I will be crowned king

Ludwig is planning how to use the shares of the New World Company to destroy the connection between Anson and the Free Confederacy, thereby suppressing the War Department, which has expanded out of control.

A person's point of view is closely related to his position; when he was a major general, Ludwig always felt that the power of the Ministry of War was too small, and it could not even control the standing army of hundreds of thousands of people.

Now that he has become the nominal supreme leader of the Privy Council, he immediately begins to feel that the new Ministry of War is a thorn in his side. He wants to split it into three, then transfer some of the power to the Privy Council, and establish several committees directly under his jurisdiction. .

Of course, ideas are ideas, and the change of position will not make him lose his brain - for this brand-new Ministry of War, the city of Clovis has just fought an abnormal civil war, and thousands of people died before finally reaching a consensus. It is definitely not someone A person can be easily swayed by a few words.

But being unable to shake does not mean that it cannot be broken from within, just as he does not think that the relationship between Sophia and Anson is rock solid; the ownership of the shares will definitely cause conflicts between the two: his lovely sister will definitely also He really wanted to come back, so he tried his best to persuade or force Anson to come forward to ask for it, which laid hidden dangers for the relationship between the two.

Well, just thinking about it makes Ludwig blush because of the darkness and shamelessness in his heart.

But if the alliance between the two cannot be broken up, Ludwig really has no better way - the Southern Army is not in Clovis, and Anson Bach, in addition to the Storm Army, now also controls the Royal Guards in Clovis. The city's absolute political core armed force; if we don't take some despicable means, there is no chance of winning in a head-on contest.

He also knew that the seemingly united reformists and conservatives were taking advantage of him; but if he could seize this opportunity and establish the authority of the Prime Minister's Office, he would break Clovis's centuries-old political tradition and create a new one. era.

Most importantly... Ludwig Franz knew very well that this couldn't stop.

The Franz family cannot have two leaders, and the huge Kingdom of Clovis cannot accommodate two loyal ministers.

On the other side, Anson seemed completely unaware of this. He abandoned his work at the War Department and the "Red Heart" organization and ran to No. 55 Boreman Street alone.

Walking up the narrow stairs, Anson did not linger in front of the familiar door, but went straight to the other door on the opposite side - William Gottfried's cabin.

After the mutiny ended, the "mathematician" wanted by the Inquisition - at least that's what he called himself - finally gained partial freedom, but was still not allowed to leave Bremen Street, and was reinforced by his colleague Cole Dorian. In order to monitor Anson, a lot of additional manpower was dispatched.

Or in his words, it was to improve the security level of a certain Lieutenant General.

In order to prevent his and Lisa's "little fortress" from being ruined by this unkempt scholar, Anson rented the house next door from Mrs. Bognar as his own residence.

In the not-so-spacious living room, William was sitting cross-legged on the sofa with his back to the door, staring blankly at a pencil-drawn line drawing; the walls on both sides were covered with layers of tacks, written by him. With manuscript papers covered with various symbols and numbers, the floor and ceiling simply turned into blackboards for him to scribble on. At first glance, it seemed like a realistic depiction of trypophobia.

Well, it seems that in addition to the rent, I'm afraid I'll have to make up for the renovation costs when I check out... The corners of Anson's mouth twitched slightly, and he picked up the drafts piled on the sofa and sat across from William, completely immersed in thinking. The latter didn't notice anything strange.

In other words, even if he notices it, he won't have any unnecessary emotions - even though they don't spend much time and frequency together, Anson has begun to get used to the way of communicating with the other party.

Any politeness or politeness is superfluous in front of this person. Perhaps because of the study of ancient runes, the other person's way of understanding things has completely transcended the category of "normal people".

While waiting, Anson also picked up the scratch paper on the sofa and took a look at it casually. Although he still couldn't understand it at all, his basic understanding was still fine - of course, with the help of "field".

In William's words, the core function of ancient runes is to build a bridge of "communication" between all things; since it is communication, of course it must first be easy to understand; ordinary people cannot understand it, first of all because they If you are not willing to accept it, as a species of life, you are naturally resistant to communicating with anyone who is different from you. Of course, you will not be able to understand this tool for communication.

Anson can't understand it either, but he can use the power of the field of law to "distort" his way of understanding and roughly understand the content of the draft:

"... In short, the prerequisite for distorting other people's cognition is that you must have a minimum understanding of the target, and the way of understanding will also have a huge impact on the subsequent 'confusion' - to describe it specifically, it can be collected from the outside world The subjective cognition after personal contact with the information will be very surprising..."

"...The two are different in nature, and there is no distinction between them, but the prerequisite is that they must be 'prepared'. This can be regarded as a breakthrough in research. In other words, the other party's ability and time are closely related... …”

"...It takes time to use abilities, and the manifestation of abilities is also related to time...To use an exaggerated metaphor, the other party seems to be able to travel through time at will, but the form is very special, and it is done simultaneously with him in reality."

"...Wait a minute, I really want to be trapped in some kind of thinking prison... Why does consciousness and body have to be synchronized to travel through the time line? Why can't they be separated? Why can't there be more than one consciousness... Why at 11:59? Can't I and the me at twelve o'clock be the two natural me?"

"Actually...this...is completely possible...right?"

"There are two Wilhelm Gottfrieds on two timelines at the same time, each independent of each other and at the same time an inseparable whole; in fact, it might make sense if we use a 'mirror' instead of a 'line' to describe it. ...Layered mirrors, if you break into one of them, you can glimpse the beginning and end of the closure..."

"But if he can break into other people's timelines and smear and tamper with them at will, then it cannot explain why Anson Bach was able to find abnormalities in his cognition... Well, maybe the power of curse magic can explain the choice of this kind of magic. The evolver suffers the strongest repulsion from the world, and also possesses the highest independence among the three major magics..."

"So the other party did successfully intervene, but the person who was interfered with was Anson Bach in the timeline who 'did not become the Conjurer', because his power could not directly affect the 'Conjurer Anson Bach' and could only pass through time. Power indirectly interferes...well, interesting..."

It seems that he really cares about little Périgord's special powers... Anson, who felt more and more exhausted as he watched, couldn't help but secretly thought to himself.

Although he has not read it all, he understands the general content to a certain extent - on the surface, Little Périgord's power can interfere with and modify other people's memories, but in fact it is an ability to travel through time; when he comes into contact with or passes through The way to understand someone is to let the "self" in another timeline influence and distort that period of time in the other person's memory.

In this way, he can not only replace someone in his memory, but can even experience a complete life with that person, leaving an extremely deep impression on the target's memory; but time will not disappear in a vacuum, so The original memory will not disappear out of thin air. The two will naturally cause the target's memory disorder, which is similar to the Queen Mother Anne who almost went crazy after assassinating Carlos.

The ability to mobilize the timeline made Anson couldn't help but think of what Lu En once said when he was still in the new world:

"...But this time I advise you to figure out the order of the timelines first, and never get involved in more timelines before we meet for the first time; otherwise I won't even be sure who we are when you return. Friend or enemy..."

If the timeline is affected, will the perception of everything happening now be "distorted" as well?

"No, at least not for now." Wilhelm Gottfried, holding the scratch paper, suddenly said:

"I can't go into too much detail about this matter, but each timeline, at least for the person you are talking about, is not so easy to interfere with or...he is not able to create or 'delete' so easily. A certain timeline - the proof is that you still have an image of the real Maurice Périgord.”

Anson silently put down the things in his hands, his expression motionless: "Do you know what I am thinking?"

"No, I don't have the ability to interfere with his memory and timeline." William smiled: "But your expression and the things in your hands have already revealed your thoughts."

"Ancient runes are tools for communication, but you don't have to use ancient runes to communicate - I said, I am a very considerate person."

You must also know that the consequence of being so considerate is that you are often beaten violently... Anson pursed his lips and said, "So during this time, you have been studying that person's special abilities?"

"No, I gave up on that a long time ago - with my current ability and resources at hand, this kind of research project is still too difficult, and it is difficult to produce any real results." William shook his head, and then "Pop !" He snapped his fingers:

"The Difference Engine...the Difference Engine you provided me, I found a way to reproduce it."

"real?!"

Anson blurted out suddenly and almost sat up from the sofa.

Although he did have this expectation in his heart, he still couldn't control his excitement when the result finally came - without him, this was really crucial!

In fact, at this point, many things no longer require any preparation: such as becoming Clovis's unique loyal minister, such as completely defeating Ludwig, such as... becoming an enemy of the Holy See.

Among the three, the last one is obviously the most difficult, and the key point is that the Holy See monopolizes the knowledge of the entire ordered world, especially the difference engine, a technology that almost causes an absolute generation difference; if you can't master it yourself, it will be difficult to master it. What initiative.

The first thing to bear the brunt of this is the "Great Magic Book"... all the things that the old god organizations dream of, have been recorded in the memory cards by the church. It may be possible to grab the cards, but without the church knowing anything, use It would be too difficult for the card to read the contents of the "Great Magic Book" from a certain difference engine.

The Holy See controls every difference engine in the world, and is more aware of the functions of each difference engine. If you try to rob or steal, it will immediately lead to the pursuit of the Knights of Judgment and the Inquisition; if it is the behavior of the upper echelons of a certain country, , the church can also use religious beliefs to instantly ruin this person's reputation and make everyone alienate him.

In fact, a similar thing has happened once... If it weren't for the fact that the Empire sided with the Holy See, Anson tried his best to "fool" the Storm Legion and instilled the theory of "curved loyalty". Before the jihadist army could reach the New World, the colonies Here, I have betrayed my relatives and left my family first.

And if it can be reproduced, or even have the technology to create a difference engine without relying on the church at all... that will be a leap-forward breakthrough, which will not only close the technological gap with the church, but also use it to win over organizations like the Truth Society and the Holy See. The opposing organization even has the confidence to turn the whole country into an enemy!

"That difference engine...can you really build one exactly like it?!"

"Me? I can't." William kept shaking his head: "Haven't this matter been discussed before? I'm just a mathematician. I've never been good at this kind of things that involve hands-on work."

"But I know someone who can help you."

"who?"

"Lieutenant aboard the Mercy Heart airship, Elizabeth."

The expressionless Fabian suddenly opened the kitchen door and walked out. He nodded slightly to Anson under the brim of his hat: "I'm sorry for eavesdropping on your conversation with Sir William. I only followed his instructions and stayed half an hour before you." Came here and waited until now.”

"I just thought that doing this might give you a little surprise." William spread his hands and said, "Nothing else, because I only just learned that there is such a person, and your deputy commander hid it. It's really great - of course, to some extent it's also because you hid the difference engine thing so well... Well, of course it's a compliment."

"This is my fault... because you have too much contact with the church. I am worried that if you know her existence, it may put you in a disadvantageous situation, so I have kept it hidden until now." Fabian said in a low voice:

"To put it simply, I rescued Miss Elizabeth after the Heart of Mercy airship crashed. In return, she was willing to contribute her technology on how to build a difference engine..."