I will be crowned king

Not surprisingly, Sophia Franz's first pub speech... was a huge success.

There were many middle-level and lower-level officers present who came after hearing the news. The soldiers stood on a podium built with more than a dozen beer barrels and ammunition boxes, not caring that their lace skirts and small leather shoes were stained with alcohol. The mud-stained Minister of War almost wanted to write "sincerity and fear" directly on his face.

Sophia was originally going to meet His Royal Highness the Crown Prince today, so she naturally dressed up carefully: her long hair was tied up high, which made her already well-defined facial contours even more intelligent and capable. She wore dark blue silk The long skirt fully showcases the girl's proud upper body curves, exuding an aura like a gem-encrusted or crystal crown from head to toe.

The top-notch external packaging of Clovis's upper class, coupled with the innate elegance cultivated in the church, formed an absolute dimensionality-reducing blow to the middle and low-level officers who were basically born in the lower class.

Especially when he learned that the "girl" in front of him was the Minister of War, the highest representative of all Clovis soldiers before the king, even the most informal person fell silent and subconsciously pushed away the table. Beer mug, trying to straighten his appearance with hands with black mud between his fingernails.

But the girl didn't care about these, or she was actually quite excited, even a little too excited - usually not to mention the Privy Council members, cabinet ministers, wealthy nobles... even the wealthy businessmen doing business with the Franz family , and no one would look at me like this.

They respect themselves, fear themselves, and fear their Minister of War, Sophia Franz... Her Excellency.

So after a brief silence, Sophia immediately used her rich social experience. Not only did she not care about the smell of tobacco and alcohol in the air, but she also tried to minimize the "palace style" honorifics, but she also did not deliberately imitate the so-called "Soldier tone", smooth and generous, as if chatting, he recounted the speech he had hastily prepared a few minutes ago.

Relying on the list information provided by a certain commander-in-chief, the young girl who participated in such an occasion for the first time even boldly chatted with the officers in the audience. After learning their identity, she could easily tell the other party's qualifications, positions and military achievements; originally, it was When the restrained officers saw that the "Minister of War" actually cared about them, they all let go of their restraints and took the initiative to approach her, hoping to win the girl's favor. The originally cold atmosphere suddenly became lively.

"I really didn't expect it to go so smoothly?"

Karl, who was hiding in the corner of the tavern, picked up the beer glass on the table, propped his head and looked blankly at Sophia, who was already surrounded by a group of "admirers". His expression was astonishing: "I thought for sure... "

"Surely something is going to happen?"

After sizing up the chief of staff, who was born, Anson chuckled and took over.

"Yes...ah! Can you please stop making such malicious assumptions about others, especially an honest person like me?" Karl rolled his eyes: "How do you know that she will definitely agree to come with us, let's prepare a speech in advance Drafted?"

"Why do you know...it's very simple."

Anson spread his hands: "No matter what she plans to do next, as long as I can convince her to come here, won't it be enough?"

"Then what if I can't be convinced, or the effect of my speech is not good?"

"This is even simpler. The former is a false proposition, because I definitely have a way to convince her. As for the latter..." Anson snapped his fingers and looked at the audience who were high-spirited with her on the podium. Cheering and cheering, the only thing missing was the girl who called her brothers:

"I think facts are the best evidence."

"You really never know what modesty is."

"Reward after award, I am still too careful. Otherwise, I should be more confident - directly let the Minister of War join the "Red Heart" as secretary. The effect may be even better than now."

"...Well, that makes sense."

Before he finished speaking, an indescribable strange feeling surged into Karl's heart, causing him to sit up suddenly: "伱...you are not serious, are you?!"

"Why not?" Anson shook his wine glass gently: "I have thought about it carefully. If Sophia joins, only the position of secretary seems to be more suitable."

"Of course, if this is really the case, then I have to wrong you first - the positions of deputy committee members of Fabian and Erich cannot be moved, and you can only be temporarily allowed to serve as committee members for a period of time. They will be adjusted after the re-election. Let’s see how we should arrange it.”

"I have seriously considered this matter. Although the 'Red Heart' overlaps with the officer corps of the Storm Legion, most people are better off not letting them join the executive committee and just keep a low profile as much as possible - now this The biggest task of the organization is to unite the officers who were previously marginalized by the Army Department; the more people we unite, the more important 'True Heart' will be to the new Army Department."

Anson's tone was understated, but his eyes became more serious: "For us now, strengthening ourselves is the greatest benefit."

With the status of the Storm Legion, it is meaningless to compete head-on with Ludwig for control of the Army Department. Then we can only start from the grassroots level, grasp the ability to deal with and solve problems in our hands, and gradually encroach on various functions of the Army Department. .

This is also the reason why Anson dares to raise the issue of "public security chaos in Clovis City" and is confident enough to solve it: more than one-third of the actual commanders of the militia are related to the shotgun club, and now this club has Become the peripheral grassroots organization of "True Heart".

In other words, as long as "Red Heart" continues to grow, nearly one-third of Clovis City will be under its actual control; chaos or peace is really just a matter of words.

Ludwig was not aware of this yet, and mistakenly thought that he was competing with him for the right to speak by winning over the lower-level officers; Viscount Bogner also was not aware of this, and mistakenly thought that the chaos was only temporary. Once the new king takes the throne, the city of Clovis can return to its former state, except that it will have a strong war department.

Everyone thought that nothing would change, but they did not realize that the change had already occurred; from the moment Carlos II died in the hands of Queen Anne, the world was no longer what they were familiar with; only the last The party that first realizes the changes in the situation and the relationship between ourselves and the enemy can take the upper hand in the subsequent fight.

"Cheers to Clovis's future!"

The girl surrounded by the crowd raised a large glass of dark beer with one hand, and her heroic gesture attracted countless cheers.

……………………

The dim room, the flickering candlelight, the extremely hard bed board and the velvet quilt... these were all the information that the girl felt the first time she opened her eyes.

After a brief awakening, what followed was a splitting pain like weightlessness in the head, followed by an indescribable loss of consciousness - the eyes were dull, unable to think, as if the soul was out of the body, completely Can't feel the passage of time.

After a while, the girl who finally regained her senses began to struggle to get up, leaning on the bedside while holding her head, looking around with the help of the flickering candlestick.

"Are you awake?"

"Um……"

Sophia responded subconsciously, but then her memory was recalled by this familiar voice. She curled up like a frightened rabbit and looked forward with wide eyes:

"It's you?!"

"Of course it's me." Anson, who was sitting in the corner of the room, looked innocent: "Who else could it be?"

But of course that's not what Sophia is concerned about now. She cautiously pulled up the quilt to cover her whole body: "Where is this, why am I here?!"

"Uh...this is the Truth-seeking Club, the headquarters of the Clovis Judges." Anson glanced at the closed door next to him: "As for why you are here, it started when someone was drunk. …”

"Drunk?!" The girl's expression became even more frightened, and she forced herself to show an angry expression: "I'm drunk?!"

"You drank almost...well, at least four liters of dark beer in a tavern in the outer city. You partyed from the afternoon until late at night. During this period, you gave four impromptu speeches and gave at least a hundred people free orders. "

Anson looked at the girl carefully: "Don't you remember all of this?"

"I……"

Just when Sophia was about to say something, she felt her head hurt more and more. The memory in her mind seemed to be only a few very vague flashback fragments, but even if they were just fragments, those expressions were different from her previous ones, and she was so excited that she lost control. , still made the girl angry:

"Okay, those are not important! What is important is why I... I am in the Inquisitor's... headquarters?!"

"Well, this is complicated to explain. It starts after you get drunk..."

"Tell the important point!"

"After careful consideration, we think it might not be a good thing for you to go home in that state." Seeing the girl's embarrassment, Anson also restrained his smile slightly:

"It may not have mattered in the past, but now you are the Minister of War in Clovis, a representative of hundreds of thousands of armies; everyone's eyes are staring at you: the generals, officials of the War Department, members of the Privy Council..."

"Enemies and friends, they are all paying attention to your every move; especially at this special time, when the bones of His Majesty Carlos II are still cold and the New Year's banquet that affects the future of the kingdom is about to take place, it is reported that the Minister of War was drunk Drunk, rumors about returning home late at night and early in the morning..."

"Okay, no need to say more!"

The face of the girl who hurriedly stole the ball was slightly distorted. Her emotions included the thrilling feeling of almost having a bad outcome, but also a little bit of pride that "she could finally attract the attention of others."

Anson didn't intend to continue talking. He smiled and picked up a book on dressing etiquette next to him and flipped through it.

The silent Sophia carefully looked at her body and changed into new clothes. The original long skirt was neatly placed on the other side of the bed. There was a handwritten letter from the little maid on it. The general content was about Sophia's cleaning and dressing after she was drunk. She and another female inquisitor were responsible for it. After placing her in place, Anson Bach left and went to the Consecrated Palace.

The end of the letter marked the time as nine o'clock in the morning on January 4th, but now this guy was sitting in front of her... The girl raised her head and asked slightly uneasily:

"what time is it now?"

"Ten forty-five." Anson said solemnly, "Of course, it's night."

"Ten...forty-five in the evening?!"

Sophia's eyes suddenly widened: "I...I...I slept...for a whole day and a night?!"

"Almost... In ten hours, the New Year's Eve party will begin."

"Why don't you wake me up?!"

"Because in your hungover state, even if you wake up, it won't help." Anson raised his eyebrows: "In this case, it is best to let you wake up naturally... Or you can actually ask the judges outside, because I just came here too."

"What does this have to do with the Inquisitor? The problem is that we don't have enough time!"

The girl panicked and shouted: "In ten hours there will be a New Year's banquet, makeup, dress, and new ceremony regulations... These all need to be prepared in advance - no, I must return to Franz's residence immediately!"

"That... I still don't think this is a good choice." Anson raised his right hand: "The Secretary of War returned home late at night, and his whereabouts are a mystery - if they know that you came back from Frederick Street, I think it will be the same as yours. Drunk news is not much different.”

"What should I do?!" Sophia was completely panicked: "Even if I wait until tomorrow morning, I still can't explain why I am not at home at the Dedication Palace, but in a... mysterious club on Friedrichstrasse?!"

"That's right, so you need a reason, a good enough reason."

Anson nodded matter-of-factly: "As long as it at least sounds reasonable, with Sophia Franz's status in the Clovis media world, I believe no one will dare to spread rumors and cause trouble."

"Now that we have the reason, what about the makeup and dress?" Sophia was still worried: "If we wait until tomorrow morning to return to the mansion to prepare, it will definitely be too late!"

"That's right, so the reason why you didn't return to the mansion and suddenly showed up at a mysterious club on Friedrich Street was to pick up the specially customized dress that was carefully prepared for the New Year's party!"

Anson put down the book in his hand, stood up and walked to the door step by step: "As for the makeup, your loyal maid Angelica has already fetched all the makeup in advance and started preparing it in the next room."

The girl was stunned for a moment. The effects of her hangover made her somewhat unable to keep up with Anson's pace.

"Now...please allow me to introduce to you, the heir to the famous tailor shop, the leading logistics specialist of the Clovis Tribunal, and the top clothing designer - Old Alfred the Tailor!"

After the words fell, Anson opened the door with a "bang", and a girl wearing a pure black vest, trousers and a bottoming shirt, holding a half-top hat, appeared.