The Path to Lordship Begins in the North

In the royal capital, Lilith had already received the information from her brother via communicator and confirmed that the situation was indeed as her brother had said: the "goddess" had begun to respond to her believers again.

Upon receiving the news, Lilith immediately rushed to the church to confirm the situation with the old pope.

Embarrassingly, at the same time, the bards stationed in the capital had begun spreading the news that the Northern Church had received the latest divine oracle from the goddess, while the central papacy remained completely baffled.

After all, the capital's intelligence system was practically useless. Most of the intelligence was confirmed through Anjou, and intelligence transmission took time. Even if the capital and the church had intelligence agents planted in the North, it would be too late to send the information back to the capital in a short period of time.

Moreover, no one in the central Vatican received a divine oracle and could not verify the authenticity of this information.

Therefore, after learning of this news, the situation within the Central Holy See was in complete chaos. They hoped that the Northern Church had indeed received the Goddess's oracle, since the Goddess had not sent down any real oracle for a long time. However, they were also afraid that the information that the Northern Church had received the Goddess's oracle was true. Wouldn't that mean that the Northern Church was more favored by the Goddess than the Central Holy See?

Fortunately, Lilith appeared. Lilith brought the oracle of the goddess, and shortly after Lilith received the oracle, the old pope, along with the cardinals and the new saintess, also received the same oracle in prayer.

Whether it's true or false is no longer important; what matters is that it proves the oracle from the goddess received in the North is real, and that the Central Papacy has not been abandoned by the goddess.

Saving face has been saved.

To save face, the Central Vatican even declared that Lilith was the first person to receive the new divine oracle from the goddess, and Lilith's prestige soared once again.

Claire was grinding her teeth in frustration. Ever since her best friend returned from the North, everything seemed to have changed. Lilith was no longer the exhausted queen of the past, carefully maintaining a balance, but the true ruler of the country.

By repairing relations with the North, creating jobs, and boosting production, Lilith's prestige is now unparalleled, even in religious matters.

"Your Highness, the results of the investigation regarding the Central Vatican are in."

The speaker was a member of the Augustin family's secret guards. These guards were a force truly belonging to Augustin, and now they had all been brought under Claire's command.

However, because these bodyguards had performed so poorly in the past, Claire did not continue to let these bodyguards who could not protect anything continue to serve as guards. Instead, she began to train these people to become a professional intelligence agency.

Fortunately, some of these bodyguards were originally responsible for intelligence work, so the transition went relatively smoothly.

Upon hearing the report from the secret guards, Claire asked with some anticipation, "So the oracle was just a rumor fabricated by the Central Holy See to counter the Northern Territory?"

The guard shook his head regretfully and said, "From all aspects, it is clear that Her Majesty the Queen and the Central Holy See have indeed received the divine oracle from the Goddess. Although some people may have fabricated lies to promote the Central Holy See, the divine oracle that Her Majesty the Queen received should be true."

Needless to say, the oracle mentioned by the North was even less relevant. The connection between the Lantern Dream and Claire had been decreasing, and given the hints given by the Lantern Dream that the governor of the North was no ordinary person and was now closely associated with the Lantern Dream, Claire was not surprised to learn that the North had received the latest oracle from the goddess.

The Lantern Dream has become increasingly active recently, and it has even stopped being low-key, beginning to reveal the goddess's authority in the oracle lantern, showing a strong trend of returning to the stage.

As the Lantern Dream returned to the mainland's view, many people connected the bizarre assassination of Augustine III with the Lantern Dream, but Claire could only have the Augustine family deny it outright and help cover it up.

There's no way around it. After all, I'm not clean either. If it's discovered that I had a close relationship with the Lantern Dream, it might not affect the Lantern Dream, but I'll be finished.

After the guards withdrew, Claire's expression became somewhat manic. Although she now controlled most of the Augustin family's power, this was mainly because the Augustin elders, seeing how powerful Her Majesty the Queen was, chose to relinquish power and give up their authority.

After all, in the eyes of some Augustines, Claire had always been devoted to Lilith and could be considered one of her people. Giving power to Claire was also a way of showing goodwill to the Queen.

But at this moment, Claire slammed her fist on the table. What a load of bull! The Queen's men! Augustine is a bunch of cowards! Claire would rather her family members stood up for themselves, so she wouldn't have to pretend to support Lilith anymore. Now, she's the one being put on a pedestal and has really become Lilith's right-hand man.

Perhaps, as the elders say, Lilith has neither remarried nor had any male lovers, nor any offspring. Her relatives are all holed up in her old home in the East, and the extent of her territory has not changed. She is quite low-key, and when Lilith dies, the throne will still belong to the Augustinian family.

The elders of Augustine have begun to consider adopting children from their families to Lilith as heirs, and have even fought each other over the position.

On the contrary, that foolish older brother remained quiet, neither expressing his opinion nor considering giving the child to Lilith, as if this was how his life would be.

But the only purpose of that idiot older brother now is to foolishly cover up his relationship with the Lantern Dream. Anyway, no matter what he says, Brother Cliff will believe him.

But for Claire, the elders' decisions were completely unacceptable. Wait for Lilith to die of natural causes? Wouldn't she be dying of old age soon too? It was even uncertain who would outlive whom! Claire grew angrier as she looked at the report submitted by the guards.

A goddess, huh? Since even a goddess supports her best friend, there's nothing more to say! A goddess like that is better left unbelievable!

Claire pulled out the special envelope that was used to contact the demons. Although she had previously been somewhat resistant to the evil god of the demons, as long as it could help her rise to power, it was a good god, a benevolent god, a true god!

Claire began writing letters to the demons with frantic strokes, expressing her willingness to change her faith, work for the demons, and even pay a greater price for them in her later plans, as long as she could sit in that position... the position that her best friend could sit comfortably in, even though her feet couldn't even touch the ground.

After dealing with the goddess's new oracle, Lilith returned to her garden and began gardening.

Lilith received the exact same result as Lind; whether using the world's common language or Chinese, Lilith received a response from the "goddess".

In the past, Lilith would definitely have made a big deal out of this to enhance her influence, but now Lilith's influence has reached a point where she is somewhat afraid. Therefore, even the Central Vatican has not revealed any more information to Lilith, and the messages transmitted by the communication device are all destroyed by Lilith herself.

Lilith didn't even dare to think about the truth of the gods or the conspiracies of the world. Anyway, her brother would hold up the sky if it fell. Right now, Lilith just wanted to lie down and wait for her brother to come and purge the corrupt officials, then abdicate and live a life of idleness.

Lilith was humming a little tune while gardening, waiting for another message from her brother.