Sure enough, this day has finally come.

Looking at the silver-white warship slowly descending from the sky, Olivet smiled bitterly.

In fact, since Crossbell became independent, the empire has been in a mess. The nobles took this opportunity to accuse the reformists of not acting in time, which led to the empire losing such an important place as Crossbell. When the empire's troops were annihilated by Crossbell's warships, and even the Karelia Fortress was completely destroyed, the nobles once again strongly condemned Prime Minister Osborn for his dereliction of duty, saying that he did not find out the opponent's strength when he went to Crossbell to attend the West Semlia Trade Conference, which led to the empire suffering such a serious blow.

All in all, it's all Chancellor Osborne's fault.

The nobles not only used this opportunity to suppress the reformists, but also asked Emperor Eugent III to continue the attack on Crossbell, saying that "the soldiers of the empire would rather die than surrender. Surrender is not the dignity of our empire. If we cannot maintain the glory of the martyrs of the empire, we would rather fight to the death."

Although the nobles were aggressive, Prince Olivet understood that they were just using this as an excuse to put pressure on the emperor. After all, the rise of the reformists was inseparable from Eugent III. If this incident could be used as a pretext to make Eugent III give up the idea of ​​reform and continue to maintain the existing aristocratic system of the empire, then that would be great.

"Why……"

Thinking of this, Prince Olivet sighed. There were now open and covert struggles within the empire, and in order to cut the Gordian knot, Eugent III decided to sign an agreement with Fang Zheng to recognize the independence of Crossbell.

Prince Olivet knew what his father was thinking. After all, the Republic of Calvard had already surrendered, so it was not shameful for them to sign the contract. Of course, domestic public opinion was somewhat embarrassed. But as long as the ugly behavior of Calvard was widely publicized, the empire's own problems would be ignored.

As long as the matter is settled, the nobles will no longer be able to use this as an excuse to cause trouble, and Eugent III can take this opportunity to slowly deal with them.

But Olivet felt that his father was a little too hasty. Although the nobles used the Crossbell incident to cause trouble, many of them were indeed against the emperor recognizing Crossbell's independence. In this case, if the emperor forced the agreement to be signed, the consequences would be unpredictable...

Although this was already a headache for Olivet, his headache became even more painful when he saw Fang Zheng walking down the spaceship alone.

"Hey, it's been a long time... or is it not that long actually?"

"Hello, Mr. Fang Zheng."

Oliver also greeted him with a wry smile, then he looked left and then looked again.

"Are you alone?"

"I can't help it. Everyone else is busy, and the little girl doesn't want to go far... So I have no choice but to come alone. It's not a big deal anyway, it's just a formality."

Fang Zheng spread his hands and shrugged his shoulders. As he said, Crossbell is in a state of disrepair. Although the system team is still the same, the new constitution and the revision of laws and regulations are also very troublesome. In fact, Fang Zheng originally planned to let Ellie come with him. After all, she is the daughter of the Speaker of Crossbell and has status. But Ellie was too busy and felt it was too embarrassing to meet the emperor of the empire, so she refused to go.

As for Ling, Tio and the others - Fang Zheng had already taken them around the empire, so naturally they were not interested in making another trip.

Only Tolisha and Tova's status was awkward. Tova was fine, as her family had already moved to Liberl, so there was no big problem. But Tolisha was different, as her uncle was now the chief executive of the Crimson Capital, and she was now in a key position at Starlight Technology... Although Tolisha also felt that Crossbell's independence was not a wrong move, she was still embarrassed to go back and face her uncle and brother.

After thinking it over, Tolisha also decided to refuse to go.

Xiao Hei and Illya had no interest in this kind of occasion, and it would be too big of a scene to let the mental models come along, so after thinking it over, Fang Zheng finally decided to come alone.

Anyway, it's just like signing a house sale agreement, it's just a formality.

If I hurry a little, maybe I can still make it home in time for dinner.

Generally speaking, for an agreement like this, it would take several days to entertain the guests. But Fang Zheng was waiting to go home for dinner, and Eugent III was afraid that things would get worse, so after obtaining Fang Zheng's consent, he decided to keep the signing ceremony simple. The two sides would meet first, and then the Iron-blooded Prime Minister would give a speech in the square, and then the two sides would sign the contract, and then they would go back to their own homes... Well, from a certain perspective, as a "defeated country", Erebonia didn't want to hold a particularly grand ceremony to entertain the culprit who had robbed its territory.

So, under the guidance of Olivet, Fang Zheng met Eugent III, the princess, and several princes in the palace hall.

"Hello, nice to meet you, His Majesty Eugent III."

Fang Zheng greeted Eugent III with a smile, as if he was just waving casually.

"Hello, Mr. Fang Zheng. I have heard of your great name for a long time. I didn't expect that our first meeting would be in this situation... May I ask how I should address you?"

Eugent III looked at Fang Zheng in confusion when he said this. Although Fang Zheng took control of Crossbell on behalf of Starlight Technology, he only said that Crossbell was declared independent. Fang Zheng did not reveal anything about his own position.

Is it the head of state? The prime minister? The prime minister? The king? Or something else?

"It's just a title. Anything is fine. Um...if you insist, you can also call me Archon."

"Consul?"

Hearing this strange title, Eugent III was stunned for a moment, then nodded.

"I see, Your Excellency Archon. Is it okay for me to address you like this?"

"Of course, I don't mind."

As he spoke, Fang Zheng looked around the entire hall in front of him. Although it was a signing ceremony, only the king, the princess, several princes and guards were present in the hall. Many ministers and nobles were nowhere to be seen. Emperor Eugent III seemed very magnanimous, and the princess sitting next to him was also very calm. In addition, on the left and right sides of the two of them stood two boys and girls wearing red royal uniforms. The boy standing next to the king looked a little young, and he looked at Fang Zheng with a bit of fear and uneasiness. The girl standing on the left side of the princess was slightly older than the previous boy, with wavy golden curly hair. She looked at Fang Zheng with curiosity and excitement, and even a little sparkling.

And Olivet was standing further away. Logically speaking, as a prince he should not stand there, but it was heard that there seemed to be something wrong with Olivet's birth, so even though he was the eldest prince, he could not inherit the throne... Well, no wonder it was like this.

At this moment, the speech of the Iron-Blooded Chancellor Osborn had begun to sound from the loudspeakers outside. Of course, the content of the speech was nothing more than that although Crossbell had committed a rebellious act, the Empire could not bear to start a war and let civilians suffer in it. It did sound like that, but to Fang Zheng, who knew that the Imperial Fortress Railway Cannon had fired at Crossbell at that time, this statement seemed very funny.

"Your Excellency, Archon, please."

At this time, the subordinates had already arranged the long table for the signing. Eugent III stood up from the throne and made a gesture to Fang Zheng, who nodded. Then the two of them sat down on both sides of the long table. Immediately afterwards, someone placed the agreement in front of both parties. All that was left was to wait for Prime Minister Osborne to finish his speech and then sign the agreement, and everything would be fine.

At this moment, Prime Minister Osborn's speech also changed the topic and began to criticize the terrorists of the Imperial Liberation Front, accusing them of invading the fortress in a despicable manner and almost causing a tragedy... Well, if Fang Zheng had not seen with his own eyes that the Karelia Fortress was bombed to the point where not even a slag was left, he would have doubted whether this person had personally witnessed a fortress invasion.

It seems that telling lies with open eyes is indeed a common tactic of all politicians in the world, and there is no exception anywhere.

"We should gather all our strength and overcome all this suffering until..."

However, at this moment, suddenly, the sound outside stopped.

This surprised Eugent III. He put down the pen in his hand and looked at the door in confusion, while Fang Zheng also looked over curiously.

What is going on?

"Report to His Majesty!!!"

However, soon, a guard was seen rushing in.

"Prime Minister Osborne was sniped by unidentified armed men during his speech and has died!"

"What!?"

Hearing this, Eugent III was shocked and stood up.

"Are you serious?"

"Yes, Your Majesty, we saw it clearly... The enemy seemed to have launched a sniper attack in a place we couldn't take care of. We are currently tracking down the murderer..."

"Your Majesty, something terrible has happened!!"

At the same time, another soldier rushed in.

"Just now, a warship suddenly dropped from the sky and appeared in the Imperial Square! The other side released a large number of humanoid weapons and is attacking us!"

"What? Mr. Fang Zheng? You..."

"Don't look at me. It has nothing to do with me."

Facing Eugent III's gaze, Fang Zheng waved his hand, and the soldier also spoke hurriedly.

"That wasn't an attack from Crossbell, Your Majesty. The enemy was... the nobles!"

"What?!!!"

Upon hearing the report, Eugent III was shocked. However, at this moment, accompanied by a loud "bang", the originally closed door was directly blasted open, and then several robots rushed in and surrounded Fang Zheng, Eugent III and others!