Luciel arrives at the City in the Sky, hopeful he can retrieve what he’s lost. All is not as it seems, though, as Neldahl holds many secrets in unlikely places. How many of the city’s curious features are merely the proclivities of Lord Reinstar, and how many speak to conspiracy? The S-rank isn’t sure he wants to know, so it’s a good thing he has plenty to occupy him, like hitting the books, practicing magic, and exploring the labyrinthine halls of the Sorcerer’s Guild.

The world now has its first sage in over a century! Luciel returns at last from his extended stay in the City in the Sky with wondrous powers in hand, and this displeases a very particular faction within the Church of Saint Shurule. Red carpets were never the timid S-rank’s style, but an armed platoon isn’t exactly what he had in mind for his homecoming either. To make matters worse, just about everywhere Luciel turns is yet another plot in the making.

His trials and tribulations in Yenice behind him at last, Luciel makes for his next destination: Rockford, followed by the Kingdom of Dwarves. While the Republic of Saint Shurule creaks under the weight of a new wave of human supremacy, the hapless healer’s hopes for an easy mission are short-lived as the journey develops into something far more complicated than he signed up for… again.

There’s no time to lose. Luciel and the gang make for Grandol with all haste, on a heroic quest to save a damsel in distress… not. The hapless healer is in no rush to go sticking his neck out for others, but he’s not one to break a promise to an all-powerful dragon. When they arrive, though, things don’t exactly go as planned, and a detour takes Luciel on yet another rescue mission—this time at an auction.

With the dragon “slayed” and corruption in the Church uprooted, Luciel returns to Yenice a hero, but a hero’s work is never done. His revolution is ambitious (too ambitious, some might say), and in the wake of change always comes resistance. As it turns out, dragons just might be the least of his worries when he realizes that the weeds he plucked might have only been a symptom of the City of Freedom’s underlying disease. Politics are a dangerous game and Luciel’s found himself stranded on the board, but is he a player or a pawn?