Yes, Madam Prime Minister

Page 276

On the last stop of his journey, Ronan went to see Garcia, his illegitimate son with Agustina.

Garcia is still in school. He has magical talent, and on a national scale, he is exceptionally gifted. However, within the magician community, he can only be described as mediocre.

When Garcia met Ronan, he was quite surprised. Although he knew Ronan’s other children and often came into contact with them, and had a good relationship with Lucien, he could count the number of times Ronan had met and spoken to him on one hand in the past twenty years.

For a moment, Garcia didn't even know how to address Ronan. Dad? Legally, Ronan wasn't his father, and he'd never called him that before. Sir? That seemed too distant, since Ronan must have come specifically to see him.

"How have you been lately?" Ronan asked, noticing that his son was very nervous.

“It’s alright,” Garcia replied.

Ronan didn't intend to chat with his son for long and went straight to the point, "Actually, you have a good ability for abstract thinking. After all, you can get along with Lucien and you also have some imagination. Don't be surprised, I've seen your paintings, and you're also a relatively devout believer. You could try switching to combined magic, not the cult kind, but the Seris kind. I've collected some things over the years, take a look, you can try it. However, don't force yourself. Most Seris people need a teacher to make progress. I can't find you a teacher, you can only learn on your own."

"Thank you," Garcia said repeatedly.

"Don't thank me. I am, after all, your father, and I haven't really taken good care of you," Ronan said. In truth, apart from little Lucien, the crown prince, he hadn't really taken care of anyone else. It's just that Ina was outgoing and had been hanging out with everyone since she was little, while Astrid, that oddball, didn't need to.

“Actually, my father has already taken good care of me. As an illegitimate child, I have received a lot. It’s just that I don’t have any talent and I haven’t worked hard enough,” Garcia said.

“If it weren’t for this world, you would have achieved great things,” Ronan said, with a hint of regret in his voice.

Garcia didn't understand what he meant, nor could he understand why Ronan looked so regretful.

Only Ronan himself could understand this sentence. Garcia, a young man who was neither arrogant nor impatient, hardworking and intelligent, would have been no less than Ronan in the original timeline, if not extremely wealthy, in a world without supernatural powers. But unfortunately, he was born into such a world, where one cannot succeed without some extraordinary magical power, especially for someone who did not come from a good background.

"Effort doesn't lie, son."

Ronan left with those words.

With this, he had settled the last remaining matters concerning his children and could now embark on his journey with ease.

As for this country, Ronan's era has ended. Perhaps some things can live forever, but nothing can last forever.

Long ago, Ronan told Dinia that he wouldn't mind if one day the country, which he had almost single-handedly pulled back from the brink of decline and brought back to prosperity, fell into ruin and died.

He came, he saw, he conquered—that's more than enough.

Goodbye, my youth.

Goodbye, France.

Chapter 628 Subsequent Trouble: Dormitory Dispute, Deadly Question

In May, Ambrina formally abdicated in favor of her son, Lucien II. The ceremony was grand and solemn, held not in the palace but on a high platform in the square, where tens of thousands of citizens witnessed Ambrina removing her crown and placing it on the head of her kneeling son.

As for the crown, it was originally crafted by artisans from the Kingdom of Phos, not passed down from someone else. Since Ambrina promised to be emperor for only one term, she simply took it with her as a souvenir.

Ambrina's withdrawal did not cause any domestic turmoil.

After all, Lucien had been in charge of government affairs for three years and was practically the king. Those he couldn't control either resigned or simply went to heaven to serve the Father.

But the situation abroad is quite volatile.

The empire will have to elect a new emperor, and most likely from a different family. Further internal division is inevitable. However, if things go wrong, it won't just be an internal division, but a complete disintegration, causing the empire to cease to exist.

Villa has begun its decline, and its status as the maritime hegemon can no longer be maintained. However, with the wealth it has accumulated over the past hundred years, it can easily sustain itself for another hundred years or so. Within the next hundred years, it will still be a powerful nation in the Western Continent.

With Villar's retreat, it's now the era of naval rivalry between Weyland and the Netherlands, coupled with the emerging maritime power of the Kingdom of Fass.

Venaya has completely given up and given up, but its citizens' living standards are still among the best. In the eyes of the Venaya people, the Kingdom of Phos is a bunch of old-fashioned people, and the others are not even old-fashioned.

In the north, Sweden has regained its strength, in the east, Ross is also beginning to rise, and Poland and Lithuania are carrying out reforms. The eastern part of the western continent is not far from turmoil.

In the south, Suleiman was lukewarm at best. In reality, it was quite strong and by no means a barbaric or backward country. It was just that the involutionary forces in the western continent were too strong. With minor changes every three years and major changes every ten years, decades of intermittent wars had made them all incredibly powerful. As for Suleiman's own system of governance, the Sultan's attempts to reform it were even more difficult than the Pope's misguided actions, destined to leave him further and further behind.

Even Suleiman's traditional strength—the slave trade—is showing signs of being overtaken by newcomers.

However, Ronan and his group no longer cared about these things; their spaceship was currently parked in a deserted place in the eastern mountains of the Kingdom of Phos.

These days, even countries that have existed for thousands of years still have many uninhabited areas within their borders.

In the dormitory, Ambrina took out an orange and casually said, "Isa, peel this orange for me." The orange had a thin peel and was not easy to peel, so her maid used to peel it for her and put it on a plate.

"Who are you? Don't you have hands? Do you think you're a king or an emperor?" Isabel retorted directly.

“I’m your sister!” Ambrina said angrily.

Isabel glanced at Ambrina disdainfully. "You should be the one peeling it for me."

“Ronan!” Ambrina shouted.

A moment later, Ronan rushed in through the door. "Anli, what's wrong?"

Before Ambrina could speak, Isabel spoke first, "It's nothing, this old woman had an attack and insisted that I take care of her, but I ignored her."

Upon hearing this, Ambrina was about to attack Isabel when Ronan quickly grabbed her and gave Isabel a look that seemed to say, "Why are you arguing with a child?"

Since retiring, Ambrina has become increasingly childlike. However, this time it wasn't a childish outburst, but rather a deliberate provocation and fault-finding. In a sense, it was a minor squabble in the girls' dormitory, a relapse of her professional habit.

“Never mind, Anri, I’ll peel it for you,” Ronan said to Ambrina.

As soon as Ronan said that, Isabel got angry. With a wave of her magic, she sucked the orange into her hand and threw it, hitting Ambrina in the face.

Ambrina, who had been hit in the face with an orange, broke free from Ronan and was about to hit him when Ronan quickly grabbed her again and pulled her back.

Isabel showed no sign of stopping, and Ashley and Gloria immediately grabbed her from both sides, and actually attacked her.

“I’m an old woman? You’re the old woman, you look much older than me,” Ambrina shouted, sticking out her tongue and making a face.

Isabel struggled from side to side, yelling at the two people holding her, "Let go, I have to teach her a lesson today."

Ronan felt a headache coming on; it was only their first day living together.

In another dormitory room, five people were playing chess. Agustina, a doctoral degree holder and professor-level, a top-tier chess player in the kingdom, was playing against three people. Her opponents were Dinia, who was not bad and had a high degree through correspondence courses; Elena, who was a bit bad and had dropped out of prenatal education; and Zhao Yingqi, a high school graduate and a complete novice.

Astrid wasn't involved; she was taking a nap.

“It sounds really noisy over there,” Elena said, moving a chess piece.

“Nothing to worry about,” Agustina said, moving a piece and calmly announcing, “Checkmate.”

"Ignore them," Dinia added from the side.

Zhao Yingqi didn't speak; her mind was entirely focused on the chessboard, pondering her next move.

The commotion next door lasted a while, but finally it subsided. In the end, Ronan was in charge of peeling oranges, while the others were in charge of eating them. Ambrina wanted him to feed them by hand, so Ronan could only feed the peeled oranges to everyone's mouths. Ambrina didn't react much to this. She didn't care that Ronan treated everyone else the same way he treated her. She didn't have the idea that she was the legal wife and the only one. She didn't have it before, and she doesn't have it now. She simply enjoyed picking on her sister Isabelle and was keen on making her sister bow down to her.

Isabelle, on the other hand, never submitted to her older sister.

"You're just lucky to have married a good man," Isabel suddenly added, "otherwise, you'd be eating cold cake somewhere right now."

"What, you disagree?" Ambrina said while eating an orange. "Many years ago, there was a woman who seduced someone else's fiancé to go see a play. It was really despicable. Well, that's right, this woman was only four or five years old when she was in aristocratic circles. It's normal that she learned the skills of those rotten women."

Ronan never expected that Ambrina would bring up old grievances, even dredging up things from when they were both princesses and when he first met Isabelle.

“That still can’t compare to someone who crossed the ocean to deliver something a thousand miles away, which shows that he was already a despicable person back then,” Isabel retorted decisively.

Ambrina remained calm. "That's called love, but unfortunately, someone doesn't have it."

“Do I need it?” Isabelle replied.

"Haha, she's getting anxious," Ambrina laughed triumphantly.

“You’re the one who’s getting impatient,” Isabel retorted, though she wasn’t good at arguing.

"Alright, it's all my fault, no matter what." Ronan quickly took the blame to prevent the two from arguing and getting really angry.

Ambrina paused for a moment, but only a moment, before throwing out a crucial question, "Ronan, when you first met Isa, did you have any feelings for her?"

How was he supposed to answer that? Answering yes or no would both be wrong.

Chapter 629 Playing cards, having money makes you great, playing cards and beating people at the same time.

Isabel's gaze immediately focused on Ronan, awaiting his answer.

Ronan's expression remained unchanged. He peeled another orange, broke off a segment, and fed it to Ashley, then his tone turned slightly colder. "That's enough."

He ended the problem with a forceful attitude.

If you know it's a death trap question, why would you answer it? That would be stupid.

Ambrina nodded, smiling, and said, "I was just joking, I didn't know she would take it so seriously." She genuinely didn't care about those things; she just wanted to see her sister get the short end of the stick. Ronan's silence didn't bother her either.

Isabel turned her face away. "Ha, I wonder who's taking this seriously." There was no way she would admit to losing her composure.

“You guys are so bored, how about we play cards?” Ronan suggested.

Hearing about playing cards, Ambriina became interested. "Let's play Texas Hold'em, five dollars as the base and one hundred dollars as the maximum." The five dollars she mentioned referred to five silver dragons, which, even in the capital where prices were already high, was enough to support a family of three for a month.

In this era, gold and silver were highly valuable currencies in most cities. The group carried a large amount of silver coins and gold bars, most of which belonged to Ambrina. Ronan's assets were in the tens of millions, with millions in cash, while Ambrina's were an order of magnitude greater.

In this kind of gambling, those with more money are clearly more confident and more likely to win.

“Come on,” Isabel was the first to agree. “It’s time for you, you rich dog, to bleed a little.”

A group of people quickly kicked off their slippers, sat on the carpet in the middle of the dormitory, and started playing cards.

Isabelle was the poorest of the group of women. Her home had been raided once, and she had only ever received her salary since. Ashley and Gloria, while not embezzling or accepting bribes, had often worked in the field in the past, receiving subsidies and some extra income through unspoken rules.

Of course, poverty is relative. Civil servants of Isabel's rank have very high salaries, which translate to several gold coins a month. Their food, clothing, housing, and transportation are all taken care of by the state.

The second poorest was Zhao Yingqi. She didn't have a job and only received pocket money from Ronan. However, she was someone who didn't have to spend her own money. She used to go around eating and drinking with Ina every day.

Of the trio who freeloaded, Astrid, who lived next door, was actually quite wealthy. Her magical level meant she received a substantial government stipend, and she also had a job as a teacher at the magic academy—a high-paying profession in the kingdom. Crucially, she never spent her own money; she always asked her mother, Elena, for it. Elena had become remarkably incorruptible since Ambrina became queen, a far cry from her previous role. Back in New Sea City, during the colonial era, Ronan was a major corrupt official, while Elena was a minor one, having amassed a considerable fortune.

In this dormitory, aside from Ambrina, the wealthiest was actually Alice. Although she was never greedy, Ronan funded a newspaper for her to satisfy her urge to vent. After all, Ronan had raised Alice himself, and he knew her all too well. She was, at heart, the kind of quirky, sarcastic female intellectual. She toned it down after becoming an official, but it never changed. Alice frequently published articles in the newspaper under a pseudonym, all unpatriotic articles that would earn her accusations of being a traitor to the law. She even serialized those kinds of political novels that should have gotten her arrested by the security bureau. She never intended to make money, but who knew that a large section of her newspaper, with several people serializing different novels for a long time, would become so popular? And with popularity came profits.

"Come on, let's get started." Ambrina shuffled the cards.

Isabel took the cards and cut them a few more times, then handed them to Ronan to deal, trusting that he wouldn't favor Ambrina.

Ambrina's tactics were very simple and brutal. She didn't look at her own cards, but kept raising the stakes until no one dared to call, and then she won everything.

Ambrina quickly won three rounds.

However, her tactic was completely exposed. Isabel didn't look at her cards at first, and only after everyone else had given up and she and Ambrina were left did she look at her hole cards and then call.

A hint of doubt flashed across Ambrina's face. After hesitating for a long time, she looked at her cards. They were very weak, so she gave up immediately.

Isabel won immediately, taking all the silver coins. Then she revealed her hole cards: two, three, five, one of the lowest cards.

Ambrina was furious; she had been cheated, but the core of this poker game was bluffing.

As the game progressed, the women became increasingly casual in their demeanor.

Ambrina leaned against Ronan, her legs, clad in thick white silk stockings with thin vertical stripes, crossed and stretched to one side, exuding a casual and languid girlish charm.

On Ambrina's other side, Alice sat the most demurely, with her legs and feet together, knees bent, and soles of her feet on the carpet. She was unusually wearing medium-thickness matte black pantyhose, and because her legs were thin and her feet small, the color of the pantyhose on her legs and feet was very even.

Isabelle stood opposite Ambrina, one knee bent on the ground and the other bent and placed sideways. Gone was her usual serious demeanor; she looked more like a thug boss. Her legs were covered in slightly thick bronze pantyhose, a color that was usually dignified and even somewhat dull, but somehow she had painted her toenails black, which instantly added a touch of sexiness.

To Isabelle's right is Glolan, wearing fair-skinned pantyhose and white cotton socks with ruffled edges, sitting in a duck-like pose, exuding a youthful charm.

On the left, Ashley is sitting cross-legged in a very ordinary manner, wearing a pair of silky black pantyhose. When she stands, her dancer-like legs are straight and well-proportioned, without any visible muscle definition. However, when she changes her posture, her muscular lines, which combine strength and beauty, are revealed, and the tight, glossy pantyhose perfectly accentuate this.

After playing for a while, Ambrina gradually started winning again. She was no longer afraid of losing, and she had good luck with her cards, winning a few big hands. Coincidentally, the other players also had big hands, so she won quite a bit in one go.

"You fat, short-legged bastard, can't you hurry up and finish looking at your cards?" Isabel, who had lost too many times, urged Ambrina, who had been looking at her cards for ages.

Ambrina put down the cards. "Even if I'm fat, it's better than being flat-chested."

Isabel gave a mocking laugh, "Flat-chested?"

Ambrina sat up straight and puffed out her chest. "What, want to have another competition?"

Having given birth to three children, Ambrina, who is now a D cup and a little shorter, does look larger than Isabel, who is only a C cup.

"Ha, just fat from eating," Isabel said dismissively.

Ambrina leaned toward Ronan, "You resort to insults when you can't win an argument. You have no manners."

“I’ll insult you? I’ll hit you instead.” With that, Isabel put down her cards and pounced on Ambrina, immediately engaging in a fight.

Seeing that neither of them seemed inclined to actually fight, Ronan simply stopped caring and just watched.

The journey ahead will likely involve many such incidents.

The two continued arguing for a while, so Ronan simply went outside. Once outside, he suddenly realized that Ashley had followed him without him noticing.

"What's up?" Ronan asked Ashley.

Ashley pointed inside, "Why don't you come stay with us? The two of them are fine now, but if someone accidentally says something hurtful later, it might really cause a scene. If you're here, they'll always be more careful."

Chapter 630 Is that all? After such prolonged thirst, this non-halal...

Ronan's eyes darted around, and he nodded in agreement, "Sure, we won't be living on the spaceship most of the time anyway."

The spaceship is just a means of transportation. We'll stay in it when we're in the wilderness, but in the city, we'll definitely find a hotel. If there aren't any hotels, we'll rent a local estate for a few days. Money isn't an issue. Ronan definitely wouldn't agree to us staying in the spaceship all the time. Some things have to be fair, and the rules can't be broken.