Yes, Madam Prime Minister

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"I'm sorry, you shouldn't have come looking for me," the man said confidently. He was a first-tier mage, perhaps not strong, but five novice mages who couldn't use magic and didn't even have weapons thought they could take him down? That was a gross underestimation.

"So, you're going to rebel?" Conte asked.

The man laughed. "If you say so, then so be it." As he spoke, the man had already entered the spellcasting phase.

However, in the next instant, bang bang bang bang bang, five red lights appeared, and the man fell down. He was not dead, but his magic was completely disordered, and he fell into a paralyzed state, lying on the ground unable to move.

Conte kicked the large bucket of cheese off the cart, dumped the cheese out, and said, "Put him back in."

Chapter 386 Education Center: Preventing Leaks, "Personalized Education"

A speck of dust in the era, when it falls on an individual, becomes a mountain. The gentleman in the large wooden barrel currently being filled with cheese is not an individual; he is a magician. A speck of dust in the era cannot crush him, but the torrent of the era can drown him.

The Magic Revolver is part of this trend.

From now on, someone of his rank as a First Order official has lost the right to be superior to others.

The Red Mill Education Center, located in the northern part of the capital city and under the Ministry of Interior's Security Bureau, has been bustling with activity, with more than a dozen people already being escorted inside.

The Security Bureau, whose guiding principle is "respect," has no torture chambers or prisons. Its method for eliminating social threats has never been violence against "security risks," but rather educating and transforming them into "good citizens."

At this moment, a former Weylander named Mela is asking the investigators for their opinions on handguns. She is not from the Security Bureau, but from the Technical Department under the Security Bureau, and is one of the people who followed the seventh-tier elemental mage Victor in the past.

After the routine procedures, Mela left with the feedback questionnaire. She and her companions weren't interested in weapon research, but Ronan's proposal to research a cheaper magical talent testing machine gave them hope—hope for more mages in the world, and ultimately, for more mages to abandon the idea of ​​"seeking privilege through violence" and dedicate themselves to production and construction.

Otherwise, they would have even refused to participate in the Magic Revolver project.

Meanwhile, on the other side, at the entrance of the building.

After listening to Conte's report, Isabel praised him, saying, "Well done."

“I only did what I was supposed to do, Your Highness.” Conte bowed in respect.

Upon hearing this incorrect address, Isabel's gaze suddenly turned serious. "This is a place where you need to be careful what you say, I hope you understand." Isabel spoke in a light tone, as if offering a reminder. Although the Security Bureau, like the military, emphasizes obedience, she was not Conte's superior and had no right to reprimand him.

After saying that, Isabel turned and walked into the building, with Ashley following behind.

Soon, the two arrived at classroom number one.

The man who had just been brought here by Conte and his men was in this classroom. At this moment, his limbs were chained with thick iron chains, and four men with magic revolvers stood around him, ready to shoot him at any moment.

The man struggled a couple of times, making the chains clang, and glared angrily at Golan, who was sitting not far away opposite him. "Have you considered the consequences of treating a kingdom official like this?"

“You have now witnessed the kingdom’s secret. Until this secret is no longer a secret, you will not have the opportunity to leave here due to the principle of secrecy, nor will you allow outsiders to visit,” Golan said slowly. “As for what the secret is, you have already experienced it firsthand.”

The man's face immediately fell. He hadn't expected that the legendary magic revolver had been produced in so many finished products, and that it had not only been used in the arrest process, but had also become the reason for detaining him and preventing him from visiting.

"Don't expect me to say anything, just bring it on." Although the man was already panicking inside, he still tried to appear tough.

"Please rest assured, this is an education center, not an interrogation room. We will not use violence against anyone," Golan said.

Hearing this, the man sneered and shook the chains binding him. "This isn't considered violence?"

"This is to prevent you from using violence. For ordinary people, we just put on bars and doors. Novice mages are shackled. For someone like you who is a first-level mage, there will naturally be more. If you are second-level, then we will definitely break your hands and feet first. As for third-level, tsk."

The rest of the story about Golan is unnecessary and need not be discussed.

Ordinary methods are simply ineffective against third-tier mages; they either become extremely bloody or require complete rework.

"As an official in the kingdom's central government, although your rank is not high, you wield real power and have a considerable influence on society. Don't you feel heartbroken about doing such a thing?" Golan asked.

"Just say what you mean," the man said impatiently.

Did you think she was going to spout nonsense? It's all because Ronan said to be polite, to give the other person a chance to be honest, and to try to persuade and educate them first.

Golan took out a document from the leather bag. "Someone reported that you abused your position to deliberately undervalue the assets in the previous assessment of the Royal Chamber of Commerce's assets. Is that true?"

"No," the man said, his tone not firm.

“Oh, I understand. Give him a few shots and send him to classroom number thirteen,” said Golan.

"Wait, I..." At this point, he still didn't realize that the situation was beyond his control. He just wanted to bargain, and he never expected that the young woman opposite him wouldn't give him another chance to speak.

The man collapsed to the ground, then was dragged away, leaving several bloody trails on the ground, but they were actually just external injuries.

On the man's file, to the right of his name, Alphonse Breton, Golan wrote a line: "Persuasion and education have failed."

When Breton woke up again, his wounds had been bandaged, but he was in an extremely cramped space. It was so narrow that it was difficult to turn around while standing, and he couldn't even straighten his legs while lying down. He patted the surrounding walls, which were very thick.

The place was not only narrow but also dark, with the only light coming through small holes in the four walls.

"Hey, is anyone outside?" Breton called out.

Bang! A shot rang out, the red light shooting through the small hole and striking Breton.

No water, no food, unable to lie down and sleep, unable to make a sound, completely confined in a claustrophobic space.

This is classroom number thirteen.

Two days later, when Breton was released, he was dazed and smelled terrible. He didn't look like a normal person anymore. It was only thanks to him being a magician that he was far stronger than the average person in both body and will. Otherwise, he wouldn't just look like a normal person, he really wouldn't be a normal person.

After leaving the "classroom," Breton was taken to be rinsed and thrown directly into a pool. He was scrubbed with a brush with stiff bristles. His wounds from the magic pistol had not yet fully healed, and the brush directly ripped off his newly scabbed wounds along with the dirt, causing blood to flow freely. Breton screamed in pain and struggled in the pool.

“If you don’t cooperate, we’ll have to shoot you twice and then tie you up,” said the man in charge of cleaning him.

If it had been when he first came in, Breton would have definitely exploded and subdued the man who dared to speak to him like that. He would have at least given him a lasting memory, if not twisted his head off. But after spending two days in that dark room, Breton had not had the slightest thought of resisting.

We have no choice but to endure.

Inside the Moulin Rouge Education Center, there were more than a dozen people like him.

Of course, half of them were luckier than him, because half of them were ordinary people who were not even novice mages. They were not chained or locked in a dark room. They were simply stuffed into a bamboo cage, thrown into the lake, and repeatedly pulled up and down. Then they were taken to a small room and persuaded in shifts, day and night, until they repented.

This wave, this wave is called individualized instruction.

Chapter 387 A Big Speculator, Petty Tricks, and Not Even Willing to Make a Deal

The royal council was held in the same small room. Queen Ambrina sat in a high-backed chair behind the table, while the other central officials sat in small armchairs facing the queen.

The meeting is usually chaired by the Prime Minister, who selects the officials to attend in advance based on the main topics. If there are any unforeseen circumstances, additional officials may be added at the last minute.

Those who attended the meeting said it would be decided based on the agenda, but the specific selection would depend on the Prime Minister's own decision.

However, if you are a minister in the central government, even if the prime minister doesn't mention your name, you can come as long as you want to.

At this moment, Finance Minister Bruno arrived on his own. He immediately questioned Dinia, "Minister Egis, you ordered your subordinates to arrest people indiscriminately, which has seriously affected the progress of important national projects. Are you aware of this?"

Dinia, who had spent a long time arguing with Ronan last night, was sitting in a chair taking a nap with her eyes closed. Upon hearing this, she opened one eye slightly and said, "It really is a case of arresting people randomly. You're such a big scourge right here, and they haven't even arrested you."

The officials behind him quickly covered their mouths and burst out laughing.

"You..." Finance Minister Bruno pointed at Dinia, speechless for a moment.

Dinia looked at the minister with disdain. "You've been in the minister's position for so long not because your low-level political skills have successfully controlled your subordinates, but because your subordinates think that having you as their superior makes their lives easy. I thought you were just bad, but I didn't expect you to be so stupid. Your subordinates were arrested and you didn't even try to distance yourself? Oh, maybe you're involved in too many messy things and can't clear yourself off completely."

Ambrina slammed her hand on the table to stop them, "Minister Egis, don't accuse a minister without evidence."

Dinia nodded. "It was my mistake."

"Where is your evidence for arresting people?" Finance Minister Bruno questioned again.

Dinia took out a thick bundle of documents, walked over and placed it on the table. "These are all whistleblower reports from insiders of the Royal Chamber of Commerce. Without exception, all those arrested were the ones who made the reports. Since the police were also involved, we had no choice but to get involved. As for why they haven't been released yet, it's for the sake of secrecy, right, Mr. Prime Minister?"

Alexander was extremely annoyed; he never expected that even in his current state, Ronan would still have to get him into trouble.

"Yes," Alexander could only answer.

That magical revolver was key to the military operation that raided the Rhine region. As one of the people in the know, he naturally couldn't do anything that might lead to a leak; otherwise, the charge of treason would be waiting for him.

Everyone stared at Prime Minister Alexander in disbelief. How could he have sided with Dinia?

The Prime Minister turned his head back, his wolf-like blue eyes glancing back at the crowd before turning back. "Gentlemen, Your Majesty, let's get down to business. The sale by the Royal Chamber of Commerce cannot be stopped, but the key officials who were originally in charge of this matter have temporarily stayed at the education center for training due to certain special factors. Now we should consider who will take over this matter."

Ambrina rested her chin on her hand. "Then let's hear what you all have to say."

The officials chimed in with their opinions, some even suggesting that the matter be delegated directly to outside businessmen and bankers, but they absolutely avoided mentioning Ronan or anyone even remotely related to him.

Ambrina was surprised that Ronan had predicted this outcome, so she adopted the strategy he had taught her.

Feel free to suggest anything; I'm neither sure nor opposed to it.

If you really have to ask me, I'll just say "it's all good, it's hard to decide".

Time passed slowly, and then Ambrina said she was pregnant and getting hungry quickly, so she left, leaving everyone in the room to continue their discussion. The meeting would end when they came up with a suggestion that was better than the others.

Everyone could understand at this point that the queen's meaning was simple: they could only leave when they elected Ronan.

When lunchtime arrived, none of them were allowed to leave the area. Ambrina ordered a large dining table to be brought out and placed outside the small room, and then lunch was served.

Lunch was simple: vegetable soup, baguette, that was it.

A group of palace guards surrounded them, preventing them from leaving.

If this were a feudal era, a king would be in trouble if he dared to treat his ministers like this, because ministers of this rank usually also held the additional identity of noble lords.

However, under the civil service system, the power of high-ranking officials in the central government derives entirely from the chair they sit in.

As Queen Ambrina, they really had no way to fight back against such underhanded tactics.

"If you ask me, let it go." The speaker was Commerce Minister Turan. He wasn't exactly clean either, and two of his subordinates had been arrested. But since Ronan hadn't taken any action against him, it meant there was still room for negotiation.

No one responded to Turan's words.

The group of high-ranking officials looked at the vegetable soup and hard baguette in front of them, which looked rather unappetizing. They really couldn't bring themselves to eat it, and they didn't want to continue this stalemate. After all, not everyone had their subordinates arrested. What did the trouble you caused have to do with me?

None of his men had been captured; all they wanted to do was leave the palace as quickly as possible and find a place to enjoy a delicious lunch.

The problem is that no one is willing to be the first to submit to the king.

Just then, Prime Minister Alexander broke off a baguette, tore it off, and soaked it in vegetable soup to soften it. He then ate the vegetable soup with a spoon and the softened baguette with a fork.

The prime minister actually accepted the bribe, and now no one was willing to be the first to back down.

Commerce Minister Turan couldn't take it anymore. "You can eat whatever you want, but I won't eat this stuff." With that, he stood up and walked out. The palace guards tried to stop him, but Turan said he had thought of someone who was very suitable and that he needed to report to Her Majesty the Queen.

Thus, Turan was able to leave, and instantly, everyone else couldn't sit still any longer and quickly got up to leave using the same excuse.

Only Prime Minister Alexander and Finance Minister Bruno remained at the table.

Alexander stayed simply to stay out of it, and he genuinely thought the vegetable soup made from the leftover meat broth tasted pretty good. The baguette was a bit hard, but still edible.

Bruno, however, was unable to accept reality.

As the most powerful person in the entire civil service system besides the Prime Minister, Ronan was unwilling to even communicate with him or make a deal.

On the other side, the Minister of Commerce, Turan, was the first to rush to the small dining room in the palace. After catching his breath, he said, "Your Majesty, I have a candidate in mind: Mr. Ronan Artes, the Director of the Bureau of Commerce and Industry under the Ministry of the Interior. I think he is absolutely the best person to oversee this sale."

Ambrina looked at the group of officials following closely behind and asked, "What are your opinions?"

"We also believe that Mr. Artes is an excellent candidate."

"Yes."

One after another, the high-ranking officials in the central government echoed this sentiment.

The royal council meeting thus came to an end, and as planned, the task of presiding over the sale of the Royal Chamber of Commerce's assets fell to Ronan.

Chapter 388 Even collecting rent has costs, and selling salt can also result in losses, but I don't care at all.

After taking over the sale of the Royal Chamber of Commerce's assets, Ronan once again entered a busy state.

Ronan didn't start by trying to clean up any remaining influences. In his view, as a successor, no matter how bad the predecessor was, it was never a good thing to completely overturn everything the predecessor did.

Ronan made no changes to the sales process or transaction rules, nor did he pursue the buyer's liability.

However, the embezzled funds received by the teachers who were still receiving education at the education center were naturally confiscated and used as "education funds" to recruit more teachers and build a larger education center so that more people in need of education could be educated in the future.

A group of people who hoped to acquire the Wangli Chamber of Commerce's assets through disguised bribery could only accept their bad luck and the fact that their money had been wasted.

The Wangli United Chamber of Commerce is composed of various chambers of commerce of different sizes, and its business scope can be said to cover all aspects of the national economy.

Ronan felt that King Lawrence a hundred years ago did not simply intend to use this as a tool to make money, but rather as a tool that could be used to regulate a certain industry at any time while making money.

Unfortunately, the tools designed by advanced users are not something that novice users can easily use.

The assets under the Wangli United Chamber of Commerce are divided into two types, assessed by value. More than 70% are assets that generate easy money, such as wheat fields, ranches, wineries, iron mines, and salt pans. The other 30% consists of land for factories and workshops. Yes, land.

The people in the Royal Chamber of Commerce can't even collect rent for their land properly, let alone run any factories or workshops. They've already sold their factories and workshops to others; the Royal Chamber of Commerce just collects some land rent.

Many days ago, Ambrina asked Ronan a question: how could someone not even be able to collect rent properly?

Ronan gave a very simple answer: the Wangli Chamber of Commerce doesn't collect rent themselves, but orders another group of people to do it. Whether the whole thing is profitable doesn't depend on how much is appropriate to squeeze from the farmers, but on whether they can control the cost of using the rent collectors.

Often, the government cannot control administrative costs, and similarly, this group of people cannot control the usage costs they collect, resulting in them not even being able to collect rent properly.

Wheat fields are the simplest; salt fields, which are a bit more complex, are a complete mess.

Salt is a rare commodity in the Western Continent. Although the Western Continent has the Mediterranean Sea, so the transportation costs are not as exorbitant as in Seris, salt is still not cheap. Smuggling salt is a capital offense in many countries.