The Path to Lordship Begins in the North

Although the Castilian nobles lived extremely luxurious lives, even using spellcasters for the most basic lighting, Gonzalez VI was quite frugal, using only the simplest lighting equipment, the effect of which was even inferior to the magical lamps used by the Grey Robes in the distant Rol Empire.

In the dim light, the tattered letters, soaked by seawater and stained with blood, slowly came into view before González VI.

Looking at the letter from the Grand Preceptor, whom he had personally promoted, who was far away on the continent of Mu, King Gonzalez VI sighed even more deeply.

"Grey Robe, Grey Robe, if only you had failed outright..."

King González VI collapsed onto the throne.

This wasn't González VI cursing the death of the royal advisor he had personally promoted, but rather that the departure of Grey Robe and Rosalind and their tacit death were unspoken facts among all the nobles and royalty. If they could, they would have even wanted to send Grey Robe and Rosalind directly to the guillotine, but in the end, they chose a more dignified way for them to die—a voyage for the country, at least, sounded quite good.

The forced departure of Grey Robe and Rosalind was definitely not simply because they were troublemakers in the pro-war faction; the situation was far more complex, and even González VI was losing control. After Grey Robe's departure, the nobles even began openly recommending new candidates for royal advisor to González VI.

Fortunately, because the struggle was so intense and no one was willing to concede to the other, the position of Imperial Advisor remains vacant.

Of course, this is not good news for Castile.

But to everyone's surprise, the gray-robed man and the little princess actually succeeded. Not only did they successfully reach the continent of Mu, but they also became honored guests of a country called Cape.

King González VI gently stroked the letters covered in various damages; if they hadn't been for the grey robe's specially made stationery, they would probably have rotted away on the way.

A powerful nation called Capet, whose border cities are as prosperous as the central cities of Castile, possesses a mode of transportation capable of rapidly traveling between cities with a huge cargo capacity, and even its firearms technology is several times more powerful than the cannons smuggled in by the Avars.

Because this letter was written early on after Grey Robe arrived in Capet, and it was severely damaged along the way, much of the detailed information is now lost. For example, Grey Robe only said that he had met the elven princess, and the rest of the content was completely soaked by seawater and was so badly damaged that it could not be repaired. As a result, Castile did not know what the situation of the elves was. But it was still very important to Castile. Of course, the most important thing was that Rosalind was still alive.

Not only did he survive, he also learned a great deal, because in that country full of wisdom, the ladies actually spent their afternoon tea time sitting together doing practice problems. When he saw this message, González VI took his glasses from his maid, put them on, and examined the letter repeatedly. He put the letter back in the envelope several times, took it out again, and carefully read the context before finally confirming that it had not been altered and that the Grey Robe had written it exactly as it was.

The noblewomen of that country had a hobby of doing practice problems, and Rosalyn's studies improved by leaps and bounds while doing practice problems with them.

"..."

After confirming that he hadn't misread it, King González VI continued reading.

The following long section introduces Capet's political system, but similarly, there are large sections of damaged content. Fortunately, it is still readable in context.

Having read through the entire process of Capet's coup and now that the North was under the rule of the Governor-General, González VI put the letter back on the table.

The flickering lamplight mirrored González VI's mood at that moment. Judging from the letters, the situation in Capet was not much better than that in Castile now. A queen of a different surname was in power, and the princesses below were staging a coup. Compared to Castile, Capet was truly in complete chaos back then.

Moreover, the final outcome was not good in Gonzalez VI's view either. The king's power was lost to others. Although Grey Robe praised the governor who ruled Capet in the letter, he was not the real king after all. From Gonzalez VI's point of view, the governor of the North was an out-and-out traitor. The fact that he did not usurp the throne may only be because the situation in Capet was too complicated at the time.

In reality, the account of how the Northern Governor saved the capital was almost completely destroyed. In addition, the Grey Robe had only heard about it at the time, so what was presented to the Castilians was that a Northern Governor took advantage of the capital's crisis, joined forces with the Queen who had been embroiled in a coup, and led troops into the capital to seize power.

While that is indeed the case, the lack of detail completely changes the story. The content of the defense of the capital and the scene of Lind's tank and armored army crushing the demon's offspring are missing, making Lind, the governor of the North, seem like a cunning and treacherous rebel who has been plotting for a long time.

He did not ascend the throne directly simply because the situation in the capital was chaotic at the time.

González VI could most easily empathize with Augustine III. The thought of his own death, the next king of Castile dying early, a queen from another family succeeding to the throne, his son or daughter staging a coup, and finally the powerful nobles coming to his aid taking the spoils, kept González VI up at night.

Moreover, from the few words he could deduce, at least, that Augustine was not in too much trouble with the succession issue, and that the queen from another family was purely an accident. However, Castile was already on the verge of collapse because of the succession problem alone. The best outcome would probably be division, and the worst outcome would be like the Capets, where the great nobles would swallow up the spoils and steal the fruits of their labor.

However, González VI was powerless to change the status quo. Almost every one of his children was supported by powerful nobles who owned real land in various regions. González's royal power was like the envelope that was delivered to him. At first, the lesser nobles might have shown some respect, but the powerful nobles he encountered along the way did not care about González VI's feelings at all and simply opened the envelope to see what was written inside.

After the envelope was opened, the other minor nobles no longer hesitated to check what was written inside, and even dared to leisurely make their own copies. That's why it took so long for the letter to reach González VI.

Castile did not have a roundtable mechanism similar to that of Capet, but the day after González VI read the letter, nobles kept coming to the palace to request an audience, including González VI's second son, García.

"I was so happy to hear that my sister is still alive."

Garcia bowed to his father, though there was no sign of joy on his face, and he did not explain to González VI where his intelligence came from.

“But Father, that country across the sea may not be a friend, and the Grey Robe may have already sided with them, and Rosalyn may already be under their control.”

The prince, looking worried, was trying to sell his father a bunch of baseless conspiracy theories. The core idea was that the Grey Robe was no longer reliable and might have betrayed them, so they had to be careful with this country across the sea. After all this nonsense, the prince finally revealed his ultimate goal.

"Furthermore, Father, although those wealthy countries on the continent of Mu possess firearms, they do not know how to use super-level magic. In Mu, a place abundant with magic, they may not be much stronger than us. That country has probably already been conquered by the Avars and dragons. After all, as you know, no country can defeat a horde of dragons, and those dragons have already flocked to Mu."

"The Avars may have already conquered the continent of Mu with the dragons. Even if they haven't, they've already made a fortune on Mu. If we don't cooperate with the Avars, we might not even get a share of the profits."

Garcia's expression was unusually anxious, but it was indeed the true thought of most of the nobles. After all, on the continent of Solon, there would be information gaps even between cities, let alone across the entire Sea of ​​Impermanence. They could only speculate about the situation on the continent of Mu from the incomplete letters sent by the gray-robed man and the movements of the dragons on the continent of Solon.