Yes, Madam Prime Minister

Ronan consulted Dinah's opinion.

Dinia had some contact with Ronan's two maids. Elena was impulsive and spoke her mind. In front of Ronan, she would only call him "Young Master" and did not act like a maid at all. In contrast, Ronan's other maid, Alice, was much quieter and more composed.

With Alice leading Sabrina, Dinia felt at ease.

“If Alice is free, have her show Sabrina around Wright City,” Dinia said.

"Ok."

Chapter Fifty-Seven: Maturity, Innocence, Eating These Will Improve Your Mood

Since Dinia had already said so, Ronan couldn't very well object.

In Ronan's eyes, Elena was the more mature one. She just seemed a bit silly. Born into a mercenary family, she lost both her parents at a young age. A little girl, she smuggled herself from Vena to Wright City before she was even ten years old. She only revealed her background after having a relationship with Ronan. Is there such a fool?

Most people just think she's a lively, cheerful, and easy-going person, which is what true maturity looks like.

In comparison, Alice's composure and calmness are merely superficial; deep down, she is a meddlesome, self-proclaimed righteous person, only slightly better than her deceased father. Her enthusiasm and sense of justice are reserved only for her trusted friends, but ultimately, she is still a bit naive.

However, Ronan didn't dislike Alice; in fact, he somewhat liked her naiveté.

Sabrina probably won't stay long, otherwise Ronan would never have agreed to let Alice take her.

Ronan, Yvette, and Dinya quickly got to work. The official election was about to begin, and Dinya needed to plan her trips and the general content of her speeches in other special cities.

The general policy has already been formulated, and some details have also been initially planned after a detailed investigation of the working and living conditions of different groups of people in various special cities.

Now it is up to Dinia to decide what to adopt and what to discard.

As for the plan to strike at the opponent, that will be put on hold for now.

After all, Ronan had anticipated that only one mayor would compete with Dinia to avoid splitting the votes.

Since Dinia already has two votes, splitting their votes would inevitably lead to their defeat.

However, this competitor has not yet emerged. Clearly, all five mayors have their own ambitions and want to compete for the position of the new mayor. It remains to be seen who has the most skillful methods and can distribute the benefits better.

This is not something that can be resolved in a short time.

However, an unexpected situation arose: the next day, four mayors withdrew from the race, leaving only one to compete against Dinia.

That evening, Ronan roughly guessed from an intelligence report why such an accident had occurred.

The source of the information was naturally the "game ship" in Black Fish Harbor. Although other special cities have followed suit since Ronan started doing this, Ronan was the first to do so, which allowed him to secure a stable customer base. He also continued to launch supporting projects, truly making Black Fish Harbor a place where the whole family can come for tourism.

The boat business in other special cities is nowhere near as good as that in Wright City.

Where there is gambling, there will naturally be that; and where there is that, there will naturally be no shortage of intelligence.

Intelligence indicates that the five secretaries-general and five mayors held a secret meeting.

Ronan speculated that the five secretaries-general, considering the unequal distribution of spoils among the five mayors and the desire of each to rise to the top, decided to discuss and choose one among themselves, and then support that one to compete with Dinia.

It must be admitted that, under equal and fair conditions, Ronan might not necessarily be able to outmaneuver them.

Unfortunately, this was not a fair competition.

Ronan has the Heidi people, they don't. Ronan starts with two votes, but they still have to figure out how to split them. Ronan has Dinia, a famous and beautiful mayor, while they only have a bald mayor that even locals might not know. Ronan has a reliable intelligence network that can keep track of their movements, but they have no idea what Ronan is up to.

To use the war as an analogy, Ronan's side had a variety of weapons and ample ammunition, while the enemy's weapons were limited and ammunition was scarce.

If it weren't for the bad luck of opening champagne too early, Ronan would have been tempted to open it himself. "Ha, I, Ronan, have never fought such a rich battle in my life."

While Ronan was marveling at how rich he had become from this battle, Alice, at Sabrina's request, took her to her home.

“Miss Igor, my home is very small and I apologize for any shortcomings in my hospitality,” Alice said.

“It’s alright, I’m actually quite frugal,” Sabrina said.

She glanced around the room and found it very clean, but the items were arranged rather casually. There were two books on the sofa, indicating that Alice often stayed here. She couldn't help but be surprised. "Alice, don't you live with Mr. Ronan?"

“Sometimes I stay at his place, but most of the time I stay at my own home,” Alice replied.

Sabrina thought for a moment and asked, "Could it be that Mr. Ronan is that kind of person?" She had heard that some male nobles would mistreat their maids, but Dinia said that Ronan was a good person.

“You’ve misunderstood. He’s a good man, at least in his treatment of women. I’ve never met anyone better than him,” Alice explained. “Besides, he’s also my benefactor.”

"Benefactor?" Sabrina's face showed a puzzled expression again.

“Yes, that was ten years ago…” Alice told Sabrina about the past.

Ten years ago, there was a rebellion in the South, and Ronan defected. The following year, the rebellion was largely quelled, and Wright City returned to normal. Ronan then led a team to investigate and eliminate the remaining rebels.

Alice's father was shot and killed by Ronan's men, and her mother abandoned them and fled.

Alice and her sister were later adopted by Ronan.

Ronan treated the sisters very well, paying for their tutors and personally teaching them magic. Because of her good magical talent, Ronan spent a lot of money to send his sister to a magic academy, while she stayed by Ronan's side as his assistant.

At first, she made many mistakes in the process, but Ronan did not hold it against her. Instead, he explained the situation to her and told her how to handle similar situations in the future.

That's why she has grown to where she is today.

"I see. So you don't hate him at all?" Sabrina asked softly.

Alice tilted her head slightly and sighed softly, "There is a little bit, but more than that, I hate my ignorant father and my heartless mother who abandoned us."

When Alice's gaze returned to Sabrina, she saw that Sabrina was carrying a large leather bag in one hand, with heraldic stamps on it.

Where did she find it?

Sabrina untied the elastic drawstring of her leather bag, took out a potato chip, took a bite, and heard a crisp crunch. She then grabbed another chip and handed it to Alice, smiling as she said, "These are potato chips, my favorite snack. They're delicious. Eat them, they'll make you feel better."

Alice bent down and took the piece with both hands, asking, "Are you a proper magician?"

“Yes, but I’m much weaker than my sister.” Sabrina reminisced as she spoke, “When I was little, my father was rarely home, and he was very expensive. My mother wanted to maintain a respectable appearance and refused to take money from my grandfather. Back then, my sister and I rarely ate desserts; we could only eat small snacks.”

Alice was momentarily at a loss for words. Perhaps for a noble lady like her, life without desserts would be quite difficult.

However, Alice didn't dislike this at all. This Miss Igor was very genuine and simple, unlike some nobles who appeared approachable on the surface but were actually cold and distant.

Chapter Fifty-Eight: Without friends, killing someone is like destroying their spirit; it's not a good cure.

Alice had eaten fried potato chips before, because Ronan occasionally made things. A hundred years ago, a fleet from the Kingdom of Villa in the southwest discovered the New World. About seventy years ago, sweet potatoes began to be widely cultivated in the kingdom and became an important food crop.

However, Alice thought potato chips were too extravagant. Ten baskets of sweet potatoes were not as valuable as a pot of oil. There was also something she couldn't understand: Ronan liked to call sweet potatoes "potatoes".

"How is it?" Sabrina asked Alice.

“It’s delicious,” Alice replied.

Sabrina's potato chips were even better than Ronan's.

Just kidding. Sabrina's potato chips are made with potatoes specially supplied to the royal family, and the seasoning powder is carefully formulated, while Ronan's are bought from the market, and as for the seasoning, he just throws whatever he can get.

“Let’s eat together then. Don’t worry, I have plenty more.” Sabrina said, and suddenly a small door opened on her stomach. She reached into her stomach, pulled out a soft leather bag, and handed it to Alice. “Here you go.”

After exchanging a few polite words, Alice began to eat.

The two sat on the sofa and chatted while eating.

This was the first time for both of them to eat snacks and chat with a girl their own age.

Alice has never had any female friends since she was a child.

The one using the alias Sabrina, also didn't have that.

At first, both of them sat very upright. Alice didn't want to be impolite, while Sabrina was used to maintaining proper etiquette in front of others.

But unknowingly, the two young girls sat closer and closer, their posture becoming increasingly improper. Alice was half-lying down, leaning against the back of the sofa, and simply kicked off her slippers. Her left heel was on the slipper, and her right foot was on top of her left. Her slender and delicate feet did not stretch her black stockings, causing the color of the stockings to change between semi-transparent and opaque, but only producing a uniform matte black.

Sabrina was a little more proper, not kicking off her slippers, but keeping her legs flat on the ground, occasionally shifting her ankles. Only her slightly fleshy ankles could be seen with her white stockings sometimes wrinkling and sometimes smoothing out.

In Alice's eyes, Sabrina really said whatever came to mind. Although she would occasionally say silly things that made people laugh and cry, such as how she only found out the day before yesterday that there were two-wheeled carriages, that people ate with wooden spoons, and that black bread wasn't actually black bread, she was truly a kind and innocent good person.

In Sabrina's eyes, Alice was completely different from ordinary maids, and she was very knowledgeable, as if there was nothing she didn't know. Although some of her statements were completely different from what she had heard in books and in the past, her statements sounded particularly reasonable.

The two quickly closed the distance between them. Suddenly, Alice swayed her leg and lightly touched Sabrina's foot. She quickly stood up and apologized, "I'm sorry, I was rude."

“It’s alright, please sit down,” Sabrina said. “That Alice, you know so much.”

“Actually, Ronan taught me a lot of things,” Alice said.

“I see. No wonder Dinia said he was very good,” Sabrina said thoughtfully.

"Heh, Lady Dinia is truly amazing." Alice looked on with admiration. Compared to Ronan, she admired Dinia, the number one female mage on the continent, even more.

When Dinia was mentioned, Sabrina casually revealed her purpose for coming: "Actually, I came here not only to relax, but also because there's something about a friend that I can't figure out."

Sabrina then told Alice about what happened three years ago, after making some changes to the story.

“After that incident, my friend had a big fight with her sister. Her sister said that the servants who deceived her sister should be killed. My friend didn’t want to do that, but they were indeed wrong, so my friend forced them to hand over the money they had embezzled and then dismissed them.”

“But my sister said they should be killed, and not only killed, but everyone should be thoroughly investigated. My friend didn’t want to do that, and after that, the two sisters stopped seeing each other.”

After Sabrina finished speaking, she looked at Alice and asked, "Alice, do you think my friend was really wrong?"

Alice wondered if it really was a friend's story. Perhaps it was Sabrina's own story.

Upon hearing this story, Alice's heart was immediately stirred. She felt that Sabrina, a good person, had been bullied by a bad person, and she should help her.

“Sabrina, your friend is indeed wrong,” Alice said bluntly. “She shouldn’t have let those people go. Those morally corrupt people will never be grateful for your mercy. Instead, they will speak ill of you outside, saying that you are mean, that you mistreat your servants, or that you are weak and easy to bully.”

“To deal with such people, killing them is not enough; we must not only kill them, but also destroy their spirit.”

Alice's words startled Sabrina.

Murder, but also torture?

"To destroy the spirit?" Sabrina didn't quite understand the term.

"It means to expose their ugly faces and malicious intentions. As a master, you must always be kind, good, generous, and just. And these servants who deceive you must make others feel that it is not you, the master, who wants to kill the servants, but justice that is judging the wicked."

Alice speaks eloquently, but it's all stuff Ronan's tired of. Over the years, she's occasionally contradicted Ronan, but she's unknowingly become like him.

Unfortunately, all she learned were power politics and rhetoric.

However, political maneuvering and rhetoric are not actually a good remedy for Sabrina.

“Is that how it is?” Sabrina said.

It seems that agreeing to let her father allow Dinia to take her away from the capital to this small southern town to relax was indeed the right choice. Just Alice's words made her realize that her initial reaction had indeed disappointed some people.

Having trained such a maid, Ronan should be able to answer some of her questions.

“Alice, could you tell me more about Mr. Ronan?” Sabrina asked.

"Well, it's getting late, you should get some rest. Come on, I'll take you to a hotel. Tomorrow I'll take you to an interesting place, and we can talk as we walk."

Alice said.

By this time, she had already realized that Sabrina's identity was not simple and that the name was most likely a pseudonym.

In this situation, we need to carefully consider what should and shouldn't be said regarding Ronan.

“No need, I’ll stay at your place,” Sabrina said.

Alice had no choice but to agree to let Sabrina stay in her sister's bedroom.

Sabrina went to Alice's sister's bedroom and used magic to take out a bed from the alternate dimension connected to her body, placing it on the floor.

It wasn't that she disliked the place, but rather that she couldn't sleep if she didn't sleep in her own bed.

The next morning, the two set off for Black Fish Harbor.

After some consideration, Alice spoke to Sabrina about Ronan, and in her account, Ronan was portrayed as a completely selfless person.

The first couple of days were fine, but as their mutual affection grew, they started talking about everything...

Chapter Fifty-Nine: Character Development, Reprimands, Long and Complex Sentences

Especially after listening to Sabrina tell more "stories of friends," Alice's sense of justice could no longer be suppressed. Although she did not use Ronan as an example, she presented some of the results of her "reverse training of Ronan" to explain to Sabrina how a master should deal with "evil servants."

Just as Ronan said, Alice is usually calm and collected, with an unapproachable demeanor, but once she considers someone a friend, she becomes very enthusiastic and treats other people's affairs as her own.

Half a month passed in the blink of an eye, and Dinia traveled to seven special cities, giving more than ten speeches.

After the first two sessions, Ronan realized that Dinya really couldn't give a speech, had no idea how to create an atmosphere, and was resistant to some of the inflammatory and ambiguous remarks.

So Ronan and Yvette discussed it and quickly changed their strategy.

She simply established a persona: a cold and aloof beauty with a military background. This is Dinya's persona, and it's unlikely to collapse, since she really is a former soldier and is indeed a cold and aloof beauty.

As a soldier, it's okay to talk less, because soldiers don't lie, at least not as well as politicians.

Following this logic backwards, every pie that Dinia draws is something that can be eaten.

The pancakes were few, but they were all real. The mayor's pancakes, though plentiful, were all fake, and he couldn't eat a single one.