The Path to Lordship Begins in the North

Lilith no longer cared about the title of Saintess. After all, Lilith's original talent in divine magic was quite ordinary. Her becoming a Saintess was not only due to replacing the original female lead's storyline, but also more of a political consideration.

Moreover, regaining the title of saint might not necessarily be a good thing for Lilith, as no noble would likely want to see a queen who combines politics and religion.

While it seemed to greatly enhance Lilith's prestige, it was actually like adding fuel to a fire—unsustainable.

But Lilith agreed anyway, because it would not only enhance her prestige, but also allow her to directly intervene in religious affairs, making religion a true extension of royal power.

Back when Lilith was at the conference denouncing the North, she was just a figurehead saint, sitting there like a lackey. Now, she is probably the most powerful saint in religious history.

In addition to restoring Flora to her former status and officially bestowing upon her the title of saint, the old pope also granted Lilith the power to bestow the title of saint upon Isa, who was currently using the title of saint in the North, once Doug was defeated.

This is also a gesture of goodwill towards gray-collar and white-collar workers.

The old Pope had already sensed something from the reform plan of the gray-collar workers. This governor of the North would definitely not be content to stay in the North like the Duke of Lars, even though the governor was now a strong supporter of the Queen.

The more the governor supported the Queen, the more the old pope felt that the governor had grand ambitions. Therefore, the old pope kept trying to help Lilith make good relations with the North to reduce the pressure on Lilith.

At least if the gray and white-collar workers really come to blows in the future, they won't have a moral high ground. War is all about winning hearts and minds. Daoge is suffering setbacks everywhere. Besides the fact that they can't win, losing the hearts and minds of the people is also a major problem, especially after the comparison.

Lilith neither confirmed nor denied this, saying it was just like how she tried to curry favor with the governor of the gray-collar workers in her letter—it was basically just psychological comfort.

After Lilith returned to the palace, her personal maid brought her the latest intelligence: the Black Raven Gang had already sneaked into the Kingdom of Anjou. After all, it was a shadow-based professional organization, and it was indeed very slippery and difficult to catch.

The Black Crow Secret Society originally planned that after the assassination succeeded, the situation in the capital would be chaotic, and if they were investigated, they could simply find two scapegoats to take the blame.

With the added influence of his employer, the nobles of the capital, and the demons secretly maneuvering, the matter will most likely fizzle out.

It was just one king. The Black Crow Gang had killed quite a few kings of small countries. Although this was a big job, the Black Crow Gang did not expect it to escalate to this extent.

The newly enthroned queen not only maintained the situation in the capital and pushed forward with reforms, but also kicked out all the demons who were her partners. The remaining nobles in the capital were initially able to resist, but after the queen and the gray-white collars began to engage in arms trade, the situation gradually became one-sided.

Especially after the nobles in the southwest began to get involved.

Whoever possesses the cannons holds the power in the southwestern border region. After hearing that the Grey Collar was using cannons as payment, many knights and nobles in the far southwest sent people to the capital to investigate.

Especially for those who are already living in constant fear on the border, who would care about the royal nobles and assassin organizations?

Now that the Black Raven Party has been brought to the forefront, its headquarters fled to the Kingdom of Anjou overnight, finally escaping the eager investigators.

It must be said that the Black Crow secret service was quite principled, as they did not expose their employer under these circumstances.

Lilith put down the investigation report. This matter is very complicated. According to the investigation, the mastermind behind the assassination is not just one person, but possibly a group of people, a group of interests.

Lilith's first thought was the old party in the capital. After all, from the perspective of who benefits and who is suspected, the old party is in deep trouble and it is impossible for them to clear their name. There are people in the capital investigating the old party.

However, when Crane was assassinated, there was no concept of the New Party and the Old Party. The number of members in the Old Party is not small, and some of them genuinely oppose Lilith's reform plan because they think it is too radical. At least on the surface, there are also many highly respected old nobles in the Old Party. It is unlikely that they would all be condemned.

Upon seeing Judith's report, Lilith knew that she could not delay any longer. After spring, in addition to the two governors in the north who were locked in a fierce battle, the Kingdom of Anjou's probing became increasingly aggressive, showing signs of a full-blown war, just waiting for the Kingdom of Capet to show even the slightest sign of weakness.

Alchemists recreated the real cannons based on the disposable cannons that Chancellor Nora had brought before, but they could not be mass-produced and were a drop in the ocean for the long defensive line. Lilith did not have that much control, so she threw all the alchemists into the workshop to handcraft the cannons.

So in the end, we still have to buy from the gray and white collars, and now we are only one Black Crow secret agent away from the right to buy cannons.

However, Lilith is not without options when it comes to these masterminds. The price for assassinating a king is certainly not low, especially since the Black Raven Clan used magic-piercing stone arrows that can break through magical defenses, making the cost quite high.

Although the Black Raven Secret Society is very principled, Lilith does not believe they are a non-profit charity.

Therefore, all that is needed is to investigate the large-scale cash flow among the nobles in the capital before and after the assassination.

After Lilith shared this direction of the investigation with Judith and Scott, the two dukes of the Southwest immediately began their work, and countless accounts were unearthed.

This was originally impossible, but now the assassination of the former king has become the top priority in the capital. Refusing to cooperate with the investigation? Are you hiding something? Many nobles in the capital are lining up to prove their innocence, and you're the only one refusing to cooperate? Open the door! Southwest Allied Forces!

Even the most conservative nobles had nothing to say about this matter, at most asking the officials who came to investigate to be polite.

Is investigating these things useful? Not necessarily. After all, given the level of these nobles, their asset records are already a mess, making it difficult to discern anything. A smarter noble could easily manipulate their accounts without anyone noticing.

But this gave Lilith a legitimate reason to investigate these nobles and conduct a thorough investigation of the nobles in the capital.

Moreover, it doesn't matter whether Lilith found anything or not; what matters is making some people believe that Lilith really did find something.

At the first roundtable meeting after the investigation began, Lilith repeatedly emphasized that the gray and white-collar workers only wanted an explanation and closure, implying that neither she nor the gray and white-collar workers would go to extremes. At the same time, she claimed that the investigation had made progress, and her gaze occasionally drifted toward the old party.

It seemed that as long as the old party exposed the masterminds hiding among them, the investigation would stop, and the capital and the southwestern duke would acquire new muskets and cannons. The new party and the queen would investigate the old party, and the old party would find the murderer and clean house, gaining fame.

Everyone has a bright future.