The Path to Lordship Begins in the North

Karon was getting dressed, preparing to go to the Anjou palace for a scheduled meeting.

Alberto had thought Capet's roundtable system was quite good, and after Lilith's improvements, it had become a regular meeting system, which Alberto has now completely copied.

Alberto was originally a very diligent monarch. Meetings every three days and large meetings every seven days were not a problem for him at all. The only problem was that the nobles of Anjou were much busier than the nobles of Capet before, and were often absent.

But now almost all the nobles who can come will be present, because the pressure from Capet has forced these nobles to start keeping up with Alberto's latest developments.

Meanwhile, Kalon's status rose with the news coming from the Tower and the pressure from Capet.

After all, everyone is now considering the power and super-level magic from the other side.

This even allowed Caron to temporarily rise to a position on par with Alberto's most trusted advisor, Cassius.

"His Majesty."

Karon bowed respectfully in the main hall of the palace before taking his seat.

The conference officially began only after Caron took his seat.

"The other side keeps provoking us on our border, and they're firing those steel monsters almost every day!"

The first to speak was the military marshal.

"Their steel monsters are too overwhelming. Even if we have the means to break through their defenses, it will be difficult to get close to them under the protection of their infantry."

This is an old problem. Ever since the advent of tanks, Anjou has been unable to gain any advantage in open field battles.

At the same time, images and information about tanks were distributed to the nobles attending the meeting.

"This is a clear provocation against us, a mockery of our incompetence!"

After the military marshal finished speaking, the meeting fell silent until Alberto spoke.

"Can you capture one?"

Alberto looked at the tank in the image and couldn't help but feel an irresistible itch. This thing was far more attractive to Alberto than the daughters of those noblemen.

“Your Majesty, Capet’s southwestern border army is no longer the same as before. Now it is personally commanded by the Duke of the South. It is no longer possible to make the other side drop their weapons and flee just by intimidating them, as before.”

But the military marshal changed the subject, looking at the unfamiliar figures in the hall, and said, "It's difficult to capture them all at once, but if we want to catch a lone vehicle, there's still a chance if His Majesty is willing to take action."

After glancing at the tank's image data, the unfamiliar figures sneered, "Your Majesty, you wouldn't really send us to seize this pile of scrap metal, would you? We're here to help you achieve your imperial ambitions, not to be ordered around by a bunch of mortals."

These high-level professionals spoke arrogantly, not taking the tanks seriously at all. In their eyes, although these strange and wonderful things like the Cape were powerful, they were too cumbersome. They believed that once the infantry were wiped out with a large-scale magic attack, these tanks would be nothing more than a pile of scrap metal toys.

"Besides, isn't His Majesty already well-off with us? That Governor Capet is too arrogant. We finally got back from the tower, and that brat still wants to set rules for us. Only a fool would go and pledge allegiance to them."

"Your Majesty now has so many high-level professionals, why not just launch a full-scale war and sweep through them?"

The military marshal remained silent, not even daring to sigh.

Since the return of these high-ranking professionals, the situation in Anjou has become increasingly chaotic. The traditional military's influence is gradually diminishing, while the influence of the nobles who have sided with the high-ranking professionals is gradually increasing.

However, these high-level professionals' understanding of war is still stuck more than a decade ago: whoever has more professionals or whose spells are more powerful will win.

"I understand your feelings, but this is also for our cause. I assure you that as long as we can capture this steel monster called the Tank intact, you will all receive the military merits and respect you deserve."

Alberto is also under great pressure. These high-level professionals are very difficult to control. In order to cooperate with these professionals and meet their demands, Alberto's Minister of Economy has recently been visibly losing hair.

As a result, Alberto could only open up some special trade to customers from the other side of the river in order to earn more money.

Alberto now only has one path: to divert attention from external problems. If he can defeat Capet, everything will be alright.

Hearing Alberto say this, the high-level professionals didn't say anything more. Only a few of them whispered among themselves, thinking that Alberto was too afraid of Capet and lacked courage.

After all, only a handful of high-level professionals joined Capet, while most of the other professionals, except those who returned to their hometowns, joined Alberto, including the original high-level professionals from Capet.

After all, who would willingly jump from one cage to another?

Kalon was silently observing the meeting. The Kingdom of Avar wouldn't have this problem because it was currently ruled by the families of high-ranking professionals and dragons; the king was merely a symbol.

Those high-level professionals monopolize knowledge and power. Even if a genius can break through a series of constraints to become a high-level professional, they will only be trained to be a super-level magic emitter, and it will be difficult for them to come into contact with other magic.

And the Kingdom of Anjou will eventually become like that.

After finalizing the basic plan, Cassius stepped forward and said, "Next is the excavation of the ruins from the Old Empire era. It is progressing very smoothly. With the help of the high-ranking spellcasters, we have been able to reproduce some of the technology from the Old Empire era."

Upon hearing this, many nobles stood up and applauded, as did the military marshal who had been frowning the whole time. They never expected that the technology from the old empire could be reproduced so quickly; it was beyond everyone's imagination.

This makes everyone realize that there's a reason why high-level professionals are so expensive.

However, the high-level professional responsible for reproducing the technology of the old empire was full of arrogance: "There weren't even high-level professionals during the old empire period. These are just some low-level tricks to us."

This is a lie. The technology of the old empire era has actually given these high-level professionals a lot of headaches. Some of their ideas seem to be completely out of touch with current technology, as obscure and difficult to understand as knowledge from the previous world. If it weren't for Cassius constantly acting as a guide and pointing out research directions for these high-level professionals, they might still be clueless about the research materials from the old empire.

"The old empire, like us, had many specialized professionals who used certain skills. This is something we should learn from. I believe that before long, we will be able to restore the glory of the old empire with its help!"

This was one of the few pieces of good news recently, which made everyone present feel much more relaxed.

However, someone immediately asked Cassius, "The Capet also has quite a few ruins of the old empire, right? What if the Capet also starts studying the ruins of the old empire?"

Cassius shook his head and said, "There's no need to worry about that. Regardless of whether Capet has as many high-level professionals as we do to assist in the research, we have recently received news that the governor of Capet has abandoned the research on the technology of the old empire for some reason."

Linde gave up for a simple reason: why bother digging with a Luoyang shovel when you can just ask about 550C stuff?

But the nobles of Anjou had their own interpretation: "After all, Capet is currently besieged on three sides, and he must be under a lot of pressure, so he doesn't have the energy to do research."

Cassius remained noncommittal, then continued, "Thanks to the records left by the old empire and the guests from the tower, we have been able to glimpse the mysteries of the soul and the secrets of the gods."

The high-level professionals nodded and said to Alberto, "Your Majesty, although our knowledge of the soul and consciousness cannot yet be applied to actual combat, we must conduct in-depth research on it."

“We are already far ahead of Capet in this respect, but we must be careful and consolidate our first-mover advantage.”

"By the time Capet realizes what's happening, their souls and consciousness will probably already be compromised by us."

The hall was filled with cheerful laughter.