guard, a pair of swordsman who are twin. Eris decides to fight them. Meanwhile, Wii Taa appear with black armor and confronts Ghislaine for a rematch.

While they fight, Rudeus searches for Auber, who he suspects is waiting for a surprise attack. Using his spirits of light, Rudeus notices a strange cloth on the wall and without hesitation fires a stone cannon. Auber is able to evade a mortal wound, but his leg was pierced, severely limiting his mobility. Eris easily defeats the twin swordsman Knuckle Guard and thanks to her great night vision, Ghislaine overwhelms Wii Taa, cutting off his arm. Wii Taa then throws a smoke screen and tries to attack the carriage, hoping to find Ariel. However, Sylphi was inside instead and she counters with a Flame Tornado, which clears the smoke screen and illuminates their surrounding. They see Auber escape using his pair of claws to climb a wall and he disappears. Wii Taa has also disappeared, but they decide to pursue and finish off Wii Taa.

Rudeus chases Wii Taa into an alleyway, but he finds him already dead with a hole in his chest. Rudeus quickly realizes that the wound was made by Orsted. Even though Auber escaped, their group's plan to reduced the enemy's strength was a success.

Chapter 9: Ariel’s Battlefield
Several important nobles, including the leaders of the Boreas and Notus house, Senior Minister Darius arrive at Ariel's party. When the party begins, Ariel introduces Tris to everyone in attendance as the long lost Tristina Purplehorse. Tris recounts her lifestory to all the nobles, from how she was betrayed to her house and became Darius's sex slave, to how she became a thief and regained her freedom. Darius accuses Tris of being fake, and brings in the head of the Purplehorse house, Tris's father. However, Ariel had anticipated this and had already contacted the Purplehorse family, and the head of the Purplehorse house confirms that Tris is indeed real and claims that she was stolen away by Darius. With this, Darius's reputation is badly damaged.

The first prince Grabell then arrives at the party. He states that Darius should not be punished despite his crimes, as he is an important player in running Asura Kingdom. He calls for a vote among all the nobles in attendance, asking them to confirm their allegiance to him and Darius, or Ariel. Before the vote commences, Ariel announces she has one more person to introduce. The nobles see the Sky Castle floating in the night sky and Perugius makes an entrance, along with his 12 familiars. Upon his entrance, it is clear that he is very well respected among the nobles of Asura, commanding more respect that even Ariel or Grabell. Grabell offers Perugius the highest ranking seat among the three seats of honor. Perugius politely declines and offers it to Ariel instead, making clear to everyone that it is Ariel that he supports.

Just as Rudeus was thinking that everything was going well for them, something falls from the ceiling to interrupt the party. It is revealed to be Water God Reida Ryia, who has come to support Darius.

Chapter 10: Rudeus’s Battlefield
Water God Reida has a sword technique that allows her to kill all opponents in every direction. With this, she easily kills two of Pergius's familiars, Arumanfi and Trophimus. No one dares to move for fear of being instantly killed, including Rudeus, Ghislaine, and Eris. Reida commands Auber to kill Ariel and finish the job they were hired for. Suddenly, apprentice knights appear, including Isolte. Isolte demands her master to tell her what is going on. Reida states that she intends to murder Ariel, with the apparent motivation being money, and then intends to let herself die at the hands of Isolte, who will become a hero and carry on the Water God style. As this happens, Rudeus tries to come up with a plan to save Ariel from Auber without being attacked by Reida. Rudeus considers using electric magic to attack Reida and Auber simultaneously. Suddenly, the air changes and everyone senses Orsted's presence approaching. At Reida's instructions, Auber grabs Darius and runs away. Reida begins to explain her motivations. She reveals that, as a child, Darius saved her from having her hands cut off by a mob, and therefore she feels she owes him her life. She had forgotten about this for many years until recently, when she had a revelation in a dream, which told her to come back to the royal palace, where she could return the favor to Darius. With this, it's confirmed that she is an apostle of Hitogami. Orsted then arrives and promptly kills her.

With Reida dead, Rudeus, Ghislaine, and Eris are now free to move. They chase after and quickly catch up to Darius and Auber. Darius mutters in frustration at this turn of events. He reveals that he was told by Hitogami to destroy the magic teleportation portals, and recall Auber to the capital to protect himself from Rudeus. Darius tries to negotiate with Eris and Ghislaine by claiming that he has been helping the Boreas house rebuild the Fedoa territory. However, he also reveals that he directly led to the death of Sauros. Eris and Ghislaine therefore resolve themselves to kill him. Seeing that negotiations have failed, Auber launches an attack. Auber is able to damage Rudeus's foot and stab Eris in the abdomen with a poisoned kunai, but he receives an arm injury from Ghislaine. Rudeus then launches an exploding Stone Cannon at Darius. Although Auber blocks the rock bullet, its fragments blind Darius and distract Auber. With that opening, Eris damages Auber's other arm, followed by Ghislaine landing a killing blow. The battle over, Ghislaine then kills Darius. Rudeus heals all their injuries. They cure Eris's poisoning with an antidote found on Auber's corpse.

They head back to the party venue and are greeted with an unexpected sight. They see Luke holding a dagger against Ariel's neck. Luke orders Sylphy to kill Rudeus, if she wants to save Ariel.

Chapter 11: The Madness of Luke
A few minutes prior, after Orsted had killed Reida and left, Luke has convinced himself that Orsted is evil. Philemon then bows to Ariel and claims he only pretended to betray her. Ariel is angry at this bold-faced lie as she knows Philemon sent assassins to kill her. She tells him to have some pride and at least admit his betrayal. Ariel sentences Philemon to be executed right there and asks for Luke's sword.

Luke experiences mixed feelings about his father. On one hand, Philemon had protected Ariel all those years until his betrayal. And although he was never close with his father, he didn't hold any bad feelings toward him either. Without thinking clearly, Luke holds his sword to Ariel's neck. Luke continues to be extremely suspicious of Orsted. He voices his concern at Rudeus being Orsted's subordinate and asks Sylphy if she trusts Orsted. Sylphy confirms she doesn't trust Orsted, but she trusts Rudeus. Rudeus then enters the venue. While still holding his sword to Ariel's throat, he asks Sylphy who she would choose to save, Ariel or Rudeus. Sylphy chooses Rudeus without hesitation. Luke then regains his senses and releases Ariel. He continues to distrust Orsted, but he decides to support Ariel regardless. He braces himself for execution for his betrayal, but Ariel forgives him. Ariel decides not to execute Philemon, and Ghislaine reluctantly agrees with this decision, with Eris's encouragement.

Perugius watched this entire exchange in amusement. Grabell remained seated in his chair, exhausted, and his strongest backer dead. Isolte grieves over the dead body of the Water God Reida.

Chapter 12: Ten Days in the Capital and the Truth About Orsted
Rudeus recounts the 10 days following the event at the venue. During these 10 days, Philemon is stripped of his position, and placed under house arrest. Luke becomes the Notus family head. Luke's brother is able to ease tensions between their family and Ghislaine. Ghislaine continues to work as Ariel's escort as a permanent employee.

On Day 1, Rudeus has a meeting with Orsted. Rudeus is worried that Ariel's ascension to king is still not guaranteed, and is concerned about other traps set by Hitogami. Orsted is not worried, however. He reveals that he wasn't being truthful to Rudeus when he said he could see the future. Rather, Orsted has the ability to reset himself to the year 330 with his memories intact, whenever time progresses for 200 years beyond that point, even if he dies. Hitogami, in contrast, doesn't retain his memories with each reset and so isn't aware of Orsted's reset ability. Orsted reveals that he has reset over 100 times. Therefore, Orsted reassures Rudeus that based on all the previous timelines that he has seen, Ariel is guaranteed to become king at this point.

On Day 3, Isolte visits Eris and Rudeus in their home, which was gifted to them by Ariel. Isolte makes clear that she holds no grudge against Ariel or her faction for Isolte's master's death. Isolte makes clear she came to visit only to see Eris. Eris and Isolte then spend some time together exploring the Imperial city.

On Day 5, Rudeus and Sylphy have dinner with the Boreas house. Eris was not invited as the Boreas are still wary of her and are not interested in welcoming her back.

On Day 8, Tris returns to the aristocracy. Ariel plans to use Tris to broker deals with her group of thieves. Perugius returns to Sky Castle, where he can revive his two familiars who were killed.

On day 9, Sylphy and Rudeus meet Ariel. Ariel thanks Rudeus for all his help and admits that without his advice and help, she never would have gotten this far. Ariel asks if Rudeus wants anything in return. Rudeus asks for a license to sell his Supard race figurines and books, as well as workshops to help with mass-producing. Ariel agrees to this request. Ariel likewise thanks Sylphy for guarding her for the past several years. Ariel and Sylphy spend some time talking and laughing together.

With their work done, Rudeus prepares to leave Asura Kingdom.

Chapter 13: Farewells and Changes
Ghislaine holds a sword training session with Rudeus and Eris, reminiscent of the old days. They finish their training session with Ghislaine and Eris sparring. Ghislaine then says her goodbyes to Eris. Once Ghislaine leaves, Eris cries.

Before their departure, several nobles from Ariel's faction, who knew Sylphy, come to see her off. Luke says goodbye to Sylphy and Rudeus as well. They forgive each other for distrusting the other and they say goodbye on good terms.

For the return trip, they will go to Sky Castle with Perugius, and then teleport to the ruins near the outskirts of Sharia city. Therefore, the return trip to Sharia will be much faster than the initial trip there. By the time they enter Perugius's castle, the sun had set, and so they spend the night there. Rudeus speaks with Sylphy. Sylphy expresses that she would like to spend more time raising their daughter Lucy, now that she no longer has the role of Ariel's guard. Sylphy states that she initially wanted to be like Eris, who is comparable to Rudeus in terms of combat ability. However, she realizes this would be impossible for her at this point and so she sets her new goal as focusing on raising her family.

Chapter 14: Home Again
Rudeus, Eris, and Sylphy return to Magic City Sharia, having been gone for 2 months. Rudeus is relieved to see that nothing has changed since he left and his family is still safe. Aisha and Lilia welcome them home. Roxy's pregnancy continues to progress well, but she is ashamed at how her body has changed. She reveals to Rudeus that she is particularly sensitive about the fact that her umbilicus is now protruding outwards, as she recounts how Rudeus previously told her how her belly and navel were perfect. Rudeus reassures her that she still likes her new navel. Rudeus hugs her growing belly and Roxy welcomes him home.

The next day, Rudeus greets all his friends, Zanoba, Cliff, and Elinalise. He greeted Nanahoshi as well while back at Sky Fortress. He then visits his father's grave. Rudeus speaks out loud all the events of the past 2 months. Rudeus then reflects on the fact that he was very lucky this time to return with no casualties on his side. The past journey had several lucky occurrences, such as Orsted appearing to kill the Water God, and Auber carrying his antidote on him. He resolves himself to continue to get stronger so that he can continue to protect his family, without being as reliant on luck.

Extra Chapter: ???
In a east country the master of a tavern see a man drinking, suddenly another man arrive and the master started to hear the conversation, the man that arrived want to recruit the other man.
 * Spoiler ahead: the man that was drinking, the other man