After Crusch, the other candidates for the king also made their own declarations. The second person to appear was a woman named Priscilla. She had long brown hair and wore a bright red dress. She looked arrogant and conceited. She believed that the reason she could become the king was because of her own protection. Because of Priscilla's protection, she would always be the winner favored by the world, so anyone who stood by her side could win. Therefore, those who wanted to win should follow her... At least that's what she said.

Of course, in Fang Zheng's opinion, this is more like the female version of "I have the aura of Long Aotian so you better bow down to me."

Compared to Crusch's ideals and Priscilla's arrogance, the reason for Anastasia, who appeared third, was more practical - she was a leading businessman, and the Lugnica Kingdom's funds had already been in trouble (it was definitely not Fang Zheng's fault), and in order to subsidize the kingdom's finances, it was the best choice to let Anastasia, who had business talent, inherit the throne.

At least for now, that's true.

Next up is Firut.

She strode forward with her complicated-looking skirt lifted up, then looked around and clasped her hands together to apologize to Emilia.

"I'm sorry, Emilia, I have to break my promise."

"Why?"

Emilia was stunned for a moment by Firut's answer, but at this time Firut had already looked at the others and continued speaking.

"To be honest, before I came here, I wanted to give up participating in the royal election. After all, the position of king has no appeal to me, and it is meaningless... But..."

Having said that, Firut clenched his teeth, revealing his pointed little fangs, and flames burned in his bright red eyes.

"But now, my thoughts have changed! I hate knights, I hate nobles, and I hate this country even more! You bastards are all the same! Do you look down on others just because you were born in the slums? What a joke! I didn't grow up in the slums on my own will! It's the same for everyone! And you nobles wouldn't understand, you were born nobles, and you think you're superior to others and that's great, right!"

Having said that, Felt stamped her foot vigorously and pointed at the others.

"So, I want to destroy all of this. I want to destroy the knights, the nobles, and this country! I want to give everyone equal opportunities. Even if you are a noble, so what? Are nobles so great? Can nobles look down on others? So what if you are a knight? Just because you are stronger than others, can you do whatever you want? What has this country done for us? Who cares about how hard our lives are in the slums? No one! You eat and drink at banquets all day long, and then use people in the slums as jokes. It's fun, right? You don't know what life is like for people in the slums who have to fight for even a piece of bread!"

Wow, this is really too much to hold back.

Looking at Firut who was roaring loudly, Fang Zheng also laughed. Although he didn't know what Firut had experienced in Reinhard's place in the past few days, he could guess more or less. After all, being born in a slum, he would definitely be talked about. With Firut's temperament, it was good enough that he could endure it until now.

"So, I'm going to pull all of you high and mighty bastards down. By then, I think this country will definitely change!"

Firut finished his declaration with great pride, and at this moment the silence below was dead silent in another sense.

To some extent, compared to Crusch, this is truly treasonous.

Soon, the volcano erupted.

"What a joke!"

"Are you going to destroy the whole country?"

"After saying such things, do you still think you can become king?!"

"That's hard to say."

Faced with the indignation of the crowd, Firut smiled happily.

"Didn't I tell you, brother? The opinions of you guys are worthless. In the end, you still have to listen to the dragon, right? Maybe even if you choose someone else to be the king, the dragon might still choose me!"

"this……"

In response to Firut's rebuttal, everyone was speechless for a while. Indeed, as Firut said, this possibility could not be ruled out at all...

“Hehehe!”

Seeing that the nobles below were speechless, Firut snorted triumphantly and continued walking down.

Next up, it's Emilia's turn.

Emilia walked up and looked at everyone. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then opened them again.

"My name is Emilia, just Emilia. As you can see, I am a half-elf."

Looking at the crowd in front of her, Emilia continued to speak.

"To be honest, I have always felt troubled because I have never thought about becoming a king, and I do not have the ability like other candidates. To be honest, I have been thinking the same thing until now."

Having said that, Emilia looked towards Felt.

"But after listening to Firut's words, my thoughts changed... I think this should be an opportunity. As a silver-haired half-elf, I have always been hated and feared by others. But what did I do wrong? Just like Firut said, she didn't live in the slums because she liked it, and I didn't grow up like this because I wanted to. Why should I have to pay such a price for something I didn't do at all?"

There was a hint of anger in Emilia's tone. Hearing this, Fang Zheng raised his eyebrows. It seemed that this young lady was not as "saintly" as she appeared to be.

This is normal. If you are not angry about being treated like this, you might as well go to the slums and be a bitch to please men. There will definitely be a large group of people queuing up to enjoy you.

"It's not just me, it's the same for other mixed-bloods. I think it's wrong to be looked down upon just because you're mixed-blood."

Speaking of which, Fang Zheng had indeed heard that in this country, because of the witch, people were not very friendly to mixed-bloods. In fact, mixed-bloods were rarely seen in other places.

"Therefore, I will also participate in the royal election."

Emilia seemed to have made a decision.

"I want to make this a country where everyone can live in harmony regardless of their origins, a country where everyone can live happily regardless of whether they are human, alien, or mixed-race."

That’s all Emilia said.

Just like that, the first stage of the royal election has come to an end. Strictly speaking, among the other three candidates, except Emilia and Firut, Crusch and Anastasia have relatively higher support. Many people agree with Crusch's ideas, and Anastasia's influence on the kingdom's current finances cannot be ignored. It can be said that from the perspective of ideals and reality, both of them have received a lot of support.

But that doesn't mean others have no chance of winning.

Although Emilia and Firut's declarations have made them the target of public criticism, logically speaking, if it were a vote, these two would definitely be eliminated immediately. But as Firut said, everything depends on the will of the dragon, maybe they will be chosen by the dragon?

In terms of reputation, Emilia and Firut are the least popular, but in terms of strength, it's just the opposite.

Crusch's knight Felice has no fighting power at all. Although Anastasia's knight Julius is the current first knight, his strength is naturally far behind Fang Zheng and Reinhard. As for the third candidate Priscilla's knight, he is even an alien sword slave from outside the waterfall.

In contrast, Firut's knight, who was the most hated by the nobles, was Reinhard, the real first knight of the kingdom. Emilia's knight was Fang Zheng, and the fact that he could cut down Reinhard with one sword was enough to show his terrifying strength, not to mention that Fang Zheng's previous actions also showed that he was not as "harmless" as Reinhard.

That is to say, even if someone tried to kill the two to eliminate the "threat", it would be impossible, especially Fang Zheng. Reinhard was at least easier to talk to. If they dared to attack Emilia, Fang Zheng would definitely go over and chop them up, not caring about their status and identity at all.

Like the civil servant before, he was dead and that was it. Fang Zheng didn’t even know his name. He died silently. How depressing!

"I never expected that both of you would change your minds in the end."

After the king election meeting ended, Fang Zheng greeted Firut and Emilia with a smile, and Firut chuckled when he heard Fang Zheng's words.

"How's it going, little brother? What did I just say?"

“Very good, promising.”

"hey-hey."

After receiving Fang Zheng’s compliments and compliments, Firut raised her head proudly, while Emilia lowered her head apologetically.

"I'm sorry, Master Fang Zheng, for not informing you in advance..."

"It's okay, I can almost guess it, you don't have to worry about it."

Fang Zheng waved his hand. He was mentally prepared for Emilia to take the initiative to participate in the King's Selection. After all, she was scolded by him and was naturally stimulated. It was normal for her to have her own ideas.

"But, it's fun to talk big, but do you know what you're going to face later?"

"What?"

"Participating in the King's Selection is not just talk. You still have a lot to learn. Are you ready?"

“Woo…”

Hearing this, Firut's expression suddenly turned much uglier.

"Do you really want to learn?"

"You don't have to learn. Just give up participating in the royal election. Otherwise, you won't know anything. How can you practice what you said when you become king? You don't think that the king can just sit there and give an order and the people below will do it obediently, do you?"

"I want to learn."

Compared to Firut, Emilia seemed very determined.

"I found that there are many things I don't know. I want to know more so that I can become a qualified king."

"Okay, then I'll give you a lesson when I get back..."

"Hey? Can I go too? Then can I go with Grandpa Rom?"

"Of course. After all, you don't like staying with Reinhardt, do you?"

"Of course, little brother, you have no idea how annoying he is!"

As soon as she said this, Firut started screaming.

"Every morning when I wake up, someone changes my clothes and brings me food. They almost stuff the food into my mouth. It's not like I don't have hands! And everyone stares at me and asks me to maintain etiquette... Oh my God, I'm really fed up with it!"

"You are miserable enough."

Fang Zheng could imagine how miserable Firut was. It was true that Reinhardt would not abuse her, but the people in Reinhardt's family must be loyal admirers of this knight, and they would definitely serve Firut obediently according to Reinhardt's requirements. This was enough to drive Firut crazy.

After all, Firut is used to a free and easy life, and he is completely different from someone like Reinhard.

"Yeah, so I want to go back with you, too. It's more comfortable in the castle. At least it's not so disgusting..."

What Firut said was sincere. Although there were maids in the castle, the castle was currently managed by Maine, who believed in "those who do not work shall not eat." Therefore, even the orphans in the castle would go to the forest in their free time to learn how to collect vegetables, fruits, mushrooms and other crops. According to Maine, this was also to prevent these children from starving to death when they go out in the future.

Fang Zheng naturally supported this, so the atmosphere in the entire castle was basically like this, and everyone had something to do. Of course, the priestesses were a little different, they were more like residents of the apartment, boarding here, and then paying part of the accommodation and food expenses - after all, Fang Zheng also said that although water and electricity were free, they still had to pay for food and lodging themselves.

So in addition to relying on the papermaking machine to earn money, Maine also collected board and lodging fees - other people didn't feel anything special about this. First, Maine's fees were not high, and second, the environment of the castle was much better than other hotels. With only such a small amount of money, they could get treatment comparable to that of high-ranking nobles, which was already worth it.

Reinhard couldn't say much about Firut's choice. After all, Firut was determined to go, and he couldn't beat Fang Zheng. If it was in Lugnica, then Reinhard would definitely go with her. Unfortunately, Fang Zheng's castle was located in the Kingdom of Re-Tiyes...

If Reinhard went, it would be no different from blatantly shipping nuclear warheads to other countries.

So Reinhardt had no choice but to accept his fate.

Just like that, after the royal election meeting ended, Fang Zheng brought Emilia and Firut back to the castle.