Imperial Crown.

Chapter 303: The Principality Prime Minister's Plot

Many thanks to Qidian Dad [Book Friend 20241117011744665] for the 390 reward!

……

"Get up quickly."

Eivor VIII grabbed the woman's wrist and pulled her into his arms:
"My wife is still so considerate."

That's right, the woman whose clothes were no different from those of the lowest dancer was Lady Twilight, the wife of Eivor VIII.

It is really beneath the dignity of the mother of a country to dress like this.

But this was the request of Eivor VIII, who liked his wife to dress in various revealing styles - of course, only in the inner court.

Cui Qi leaned lazily in the arms of Eivor VIII: "Your Highness, why did you come back so early today?"

Originally, Eivor VIII did not like to discuss serious matters in the harem, but he was in a really good mood today, so he boasted about the confrontation between himself and Gatugen.

"That six-fingered bastard always looks selfless, but what happened? Didn't I catch him being selfish?"

"You think that relying on an imaginary war can make me lose my way and obey his orders. You are looking down on me too much."

Cui Qi smiled and said, "Your Highness is really wise. It seems that my worries are unnecessary."

Eivor VIII was a little curious: "Worried? What are you worried about?"

"Actually, my brother came here earlier." Cui Qi said, "He also told me about the war."

"Quentin." Eivor VIII nodded slowly: "What did he tell you?"

Eivor VIII still trusted his brother-in-law quite a bit.

After more than ten years of fighting against Gatugen, the only major achievement that Eivor VIII achieved was to make Quentin the Marshal of the Duchy, giving him command of the Imperial Guards and local troops.

And most importantly, as long as it is an order from Eivor VIII, Quentin will carry it out to the letter and will not give up until the predetermined result is achieved.

Of course, Eivor VIII also knew that Quentin himself would inevitably gain some benefits from it, but he didn't care - this was the selfishness that people should have. Who would behave like a saint in everything like Gatugen?

Cui Qi pretended to be dissatisfied and turned her head away: "Humph, you men always use me as a mouthpiece, and none of you really want to see me. If you have anything to say, just go and ask him yourself."

Eivor VIII really enjoyed this kind of fun. He whispered in Cuiqi's ear: "Okay, then I will go to his manor tonight and come back tomorrow."

Quentin is not only greedy, but also extremely lustful.

In his manor, there are always beauties from all over the continent and of all races. It has almost become the most famous place of entertainment in the entire principality.

"You are not allowed to go." Cui Qi showed great jealousy.

"I'm going, what can you do to me?" Eivor VIII said with a smile.

Cui Qi turned back, placed her fingers on Eivor VIII's chest, unbuttoned her clothes and reached inside:

"Don't go!"

Eivor VIII shuddered and took a breath of cold air: "Okay, no, no, let's talk business first."

With a smile of victory in her eyes, Twilight no longer hesitated and began to relay Quentin's opinions.

As the Marshal of the Duchy, Quentin may not be so competent, but he also received the news that Raven was about to attack the Duchy of Eivor.

In Quentin's opinion, this was a complete joke and not worth reporting to his superiors.

However, out of duty, he still sent the news to the cabinet.

Gatugen's reaction alerted Quentin.

After receiving the news, he rushed to Posa Palace immediately.

As the brother-in-law of Eivor VIII, Quentin knew very well that he did not have the talent to be the Grand Marshal of the Empire. The reason why he was able to hold this position was only the result of the balance after the struggle between Gatugen and Eivor VIII.

Quentin also knew that Gatugen had always disliked him.

Then it was only natural for him to use the excuse of the outbreak of war, manipulate the public opinion of the nobles, remove the title of Marshal of the Principality, and replace it with Gatugen's own people.

That's why Quentin came to find his sister, hoping that Twilight could remind Eivor VIII not to fall into Gatugen's "evil plan".

Twilight did not tell the whole truth, such as the part about Quentin's calculations for her, but expressed it in a different way:
"Your Highness, Quentin is the most powerful card in our hand. You must be careful not to be fooled by Gatugen."

After hearing Cuiqi's words, Eivor VIII's face immediately turned gloomy.

Since he ascended the throne, he has never been able to grasp complete power, so he is very sensitive about this aspect.

"It's still the people who are considerate of us." Eivor VIII stroked Twilight's back and said, "This Gatugen always pretends to be doing this for the principality. I'm almost fooled by him."

"He actually used such despicable means to try to clip my wings."

"You even want to touch the military power!"

"I will chop off all his six fingers one by one sooner or later!"

Cui Qi quickly brought a glass of wine and handed it to Eivor VIII: "Don't be angry, Your Highness. It's not worth getting yourself hurt by someone like him."

"Anyway, we are already on guard, so we just need to not grant any requests to Gatugen from now on."

Eivor VIII drank the wine from the glass and slowly breathed a sigh of relief: "Hmm... It's Angel's Tears."

A smile appeared on his lips as he thought about the fact that Raven was going to attack him.

If Raven really did this, Eivor VIII would not want to kill him.

"When the time comes, it will be a pleasure for him to be castrated and kept in the palace, and invent something for me."

Meanwhile, at the Prime Minister’s residence.

Gatugen untied his robe and hung it on the hanger at the door, then teased the black-haired old dog lying by the door, which had been with him for 11 years.

He walked to the desk, took off his leather boots, changed into a pair of slippers, stretched his swollen feet, and fell into deep thought.

Gatugen had his own ideas about this war.

As the actual ruler of the principality, Gatugen was well aware of the awkward situation of the Fitun city-states being sandwiched between the two empires, so he always had a grasp of the surrounding situation.

He knew Raven's entire life story.

Raven Ota Griffith was born in 1173 and was adopted by the Orphanage in Monk City in the same year.

In 1188, he was expelled from the orphanage and wandered the streets. He was extremely lustful and was known as "Little Bee".

In 1193, Donald died suddenly and Raven inherited the title of the Griffith family.

In just three short years, Raven not only took back all the territories of the Griffith family, but also started from scratch and became a third-level magician.

He can be called a young genius.

Now, in 1199, at the age of 27, he is already the county chief of Snow Maple County, owning three territories: Eagle Territory, Snow Maple Territory, and Holo Territory. His power is as great as that of a viscount.

Thinking of this, Gatugen sighed:

"Alas... In comparison, His Royal Highness the Grand Duke is too immature."

In Gatugen's opinion, although Raven's reasons were reasonable, it also seemed reasonable to open a second battlefield for the empire.

But looking at Raven's growth trajectory, Gatugen doesn't think that he is a person who would go crazy and take risks. There must be a deeper secret behind this.

And now, in the entire Nord Province, there is only one person who can instruct Raven to do this.

Anthony Vanya Edwards.

As a close confidant of King Keynes XVI, the Governor-General will certainly try his best to please His Majesty.

What does the Keynes Empire lack most now?
It is food for the front line.

The Nordic province had just experienced a locust plague and was unable to produce food. The Principality of Eivor was located in a basin surrounded by mountains and had always been rich in resources. It was basically not affected by the locust plague and had no shortage of food.

Anthony instigated Raven to take the lead, which should have been just an early stage of pressure in order to demand food from the Principality of Eivor.

In fact, as a member of the Fitun city-states, the national policy of the Principality of Eivor has always been to support the weak and defeat the strong.

Now that the Keynes Empire is weak, as long as Anthony asks, Gatugen may send him a batch of food.

The reason why he did not do so might be that Anthony did not want to be accused of having private relations with ministers of other countries.

"Um……"

After stretching his muscles, Gatugen took out a pen and paper, put on a special six-finger glove on his left hand which was prone to sweating, and began to draft a private letter.

The gist of it was that he already knew why Anthony did this, so there was no need to actually fight. If he wanted any food, he could just ask.

The letter was quickly written and put into an envelope.

After stamping his own seal, Gatugen's expression became somewhat complicated.

The reason why he held on to the seal of power was not because he was greedy for power, but because Eivor VIII was really incompetent.

The former Grand Duke entrusted the future of the principality to Gatugen. He did not want to watch Eivor VIII bring disaster to the entire principality while he was alive.

Gatugen tried again and again to give Eivor VIII a chance, but all he got was disappointment.

This time, Eivor VIII's reaction made him extremely disappointed.

In fact, during the meeting, Gatugen hinted to Eivor VIII more than once about the secret behind this matter.

If Eivor VIII could think about the problem from the perspective of the principality, Gatugen would feel gratified whether the answer was right or wrong.

But this Grand Duke focused entirely on the power struggle.

"Whether he is a loyal minister or a powerful minister..."

"Everything for the Principality."

With his mind made up, Gatugen once again began to draft another private letter.

This letter is sent to Count Wanda, the defender of the Wall of Sighs.

In the letter, Gatugen said that there was no need to take Raven too seriously, as he could not cause any trouble and, unless something unexpected happened, a war would not really break out.

But Wanda had to pass on some false information, preferably pretending to sigh that the wall was in danger.

Gatugen will take this opportunity to put pressure on Eivor VIII to select the Chancellor of Finance.

On the other hand, Gatugen also said that if his judgment was wrong and Raven really dared to invade the border of the Principality of Eivor, then Wanda could take the initiative to attack.

Take the initiative to destroy Raven's troops and teach Anthony a lesson.

The Duchy of Eivor is not to be trifled with!
As for the diplomatic level, the city-states of Fitun have always advanced and retreated together, so Wanda does not have to worry.

Perhaps the Keynes Empire is really capable of fighting on two fronts, but facing the Fitun city-states and the Insa Empire at the same time is definitely not the situation they want to see.

After writing these two letters, Gatugen called his confidant and asked him to send the letters through a secret route.

Walking up to the top floor of his mansion, Gatugen looked at the sky, but he did not feel cheerful.

Suddenly, a black dot rose from somewhere in the city and flew into the sky.

……

Time flies, and in the blink of an eye, it is already late April.

Nearly 20 days have passed since Raven set out from Xuefeng County.

Gatugen did not receive a reply from Anthony.

On the other side, Raven led his troops from Snow Maple County, passed through Hippok County and Derby County, and arrived outside the city of Monn in Hodges County.

About 150 kilometers further north, you will enter the territory of the Duchy of Eivor.

Raven's marching speed was not very fast, about 30 kilometers a day.

But even so, except for the 1st and 2nd Legions of the Eagle Army, the other five legions in the five northwestern counties all showed signs of falling behind to varying degrees.

So Raven decided to take a detour to the outskirts of Mon'en City to rest for a while.

On the one hand, he was waiting for those who had fallen behind; on the other hand, there were people he had to meet before actually attacking the Principality of Eivor.

After tidying up his clothes, Raven left the army and entered the city of Mon'en with only Hyena and a few other guards.

Eric originally wanted to go along to protect Raven's safety, but was rejected by Raven.

First of all, the military still needs someone to stabilize the situation.

Secondly, if there really was someone who didn't want Raven to set out, then Raven would not have been able to make it here alive.

Akori also chose to go with Raven.

Looking at the streets of Mon'en City, Raven suddenly felt that time had passed.

The last time he came, he was to solve the vampire case. Now William has become his slave.

Pedestrians on the street avoided Raven's horse hooves and did not dare to make any eye contact with him. They would only start to talk loudly after he passed by.

After being strengthened by the magic core, Raven's hearing was far superior to that of ordinary people, and he could hear all these discussions.

Keywords such as "madman", "little bee", and "show" appear frequently.

The most mainstream discussion is to see when Raven will blow his own trumpet so much that he will lose face.

Some people also said that maybe Raven came to Mon'en City just to find a way out.

Without taking these discussions to heart, Raven paid more attention to the changes in the downtown area.

Although the streets were still inevitably filled with foul smells, which was a common problem in big cities of this era, at least the streets looked much cleaner and many public toilets had been built.

Raven even saw street lights, which used to be exclusive to the upper city.

It seems that Denise has done a lot here.

When the security forces patrolling the streets see Raven, they will take the initiative to bow to him.

Weber, the former leader of the Bloody Harpoon and current commander of the Security Forces, was also standing by the roadside and saluted respectfully to Raven.

Seeing this scene, Raven was a little tempted and wanted to pull the Security Army out as well - although they were not as good as the Eagle Army, they were at least much stronger than the five miscellaneous legions.

Of course, this is just a thought. Earl Tyrone will not allow Raven to take his flesh from him.

Arriving at Snake Castle, Earl Tyrone's youngest son, Viscount Hyde, came up to greet him: "Hey, my brother, it's been a while since I last said hello!"

Raven dismounted and gave Hyde a big hug: "I heard that your wedding date is set for next month. Did you do this on purpose?"

Hyde had forced Raven to drink a lot at his wedding, but it seemed like there was no way he could get his revenge now.

"We've already set the time and were ready to send you an invitation." Hyde and Raven walked in side by side. "But who would have thought that you would make such a big fuss - I can't wait until you finish fighting before getting married."

"However, if you are just bluffing this time, I can still find an excuse to postpone it."

"Have you ever seen someone bluffing with an army of 4?" Raven laughed dumbly. "What is your father's attitude?"

"You can ask him yourself. Archbishop Thomas is also here."

As he spoke, Hyde lowered his voice and glanced at Akori who was following behind him:
"Just a heads up for you, Anthony is here too."

……

(End of this chapter)