After contacting Lantern Dream, Lind began to deal with the pile of letters.
The Queen of the Royal Capital not only sent a letter but also an envoy, but Lind had not yet returned to Graywhite Territory, so only the letters arrived here first.
The letter began by praising Lind for defeating the Demon Clan and defending against monsters, with some flattery that seemed a bit stiff; it was clear that this was written personally by Her Majesty the Queen, and she was not very skilled at flattering others.
However, Lind did not mind much; the lack of polite phrases actually saved him a lot of time. The latter part of the letter invited Lind to participate in the enthronement ceremony, as the Royal Capital had decided that he would be the Duke of the Northern Border.
In a sense, this was the Royal Capital’s official announcement that the struggle for the heir of the Northern Border had ended, and from now on, Lind would be the designated ruler of the Northern Border, although the Royal Capital remained aloof, only appearing to award the victor after the battle, presenting itself as a lofty adjudicator.
It was as if this ruler Lind still needed the approval of the Royal Capital.
However, Lind could understand this; although he did not need the Royal Capital to endorse the legitimacy of his rule, they had to personally be responsible for this endorsement to send a signal that the Northern Border still belonged to the King.
Even if everyone knew that the Royal Capital was deceiving itself.
However, the most important message in this letter was not this, but rather the accompanying negotiations for the enthronement ceremony. In the words of the letter, as the new Duke of the Northern Border, Lind needed to meet with Her Majesty the Queen.
It was evident that this Queen had a good sense of self-awareness and did not even require Lind to swear loyalty to her.
Even a personal trip to the Royal Capital was not necessary. The Transcender likely understood that such an obvious banquet of survival would absolutely not be overlooked by Lind, so they specifically chose a location at the border between the Northern Border and the central region, which could be seen as very sincere.
Lind thought for a moment; indeed, a meeting was very necessary. After all, he needed to gauge the Transcender’s bottom line and then observe the attitude of this Transcender. If they showed signs of being ungrateful, Lind would be better prepared in advance.
However, he would not take the position of Duke; Lind had no intention of rising through the ranks with the influence that came from being a minor noble or a title bestowed by the King.
Therefore, Lind clearly stated in his reply that he would not become the Duke of the Northern Border, as it did not align with propriety. As for which propriety, someone would certainly come to clarify for Lind.
As for the talks, of course, that was possible; the Northern Border was currently rather weak. The main reason was that Doug had sacrificed all the population. If the Demon Clan truly made a hard push at this time, along with the Eastern Border and the Royal Capital taking action, although it might not necessarily lead to defeat, agriculture would surely be affected, and Lind wasn’t sure he could keep the battlefield completely outside the Northern Border. Therefore, he wasn’t very eager to fight in the near future.
Although Lind knew that the Royal Capital was still undergoing reforms, even if there was money, it was all circulating within the financial chain. How much cash could actually be mobilized was a question, and there wouldn’t be any major trade with the current Northern Border.
Even though the Royal Capital had no money, it had people; the central region still had plenty of labor. No money? Then let’s use people to repay debts.
As long as the Royal Capital was willing to cooperate in large-scale immigration, then what Her Majesty the Queen hinted at in the letter regarding new types of weapons could all be discussed.
As for the specifics, it would still have to wait until they met to discuss in detail. Lind thought for a moment; the officials from Graywhite Territory were also arriving one after another, so he should be about ready to return. Once he finished awarding the military honors to his soldiers, he would meet with this Transcender Queen.
After handing the reply to Lucanus, Lind casually browsed through the subsequent letters. It could be said that although the Royal Capital was concealing some matters, the overall decline of the Cape Kingdom could no longer be hidden, and quite a few small to medium-sized nobles from various places had begun to write letters to Lind.
It was not to conspire with Lind for great ambitions, but most of them were just trying to familiarise themselves. These small to medium-sized nobles were much better at flattering than that Queen; however, there wasn’t much useful information.
Most of these small to medium-sized nobles likely had not heard in detail about the circumstances of Lind’s territory, or even if they had heard, they didn’t understand, thinking that it was just like before; when something unexpected truly happened, it would merely be a change of name for the King, and they could still remain on their own little piece of land collecting rent. So they continued to gamble as usual, spreading their bets everywhere.
Lind set aside these unnutritious letters. No wonder ancient emperors needed to find a bunch of secretaries for themselves, even establishing special institutions to train secretaries. In the future, such unnutritious letters would only increase, and even if Lind were a workaholic, it would be impossible to read them all in detail.
After simply filtering through these unnutritious letters, Lind picked up the letter sent by King An Zhu. Rather than a letter, it was more like a state document; at least the envelope alone stood out amidst the pile of letters.
While the other unnutritious letters had rather flashy envelopes, decorated with gold edges and paintings, along with meaningless feathers, none could compare to the thickness of this state document.
The plain sheep parchment was sealed with golden beeswax stamped with the royal seal of the An Zhu royal family, and the outer layer was wrapped in silk satin with no particularly flashy decorations. However, it appeared more valuable than those chaotic letters, even more so than those from the Royal Capital.
The content of the letter was also very formal. If the Queen of the Royal Capital had written the previous letter with a somewhat immature writing style, even failing to flatter properly, this letter perfectly showcased Alberto’s work abilities.
Unlike the previous letter that carried a tone of provocation, Alberto’s attitude this time appeared humble yet regal, placing Lind on the same level as himself, as a king of a nation.
Contrary to the careful hints from the Royal Capital, Alberto started analyzing the current situation on the continent in the letter, asserting that both Lind and he should abide by the principle of distant engagement and close attack, initiating technical cooperation, and he did not conceal his ambition to share the Cape Kingdom with Lind.
Unlike the financially strained Royal Capital, Alberto was wealthy; as one of the most powerful kings in An Zhu’s history and a notably frugal ruler, the wealth accumulated by Alberto and his family was hard to fathom. His prior willingness to pay steep prices to buy firearm research from Doug showed that money was merely a means to fulfill his goals for Alberto.
Not only that, Alberto also took the initiative to acknowledge Lind’s identity as a descendant of the Old Empire, stating that there were many ruins of the Old Empire within An Zhu’s territory, and as long as they could start technical cooperation, An Zhu would not only be willing to spend money generously but would also allow Lind to send people to conduct archaeological work within An Zhu.
Faced with Alberto’s friendly attitude and willingness to spend generously, Lind also changed his previous style, preparing to write a reply to Alberto with the same attitude. Even though both sides had mocked each other harshly before, once the situation changed, it could still be as if nothing had happened, talking about cooperation as if both sides were on good terms.
