The Path to Lordship Begins in the North

Before writing a reply to the King of Anjou, Lind had one last thing to catch up on.

"Are the ruins of the old empire really worth developing?"

Although Lucanus constantly promoted himself as a descendant of the old empire, to be honest, Linde didn't really have any real understanding of that old empire. His knowledge of the old empire was limited to the fact that after the great collapse, the surviving people built two new kingdoms on the foundation of the old empire.

It's hard to imagine that Anjou and Capet were once brotherly nations.

Linde had indeed tried to catch up on his knowledge of the Old Empire, but to be honest, the human records of the Old Empire were not as detailed as the elves' records.

However, the records of the elves are mostly about the power and customs of the old empire, with little record of its technology. In other words, if there were records, the technology of the old empire would not have been lost.

However, upon hearing this question, Lucanus seemed to have a switch flipped, and began to recite poems praising the power of the old empire. He even pulled out a harp from somewhere and started playing music.

However, in Lucanus's description, the old empire he spoke of seemed to be somewhat different from what was recorded in history. In the records of human history, the old empire seemed to have been very powerful from the beginning, so powerful that its power seemed to be a matter of course.

Furthermore, the old empire was quite friendly and harmonious, and had very good relations with the surrounding small countries. The surrounding small countries and other races voluntarily offered gifts to the old empire, somewhat like a tributary system.

In human history, the old empires were the epitome of peace. Their development was only marked by being attacked because they were too peace-loving, then being forced to fight back, and finally being forced to exterminate that race.

As for why those depicted by TuTu were all non-humanoid races, the historical record says: "I couldn't find them!"

However, in Lucanus's account, the old empire did things including, but not limited to, directly storming into the palaces of other races and killing their kings, or pointing fingers at their kings and cursing them, kidnapping their kings' mothers, and then reading out a non-existent decree of war in their palaces the next day.

As is well known, imperial envoys and the imperial central government possess a special information transmission magic. Perhaps the empire also has some kind of teleportation technology. After all, the imperial army appeared at the gates of the rebellious country shortly after the envoys announced the order to launch the attack.

The speed was so fast that it seemed the imperial edict to launch the attack wasn't nonexistent; it was just a matter of giving the messenger free rein, and the army was actually already prepared.

You can tell that the old empire was indeed very powerful. Those races that were neither human nor human were not considered human by the old empire. They were not even qualified to be kept as slaves and were slaughtered. This shows that the people of the old empire were not only arrogant, but also had no shortage of labor and had a strong exclusionary attitude towards non-human races.

As for those non-human races, the old empire could have directly sent troops, but instead sent an envoy with a pretext. Seriously, I'm devastated.

If the old empire hadn't launched a massive purge against non-human races on the continent, it would probably still be a land of rampant demons.

Lucanus, on the other hand, even envied the envoys of the old empire, his face showing longing more than once.

Unfortunately, as the epic progressed, Lucanus, unusually, began to lose control of his emotions and started choking up. He even skipped over the collapse of the empire, showing that these bards did not like this part of history.

After all, the fact that the emperor's most trusted adopted son, who held considerable military power, had launched a rebellion was, in the words of the bards, a serious blow to the emperor's dignity.

This also shows that natural disasters alone could hardly defeat the old empire. In the end, it was human beings themselves who broke out in internal strife, and it was only with the combined effects of natural disasters and man-made calamities that the rule of the old empire came to an end.

Even so, humanity remains one of the most powerful forces on this continent.

Finally, Lucanus stopped plucking the strings. The entire epic was essentially a review of the history of the Old Empire for Lind. Lucanus's account was largely the same as the records of the Elves. However, the Elves' accounts did not portray the Old Empire as so brutal. It was clear that the Elves had even covered up some of the human aspects of the Old Empire.

Perhaps the relationship between elves and humans was indeed quite good at the time. After all, various sources indicate that humans were very friendly to so-called demi-humans who resembled them, especially elves.

However, after all that talk, Lucanus still didn't get to the point: are the relics of the old empire really worth excavating?

The old empire might have some advanced communication magic, after all, the bards responsible for intelligence transmission had close ties with the old empire, but the technology to teleport troops certainly didn't exist, otherwise the rebellion wouldn't have caused such a massive collapse.

Lucanos quickly composed himself and respectfully said to Lind, "My king, the technology of the old empire is certainly very valuable to all the countries on this continent, and even for you, this is not my personal opinion."

"However, I also have some concerns, because compared to the technology you are developing now, the technology of the old empire is actually closer to the development path of the Kingdom of Anjou."

Linde crossed his legs, stroked his chin, and pondered. So, does that mean the old empire also followed the path of rapidly cultivating professionals, as well as cultivating professionals specializing in a certain type of profession?

Linde looked up at Lucanus and suspected that bards like Lucanus were trained under this system, and that the bards under Lucanus might even have been trained using this system.

To be honest, this route is not incompatible with the route Linde is currently trying, and the technological exchange with the Kingdom of Anjou is indeed very meaningful, but Linde has decided to put the development of the old imperial ruins on hold for now.

Are there any ruins of the old empire within Cape County?

"Naturally there is."

Lucanus bowed and said, "Cape and Anjou were both kingdoms established on the corpses of the old empires. The number of ruins within their borders is no less than that of Anjou. However, most of the ruins are in the hands of the nobles below, or have been hidden by the nobles. Therefore, the number of ruins on the surface is much less than that of Anjou."

After saying that, Lucanos remarked, "Originally, Capet also had the hope of unifying the entire kingdom like Anjou."

Linde nodded, and continued Lucanus's words, "It's a pity that Augustine III died on the way."

Besides handling government affairs, Linde also brushed up on the world situation and some modern history.

It takes the efforts of several generations to consolidate power. Even though Anjou had several wise rulers, Alberto still had to carry out another violent reform, shedding enough blood to complete the centralization of power.

Capet also had a chance. At least Augustine III did a very good job in the early part of his reign, and even kept several powerful dukes in the capital. Moreover, his successor, Cran, showed from his short reign that he was not a foolish ruler.

In other words, if things had gone smoothly, Capet could have centralized the king's power with even less bloodshed. Unfortunately, Augustine III not only went crazy targeting the North as if he had lost his mind in his later years, but he also died suddenly before he could clean up the mess left by his father. Cran was even more short-lived, dying before he could finish cleaning up the mess left by his father, leaving behind a widow named Lilith who barely managed to keep the situation afloat.

"Don't send the letter to that queen yet. I need to make some revisions. We can cooperate with the capital to excavate the ruins of the old empire first."

Anjou is too far away. If they were to develop the ruins of the old empire together, Alberto would have countless ways to deceive Lind. But with the ruins within Capet, things would be different. At least if Lind were to choose to cooperate with Alberto later, he would have a reference point.

As for the King of Anjou's statement at the end of his letter that he still wanted to marry the widowed Queen Capel, Lind didn't pay much attention to it this time. The previous warning was only because the other party wanted to use this matter to vie for control of the North, and now that was no longer an issue.

Although this tactic was indeed somewhat unethical, Capel knew it was a provocation but had no choice but to respond.

But what does this have to do with Lind? At most, he can offer some comfort when negotiating with Her Majesty the Queen, since the provocation won't affect him personally.