The nobles of Copper Mountain Territory had a rather contradictory attitude towards Lind. Most of them looked down on him, thinking of him as a nouveau riche, yet they were also very eager to curry favor with him.
The specific embodiment of this contradictory attitude was that these nobles wanted to surrender, but could not bring themselves to do so without losing face. Even Lind’s “Noble Reform Act” and “Land Allocation Bill” were not the main reasons these nobles refused to surrender.
The real reason was that Lind’s actions were too undignified, almost as if he did not regard these nobles as nobles at all. From their perspective, even if they had to surrender, they must remain different from the common folk; Lind should have made a grand gesture and “invited” them to surrender.
Moreover, they claimed that before Duke Lars arrived, they had already been living here. Duke Lars had to speak to them with honorifics, so why should they surrender and lose their noble glory to Lind?
Thus, the nobles of Copper Mountain Territory previously fabricated songs to slander Lind, roughly suggesting that he was a nouveau riche whose title was merely that of a lowly viscount, and that true nobles performed salutations. This was meant to give them a sense of psychological victory.
However, as the frontline relentlessly advanced towards Copper Mountain Territory, these nobles were still quite fearful, after all, they weren’t truly obstinate; they just wanted the so-called “proper respect,” or rather, to negotiate better terms for their surrender with Lind.
It must be said that these nobles had some merits; at least their songs were catchy, quickly spreading among Doug’s side, and even in regions occupied by Lind, some places were aware of these songs.
But Lind did not care. Although bards were helping manage the spread of these ballads, it was far from the level of a literary inquisition; it was more about refuting some rumors within the songs.
Having experienced the cleansing of the domestic internet, this level of response was insignificant to Lind, not worth getting upset over with these nobles. He even considered investigating who composed these songs, thinking it might be a good idea to “invite” them to write nursery rhymes.
However, these nobles misunderstood; seeing Lind unmoved by the insults, they thought his temper was unexpectedly good, possibly because he still cared about his reputation, and speculated that Lind wanted to act benevolently and would not casually slaughter nobles.
After the Laurent Family surrendered, although they were dismantled, most were still doing relatively well. This governor likely did not want to go to extremes in his dealings, which gave these nobles a false illusion that Lind had at least some respect for the nobility.
In reality, this was survivor bias; the root cause was that those abstract nobles were eliminated too cleanly, and no one spoke up for them.
So when the Ambrose Family reached out to these nobles, claiming to have a good idea, these nobles eagerly accepted the invitation.
At this point, Dian, dressed in the luxurious robes passed down from his ancestors, took the stage at the ball with a magical echo and said, “Ladies and gentlemen, we all know that Governor Lind’s army is about to arrive at his faithful Copper Mountain Territory. Although Governor Lind has not been friendly towards those noble families all along.”
Dian paused slightly, displaying a heartbroken demeanor as he continued, “But has anyone thought about why the benevolent, descendant of the Old Empire, our Lord Governor’s behavior is not like that of a noble, but resembles that of a nouveau riche?”
The other nobles buzzed with discussion, and most did not recognize the idea of being a descendant of the Old Empire since even Lind himself couldn’t be bothered with such claims. However, after hearing Dian’s words, the majority became intrigued.
“Because the current governor’s wife is a disgrace to the nobility! Do we not know what kind of character this governor’s wife, the young lady from the Lars Family, possesses? Uncultured, lacking etiquette, utterly vulgar! It is under the influence of such a woman that our Governor has become like this, no longer shining in noble glory, without noble dignity.”
Subsequently, fearing that these nobles were unclear about Reina’s previous reputation, Dian provided a brief introduction.
Soon, a sharp-tongued, ill-mannered shrew slowly formed in everyone’s minds.
“So how do we save our Governor and help him return to being a noble descendant of the Old Empire?”
Amidst the magical fireworks, Lisa appeared on stage dressed in formal attire, leaving many nobles in the audience dumbfounded.
“Exactly! As long as we send my precious daughter, our Copper Mountain Territory’s darling Lisa, to remove that shrew, our Governor will surely transform back into a true noble, a noble descendant of the Old Empire!”
The scene erupted with enthusiastic applause and cheers. Regardless of the idea of pushing Reina aside, the thought of marrying a woman into Lind’s circle seemed indeed feasible to these nobles.
Although the world advocated for monogamy due to the Goddess’ teachings, the actual circumstances were quite complex. Keeping concubines among nobles was no longer a secret, and due to the secularization of the Goddess’ doctrine, some people took advantage of this opportunity to legalize relationships that had already been more relaxed.
Moreover, when Augustus III initially suppressed religion, even though there was only one queen, he took the lead in marrying many wives, making it quite normal for high-ranking nobles to have several wives today.
The nobles immediately began discussing how to send Lisa to Lind. As long as Lisa could reach Lind’s side, these nobles believed that Lind could not resist her charm. Even if Governor Lind still cared about his reputation and only took her as a mistress, that would already be enough for Copper Mountain Territory.
Having someone at his side could potentially help these nobles preserve their lands and properties, at least that was what they thought.
Furthermore, these nobles believed Lisa could be more than just a mistress; Reina, who was uncultured and lacked upbringing, could never compete with Lisa, who was well-versed in noble education and a socialite among the elite.
Some nobles even felt a bit regretful that Lisa was being handed over to Lind so readily.
Although some nobles thought Reina had the backing of the Lars Family and that Lind currently flew the banner of the Lars Family, which could likely provoke discontent from them.
However, these nobles did not think much of it; they weren’t truly wanting Lisa to become the Governor’s wife. They could entirely maintain a nominal title for Reina to keep the Lars Family appeased, something they themselves wished for, so how could Lind not think of it?
Moreover, these nobles were best at stirring public opinion; with a little effort, they could provide Lind with plenty of reasons to abandon Reina.
Thus, these nobles, under the leadership of the Ambrose Family, stopped slandering Lind and instead began to vilify and insult Reina, which was much easier than attacking Lind himself, especially since Reina’s reputation in the noble circle had never been very good.
If they directly insulted the governor and received no reaction, insulting the governor’s wife seemed like a minor matter that the governor wouldn’t bother to take seriously.
Not only that, but Dian also sent his young son Darm, carrying a portrait of Lisa, to Graythorn Territory under the guise of surrender to meet Lind.
