I will be crowned king

"Cheers to the future of Ice Dragon Fjord!"

Accompanied by crisp toasts, a simple but extremely sumptuous dinner had just begun in the living room of Luen Mansion.

For some personal reasons, there is no cook in the mansion, which symbolizes the power of the Loon family in the colony; since only Anson, Lisa and her sister live here most of the time, Tower, as the "head of the family" Leah and her dear sister are both inexplicably obsessed with cooking and do not allow outsiders to set foot in the kitchen.

Two votes to one, the "lived" Anson will either starve to death, or he can only enjoy the delicious food made by Lisa and Thalia, and he will be uneasy between going to heaven and going to hell every day without any say. right.

But they are not at home today.

Thalia went to Wintertorch City, and Lisa, who faithfully performed her duties as the chief police officer, was still investigating cases all over the city... In order not to neglect the distinguished guests, Anson specially hired a chef from the parliament restaurant and personally formulated the dinner menu to provide sincere hospitality. Baron Aix comes once in a while.

Golden-red braised prawns in oil, crispy and salty fried sausages with garlic paste, pan-fried pork with egg and potato pancakes, raw ham garnished with parsley, aromatic sauerkraut stew, fried meatballs, and almonds Grilled sausage, butter grilled chicken...

All are "Clovis-style delicacies" with the strongest flavors, mainly fried barbecue and pickled products, and absolutely plenty of calories.

They both enjoyed their meal very happily.

Although the upper class of Clovis highly admired the simple yet complicated, gorgeous and light imperial cuisine, as a native of Clovis, he still could not let go of his love for these heavy oil and salt delicacies - especially since Baron Aix was so polite. After bringing a bottle of white wine from his collection as a gift.

For a while, the guests and hosts were having a great time, chatting about cooperation and friendship while drinking and drinking. It was as if the two people who had only known each other for a few days had become close friends who talked about everything.

"So...are you really confident that you can convince the mainland to exempt the colonies from taxes in the coming year?"

With a slight hint of drunkenness, Baron Akers could not hide his excitement as he stared at the overlapping figures across the table: "This is not something to joke about, Brigadier-General."

"I have no intention of showing you humor in this matter, Baron." Anson leaned on the back of the chair in the most comfortable posture, and the wine glass being shaken and played with and the elbows supported on the bow of the chair formed a clever angle:

"If I wasn't absolutely sure, why would I take the risk of mentioning this matter? I could have kept you in the dark, put on a fake show, and ended up monopolizing the colony's taxes for a whole year, and no one would notice. Anything unusual."

"Indeed..." Ax murmured to himself, his expression finally becoming a little more serious.

With the relationship between Anson Bach and the Franz family, coupled with the cooperation of the Luen family, it is enough to easily pocket this huge sum of money that is unimaginable to ordinary people.

"In that case, what made you decide to tell me such important information?"

"Because I hope to make a friend." Anson shook the wine glass briskly.

"friend?"

"Governing - managing the colony on behalf of our Governor, is not a job that can be completed by one person. It requires the close cooperation of many people, mutual understanding, tolerance and care for each other to allow the colony to operate normally."

Anson put down his wine glass and stood up, slowly walking around the dining table towards the confused Akers: "And all this would be impossible without your help and cooperation."

"No, no, no, Brigadier, you are too complimentary." Faced with Anson's enthusiasm, Akers looked very humble:

"I am just a member of the Privy Council, a small aristocrat from Clovis City whose home is close to the Osteria Palace; there is a huge difference between me and an outstanding young talent like you."

"If you say this, you are disdainful of my lack of sincerity."

Anson held the Baron's chair with one hand and poured wine for him with the other: "Although I have always believed that friendship is priceless,... for the sake of our friendship, I may still have to wrong you."

"Like...fifty percent?"

Fifty? !

Baron Akers stared intently at the wine glass that was being filled little by little, his suddenly shrunken pupils trembling violently.

As the newly appointed "Minister of Taxation and Customs" of the colony, he had done his homework before setting off, and he knew very well how wealthy Beluga Port was; the amount of tax paid last year alone was almost two million gold coins. !

This is still the price of "forced expropriation" by the natives - the way the natives exploit the colonies is to use various luxury goods, manufactured goods and other New World hard currencies to exchange and purchase the raw materials of the colonies at extremely low prices; in the end, those logs , as long as coal and ore can be successfully transported back to the mainland, the price will at least double.

And this was just a year ago!

After a whole year of vigorous development by the Luen family, the trade routes opened up after the establishment of the Free Confederation, and the investment of various forces led by the Roland family, the prosperity of Beluga Port has long been far greater than in the past. Even if you think about it with your toes, it is definitely more than two A million.

But even if there is no increase, 50%... that is still one million... one million real gold coins... Even the top wealthy families in Clovis, the grand dukes of the empire, are not so wealthy that they can spend it casually. Can you afford so much money? !

At this moment, Baron Aix felt that his soul was trembling; the wine in the glass seemed to have turned into the devil's drink, exuding indescribable temptation.

He raised his head suddenly and focused his eyes on Anson's dark brown pupils:

"What do you want me to do?!"

But Anson said nothing, smiled and patted his shoulder with his uninjured left hand, slowly sat back to his seat, and picked up the wine glass again:

"Dear Baron Aix, you misunderstood. I don't need you to do anything - I said all this just to prove my respect and friendship for you, and I am very sincere."

"But……"

"Even if you have to do it, it's not what I ask you to do, but what you do for our common cause. We are friends and even more allies!" Anson shook the wine glass in his hand, and the smile at the corner of his mouth grew stronger:

"After all, even if I can win the tax exemption in the mainland next year, if I want to get the exempted tax, I still have to collect the tax from the colonial assembly."

At this time, Baron Akers finally understood: "You mean you want me...ah no! I should come forward to make them pay taxes willingly and...hide the tax exemption?"

"That's up to you." Anson shrugged:

"But then again, as the head of colonial taxation appointed by His Majesty, it all depends on your thoughts whether to levy taxes, how much to levy, and how to levy it..."

"All we soldiers can do is assist you, Baron, and cooperate as much as possible."

The unabashed flattery and a little bit of alcohol were very useful to Baron Akers who had just been greatly stimulated.

"I never expected that when I was ostracized in the Privy Council, I would meet the best friend of my life in the frozen colony."

Akers, who was talking to himself, seemed to have used all his strength to raise the wine glass: "And you... the young officer who was originally suppressed and hidden in the dark, has also opened up a bright and infinite road after coming to the edge of the world. "

"Could this be fate, a fair fate guiding us?"

Looking at the deeply moved Baron, Anson immediately showed a look of deep sympathy: "Destiny... yes, maybe when the Ring of Order closed the door, it did not forget to leave a window for us."

"Ring of order...door...window? Yes, yes, that must be the case!"

Baron Akers shouted, and he stood up suddenly, raised the wine glass above his head, and a sacred and solemn expression suddenly appeared on his drunken face:

"Raise a toast, Brigadier General Anson Bach, to fate—to the fate bestowed upon us by the Circle of Order!"

Anson smiled slightly, stood up calmly, and raised his wine glass high like a baron:

"And for our friendship."

"cheers!"

"cheers!"

The two drank it all in one gulp and smiled at each other.

In this way, the Storm Legion and the Rune Family can directly consume the colony's tax revenue for an entire year with official endorsement without worrying about any risks, let alone arousing resentment from all parties in the colony.

As for the half given to Baron Akers...of course he can get the money, but how to get it and whether he has the opportunity to enjoy it is another matter.

In this world, your money may only belong to you in name; and other people's money may not be used by you, or it may directly become part of your property. When it comes to Akers, Anson can at most temporarily put it aside. The money was stored in his name, and even "belonged to his name" in name only.

Once the signs of the mainland abandoning the colony are exposed, his "Minister of Taxation and Customs" will lose its existence value... Oh, maybe he can also be responsible for taking on the anger of the colonies against the mainland, and use the image of a tool to vent anger to warm up.

But before that, he might as well let him take advantage of his drunkenness to make this dream last longer.

……………………

Beluga Harbor Central Square, "Pious Faith" chapel.

Carl Bain was alone in the data room, looking through the rows of files on the cabinet with a frown.

The Faithless Knights, New World Companies and Banks, Square Riots, Harold Foundation, Assassinations... All kinds of bad things that have happened recently have made this chief of staff very annoyed, especially now that he is still busy with legion expansion and shooting. The work of the army is almost overwhelming.

Until he suddenly remembered that there might be clues to the activities of the Faithless Knights and the Harold Foundation in the information room at the headquarters of the Promise Keepers League.

Although it is just a folk religious organization, since the entire organization was almost established by Storm Division, it is inevitable to retain many traces left by many of its founders-including Anson's secretary Alan Dawn, and his The habit of “recording, filing and filing everything”.

These materials are generally filed on a daily basis, and the content is nothing more than the news that happened that day, the patrol experience of a certain Promise Keeper militia, and the disputes handled. It is far more boring than the diary of a certain commander-in-chief.

But if the date is determined in advance, or even what happened to a certain area or person, these boring files will become clues with clear paths, allowing readers to "see" the time immersively. In the end what happened.

"...Well, so Anson only took the clerk with him when he went to the restaurant that day. The time was five-thirty in the morning. The restaurant...no, there weren't too many people waiting in the entire parliament. The assassin could easily Sneaking into the parliament..."

"...Wait a minute, the hotel family was killed in the morning. Miss Lisa led people to find the place in the afternoon, but the militiaman named Aesop also saw three people from a family entering the hotel at noon. This may be a clue... "

"...The Harold Foundation appears a bit frequently. Why are they everywhere? But Anson seems to have said that these guys are already allies. Hmm... I'd better write it down first..."

"...There are actually militiamen from the Promise Keepers Alliance who are applying to be officers in the Shooting Army. Oh, this militia has just joined for less than a month. It has been active around Red Hand Bay before, and its name is..."

"...it turns out that two days before the riot in the square, the gang of gangsters had already passed through the surrounding areas in advance. They were able to block the surrounding streets so quickly. It doesn't look like a purposeless action..."

"...No, no, this is not reasonable. It is already the end of November, how can we still see records of foreign mercenary groups and pioneer organizations arriving at Beluga Port..."

As he continued to read and talk to himself, the chief of staff's brows became more and more furrowed. He who originally just wanted to take the opportunity to relax was completely immersed in the sea of ​​​​all kinds of information, following pairs of eyes to review the past two months. Everything that happened in Beluga Harbor.

Perhaps because he was too immersed in it, he didn't even notice that the sky outside had completely darkened. He continued to read through a dim kerosene lamp while making notes in his portable notebook.

This state lasted for a long time, until a familiar voice came from behind.

"boom--!"

The urgent notes echoed in the silent data room. Karl stopped immediately and suddenly looked back at the closed window; he only saw the bright moon in the sky and everything was silent.

Nothing.

Karl narrowed his eyes slightly, walked slowly to the window, carefully opened the lock, and lifted the window upwards; a lead bullet still emitting a faint smoke appeared on the edge of the window, and it seemed that it should have hit an object. , dropped from high altitude.

But there was no movement in the dark night except the howling of the icy cold wind.

How can it be?

Gently picking up the lead bullet, Karl closed the window again, picked up the notebook on the table as if nothing had happened, and walked out of the reference room door without turning off the light on purpose.

Based on the experience of a veteran, if the smoking lead bullet had not been enchanted, the muzzle of the gun would not have been fired more than 20 meters away from him. In addition, the previous gunshot had no warning. , all silently telling the same thing...

You must leave from here!

And immediately!