Although everyone attending the meeting was talking nonsense, there were too many things that needed to be decided, and arguments could occur at any time, making the meeting last until midnight.
This is the highest-level meeting in the empire, and what is decided is a national policy of great significance. Once any decision leaves this door, it will become an order in execution. There are less than ten officials with the power to call "stop", so every day
Every proposal must be carefully considered.
In the end, the development direction of the empire in the next year was determined - almost all resources were used to develop national strength, and aid materials from other empires in the alliance were also used to build people's livelihood.
Using the excuse of making farm tools, thirty metal processing plants will be established within the empire; using the excuse of transporting materials, a new canal will be dug and eight trade roads will be built. The original roads will be repaired and reinforced, and transportation within the empire will be
The network has basically taken shape; although the Gallo Empire's collusion with the assassins has not yet been resolved, it has decided to expand six ports in preparation for receiving the transport fleet donated by this country; there are also other things such as ranches to receive horses, factories to make carriages, etc.
Everything has been decided...
In addition, His Majesty the Emperor also requested that the best in various handicraft industries be gathered together. Practitioners in all industries in the empire must be registered with the local Interior Department to prepare for requisition at any time.
In addition to enriching the internal affairs system, all students who graduated from the Royal Academy will go to various cities and towns in the empire to use their skills to help the people get out of trouble as soon as possible. The Royal Academy is also responsible for the important task of construction planning. They must come up with a plan within half a year.
A complete land transportation and water transportation construction plan will turn the empire's transportation into a complete network that can be connected to the road systems of other empires when needed. It can no longer be like before when large groups of people go to the Pota Empire and have to take a detour.
watt.
The military aspect is much less, but it is the biggest headache for the general staff. Training the hundreds of thousands of recruits just recruited is okay, but His Majesty the Emperor wants him to win two demonic empires within two years, but he cannot
It is simply an impossible task to be willing to provide enough needed supplies!
Although there will be strong naval support, it is still not enough!
On the other hand, General Martin Luther, who had the highest military qualifications, did not raise any objection to His Majesty the Emperor's unreasonable request. It was useless for the General Staff to wink at him. However, the Prime Minister and the Internal Affairs Supervisors never interfered in the military.
The lieutenant general who is only responsible for commanding operations will not help the staff with this problem.
In desperation, the general staff officer could only accept this reality and decided to go back and squeeze his subordinates to see who could win this war of aggression under the logistical conditions of daily consumption - most likely there would be no chance.
At the end of the meeting, Princess Qinlun had fallen asleep in Crow's arms. Princess Feilin took her away when she left, freeing Crow's hands.
Cohen stood by the door to see everyone off, turned back to the window, and let out a long sigh.
"Are you tired? Then go back and rest!" Bai Ying said from the side: "Where are you going?"
"I'm not tired, I'm just thinking about something." Cohen shook his head: "Bai Ying, can you wait for me outside? I want to talk to the crow, and don't let anyone interrupt our conversation."
"Okay." Bai Ying left the room, closed the door and stood at the door.
"I've always wanted to talk to you, but I couldn't find the right opportunity. Now is a good time." Cohen turned around, walked to the table and sat down: "Please sit down, my friend. Now, baby Lian Qinlun If you are not here, no one should be able to influence you."
Crow walked to sit opposite Cohen and took off his helmet.
"That day, you saw my best friend, the one sleeping in the magic crystal. His name was Fichet." Cohen's voice became a little deeper: "I know, since you saw Fichet, you You have doubts about me, and you suspect that I regard you as his substitute. This is also the reason why you want to leave on the day of the coronation ceremony, right?"
"Part of it." Crow looked at the mahogany tabletop in front of him: "There are also some other reasons."
"Of course, I admit that I took the initiative to get to know you because of Fichet. You are so similar to him in temperament and demeanor that it made me hallucinate. I even thought about whether you were his twin. Brothers and so on..." Cohen said with embarrassment: "But you have to know that people are different. In fact, the difference between you and Fichet is quite big."
"Do you mean identity?" Crow nodded: "Of course there is a difference between a killer and an emperor."
"Please, you know that's not what I meant. The difference I'm talking about is personality."
Cohen smiled frankly: "You know? Although this guy Fischette has a cheerful personality, he is shy in his actions, and you are just the opposite. You never act sloppily, but you are a passive guy at heart, and you have one of the most outstanding Characteristics - Only thinking about the worst when things happen."
"Am I like this?" Crow was stunned: "I thought I was just reality."
"If you were optimistic, you would have guessed that it was me holding Qinlun the moment you saw her..." Cohen emphasized, "No matter what, in my heart, you are you, and Feixiete is Fei Shet. You are two different people, both my friends. I don’t want you to regard yourself as a substitute."
"I know." Crow said with an indifferent expression.
"Then let's not talk about this." Cohen changed the subject: "How have you been living here in the past half month?"
"Absolutely! It's a bit unaccustomed to change from a former killer to a bodyguard."
"Are you willing to stay here?" Cohen looked at Crow: "You know I have no other intentions. I just want my friends to be happy."
"Whatever! In my life, it doesn't matter whether I am happy or not." The crow said softly: "A glass of water, a piece of bread, I live the same life wherever I am."
"If baby Qinlun were here, he would be sad after hearing this."
"You don't have to look at me like this." Crow retorted, "And you already said you don't need Qin Lun to influence me."
"Sorry, I just felt it." Cohen replied with a wry smile: "A glass of water, a piece of bread... Even if it can make you feel a little happy, the friendship I have given is not unjust."
After hearing these words, the smile flashed across Crow's face, but it was still caught by Cohen's eyes.
"I know that I am not a kind person and have a very bad personality. I often exploit others and like to help others make decisions." Cohen made a brief evaluation of himself: "But you, my friend, you have to know that you are free. , I don’t want this friendship to become a burden to you.”
"Did today's meeting make you feel uncomfortable?" Crow said calmly, "You talked a lot of nonsense."
"Indeed, I talk a lot of nonsense." Cohen smiled self-deprecatingly: "In fact, I want to ask you something very important, but I don't know how to ask you."
"If you ask directly, you will find that it is actually very simple."
From Crow's answer, Cohen couldn't grasp his mentality at all. Did he mean that friends could ask questions directly if they had something to do? Or was it a sarcastic statement with no obvious meaning?
"Okay!" Cohen nodded and decided to bet: "Which big shot is eager to take my life? The Gallo Empire cannot be qualified, and you don't seem to kill for money."
"Don't you know anything about this?" Crow still had the same cold expression: "I thought you had already guessed who it was."
"It's just a guess. It needs to be confirmed by you. I'm forcing myself not to think about my friend's past. That's not a pleasant process."
"My ultimate identity is as an assassin in the Paradise Island Temple, taking orders directly from the Cardinal."
After a moment of silence, the crow with confused eyes replied: "The person who asked me to assassinate you is the red priest, or should I say, the previous red priest."
"It is indeed him. Do you know the reason?" Cohen showed no surprise at the answer: "We broke up not long ago on the dividing line between gods and demons. Judging from the time, he seems to be in a hurry."
"I am an execution killer, and I never think about political matters." Crow shook his head: "You have to figure this out yourself, I can't help you."
Cohen smiled slightly, feeling very satisfied. After all, the crow's tone revealed the hidden meaning of "I want to help you, but I can't help you." This meant that the crow had gradually accepted him as a friend. In contrast to this, the red-clothed officiant said
It doesn't matter what idea he had, since that guy has too many debts to worry about anyway.
"I suddenly realized that I was stupid! I actually talked about bloody things with my friends on such a quiet night." Cohen stood up, went to the cabinet nearby and took out a bottle of wine: "Stop talking about that, can you have a drink?"
A very light wine.”
"I don't drink." Crow shook his head: "Alcohol makes me crazy."
"Okay then!" Cohen raised his hand, and a crystal glass filled with water slid down the table to the crow. Cohen raised the glass: "Just talk about your business casually, and you can also ask me about my business."
"In fact, after knowing that you are Cohen Keda, you have no secrets from me."
Crow didn't give Cohen any face: "Everything about you is recorded in the temple."
"All of them?" Cohen held the wine glass in front of him: "Is the temple still doing this? The temple is spying on us?"
"Yes, there are records of the major ministers of each empire." Crow drank the water: "Because you have too many misdeeds, the thickness of that record is more than three times that of others."
"Tell me about it! What was recorded?"
"From the time you were born until now, you have been involved in military affairs, internal affairs, and even private life." Crow threw out the secrets of the temple unhurriedly: "However, the temple's assessment of your strength is quite reasonable. In all
Among military generals, you rank in the top ten."
"Tch! They are only in the top ten, these idiots." Cohen was obviously dissatisfied with this evaluation: "I am the only one who defeated the Demon Alliance."
"There were too many accidental factors in your victory, and your opponent was not a very good commander. The top ten evaluation is considered reasonable."
"That's fine. It's not easy to be the leader. It's not good for people to be wary of me." Cohen put down his glass: "Tell me about you! I know almost nothing about you."
"What's there to say?" Crow asked indifferently.
"Tell me about your ideals, goals in life, etc..." Cohen had completely put down his emperor's manners, sat on the table, and crossed his legs: "You know? Fichet once asked me this! When I met
After meeting you, I gradually discovered that he is a very competent friend and knows how to care for people."
"He asked you this, how did you answer him?" Crow asked back: "Tell me your answer first."
"Me?" Cohen chuckled: "I told him that I have no ideals or goals in life."
"What a watertight answer." Crow nodded seriously: "Please allow me to borrow it."
"I'm not surprised by what you said." Cohen laughed again: "Then let me say hello in another way... You are so old, and in your twenty years of life, you always have something you want.
, you always have something you want to know, or in other words, you can always find an enemy, right?"
The crow remained silent, his eyes changing, and he drank water in mouthfuls.
"Did my words make you unhappy?" Cohen spread his hands: "I'm sorry, I'm a gangster, you can choose not to answer."
"If anyone else asked this, I would have told him to shut up forever, but you..." Crow put down the cup heavily: "There are not many things I want to know, and there are not many things I want to get. There are only one or two enemies...
indivual."
"I'm waiting for your further explanation." Cohen nodded: "I thought you didn't care about anything!"
"Rather than your question, it's your inquiring attitude that makes me feel uncomfortable." Crow looked at the young man in front of him: "I would rather you ask me to kill someone, that would be much easier for me."
"After losing a friend, I realized that killing is not the only solution, nor is it the best solution." Cohen shook his head: "Just like no one can decide the fate of others, who has the right to decide others
life and death?"
"This is not something a gangster can say, nor is it something an emperor can say."
The crow was amused by someone again: "Who are you? Can you do this?"
"It's one thing to understand this truth, but I can't do it now. Because I know that people's greed is endless, and I am in a revengeful mentality now." Cohen smiled bitterly: "Any character is good.
, you think I am a hooligan, I am a hooligan; you think I am an emperor, then I am the emperor. Who is your enemy? The red-clothed priest? I can find a way to get him at your disposal."
"Although he is dirty, he is not my enemy." Crow shook his head: "My enemies are my parents."
"Your parents?" Cohen was a little surprised: "Do you know who your parents are?"
"I vaguely know something from the previous conversation of the red priest." Crow lowered his gaze.
Cohen didn't know what was going on, and it was hard to ask questions. He could only wait for the crow to say it himself. But the crow happened to be stunned at this moment, staring at the table in front of him in trance, not saying a word about the "enemy".
Besides, there has always been a strange way of understanding each other between Cohen and Crow, and there are many things that do not need to be explained in detail at all.
"What do you think of me? I'm a little sick, right?" After a while, the crow raised its head: "The only enemies are the parents who gave me life."
"Everything happens for a reason." Cohen replied softly: "In my opinion, you are normal."
"Even you agree with my hatred, so it seems that I am right to hate you."
"I just expressed my understanding, not my approval." Cohen looked at the crow: "Didn't I say you are an orphan?"
"Of course he is an orphan." Crow smiled: "But no matter how filthy an orphan is, he has a background, and I am the filthiest one..."
"Bullshit!" Cohen yelled angrily: "Why don't you face it with your arrogant attitude about your origin? You don't care about anything, so why are you so worried about this matter?"
"If I could see clearly, I wouldn't be who I am..." To Cohen's tough tone, Crow replied in a rare decadent tone: "Or...this is the sadness of my life..."
"I don't believe that any sorrow can last a lifetime." Cohen looked at the ceiling: "I will never believe in the so-called fate. I can change everything. I am sure of this."
"That's you, but I'm different." Crow lowered his head: "From the moment I was born, my fate seems to be doomed."
"Really? We can give it a try." Cohen laughed: "If you don't object, I want to take you to experience something that people will never forget."
"What's the benefit to me of going through this?"
"You will change, you may become sadder, you may become happier..." Cohen looked at the crow: "How about it, do you want to try it out?"
"Whatever you want, it doesn't matter anyway." Crow stood up, walked towards the door step by step, and said in an indifferent tone: "Why are I having such an old-fashioned conversation with you? Am I stupid?" (To be continued)