In the Royal Capital of the Cape Kingdom, Queen Lilith was pacing in the grand hall of the Royal Palace.
Although nobles and ministers continuously suggested renovating the hall to showcase and flaunt Her Majesty the Queen’s achievements, such as replacing the hall’s glass with stained glass depicting the Queen’s exploits, all were dismissed by Lilith. She believed these individuals were merely looking to benefit from kickbacks, especially since the gray income of some nobles had dwindled under her strict governance.
Building the palace was a traditional way to earn money, and the king would get a newly remodeled palace while the nobles pocketed their kickbacks, but it would be a burden for the common folk. However, with the Queen’s prestige at an all-time high, it was expected that the common folk would willingly spend money, hoping to bask in the Queen’s reputation.
Many guards felt that the hall should indeed be renovated; at the very least, it should not be freezing for the occupants.
As winter approached, the northern winds from the Eternal Frozen Land finally blew into the Royal Capital. Due to financial issues, the hall’s glass, which had not been maintained for a long time, began to let in drafts, and some guards still wore light indoor clothing, causing them to shiver.
Yet, the anxious Lilith showed no signs of feeling the cold northern wind that had entered the hall; in fact, she felt somewhat warm.
While the battle in the Northern Border progressed and the Graywhite forces reached Golden Spike Ridge, on the verge of annihilating Doug, Lilith was unconcerned, merely thinking that the governor was finally going to unify the Northern Border.
She had already arranged subsequent plans.
However, fate had other ideas, and unexpected complications arose. After a period of silence, Anju began to attack anew from the southwestern border, and began bombing each other with cannons.
At first, Lilith suspected that their cannons had leaked from her side, but the opponent’s artillery was evidently modified and different from the Graywhite’s.
Later investigations revealed that the enemy’s cannons had flowed from Doug in the Northern Border. However, the opponent had no interest in purchasing cannons directly from Doug; they had improved their own artillery design, making it far more powerful and effective compared to standard models.
While the base was similar, their cannons were clearly larger, more powerful, and had a longer range, even more exaggerated than city defense artillery.
How to manage mass production like Graywhite when it was impossible? King Alberto of Anju learned from Lind’s essence, that is, brute force triumphs.
Initially, Alberto wanted to mass-produce like Graywhite, but he soon realized that even though he could concentrate the national runeworkers and alchemists to work for him, standardization was very difficult to implement.
Instead of mass-producing through assembly lines and mechanical devices, Anju’s greatest advantage was the ability to focus many professionals.
Unable to comprehend how Graywhite solved the standardization problem, Alberto simply abandoned the idea of standardization and mass production, turning to have these alchemists collectively research more powerful artillery.
Forget about mass production; let’s create a big one directly.
As long as all alchemists came together to create one large piece, standardization and mass production were no longer concerns.
Thus, a large Anju cannon, the size of a large horse-drawn carriage, was born.
It was just that Alberto had not unlocked the technologies for trains and tanks, nor had better transportation means, otherwise, its size might have approached that of the Gustav giant cannon.
The transport of these artillery pieces was slow and required professionals’ assistance, and there was no efficiency. Each cannon and its shells needed to be operated by a dedicated unit.
Under normal wartime conditions, such units would merely be sitting ducks, requiring dedicated escort units, consuming significant resources. However, Alberto did not care; after all, the Cape coalition forces had continued to retreat to the city after their last engagement, afraid to venture out to fight.
Let alone move to disrupt the artillery units.
While the Cape was celebrating their victory with joy and excitement, Anju wasn’t actually losing. After probing a few times, they were ready to continue the fight.
Under the offensive of the Anju artillery, the Cape’s southwest coalition forces quickly fell back into a disadvantage.
Not long after the resumption of fighting, two border cities had already fallen.
This misfortune was largely attributed to the mobility of Anju artillery, as they spent most time rushing to the front.
In this critical moment, news came from the Northern Border that the Demon Clan monsters were still in fierce contention with the Graywhite army at Golden Spike Ridge.
Not to mention the severe distortion of information in this era, just recounting the situation at the Golden Spike Ridge battlefield seemed quite surreal.
Moreover, in the eyes of the Royal Capital nobles and even Lilith, the Graywhite army, known for their strong combat capabilities and advanced weaponry, had actually been defeated.
This was not mere rumor, but verified intelligence from multiple sources.
Even if information from this era was prone to distortion, the numerous pieces of evidence only indicated the Graywhite forces had suffered some loss—exactly how severe was unknown.
Though rationally, Lilith knew the Graywhite army had not suffered a catastrophic defeat, at most, they were likely to have retreated defensively, and the situation was still in a stalemate.
After all, if the Graywhite forces at Golden Spike Ridge truly faced total annihilation, those terrifying monsters would have ravaged the Northern Border long ago; it would have been impossible to have no news about it at this moment.
But at the roundtable meeting, the nobles of the Royal Capital were not in the mood for rational discussions.
Soon, all sorts of rumors spread wildly throughout the Royal Capital, and many hoped that Lilith would voice her stance soon, but she dismissed it by claiming that the situation of the Northern Border had not yet clarified.
Everyone in the Royal Capital was almost waiting for the governor of the Northern Border to deliver letters to Her Majesty the Queen.
Before long, a dedicated messenger knight finally braved the northern winds into the hall, presenting all available news about the Northern Border, which Lilith elevated to the highest importance. The letter from Lind had even reached the level of military urgency.
Looking at the wax seal on the envelope, Lilith let out a long sigh. When she had previously contacted the Northern Border and learned it was being managed by Sean, she had been extremely anxious, fearing any unexpected event in the Northern Border would lead to even more chaos.
Thankfully, Lind was merely at the front lines, not completely out of contact.
However, this at least meant that the situation at Golden Spike Ridge was not optimistic; even the governor who would typically stay in the rear had personally gone to the front lines.
Lilith sat on the throne and carefully opened the envelope to read its contents.
After all, this letter might determine the future diplomatic policies and directions of the Royal Capital.
Although she truly did not want to engage with the Demon Clan, if there were truly powerful and terrifying monsters under their command, Lilith would have no choice but to sit down for discussions. However, she did not feel the Demon Clan was as straightforward as they were generally perceived.
Especially since those monsters sacrificed humans; it was hard to believe the Church would tolerate their existence.
Unfortunately, the Church’s power was currently weak, limited to mutual assistance with Lilith; otherwise, those who dared propose renegotiations with the Demon Clan would soon be warned by the Church.
After reading the letter, Lilith helplessly rubbed her forehead, finally realizing that the temperature in the hall was not right. She summoned the guards and activated the heating magic circle below the hall.
“Next time, when Chancellor Nora comes for an audience, be sure to tell him to fix the glass in this hall; there’s no need for a complete renovation.”
The guards, shivering from the cold, nodded gratefully; Her Majesty the Queen had finally remembered this matter.
With the activation of the magic circle, the temperature in the hall gradually rose, but as she read the letter, Lilith still felt an overwhelming chill.
