The Path to Lordship Begins in the North

"Demon soldiers? Don't the border troops care about them?"

Linde frowned. From the original owner's memories, although the border troops on the northern frontier were suffering repeated defeats, they were far from collapsing. From Linde's limited military perspective, as long as the Lars family was willing to shrink their battle lines, they could fight for a long time. After all, the northern frontier had great strategic depth and was unlikely to collapse overnight.

Seeing this, Jefferson began to tell Lind about the recently signed Treaty of Suld, which left Lind dumbfounded.

Even Li Hongzhang probably wouldn't have dared to sign this treaty in his previous life. To give an analogy, it's like being 30 CS behind in lane in the Rift, and your teammates glance at the screen and say it's 3:00, and then four people actually kidnap you and kill you right on time at 15:00. You've only managed to get two plating plates, and the first tower hasn't even been destroyed yet.

That might be a bit of an exaggeration, since according to the Treaty of Surder, at most it could only be considered a retreat to the second tower for laning, but that's still quite outrageous.

Even a profit-driven nobleman like Jefferson was dissatisfied, as he lost not only territory but also markets.

Moreover, those green-skinned demons have been spreading the idea that humans are inferior, and this treaty has only fueled these claims. They argue that humans, a race that needs to learn magic, are far inferior to demons.

There are even arguments that demons should rule over humanity.

Humans only need to obediently accept being ruled, while demons have much more to consider.

This greatly displeased Jefferson, a nobleman who considered himself of high birth, but he was powerless to do anything about it and could only discuss the treaty with Lind indignant indignation.

"Not only that, brother, do you know what this demon army is doing in the Northern Territory?"

"They came to spread the plague! They captured the nuns and civilians of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Salvation, implanted the plague and curse into them, and then threw these people covered in pus back to the North. They also put this army to guard these children of the curse to prevent them from committing suicide or being disposed of by other nobles, under the guise of escorting our people."

"These people even include Saintess Flora! This is simply intolerable!"

Jefferson grew angrier and angrier, to the point that he was about to smash the cup on the ground.

Jim, who was standing nearby, joined in. He knew more about the treaty and even started cursing the nobles of the capital for being incompetent and Cordick for being a fraud. Unlike Jefferson's lethargy, Jim was more radical, believing that since the Duke of Lars had not signed the treaty, it was nothing but toilet paper, or rather, a piece of waste paper, since he wouldn't even want to use it to wipe his butt.

Jefferson was so frightened that he quickly covered Jim's mouth. If old Evans heard this, Jim would probably get a beating, since old Evans had just paid protection money to these demons.

This was the attitude of the nobles in the North who still had some conscience. Although they were very angry, there was nothing they could do. When the demon army passed by, they had to provide them with good food and drink in order to prevent the demons from dumping these people covered in curses and plagues into their territory.

Linde felt his head spinning. Could such an outrageous and surreal thing really exist? Linde vaguely sensed that, for some reason, the current king was more wary of the North than of the demons. In order to completely ruin the North, he was even willing to lead the country in betraying its own people.

This may also be related to the kingdom's system; Augustine III did not consider the northern border as his own territory at all.

Although that's pretty much the case in reality.

But once a precedent is set for voluntarily betraying vassals, will the other grand dukes really still willingly follow the kingdom? Won't they feel a sense of shared fate? Linde simply couldn't understand why the current Augustine III was in such a hurry.

"Moreover, I heard that the demon army is already heading in our direction. I hope you can prepare more things to entertain that demon army. We shouldn't be so impulsive."

Jefferson's mood changed swiftly; one second he was indignant, the next he was already considering how to treat the other party, especially persuading Lind to calm down.

There's nothing we can do about it. After all, the gray-collar workers are upstream of Fasen Town. If they get infected with the plague, Fasen Town downstream will suffer.

Jefferson embodies the compromising nature of the aristocratic class to the fullest extent.

"Thank you for reminding me, I will prepare well."

Linde agreed and toasted Jefferson and Jim again. Except for Jim, both sides tacitly changed the subject. After discussing some details of the recovery potion business, Linde personally saw Jefferson onto the ship.

Watching the Jefferson caravan drift away with the current, Lind said to the maid beside him, "Call Lena, Miss Isa, and the managers over for an emergency meeting."

Linde's plan was to develop secretly, enter the game safely, and preserve his strength. This way, no matter who won the succession war, the Gray and White Collar would remain unaffected. In fact, the longer the succession war lasted, the more advantageous it would be for the Gray and White Collar, which had been absorbing refugees.

But to his utter surprise, while the front lines were resisting the demons, the rear was resisting the front lines, and the Cathedral of Our Lady of Salvation involved the female protagonist, Isa. Lind dared not be careless about how to deal with this invading demon team.

Sure enough, when Isha heard about this at the meeting, she almost flipped the table.

"How dare they? Using living people to spread plague and curses, is the Church just going to turn a blind eye?"

"And even Lady Flora..."

Isa didn't say anything more, tears streaming down her face. Isa had led the refugees away from the Basilica of Our Lady of Salvation so that they would no longer be a burden to the basilica, but she never expected that she would be the one who found a way to survive in the end.

Isa felt guilty for being too gentle; why hadn't she contacted the Cathedral of Our Lady of Salvation sooner to have Saint Flora bring people over?

In fact, Isa had also sent letters to the Basilica of Our Lady of Salvation, but the front lines were too chaotic at the time, and the messages were difficult to get through. However, this did not prevent Isa from feeling guilty.

Lena was also unable to accept that the most accessible and important mining area in the North had been handed over to the enemy so easily.

The atmosphere inside the lord's tent became extremely oppressive.

In that instant, Isa seemed to realize something, looked up at Lind, and Lind understood, beckoning a group of officials of lower rank to leave temporarily, leaving only the core decision-making team of the gray-collar workers inside the tent.

"Lord Lord!"

Isa had barely opened her mouth when Lind interrupted her.

"I understand what you mean, Miss Isa. You want to resume the production of holy water, right?"

Laurie, who was in charge of the army, asked in confusion, "Holy water? What holy water? Isn't it a recovery potion?"

Lila explained to Laurie, "Actually, the territory has already mastered the method of mass-producing holy water, but they didn't tell you because you're too unreliable."

"No no no no no!"

Laurie shook her head in exasperation: "The holy water you're talking about, is it that kind of holy water? The kind that requires a high-ranking monk to pray fervently for a month to produce even one bottle?"

"if not?"

Lila seemed to have known about this all along and accepted it quite calmly.

"Wait! Do we have such a high-level cultivator in our territory? Are you kidding me?"

After all, this was far beyond common sense, so it's no wonder that even a novice believer like Laurie couldn't believe it. Even Lila only knew about it; she didn't fully understand how the holy water was made. There were only four people in the territory who knew the truth.

Finally, Linde could only helplessly say, "Let's not dwell on this issue. Just consider it something I created."

"what?"

Laurie opened her mouth wide and shouted:

"Wait, wait, wait! This holy water thing is clearly more outrageous than any demon army or church saintess, isn't it? Don't you guys have anything to say?"

Everyone shook their heads slightly.

Upon seeing this, Laurie's expression was as if a line from a song was playing in his ears: "The world isolates me, let them ridicule me."