The Path to Lordship Begins in the North

As promised, Prime Minister Cordick of the Kingdom of Cape traveled to the northern border to negotiate with the Demon King's army. Of course, it was more like a surrender than a negotiation.

However, the capital was still filled with a scene of national celebration. People believed that Cordick's trip would bring about peace between humans and demons. This feat, which had not been achieved for thousands of years, was about to be accomplished by the kingdom's prime minister. Everyone felt honored, especially the bards who had been bribed by Cordick. Cordick, who had gone to cede territory and sell out his country, became a figure of universal admiration, comparable to the heroes in legends and epics.

Princess Claire and Caroline, the current student council president of the Royal Academy, also traveled to the North with Cordick.

Perhaps because she desperately wanted to see Lena's face, a mixture of disappointment and pain, Claire broke away from Cordick's group halfway through and headed straight for the gray-collar workers.

A large ship adorned with the royal double-headed lion crest sailed on the River of Tears. Claire rose early and gazed towards the direction of the gray-collar workers.

Claire had originally prepared herself to see Lena's territory make a fool of itself, but looking at the dock that had been expanded several times and was completely unlike what a viscount's territory should look like, Claire momentarily wondered if she had woken up the wrong way today and if she should go back to sleep.

Meanwhile, Caroline frowned and said indignantly:

"Is it really necessary to build such a large dock? It must have been built by that disgrace of the nobility, Lena, who conscripted the people to build it. Building it so big must just be to allow the Lars family's ill-gotten gains to be transported over faster!"

Although Claire sensed something was amiss, she nodded and said, "I heard that this dock was built with the help of Grand Duke Lars, so it's not surprising. After all, judging by the timeline, Gray Collar is at most a wilderness camp now, and it's impossible for them to have a dock of this scale."

In fact, the dock on the River of Tears, which is now occupied by the Gray Collars, was also built once by Viscount Jefferson downstream. This was because as the territory developed, the Gray Collars needed more and more daily necessities, and the volume of trade with Fassen Town increased.

In addition, Linde has been tinkering with gunpowder and cement, technologies from his previous life, and small boats carrying alchemical materials are constantly traveling between Gray Collar and Fasen Town, making the original dock somewhat overburdened.

Although Linde didn't intend to touch the docks, adhering to the principle of using them as long as they were usable, the merchants of Fassen and Viscount Jefferson, who were making a fortune, couldn't stand it and funded an expansion for the gray-collar workers.

Normally, there should be many cargo ships coming and going on the River of Tears, but because the princess is visiting today, Jefferson downstream thoughtfully stopped cargo shipping for a day to make way for the princess. However, this made Claire mistakenly think that the Grey and White Collar was always so deserted.

As the fleet slowly approached Grey Collar, Claire and Caroline finally noticed something amiss. Grey Collar was still a small camp, filled with tents, wasn't it? How come so many grey and white two-story houses had appeared on the shore in such a short time?

"Damn disgrace to the aristocracy! How could she engage in such vanity projects? Doesn't she know how many families will be torn apart by building a house like that in such a short time?"

Caroline gritted her teeth. This kind of building couldn't have been completed in a short time without alchemical materials. It was obviously only possible because Lena had frantically conscripted the people. Otherwise, expensive alchemical materials were used. But Caroline believed that those alchemical materials were obtained by exploiting the people, so the result would be the same.

Of course, there weren't many of these two-story houses on the territory. It wasn't until Claire and Caroline approached the shore that they saw that besides these two-story houses, there were mostly simply built huts.

Even these small houses were mostly made of stone and all had the same style. Coupled with their gray and white color scheme and neat layout, Claire actually felt a strange sense of oppression.

As the fleet slowly approached, Claire and Caroline saw the huge waterwheels again. Since they had only seen them from a distance, neither of them knew what the waterwheels were for. Only Caroline made a preconceived criticism: "Playing with things is a waste of time!"

Claire nodded in agreement, but the huge waterwheels made her feel that something was wrong. For some reason, looking at those turning waterwheels, Claire felt a sense of unease.

Claire was somewhat frightened by this machine that required no magic whatsoever, but she couldn't quite put her finger on what she was afraid of.

By this time, Lind had been waiting at the dock with Lena for quite some time. Although Lena seemed very excited, Lind was very wary.

Claire Augustine, the hidden boss in the game, is actually on the female protagonist's side.

It's fair to say that without Claire, the female lead would never have had the chance to meet the fourth prince, and Lena would never have ended up in such a predicament.

However, Lena, the most direct victim of Claire's scheme, was completely unaware of this fact. She was sold out but still helped Claire count the money, regarded Claire as a sister, and even the royal family that Lena fantasized about asking the royal family to help her seek justice after returning to the capital mainly referred to Claire.

Seeing Claire slowly walking down from the ship, Lena, who had actually failed etiquette class, wanted nothing more than to rush up and hug her. However, Lind had anticipated this and stopped Lena with his hand.

"It's been a long time, Your Highness Claire."

When Lena greeted her warmly, Claire responded with standard politeness, but seeing the undisguised smile on Lena's face, Claire felt disgusted, as if she had eaten sugar made from flies.

Most importantly, that smile wasn't just because she was there; it was genuine joy, which made Claire very unhappy.

This isn't the script I envisioned! Shouldn't it be that after I arrived, Lena would desperately beg me to take her back to the capital, as if she had grasped at a sliver of hope? And then I would harshly refuse her, shattering her last hope completely.

Why does Lena seem to be quite happy staying at the border these days?

Meanwhile, Caroline observed her surroundings, trying to find evidence that Lena, a disgrace to the nobility, was exploiting the common people.

Ideally, one should be able to find the scene depicted in the magical scroll to complete the task assigned by Chancellor Cordick: to expose the ugly side of the North to the people of the Academy.

While Claire and Lena were putting on a show of sisterly affection, Claire was secretly observing Lind. What magic did this man possess that made Lena linger in the North?

Linde also noticed Claire's gaze and became wary. This woman was no innocent white lotus. Although he didn't know why Claire in the game was so hostile to Lena, Lena, as the biggest financial backer and military force of the gray-white collars, absolutely could not be allowed to get into trouble.

Although Lena enthusiastically introduced the two sides, Lind and Claire simply exchanged a brief greeting and headed towards the embassy where they were to meet the guests.

The journey wasn't long, but Claire grew increasingly alarmed as she looked at it.

Has Grand Duke Lars's affection for Lena reached this point? Using all the alchemical materials treasured by the Lars family to build Lena's territory?

In just a few months, Gray Collar had transformed from a barren wasteland into a viscountry, and even larger and richer.

Putting everything else aside, Claire noticed that all the people she encountered along the way were wearing shoes.

What is the concept of shoes? Even in the capital, there are many people in the surrounding suburbs who cannot afford shoes.

Even if ordinary people can afford shoes, they will only wear them on holidays or during prayer ceremonies.

Of course, most white-collar workers nowadays don't wear luxury shoes like animal skin boots that are unaffordable for the average person. Instead, they wear simple straw sandals or cloth shoes, but that was enough to make Claire feel uneasy.

After all, people only consider covering their feet when they have sufficient purchasing power.

Furthermore, because shoes are not cheap, in some noble territories, it was illegal for poor people and serfs to own a pair of shoes. For those nobles, under their oppressive exploitation, ordinary people simply could not afford shoes. If an ordinary person owned a pair of shoes, then that person had either hoarded wealth without paying taxes or earned the money through illegal activities, so arresting them would definitely be the right thing to do.

Although it is abstract, it is indeed a very practical criterion for the nobles in the Kingdom of Capet.