Tirian raised his head and stared at the confidential secretary in front of him with his one eye, with an expression of "Are you kidding me?" on his face.

The biggest pirate in the Lengleng Sea had only ever revealed such an extremely shocked expression when facing his own father.

He did not touch the pages of paper that the other party pushed over to him. Instead, after calming down a little, he turned around and glanced at General Lister opposite him.

The astonishment in the eyes of this Frost General seemed to be no less than that of his own.

"It seems that this is really an 'unexpected news'," Tirian exhaled lightly and said calmly, "Even the 'general' in front of me doesn't know about this arrangement."

"Because this is not an 'arrangement' - it's just a suggestion, and a fresh one at that," the confidential secretary adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses and looked at Tirian solemnly. "The current situation in Frost is complicated, and we don't have much time to discuss everything before executing it, so I'll just bring the 'suggestion' here directly. Under the witness of General Lister, we can discuss the feasibility of this matter together."

"Feasible? You actually think this is feasible?" Tirian almost laughed out loud. He looked at the confidential secretary as if he was looking at a madman. "I am the leader of the Sea Mist Fleet, the most vicious pirate leader on the Frigid Sea. All the horror stories that you Frost people have used to scare children in the past fifty years are almost all adapted from me. Now you tell me that you want me to be the governor of this city... Sir, we only fought side by side for a while. I'm afraid you have misunderstood the relationship between us?"

"We fought side by side and resisted the crisis that could have destroyed the city-state. Now many people know that it was the Sea Mist Fleet that stood up at the last moment and defended the city together with the navy. At this time tomorrow, this news will be spread to every corner of Frostbite, and the City Hall will tell people that the departure of the Sea Mist Fleet half a century ago was just a disagreement on the route, and that Vice Admiral Steel, who left in anger, had never completely given up his duty to defend the city-state."

The confidential secretary paused here, and continued after confirming that Tirian did not mean to interrupt: "Everything can have a new explanation, and all changes will be arranged with appropriate reasons. You may think that this change is unacceptable to the Frost People, but in fact... it is not so easy for most ordinary people to maintain their 'original intentions' when faced with continuous and single-caliber propaganda. The stability of life and the tangible improvement of order will soon overwhelm everything. People's concepts can be 'customized', it just takes a little time."

Tirian listened to all this patiently, and looked into the eyes of the confidential secretary calmly: "It seems that you are very good at this kind of thing."

"Every city-state is good at it, including the Frost of the Queen's era," the confidential secretary said expressionlessly, "creating a set of 'concepts' for the people that adapt to the current social environment and can reduce the psychological burden of most people is not a dirty thing, but after saying nice things, it is impossible to maintain social order and ensure a stable life for most people.

"Captain Tirian, the job of the Guildhall has never been justice - the job of the Guildhall is to keep as many people alive as possible."

"…Let as many people as possible survive. She also said this back then."

"Yes, this sentence is still engraved on the door of the dome office - we overthrew only the queen, not those things that were right in the first place."

Tirian was silent for a moment, thinking quietly. After a long while, he slowly spoke: "Why do you think I am suitable for this position?"

"It was originally Ms. Agatha who brought the suggestion, but she only mentioned that you and your Sea Mist Fleet might be able to help the city-state restore order. Further decisions were made through urgent discussions within the City Hall," the confidential secretary said. "Personally, I'm not sure if you're the right person. In fact, I'm still skeptical about this matter. But other people's opinions are... before you became a 'pirate', you were first a general of the Frost City-State. Throughout the history of this city, one-third of the monarchs or governors have come from the military."

"You are still oversimplifying things," Tirian shook his head. "This is not a question of whether the candidate is suitable or not, but the sum of a lot of 'historical issues'. Even if, as you said, people's concepts can be customized, you also said that this takes time - Frost doesn't have this time. The city must restore order as soon as possible, so you should..."

"Captain Tirian," the confidential secretary suddenly interrupted him, "Before you explicitly refuse, you should take a look at what I brought. This may give you some new ideas about the 'feasibility' of this matter."

Tirian was stunned for a moment, and for the first time he carefully examined the pages of documents that the other party had just placed on the table.

Those documents have no fancy titles or exquisite covers. After opening the simple folder, there are only a series of "suggestions" written in plain words, as if stating facts.

Tirian glanced at him twice, and his expression changed visibly.

He quickly flipped to the end, closed it with a snap, and looked up at the confidential secretary in front of him.

The latter remained calm and nodded slightly before Tirian spoke.

“First, the anomalous disaster that the Frost City-State encountered was caused by the Annihilation Cultists, but its root cause was the unsafe mining of the mines deep underground in the city-state by the Old City Hall over the past few decades. The failure to take adequate safety measures in the dark and the negligence or even concealment of abnormal warnings were the main reasons for the deterioration of the situation.

“Second, successive consuls knew about this matter and chose to conceal it for their own benefit.

"Third, the Sea Mist Fleet chose to leave Frost fifty years ago because of a disagreement over the route. The reason for the disagreement was related to this type of 'illegal mining' and different attitudes towards foreseeable anomalies and disasters.

“Fourth, successive Archons have systematically and continuously smeared the Sea Mist Fleet and concealed the truth in order to cover up the real differences between the two sides and direct the public’s hatred towards General Tirian personally, thereby diverting people’s attention from the mine issue.

"Fifth, Archon Winston is suspected of colluding with the Annihilation Cult. He had received the news before the disaster, but did not take any effective measures. Instead, he chose to defect. He will become a public enemy of the city-state. We believe that he has become a member of the Annihilation Cult and will be wanted by Frostbite forever.

"Sixth, the new consul will reshape the order of the city-state. The mine investigation will begin immediately, and the liquidation of the responsible personnel who are still alive will also begin immediately."

Tirian did not speak, but just sat there like an extremely cold ice sculpture, staring into the eyes of the confidential secretary. The heavy pressure in his eyes almost made people breathless.

However, the confidential secretary just took a deep breath and took out another stack of documents from the briefcase he was carrying.

This document is thicker and contains more content.

"Here is the list," he raised his head and met Tirian's heavy gaze, "the first half is the evidence needed for liquidation, including some records of illegal mining in the mine, evidence of covering up abnormal warnings, and instructions to distort and vilify the Sea Mist Fleet. This part of the document currently only has a catalog, but within three days, all the evidence will be complete.

"The second half is mainly a list of names, including the responsible persons who can be arrested and tried, as well as their corresponding 'evidence'. Please rest assured, they are not innocent, but have been charged with other crimes - but it doesn't matter, their real crimes are no longer important. Now the city-state needs them to 'colluded with the Annihilation Cult'. These people can be regarded as the 'criminal reserve' of the city hall.

"Finally, there are letters and a portion of a diary, which contain evidence of Governor Winston's collusion with the Annihilation Cult. Some of the documents bear his signature."

Tirian did not look at the second stack of papers he was handed.

The cold mist slowly emerged around him, and the coffee table was gradually covered with a layer of fine ice crystals. The air exhaled by everyone in the room who could breathe was condensing into white mist.

“…Who prepared these things?”

"Every successive consul," the confidential secretary said calmly, "will prepare one and many 'alternative plans'. They may not be prepared for you, but may be prepared for other successors, such as the next 'rebel army'. The last document in front of you was left by Consul Winston. Coincidentally, he also listed the Sea Fog Fleet as one of his 'alternative plans', which coincides with the 'suggestions' brought by Ms. Agatha."

Tirian slowly placed his hand on the document. The fine ice crystals almost froze the document into an ice sculpture. He raised his head and stared into the eyes of the confidential secretary: "So, this can characterize Winston."

"There is a saying in Frost that the dead must give way to the living," the confidential secretary said slowly. "General Tirian, you are not a native Frost person, but you should be familiar with this saying. If giving 'characterization' to Governor Winston and the successive city halls can help the city-state quickly restore order, then I believe he and the successive governors will not mind."