The Path to Lordship Begins in the North

The Northern Revenue Office, along with the secret passage, was destroyed. Lilith had already escaped into the passage, which was completely unacceptable to Claire. She wanted to see her alive or dead. Claire immediately shouted furiously, "Blow it up!"

But at this moment, the palace craftsmen advised, "Your Highness, if we blow it up, the collapse might be even more severe!"

"Then find other secret passage entrances! Go into the secret passages and call all the adventurers back! Go find them!"

The palace's secret passages are interconnected, and some even existed before the Augustinian family came to power. The Northern Revenue Service was unable to build a separate secret passage in a short time; just planning to avoid the existing passages was difficult enough. Therefore, the Revenue Service's secret passages were designed to connect with the palace's internal passages.

It would be troublesome if Lilith escaped into those secret passages that existed before the Augustinian family came to power.

However, even the Augustins were not very familiar with those secret passages, and as long as the palace craftsmen were in Claire's hands, it would be difficult for Lilith to escape from the secret passages, of course, under normal circumstances.

"Immediately send men to stake out all the secret passage exits!"

“But Your Highness, we may not have enough manpower, and Her Majesty the Queen... the False King still has those strange holy light spells in his possession, which ordinary people simply cannot deal with.”

Claire's bodyguards looked troubled. The false king seemed to be truly protected by holy light. He was a royal bodyguard, yet he had been killed by two spears.

"Just do what I tell you to do!"

Claire's expression was quite frightening, but she quickly added, "Don't rush into action. Can't you even do surveillance or send messages?!"

The guards quickly took action, but instead of immediately announcing her coronation in the main hall of the palace as originally planned, Claire childishly started smashing things up in the Northern Tax Office, an institution built by Lilith herself.

"I'll make you queen, I'll make you reform, I'll make you a saint!"

Only after the tax office was completely destroyed by Claire did the people around her dare to cautiously step forward and say, "Your Highness, the prime minister is still alive."

Seemingly thanks to the shield Lilith provided at the end, Nora was now charred black, but still had a breath left.

Claire violently stomped on the already dying Nora, twisting her foot twice. Seeing that so much time had passed, she said to the people around her, "Contact the demons and tell them that my business has been completed and they should prepare to negotiate with me."

"He's keeping this man alive; if the false king isn't dead, he might still be of some use."

Having said that, Claire finally waved her cloak and prepared to walk towards the main hall.

The adventurers had already completed their mission and began to gather around Claire. Some of them were practically groveling before her on the road, but seeing that Claire wasn't in a good mood, they didn't dare to say anything. Even Paul noticed something was wrong, but he only dared to silently follow behind Claire.

Along the way, more and more palace guards appeared on both sides, in an orderly manner. Seeing this, Claire's mood finally improved, and she asked, "Who arranged this? Very well done. I can arrange a job for him in the palace."

But those around Claire looked at each other in bewilderment. Could someone possibly find the time to control the palace guards?

Seeing that no one responded, Claire didn't pay much attention, assuming that it was probably her family members who had come to welcome their new queen to the throne.

Because Lilith didn't particularly like this luxurious and magnificent main hall, it wasn't affected much and remained as grand and solemn as ever.

Claire had already planned out what she would say and do after ascending the throne, how to use the demons to subdue the church, balance the North, and even the rewards for everyone.

But as Claire stepped onto the steps in front of the main hall, she noticed something was amiss: none of her Augustine family members came out to greet her.

Claire slowly stepped up the stairs and arrived at the main entrance of the main hall. The main hall was already brightly lit, and it seemed that there were already people inside. A group of palace guards and soldiers were lined up on both sides of the main hall, many of whom were soldiers from the southwestern border army, who were looking at Claire with ill intent.

Claire felt uneasy under their gaze, and the people behind her didn't dare to breathe. When Claire looked up, she found that someone was already sitting on the throne. The noble position that should have belonged to her was now occupied by someone else.

Claire's breath caught in her throat for a moment, as if each breath was difficult to swallow. The princess's gaze swept around the hall, trying to find a trace of illusion to tell herself that she was dreaming, attempting to deny everything before her eyes.

Paul immediately stepped forward, mustered his courage, pointed at the person on the throne, and shouted, "Who are you? Your Highness has driven out the false king and saved the people from suffering. This position should belong to Your Highness!"

The man sitting on the throne did not speak, only sighed deeply.

Finally, Claire's lips parted slightly, and in a trembling voice, as if confirming something, she asked, "Big brother?"

Cliff, sitting on the throne, was as dejected as ever. Because he was not wearing a crown, his balding head was exposed to everyone, and he had no dignity whatsoever.

Cliff had heavy bags under his eyes and seemed to have no energy at all. He slumped on the throne, sighing constantly, seemingly lamenting something.

In contrast, Judith and Scott, the two Dukes of the Southwest, stood on either side of Cliff. Compared to the dejected Cliff, the two exuded a much stronger aura, making it seem at first glance as if the two dukes were holding Cliff hostage to command the world.

Judith, in particular, looked at Claire with an expression that was hard to decipher—it was a mixture of hatred and disgust, but she definitely wanted to tear Claire apart.

"elder brother!"

Claire knelt down in a daze, looking at the armies on both sides. She knew she had lost, but she didn't know how she had lost. Wasn't her only opponent Lilith? Was it Judith who stormed the palace, captured her elder brother, and put him on the throne?

To outsiders, this was the most reasonable guess, but Claire knew that unless Judith had some special means, it would be impossible for her to breach the palace gates so quickly.

Seeing Claire kneel down, the people behind her also knelt down in a panic.

Everything happened so fast that nobody really knew what was going on.

Cliff, sitting on the throne, finally raised his eyelids amidst his constant sighs and looked at his most outstanding sister in the family.

“I…I really didn’t want to do this, Claire, I’m sorry…by the time I came to my senses, it was already like this.”

Cliff kept apologizing, but looking into her older brother's empty eyes, Claire felt a chill run down her spine.