The Path to Lordship Begins in the North

The demons' retreat was extremely chaotic, with the saliva from the gaping mouths of their demon god offspring spilling all over the ground as they ran frantically.

The ordinary soldiers, startled by the sound of artillery fire, abandoned their armor and fled toward Antipas.

After managing to reorganize their formation and heading towards the black mist, Monroe suddenly burst into laughter.

"Why is the Duke of the East laughing?"

Antipas looked somewhat bewildered. Could it be that Monroe, who had just arrived on his side, had suddenly gone mad?

"I laugh at the Northern Governor's lack of strategy and the Northern army's lack of wisdom. What if they had ambushed us here beforehand and cut off our retreat?"

No sooner had the words been spoken than a dozen tanks emerged from the shadows, including many troop transport assault vehicles. But to the demon army, these were no longer of any concern. Before the tanks could even launch their attack, the demon army began to rout, and the formation they had just managed to stabilize collapsed instantly.

A dozen or so tanks is indeed not a large number, not to mention that some of them are assault vehicles without cannons, relying solely on the soldiers on board for fire support. If it were a normal demon army, they would never let go of such a good opportunity. At this distance, the demon gods' offspring could easily overturn and crush the enemy's tanks if they swarmed forward. However, the demon army now reacted as if they had seen a ghost when they saw the human steel monsters, and could only retreat in despair.

Fear spread like a plague among the demon army.

Antipas managed to organize a rearguard and lead his army out of the pursuit, but Monroe, whose backside was being jostled so badly on horseback, suddenly burst into laughter.

"Why is the Duke of the East laughing again?"

"The Northern army is nothing more than a bunch of brutes. If I were in charge, I would have anticipated their escape route and laid an ambush here, waiting for them to tire themselves out and capture their commander alive!"

No sooner had he finished speaking than dust suddenly billowed up in the distance.

"kill!"

"Capture the Demon King alive!"

This time, there were fewer tanks and assault vehicles, but there were many Lars Knights following around these steel monsters, and their formation was more flexible, clearly a preparation for capturing Antipa alive.

Isa calmly loaded ammunition into the assault vehicle and pre-aimed at the distance, preparing to intercept the group of demons.

"Protect the Demon King!"

Fortunately, Antipas had loyal men who, before Antipas could give any orders, spurred their horses and charged out to cover the rear.

The demon army fled in disarray once again, the black mist already close at hand.

Monroe was about to laugh again when Antipas gave him a warning look, so that Antipas couldn't make a sound as if he had been choked.

The demons marched cautiously along the edge of the black mist, only breathing a sigh of relief after confirming there were no pursuers behind them. At this moment, Monroe finally regained his confidence and began to speak.

"Our retreat this time is a great victory against humanity. As expected of His Majesty the Demon King."

The human nobles, panting heavily on their horses while clutching their backsides, began to flatter Antipas.

But Antipas wasn't happy to hear this flattery. Even the demons, faced with such a sorry state, would find it hard to say they had won.

Seeing Antipas's pale face, a human nobleman immediately said, "The humans attacked from both sides and pursued you in multiple stages, which was clearly premeditated, but Your Majesty, you still managed to escape!"

"Moreover, thanks to His Majesty the Demon King for digging the trenches in advance, these humans were unable to join forces and were able to escape. We are all relying on His Majesty the Demon King's foresight!"

"Your Majesty the Demon King has such keen insight; how could you not defeat the Northern Territory in the future?"

Antipa thought he had been shameless enough, but he didn't expect these humans to be so good at spouting nonsense. Although he still kept a straight face, Antipa's expression had improved a lot. Although these human nobles were a bit of a jinx, they were indeed somewhat useful. If all else failed, they could serve as court jesters. After returning to the capital, he could just leave these human nobles to manage the humans themselves.

Antipa took one last look at the vast and bountiful area surrounding the capital. He would return sooner or later, once the transcendental magic arrived on the other side of the sea.

......

When the demons fled far away with their monsters, the people on the city walls erupted in cheers. The returning Northern army was treated like heroes, and Cliff breathed a sigh of relief. He was genuinely happy that the North had managed to defeat the demon army.

Although the Northern army seemed stronger than previously predicted, Cliff's dejected face relaxed considerably upon seeing the cheering crowds.

But the demons' retreat did not mean the end of everything. The true nature of that strange black mist remained a mystery, and in the southwest, Anru's occupation of Cape's land should be returned.

Cliff, of course, didn't care about any of that. Cliff's main role now was to act as a human stamp, stamping whatever Lindfa sent.

Isa, who came to provide support, did not feel joy at defeating the demons. Instead, she and Lind were discussing the previous battle with great concern.

"The monsters of the demon race seem to be even more powerful than before. Originally, those demon god offspring were just a simple pile of flesh and blood, but now they have gradually formed a hard shell."

"The information from the Eastern Territory has also arrived. The black mist seems to have stopped expanding, and the demon god offspring born from the black mist seems to be even more powerful."

“There were survivors from the Eastern Territory who were saved by us with holy water. According to those survivors, when the black rain curtain formed, they seemed to see the phantom of some kind of monster in the sky, and the clearer the description of that monster phantom, the more serious the survivor’s mental problems were.”

The investigation into the Eastern Territory has come to an end for now. Lind still needs to investigate more intelligence. Moreover, besides what exactly happened in the Eastern Territory, the most important thing right now is what's happening in the capital.

With the demons retreating, Linde did not rush to leave the capital, but instead began to implement Lilith's policies within the capital.

Of course, rather than being Lilith's policy, it is actually a super-enhanced version of Lilith's policy, with Lind aiming to integrate the capital into the shape of the North.

Not only should the connection between the capital and the North be strengthened, but several more railways should be expanded on the existing lines, and some policies should be forcefully implemented.

Furthermore, the nobles could no longer retain their land, and some of their factories were directly bought by Linde.

Unlike Lilith's previous reforms, which were fraught with difficulties, Linde's implementation of policies did not encounter any struggles or troubles between the new and old parties. After all, most of the nobles in the city had been arrested, and most of the remaining nobles had been stripped of their power and needed to retake the exams to become officials.

Some nobles secretly sent messages to Cliff, but as soon as Cliff received the letters, he handed them directly to Lind. Lind did not disappoint those nobles, putting on a textbook example of shooting down the first bird to stick its head out, and finally no noble dared to utter a word.

However, this did not mean that these nobles gave up so easily. Soon, these nobles began their path dependence again, which was to curry favor. Although it was not yet common knowledge, the nobles could clearly feel that Linde was ambitious. With ambition comes desire, and with desire comes easy things.

"Have you received any news from the North? How feasible is the plan?"

A group of nobles from the capital were consulting an old man at a ball. These nobles were honest and law-abiding; they had not participated in the coup, had not given Claire any special treatment, and had even dutifully attended Cliff's final meeting to defend the city.

But this doesn't mean that these nobles were really so docile. Climbing the social ladder is an instinct for every noble, so without offending Linde, these nobles still wanted to try as many things as possible, including Marcel.

“I advise you to abandon this plan. Putting aside what my distant relatives in the North have to say, there are inside sources that the Governor’s wife actually wore a dress that day that was modified from the wedding dress that old Lars had prepared for her. Don’t you understand? This path will not work.”

The nobles in the capital city were exceptionally good at intelligence gathering in this area. After hearing what the old nobleman said, the nobles could roughly guess Lena's status in Lind and the North.

Not only that, but Linde's experiences from his time as a viscount of a lost land to the present day have also been revealed. When it was learned that Linde's initial funding came from Lena, and that Lena even had to fight on the front lines at the beginning, many nobles fell silent.

Not to mention that when the Lindra List carried out a great purge, many nobles who were not deeply involved and whose families still had members defending the city walls were saved by Lena. Many people present were still alive to discuss this issue, all thanks to Lena's influence.

Perhaps Lena's current status has little to do with Lars's influence in the North. Rather, it's more accurate to say that Lars's continued influence in the North is due to his relationship with Lena.

"Let's just give up..."