The goddesses attempted to gain my salvation.

After all, the Knights of the Sun came with Orina's orders.

If they don't do as instructed, the Rema family will eventually follow in the footsteps of the Lancy family.

Besides this, there is another, even more important matter.

That is, the old King Bereinin was kidnapped.

The day the man in the trench coat broke into the palace and brazenly took Berlein away, this incident had a huge impact on the entire Duchy of Ferrante.

Everyone knows that the Phoenix family, the royal family of the Duchy of Ferrante, has three heirs.

Two died, and one was exiled.

Berlein's departure means that Claire is the only bloodline heir to the royal family.

The key point is that Claire was exiled by Bernin himself.

According to the laws of the duchy, she lost her right to the throne the moment she was exiled.

As a result, the Duchy of Ferrante fell into a terrifying power vacuum.

The Duchy of Ferrante, which already lacked a strong central government, was further plunged into a severe crisis of trust by Berlein's betrayal of the nobility to save his own life, making its rule as precarious as an egg.

Even the mysterious abduction of the old King Berlein was speculated to be the deliberate act of some ministers.

After all, that was the royal palace, the place where the Ironthorn Guard was stationed.

It seems unbelievable that a mere man in a trench coat could kidnap the ruler of a country.

Therefore, although everyone outwardly obeyed the king's decrees, they were secretly amassing troops and consolidating their power.

Now that the old king, Bereinin, has mysteriously disappeared, the various nobles and local powerful families in the country know that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to completely seize the core power of the country.

Thus, in a tacit understanding, all forces expanded their armies, recruited a large number of prominent mages from across the continent, and simultaneously engaged in large-scale steel production.

They had long coveted that supreme royal power.

It is foreseeable that in the near future, the Duchy of Ferrante will be engulfed in a civil war that will sweep across the entire country.

Upon receiving this news, the Auguston Empire in the north and the Pennsylvania Federation in the south also immediately chose to garrison troops on the border, preparing to take advantage of the chaos to annex the Duchy of Ferrante.

That terrifying war that has raged across the continent for five hundred years will once again engulf the Duchy of Ferrante.

This time, however, the Duchy will not have a second Phoenix Mia to stand up and lead the people in rebellion.

Many well-informed nobles and merchants, but unable to participate in this struggle, have already taken all their assets and families and migrated thousands of miles to seek refuge in the Auguston Empire and the Pennsylvania Federation.

Both countries opened their doors to welcome these refugees who brought large sums of money.

The wealth accumulated by the Duchy of Ferrante over the years quietly flowed into the two kingdoms of North and South.

In addition, the movements of the Vatican have also become a focus of attention.

After all, the Papacy is the strongest military force on the continent, on par with the Auguston Empire.

In recent years, there has even been a trend of surpassing the Empire and pushing it to second place.

The four warbands of the Knights of the Sun under his command were established precisely to deal with the four nations. Each warband has the strength to rival a nation.

The four warbands, located in the four cardinal directions of the Papacy, are responsible for monitoring and restraining the four nations.

If the Papacy of Bysma were to express its intention to help the Duchy of Ferrante stabilize the situation at this time, then not only would its own nobles not dare to act, but even the Auguston Empire and the Pennsylvania Federation would not dare to take any action.

However, the Vatican cannot do that.

Because at its inception, the Papacy signed a non-interference agreement with the royal families of the four countries.

The four nations will not interfere in the affairs of the Papacy and will uphold the absolute status of the Bysma Papacy as the sole religion on the continent.

At the same time, the Vatican will not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries.

Military intervention is only permitted in cases that threaten the Papacy's position or involve a serious humanitarian crisis.

The Lansie family incident is one such example.

Under this treaty, even if the Duchy of Ferrante were to completely perish, the Papacy of Bysma would be unable to intervene.

However, the current supreme ruler of the Papacy is Olena.

No one could figure out her temperament.

In addition, there are also issues with the colleges.

The deaths of five students and the disappearance of one student have brought a crisis of trust to the college.

In particular, the Milus family behind Tych directly targeted Norma.

After all, she was Tych's mentor.

When students have problems, their supervisors are naturally held responsible.

In an attempt to quell the situation, Norma offered to resign from her position as mentor, but this idea was immediately rejected by Olina.

Orina believes.

Norma, as the mentor, bears responsibility for inadequate supervision, but the student's death was ultimately caused by Tych's unauthorized actions and the experiment funded by the Lancy family.

The real culprits for the student's death are the Lancy family and Yvette, who is behind them.

The Milus family was well aware of this, and their choice to target Norma was simply because the Lancy family had already declined and Yvette and her group could not be found.

They then sought a scapegoat to vent their anger.

After Orina exposed his scheme, he demanded some compensation, and that was the end of it.

After all, the Milus family has many offspring, and Tyki's qualifications among them are not particularly outstanding.

Of all the people present, Claire is the one who is suffering the most right now.

She watched helplessly as the duchy teetered on the brink of collapse.

------

"Father!"

"Didn't you always tell me that I should dedicate everything of my family to the duchy?"

"King Berlein has been captured, and the Duchy of Ferrante is in dire straits! Shouldn't we help Claire weather this crisis?"

Anselm City.

Inside the Rema family's council hall, Maggie was arguing with Yann.

She is very dissatisfied with her father's current actions.

"But Father, when the Duchy needed people to stand up the most, you chose to expand your power, recruit a large number of mages, and prepare to attack the city of Kanosa!"

"This is a betrayal of the duchy!!!"

With a pipe dangling from his lips, Yann looked at Maggie meaningfully and said, "Daughter, you are still too young. There are many things you don't understand yet."

"Claire is indeed excellent, but she is a sinner of the duchy, burdened with the name of the child of the devil. According to the law, she has no right to inherit."

"If we put her on the throne, it will inevitably plunge the duchy into deeper turmoil. In the worst case, it could even lead to a split. And at that time, the Rema family will be regarded as the culprit and become the target of all the nobles."

“We cannot help Claire.”

"and......"

Yann gently exhaled a puff of smoke and casually picked up the wine beside him: "The Phoenix family has been sitting on the throne for too long. It's time for a change."

The last sentence reveals Yann's truest thoughts.

A marquis who doesn't want to be king is not a good marquis.

The same goes for Yann.

All I can say is that the allure of power is simply too strong.

“But Father! If it weren’t for Claire, I would have died long ago! When the assassins attacked the camp, it was Claire who stood up for us! She helped us!”

"But when it came time for us to repay their kindness, not a single person stood up. Everyone was thinking about seizing the throne and stabbing Claire in the back!"

"I cannot accept this!!!"

Yaen's eyelids twitched.

Yann expressed his gratitude to Claire for protecting Maggie.

But faced with the vacant throne before them, this gratitude could only remain in their hearts.

“I’ve made my decision, and I won’t change it.” Yann placed his pipe on the table, stood up, and left. “And, Maggie.”

“Even if we don’t take action, other nobles will storm Canosa and seize the throne.”

"From this moment on, the throne of the Duchy of Ferrante no longer belongs to the Phoenix family."

"No one will care about a princess who has been exiled."

"If you want to join this battle, then join. If you don't want to, then stay home. Once everything settles down, people will judge what we've done."

boom.

The door was closed, leaving Maggie alone, head down, clenching her fists in resentment.

Since enrolling, they initially clashed because they couldn't stand Claire's talent, but later reconciled and fought together in the skills assessment competition.

And then...

Despite the Lancy family's aggressive attack, Claire remained by his side. Even Antovia, who would decide the outcome of the battle, was brought to him by Claire.

They never left from beginning to end.

The Academy made an undeniable contribution to the Rema family's survival of this upheaval and their subsequent consolidation of the Anseth City territory.

Claire was also a great help.

Now, his own father is leading troops into Canosa to seize the throne.

She gained nothing through her own efforts, yet she received benefits for no reason and then betrayed her benefactor, Claire.

What an irony...

Maggie was in extreme inner turmoil.

On one hand, there was her friendship with Claire.

On the other hand, there is the interest of the family.