After the death of the previous King Noah, the Noah people have held a succession ceremony for two months. Now the ceremony is still not over, and the successor has not yet been determined.
Kafni and her brothers and sisters are still fighting fiercely in the open and secret. At the same time, it does not even affect the normal operation of Noah's kingdom.
And on the night after Grand Duke Ivan transformed into a dragon, Annan had completed the succession ceremony without any hindrance.
When Annan succeeded to the throne, his brothers and sisters had not even had time to go home.
Even so, nothing happened during the transfer of power... After all, those who actually control this country are not so much the ministers or grand dukes, but the Hands of Winter.
The Grand Duke's main job is just to make general decisions.
Those "precept-holding" Hands of Winter are, in a sense, the highest level of the country. Not only do they have the power to discuss policy directions with the Grand Duke, they are even responsible for specific supervision and implementation.
The Hands of Winter spread across the country, in addition to being responsible for monitoring nobles and officials everywhere, are also the supervisors of these policies.
These constitute the highest level of the Hand of Winter, which holds the "Ten Rings and Ten Fingers", and is equivalent to the cabinet of the Principality of Winter.
When Grand Duke Ivan cannot move at will, the "ten fingers" rule the winter.
Today, only six of the ten fingers remain. Due to the rebellion launched by Vladimir the Winter Defiant, the power of the Hand of Winter has significantly shrunk.
Power was also taken back into the hands of the Grand Duke.
So far, the "ten fingers" of the Hand of Winter have not yet been completed.
This is not because Ivan Winter does not have the ability to find four trustworthy people from the hands of Winter... This is actually for Annan's sake.
The other six "Ten Fingers" have all seen the outstanding methods of young Annan.
They knew more or less the origin of Annan, understood Annan's close relationship with the twelve righteous gods, and had seen Annan's demonic wisdom.
Then, after Ivan's death, they will not have any bad thoughts towards Annan...and Annan can also "use" them normally.
And if Ivan re-fills his ten fingers at this time, he will face a new problem
"Those who are loyal to Grand Duke Ivan may not necessarily be loyal to you; those people believe in Grand Duke Ivan because they know him, but they have not witnessed your talents..."
At the morning table, a mature woman with dark blue curly hair and a gentle temperament sat on the table and whispered.
There was a transparent ring on her left ring finger that exuded cold air.
She and Annan were the only two people at the table. Because of the ten fingers named "Zhuo Ya", they were responsible for all the internal affairs of the Duke of Winter including his diet, sexual intercourse, travel, and dressing up.
Now that Annan has officially succeeded to the throne, Zhuoya will naturally continue to serve him. Annan asked her to eat with him, so Zhuoya will naturally not refuse.
In fact, the reason why she did not eat with Grand Duke Ivan was not because Ivan refused to let her sit at the same table with him, but because Grand Duke Ivan was too weak... She had to keep an eye on Grand Duke Ivan to see if he was choking.
Will there be a sudden illness?
Not only eating...even bathing, changing clothes and going to the toilet, Ivan was always under Zoya's watchful eye. He was worried that Grand Duke Ivan would suddenly fall, choke or die suddenly, which was indeed a possibility.
But now that the Grand Duke has become a healthy Annan, she doesn't have to worry so much.
However, the other "ten fingers" each have their own government affairs to deal with. The only one of the ten fingers who can stay in the Grand Duke's Palace and get along with Annan all the time is the "left ring finger".
Ivan transformed into a dragon too hastily.
The job of teaching Annan how to become a qualified Grand Duke fell on Zoya.
"I understand, Aunt Zhuoya."
After Annan swallowed the food, he said in a calm and orderly voice: "Father wants me to fill these four positions myself."
"But my advice is... don't appoint 'Ten Fingers' for the time being."
Zhuo Ya said in a deep voice.
"I also understood."
Annan nodded: "After all, I am still young. Even with your help and support, I have never even met the other nobles and officials in Winter... It is difficult to gain their approval.
"Appointing high-level officials or making personnel changes at this time will lead to instability within the Hand of Winter. My idea is to first introduce some new decrees or other major events to attract their attention."
...Annan is really worry-free.
Zhuo Ya sighed silently and with satisfaction.
Much better than his idiot brother.
Lord Dmitri clearly has the feminine face of a conspirator, but his personality is too simple.
He doesn't like to be suspicious of others, and he won't be wary of people. If Dmitry is the one who inherits the position of Grand Duke, then after listening to Zoya's suggestion, he will definitely just say "It doesn't matter, I don't think you need to think about it" without thinking. It’s so complicated” and so on.
Maria, on the other hand, doesn't care about those people at all.
She is undoubtedly a born tyrant. Zoya would rather Dmitri succeed to the throne than Maria.
Because Maria cares about family members more than friends, friends more than outsiders, and outsiders more than enemies. She has a very clear "priority" when acting, and this priority only depends on her favor... If she becomes a Grand Duke, Then there will be unabashed nepotism and decision-making based solely on preference.
Fortunately, they are old people, and Maria has a good relationship with them and will not drag them down. But she will definitely recruit a group of idiots who have no ability but are lovable and sit in high-level positions.
It is undoubtedly a blessing to have a smart man like Annan inherit the Duchy of Winter.
Although Annan is not as gentle as Ivan... nor is he able to make friends with everyone like Ivan. His tactics are undoubtedly much tougher than Ivan's.
But now Noah is also replacing a new king. The one in the United Kingdom is said to be dying soon... The world is about to enter a "new generation."
Being tougher during this period may not be a wrong thing.
"So, do you have any thoughts on the decree that attracted their attention?"
Zhuo Ya asked in a low voice.
"Show me the spy list first."
Annan replied: "We sent to other countries. Other countries sent to us."
He had wanted to see this before.
But even as the first heir, Annan does not have the power to touch this. Because this was originally the "middle finger of the right hand", but now it belongs completely to the authority of the Grand Duke. Even the Grand Duke's wife, children or parents cannot touch it.
Soon, a Winter Hand handed over a thick stack of documents.
...There are quite a few surprises.
Although the "right hand" representing offense in Winter's hand is almost useless, at least it is not completely disabled due to the efforts of the "right thumb".
Annan took a general look and found that Noah had the fewest intelligence personnel, followed by the Theocracy. However, Winter had buried at least thirty nails in the United Kingdom, which had no borders at all... This was inconsistent with the chaotic situation in the United Kingdom.
It doesn't matter.
But the most numerous ones are the underground world.
There are more than ten official members of the Hand of Winter alone, including peripheral members, and temporary members who have not even entered the Hand of Winter. There are a total of 186 spies who have broken into the underground world. Most of them are illegally armed.
and mercenaries existed, but there were also three people who became "diggers".
Annan checked carefully and could not find the name of "Winter Defying Man".
……what happened?
This made Annan frown slightly.
This was slightly different from what he originally thought.
But when Annan looked up the three highest-ranking spies...
But he had some unexpected gains.
"This is……"
Annan was stunned.
One of the three people... Annan actually knew him.
He was immediately thankful...fortunately, when he was investigating the fallen, he didn't use this nail.
Because the deepest nail that the Principality of Winter drove into the underground world... was none other than the supervisor of the Sporadic Mill.