Cloud Thinking

Seeing that the time was almost up, Helia slowly opened her mouth and said, "Silence."

The voice was not as loud as the one at the city gate, just a normal volume, but it soon spread throughout the square with the help of the loudspeaker props, and the noisy and restless crowd gradually calmed down.

In fact, the moment she stood up, the people who were about to make a scene lowered their voices and dared not shout anymore.

Especially those who had just witnessed Helia's atrocities at the city gate were as quiet as chickens at this moment, fearing that if they shouted a few more times, the prince would be angry and then draw his sword to kill people.

"The reason why I have suddenly summoned you all here is because there is something extremely urgent and important that I need to inform you and all the people of the empire."

She paused for a moment and continued, "Last night, a group of criminals broke into the palace and not only killed me and my brother, His Royal Highness Eric, but also intended to assassinate the emperor of the empire."

As soon as this news came out, it exploded like a bomb, shocking the people below and the nobles on the platforms on both sides to gasp in fear.

After the sound of inhaling gradually faded away, Helia continued calmly: "They set fire to my Amber Palace, and the fire that soared to the sky almost dyed half the sky red.

"It also seriously injured my brother, causing him to fall into a coma."

"These criminals are so cunning and have been planning for a long time. Even if we mobilized all our manpower, we were unable to catch them all."

"To this day, this group of vicious and cruel criminals are still lurking among the crowd and hiding in the imperial capital. Perhaps, they are right beside you right now, listening to what I am saying."

As she wished, she saw the people below falling into panic, looking around, fearing that these vicious people who dared to attack the royal family would suddenly kill them.

"I had no choice but to order the closure of the palace and the capital on behalf of my father to prevent these vicious criminals who dared to harm the royal family from escaping and continuing to commit crimes outside."

"But after a cursory investigation last night, we have already identified the two masterminds of this crime."

"One is Grand Duke Mossen Leighton, who has been killed by Knight Cheko. All his family members have been arrested and imprisoned, awaiting sentencing."

"The other one is Duke Ronald, I'm sure you are all familiar with him."

"Perhaps in everyone's mind, he is a great philanthropist. After all, he owns so many orphanages that take in homeless children, and he often donates money to the Charity Church. His reputation for being kind and generous is almost spread throughout the empire, even more widely than my bad reputation."

"But what you may not expect is that this kind-hearted person is behind the scenes organizing people to abduct and sell people at high prices. The funds collected are enough to build a glorious underground palace."

Helia briefly recounted how she discovered and destroyed the underground palace. She spoke with sincerity and intonation, and her excellent eloquence was put to good use.

The crowd below was fascinated by the speech and burst into uncontrollable anger as if they were there, and denounced those hateful human traffickers.

"As far as I know, there are more than one underground palace like this. The culprit, Ronald, had already fled when he realized that things were not going well. His whereabouts are still unknown."

"Maybe everyone thinks this has nothing to do with you, but think carefully, does this really have no impact on you?"

"Perhaps at some point in time, your mothers, daughters, and sisters will fall into the hands of those damned human traffickers, suffer abuse, be sold to rich people as playthings, and eventually die without a burial place."

"They don't just traffic women, they also capture young men and sell them as slaves, or even the most unacceptable sex slaves."

"Even worse, some people have a habit of eating human flesh. They will dig out the internal organs of the kidnapped people and eat them raw or cook them into dishes to enjoy a human flesh feast."

"And such a horrible thing is likely to happen to you or your family at any moment."

"And you will never be able to find them, because they are rich and powerful. They are not afraid of your retaliation at all, so they dare to do these horrible things without any scruples."

"Everyone, think about it carefully. Could it be that this has nothing to do with you?"

While they were giving passionate speeches, Helia was also quietly using the power of her memory to draw out the emotions hidden deep in their hearts and fabricate those horrific scenes that she had described for them.

After all, people don't feel pain unless the injury is on themselves.

Only when they truly feel the pain and realize that their interests have been infringed upon, will they wake up and be willing to take action.

"But is it just Duke Ronald who caused all this?"

"As the saying goes, people need to eat every day, so they grow grains and buy and sell rice and flour. Just like when someone wants to eat human flesh, there will be people selling human flesh."

"It is precisely because of this need that some people would go against the laws of the empire and traffic in human beings."

"And who are these demands coming from? From the rich and powerful."

"They usually enjoy the support of everyone. The food you work so hard to grow ends up in their mouths! Half of the money you earn through hard work throughout your life has to be paid to the feudal lords and the empire."

"The Empire can provide you with shelter, but those nobles will only use you and look down on you, treating you like dust and dirt, and stepping on your heads."

"But you are the ones who support them!"

"They have been exploiting you and enslaving you, and now it is even worse. They are not satisfied with this and want to take even more from you, taking away your families, your bodies, and every piece of your flesh and blood!"

"When I think of the people of the empire, my people, who are living in such a sea of suffering and are unaware of their plight, my heart aches so much that I can hardly breathe, tears stream down my cheeks, and I can hardly sleep every night."

"I was wondering, what can I do to save you from the water and fire?"

When it came to the emotional part, Helia pinched herself hard, her eyes turned red, and she burst into tears on the spot.

"Just now, I stopped a caravan at the city gate and found these in their wagons."

She had the boxes of gold and jewels moved to the center of the fountain square, so that people who were close could almost touch them with their hands.

Some of the people below may have never seen or touched real gold in their lives, so the effect of these boxes placed side by side is shocking enough.

"Besides these, there are five young and beautiful girls. These are the goods they plan to sell."

"Let me ask you, how could those dozen merchants come up with such a fortune that even a princess of the empire would be astonished by it?"

“It’s easy to imagine who the employer behind them is.”

After planting the flames of anger in everyone's hearts, Helia pretended to be Xi Shi holding her heart, portraying herself as someone who betrayed the powerful and was only doing good for the people.

"I know very well that, with my status, I am not worthy of saying these words for your good, because my background has already represented that I am also one of those hateful princes and nobles who oppress you."

"I once tried to propose opening a civilian school so that every child could receive an education, but my father told me that the Senate would not allow it, and the nobles would not allow me to do so either."

"Because they know that only if the people remain ignorant, they can continue to enslave and exploit you without any effort."

"I was too weak to resist my father, let alone the nobles who were more powerful than me. I could only open a small class in the palace, and the civilian knight next to me was one of them."

"But even so, it has always been my dream to open a school for the general public and spread the seeds of wisdom to everyone."

"At the knighthood ceremony three years ago, I abandoned those noble young masters and chose a commoner knight instead. This is because I feel that birth should never be a shackle that restricts a person's future."

"As long as a person is capable and talented enough, no matter if he or she is a noble or a commoner, a man or a woman, he or she should be employed."

"So I chose Ronnish, and he proved to me that he was no worse than any knight of noble birth who had received long-term so-called orthodox training. He is my best helper and the strongest guard by my side."

"I was actually curious at that time why most knights were of noble birth. I asked around and found out that the so-called selection of the Royal Knights was nothing more than looking at who had a stronger background and who paid the selection officer more money, and whoever would be selected would be selected."

"I was very disappointed. After my father transferred me to the Knights, I tried my best to change this situation. I wanted more civilians to be able to join the Knights with their own strength and true ability, and contribute to the prosperity of the empire."

"The Empire needs you, every one of you."

"Some of you clearly have talents and abilities that are no less than those of the nobles, but you are restricted by your status and family background, and are unable to display your talents and serve the empire."

"Your talents and abilities will even be envied by those nobles who are inferior to you, and they will try every means to destroy you, rob you of your resources, block your path to higher places, and deprive you of the opportunity to display your talents."

"I don't want to see talented people buried, and I can't stand mediocre people occupying important positions, eating and drinking for free, taking high salaries and living a carefree life, but not being able to do anything well or do anything at all."

“I tried to change, but I failed…”

"Although I am a judge for this year's Knights' open selection, I cannot really make the decision. I cannot watch those without real skills sneak in with those inferior moves, so I choose to reject everyone."

"Because of this, I offended a lot of people. They kept sending letters of complaint to my father, accusing me of abusing my power and even questioning my qualifications to be a referee."

"But I was once awarded the title of Hero of the Empire. I am a major general of the Empire. I once killed a fire dragon alone for the Empire, just to protect the Empire's territory and my people. For this, I almost died in the dragon's belly, and no bones were left."

"But they questioned everything about me, just because the choices I made infringed on their interests."

"Just because I betrayed them and chose you."

"I don't kill innocent people indiscriminately. I only kill the evil people who harm the people, the bad people who bring disaster to the people, and the evil people who try to continue to oppress you, exploit you and make you suffer."

"I have been doing this for so many years and I have a clear conscience."

"What I said here today is already a betrayal. There is no one behind me now. You are the only ones I have left to rely on. You are also the ones who can help me revive the royal family and the glory of the empire."

"Thousands of years ago, my ancestors led their army here and established the Otis Empire. This place symbolizes the rise of the empire's glory."

"And now, I am here to confess my true feelings and share with you all, just to restore the fading glory of the empire."

"By then, you will all be heroes. This glory belongs to everyone."

This confusing, sarcastic, half-true and half-false, and confusing rhetoric directly incited the emotions of the people.

Even the group of people who had just seen Helia kill someone personally not long ago, after hearing Helia's nonsense, believed that the people she killed were bad guys and that she was eliminating evil for the people.

From the moment the first person raised his fist and shouted "Down with the aristocracy", "Down with the oppressors", "Restore the glory of the empire", the whole scene was out of control.

The noble young masters and young ladies sitting in the stands of the high-rise building had never expected that Helia would do such a thing. She actually cut ties with them in public and instigated the common people to deal with them.

But they would not start to argue in public, saying that what Helia said was wrong and that they did not do that.

They won't argue because that would be cheap.

They never took these ant-like civilians seriously, nor did they bother to argue with them.

Because just talking to them is already a very low-class and low-status behavior.

Just like we never explain to ants why we stepped on them to death.

Because we haven't seen them at all, and we won't be afraid to step on passing ants.

It's just an ant. What's the big deal if I step on it to death?

But when those damned civilians, driven by rage, climbed up the tall building that they had never dared to and could not step on in their lives, and beat them to the ground in their expensive and gorgeous clothes, begging for mercy and bleeding, they had to admit -

When ants bite people, it will hurt.

Helia's speech was recorded by the Image Stone, and at her signal, it was quickly transmitted to several surrounding cities.

Especially for the territorial fiefs of the great nobles, Helia even asked the Royal Research Institute to take out the most advanced magic props, which were directly projected into the air in the form of a holographic projection, which could not be stopped or shut down.

She hoped that the anger of these people who had been oppressed for so long would be big enough, intense enough, and fierce enough to burn those damn nobles who were blocking her and Claude's enemies to ashes.

Of course, Helia was well aware of the principle of courting disaster, and immediately after the speech, she issued another order that if the masses rioted and pointed their spears at the royal family, they would be charged with treason, suppressed violently, and killed on the spot.

She wanted chaos, but she only wanted this chaos to be directed at the nobles, that is, her enemies. She didn't want to be dragged into it herself in the end.

Worried about the unstable situation, Helia also used a magic prop for long-distance communication to send a message to the troops stationed in various places. With Claude's authorization, they would be committing treason if they did not do so.

Of course, Helia's greatest reliance, besides Claude, is the Antonio family. Her sister actually has hundreds of thousands of troops in her hands.

If there is a domestic riot, Hilda will not stand idly by and will lead the army to provide assistance.

Helia looked down at the people who were dominated by anger and were irritable, looked at the violent scene of rebellion not far away, looked at the chaos stirred up by her few words, and smiled with satisfaction.

Next, it was time for her dictatorial tyranny.

She wanted to take this opportunity to fully satisfy her desire to be an emperor.