Lilith had long ceased to care about the title of Saintess. After all, her innate talent for divine arts was quite average, and her becoming a Saintess was more a political consideration than anything else, filling the role of the original female protagonist in the story.
Moreover, the newly bestowed title of Saintess now may not be a good thing for Lilith. No noble would want to see a queen who merged political and religious power.
Though it seemed to significantly enhance Lilith’s prestige, in reality, it was like adding fuel to fire, making it hard to sustain in the long run.
But Lilith agreed to it anyway, as it not only elevated her prestige but also allowed her to directly involve herself in religious affairs, making religion a true extension of royal power from then on.
Back during the meeting condemning the Northern Borders, Lilith was still a novice Saintess, sitting like a pawn, but now, she was likely the most powerful Saintess in religious history.
In addition to formally declaring Flora a Saintess to rectify the chaos, the Old Pope granted Lilith some authority. Currently, in the Northern Borders, using the name of the Saintess for Isha, once Doug was defeated, Lilith could also name Isha a Saintess.
This was also a gesture of goodwill towards Graythorn Territory.
The Old Pope had already perceived something from the reform plan of Graythorn Territory. This Northern Border Governor would likely not be as complacent as Duke Lars, even though he currently supported the queen wholeheartedly.
The more the governor supported the queen, the more the Old Pope felt that the governor had grand ambitions. Thus, he kept helping Lilith curry favor with the Northern Borders, alleviating the pressure on her.
At least if Graythorn Territory attacked in earnest, they would not be morally justified. War is driven by public sentiment, and with Doug facing setbacks everywhere, the fact that he lacked the hearts of the people was a major issue, especially after comparisons were made.
On this, Lilith remained noncommittal, just like how she tried to foster goodwill with the governor of Graythorn Territory in her letter. It was fundamentally just a psychological comfort.
Once Lilith returned to the royal palace, her personal maid delivered the latest intel: the Black Crow Society had already tucked their tails and fled into Anju Kingdom. After all, being a shadowy group of professionals, they were quite slippery and difficult to catch.
Originally, the Black Crow Society had aimed to create chaos in the capital after assassinating a prominent figure. If pursued, they could easily scapegoat a couple of accomplices.
With her employer, the nobles of the capital and the Demon Clan manipulating things behind the scenes, it was highly probable that the matter would fade away.
A single king was nothing. The Black Crow Society had assassinated numerous kings of small kingdoms. Though this task was a bit large, they never expected it would escalate to such a scale.
The successor queen not only maintained the situation in the capital to push for reforms but also kicked out their ally, the Demon Clan. Some nobles in the capital could initially resist, but as the queen started arms trade with Graythorn Territory, the balance gradually shifted.
Especially after the nobles from the Southwest Borders began to intervene.
Whoever possessed artillery held the voice in the southwest border. Many knights and nobles far away in the southwest were sending people to investigate the capital after hearing about Graythorn Territory using artillery as payment.
Especially those surviving precariously on the border; who would still care about the capital’s nobles and assassin groups?
And now, with the Black Crow Society being pushed out, they had to flee to Anju Kingdom overnight, finally escaping those eager investigators.
I must say, the Black Crow Society was quite principled, as they didn’t expose their employer even in such a situation.
Lilith put down the investigation report; the waters were deep. According to the investigation, the masterminds behind the assassination were not just one person but possibly a group, an interest group.
The first suspect that came to Lilith’s mind was the Old Party in the capital. After all, from the perspective of who benefits, they were in the clear as the Old Party would never shake off the suspicion. Currently, there were constant investigations on the Old Party in the capital.
But when Klan was assassinated, the concepts of New Party and Old Party didn’t exist. The Old Party’s numbers were not small, and some genuinely opposed Lilith’s reform plan for being too radical, at least outwardly. Among the Old Party, there were many highly prestigious old nobles, and it was unlikely to wipe them all out.
Looking at the report from Judith, Lilith knew she couldn’t delay any longer. After spring, besides the two governors in the North clashing fiercely, the probing from Anju Kingdom became increasingly aggressive, showing signs of complete war, just waiting for the Cape Kingdom to show even a hint of weakness.
An Alchemist had reproduced a real cannon based on a one-time sample brought over by Chancellor Nora, but it could not be mass-produced. For a long defense line, this was merely a drop in the bucket. Lilith didn’t have that strong control to throw all those Alchemists into the workshop to crank out cannons.
So, it would still be necessary to buy from Graywhite Territory, and currently, the acquisition of cannon procurement rights was only one step away from identifying the true employer of the Black Crow Society.
However, regarding these masterminds, Lilith wasn’t entirely without options. The price for assassinating a king was certainly not low, especially since the Black Crow Society had also utilized Demon-breaking Stone arrows that could breach magical defenses; the cost was quite high.
Although the Black Crow Society was very principled, Lilith didn’t believe they were a non-profit organization.
Thus, it sufficed to investigate the large-scale cash flow of the nobles in the capital around the time of the assassination.
After sharing this investigative direction with Judith and Scott, the two dukes from the Southwest immediately sprang into action, unearthing countless accounts.
Originally, this would have been impossible, but now, the assassination of the former king had become the top priority in the capital. Not cooperating with the investigation? Did they have something to hide? Many of the nobles in the capital were lining up to clear their names; why would they not cooperate? Open up! Southwest United Army!
Even the most conservative nobles had nothing to say about this matter and at most requested the investigating officials to be a bit courteous.
Were these investigations effective? Not necessarily, given that the announcements made by these nobles were a mess, making it hard to discern anything. The more astute nobles could tamper with their income and expenditure accounts without anyone noticing.
However, this gave Lilith a legitimate reason to investigate these nobles, a way to gauge the nobles in the capital.
Moreover, whether Lilith found anything significant or not was unimportant; what mattered was that some people felt Lilith had genuinely discovered something.
At the first roundtable meeting after the investigations began, Lilith continuously emphasized that Graywhite Territory merely sought an explanation and accountability, implying that both she and Graywhite Territory would not go to extremes. She also claimed that the investigation had already made progress, glancing occasionally towards the Old Party.
It seemed that as long as the Old Party pushed out the masterminds hiding among them, the investigation would halt, while then the capital and the Southwestern Dukes would obtain new firearms and cannons, and the New Party and queen would investigate the Old Party, who would then find the culprits and clean house, thus earning acclaim.
Everyone envisioned a bright future.
