At this moment in the Royal Capital, the internal family meeting of the Augustine faction had turned into chaos.
An radical Augustine shouted, “If this continues, people will soon forget what the Cape Kingdom is really called.”
“We must unite to quickly get our beloved queen to step down from that position and let our people take over.”
The meeting was composed entirely of Augustines, and even Lilith was not qualified to participate.
In fact, the meeting was convened precisely to prevent Lilith from participating.
Claire watched the radical Augustine with satisfaction, as she merely fanned the flames a little, and immediately countless people from the royal family stepped forward to volunteer as cannon fodder.
The weak Cliff weakly waved his hands, signaling for silence in the meeting.
But this could not stop the increasingly agitated Augustines.
“The cannons from the Northern Border are going to arrive soon, and the reforms are almost completed. We should let Her Majesty the Queen go back to being her beloved Saintess, and let those soldiers from the Southwest return to where they should be—keeping watch over our neighbors on the Southwestern border, not watching us in the Royal Capital!”
As soon as this was said, more people responded.
“Exactly, Her Majesty the Queen has even stopped living in the palace and has allowed those peasant soldiers to enter the Inner City, even the palace itself. Is there still royal law? Is there still any law?”
“Her Majesty has done enough; we should let the legitimate Augustines take the throne so that we can maintain the dignity of the royal family on both sides.”
The Augustines still had a bit of respect for Lilith; at least the situation in the Royal Capital and the border was continuously changing under her control, and if this continued, it seemed that returning to the era of the kingdom’s prosperity was not entirely impossible.
But precisely because of this, the Augustines were even more afraid of Lilith, and some harbored ideas of wanting to ascend to power themselves, wishing for Lilith to step down early so they could be the ones to reap the benefits.
Only Cliff weakly shouted from his position:
“No… Her Majesty cannot step down yet; if the reforms are abandoned now, everything will immediately revert to its original state…”
Cliff’s rebuttal appeared very powerless; no one was listening to what Cliff said, after all, he had previously tacitly allowed the Augustines to obstruct Lilith’s reckoning with the old nobles, and he also felt that the Queen’s power had become too great.
“And that governor from the Northern Border also said that whoever forces Her Majesty to step down will have to step down themselves. We still need his firearms and cannons to maintain stability at the border…”
The other Augustines calmed down slightly upon hearing what Cliff said.
But the radical Augustine continued to shout, “So Her Majesty even wrote a letter previously, hoping that the governor could become her brother. Can you imagine a queen of a country calling a regional governor her brother? This inexplicably raises the status of a border governor above us—can you accept that?”
It was already hard to accept that Lilith had become the Saintess, and the alliance with Graywhite Territory was a major breach of the bottom line for most people. And it was one thing to form an alliance, but what did it mean to call each other siblings?
Clear-eyed people had already seen that this alliance was not an alliance between the Royal Capital and Graywhite Territory, reverting back to previous relations, but rather a personal alliance between Her Majesty the Queen and Graywhite Territory, which is why they referred to each other as siblings.
After this news spread, rumors even began in the Royal Capital that Governor Lind and Queen Lilith really were siblings, even blood siblings.
One person even swore that it was foretold by the tower’s astrologist, but because it was too outrageous, no one believed it.
Moreover, let’s not mention that Lilith’s life trajectory and family composition were very clear; one came from a small family in the Eastern Border, and the other from the Northern Border, with their fathers and grandfathers never even leaving the Eastern and Northern Borders—how could they possibly be blood siblings?
Of course, there were also rumors that Queen Lilith was a descendant of the Old Empire, and had a blood connection with Governor Lind, but the discussion was still less heated than the rumor that they were blood siblings; after all, it seemed much more suitable for nobles to gossip about them being blood siblings.
Soon there were similar tales of Lilith’s father, who had once hidden his identity and worked as a mercenary in the Northern Border, then encountered Governor Lind in a soap opera-like twist of fate.
No one was willing to seriously investigate whether the two families had historical ties; after all, this speculation not only had a low probability but was also not entertaining.
As the former King Klan once said: “My fiancée also has black hair and black eyes; does that mean she’s also a descendant of the Empire?”
There were plenty of people with black hair and black eyes, and such speculation had long lost its market in the Royal Capital.
“At least Graythorn Territory provides us with weaponry…”
Before Cliff could finish this sentence, Claire stood up and said, “Gentlemen, it’s not a solution to keep shouting like this; I have a proposal that you all can consider first.”
Claire’s tone was confident and steady, immediately bringing the situation under control.
It was as if Claire was the one presiding over this meeting instead of Cliff.
“First of all, it is absolutely not time for Her Majesty to resign; after all, as my older brother said, whether it is about reforms or maintaining relationships with the Northern Border, we need Her Majesty the Queen.”
Before the radical Augustines could rebut, Claire continued, “But if a non-Augustinian becomes king, their power should be limited; after all, the throne is ours, why should we let others benefit?”
As soon as this was said, the Augustines present all nodded in agreement.
Many did not actually expect to directly pull Lilith down but rather wanted to limit her power.
“I propose that legislation should place legal restrictions on non-Augustinian kings in the future, and nominate someone to control the city guard of the Royal Capital and the royal guards, and this person must be one of us Augustines.”
“Meanwhile, those armies remaining in the Royal Capital should either merge with the city guard or return to the Southwestern border.”
“Her Majesty should also pray at the church on fixed prayer days rather than going out casually like before without knowing when she’ll return. Especially now that Her Majesty has again become the Saintess, this must have a proper protocol.”
These are several pain points for the Augustines; after listening to them, the Augustines all nodded.
But the radicals felt that it was not enough and wanted to raise more demands, at which point Claire said, “At the same time, we must also be more united internally; since we have let Lilith become queen, we must fully support her. We in the royal family should also establish rules about what can and cannot be done, and we need a leader within the royal family.”
The elders of the Augustine faction all displayed expressions of appreciation, completely ignoring the aggrieved Cliff, as he was still nominally the leader of the Augustines.
Claire’s proposal was viewed with some rationality by both the radicals and conservatives, and the subsequent meeting fully revolved around Claire’s proposal.
Claire had completely taken control of the rhythm of the meeting.
