Yes, Madam Prime Minister

Dinia and Princess Isabel sat facing each other.

“Dinia, come with me. That woman is no good. The kingdom will only become weak and helpless in her hands. When I sit on the throne, I will rebuild this country.”

Princess Isabelle extended an invitation, wanting this formidable martial prowess.

“Your Highness, that’s your sister. Please don’t use the term ‘that woman’,” Dinya advised, ignoring the rest of her words.

Ignored by Dinia's invitation, Princess Isabel suppressed her anger and said, "You want to change this country, but is that woman willing to support you? She even spared the guy who gave her cold cake; what use is she?"

"By the way, the soufflé in front of you was made by that mother and daughter. They're my pastry chefs now. All those bastards who bullied them were drowned in a cesspool by me. And that police chief, I had his tongue cut out. He was in charge of that woman's diet, so I chopped off his hands. And my idiot uncle who was standing behind them, he was unlucky enough to have his kidney stabbed open."

"Thank you," Dinia said sincerely.

Isabel gritted her teeth, "I don't want your thanks."

Chapter Fifty-Five: Refusal, Cooperation, Exams are a Treasure Trove

Dinia let out a sigh of relief. "I'm just a mayor."

Dinia remained unmoved. Isabel scooped up a spoonful of soufflé and stuffed it into her mouth. "If I were to ascend the throne, I would immediately establish a supervisory department directly under the King. You would be the head of the department, and together we would catch and crush all those parasites."

Dinya did not respond.

“You’ve changed, you’ve really changed,” Isabel sighed. The person who used to be so righteous and whom she admired was gone.

Unable to contain her anger any longer, Isabel snapped the silver spoon in two with one hand. "You know, the old man is only in his early forties, but his illness is getting worse and worse. He may be able to hold on for another seven or eight years, but within two years, he will definitely establish an heir and let the crown prince oversee the country. That woman's rise to power will only make this country more decadent."

Dinia remained silent.

Isabel frowned, stared at Dinia for a moment, then suddenly relaxed, tilted her head back and chuckled coldly, "Heh heh heh, so that's how it is. The King has already spoken to you, hasn't he?"

Dinia did not deny Isabel's guess. "Your Highness, you are only fifteen years old. The best time of your life has just begun, and there is still much happiness and beauty to pursue."

“Ha, then why don’t you go and pursue it?” Isabel retorted.

Dinia replied, “I have received kindness from this country, and I have a responsibility to do something for it.”

Isabel crossed her arms over her chest. "As a princess, I have enjoyed far more than you have. I have a greater responsibility to do something for this country. I cannot accept watching the throne be handed over to her."

“Then, please allow me to take my leave,” Dinia said, rising to her feet.

Isabel didn't try to stop her. "You've gone down the wrong path, Dinia."

Dinia didn't reply and left without looking back.

After leaving Isabelle's mansion, Dinia returned to her temporary residence.

After a while, Yvette returned from outside and immediately asked Dinya where she had gone that afternoon. Dinya told her the truth: she had gone to see Isabel, and it was not a secret meeting, but rather she had entered directly through the front door in broad daylight.

Yvette froze for several seconds, then couldn't help but cover her face.

In this situation, there's no point in saying we shouldn't see the second princess, so Yvette could only suggest, "In that case, let's see all three princesses. That way, people will just think it's a reunion."

“Yes, that was the plan all along,” Dinia said. “By the way, the approval documents will be sent to the seven special cities soon. You can head back to Wright City in a few days.”

A look of confusion crossed Yvette's face. "Aren't you going back?"

“I have some personal matters to attend to, but it won’t take too long. Anyway, you can go back first,” Dinia said.

Since Dinya said it was a private matter, she couldn't possibly ask about it, so she could only agree.

Three days later, Yvette left the capital, first by carriage, then by ferry, and then by horseback. When she approached the city of Wright and reached the main road, she boarded a carriage again.

It took Yvette nine days to return to Wright City.

Then he went to see Ronan and first told him the good news: the application had been successfully approved and the royal decree would soon reach the various special cities.

After sharing the good news, Yvette told Ronan that Dinya had some personal business to attend to and would be back in a few days.

"What personal matter?" Ronan asked.

“This doesn’t seem like something you should be asking about, Mr. Ronan,” Yvette said with a hint of reproach in her voice.

Ronan smiled calmly. "I suspect it's not necessarily a private matter. What do you think, Miss Yvette?"

"How you guess is none of my business," Yvette replied, her voice trembling with irritation.

Yvette remained indifferent, but Ronan extended his hand warmly, saying, "As a future colleague, I very much hope to maintain a friendly and long-term working relationship with Miss Yvette."

This is absolutely the truth. First of all, Yvette is actually quite smart, knowledgeable, and capable. She is not the kind of fool who is full of bad ideas, only talks big, and is self-righteous.

Secondly, Yvette is somewhat competitive, occasionally stubborn, and speaks quite directly. She is not the kind of person who is two-faced and spends all her time thinking about how to mess with others instead of doing anything productive.

Ronan admired her and enjoyed being with her.

Looking at Ronan's outstretched hand, Yvette hesitated briefly before shaking hands with him.

Her opinion of Ronan had not changed, but in order to mitigate Ronan's negative influence on Dinia, she first had to get along well with Ronan, at least maintaining a superficial harmony.

"Let's work together," Ronan said with a smile.

“Let’s work together,” Yvette repeated with a smile.

“Okay, let me tell you about my progress first.” Ronan said, and began to explain to Yvette what had happened over the past two weeks.

In fact, there were only two things. First, Ronan used all available resources to investigate the living conditions of the older immigrants, who made up the largest portion of the population.

Since the Haidi people are not voters, the voters are only new and old immigrants. After the Haidi people cause trouble in a few days, the voter criteria will be slightly relaxed.

However, even with a slight relaxation, the number of voters from both new and old immigrant groups would probably only be around 40% and 60% respectively.

Since Ronan intends to refuse the secretaries' demands for official positions, it is foreseeable that the secretaries will oppose him.

Of the 40% of new immigrants, at least half will support the other person.

A pessimistic estimate suggests that Dinia has already lost 30% of the votes right from the start.

Therefore, winning over voters among long-term immigrants has become of paramount importance.

The voters among the new immigrants were not the urban laborers or landless farmers from the lower classes, but rather small-scale self-sufficient farmers, small vendors, small artisans, and skilled workers.

“To be honest, this group is the hardest to please,” Yvette said.

“That’s right,” Ronan agreed.

In fact, it's easy to win the votes of both the rich and the poor. Just relax the controls on the rich and give some welfare to the poor.

But this group is troublesome; they don't care about those tiny bit of benefits, what they want is upward mobility.

“How about setting up one or two technical training schools?” Yvette said.

Ronan nodded. "That's possible, but not enough. It only ensures that their descendants have a place to go to school, and that their families won't easily fall into a lower social class."

“Just say what you’re thinking,” Yvette said.

“The civil service exams for special municipalities will be fully open to them,” Ronan proposed.

"Can they pass the exam?" Yvette asked. It wasn't that she looked down on them, but most of these people had very low levels of education. Even in fair competition, they simply couldn't compete with the descendants of the new immigrant nobles who migrated south, represented by Ronan.

“The important thing is not whether you can pass the exam, but that you can pass it,” Ronan said. “Besides, the security force exam is relatively easy.”

In the past, new immigrants were "prison guards," and Haidi residents were "prisoners." Naturally, civil servants in the special city had to be "prison guards," while older immigrants had to step aside, especially security guards.

but……

Chapter Fifty-Six: True to One's Words, The Window Plan, and an Unexpected Visitor

But now that the old order has been broken, these rules can be discarded.

These days, the security guards are no good, especially in special cities that are far from the core and are also trading ports. But precisely because the security guards are no good, and these people are usually oppressed by them, they are even more eager for their own people to join them.

"...Do you understand what I'm saying, Miss Yvette?" Ronan explained the reasoning to Yvette.

“That’s a good idea. How about we clean up the atmosphere within the police force?” Yvette suggested.

"That's a bit too hasty," Ronan said tactfully, suggesting it was best not to do it that way.

"Let me tell you something from the past..."

Yvette recounted to Ronan the whole story of how Dinia had broken the arms and legs of the Royal Capital Police Chief and given the entire police force a beating for the sake of that mother and daughter.

"Although doing this is somewhat hasty, it does not mean that I am afraid of difficulties. I firmly believe that reforming the police force is imperative. A new urban area must have a new look."

Ronan spoke with righteous indignation.

He changes his expression so quickly that even a chameleon can't match him.

Yvette shook her head helplessly. "I said, Didi isn't here."

Nobody's here, who are you putting on a show for?

“I call this being true to myself and genuinely respecting ladies,” Ronan said.

"Ha, if you say so, then so be it," Yvette said, rolling her eyes at Ronan. She was speechless in the face of such a shameless person.

Ronan suddenly smiled slightly. "I suggest that I, Agustina, take charge of reforming the police system."

Yvette was a little confused as to why Ronan would make such a suggestion.

Did he not know how ruthless Agustina was?

Ronan knew this, of course, and that's precisely why he made that suggestion.

His principle is that stability comes first. If stability cannot be maintained, then the other side of the scale will be completely tilted and replaced with a new one.

In reality, given Dinya's experience and personality, reforming the police system is inevitable. This means purging the henchmen of others within the system and replacing them with Ronan's and relatively neutral ones. Ronan would never allow himself to do such a thankless task, especially since he doesn't have the talent to do it.

Agustina would be a perfect fit.

"That's all for now, I'm going back to rest." Yvette said goodbye, she was quite exhausted after nine days of traveling.

After seeing Yvette off, Ronan called Elena and headed towards Blackfish Harbor.

The kingdom's official orders will be in place soon; it's time to make arrangements for the Haidi people.

When the time comes, once the seven special cities merge, the news will spread that the mayor will be elected from among the original six mayors.

The "Open Window Plan" was immediately launched, and the people of Haidi took to the streets to demonstrate that they were also part of the special city and demanded to become voters.

This is something that cannot be agreed to, of course. First, there is deep-rooted hatred and prejudice. Second, the leaders of other special cities know that Ronan is now in command of the Haidi people. Every additional voter among them means one more vote for Dinia.

But the Haidi people are not to be trifled with. Firstly, they can now use the Ales case to attack others, and secondly, only they know how to grow those so-called high-yield crops.

After two more days of work, Ronan had finally settled the Heidi people. The documents had just arrived, and the news needed to spread for a while. It would be the right time for the Heidi people to launch their operation once the citizens were aware of the situation.

Before that, Ronan can rest for a day or two.

Ronan took a nap, something he hadn't done in a long time.

Two days later, the seven special cities merged, and before the merger, news had already spread that a new mayor would be chosen from among the six mayors.

The Haidi people went to the streets.

As Ronan had anticipated, the five secretaries came to his door, questioning him about how he had put on such a show, asking if he didn't think it was a disgrace to his ancestors and if he wasn't afraid that his grandfather and great-grandfather would be so angry that they would crawl out of their coffins.

What is Ronan afraid of? It's Artes' grandfather, what does it have to do with Ronan?

As for glory, they just waved the banner of the kingdom and then sent the old immigrants who had already integrated into this land to act as the vanguard to slaughter a race that was focused on farming and fishing, reducing the population from nearly a million to more than 100,000. What kind of glory is that?

Of course, Ronan wouldn't tell them his true feelings. He would only say that either the voter criteria would be relaxed, or the Haidi people would continue to cause trouble.

In the end, the five secretaries had no choice but to agree to Ronan's request and then left dejectedly.

Subsequently, the seven special cities simultaneously released a public statement that they had relaxed various requirements for voters.

The news of relaxed voter criteria was met with cheers from long-term immigrants, as it immediately increased their voter base. Any mayor who wanted to be elected would have to offer terms favorable to them.

The new immigrants didn't react much; what they were thinking about now was the new parliament after the merger. What's the point of electing people? Being elected is what matters.

The Haidi people immediately stopped making a fuss.

Three days passed in the blink of an eye, and Dinya returned.

Surprisingly, a girl, about sixteen or seventeen years old, came to Wright City with her. She had fair skin, was about 163 cm tall, had long, slightly wavy, tawny hair, thick black eyebrows, light blue eyes, and a soft facial profile. However, she had a very high nose bridge and a pointed nose, typical of the women of the main ethnic group of the Kingdom of Phos. She was considered pretty in a crowd, but compared to Dinia and Elena, she was only average.

Her figure is actually not bad, she's got some curves but isn't fat, but you still can't compare. Dinya has a sculpted figure with big breasts, a slim waist, and a curvy bottom, while Elena is tall, long-legged, and athletic. Even Yvette is the kind of woman that a certain type of person is obsessed with.

All I can say is that this girl has a good temperament, quiet yet with a touch of sweetness and elegance.

“This is Sabrina, one of my former students,” Dinia introduced to everyone. “She’s just here for a few days.”

Yvette's gaze faltered. A student? Dinia had only been the Third Princess's private tutor, and later taught at the same magic academy as her. Where did she get such a student?

Ronan smiled slightly. Things were probably not that simple. The election was about to begin, and Dinia would definitely be traveling back and forth between the seven special cities to campaign. She simply wouldn't have time to play with her student.

Besides, just by looking at her silk satin high heels and white stockings, one could tell that this young lady was from a noble family. However, it was quite suspicious that such a noblewoman didn't even have any attendants with her.

"Madam, how about Elena shows this young lady around?"