Yes, Madam Prime Minister

Page 304

Ronan and his party didn't need any large battleships that could carry seventy or eighty cannons and six or seven hundred people; those would be too expensive, costing nearly two hundred thousand taels of silver per ship.

Besides, you can't buy these kinds of ships here. You can only buy Arab ships, some medium-sized ones that can be used for both military and commercial purposes and can carry two or three hundred people.

About twenty ships should be enough.

Of course, money had to be paid, because even such a ship cost sixty or seventy thousand taels of silver a year. In those days, the annual expenses of an average family of three to five people in the East or West would amount to only a dozen or so taels of silver.

Sudan is busy with reforms; it can't afford to spend so much money all at once.

Ronan and his men could certainly afford this sum. Ambrina had been a tyrannical ruler for decades, so while she didn't have much money, she left behind all the assets she couldn't take with her. This time, she only brought some cash, gold, and jewels with her on the trip, which were worth about five or six million taels of silver in total—enough to build a fleet.

The next day, at night.

Ronan entered Isabel's room, where candlelight was on.

Just as Ronan was about to take off his coat, Isabelle came over and gently helped him take it off. This made Ronan very uncomfortable, because he had never been treated like this before. When they were young, Elena and Alice were not very competent maids, and after he married Ambrina, Ambrina would never have done this.

"Isa, what's wrong?" Ronan asked, puzzled.

Isabel didn't answer, but instead tossed her coat aside, looked at Ronan, and said, "Sit down."

Ronan let out a soft "oh" and sat down on the wooden chair. As soon as he sat down, Isabel straddled him, cupped Ronan's cheeks in her hands, and kissed him. At that moment, Ronan's eyes widened, and his body involuntarily leaned back, behaving like an inexperienced teenager.

As their lips parted, Isabelle, her face almost touching Ronan's, asked, "Do you remember when was the last time we had a simple kiss?"

“Uh…” Ronan couldn’t answer.

“It was twenty years ago,” Isabel said, and Ronan saw resentment in her face.

"I'm sorry, Isa." Ronan didn't know what else to say, so he could only say this.

“I hate you, you know that? Not because you gave almost all of your meager love to your teacher and sister, but because you think I’m a strong person who’s with you for power, for my career, for my ideals, and even to compete with Ambrina. You have no idea that I actually love you,” Isabel said, accusingly. “So, does someone who appears strong have to be treated like this?”

Ronan opened his mouth to apologize again, but Isabel sealed his mouth with hers. After a few moments of wet kissing, she suddenly bit Ronan's tongue hard, tearing off a piece of flesh.

Beside her, Golan was so startled that her mouth dropped open, and she quickly grabbed a handkerchief.

Isabel spat it out and glared at Golan. "He doesn't need that kind of thing."

Golan froze at the shout.

After saying that, Isabel turned back to look at Ronan, her body trembling as if she was about to cry, but no tears fell. She punched Ronan in the chest and said, "How could I have fallen in love with such a bastard like you?"

"I..." Ronan was about to speak when Isabel rudely interrupted him.

“I don’t want to hear your explanation, and you don’t know how. Do you even know how to charm a woman? You don’t know how at all,” Isabel said with a smile. “I thought you would change in this respect after leaving the capital and no longer getting involved in politics, but you didn’t. I thought you would change after dealing with these matters, but you didn’t. I thought you would change after having a new woman, but you still didn’t.”

What's going to change? Even Ronan is confused.

Ronan didn't understand, Ashley and Gloria did, but they couldn't say.

Chapter 699 I don't want to speak, not this sentence, it's too difficult.

After saying that, Isabel let out a long sigh. "I'm such a useless person. After all these decades, I can't even throw a tantrum. I can't even say a single harsh word. I hate you, and I hate myself even more."

Ashley rubbed her forehead, watching Isha struggle to express herself clearly, almost as if she were being unreasonable. She really didn't know what to do.

After thinking for a moment, Ashley spoke up, "Princess, actually Ronan is just a bit slow-witted."

“Slow-witted? Is he really slow-witted?” Isabelle questioned.

“Otherwise, what do you want him to do?” Ashley retorted. “Sweet talk? You don’t like it. Concern? You find it troublesome. Doing it to you a few more times? You feel like you’re just going through the motions, without any feelings. You’ve been holding back your love for twenty years, and you’re still that prideful princess. In fact, you don’t even know what you want. In this respect, you’re definitely not as good as His Majesty the King.”

Golan covered her mouth and chuckled. That comment, "not as good as His Majesty the King," had really hit Isabel's sore spot.

Ronan glared at Granny, who didn't back down at all. "Hmph, bad daddy, all you do is berate your good daughter."

In fact, Grand understood that Ronan could have been easily fooled by saying "Isabel, I love you" at first, but not now. Isabel refused to be clear and just kept rambling on and on. She and Ashley couldn't give Ronan any hints.

Ashley shrugged. "Alright, alright, Ronan, hurry up and make our princess comfortable, so she doesn't continue to throw a tantrum. Well, she's the only one who doesn't even throw a tantrum."

"Heh." With a cold laugh, Isabel stood up and left Ronan, sitting down beside him. "Don't even think about touching me today."

Ashley gave Golan a wink and launched a surprise attack. In an instant, the two of them grabbed Isabel from the left and right.

"Hehe, Daddy, come quick! Today's show is about torturing the princess," Gelan said with a smile.

"You little princess, you think you can run away?" Ashley chimed in, joining in the commotion.

Ronan was both amused and exasperated. He took two steps closer, intending to tell the two to stop fooling around, but Isabel took a step forward and launched a flying kick at the groin.

Now, he had no intention of persuading the two to give up.

Half an hour later.

Isabelle was sandwiched between three men on the bed. Her officer's uniform jacket was open, her shirt underneath was torn open, her skirt was pulled up, her flesh-colored pantyhose had a large hole torn in it and were ripped in many places, and she was still wearing her leather boots.

Ashley was below, wearing a double-headed dragon and inserting it into Isa's hole; Golan was behind, wearing a double-headed dragon and inserting it into her back door; and Ronan was at the front, inserting it into her mouth.

Isabel had a million things she wanted to say, but could only utter muffled sobs.

While Ronan was having sex with Isabel's mouth, the physical pleasure was just so-so. But watching the three women's bodies intertwined like this, watching three pairs of stockinged legs moving back and forth together, the psychological stimulation was unprecedented, especially since the one being fucked was Isabel, who was always quite assertive and had a sharp tongue.

Ronan shot within fifteen minutes.

Ronan withdrew, and Ashley and Gloria followed suit. Isabel landed on the bed, saying, "You're all happy now that you've made me like this."

“Isa, you still have the energy to speak?” Ronan teased.

Isabel looked dismissive. "Ha, it's only a few minutes. Besides, I was just faking it all along."

Ronan's smile widened. "Ah, yes, yes, you're absolutely right."

"Get out!" Isabel said, feigning anger.

Ronan took a deep breath and sat down on the edge of the bed. "Isa, you've had a tough time all these years."

Isabel sat up, staring intently at Ronan. "You think this is what I want to hear?"

Ronan was a mix of helplessness and confusion. He recalled Isabel's words from the nightmare world and asked in return, "What should I say? That the first time I saw you, the first time we went to the open-air theater in the slums to watch a play, I was captivated by such an extraordinary princess like you, and regretted not having met you first?"

“Not that sentence,” Isabelle said. “Even if it is, you say it terribly. Sometimes I doubt you’re French.”

"I was never that to begin with," Ronan thought to himself.

"I love you?" Ronan asked tentatively.

Isabel was slightly surprised, but then shook her head, "Not really."

Ronan shrugged helplessly, "I really don't know."

"If I don't know, I don't know," Isabel said, but she seemed much more at ease. "Let me have some peace and quiet."

Ronan said nothing more and walked out of the house, followed by Golan and Ashley.

After walking for a while, Ronan suddenly turned around and asked, "Am I really that bad?"

“Terrible,” Golan replied, “but you were the one who reached out to me when I was most helpless, what could I do?”

Ashley added, "To me, you're the one who brought me back to life after I was almost heartbroken. Even if you're a toothless old man, I can only accept it."

Ronan said, half jokingly and half with emotion, "You guys must have had a really tough time."

"It's not hard work, it's quite fun," Gelan said with a grin. "This is what Dad is like."

"Being with you guys makes me feel like I'm still a young man in my early twenties, having to deal with all these childish troubles," Ashley said with a smile. She didn't know about others, but she felt that everything was fine for her.

"By the way, we've also discovered some things here."

"After the organizational structure on the ship changed, these people started to form cliques. Interestingly, these cliques were not divided according to their original class, but according to the goals they followed."

“Some people are siding with Isabel, probably because they think she is a reasonable and responsible person. These people don’t want to go it alone, but want to join Isabel’s ranks and go to Seris with us. The leader of them is a young priest.”

"Others, however, want to follow Ambrina's orders. Perhaps they think His Majesty the King is more lenient. They don't want to leave us, but they have many ideas, such as doing some maritime trade after they go out. Maritime trade, you know what I mean. Among them, the leaders are a few people who were originally from the Garbage Collector Knights."

Golan and Ashley took turns talking.

"Nobody's moving closer to Didi?" Ronan asked.

The two remained silent, which was their answer.

Ronan laughed. Dinia, the older brother, wasn't very agile, but the people on the ship were quite nimble and had a lot of ideas. Those who had just taken office, whether moderates or hardliners, all sensed that Dinia wanted to continue climbing the mountain. But climbing the mountain wasn't easy; it was too difficult. They all wanted to go to sea and relax.

But Isabelle, reasonable? Ambrina, gentle? What a joke.

In short, this group of people has no intention of going independent and wants to keep a low profile.

"It's nothing. They've been isolated from the world on this big ship for many years, and they only know a little about the outside world from our snippets of conversation. It's normal for them to take a cautious wait-and-see approach," Ronan said.

Chapter 700: Pretending, keep pretending, you can't please everyone.

The three chatted about this topic for a while longer, but then Golan became distracted, so they all went back the way they came.

Back inside, Isabel was already asleep.

Ronan was about to go out, but Grand suggested quietly that they stay here.

Ronan gave Glolan's leg a light pinch. "You little rascal."

"It's all your fault for teaching him bad habits," Golan said with a smug look on his face.

There was no large bed in Isabel's room; the three of them each had a small bed. Grand and Ashley lay close together on the bed, raising their buttocks.

When the two of them were inserting the double-headed dragon earlier, they had already torn the crotch of their flesh-colored satin pantyhose, and their underwear had also been taken off. Ronan lifted their skirts, and the satin-colored pantyhose shone with a dark, oily sheen in the dim candlelight of the room. The same pair of pantyhose, but the one with less flesh on her hips and thinner legs, gave the impression of a girl with a cold exterior but a restless interior. Ashley, on the other hand, was a dancer who could do the splits in the air. Her hips and legs were more fleshy, and there were unclear muscle lines, giving her the feeling of a seductive, mature woman.

Ronan reached out and began to penetrate.

After fiddling around for a while, Ashley on the left couldn't take it anymore and said, "Stop fiddling and come in."

Taking advantage of the situation, Golan said, "Daddy, I want the one in the left hand."

The two switched sides. Ronan grabbed Ashley's hair with his right hand and began thrusting his hips, repeatedly penetrating her, while his left hand started sucking.

Within ten seconds, Golan's feet began to pound against the bed, and she couldn't help but cry out, "Oh, Daddy!"

Ronan turned to look at Isabel, who had been facing him but had turned away, looking like she was fast asleep.

This prompted Ronan to increase the speed of his thrusting, and he also added vibrations to the fingers of his left hand that were inserted into Golan.

"Uh, so hard, um, so hot," Ashley exclaimed, partly because she was deliberately teasing Isaac, and partly because Ronan had suddenly become very excited; he really was hard and hot.

Golan involuntarily shook her head, "Daddy, I can't take it anymore."

On the other side, Isabel's blanket stirred, and she curled up in a ball with her knees bent.

Ronan took a deep breath, pulled out, then picked up Gloria and got off the bed, pressing her against the wall and shoving her hard. Water splashed out, flowing down her stockings, turning the stockings brown where it flowed. "Daddy, I'm yours, always yours, break me, break me." Gloria was already immersed in pleasure, no longer having the intention to deliberately provoke Isabel, and was completely talking nonsense.

Ashley walked to Ronan's left, and Ronan's left fingers immediately penetrated her muddy hole. Ashley involuntarily squeezed her legs together, her legs tense, and the muscle lines of a dancer's legs were immediately revealed. Her toes in the square-heeled nude leather shoes that had been transformed from lace-up ballet shoes also curled inward. "Uh, oh, so comfortable, I can't take it anymore."

Ronan turned to look at Isabel, who seemed to be wrapped up even tighter in the blanket.

Isabel, of course, was awake under the covers. She had been pretending to be asleep from the beginning. For the previous ten minutes or so, being attacked by three men had been more painful than satisfying. Listening to the sounds coming from the room, she…

"Damn Ronan," Isabel cursed inwardly. She used to be quite enthusiastic about this kind of thing, and more than ten years ago, she would have enjoyed it once in a while. Now, however, it takes her a long time to feel satisfied, all because of Ronan.

Her body is so young, still in the prime of her youth, and her mindset is just as youthful, with the flame of her ideals still burning. She is definitely not the kind of woman who is over forty and has nothing to do, like a wolf or a tiger.

Ronan had made her body act strangely, which also caused her to have some inappropriate thoughts.

After an unknown amount of time, Ronan's situation finally came to an end.

Isabel thought Ronan was going to leave, but Ronan came over, pulled back the covers, and crawled into her bed.

"Your Highness, we've kept you waiting."

The next day, in the morning.

The group gathered together, and Ronan discussed the reports Ashley and Grand. Dinya, however, didn't react much; clearly, she was already used to the fact that she wasn't popular.

In fact, when she was prime minister in the Kingdom of Fas, most people, including the vast majority of the poor, disliked her. In a country that is increasingly centralized and constantly undergoing reforms, policies are inevitably implemented comprehensively—in layman's terms, a one-size-fits-all approach is bound to be adopted. The more differential treatment there is, the more loopholes there are. However, within the same social class, different regions, and even different villages within the same city, demands can be different, and may even be contradictory.

The peasant question has never been encompassed by a single class issue, much less by the workers.

As for why the higher-ups disliked her, that goes without saying.

“Since they have this idea, then the two thousand or so people who are willing to come with us can go,” Dinia said. “However, the rest cannot stay here any longer. According to the information left by Lavini, the natural environment here cannot sustain itself for long after her death. My idea is that while maintaining their independence, they can choose to join one of the Suleiman Empire, the Arabs, or the Mir Dynasty as a place to stay. After that, let them do as they please.”

Emerging from this alternate dimension, you'll find yourself in the location of the Persian Gulf.

Heading west back, you'll reach Suleiman, a country that needs no introduction.

To the south lies Arabia, the Arabian Peninsula, where the former empire has disintegrated and is now a tribal confederation.

To the northeast lies the Mir dynasty, which occupied Iran, much like the Safavid dynasty in another timeline.

However, whether you join Suleiman or Mir, the result will be the same: being placed on the border as a gun. Joining Mir would give you more autonomy, but your opponent would be Suleiman. Joining Suleiman would bring less pressure, but you would also have less autonomy.

Tens of thousands of people might enter the Arab world and make something of themselves, but the natural conditions there are not good, so no matter how well they do, it's still just so-so.