Yes, Madam Prime Minister

Page 278

Then, Ronan and his group introduced themselves, which were, of course, made up.

Ronan claims to be the son of the Count of Champagne, with Ambrina as his wife, Dinia as a teacher at the magic academy and his lover, and the others as Dinia's female students. Zhao Yingqi is an Easterner who was shipwrecked and ended up here. His second purpose is to take her to Suleiman to learn fusion magic, but his main purpose is to find a wanted criminal named Heath, thereby gaining merit for the country and reclaiming some things that were taken away by the previous tyrannical king, Ambrina.

Now that we've made contact with Suleiman's powerful figures, it's convenient to find people and we can also make some money on the side, so it's definitely a good thing.

Ronan also praised Suleiman's fusion magic, saying that it simplified the complex system of Seris while incorporating the essence of Western continent magic, making it the best magic at the time.

Qasim himself clearly didn't believe it, but his men seemed to think it was true.

This is a compliment from the most outstanding French people in the world, how could it be fake?

After a series of lies, Qasim began to explain his plan. First, he would play the part of a merchant, sell his spices and tea cakes in the Kingdom of Phos, and then buy counterfeit porcelain and silk from the Kingdom of Phos. He would then enter the Balkan Province and, under the pretext of gifting female slaves, seek an audience with Aziz Pasha. This Pasha had long led troops in battles against the Empire and had more than twenty banners under his command, half of whose banner leaders were his staunch supporters.

The female slave here naturally refers to the woman they brought with them.

Afterwards, negotiate with Aziz, asking him to send men to lead them into Suleiman's capital. Then, go to the other legion commanders and have them stand up for justice. Finally, reclaim his property and divide the spoils.

Before he could get any more specifics, Ambrina interrupted Qasim, "Wait a minute, didn't you say 30/70? With so many people sharing the spoils, how are we going to get 30%?"

“Of my share, you will receive 30% of the gold and silver that can be directly converted into cash,” Qasim said.

“Then, I’ll take 70%,” Ambrina said.

Qasim didn't say anything, but several of his men put their hands on their guns and glared at Ambrina.

Although they were infidel guards, they had been cuckolded from their grandfathers' generation, both outwardly and inwardly. Otherwise, they wouldn't have been drinking in secret. Naturally, they couldn't stand Ambrina, a woman, nagging here.

Of course, more importantly, Ambrina wants 70%—isn't that robbing them? If it weren't for the thought of getting a share after helping Qasim reclaim his family property, who would risk their life to go through this with him? Allah be upon you, this woman is too greedy and not halal; she will surely go to hell.

“Fifty-fifty,” said the bearded Qasim.

"Three times seven," Ambrina insisted.

“I have already shown you great sincerity,” said the bearded Qasim.

"Sincerity? You dare to say that? Do you think we're fools? Be quick about it, or I'm not playing with you anymore." Ambrina's temper flared up, and she bluntly stated her position.

“Four or six, that really can’t be any less. Otherwise, I’ll have to stick to the original plan,” Kasim insisted.

“Alright then, we’ll take 60%, that’s about right.” Ambrina didn’t argue any further.

Then, Qasim went on to discuss the specific arrangements, and after exchanging opinions, the two sides quickly reached an agreement.

After reaching an agreement, both sides agreed to leave in the afternoon and head to the Kingdom of Phos, and Ronan and his group returned.

“His men obviously didn’t know the truth,” Ashley said.

“Of course I don’t know,” Golan added. “This Qasim clearly has little power left. There may not be any traitors or spies among his people, but once they know his true intentions, there will definitely be people who would be very willing to become traitors or spies.”

The secret service originally planned to start with Qasim's men and use French-style "education" to get them to talk their minds, but now it seems that won't work. Apart from Qasim himself and that woman who is definitely not a slave, everyone else is kept in the dark and thinks that Qasim's goal is to take back his family property.

Chapter 633 The Deal, A Reunion, Eastern Past

In a week, Qasim sold all the spices he had brought. With the money from selling the spices and his own capital, he bought two large boxes of silk produced in the Kingdom of Fass. Although it was not as good as the goods from Seres, it was still silk. He also bought a dozen sets of relatively inexpensive but beautiful and durable French bone china tableware and tea sets.

These silks and porcelains were not intended to be shipped back to his country to sell, but rather to be given to several of Aziz Pasha's capable subordinates. He didn't expect them to speak up for him after receiving these gifts; he just hoped they wouldn't speak ill of him.

As for Aziz himself, in Qasim's words, the governor, a man who could afford real Seres porcelain and silk, didn't care for this. You could only impress him with something more practical, such as a channel for bootlegging.

Having sold and bought everything, the group prepared to head east, passing through Svetsk, through Osteria, and towards Suleiman's Balkan province.

After entering Austeria, Ronan and Ambrina left the group to visit the former emperor Antoro and catch up. They didn't need to ask around, because they already knew where the former emperor had retired long before they left the capital.

The only unexpected thing was that Astrid insisted on coming along, saying she was curious to see what the real emperor looked like.

The three met Antolo in a small village built along the riverbank at the foot of the mountain. The scenery here was extremely beautiful. Behind the stone houses in the village was a hillside covered with lush green grass and trees, and in front was a lake as clear as a mirror. A few fishing boats seemed to be suspended in the air rather than on the lake. Looking up, there was a blue sky that seemed to connect with the distant mountain peaks, and the white clouds above seemed to be within reach.

When Antologi was defeated, he looked even more weathered. His blond hair was mixed with white hair, turning into a light gold color. He had a short, silvery stubble on his face, and his cheeks were sunken. He looked weathered but not old. On the contrary, he was full of energy, with an upright posture, thin but not hunched over.

Antoro was somewhat surprised, but not entirely, by the arrival of Ronan and Ambrina. He knew, of course, about Ambrina's succession, since she had become emperor after defeating him and was now the most powerful person in the Western Continent. However, he hadn't expected that the two of them would make a special trip to see him.

Several years have passed in the blink of an eye. Although the resentment and unwillingness in my heart have not completely faded, they have dissipated considerably.

Antoro, who had lived in this small village where no one knew him for several years, neither tried to drive him away nor said anything hurtful. He simply greeted him a couple of times and then started making coffee.

“This is my daughter, Astrid,” Ronan said, pointing to Astrid.

As Antoro looked at the coffee pot on the stove, he asked, "You two are quite something, managing to produce a blonde from a black-haired and a chestnut-haired person."

"You've become senile so quickly?" Ambrina was both annoyed and amused.

Ronan shrugged. "I only said she's my daughter."

As they were talking, a girl dressed like a village girl, about 1.7 meters tall, but with a very sweet appearance, walked over carrying a plate of baked cookies. She was even sweeter than Ambrina. Ambrina's appearance was actually quite "Western"—thick, slightly bushy eyebrows, large round eyes, a slightly pointed nose, and a slightly chubby, round face. This girl was different. Her eyebrows weren't as thick, her eyes weren't as big, her nose certainly wasn't considered high or straight by Western standards, and the tip of her nose was a little round. She had a short face and small dimples.

That damned emperor, he's like a pear tree overshadowing a crabapple tree, that's the way it is.

The girl put down the baked cookies and hurried away, seemingly a little shy.

“I would like to ask you something,” Astrid said to Antoro. “When you went to Egypt to get those red beads, you must have known something beforehand.”

When Antoro was still emperor, he took in Hiss, who was Ucel's son. Ucel has now gone to West Asia, saying he will visit a certain ruin before going to Seres. So what is this ruin? The inquisitive Astrid felt that Antoro might know something.

Antoro did not answer immediately, but asked, "Where did magic originate?"

“Elania,” Astrid replied. Elania is Persia.

In another timeline, archaeological exploration of the origins of civilization only began relatively late. However, the magicians of this world started archaeology much earlier. There is a consensus in the Western Continent's magic community that the birthplace of civilization and magic is the origin of the world.

“Why was Elania destroyed? In fact, that land has now been conquered by the Suleimans, who you should know originated from an insignificant barbarian tribe,” Antolo added.

Astrid, being young and straightforward, said somewhat impatiently, "The Suleimans learned magic, so of course they have the ability to conquer a declining region. Can't barbarians learn magic? The Gonia were once barbarians too, and the ancestors of your two emperors were barbarians from this place."

"A group of barbarians were first conquered, then became henchmen, gradually learned magic, and then rebelled."

Gaul is Gaul. People of the old empire, like the Romans of another time and space, liked to name a place something like Gaul.

The story Astrid tells is basically a replica of the Germanic versus Roman plot.

“The same thing happened in Seris,” Antolo said.

For thousands of years, there has been very little communication between East and West on an overall level. Most people in the Western Continent know nothing about the East, let alone the places far from their homes. It's like they live in another dimension. However, mages do communicate. For high-ranking mages, traversing thousands of miles is not that difficult.

Within some ancient magician families in the Western Continent, there are many records about the history of the East.

"About five hundred years ago, when our church was at its most powerful, Seris also reached its peak, with a territory larger than you can imagine. However, in order to maintain the empire's vast rule, it had to delegate the control of the border regions, even to foreign tribes. This continued for more than a hundred years. Then, more than four hundred years ago, the border rebelled, but the leader was a pure Seris. In fact, these foreign tribes did not have any intention of rebelling. They believed that they were the true Seris, and that those nobles who lived a life of debauchery in the imperial city were not worthy of being called Seris."

It has a bit of the Tang Dynasty feel to it, but it's different. The first to rise up wasn't a foreign tribe, and the era they lived in was later than the Tang Dynasty.

Five hundred years ago, in another time and space, was during the Southern Song Dynasty.

“These aliens have failed,” Antoro said. “When the weak are no longer in power and the real strong are forced to step forward, they are utterly vulnerable.”

"But the Seris Empire eventually collapsed and disintegrated."

"One of the defeated armies fled to the grasslands north of Seris and quickly unified the various tribes of the grasslands. They did not dare to provoke the already divided empire and even had to hide. Soon they began their westward expedition. The West Asia at that time was not bad, but it was no match for that group of people."

Is the script turning into a Mongol conquest of the west again?

In fact, Ronan knew all these things; he was just playing along. After all, he was a man who had read the history books of Seris.

Chapter 634 Mysterious History, Not an Ideal, the Eeriely Quiet Suleiman

The multi-ethnic coalition, which strategically advanced westward, quickly defeated the barbarians of West Asia. Although the coalition was of a different race, they did not see themselves that way. Not only the mages among them, but also many of the lower classes, considered themselves Seres people, civilized people.

Immediately afterwards, these civilized people did one thing: indiscriminately massacre the city.

Civilized people don't kill people indiscriminately, but it's fine if they kill someone who isn't human; barbarians are no different from beasts.

Moreover, they had their reasons.

“The records don’t specify what kind of ritual it was. In short, they held an unprecedented blood sacrifice, supposedly to bathe every member of the allied forces in divine grace, grant them the qualification to learn magic, and then march back to Seris to restore Seris to its rightful state,” Antoro said.

"How it should look?" Astrid asked.

“Win people over with virtue, and defend the righteous with the sword,” Antoro replied.

This is what the Serisli should truly look like, according to the Western Expeditionary Army, which is a coalition of three ethnic groups from the Northeast, Northwest, and Grasslands. In their eyes, those people who occupy the court have neither virtue nor sufficient military strength, and are not worthy of being called Serisli.

After answering, Antoro continued, "But they failed. There are many records of it. At that time, a red light shot into the sky, followed by a red stone demon star falling from the sky. Except for a very few high-ranking magicians, most of the others died on the spot. Many of those who survived became walking corpses, just like the situation in Egypt back then. However, unlike the Egyptian incident, some of the survivors actually gained magical talent. Although the proportion was small, there were still several hundred of them."

"After this massive catastrophe, land-based travel between East and West was essentially cut off."

"A mere few hundred people who can learn magic are nothing in themselves, but this is an artificial bestowal of magical talent, and its significance is unprecedented."

"So when I learned about the situation in Egypt, I naturally had to go, and I had to go in person to make sure there were no problems."

At this point, Antoro sighed, took a big gulp of coffee, put down the earthenware cup that looked like it was made by himself, and said to Astrid, "Unfortunately, in the end, all we got were those beads. Until we were defeated by your father, we never figured out a way to truly bestow magical talent upon ordinary people on a large scale."

Even now, he's almost completely indifferent to it all; deep down, Antoro still only acknowledges that he lost to Ronan.

“Perhaps, making everyone qualified to practice magic is itself an impossible thing to achieve,” Antoro sighed.

“I never imagined you had such ideals,” Astrid said, her tone ambiguous, whether it was praise or insult.

Antoro laughed, "This is not my ideal, but a helpless situation forced upon me by reality. If we could win against the Kingdom of Phos in a head-on battle, do you think a nobleman like me, a high-ranking mage, would want more mages to appear in this world?"

Suddenly, Ambrina spat out her coffee, completely ruining the atmosphere.

Ambrina quickly explained, "Uh, I didn't mean to mock you, it's just that your coffee is terrible, it has no aroma at all, and you didn't even add sugar or milk to such bad coffee."

“I’m a poor man now, I’m lucky to have anything to drink,” Antoro laughed.

He was indeed broke. The two wars had wiped out his wealth. Of course, he was once an emperor and the leader of the most prominent family in the Western Continent. He still had a considerable collection of family he owned. If he were willing to sell them, he could immediately live the life of a millionaire. However, he was unwilling to do so. At most, he would occasionally sell one or two inexpensive trinkets to earn some money to support himself and his wife.

Yes, the girl was his wife, his third wife. After he was defeated and lost the throne, he passed the title of lord to his deceased wife's son, his eldest son, and thus, his second wife divorced him.

“These cookies are good,” Ronan remarked.

“That’s right, that’s right.” Antoro agreed happily, as if he were the one being praised.

Astrid asked politely, "Do you still have those records?" A narration is incomplete and may contain errors; some things can only be understood by seeing the original documents.

“I’m sorry, I can’t let you see it, and I certainly can’t give it to you,” Antoro said, refusing outright.

Instantly, Astrid's magic surged with anger, and Ronan turned to look at his daughter, "Lily."

"Tch, boring, I'm leaving." Astrid walked away unhappily. She didn't know why this old guy kept a historical record that was no longer useful to him, and wouldn't even let her take a look at it.

"Ha, I'm sorry, I didn't teach this child well," Ronan said with a hint of apology.

Antoro said with a hint of sarcasm, "This child is amazing. I never expected that the strongest women of the middle and younger generations are both French women."

There is still some debate about who is the strongest among the middle generation in the Western Continent, since the Grand Master is also very strong. However, there is basically no controversy among the younger generation nowadays; the strongest is Astrid.

“That’s fine,” Ronan said.

“Let’s get down to business. I heard you’ve gotten mixed up with a bunch of Suleimanians,” Antoro suddenly said.

Ronan wasn't surprised, but he pretended to be, saying, "I didn't expect to find you here. You seem to be exceptionally well-informed."

“Suleiman is acting very strangely right now,” Antoro said.

He clashed with Suleiman far more often than with the Kingdom of Fas, and Suleiman had always wanted to expand in the western continent. Since his home, Austeria, was so close, he had to pay attention to Suleiman's domestic situation.

"Oh?" Ronan and Ambrina were both curious, as they genuinely knew nothing about Suleiman's situation.

“This young Sultan was reforming, or rather, trying to reclaim power through reform. Surprisingly, the Queen Mother made no move, the Royal Guard didn’t cause any disturbance, and the governors didn’t take any action,” Antolo further explained why he called it strange.

This queen mother was a foreigner, very powerful, and it could even be said that she was the one who put the current sultan on the throne.

As for the Imperial Guard, there's not much to say; those who know, know.

The governor was the Pasha. Suleiman's territory appeared vast, but in reality, the Sultan only controlled the core areas. Power in other areas rested with the governors, most of whom held hereditary positions. Therefore, Suleiman was a true feudal state, while the major powers of the Western Continent all possessed elements of democracy and civil service, albeit to varying degrees.

Now, Suleiman, what is the Sultan going to do? The situation below is so quiet, eerily quiet, which is not normal.

"Ha, the calm before the storm, interesting, very interesting."

Ambrina's anticipation for the trip was raised once again.

Because they might get caught up in Suleiman's internal power struggle this time.

Ronan stood up. "Let's go, Annie, it's about time we headed back."

Ambrina stood up as well. "I hope we can meet again, Antoro."

“I don’t want to see you again,” Antoro said to Ambrina with disdain.

"Old man, you should just die already."

Chapter 635 Talent Transplantation, Disgusting Heart Gesture, Surveillance and Counter-Surveillance

Just then, Antoro called out to Ronan and Ambrina, "Wait, I need your help."

Ronan turned around. "Please speak."

“About her,” Antolo said, pointing to his wife who was hanging clothes to dry in the distance.