Synopsis

The chapter focuses on a meeting of corps commanders discussing the Emperor's motivations for starting a war, which they suspect is a desire to die, but rationalize as wanting to stabilize his rule. A mysterious brown liquid is found in a pouch, causing monsters to attack erratically. Arut is directly involved in stopping them, though he dismisses the liquid initially, revealing later he threw away a potion that was the root cause. He's then ordered to rest and avoid the commander's meeting, however, other commanders, like Ririnell, Jaykar, and Pernivan, arrive and find Arut there and talk to him, implying he did not rest.