Just like that, a brief moment of solitude arose. Freya and Trig looked at each other with unspoken understanding. Freya wanted to test his attitude, while Trig wanted to probe her identity.
After a brief pause, Trig was the first to speak. “Miss, are you from the Holmes family? I don’t believe I’ve seen you before.”
Freya shook her head and said, “No, Euphy and I are just friends. I asked her to bring me along today.”
Although Freya did not explicitly state her identity as a princess, this was practically showing her cards. Someone who wasn't from the Holmes family, who had used their connections specifically to see the King, and who bore a resemblance to the King's mother—what else could Freya's identity be but a princess?
In truth, Freya couldn't be blamed for beating around the bush like this. After all, she couldn't just walk up to Trig and say, “Hey, Little Trig, I'm the princess. Venmo me fifty bucks and help me ascend the throne. In exchange, I'll let you be the Regent and hand over all state affairs to you.”
No matter how she looked at it, that was unrealistic. Most importantly, Freya was currently posing as an ordinary person and playing the role of someone completely harmless. She had to appear as weak as possible to make Trig believe she would be an easily controlled puppet king.
If she directly brought up Trig's coup d'état plans, her "harmless" act would instantly go up in smoke. Therefore, Freya couldn't be the one to propose a partnership; she had to lure him into taking the initiative to cooperate with her.
Thus, Freya pouted slightly and said, “Sigh, when I was little, I saw other children accompanied by their parents, but I had no one. I used to wonder where my parents were...”
Trig remained silent for a moment before asking, “Do you hate your parents then?”
Freya said, “I don’t hate my mother, because she passed away right after I was born. Although I never spoke with her, I know she must have loved me. But I absolutely detest my father! He abandoned my mother and me.”
Just moments ago, Freya had been perfectly polite and gentle when speaking with the King, yet now she had completely changed her tune. One could only wonder how the King would react if he heard Freya say she detested her father the most.
After saying that, Freya seemed to realize her slip-up. She quickly added, “Oh, I’m sorry. I just got a bit emotional. Please don't mind what I just said. As the Prime Minister of this country, you must be very busy. You can just forget about my trivial complaints.”
Trig replied, “It’s fine. By the way, what do you think of this country?”
Freya tilted her head slightly, appearing surprised that the Prime Minister of a nation would ask an ordinary young girl such a grand question. She said, “I feel... it’s not very good. My own daily life is already very simple. I earn a meager wage and have to think long and hard about what to eat for my next meal. Yet, there are so many more who are far worse off than me. I can’t even imagine how hopeless they must feel every day.”
“If only this country could become a bit better. Unfortunately, I’m just an ordinary person and can’t do anything. Just trying to stay alive takes everything I have.”
Trig asked, “Then... if you were given an opportunity to change this country, what would you do?”
Freya's heart stirred. Did he take the bait? Sticking to her current persona, she said, “Hmm... I’d definitely find a way to improve the living standards of ordinary people. At the very least, everyone wouldn't have to worry about where their next meal is coming from.”
Trig asked, “How exactly do you plan to do that?”
In truth, Freya had quite a few ideas to address this question. First would be to assimilate the Church of the Earth, bringing it under the state's governing system. Extraordinaries of the Earth Pathway could effectively increase crop yields. With more food, prices would naturally drop, and everyone would be able to afford to eat.
Second would be to establish a minimum wage. Many employers currently hired laborers at extremely low wages, working them to the bone all day just to earn enough to buy a single loaf of bread. This was highly unreasonable. Establishing a minimum wage would effectively improve their standard of living.
However, to maintain her persona of a "harmless, perfect puppet," Freya couldn't mention either the first or second method right now. So, she shook her head and said, “I don’t know... but there will always be a way, right?”
Her underlying message was: You figure out the method; I’ll do whatever you say.
Trig nodded, seemingly lost in thought, and said nothing more. A brief silence fell between them. After a while, Euphy and Augustus returned after finishing their conversation.
Seeing this, Trig nodded to the two of them, pushed open the study door, and went in to discuss matters with the King. Freya, on the other hand, followed Euphy and Augustus to tour the palace as planned, before leaving after some time had passed.
By evening, a noble arrived at Trig's Prime Minister office. If Freya had been there, she would have recognized him at a glance as the unfortunate soul who had invited her to dance and subsequently had his feet stepped on countless times: 【Damian】.
Trig got straight to the point. “An unexpected situation has arisen. The King is suspected to have illegitimate children out in the wild. I met one today, and if there is one, there will be a second. Even if our plan succeeds, these people will severely threaten the stability of the country in the future.”
Hearing this, Damian also showed a worried expression. “This... what do we do now?”
Trig sighed. “But the arrow is already on the string; we have no choice but to loose it. We can only optimize our current plan as much as possible. I didn't know about the illegitimate children before this, so the vast majority of the nobles shouldn't know either.”
“Therefore, the key focus now is the King. When the battle breaks out, I will be more careful in dealing with him. We cannot allow him to send messages to the royalist faction nobles. As long as the royalists don't know about the illegitimate children, we can temporarily pretend they don't exist.”
Trig's speculation was slightly off. The King had sent contracts to his illegitimate children, not the royalist faction nobles—mainly because the King himself didn't even know how many illegitimate children he had.
But now that Trig was prepared, if a battle broke out again, those five contracts would highly likely fail to fly out.
Damian asked, “What about the illegitimate child you met today? What do you plan to do with her?”
Trig fell silent for a moment, then finally sighed and said helplessly, “Just like the other three royal heirs, send someone to prepare an assassination. She already knows her identity, so we cannot let her go.”
......
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