The Path to Lordship Begins in the North

"Viscount Lind Roll, it's been a long time, a long time indeed."

The person who came to persuade them to surrender was an acquaintance, the very same envoy who had slipped the marriage certificate to them.

Originally, they came from the capital to issue orders to the nobles in the western part of the North, but unexpectedly, they came to persuade Lind to surrender instead.

"It's been a long time since we last met, Your Excellency. I wonder what insights you have gained from your visit to Gray Collar this time?"

After settling Ruby and the old butler in, Lind brought Lena to meet the envoy.

This was Lena's own request. Lena is very insecure right now, probably afraid that Lind might suddenly surrender. The once heroic Lena is now cowering behind Lind like a kitten.

"As you probably already know, the dark clouds that have been hanging over the North have dissipated. The new leader of this region, Earl Wesker Evans, is unwilling to cause any more bloodshed, so he asked me to speak with you."

After saying this, the envoy took out the letter of surrender from his bosom, which was more like a treaty of defeat than a letter of surrender.

The treaty included everything from publicly revealing the recipes for sugar and recovery potions to voluntarily handing over magic stone veins—it was practically a complete sell-out of the entire gray-collar industry.

What Linde received was merely a nominal title of nobility and a title of lord of a small, outlying town.

This treaty seems to be designed to prevent Lind from surrendering, as it would diminish the credit of those officials. They are eager for Lind to resist to the bitter end, and even the envoys come with the intention of provoking Lind, while secretly praying that Lind will not surrender.

"Of course, if you are willing to hand over the Lars family's traitors, we will offer you a more generous treaty."

After speaking, the envoy glanced at Lena, whose eyes were still red.

It's unbelievable that Lind Rol, who was initially quite resistant to the marriage, is now standing with the Lars family rebels.

Without realizing it, Lena grasped Lind's left arm, fearing that Lind might actually sign the treaty.

"Your Excellency, don't say I didn't warn you. Even a powerful rebellious lord like Grand Duke Lars was reduced to ashes by our allied forces' offensive!"

For a moment, Lind didn't know how to complain. If Duke Lars's body was really gone, then Doug Lars probably wouldn't be able to sleep soundly at night. Who knows if he used some kind of magical artifact to escape.

And what exactly is this "Rebellious Lord"? Is this considered an official designation? But it seems a bit childish. Could this messenger be making things up?

However, Lena was clearly shocked by the fact that the body had vanished without a trace. She wanted to speak, but when the words reached her lips, she didn't know what to say.

"No body found? Does that mean Grand Duke Lars might still be alive?"

Feeling the grip from Lena's arm, Lind immediately understood what Lena wanted to say and asked the question on her behalf, even though he had no idea what the principle behind it was.

"Impossible, absolutely impossible, he must be dead."

The messenger immediately retorted, and Lena's eyes dimmed.

“Viscount Linde, I advise you not to harbor any illusions. In any case, the death of Grand Duke Lars is a fait accompli. Those new Lars who have been appointed by His Majesty are the future of the North. Your Excellency is a smart man. I hope you will not be ungrateful and will obediently hand over the traitors in your territory so that I can give an explanation to the future lord of this territory.”

"Oh? In my opinion, those who kill their fathers and nephews are the real villains. Is it really a good thing to let such people become the future of the North? Who is really being ungrateful?"

Linde immediately channeled his argumentative nature and started retaliating.

"You, you! Your Excellency Viscount, don't think you can do whatever you want just because you have a sixth-tier professional and a bunch of elite cavalry. Let me remind you, the power of the old Lars will eventually be wiped out under our iron hooves. All you have to rely on are fifty cavalrymen left behind by the old Lars and a sixth-tier traitor. We have already investigated and found out about this!"

In reality, there was no investigation at all.

"Do you know how many nobles and professionals our allied forces have? We have fifty thousand heavenly soldiers. Once our heavenly soldiers arrive, we'll teach you a lesson you won't forget!"

Of course, these 50,000 heavenly soldiers included logistics and logistics for logistics.

There were also cooks for the noblemen, and their support staff.

Among them are many concubines of noble lords, as well as their support staff. After all, who wouldn't want to show off their battlefield prowess in front of their most beloved wife?

If we round up after including these people, and then round up again, we get 50,000 people. That's reasonable, right? At least the envoy didn't round it up to 100,000.

It's no secret that the nobles of the entire western North have already begun forming an alliance to fight for the last piece of the pie.

In any case, it's a bit too much to fight the entire western North with just one Grey-collar worker. Lena even considered giving up, and it wouldn't be unacceptable to actually escape to the elves.

Having exhausted the big stick, the messenger began offering carrots, tossing the treaty onto the table.

"If Your Excellency were willing to lay down your arms and surrender, you would still be entitled to a marquisate in the future. Why bother struggling for a woman now? I remember Your Excellency wasn't very satisfied with this marriage in the first place, was you?"

Linde didn't even glance at the treaty before saying, "I thought the envoy had come from afar and would surely have some profound insights, but I didn't expect him to be turning black into white, unable to distinguish between good and evil, and even barking wildly in front of me."

"you you!"

"A bunch of patricide, murderer, and colluder with foreign enemies, yet they dare to claim to be the future of the North? I have never seen such shameless people!"

After saying this, Linde took the treaty, signed it, and threw it in the envoy's face.

The envoy took the treaty and found that where he should have signed, there was a single word written: "Read."

This was clearly the format for reviewing subordinates' official documents. In an instant, the messenger felt his blood rush to his head and collapsed to the ground.

"see a visitor out."

After saying this, Linde left without looking back, and the servants tacitly dragged the messenger, who had fallen to the ground and had not yet had time to get up, out of the room.

After the messenger had walked away, Linde turned to Rena, who was still tightly gripping his arm, and asked, "Can you let go now?"

Lena then realized what was happening and immediately released her grip on his arm. Linde rolled up his sleeve and found that his arm was already bruised. Fortunately, Lena hadn't really exerted any force, otherwise, with the strength of a sixth-tier knight, his arm would probably have exploded on the spot.

"Sorry, bro, I was just a little nervous, and then... and then..."

Lind interrupted Rena and said directly, "Surrendering is useless; they won't let us go easily."

In fact, when that treaty was presented, Lind knew that surrender was impossible. These insects were afraid that someone would surrender and take a slice of their pie, so they probably had already divided up the spoils before the fighting even started.

Escape would likely be difficult. Even if Grand Duke Lars had a lot of influence, he was still a dead man. Moreover, Lind had met with the elves a few times. Although they were very trustworthy, they were not quite the elves of the traditional impression. They lacked divinity and had more humanity. The factions within the elves were also very complicated and unreliable.

Seeing that Lena was still hesitant, Linde sighed helplessly. He hadn't expected that he, who had originally planned to stop Lena from rebelling, would now have to persuade her to rebel instead.

But after a slight hesitation, Lena nodded: "Okay, I'll listen to you, brother! We're not going to the elves; I'm going to get revenge."

Ruby, who was behind the scenes, also pulled the old butler Sebastian out: "I'm not leaving either, I want to stay with my sister."

The old butler stared intently at Linde, seemingly trying to understand what Linde was thinking.

Sensing the old butler's gaze, Linde asked, "What exactly is the situation inside the Lars family right now?"

“There might be reinforcements. Winterhold hasn’t been captured yet. If you can hold it, I can try to contact the elders of the Lars family.”

In reality, they were just trying to leverage the remaining prestige of Grand Duke Lars to see if they could recruit some more people.

"Moreover, there are still many people loyal to the eldest son of the Grand Duke. As long as the young lady is still alive, it should be able to attract a lot of people. Of course, the premise is that we can hold on to her."

The old butler continued.

That's what they say, but the old butler's actual expectations are even more pessimistic. It's estimated that there's currently a discussion within Winterhold about whether to pledge allegiance to the new Lars family or continue to hold out.

Upon hearing this news, Linde simply nodded.

"Then let's fight! The war for the succession is not over yet!"