Throne Steps

The year Saenz became the official heir was destined to be an uneasy year.

Shortly after the ceremony, Pesa once again broke the scandal of accepting bribes by the Suguang judges.Pavchenko, a teacher of the magic department, was qualified as a judge in the last bribery scandal, but he himself was sentenced to the same crime ten years later, which is really embarrassing.

In October, an even bigger scandal exploded in the Redia League.

A princess was so addicted to hallucinogens that she not only suffered a miscarriage, but was also judged by a doctor to be infertile for life.

The people were in an uproar, and the royal family was furious.But even though the royal family immediately announced the stripping of the princess's right of inheritance and title, and severed the relationship between the princess and the royal family, a stormy atmosphere still swept through the capital.The anti-royal trend in the North was revived, and the royal power was shaky for a while.

At the end of November, a small group of people quietly entered the capital.

The next day, a young man hurried through a courtyard somewhere in Wangduli.

He entered the tea room and saw two ordinary-looking men sitting on the sofa, both looking at him, and one stood up.

The young man walked over quickly: "Please save me!"

At the same time, the person who just stood up made a sound. He bowed and said: "Good day, Your Royal Highness."

The prince was stunned for a moment, he was a little confused about who this was, but he responded first: "Good day."

"Sit down." The man who had been sitting still pointed to the single sofa next to him, and then pulled the person standing next to him to sit down, "This is a black swan."

The youth's pupils shrank.

"Is he... Lichen?" The prince hesitated, "Mr. Saenz?"

Saenz glanced at the people beside him: "Your Highness is asking you, why don't you introduce yourself?"

Li Chen had no choice but to say, "I am Li Chen."

The prince could not help but look at this harmless-looking black swan.He had heard too many rumors about the black swan, and never expected to meet the person in charge of the black swan suddenly on such an occasion. It seemed that the black swan held a deeper position in Saenz's heart than he had guessed.

The prince and Li Chen greeted each other again.

Saenz said: "Okay, let's talk about the current situation."

The prince nodded: "The ministers are very divided now, and they are arguing every day. The main reason is that they belonged to the imperial sister...I mean the commoner, the nobles on her side are now beating the royal family, saying that it is the royal family's style education If there is a problem, ask my father to publicly apologize to the public."

"Where are your royalists?"

"They didn't say anything." The prince sighed, "But they are planning to drag another imperial sister into the water."

"It's not surprising that it can serve multiple purposes." Saenz replied, "I want to know, what do you think of the resurgent anti-royal wave?"

"I know it's definitely not you."

"tell me the story."

"It's just the princess's personal scandal, but she opposes the entire imperial power. Compared with the previous objections in the Northland, the reasons are too weak and unreasonable." The prince was a little frustrated. He secretly glanced at Saenz's face and continued, " And you are still willing to come to see me, I believe it is not you."

Li Chen looked a little surprised.This is the serious His Royal Highness in Lei Di's Alliance, and he has such a soft temper. This situation is full of malice for him.

"This reason is too one-sided, but it's not a big problem if you think so." Saenz didn't care about his status, and directly commented on the young prince's opinion, and said, "Now I will teach you how to think about these things."

The prince looked at him burningly.

Saenz stretched out his hand and patted Li Chen: "Come on, let's talk."

Li Chen looked bewildered: "...Huh?"

"Analyze the situation," Saenz said.

"No, Your Highness." Li Chen said confusedly, "I don't know what's going on at all, how can I analyze it?"

"Do you want to analyze what's going on if you know what's going on?" Saenz replied, "Based on what you know now, make an inference."

Li Chen seemed to have come back a bit. He glanced at the prince, thought for a while, and picked a topic: "Then let me guess who is instigating this wave of anti-royal family?"

Saenz let out a "huh".

Li Chen knew that Saenz wanted to teach the prince about the development of ideas, but he did not necessarily require the conclusion to be correct, so he said: "If you want to know who is behind it, you must know who will benefit in the end, and it is the core interest. .”

His rhythm is much slower than usual thinking, just to let the prince understand how to go step by step.

"It is true that the person who did this in the Northland before was His Highness Saenz, but this time it is not." Li Chen continued, "If it is not His Highness Saenz, we might as well speculate, if it is His Highness Saenz who did this this time. Your Highness Saenz, what will happen next?"

The prince was stared at by him, and he couldn't help answering: "Uh...Mr. Saenz will..."

"His Highness Saenz is just a hypothesis." Li Chen interrupted him, "What you want to think about is how other people will react except His Highness Saenz."

"what?"

"For example, if everyone thinks this is what His Royal Highness Saenz meant, then what will everyone think His Highness Saenz is doing?" Li Chen looked at the prince's hesitant expression and said, "I will replace the Prince You said it, if His Royal Highness Saenz did this, then he is trying to usurp power."

Saenz glanced at the prince's ugly face for a moment, and poured a cup of tea for both Li Chen and the prince: "Is it fun to scare people?"

"What's so scary about this, isn't the royal family always prepared for danger in times of peace?" Li Chen took a sip of tea unceremoniously, "If His Highness Saenz wants to usurp power, of course the people on His Highness Saenz's side will benefit. Whether there is any conflict with the royal family, whether they have any conflict with their own people, at least the overall situation is in their favor.

"But what if it's a fake? His Highness Saenz didn't really intend to usurp power? Then the profit is..."

Under the signal of his eyes, the prince continued: "That is Mr. Saenz's opponent, because this way not only can he make a profit, but he can also exploit the pure white color."

Li Chen nodded: "In general terms, the royal family being opposed is the most suspected. However, the royal family itself is not strong enough now. If this kind of strategy is used, it will be troublesome if His Highness Saenz's fake show is real. Therefore, the royal family is excluded. After that, it must be the group of great nobles who are at odds with the color of eternity."

"It's all speculation."

"Yes, guessing." Li Chen smiled, "A lot of things have to be guessed. Is there anything else that allows you to see through the world clearly?"

After he finished speaking, he suddenly refuted in his heart: There are necromancers!

Saenz also glanced at him with a half-smile, but didn't say anything.

Li Chen continued: "Of course, it's not enough to just guess, but to verify it."

"verify?"

"Of course, let's infer whether the guessed behind-the-scenes black hands will benefit."

"Then, what's the benefit of those guys doing this?" The prince asked back, "It's really like what you said, what should I do if Mr. Saenz is going with the flow?"

"It's exactly what I want." Li Chen twitched the corners of his lips, "Originally it was just a self-directed and self-acted thing, but the opponent actor suddenly appeared on the stage, and they were too happy."

The prince didn't quite understand this metaphor, and he had a puzzled look on his face.

"I speculate, I just speculate..." Li Chen said with a mysterious smile, "These people are fanning the flames outside while asking the king to apologize. I’m going to find a way to suppress this.”

The prince was really at a loss: "What's the meaning?"

"Here and back, it's just taking the opportunity to spread his influence." Li Chen replied, "His Royal Highness Saenz, or the person who secretly instigates, is an excuse. If His Highness is serious, they may even suppress All the troops can be obtained."

The prince frowned: "Even if the royal family can't see clearly now, they will definitely see clearly in the future. Doing so will make the royal family distrust them and the ministers they support."

"How much is trust worth? Talking about trust in the political situation, is this some kind of weird nonsense?" Li Chen replied, "It doesn't matter if the royal family knows, or better. Look, there is a man standing with a knife In front of you, if I tell you clearly 'I can stab you at any time', of course you will be wary of him, but at the same time you have to obey him to a certain extent, don't you?"

The prince was silent for a while, not for any other reason, but suddenly felt that Li Chen's words could be applied to Saenz.

Of course Li Chen knew that he would think so, but in fact there were some differences.These aristocrats and the ministers they support can indeed shake the royal family, but it is difficult for them to overthrow the royal family.Because they seem to be united, but in fact they are independent internally.There is no "new king" that can make all the forces in the alliance agree, so it's better not to act rashly.

Because the king is restless, Saenz is restless.

Saenz's power is independent, and the forces supporting him are not united, but followed.He has the power to be a king himself, can't he rise up in the name of overthrowing rebellious officials and thieves?

This excuse cannot be given to Saenz, which is also an important reason why this turmoil was blamed on Saenz.But what these people didn't expect was that Pure White really decided to support the prince. The prince believed that Saenz was not the mastermind, and Saenz would be able to scare people by appearing on the stage.

All this, Li Chen didn't say anything very specific, leaving room for the prince to think for himself.The prince didn't know whether these were true or not, but he finally understood how to think about these issues, so he said, "Then how can we solve it now?"

"I will give you the list of the heads of several non-governmental organizations that have caused a lot of trouble, together with the evidence of their activities." Saenz finally said, "You can issue mercenary documents based on these, and let them slander the royal family or even treason The crime is punishable by the law. By the way, I will write clearly about the relationship between them and the people behind them, but don’t make this part public, just read it yourself and have a bottom line.”

"Mercenary documents?" the prince asked, "Then who will come... the black swan?"

Saenz glanced at Li Chen: "What's your opinion?"

Li Chen just took a few sips of cold tea, and replied: "But please order, Your Highness."

Saenz smiled, and turned to the prince again: "Then I will lend you... this knife."

Wherever the black swan goes, Saenz goes.Black Swan completed the royal family's mercenary document, which is Saenz's attitude of supporting the royal family.

When Li Chen left the other courtyard, he was still a little dazed.

"Aren't you 'rebel heart' alive? How did you help him?"

In the carriage, Li Chen couldn't help asking Saenz.It was also the first time that Black Swan knew that the relationship between the heir and the royal family was so close, and he thought it was very tense before.

Saenz asked back, "What do you think of this little prince?"

Li Chen thought for a while: "It's quite... innocent."

"It's true that he worked very hard, but he lacks talent in thinking." Saenz said with a smile, "This level was enough in the Heian era, but not in this year."

Li Chen came back to his senses: "You... are not following him, but being a backer for him!"

"Being a backer" is already a euphemistic way of saying it. In fact, it is to force the prince to take refuge and follow his "suggestions".

Seeing that Saenz smiled and said nothing, Li Chen said again: "Sure enough, you not only let go of instigating the storm, but also contributed to it, didn't you?"

Saenz said indifferently: "Just take this opportunity to shuffle your own cards."

Li Chen asked again: "Lai Lier made this fuse, and you also have a part in it?"

Saenz poured him a glass of water: "Aren't you tired after talking all morning? Stop talking, drink some water first."

"Sure enough." Li Chen didn't answer, but said cheerfully, "You said you don't care, you are simply using Lailier to eradicate dissidents... um..."

Saenz took a sip of the missing water in his mouth, then stuck it to his lips and forced his way across.With the tip of his tongue sweeping, Li Chen didn't have time to swallow, and the water overflowed from the corner of his mouth.

Saenz was so provocative that he almost got angry, and then he backed away slowly, wiped the water stains at the corner of Li Chen's mouth with his thumb, and said, "If you are told to drink water, you should be obedient, huh?"

Li Chen's right hand slowly raised up, making a routine gesture of middle finger.

[The author has something to say]: Saenz and Li Chen are both people who can "do it" without beeping~