I Ascend to the Divine Throne through Arcane Means

Dillon Kingdom, on a small hill near the Luoxue Mountain Range.

Lis contentedly shifted his gaze away from the system panel.

100,000 contribution points from Feis Kingdom, honestly, in his previous life Lis had worked tirelessly on Feis Kingdom's 2.0 main quest and had never received so many contribution points, implying that he could exchange them for many benefits in the kingdom.

For players, contribution points could be exchanged for certain physical rewards from Feis Kingdom, or even for military ranks within the Kingdom Military.

However, for Lis, those physical rewards had lost all their allure, since he was a man who had even entered the Royal Palace Treasure Vault.

Contribution points represented the embodiment of Lis's achievements in the kingdom, and were also laying the groundwork for obtaining actual sealed territories in the future.

The rewards for the main quest had increased significantly, but the "Siege Master" specialty was indeed quite impressive and could prove to be extremely effective under special circumstances.

Lis looked up, gazing at the desolate hills before him, all blanketed in snow.

This was also the true state of Dillon Kingdom, whose vast territory was almost double that of Feis Kingdom, but due to the harsh environment and sparse population, its overall national strength was significantly weaker than that of Feis Kingdom.

If it weren't for Dillon Kingdom's lack of threatening neighboring countries, allowing it to focus all its national strength on invading Feis Kingdom, while most of Feis Kingdom's strength was tied up elsewhere, the warfare in the Northern Kingdom would not have dragged on for so long.

It should be around January 10th now, and there's ample time to reach Ice Peak City before March.

Lis glanced northward, toward where the Royal Capital of Dillon Kingdom was located, also the most prosperous city in Dillon Kingdom.

"I am starting to look forward to that carnage of mutual destruction!"

The corners of Lis's mouth turned upwards slightly as he muttered to himself:

"How could such a major event happen without me, Moriarty?"

"Let me add more fuel to the fire!"

As his words fell, Lis's figure also vanished from the spot.

The desolate hill regained a moment of silence, interrupted only by a small arctic hare cautiously poking its head out from a snow cave, checking to see if the fellow who had collapsed its home had left.

...

Several days later, Ice Peak City, Dillon Ice Castle Palace.

King Lukar Dilon pressed his right hand against his temple, his eyes closed, leaning back on a plush white sofa, his expression somewhat somber.

Ding-dong~

"Your Majesty."

After a gentle knock, the Minister of Internal Affairs, Anna Sifos, entered and bowed respectfully to Lukar.

"Anna, you're here."

Hearing the voice of his trusted minister, Lukar opened his eyes and handed over two letters to him.

"Look at these, they are reports from Austin and Abbas respectively."

"Austin and Abbas?"

Although Anna found it surprising, he immediately took the letters and began to read them carefully.

Austin was specifically sent by Lukar to the Luoxue Mountain Range to perform a secret mission, and Abbas was under Austin, who ideally should not be reporting directly to Lukar bypassing Austin.

But Anna knew Abbas was a covert agent Lukar had placed in the Kingdom Military. Although Lukar trusted Austin's loyalty, he still needed certain measures to ensure the loyalty of the Kingdom Army.

"This is?"

After putting down the letters, Anna sat opposite Lukar.

"I should have listened to you before."

Lukar sighed wearily.

"The castle being built in West Valley was completely destroyed, according to Abbas's report, even the land where the castle stood has been contaminated."

Anna knew clearly, Lukar had consulted him about this matter before, and he had cautiously opposed it at the time.

Believing there was no need to specifically build two castles, as it would not be very useful but might prematurely alert Feis Kingdom.

After that incident, Lukar never brought it up again, but now it seemed that Austin had indeed been sent to the Luoxue Mountains to carry out that plan.

"There's no need to worry overly, Your Majesty."

Anna didn't continue to question, to showcase his foresight from before, which was utterly meaningless.

"It doesn't have much impact on our future plans; it just consumed some manpower and financial resources."

"The attention of the Feis Kingdom is still on the east, as long as no results have emerged there, even if they notice our actions, they won't have the spare capacity."

"Hmm."

Lukar leaned on the sofa, and a servant quickly brought him a blanket made from polar bear skin to cover his body.

After a silence, Lukar asked in a low voice:

"What has Stran been up to lately?"

Anna also paused for a moment, then said seriously:

"Duke Ward has been quite active recently, attending many balls in the Royal Capital, quite lively."

"So far, no special actions have been detected."

"Hmm..."

Lukar let out a cold laugh, saying somewhat sinisterly:

"He... has a guilty conscience, what is he trying to hide?"

"Anna, have the Ice Hidden continue to investigate; I refuse to believe he can keep everything seamless."

"Yes!"

Anna inwardly sighed, nodding in understanding.

In Anna's view, with so many major movements in the Kingdom lately, what was most needed now was stability.

Before making a move on the Feis Kingdom, any action that consumed themselves was wasteful.

But Anna also knew that persuading King Lukar to drop his hostility toward Duke Ward would be like adding fuel to the fire.

Hopefully... the Duke Ward wouldn't be so foolish to harbor any small schemes.

...

Ice Peak City, the mansion of Duke Ward.

This was a gorgeous, delicate villa located in the eastern district of Ice Peak City, unlike the commonly seen rugged and bold architecture around.

Just like the master of this mansion, its style was special, markedly different, not at all like the straightforward and bold Dilon people, but more like those astute people from Feis.

This made Duke Ward less popular in the Kingdom, but at the same time, he also had a following of his own.

"Bella, our His Majesty the King seems to be plotting something again recently," said the master of the mansion, Duke Ward, as he swirled his glass of red wine and spoke with a light laugh.

Bella Milne, the only female marquis in the Dillon Kingdom, had always been ostracized by the Kingdom's nobles who advocated for strength above all, which also caused her to tightly band together with Duke Ward, forming a close alliance of interests.

Others might underestimate this Marchioness Milne, but Duke Ward certainly would not.

This was a genuinely ruthless person, who would stop at nothing to achieve her goals.

But she was a smart person, and Duke Ward liked to cooperate with smart people.

"Stran, are you scared?"

Bella, reclining on the sofa, fiddled with her nails, speaking in a nonchalant tone, as if applying nail polish was a far more important matter to her.

"Scared?"

Stran Ward turned his head to glance at Bella and said teasingly:

"Yes, I'm scared, therefore I think we need to do something."