The Path to Lordship Begins in the North

How did Rena perform in the original story?

For someone like Linde, who never watches female-oriented content or plays other otome games, it's truly a bit hard to describe.

It's one thing for her to be easily provoked into a fight with the female lead, but as the princess consort whom the Lars family has painstakingly groomed, she has absolutely no cunning and zero intelligence when it comes to palace intrigue. All she does all day is foolishly revolve around the fourth prince.

Rather than calling her a villainous heiress, she's more like a naive and innocent girl who was completely manipulated by the royal family hiding behind the scenes and became a victim of political infighting.

The only thing worth mentioning is Rena's unreasonable combat power as the final boss of the combat system.

It's worth noting that the highest level in the original game was only 49, but Lena is a level 65 boss. A fourth-tier professional is already considered a genius in this world, but genius is just the threshold to meeting Lena, and Lena is still very young.

Envious? You traded your intelligence for it.

How could the Crown Prince's wife be changed so easily simply because the prince himself didn't like her? Moreover, Lena is the granddaughter of the most powerful noble family in the kingdom. Judging from the clues in the game, Lena's fate of being forced into a lower-class marriage was entirely due to the royal family's covert suppression.

Without the royal family pulling the strings behind the scenes, no matter how incredibly lucky the female lead is, it would be impossible for her to connect with so many royal nobles.

However, Lena in the story is completely unaware of this. She simply believes that the female lead stole her fiancé, sold her out, and is still counting money for the royal family. She even wants the royal family to uphold justice for her.

It's likely that Grand Duke Lars realized this, which is why he arranged for Lena to live in a remote little place, hoping that his granddaughter could live a peaceful and healthy life with an honest man.

The next morning, Lind got up early with Lila's help, experiencing the decadence of the aristocratic class, and then went to find Lena.

After all, the marriage certificate stipulated joint management, and even if Linde was just watching from the sidelines, he would still have to sit in the lord's tent. Moreover, the slave-like system he witnessed yesterday was still fresh in Linde's memory. If things continued like this, let alone a rebellion, the territory would probably perish on its own.

After exchanging a simple greeting, just like yesterday, Lind sat down next to Lena.

It has to be said that although Lena seems very busy, she spends most of her time dealing with trivial matters.

The current camp system, or rather, there is no system at all. The current situation is that some knights help Lena directly manage the people, some knights manage the overseers, and some knights do nothing but follow Lena around and help with affairs.

The so-called matters ranged from large to small, from how to arrange the cargo unloaded from the ship to how deep the tent pegs should be driven and where the tents should be erected. There were even matters concerning how to cultivate land that Lena was asked to inquire about.

However, Lena's handling of the situation was a complete mess. She even forgot about the goods that needed to be moved after just one knight had come to confirm with her. When another knight came to ask her what goods needed to be moved, she gave a completely different answer without even thinking.

Seeing Lena's flustered state, Lind finally understood why managing the territory was so abstract.

Finally, when Lena made another silly mistake, assigning a serf to two knights, Lind, unable to bear it any longer, intervened and reminded Lena.

And so, Linde sat in Lena's tent, watching her handle those so-called "official duties," and occasionally pointing fingers like a ghost behind an old man playing chess in a park, constantly finding fault with Lena.

Linde assured that he really didn't do it on purpose, and that he was a true gentleman who observed chess without speaking in his previous life. But Lena wasn't bad at chess; she was just using a cannon like a chariot and a horse like a cannon. If she kept going like that, the chessboard would be overturned first.

Finally, Lena, her face flushed, looked at the ever-growing pile of official documents on the table and said to Lind, "Why don't you do it!"

"Miss Lars, I was just offering some suggestions, I didn't mean to..."

Before Linde could finish speaking, he saw the resolute look in Lena's eyes and suddenly realized that Lena was serious.

"You really want me to do it?"

Linde asked tentatively.

"Otherwise what? Aren't you the lord? If I had to do all these things when you weren't here, and I still have to do them now that you're here, then you've come for nothing."

Lena simply shrugged and looked at Lind with a puzzled expression.

What Linde didn't know was that although Lena was raised to be a princess from a young age, the main focus of her training was on etiquette. Lena had never learned the essential course of territory management that was usually required for nobles. That's why the marriage certificate of Grand Duke Lars stated that the territory would be jointly managed rather than given full authority to Lena.

Lena's talent in etiquette was about the same as her governance skills. The reason she passed the etiquette class was because the teacher cracked the board when hitting Lena's bottom, and the etiquette teacher broke down and gave Lena a passing grade.

What Lena really wanted to do was lead her knights across the battlefield. The knights Lena brought were also her loyal followers, thinking all day about coming to the frontier to kill demons and make military achievements, rather than dealing with these paperwork tasks.

However, because these knights naturally protect Lena's rights, and because of what happened in the capital, these knights are very xenophobic.

Upon hearing Lena's answer, Lind nearly spat out a mouthful of blood. Did Lena really take everything written in the marriage contract seriously? Did she actually consider herself a lord?

So all that thinking yesterday was just a battle of wits with thin air.

It's not that Linde didn't think of this, because that's exactly what Grand Duke Lars designed it to be. However, Grand Duke Lars clearly underestimated his granddaughter's innocence. Rena, who was as innocent as a blank sheet of paper, had no idea that she was the true owner of this territory.

However, this gave Linde some ideas: "Then could I also forgive the debts of the serfs and free men?"

“It wasn’t worth much to begin with, and I had no intention of asking those people to pay me back.”

"And what about the overseers?"

"Those supervisors are so annoying. They have to report to me about every little thing. I might as well let them come to you from now on. I've been wanting to give up on them for a long time."

"What about the knights?"

When asked about the knights, Lena finally showed a reaction and said, "Don't worry about those knights, I'm going to take them hunting."

Hearing this answer, Lind finally felt relieved. Not only had Lena given him all the power in the territory, but she had also pulled away the knights who might not obey Lind's command. She really... I'm so happy.