The Path to Lordship Begins in the North

Guided by the soldiers, Linde arrived at a hidden door. As the door slowly opened, a staircase was revealed underground. In the room below, an oil lamp emitted a soft light, illuminating the staircase.

Lind followed the guards down the stairs to the hidden room, a depressing place with heavy, damp air and the smell of decaying wooden tables and chairs. Doug was locked in this room in shackles.

Upon seeing Lind's arrival, White stepped forward and bowed, explaining, "After witnessing the defeat of the demons, Doug did not choose to flee. Instead, he did the opposite, sending his double and guards to escape towards the Surd region, while he himself hid in a secret chamber in the castle."

So it wasn't White who locked Doug up here, but Doug himself who chose to stay. The shackles were put on him after they were found.

As soon as he saw Lind enter the secret room, Doug's eyes began to dart around, carefully examining Lind's surroundings in the soft but dim light.

"keep the change."

Lind shattered Doug's last glimmer of hope: "Lena didn't come."

Doug shared the same thoughts as his two brothers. Although he was deeply sinful, he might be able to survive if Lena were there. This was why Doug did not actually flee towards the demons. He was already useless. Whether he could escape to the demons' control was another matter, but it was also uncertain whether the demons would even take him in.

It would be better to do the opposite: hide in a secret room and wait for Lena to arrive before pleading for her life. That way, she'd have a better chance of survival.

Unfortunately, Doug was still caught by White, but Doug was not flustered. After all, at his level, White couldn't do anything to him.

But when Doug saw Lind appear in front of him without Rena, he panicked. His thoughts were clear: Lind had no intention of giving him a chance to plead for mercy.

"Hey, can we reconcile?"

"Reconciliation? At this moment? Doug, are you kidding me?"

Lind almost laughed at Doug's request. As soon as Lind gave the order, several guards immediately held Doug down and prepared to drag him out of the secret room.

"No, Lynd Rol, you can't do this to me!"

Seeing that Linde remained unmoved, Doug's last line of defense crumbled, and he began to shout madly, "I am also the governor appointed by the capital. We are of equal rank. You have no right to judge me!"

"You damned bastard, I am the rightful heir of Lars, you are nothing but an outsider, you..."

Doug wanted to say something more, but the guards grabbed a rag and stuffed it into his mouth.

"Your Excellency..."

White approached Lind and asked about the next steps.

"Let's begin the trial immediately. Gather all the remaining residents from the outer city as soon as possible."

White left after receiving his orders, while Lind, feeling the oppressive atmosphere in the secret room, finally made up his mind and left the castle dungeon.

Some things need to be resolved quickly. Although Lena doesn't have much political acumen, she's not stupid. If things drag on, she might just come to her senses.

Therefore, Lind had to clean things up before Lena could react.

Although he had considered communicating with Lena properly, to be honest, Linde wasn't confident he could persuade her, and he felt he would be persuaded by her. After all, these days, anyone Lena wanted to protect could be protected.

And most importantly, there are some things that Lena cannot do, or even participate in; such brutal things can only be done by Lind alone.

White knew what Lind was thinking, so he acted very quickly and summoned the people from the outer city.

Whether White was genuinely in a hurry or there were simply not many people left in the outer city, the crowd that came to watch the trial was extremely sparse.

But Linde didn't care; this trial wasn't just for these people to see, it also included the trembling nobles.

Soon, Doug's two brothers were brought in, and their mouths were gagged to prevent these two former governor candidates from spreading rumors.

The trial was personally overseen by Linde and presided over by Lucanus.

Lucanus then stepped onto the stage and, in the tone of a bard, recounted the crimes of the two men with dramatic intonation.

To be honest, these two didn't actually do anything wrong. They were just Doug's backup and supported him. But that's only in comparison to Doug. Putting aside their identities, just their involvement in the murder of Grand Duke Lars was enough to warrant being skinned alive.

It was clear that these two men were so scared that their pants were wet. They never expected Linde to execute the order so quickly and decisively.

The only good news was that Lind didn't intend to torture the two men and ordered their execution directly.

Furthermore, the method of execution was beheading, which could be considered a form of mercy for the two men. This was almost the least painful way to die, at least Lind didn't intend to do anything gruesome or torture. He specifically instructed the executioner to be clean and efficient, and not to inflict too much pain on Lena's two uncles.

Ordinary prisoners are beheaded with axes, but Linde chose a sword this time. Although he was disdainful of these nobles for paying attention to etiquette even in death, Linde still chose to show respect.

Soon, the trial of the two uncles ended. The executioner's movements were swift and decisive, after all, a human neck is much more fragile than that of a demon monster.

Doug's crimes were numerous, ranging from murdering Grand Duke Lars to exploiting the people and colluding with demons; the charges alone were enough to send Doug to his death several times over.

The nobles watching were horrified to see Doug being tried as well. If these crimes could be pinned on Doug, why couldn't they be pinned on them as well?

Doug struggled incessantly, clearly unwilling to accept this outcome, but a single sentence from Lucanus silenced him.

"If you move around again, it might take more than one beheading."

Lucanos's tone was threatening yet playful, and even seemed to genuinely expect Doug to continue struggling, but it also possessed a magical quality that quickly silenced Doug.

The executioner glanced at Lind, who was overseeing the execution not far away. Seeing Lind nod slightly, the executioner ended Doug's life with the most expensive military knife inlaid with jewels in Doug's castle.

The most troublesome thing about human relationships is that if you want to kill someone, you have to wipe out their entire family as well.

However, strictly speaking, Linde was also a relative of these people, so he couldn't be implicated too much, otherwise he should have killed Linde himself. Therefore, Linde controlled the scope of the killing and only cleaned up the direct relatives of these three brothers.

As for the remaining members of the Lars family, Linde planned to let Lena deal with them after she arrived. Linde had finished playing the bad cop, and it was Lena's turn to play the good cop.

And so, another governor of the North ended his life, and now, the North has only one master.