Lind did not choose to live in the royal palace. After all, according to Lilith, there were a lot of secret passages inside the palace, including those built by the Augustines before they usurped power using their son-in-law identity, as well as those constructed by the Augustines themselves. It was certainly not a good idea to live in a place that had a palace built over secret passages.
As for the residence of the Northern Border Governor, to be honest, Lind felt uneasy living in such a noble residence. With so many secret passages inside the palace, wouldn’t there be fewer in the Northern Border Governor’s residence? Especially since this mansion had not been under the control of the Lars Family for such a long time. Nevertheless, Lind still accompanied Lena back to this mansion.
At least for now, Lena’s two dreams had been realized: winning the heir war and returning to the royal capital. However, the way of returning to the royal capital was something that almost no one had imagined.
Seemingly unwilling to recall any unpleasant memories, Lena immediately sought out the wedding dress she had mentioned to Lind when she entered the mansion.
“I didn’t expect it to still be here.”
Lena’s actions were quite casual as she directly took the wedding dress off the hanger, while Lind walked slowly behind her.
Although the fabric was very exquisite, this wedding dress still looked quite simple, which aligned with the aesthetics of the Northern Border. It was also possible that this wedding dress was merely a semi-finished product.
However, at least in Lena’s eyes, she was very satisfied with this wedding dress. Excitedly, she held the dress against herself and playfully asked, “How does it look, Lind?”
Lena pressed the dress against her body, twirled around gracefully, and then mumbled to herself, “It seems a bit too small…”
“Then let the craftsmen make some adjustments.”
Lind waved his hand, and the maids also moved forward in unison to measure Lena’s size. Although Lena had acted nonchalant when she previously spoke with Lind, when the maids began measuring her, she still blushed and quietly muttered, “I hope it isn’t too far off.”
Even though the atmosphere in the royal capital was one of jubilation, with everyone uplifted by the recent victory, the demon clan was still lurking not far away, eyeing the royal capital.
However, just as the royal capital had stabilized, the hearts of the citizens began to stir, and the nobles started to move around again.
Cliff was very astute; he issued a decree that directly established Lind’s status. The content of this decree stated that Lind did not have to bow in front of Cliff and the royal family, could freely enter and exit the palace, and could meet Cliff armed. Each of these terms was a treatment of an extraordinary level.
Furthermore, due to the vacancy of the chancellor, Cliff specifically arranged a temporary chancellor position for Lind to ensure that Lind could legally control all resources within the royal capital, as well as military and administrative powers, even though these powers had already been in Lind’s hands since the moment the Northern Border Army entered the city.
After all, everyone still cared about their reputation. You could say you were wearing the emperor’s new clothes, but you couldn’t claim you were really unclad. You could urinate in the swimming pool, but you couldn’t stand on the shore and urinate into the pool. Therefore, Lind did not refuse Cliff’s actions that provided him with legitimacy.
However, when Lind read this decree, his feelings were somewhat complicated; he hadn’t expected that such a fast progression had already been arranged for him.
In contrast, Lena was overjoyed. She thought the chancellor was the highest position, and did not anticipate that Lind had actually become the chancellor, albeit temporarily. At that moment, Lena was still oblivious to the enormous power she now possessed.
With Cliff’s decree, more and more nobles within the city began to curry favor with Lind, sending him invitations. Although there was no precedent for a three-step usurpation in this realm, the meaning expressed by Cliff’s decree was very clear: if not for the age difference, they would probably want to adopt Lind as a foster father.
Outside the city, the demon clan had not even retreated, and these nobles had already started dreaming about throwing a ball.
Moreover, there were quite a few bold nobles who began to promote their daughters to Lind. Owing to the incompetent intelligence department in the royal capital, these nobles did not understand the situation in the Northern Border very well, plus Lind had appeared to be in a bad mood upon entering the city. Furthermore, these nobles had already driven Lena away once before with the Augustines, so they still thought of trying the same tactic again.
However, these nobles were much smarter than those brutish folks from the Northern Border. They did not directly praise their daughters’ excellence but cautiously probed Lind about whether he would be interested in hosting a ball or something to stabilize the hearts of the city’s nobles.
These nobles believed that if Lind intended to usurp the throne, he would surely do as the Augustines had done before: win over the nobles, take care of the elites, and consolidate his power. As a result, even though these nobles knew Lind’s attitude toward the Northern Border’s nobility, they still developed an illusion that they were more important than those Northern Border nobles and could negotiate with Lind.
Watching the flood of letters from these nobles like falling snowflakes, Lind snorted coldly. This action startled Marcel, who was sitting across from him.
“Are these all the people?”
Lind looked at the list that Marcel handed over, seeming somewhat dissatisfied, but Marcel was on the verge of collapsing, barely holding himself together to speak with Lind.
The list already included two-thirds of the nobles within the royal capital, yet Lind still found it not long enough.
“Yes, my lord. This is all the nobles who did not attend the meeting…”
Setting aside his identity as the leader of the Old Party, both Cliff and Judith acknowledged that Marcel was a conservative who despised the demon clan, and he directly participated in the meetings against the demon clan until the very end. This was already enough. Lind did not intend to eradicate all those nobles; he needed to leave some of the more manageable fellows alive.
Additionally, especially those who had not attended the meeting, the opportunists and fence-sitters appeared to Lind to be unstable factors. In the new royal capital, there was no place for these parasites; their lives would only inflate the prices of food in the royal capital.
This coup would definitely not conclude with Claire going insane. Those who helped in the shadows would all have to pay the price. All the nonsense about the darkness of the royal capital, the forces in the shadows, had to be crushed under the tracks of tanks.
Looking at Marcel, who was about to collapse, Lind nodded and said, “You can go now.”
Returning home, Marcel quickly began to close his doors and refused to see anyone. He even imposed martial law on his entire family, stricter than when he was investigating the assassin of Klan.
Soon, an unexpected large-scale purge began. The governor seemed dissatisfied with merely capturing those who followed Claire’s coup; even those who had secretly aided her were caught one by one. Moreover, those trying to profit from the chaos were also all arrested.
The Northern Border Governor seemed completely unconcerned about the demon clan still lurking outside the city and launched a bloody reckoning against the nobles and royals of the royal capital. Someone had to take responsibility for this coup. While Lind could investigate the entangled noble factions later, it was undoubtedly correct to eliminate all the surrendering factions and opportunists.
Aside from the surrendering factions, the most bewildered were the adventurers who had followed Claire in the coup.
Paul, right up to the moment he was sent to the execution ground, did not understand what happened. He had already faintly realized he had been deceived; Claire was not the delicate princess waiting for a knight to rescue her, nor was Lilith the con artist Claire described. However, Paul was still reluctant to accept reality.
These adventurers received Lind’s “special treatment.” They were pushed to the forefront as the culprits of the rumors about Lilith in the royal capital, and were paraded around the Outer District first. The people of the Outer District, seeing their respected queen being defamed in such a way, angrily picked up stones by the roadside and hurled them at these adventurers.
Lind also took this incident as a starting point to begin formulating a policy on adventurers; in this realm where magic really existed, controlling such unlawful behavior with power was essential.
Outside the royal capital, the wary Antipa received the latest intelligence from the royal capital. Lind’s departure had been somewhat hasty, and with many Northern Border troops still en route, some nobles had seized the chaos of the purge to escape and fled to the demon clan.
“So, does this mean it is currently the best time to attack the royal capital?”
Antipa tentatively asked the nobles from the royal capital and Monroe before him.
Monroe quickly replied, “Exactly. Humans are so despicable. Your Majesty the Demon King, it’s time to bring a new order to humanity!”
