I will be crowned king

With Her Majesty the Queen's sincere instructions, Anson followed Sophia and left the Osteria Palace. As soon as he left the house, he was forcefully dragged into the carriage by the girl. Without saying a word, the car door was closed with a "Bang——!" .

He opened the window curtains and looked at the little maid Angelica, who was sitting in the coachman's seat, put on a men's dress, wearing a top hat, and holding a riding crop. He finally couldn't help but look at the girl opposite:

"Where are we going?"

"Where to go? I should ask you this, Brigadier General." Sophia opened the cabinet in the carriage without raising her head, and took out two filled pear-shaped glass bottles with corks on them: "You are now Very busy?"

"Well..." Anson hesitated for a moment, and then quickly gave the answer: "I can't be busy!"

"Very good, because Angelica just found your secretary a few minutes ago and told him that you will not go to the tavern in the outer city today to give a speech to the officers who admire the 'True Heart' Chairman. Instead, you will People are already on the way... Oh, that's Lieutenant Colonel Company." The girl seemed to mention it inadvertently:

"I heard that he is also your admirer. He will definitely do his best for this opportunity to show up for his idol."

Anson couldn't help but twitch his lips: "You, you even know this?"

"What do you mean you know all this? As the number one investor in the Storm Legion, isn't it the most important thing to know your subordinates?" Sophia snorted coldly, deliberately emphasizing the word "number one":

"It seems that the commander-in-chief who is responsible for the actual operation of the legion really doesn't want me to know about some of his little actions...such as unclear investments from the Luen family, and unclear relationships with the Roland family and the Bernard family. Chu’s cooperation or something.”

As she said that, the girl smashed the glass bottle on the small table on the right side of the carriage with a "Boom!"

"Uh..." Seeing that she seemed to have some emotional deviation, Anson, who had no idea what was going on, forced himself to show an eight-toothed smile: "It seems it's still daytime now. Isn't it a little too early to drink?"

"Who stipulates this?" Sophia said angrily: "Close your eyes!"

"ah?"

Just when Anson was about to ask something, he felt a burst of water mist spray on his face, his chest, upper body and both sides of his arms. The air was suddenly filled with a strong smell that seemed to be the essence of flowers.

"At this time, the powerful perfume specially used to suppress body odor can well cover up the smell of tobacco and gunpowder on your body that cannot be washed away." The girl snorted softly: "But I am still not very confident, so I asked the store manager to We specially prepared one to reduce the dilution ratio of materials and water.”

"Is it really that effective?" Anson smelled his clothes subconsciously.

"Probably not, but you still have to struggle."

Sofia knocked hard on the roof of the carriage: "Angelica, let's go!"

After the words fell, the carriage slowly left the gate of Osteria Palace and headed east along the street.

"So where exactly are we going?"

"Meet someone."

"who?"

"you guess."

Holding her shoulders, the girl raised her eyebrows slightly: "I'll tell you if I guess it right."

"That...guessed it right, don't I need you to tell me?"

"...Would you guess?"

"I guess, I guess."

With a smile to comfort the girl who was about to explode, Anson took a deep breath, quickly glanced at the clean car, and began to sort out the information he had:

"The time now is exactly two o'clock in the afternoon. Normally you should go to the club to enjoy afternoon tea, or return to the Dedication Palace to solve the security problems plaguing Clovis City... Running to find someone at this time means that this person is in your It’s important in your eyes and deserves to be taken seriously.”

"Excluding the options that are definitely impossible, the only three I can think of are the Archbishop, Major General Ludwig, and Draco Wirts."

"Yes." The girl's mouth showed a smile that could hardly be concealed: "Continue."

"Then first of all, we can rule out Major General Ludwig. If you really want to go out of your way to see him, you don't have to be so anxious. Anyway, he won't go anywhere except the Consecration Palace. The same goes for Archbishop Luther Franz. I don’t think you will go to see him with great fanfare...so the answer is ready to come out..."

"That's it." Sophia tried her best to pretend not to mind: "You think the person we are going to see is..."

"His Royal Highness Nicholas Osteria."

Anson blinked: "Am I right?"

"You..." The girl's eyes widened with confusion on her face: "How could you think it was him?!"

"Why? It's very simple."

The Commander-in-Chief said very matter-of-factly: "We have just come out of Osteria Palace and received the important task entrusted to us by Her Majesty the Queen. Isn't it normal to suddenly think of meeting His Highness?"

"Besides, you also specially prepared perfume. Unless you expected it in advance, why would you have this?"

"Since you know it, why do you still mention the three of them just now?!"

"Because you are asking me to guess, no matter how small the probability is, you can't turn a blind eye - of course if it is really one of the three people, it is really beyond my expectation."

"you……?!"

The angry girl was speechless and could only stare at the guy in front of her.

"So...we are really going to see His Highness Nicholas?"

Anson couldn't help but ask.

"Yes! That's right! You guessed it right! Is that okay?!" Sophia turned her head out of the car window: "Before Queen Anne came to me, I had a hunch about this, so I was going to introduce you to His Highness. Let the future King of Clovis meet his loyal general to gain you some impression points, what’s the problem?”

"There is no problem." Anson shook his head quickly, with a smile on his face: "Based on the current situation, it is indeed the most beneficial result for us to let His Highness Nicholas ascend the throne. In this case, of course we must win over His Highness himself, at least You must also let him know his loyal ministers, and your ideas are completely correct, rational and logical."

"snort."

"In this case, your Excellency, the Honorable Minister of War, I have a small suggestion. I wonder if you can speak it?"

"Tell me, what's your suggestion?"

"My advice is, don't go."

"……Um?"

Seemingly unable to react, Sophia was stunned.

"Let's not go see His Highness Nicholas." Anson gradually faded his smile: "Before the New Year's banquet the day after tomorrow, it is best not to let His Highness have the opportunity to meet us - whether intentionally or unintentionally."

"Why?"

The girl really didn't understand now and subconsciously sat up straight: "Didn't you just say that His Highness's existence is the most beneficial to us and that we should strive for his favor?"

"Yes, that's for sure. The key is whether he knows it himself? And...do others know it?" Anson asked: "If they all knew it, would they choose to remain indifferent?"

"My dear Lord, Minister of War, things are different now than before the mutiny. At that time, most of the people in Clovis were our friends. Now we have many more enemies, and our former allies are not as reliable as before. They are also our competitors and will not just watch us win over His Highness."

"That's right, but if that's the case, shouldn't it be more important to strike first?" Sophia still didn't understand: "The sooner we take action and gain His Highness' favor, the better we can seize the opportunity?"

"It is right to seize the opportunity, but the key is when to be first?"

Anson took a deep breath: "What kind of person do you think His Highness Nicholas is? I mean in terms of personality and abilities."

"Is this... a little grown-up with some talent?" Sophia frowned: "I haven't met him many times, and to be honest, I don't have a good impression - he wants to show his... childish maturity too much!"

"Childish maturity is really a penetrating comment."

Anson praised without hesitation: "My personal bias is that this kind of child who considers himself mature and intelligent will have a spontaneous self-confidence and think that the world revolves around him; when he realizes that he is When the choice will be beneficial to some people, he will naturally design a script that suits his ideas."

"Script?" As a loyal reader of Draco's detective novels, Sophia certainly understood what Anson was talking about: "You mean he can guess that we will come to the door and deliberately try to please him?"

"And if we hadn't done that, he would have thought that we were pretending not to care, but actually we were anxiously waiting for his proactive response." Anson smiled:

"For such people, the world is like a play on the stage, with a 'script', and they are the protagonists in the 'script'. All stories start with them, unfold around them, and end with them. Ending with their big show.”

"I'm not saying there is anything wrong with this kind of personality, but if he maintains this attitude, coming to the door would be like walking into his 'script', and our kindness and flattery will become a matter of course in his eyes. ——How could an actor not follow his own lines?"

"I see... So if things go as he expected, it's impossible for us to make him like us."

Sophia murmured to herself, but soon realized something: "No! According to your theory, isn't it impossible for us to win his favor no matter what we do?!"

"That's true, or I don't think we have to win over His Highness Nicholas." Anson said with relief: "In the final analysis, we don't need him to like us, we just need to make sure that after he ascends the throne, he will act in accordance with our requirements. Just carry on with the desired results.”

"Being friends is great, but being a partner in terms of benefits... I don't think there's anything wrong with that."

"That makes sense."

The girl nodded, but still had some thoughts that she refused to give up easily: "But can the alliance formed like this really be strong?"

"Maybe we should ask Archbishop Luther, is the closeness between him and His Majesty Carlos II really just based on their decades of friendship?"

Anson asked with a chuckle, feeling suddenly cold in his heart.

Yes, even with decades of friendship as a guarantee, Luther Franz still gave up on Carlos II in the end, simply because of the last ballast stone of His Majesty King Clovis.

As long as he is alive, Clovis can maintain some kind of transcendent steady state. No matter what, chaos will return to a certain midpoint of balance and order, suppressing all forces of conservatism and change.

This was very good in the past, and can even be regarded as the fundamental reason why Clovis can compete with the empire: a super-stable government that will never fight internally, can always reach a tacit compromise at the end, and unite to fight against foreign enemies, and is almost impossible to be defeated. .

But its stability also prevents the power that could break through the order from being exerted; the kingdom can change, but only a little; the conservative power can be disintegrated, but not bloody, it must be steady and constant compromise, Deal, concession...

Luther Franz was able to accept it in the past, but now obviously for some reasons, he can no longer tolerate this slow and ineffective "super-stable state"; so he destroyed this ballast with his own hands Shi let all the contradictions and conflicts break out; while he retreated behind the scenes and watched with cold eyes.

On the other side, Sophia fell into silence for a long time. The death of Carlos II also touched her greatly; and Anson's words also made her realize something.

"So... we should temporarily leave His Highness Nicholas alone, let him feel neglected and threatened, and finally take the initiative to win over us?"

"No, it is a fair negotiation to confirm how everyone should cooperate." Anson shook his head: "The reason why Carlos II valued Archbishop Luther's opinion is because Clovis Cathedral has shouldered the burden of many of the kingdom's foreign wars. , it is not an exaggeration to regard the archbishop as Clovis’ second finance minister.”

"He can provide loans, and of course he can cut off the loans, allowing all the problems caused by the war to break out in the kingdom; Luther Franz did not do this, but Carlos II clearly knew that he had this ability ." Anson knocked on the table: "Our friendship with His Highness Nicholas should also learn from them."

"How to study?"

"The security of Clovis City is the most troublesome issue at the moment. No one can control the numerous militiamen. Therefore, whoever can maintain the security of Clovis City at this time is the ally that the new king must win over and gain. ." The corners of Anson's mouth began to rise proudly:

"We should make His Majesty realize that his loyal troops can do this small thing for him."

"It makes sense, but we can't do it now, can we?" Sophia asked back: "It is impossible for those militiamen to obey the orders of the Ministry of War easily."

"That's right, but nearly half of the leading officers of the militia belong to or have a good relationship with the shotgun club, and the shotgun club also has a very good relationship with 'Bare Heart'." Anson smiled:

"By coincidence, I know that there is a lecture co-organized by both parties. It is in a tavern in the outer city. Is the Minister of War interested?"