System vs Rebirth

Chapter 1294 Duke Loreleiʼs Obsession

”Hmm…”

”The second princess of the Greenwood Kingdom is heading outside the city? This is the first time for her to leave the city. What are they planning to send her?”

”Count Astark. Canʼt we just kill her or kidnap her?”

”No. If we do that, it will unleash the wrath of the Greenwood Kingdom. Although itʼs true that she has become Noel Ardaganʼs student, she is used to being the most treasured princess of the Greenwood Kingdom. The moment we touch her, the king will definitely use it as an excuse to fight us. With the addition of the Ardagan family and their allies, it will threaten the Muivell Kingdom.”

”I see. We canʼt really have them as our enemy yet. Only after we destroy the Ardagan family do we have the strength to go against them.”

”Thatʼs right. For the time being, we have to change our plan. We originally wanted to suppress the northern lords along with the Ardagan family when coming to the north, but this is not possible anymore.”

”Indeed. Looking at the direction she is going, she seems to be planning to go to the center part of the kingdom. And in there…”

”Duke Lorelei? There is also Countess Christina, who was a former ally of the previous Ardagan family.”

”Are they trying to get the dukeʼs help?”

”This canʼt continue. We have to request help from the royal family to stop the duke from helping them.”

”In that case, some of us have to be there and stop the Duke. Another one will go to Countess Christina and keep them in check.”

”This is not good. In other words, we donʼt really have enough manpower to stop the northern lord. We should focus only on the Ardagan family.”

”Thatʼs right. Weʼll work together with the Tower Association. I have heard they have removed that annoying Magic Lord recently. It shouldnʼt take a lot of time for them to gather enough documents to hit the Ardagan family. They have sabotaged one of their rune technologies, right? We can use it as a basis to attack them.”

”Donʼt worry about that. They can use the rune technology to attack them, but we can use another weapon to harm the Ardagan family. I have acquired it from the one who developed their policy and law, Elaine. I was a bit skeptical at first, but I couldnʼt see anything wrong with it, so it must be a genuine document. We can use it to strike down Tristan, his disciple, and deport him back to the Atracaeca Kingdom.”

”Is that true? This is good. However, the northern lords… if they combine their power to help the Ardagan family, it will be troublesome.”

”Thatʼs right. We have just heard that those lords are tightening their security recently, especially around their rune technology.”

”Weʼll try to sabotage them, or the Tower Association might have such an attempt. If itʼs not possible, we can always use the Supreme Devil Organization to attack them from the outside.”

”I donʼt really care about those lords. In the end, the closest one to Noel Ardagan is his father-in-law. Marquis Stargaze has been pressured into the royal capital and has no way of leaving, so we can focus on dealing with the Ardagan family.”

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”Still, the last thing we have to worry about are those merchants. Their size has grown even further, so it will be hard to stop them.”

”According to Matthew, he is planning to use everything he has to stop them. In exchange, once we succeed, he wants to get the monopoly on the train usage.”

”What? We agreed to that?”

”We have no choice. The Ardagan family has become once again the wealthiest family in the Muivell Kingdom. If we add those three merchants, their total wealth combined is equal to 35% of our kingdomʼs total wealth.”

”Kh…”

”It seems we really donʼt have a choice.”

”In that case, you should go to Countess Christina, Count Eyerin. The ones responsible for stopping Duke Lorelei will be me, Marquis Steven, and Countess Diana. The three of us should be enough as long as we get the help of the royal family. Although Duke Lorelei has been maintaining his neutrality this whole time, heʼs someone who is adept at politics. If we stop him half-heartedly, he will crush us easily.”

”In that case, the rest will head to the Ardagan family.”

”Indeed. The Demon Banner Army is moving as well. They have been confronting the Supreme Devil Organization as of late. However, there is no one coming to the Ardagan family yet, so they will probably focus on the outside threat.”

”With Dimitri and Princess Livia gone, the inside of the Ardagan family is weakened. As long as we strike before they return, itʼs going to be fine.”

Little did they know, helping Noel was the last thing that Duke Lorelei could think of. Livia definitely presented the pill to the duke while showing the transformation herself, which piqued his interest.

Duke Lorelei had reached the limit of his growth, so having an additional boost to his power would be fine. After all, since internal growth wasnʼt possible anymore, getting outside help was the only thing he could do to increase his strength.

Unfortunately, the only outside help that could help him was his sword, which was already of the highest level available.

And this time, Livia brought an opportunity for him. In addition, she shared a bit of the development they were planning to take.

To Liviaʼs surprise, the Duke, who had been keeping his calm during the whole presentation of the Spirit Awakening Pill, suddenly broke his calm and started acting like a child.

He grabbed Liviaʼs shoulder and shook her as if begging his mother for a candy. ”Spirit Affinity Pill? You can make that? The one to raise the absorption rate? What do you want? Do you want me to kill some nobles? Let me have that pill. Please.”

Compared to the other pills, for a duke who reached the limit because of his low absorption rate, there was nothing more shocking than having a pill that increases oneʼs absorption rate.