The Path to Lordship Begins in the North

The room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Dam finally realized something was wrong, but still mustered his courage and continued, "My sister is well-educated and reasonable, and our Ambrose family is a renowned and prestigious old noble family. Your Excellency, how can having only one wife reflect your noble status?"

"Drag down."

As soon as Lind finished speaking, two knights stepped forward, grabbed Damm, and dragged him away.

"Governor! Wait a minute, Governor! I have something important to discuss. If you marry my elder sister, the entire Copper Mountain Territory will be yours!"

The entire hall was eerily quiet until Colin stepped forward, clapped his hands, and exclaimed, "Brilliant!"

Even Colin was somewhat impressed by this person's courage, actually slandering his own sister in front of his brother-in-law.

"Colin."

"The minister is here."

Lind tossed Lise's painting to Colin and said, "Give this back to her, and you can interrogate her now."

Colin's face lit up with surprise, as if he had instantly found the meaning of life. He took the painting and ran out happily.

At this moment, Lena had just completed the final test of the magic train and was preparing to return to the governor's mansion to report the day's progress to Linde in person. However, on her way back, Lena saw her familiar noble ladies chatting and shopping in the distance.

Perhaps because Linde and Lena would stroll around the gray and white-collar streets in their spare time, the nobles who were concentrated in the gray and white-collar areas began to imitate them. As more and more merchants gathered in the gray and white-collar areas, more and more shops appeared on the streets. It was as if the ladies of those nobles had awakened some kind of bloodline, and shopping became a trend.

Although Linde provided some compensation to those nobles who were more friendly and willing to submit, most of the nobles who were left with only titles still had to go out to work. These nobles no longer had the energy to go shopping with their wives, so shopping together among the noble wives became a new way of socializing.

Lena's relationship with these wives was fairly good; at least on the surface, no one dared to gossip about her. The sooner someone surrendered, the more they knew what Lena meant to the entire white-collar community.

Many noble ladies would come to Lena to ask her questions about mechanical physics, which had become the main way to socialize with her. Noble ladies had no choice but to learn it, and there were even special tutoring classes in the gray and white-collar industries. Some women from commoner backgrounds who excelled in physics in compulsory education would even be directly approached by nobles who wanted to marry them.

Rena intended to greet the noble ladies, but her keen knightly hearing allowed her to overhear them whispering among themselves.

"Have you heard? I don't know where this rumor came from, but it's being said that Lady Lena is not good enough for the Governor. They're even saying that Lady Lena is ill-mannered and doesn't deserve to be a noblewoman."

"There are also rumors that Lady Lena is a jealous woman, and that the Governor has no other woman by his side besides Lady Lena."

"Hey, that's nonsense. Doesn't that elf princess hang around the governor's mansion every day? It's just that the governor isn't interested."

"There are also rumors that Lady Lena commands a large army and is planning a rebellion. How could that be possible?"

Then, a noblewoman took out a thin book, somewhat like a modern magazine, turned to a page and was about to make a critique when she realized that Lena was staring at her absentmindedly from a distance.

"Lady Rena!"

The ladies gasped in surprise, and Lena quickly stepped in front of them, asking, "What else? What else did they say?"

The noblewoman instinctively hid the thin book behind her back, but Lena quickly snatched it away.

A large section of the page was filled with songs attacking Lena.

Besides criticizing Lena as a disgrace to the nobility, someone who has never changed and is completely ignorant of etiquette, the author also devoted a long passage to arguing that Lena is no longer worthy of Lind and that Lind should find a governor's wife instead.

Some of these attacks even involved personal attacks, and some went even further with conspiracy theories, suggesting that Lena would eventually turn against them.

Seeing that Lena's eyes were already red, the ladies all took a step back in fear, but some who were on good terms with Lena intended to step forward to comfort her.

Lena, however, simply grabbed the thin book and ran away as fast as she could.

Inside the governor's mansion, Linde finished his business and, seeing that Colin had not yet finished interrogating the representative of Copper Mountain Territory, prepared to go back to his room to rest. As soon as he stepped into the room, he saw Lena engrossed in reading a book.

Lin De walked over curiously, peeked out and asked, "What are you looking at? Why didn't you let anyone announce your return?"

Lena was startled and quickly closed the book, saying, "No, nothing, brother, you're back?"

"Haven't I been working from home all along?"

Lin De was somewhat puzzled. How could Lena, a sixth-tier knight, be so frightened by him? Even if she had no wariness of him, it shouldn't be to this extent, right? Moreover, Lena would only subconsciously call him "brother" when she was nervous or angry.

Seeing Lena's flustered and slightly red eyes, Linde quickly pressed down on the book that Lena was trying to hide.

"A complete guide to aristocratic etiquette? What are you looking at this for?"

"Well, I just finished work and wanted to find some books to read casually."

Linde was speechless for a moment. Ever since Lena started not falling asleep while listening to reports from the territory, she had basically relied on this book to fall asleep. Looking outside, he saw that it was still early, and Linde picked up the book with a puzzled look. He found that there was a thin book that looked like a magazine under the Complete Guide to Etiquette.

Completely panicked, Lena hadn't even reacted before the thin magazine was already in Lind's hands.

"How incredibly boring, that someone would actually write something like this." Lena laughed awkwardly, touching her cheek with her fingers, whether out of nervousness or to ease the embarrassment, it was hard to tell.

Because her father disappeared when she was young, and she was abandoned once, and her beloved grandfather was killed by her uncle, Lena actually felt very insecure. So every night when she went to sleep, she liked to lean on Lind. These songs and articles shattered Lena's last bit of security.

Even knowing that she wouldn't rebel and that Lind wouldn't believe the rumors, Lena, who felt completely insecure, still wanted to make some changes.

Linde's veins bulged as he read the contents of the thin magazine. Conspiracy theories aside, there were personal attacks, and all they talked about was etiquette and norms—it really had the style of the old aristocracy.

But Linde felt unusually calm. He casually flipped through the book and found a clue: it was produced by a territory that had recently surrendered. That territory was originally a fairly large noble territory, but because it surrendered so quickly, Linde didn't pay much attention to it.

These rumor magazines must be related to Tongshan Territory. Just thinking about that young man who came to promote his sister gave Lin De a clue.

"But brother, do you think I should learn some aristocratic etiquette? Otherwise, I'll be a burden to you."

Lena's serious question caused Lind, who had been calming down, to completely explode.

Linde tore up the thin magazine right in front of Lena, yelling, "To hell with all this aristocratic etiquette! You are etiquette!"

Reina's unusual obliviousness to political matters meant she hadn't yet realized her position among the gray and white-collar workers. Linde continued to comfort her, "I still like the Reina I am now, so you don't need to care what others say. Leave the rest to me, okay?"