Yes, Madam Prime Minister

Then the two fell silent until the carriage stopped and Ronan prepared to walk home, when Karl suddenly spoke again.

"I was just thinking about something," Carl said, looking thoughtful.

“Speak,” Ronan said.

“Ronan, you have a deep understanding of land, economy, people’s livelihood and even politics. Otherwise, you could not have created the collective farm. Perhaps some people think that this is just about removing landlords and gathering farmers together to redistribute jobs, but anyone who has actually seen the countryside knows how difficult it is.”

“Now, throughout the North, the nobility is decadent, the church is corrupt, and the people are oppressed. This country has reached a point where change is imperative. Your talents should not be confined here. I can recommend you to others.”

Karl said with deep regret.

Ronan smiled. "Thank you for your praise, but I am just an ordinary official, an executor. My job is to carry out the mayor's instructions."

"Do you know something?" Carl asked.

Ronan responded with silence.

"Sigh." Karl sighed. He thought Ronan probably felt that now was not the time, and the situation in the capital was still too unclear.

At this moment, Ronan spoke up, "Carl, my friend, I have a small request. I hope that when you correspond with others, you will not mention me."

"Why?" Karl asked.

“Because I’m not one of your factions,” Ronan said. Those who advocated for reform were now all on the Second Princess’s side, while Ronan had already boarded the First Princess Ambrina’s bandwagon.

“I have no faction,” Karl declared, somewhat angrily.

Ronan looked at Carl with a smile, "Then as a friend, I advise you not to express any political views, even in letters, otherwise, whoever gets promoted, you will be in big trouble."

“From my personal perspective, you’d better side with Princess Ambrina,” Ronan continued.

Upon hearing the name Ambrina, Karl frowned.

He didn't particularly like Princess Ambrina because she was rather weak-willed, but the country was currently facing internal and external troubles.

With no one around, Ronan didn't care about anything anymore. "On the Second Princess's side, the young officers who advocate war and a group of people who are striving for reform will do their first thing to get rid of the church and you nobles as soon as they come to power. They will also control the Third Princess's faction, the alliance between the impoverished nobles and the emerging capitalists, and they will still have to clean up the church and the nobles."

"Which side do you consider yourself on?"

Faced with Ronan's question, Carl was speechless for a moment. After a long while, he sighed, "I wish I hadn't been born into that family."

He had to admit that his natural stance was on Ambrina's side.

Ronan suppressed a laugh. "If you weren't born into a noble family, you probably wouldn't even know how to read. How could you become a third-tier mage and stand here talking to me?"

"Haha, that's true." Karl laughed, a self-deprecating laugh.

"Once the magic academy is established, teach the students well, and maybe you can find one or two small sparks. Don't think it's insignificant, because a single spark can start a prairie fire."

After saying that, Ronan patted Carl on the shoulder and left.

Karl stood there, motionless for a long time, the phrase "A single spark can start a prairie fire" echoing in his heart, shaking him more and more violently each time.

Ronan, who had already walked away, secretly clenched his fist in celebration.

Karl, a graduate of a traditional academy and a full-fledged elemental mage of this caliber, is someone that even money can't guarantee you'll be able to hire in New Sea City.

Those words should be enough to get Karl to cut his salary, but his teaching quality will definitely not be compromised.

Ronan was willing to waste his breath talking to him just to make friends and then hire him at a friendly price.

A friend who can't get a friend's price isn't Ronan's friend.

Upon arriving at the main entrance, Chloe and Lutas opened the door. Both were dressed in black and white maid outfits. Chloe, who was not tall but had a curvy figure, wore black stockings, while Lutas, who was slender and thin, wore white stockings.

Elena went out on a secret mission, while Alice was probably still on her way home.

Chapter 152 If there's no good solution, what's mine is yours; you really can't do it.

As soon as he entered the gate and stepped onto the stone path in the front yard, Ronan asked the two maids, "What's going on? Why are two people coming to open the door?"

"The mayor has arrived."

"We've been here for about half an hour and have been waiting for you in the reception room."

The two maids spoke in turn.

As soon as Dinia arrived, she sat down on the sofa in the living room. After telling them to pick any book from Ronan's bookshelf, she gave them no further instructions or said anything. She sat there silently reading without a change in expression. The two women stood to the side, not daring to move or make a sound. Although it was the time between spring and summer, the air in the room felt unusually cold, making it hard to breathe.

So when they heard the doorbell, the two of them ran out of the living room without prior arrangement.

Ronan didn't know exactly what had happened, but he could guess that it was probably Dinia's aura that made the two of them feel suffocated.

Dinia isn't exactly aloof, but aside from private moments with friends, she usually maintains a cold demeanor in most situations and in front of most people. Coupled with her beautiful face that creates a sense of distance, and being the continent's number one female magician, her aura is indeed quite intimidating. Not to mention her two little maids, even the heads of various departments in the city hall are afraid of her during meetings.

When Dinia saw Ronan arrive, she closed her book and said, "Study."

Ronan followed Dinia to her study. This wasn't Dinia's first time at Ronan's house; she was very familiar with the place.

Dinia put the book back on the shelf. "While you were gone, I discovered a problem: apart from the Wright and Carai districts, I can't accurately grasp the situation in the other districts, or even the White Star district."

"Mrs. Antari came up with a plan to set up suggestion centers with suggestion boxes, so that ordinary citizens could submit their opinions on the local situation in the form of letters, or even report certain people."

"Here's the preliminary plan." With that, Dinia handed Ronan a piece of paper with more than a dozen points written on it.

Ronan glanced at it briefly, then placed the paper on his desk. "A good plan, but useless."

Dinia didn't understand why Ronan was both affirming and denying at the same time.

"It is good because Mrs. Antari has devised a plan that is meticulous but not complicated. If it can be implemented, it can basically prevent relevant officials from obstructing, intercepting, or tampering with these actions."

"The reason why it's useless is that officials don't actually need to obstruct, intercept, or tamper with public opinions or complaint letters. They just need to secretly find some people, or even just hint to certain people, and a lot of poorly written opinions and false complaint letters will be thrown into the suggestion box."

"At that time, genuine opinions and reports will be directly drowned out and difficult to distinguish."

"Moreover, when citizens offer opinions or make complaints, the vast majority of them are just trivial matters that happen around them."

"If you just go out on the street and ask a few citizens, do you think they can name the main officials in their area? If they don't even know their names, they certainly can't know what the various civil servants do."

"Never expect the public to oversee officials."

Ronan spoke at length, completely rejecting the suggestion center's plan, which was similar to a petition office.

"Then how about increasing local oversight?" Dinia asked.

“I think Mrs. Antari must have rejected this from the start,” Ronan said.

Dinia nodded. Indeed, Mrs. Antari had rejected the idea from the start for two reasons: first, it would provoke a strong backlash; second, there weren't enough reliable people available.

“Come up with a solution,” Dinia said to Ronan.

Ronan frowned. Damn it, Dinia was treating him like Doraemon, always expecting him to come up with a solution whenever something happened.

"There is a way. We can set up a small undercover investigation team. However, the purpose of the team is not to investigate anything, but to develop informants. During the inspection, we can recruit a few officials in each district as informants and give them the right to write letters to you, Mayor, to report on your behalf."

"Secretaries in the secretariat are good targets. They don't have much power, but they can basically participate in public meetings and have access to a lot of information and documents. Making them into covert agents would be very useful."

Ronan said.

Of course, these informants would eventually have to go through Ronan's undercover investigation team, so he also indirectly controlled these informants.

Dinia's smile vanished in an instant, replaced by a chill. "Heh, so you've got more people under your control now, haven't you?"

When questioned like this, Ronan remained calm and composed, replying, "I am your faithful servant. What is mine is yours, and what is yours is still yours."

Dinia sat down in Ronan's chair, then suddenly changed the subject, "Recently, someone told me that you are now the biggest landowner in Xinhai City because the seed company and agricultural machinery company are in your hands. The collective farms rely on you for farming, and they still rely on you after the harvest. Those crops also have to be sold to your oil mill, flour mill, and textile mill. In name, the collective farms belong to them, but in reality, they belong to you. And all the collective farms combined already constitute the largest piece of arable land in Xinhai City."

Actually, that's not the case; Ronan can actually explain it.

However, if you try to explain yourself when your boss questions you, that would be contradicting your boss.

Ronan readily admitted, "You could say that, but the price I offered was absolutely the fairest, and I don't evade taxes."

What kind of era is this? A barbaric era. Tax evasion doesn't even exist. Playing tricks is impossible. Everyone just evades taxes directly. For example, the church. A hundred years ago, there were taxation projects on some profit-making organizations affiliated with the church. But the church just said one thing: I just won't pay. What are you going to do about it?

In comparison, Ronan's petty tax evasion, involving some manipulation of tax items, is already a moral exemplar.

"I will not pursue the matter of the collective farm, but all those underhanded dealings you just mentioned must be reported directly to me. You are not allowed to do anything in between."

Dinia said.

“Yes, Madam Mayor,” Ronan replied.

As soon as he finished speaking, Ronan sat down on the desk and looked down at Dinia. "Dinia, as your friend, I have to say that you performed really poorly just now."

“You shouldn’t bring up the collective farm, because I am irreplaceable, so I have nothing to be afraid of.”

"And it's pointless for you to expect me not to work with the undercover agents. Why are those secretaries willing to be undercover agents? Of course, it's because they hope to get promoted. Where can they get promoted? They can only be the secretariat of the city hall or the supervisory department. Those are my turf. Even if I do nothing, they will come to me on their own initiative."

At this moment, Dinia's fists were already clenched.

Ronan pretended not to see the fist and smiled gently, "If you want to deal with me and become a mayor who can truly control the situation, I can teach you how."

Dinia didn't loosen her fist, but a hint of curiosity appeared on her face.

"The parliament will be formed in the second half of the year. As long as you can place a few of your people in the parliament, you can influence the parliament and indirectly check and balance me."

Ronan said.

Chapter 153 Creating an Opponent, A Friend's Invitation, Choosing Destiny

Dinia paused for a moment, then asked softly, "Interference in the election?"

Waving his hand, Ronan said, "Of course we can't interfere directly. If you interfere directly with the election, the candidates won't let it go. Forcibly supporting a few people to get into office is also meaningless, because they will definitely not listen to you if you force them into office. The best thing about members of parliament is that they just take their pre-election promises as a joke."

“Then what should we do?” Dinia asked.

Ronan thought to himself, "They've taken the bait."

"No rush, it's getting late. Let's talk after we eat," Ronan said, knowing when to keep the audience in suspense.

Dinner was quite lavish, but after the meal, Dinia couldn't even remember what she had eaten. Her mind was preoccupied with how to get someone of her own to an important position in the council.

As soon as they finished eating, Dinia couldn't wait to pull Ronan away from his mansion.

As soon as they stepped outside, Dinia asked about what had just happened.

Ronan spoke without reservation.

"The method is very simple for you."

"First of all, you need to know that Xinhai City only has a population of around 400,000. Most of the people who are elected as councilors are new immigrants. And the important positions in the council are basically filled by the same three or four people. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, there won't be any changes."

"So, these three or four people are all competitors. Pick one you like and make a deal with him. He will surrender to you and hand over some dirt on you. Before the election starts, you will help him get rid of the other opponents. Once he is in power, he will be your man."

This is Ronan's method.

Dinia pondered for a moment, "I'm afraid you've even prepared the list and information, and even made annotations on how to operate each person, right? You're clearly using me to do your own thing."

Having known Ronan for so long, she wasn't stupid; she had long understood his strategy of helping her while also helping himself.

“That’s right.” Ronan admitted that he had prepared the list of information long ago, but he disagreed with the following sentence: “But the people who ultimately succeed will ultimately be your people, and have nothing to do with me.”

"Why?" Dinia asked.

“Because as the head of the civil service, I have a natural conflict with the people in Parliament, while you, as a political appointee, do not have this problem,” Ronan pointed out the reason.

“Unexpectedly, there are times when you genuinely care about me,” Dinya said. She didn’t completely believe Ronan’s words, but she was half-convinced.

“We’re friends,” Ronan said. “There are two real reasons. First, a leader is uncomfortable when a subordinate becomes too powerful, so I definitely need to make sure you’re comfortable, right?”

At Ronan's level, not having any rivals or enemies is not a good thing.

This is called creating enemies even when there are none.

This was accomplished, and any unexpected factors in Parliament were eliminated.

"What's the other one?" Dinia asked curiously.

Ronan's gaze shifted from casual to serious. "On the other hand, time is of the essence. You really need to hone your political skills to advance further and have a chance to realize your ideals. And I can also advance further as a result."

"Mmm," Dinia responded, her smile like a flower bud about to bloom.

Ronan's words were the most gratifying thing she had heard in days. Even though Ronan still harbored selfish motives, after going through so much together, she no longer cared about them.

Dinia looked at Ronan, "Want a drink?"

"Was it an invitation from the mayor, or from a friend?" Ronan asked.

"Is there a difference?" Dinia asked.

"The mayor's invitation... well, I still have some work to do, so I can't drink too much," Ronan replied with feigned regret.

Seeing Ronan's mischievous behavior, Dinia couldn't help but laugh. "That's a friend's invitation."

“Then let’s go,” Ronan replied.

When they arrived at Dinia's residence, neither Agustina nor Yvette were there.