The Path to Lordship Begins in the North

In the capital, countless people crowded both sides of the King's Road, completely ignoring the stench emanating from the overnight swill and excrement on the ground and around them, waving their hats and shouting wildly to welcome a carriage slowly passing by.

Inside the carriage, Chancellor Cordick opened the window and waved to the crowd. Many people saw Cordick waving at them and some even fainted from excitement.

After the carriage arrived at its destination, the magic academy in the capital, Cordick, surrounded by the crowd, slowly stepped out of the carriage, and the band, which had been waiting for a long time, began to play cheerful and exciting music.

And it was in this environment that Cordick began his speech.

"I can feel that this trip to the Northern Territory to visit the demons is the greatest trip of my life. I once said that I would solve the problems in the North, and now, I have truly done it!"

The surrounding students and nobles burst into enthusiastic applause.

“I believe this is just the prelude to a greater solution that will bring peace to the entire kingdom.”

“Last month, as the kingdom’s prime minister, I had a meeting with the demon king of the demon race. Now I have a document here signed by both of us.”

The atmosphere reached its peak as Cordick pulled out a document filled with contracts and waved it around.

"Long live peace! Long live peace!"

Cheers erupted throughout the venue, and everyone was immersed in the joyful atmosphere.

The crowd quieted down only after Cordick stopped waving and pressed his hands down as a signal.

“Some of you may have already heard about what’s in this, but I still want to read it to you.”

Seeing that the crowd had quieted down a bit, Cordick continued.

"On behalf of His Majesty the Great Augustine III, King of the Kingdom of Cape, and His Highness the Demon King of the Northern Demon Clan, we held an in-depth meeting a month ago. We both agreed that the relationship between the Kingdom of Cape and the Demon Clan is of paramount importance to both sides."

"We believe that the previously signed agreements, as well as the North withdrawal agreement, symbolize the wishes of our two peoples—never to go to war with each other!"

A burst of enthusiastic cheers erupted from the crowd once again.

"War is extremely cruel. Once you die, you won't be resurrected. You won't be like in chivalric novels, where you can be stabbed a few times and still be jumping around. You won't even have time to lie on the ground and say your last words."

Cordick clenched his fists and said excitedly, "The enemy isn't a criminal with whom you have a deep-seated hatred, but a farmer, a stonemason, a shoemaker, an ordinary person just like you! Every time you wield the butcher's knife, all you bring is the pain of your mother, the cries of your wife and children, and the sneers of those who have benefited from the system!"

Clearly, this beneficiary refers to the Lars family.

"You bullshit!"

Two civilian students from the North stood up and loudly rebuked, "The demons are not innocent! They plunder our land, violate our families, and slaughter our people. How can we not have deep hatred for them! On the battlefield, we only wished to kill a few more to die with them!"

The two students pointed out a flaw in Cordick's statement: the war between the North and the Daedric was a war of self-defense, but Cordick cleverly portrayed it as a war in which both sides were equally at fault.

Cordick frowned and snapped, "Don't you have any conscience at all? Don't you feel any pain for your fallen comrades? I understand now, you must be the beneficiaries!"

As soon as he finished speaking, guards dragged the two troublemaking students away.

Cordick cleared his throat and continued:

"Therefore, in order to avoid any more unnecessary casualties, we have decided to use consultation to handle any other issues involving our bilateral relations."

Although Cordick unwittingly acknowledged the establishment of the demon nation and treated the demons as part of the same country, no one noticed anything wrong with it, as this had always been the official narrative.

"We will continue to work to eliminate the differences between the two sides, thereby ensuring a contribution to future peace."

"I have brought peace to the Kingdom of Capet for a generation!"

As Cordyce finished speaking and raised the contract high, the cheers from the crowd grew louder and louder.

The bards of the capital constantly sang praises of Cordick and the King's great achievements, some of which were embellished. For example, the Lars family of the North repeatedly used schemes and tricks to obstruct Cordick's peace talks with the Dark Lord, but Cordick cleverly thwarted them all.

As a result, quite a few people even went to the Northern Duke's mansion in the capital to provoke them, and some minor nobles even took pride in who could anger the Lars family.

The contract that Cordick brought was specially sealed and framed, and placed in the college for the students to see.

It can be said that, apart from the North, the whole country is celebrating.

Contrary to rumors, Grand Duke Lars, who was sitting in the mansion, was not anxious. The other three grand dukes and the king had already formed a strong momentum to crush the North, and it was pointless to dwell on the lost territory. After the death of his eldest son, who was also Lena's father, Grand Duke Lars had actually been pursuing a strategy of contraction and stability.

Grand Duke Lars felt he was truly old. If he were younger, he would have gone to fight the instigators of this charade, to tell them the truth about the North, that the demons had gone mad, and that a portion of the North's territory was simply insufficient to satisfy their wolfish ambitions.

However, having lost his son in his later years, Grand Duke Lars no longer had the energy to do such a seemingly meaningless thing, and the power of public opinion was no longer in his hands.

Moreover, Grand Duke Lars was somewhat influenced by public opinion in the capital and felt that this contract could really alleviate the external pressure on the North, which was caught in a pincer movement.

What troubled Grand Duke Lars even more was that the war of succession had dragged on without a clear winner.

The current Grand Duke of Lars is more like an old man in his twilight years, no longer concerned with the outside world, only hoping to find a suitable successor within his own ranks as soon as possible.

Grand Duke Lars could have simply declared that the original heir, Lena's brother Sean, had won because his territory was the largest and richest. However, Sean's uncles seemed to have formed an alliance without anyone noticing, and their combined strength was not much weaker than Sean's.

Moreover, Sean's territory was originally the most prosperous, so forcibly appointing him as the heir would not be convincing. Lars is a large family, and the Grand Duke of Lars has the greatest power, but that does not mean that he can rule the family alone. If sufficient prestige and evidence are not presented, forcibly elevating Sean to the position of heir will only bring disaster.

This wasn't even the most troublesome part for Grand Duke Lars.

From the letters sent by the various lords and heir candidates in the North, Grand Duke Lars finally discovered something he had previously overlooked.

Lena has left the field.

Duke Lars already knew about the sugar trade, but he didn't pay much attention to it, only thinking that his grandson-in-law probably had some family secret recipe to earn some extra money for the territory.

Even if a territory with a few hundred people can produce snowflake candy, how much can it earn?

It wasn't until information about the Gray and White Collars seeped in from snippets of conversation among the various lords that Grand Duke Lars realized something was increasingly amiss with them.

Originally thought to be only a few hundred people, but unexpectedly the gray-collar workers have been absorbing refugees and have now developed into a normal viscountry with more than a thousand people, and it is still growing.

Next was the magic stone mine. When Duke Lars heard the news, his first reaction was to take over the Gray and White Territories and bring Rena back. He also wanted to transform the Gray and White Territories into a mining territory to prevent the important magic stone mine from being taken away by others.

But then came the news that the Gray Collars' magic stone mine was being jointly mined with the Gog Empire, which is the elves. Anyone who made a move against the magic stone mine would be considered a ranger attacking the elves.

No one dared to take advantage of the conservative elves, and the surrounding lords could only stare helplessly at the gray-collared magic stone mine, including even Grand Duke Lars.

Most importantly, this information was obtained by Grand Duke Lars from other lords; Lena's letter made no mention of it, and even the surveillance agents that Grand Duke Lars had placed around Lena were covering it up.

It was only then that Grand Duke Lars realized how treacherous the feudal system was—the vassalage of my vassal was not my vassal, and even my vassal was not necessarily obedient. The gray-collar workers had already become independent in effect.

Lena was fully qualified to participate in the War of Successors, but she had always been on the sidelines due to personal reasons. However, when the magic stone mine was discovered, whether or not to participate in the War of Successors was no longer Lena's decision.

Grand Duke Lars knew with a grain of salt that this was the work of his chosen grandson-in-law. If his eldest granddaughter had such ambition and ability, what would be the point of a succession war? Given his granddaughter's brains, Grand Duke Lars seriously suspected that she had been sold out by her grandson-in-law and was even counting the money for him. After all, this wasn't the first time something like this had happened.

Especially when Grand Duke Lars saw that the Grey and White Collars were still producing recovery potions and no longer needed his assistance economically.

There are already voices within the Lars family saying that it is no longer necessary to transport resources and supplies to the gray and white-collar workers, and some people have begun to regard Lena as a candidate for successor.

After much deliberation, Grand Duke Lars decided to continue providing aid to the Grey and White Collars, but with a reduction in the amount of supplies provided.

In any case, the succession war must now be accelerated. Lena and Sean are siblings, so they are naturally on the same side and can fight against those restless uncles.

In Grand Duke Lars's plan, Lena should be made to be a "brother-supporting demon" and make her grandson-in-law bleed money.

Even if he gains independent capital, he will still only be the size of a viscountry. Sugar, magic stone mines, and potions are all highly profitable industries, but they can't compare to the Lars family's century-long accumulation. What waves can a mere kid really make?

Although the subsequent battle for succession did not proceed as smoothly as Grand Duke Lars had imagined, and could even be described as the opposite of what Grand Duke Lars had envisioned, at least that's what Grand Duke Lars thought at the moment.