Same light

It was already late at night, but the entrance to the Holy Golden Palace was wide open.

Several cars carrying cabinet ministers hurried into the Holy Golden Palace and entered the palace to meet the emperor.In fact, the emperor himself came back from outside in a hurry, and arrived later than them.

Xiu was already pregnant, and he needed to cover up when he went out, and there was a lot of preparation work, so they delayed for a while—it wouldn't have been a long delay, but they didn't expect that there was a sudden fetal movement before going out, and Alfred couldn't move at all. I stared at it for a long time—in short, it was too late for them to go out.

When Alfred arrived with Xiu, the meeting hall was brightly lit, and everyone who should arrive had already arrived.There was an emergency in the middle of the night, and the emperor rushed over from the Holy White Pagoda. This was really inappropriate, but no one dared to say anything more.

After all, Alfred had already announced his marriage with Xiu during the day. For those who have been immersed in the power field for a long time, after this seemingly absurd marriage news, what was conveyed was far more important than a wedding. The message is the change in the top-level structure of the empire.

Everyone knew that the young emperor came to the throne hastily by overthrowing his two elder brothers and his father one after another. He urgently needed to establish his own reliable network of influence, and a marriage seemed to be the best choice.

When the empire was established, the three families called the "Holy Triangle" together, whether they said they wanted to abandon their barriers and unite to defend the country, or exchange benefits to seize power, in short, in such a special period of changing eras, they have obviously reached an agreement on this matter , re-bound together.

Just looking at the almost desperate efforts of the Grand Marshal and the High Priest to help keep the throne for the emperor when his life and death were unknown, we can see that this cooperation is quite stable, and no one wants to make the little emperor unhappy for the time being.

Therefore, when Alfred arranged a side-by-side seat for Xiu beside the star throne, no one dared to raise any objections.

"What about the message?" Alfred asked.

A minister bowed and said: "Your Majesty, the translators and linguists are still doing a second proofreading to ensure..."

"Give it to me." Xiu interrupted.

The high priest hadn't issued orders directly in the cabinet for a while, and the minister was taken aback: "Your Excellency, the translation is not perfect yet..."

Xiudao: "Give me the original manuscript."

When he said this, the minister finally remembered that the introductory textbooks used by the translators were compiled and provided by the high priest, and the high priest might be more proficient in Federal language than the translators—but this is a top secret document after all, even if it is Not everyone here is qualified to know the content of the original news.

Everyone looked at the emperor, waiting for him to make a decision.

"What are you waiting for?"

Alfred glanced around, his tone sounded a little angry, but the anger was obviously not aimed at Xiu.

"The high priest is sick, can't you see it? What time is it?! You delayed the high priest's rest, can you take responsibility?!"

The minister hurriedly signaled his subordinates to submit the original manuscript of the received news.

Waiting to see the emperor's dissatisfaction with the High Priest's meddling in politics also silently withdrew his gaze.

The sorted files soon arrived in Xiu's hands.

Alfred leaned lazily on one side of the throne—the side closer to Xiu—his elbows on the armrest of the throne, his chin on his hands, and chatted, "It seems that the people I summoned didn't come all the way. Ah. My dear cousin, where is Prince Holden?"

The huge conference hall was silent for a few seconds, only Xiu turned over a page of the document as if he didn't hear anything.

"Your Majesty, Prince Holden was attacked at the Palace of St. Gold during the day." An officer sitting at the head of the Generalissimo replied, "One of his arms is broken and he cannot come - I reported this to you during the day."

"Oh, yes." Alfred seemed to have just remembered what had happened, and said in surprise, "Why, was he injured so badly? Unfortunately, I heard that he provided A lot of help, and I want to commend him properly. I order you to investigate carefully, how is the investigation going?"

The officer said something that could not be more perfunctory: "The subordinates are doing their best to investigate."

Alfred said: "That means we haven't found out yet? It's too dangerous. Someone actually wants to harm the clan prince—how about it, Generalissimo."

"Your Majesty, I am here."

"You personally dispatch a team to guard Prince Horton's manor house around the clock, and make sure the prince is safe."

"Yes."

The young emperor seemed to be casually leaning on the throne, and while chatting, he made the decision to imprison a prince.

Everyone held their breaths and lowered their heads, not daring to look directly at him.

At this time, after Xiu finished reading the document, he looked up and saw Alfred leaning on the Stellar Throne in an unseemly way, even with one leg crossed over the other—that was the throne!

He glared at Alfred, and Alfred retracted his crossed legs and sat upright.

Only then did Xiu say: "Everyone, we have encountered a very difficult opponent."

Alfred asked: "What did they say? A peace is unlikely. Is it condemnation, or is it a request for negotiation?"

"Neither of them." Xiu said, "They asked for our cooperation."

"Cooperate with what?"

"Cooperate in the hunt for fugitives and extradite them to the Commonwealth."

"... Fugitives?" Alfred quickly realized, "Is it the so-called interstellar robbers from before?"

This group of people died long ago, and Alfred risked his life to save Xiu before the spacecraft exploded, but he didn't have time to save those people—now the Federation wants people from them, no matter Whether they want to hand it over or not, they can't hand it over.

"Yes, those people, the Federation wants them back." Xiu picked up the document and glanced again, "Using the words written on it—'Federal law protects all federal citizens, including those who have been convicted of crimes." citizen'."

"What about the war they lost?" asked Alfred curiously. "They didn't mention a word?"

Xiu Dao: "There is no war. The wording of this document is that they were 'blocked' by us in their pursuit of fugitives, so they sent this letter requesting cooperation."

There were whispers in the conference hall, and Alfred finally understood why Xiu just described the other party as "difficult to deal with".

Obviously, if the other side wins, it is not a matter of a letter now, maybe the two sides are already discussing how to cede land and pay compensation, and deliver the core technology of genetic modification.But the other party lost, but it became the light sentence "encountered obstruction" in the document, as if there had never been a war at all. Not only that, the other party also asked the empire to hand over their citizens.

Alfred believed that, in fact, the other party knew well that the gang of star thieves had already died in the star sea.This request for cooperation appears to be very righteous and polite, but in fact it is not the case.

The ministers spoke one after another, refusing each other's views. Some said that they should first agree to cooperate with them, some thought that they should write back and directly condemn the other party as aggression, and some suggested face-to-face negotiations.

"Naturally, a final agreement will be reached on the negotiating table, but we can't make a negotiation request. Throughout the ages, how can the winning party ask the losing party to negotiate?" Xiu said calmly, "Of course, there is no need to accuse the other party of aggression. What good does it do us to become a war? Forcing others to admit defeat, and then others will gladly open up the channel of exchange students and teach you high technology? Since they think it is just a "blocking", it is blocking-our emperor is in It is only right and proper to shoot down several ships of unknown origin on its own border."

"What does the high priest mean, how should I reply to this letter requesting cooperation in the hunt?"

"Since the other party wants to talk about those star thieves, let's talk about it." Xiu shook the document on his hand, "Didn't they take the initiative to claim those star thieves as federal citizens? Clerk, write down what I said."

The clerk responded quickly.His right hand glowed with a faint sensory light, which was an implanted device that made it easier to operate the virtual screen.

"We have complete evidence to prove that the citizens of the Federation murdered the elder brother of the emperor of our empire, resulting in the death of the former second prince; kidnapping the then crown prince and high priest of the empire—"

Most of the people here are qualified to meet the crown prince, that is to say, they actually know Xiu.

Now, they looked at this person and said with a blank expression: "—caused the death of the former crown prince and the former high priest. The Federation must be responsible for this."