The Path to Lordship Begins in the North

At this moment, Rosalind, protected by soldiers, climbed the mast and gazed into the distance toward the Solon continent. She wondered how her father was doing and whether her brothers and sisters were still arguing.

Rosalind has learned a great deal in the Rohr Empire. Besides the mechanical principles that can help Castile with its construction, she also has a lot of knowledge about artillery. Rosalind wants to tell her father all of this, so that she can become more powerful and contribute to Castile. Moreover, the Avars have been thoroughly defeated by the Rohr Empire, and even the dragons have submitted to the glory of the empire.

Unfortunately, Rosalyn's fantasy is going to be dashed.

While Rosalind was still on her way, Castile had already been torn into seven pieces.

At the very center is Catier, the capital city occupied by Garcia.

Garcia claimed that he had received a distress signal from his father, the king, which is why he led his troops into the palace. However, when Garcia arrived, González VI had just been murdered, and the murderer had fled. Only a half-written edict of abdication in favor of Garcia was left at the scene.

Although it was outrageous, Garcia did gain the support of some nobles. However, Garcia did not trust these nobles, always feeling that they were the forces that had actually killed the king and were there to spy on him. Now Garcia lived in fear every day, especially after the demon officer Daniel disappeared without a trace after the coup. This made Garcia even more convinced that it was all a conspiracy set up against him by someone.

Although Daniel had nothing to do with these conspiracies, he simply ran away.

But there's nothing Garcia can do; he can only be pushed forward by the forces in the shadows. At least under the covert control of these people, Castile can maintain a basic balance.

Meanwhile, the other princes and princesses, with the support of nobles from various regions, raised armies to establish their own kingdoms and claimed to be the rightful heirs.

However, these people tacitly refrained from directly launching an attack on the royal city of Katil.

After all, Castile was the first line of defense against the Avars, and the royal city of Catier had been reinforced several times, with countless magical items for defense. It should be noted that in this era, very few cities truly had their own city defense systems; most city defense systems were concentrated in the lord's castle. In a sense, the royal city of Catier was already ahead of other cities on the continent of Solon.

Of course, due to the internal chaos, it was not impossible to take down Catier, but no one wanted to be the mantis stalking the cicada. Everyone wanted to be the last bird unaware of the danger. For the royal family and nobles, although everyone nominally wanted to attack Garcia, in reality, whoever had more soldiers had the power. No one would be the first to send their soldiers to their deaths or expose their own trump cards.

Moreover, for those nobles who carved out their own territories behind the scenes, simply having a Castilian heir in their hands was already a bargain. Why would they really fight to the death and hand over their troops to those princes and princesses to die?

No one wanted to make a move, and no one was willing to take action. Although Castile was split into seven pieces, the situation had strangely stabilized. The seven kingdoms that had been separated were even doing business with each other. The only difference from before was that the seven places each claimed to be the legitimate rulers.

In fact, Castile is now divided into far more than seven parts. Some minor nobles have taken advantage of the chaos to establish their own countries. After all, on the continent of Solon, there are countless small countries that dare to call themselves a country, even if they are just villages. However, there are only seven that claim to be the legitimate Castile.

Forget about sailing to the Mu continent; Castile is barely able to protect itself right now. The princes and princesses can still remain rational, but what if external forces intervene? What would happen if the neighboring Avar or other countries in the anti-Avar alliance intervened?

Garcia dared not imagine that would be true chaos.

At this moment, Garcia sat dejectedly on the throne, wearing his father's crown and holding his father's scepter, meeting with the ministers as usual.

Half of the ministers in the palace had fled, but at least half remained to help Garcia control the situation.

"Your Majesty? Your Majesty?"

Garcia suddenly awoke, only to find himself no longer in the palace. No, he might still be in the palace, since he was still sitting on the throne. But in front of him was a long, square table, surrounded by darkness, with strange men wearing black and white masks sitting around it.

Although those people were wearing masks, Garcia recognized some of the ministers who had not fled.

"You, you..."

Garcia felt his mouth was dry and wanted to say something, but he couldn't get the words out.

"Let me introduce ourselves. We are apostles of the great Lord of the Morning Star, members of the Dark Night Holy Court."

The person sitting at the end of the long table, dressed in black and white clerical robes, spoke up: "Welcome to our world."

At this moment, Garcia finally overcame his fear and was able to speak, angrily saying, "You are the ones who killed my father?"

"so what?"

At the end of the long table, the figure wearing a black and white mask and a priest's robe said nonchalantly, "You should thank us for helping you stabilize the situation; otherwise, do you think your lame excuse would hold water?"

"Isn't that all because of you?"

Garcia slammed his fist on the table in anger, but immediately, a sharp blade appeared out of thin air next to Garcia's neck.

The distance between the two ends of the long table was not far, but the voice seemed to come from the void: "Now that the dragons have moved to the continent of Mu, and the Dragon Church has put away its claws, there is no better time than now to spread the doctrines of Morning Star and Night."

"If you can take the lead in spreading the doctrine."

The voice paused for a moment, then said, "We wouldn't mind making you the true king of Castile."

A moment later, the scene before Garcia returned to normal; it was still the familiar audience hall, and he was still sitting on the throne he had just become familiar with, except that there was no one in the audience hall.

Garcia was panting heavily. Everything that had just happened seemed like a dream. No, it should be said that it was a dream, but everything in the dream felt so real.

Has the Morning Star Church become such a cult?

Garcia struggled to his feet and shouted, "Help! Help!"

The guards immediately emerged from the shadows and came to Garcia's side.

"Go and find all the books and records of the former Morning Star Church."

The guards immediately obeyed, and Garcia felt, perhaps it was just his imagination, that a smile crept onto the guards' lips.

Garcia had no choice.

In the shadows, the masked figures watched the panicked Garcia with satisfied smiles. This side was done. Of the seven Castiles, three, including the royal city of Catier, were now completely under the control of the Holy Court, wielding the divine power to manipulate dreams. At this point, what in the world could stop them except the dragons? What could possibly stand against the Dark Night Holy Court?