Chapter 168

Zenit's words hit Donnie's pain point directly. Donnie lowered his head and was silent for a while, then raised his head.

His hands were still trembling, but his tone became unusually firm.

"I understand, Mr. Zenit."

Chapter 71: Unable to confess

"But, Mr. Zenit... the current situation should not be that serious. If there is no improvement and it must be like this, I will do it." After Downey said this, he put away the poison and stood up.

"I can understand. After all, you are the son of the Duke. It is human nature not to want to attack your biological father." Zenit smiled and nodded. "However, Master Downey, please remember that you must not follow the Duke's orders and do too many things to fight against the coalition forces. Otherwise, even if you stop your losses in time, the coalition forces may only consider you to have made up for your mistakes and not give you more benefits. conditions.”

To put it bluntly, Zenit is admonishing Downey to make a counterattack as soon as possible.

In this case, by jumping back early, the Duchy of Naples still has the capital to negotiate with the enemy, and the losses on both sides have not increased. Everything can be reasonably resolved through negotiation.

The later you rebel, the less benefits you will get.

Of course Downey knew this, so he just nodded.

He has no doubts about Zenit's words.

If it weren't for Zenit's suggestion, he would still be grounded by Giovanni, unable to even leave the house, and it would be impossible for him to gain Giovanni's trust.

He believed that Zenit made this move because the situation was unavoidable. Otherwise, if it were in peaceful times, he would definitely have a better way to take over the responsibility of the Duchy of Naples from his father earlier.

"So, Mr. Zenit, how can I continue to gain his trust and favor next to my father?" Downey changed the topic and asked about the things he usually talked about most with Zenit.

Zenit seems to know Giovanni better than Downey, and the advice he gives often suits Giovanni's interests.

For example, when Downey was out on business, Zenit asked Downey to bring back some local gifts and specialties for Giovanni. As a result, although Giovanni didn't say anything on the surface, his attitude towards Downey in the next few days was indeed Much better.

"The Duke must not be in a good mood these days. Master Downey, all you need to ensure is that no outsiders will disturb the Duke. In addition, the two of you should talk more about family topics."

"Okay." After getting advice from Zenit, Downey thanked him and left.

…

Back at the Duke's Mansion, Downey paused for a while at the door of Giovanni's office to calm down before walking in again.

After all, he had just been discussing with others to poison his biological father. Even if he was finally forced to do so, it was still a human life.

To put it nicely, it is called killing relatives for justice, but to put it badly, it is called parricide.

"Come back?" Giovanni sounded tired and did not look up at Donnie.

"Well, Father, some counts don't seem to want to work hard for us anymore. They have not sent troops from their territories to support us, nor have they intercepted the enemy's army. What should we do?"

"That's it, let them be." Unexpectedly, Giovanni didn't get angry, but sighed dejectedly.

What happened in the past few days has hit him harder than in the past ten years.

A month ago, he thought he was a spectator off the stage, but now he has become a clown on the stage.

Of course, he has not completely given up resistance. If the enemy is really ready to come to Romulus City, he will start a final decisive battle with the enemy here.

It’s not that I don’t have any trump cards.

Then, he looked at Downey, who was standing stiffly, and asked, "Donny, do you think, for the sake of the sergeants on both sides, should I surrender and take the initiative to accept trial?"

"Sorry, Father, I don't know..." Danny shook his head. "However, if you, Father, are put on trial, the Florence family may..."

"That's true."

Giovanni glanced at Downey and said sincerely: "I don't know if it's because of the hardships the duchy encountered that made you grow up, but, Downey, in my opinion

Come on, you've really grown up recently. "

"The reason why I don't let you lead an army alone is not because I don't trust you, but because I have no one trustworthy anymore."

"As a lord, I have failed a lot, but I don't regret it, because at least I still have you as my son."

"I often talk to you about Lucius's two sons and think they are better than you, but that's not the case."

"In my opinion, you are the most powerful. The reason why I say this is to inspire you. I am very happy to see that you have really grown up now."

Donnie was silent.

The more Giovanni said this, the more Donnie felt in pain.

For a moment, Downey even wanted to tell all about the conspiracy he had just made with Zenit, letting Giovanni know that the son he had high hopes for was actually discussing with others how to murder him.

But in the end he didn't dare to say it.

After all, if Giovanni knew about this, he would definitely be severely punished.

Giovanni looked at Donny's hesitant expression, sighed secretly, and then said: "You have been busy outside these days, and you are a little tired. Go back and rest first. I can handle these things by myself."

After Giovanni said these words, Donny was relieved and fled the room quickly.

Just after Donny left, a man wearing a black cloak and whose face could not be seen clearly walked out from the shadow of the room.

"My Lord Duke, why didn't you continue asking just now?" The man in black asked, his tone full of doubts.

"I am giving Donny a chance to repent." Giovanni said so.

"He is just a child. It is too much pressure for him to confess such a thing." Giovanni sighed, and then his tone changed and became cold: "The dark mouse hiding behind Donny, it is better not to let me catch you, otherwise, you will die more miserably than Marcus did back then."

...

On the other side, in the Imperial Academy.

Although 20% of the students' hometowns are in the areas where the war broke out, there are actually only a few students who asked for leave to go back this time.

Among the people Orson knew, only Lit and Virgil asked for leave to go back, and there were less than ten people in the entire Imperial College who applied to leave school.

"Good morning, big brother." Lena said this and greeted Orson with a smile.

After Lit left these days, the person who went to and from school with Lena changed.

"Well, good morning." Orson said this and looked at Lianka who was standing next to Lianka.

"Lianka, you too, good morning."

"Well... good morning... good morning." Lianka heard Orson take the initiative to greet her, turned her face away, and replied uncomfortably.

After Lit left, Lianka took the initiative to take over the task of taking Lena.

In fact, Lena has been enrolled for a while, and it is completely no problem for her to go to and from school alone.

"It's just because Lena is a new classmate and we happen to be in the same class. I did this to help Lit, not to please you, Orson."

Osson felt funny when he thought of Lianka's awkward look and fear of rejection.

Chapter 72: Francois was assassinated

Although the Imperial College looks peaceful and tranquil, in fact, the topic of discussion among students every day has changed from life to the war in the south.

"I heard that Giovanni, Duke of Napoli, seems to be a member of a society that intends to resurrect the devil. Wasn't there a rumor that there were traces of devils outside Saint Laurent before? I heard that Giovanni did it." In the college square, several students were sitting together at this moment, discussing these things.

The members of the news agency are the busiest these days. They need to obtain first-hand information from the newspapers in Saint Laurent and publish it at the first moment.

"Eh? Is that so? I always feel that the soldiers on the front line will be in danger. What if a demon appears..."

"Don't worry about this. If a demon really appears on the front line, Giovanni's men will be the first to resist him."

"Now he should have given his subordinates a vaccination and told them that these are all rumors, but I guess as more and more people know about this, he will eventually be deserted by everyone."

"I hope so..."

A snow-white figure passed through the square. After hearing the students' description, she paused slightly and then continued to move forward.

"Orson." As soon as Olivia walked into the student union office, she told Orson what several classmates had just discussed in the square.

"Giovanni's true strength should not be what he showed. Are you really not worried about the front line?" As she said this, a trace of worry appeared in her eyes.

Although Lit is also a genius, he still has too little experience. Let Lit go to the front line to command an army alone, the risk is too great.

If Giovanni is really ready to fight to the death, will Lit really be in danger?

Putting aside his abnormal feelings for Orson, I still like this brother-in-law very much.

It's not the kind of liking for the opposite sex, but the kind of care and appreciation between the senior and the junior.

"It doesn't matter. Didn't I say that I have laid such a good foundation for Lit. The rest is to fight against the enemy and cover the water."

"If you can't fight a favorable battle, what's the point of talking." Orson said this and smiled.

"Besides, Giovanni is not the only one who has a trump card."

Lit is the real child of destiny. This time, Orson arranged her to do this to test whether she can really turn danger into safety by relying on her destiny as in the original plot.

Of course, he knew that Giovanni was very dangerous and could turn people into demons. Although he was just a heterozygous demon with extremely thin blood, he should not be underestimated.

At the beginning, Mudrick made the seventh-level lion suffer a lot.

This is a test for Litt, to test whether she has really grown to the point where she doesn't need Orson's protection.

And Orson's stay in Saint Laurent City is not as he said, he also has his own things to do.

"Let's talk about something else first." Olivia said, looking at Orson. "Because Duke Lucius and Litt are both at the front, the meeting held at noon today may be prepared for you to represent the Stranik family to attend. My father asked me to inform you in advance, what do you say?"

"No problem for me." Orson nodded.

After all, they are no longer there, and only Orson can represent the Antica region.

Moreover, with Orson's ability and qualifications, he is indeed qualified to participate in this meeting.

It solved the problem of orcs that had plagued the empire for thousands of years, and expanded a large area of ​​land eastward. In the past, it would have been necessary to split the soil and create a feudal lord.

Then, the time came to noon, and Orson, as a representative of the Stranik family and the Duchy of Antica, attended the meeting within the palace.

There were three factions present at the meeting.

Representatives of the royal family, dukes and military merchants.

Among the military and commercial representatives, Orson saw familiar faces.

Chelinina and Scaloni.

Whenever the empire encounters a major event, it will choose to hold a conference to bring together the empire's major interest groups for consultation.

This is not democracy, it is just a negotiation between a group of people representing different interests.

In this incident, each force has its own demands, such as the royal family, whose biggest goal is naturally to annex the entire Duchy of Naples, and the dukes obviously will not let the royal family do this, and the two sides will go back and forth on this issue. Pull and pull, and finally compromise on a solution that is acceptable to both.

Military and business representatives agree. The army hopes to establish a military region in the Naples area to demarcate a military territory and improve the status of the army.

Business representatives were prepared to take over the post-war regeneration of the Naples area.

Naples was not dead yet, and even 70% of the land was still in its hands, and it had already reached the point where everyone was putting it on the negotiating table to divide it.

After all, at present, no one thinks that the Duchy of Napoli still has the strength to fight back.

And the mistakes he made were indeed irreparable.

The meeting lasted a whole day, but in the end no suitable result was reached.

Several dukes jointly proposed that if the royal family wanted to annex the Duchy of Naples, it would need to implement a system of electing emperors, otherwise an overly powerful center would only suppress the local areas.

The emperor-electing system has always been the bottom line of the royal family and is impossible to accept. The problem is here.

If the conference continues like this, nothing will come of it.

So, on the next night, a shocking news spread throughout the city of Saint Laurent.

François, Duke of Orleans, is assassinated.

Yes, when returning to his residence after the meeting, a dozen assassins suddenly appeared on both sides of the road and surrounded the Duke of Orleans' motorcade. In the end, Francois's guards were almost completely wiped out.

Orson also arrived at the place where Francois was killed almost as soon as he learned the news.

.

At this moment, the surrounding area has been completely blocked by the imperial army.

The person responsible for guard duty is none other than Prince Arthas.

Such a major event happened. As a representative of the army and the prince of the empire, of course he had to come forward.

The assassination of the Duke in the Imperial City can be said to be a quite significant political crisis.