Hearing the loud noise from the underground, Huggins hurried over with guards.

　　 Everyone waved away the pungent smoke, while groping forward in the dust. A few minutes later, Hudgens saw a messy king slowly walking out of the underground laboratory.

　　 He opened his eyes wide and exclaimed: "Your Majesty, what happened?!"

Leaning on the door of the laboratory, Todd patted the dust on his body and coughed twice with the smoke. When he looked at his smoky and tattered clothes, he shook his head and smiled bitterly: " It's hard to say anything, let the guards seal the scene first. Also, don't touch all the reagents and samples inside! I'm going to sleep first, and I'll talk about anything when I wake up."

　　 Todd returned to the bedroom, washed his body hastily with the water from the servant, and quickly fell asleep on the bed with exhaustion.

　　 When he woke up again, it was already nine o'clock in the morning of the next day. The warm winter sun passed through the door, spilling warmth into the room, and also brought the sound of Harkins outside the door.

　　 "Your Majesty, if you wake up, please come to the Chamber. Today is the day of the Kingdom's weekly meeting. The officials are waiting to report to you on government affairs."

　　 Shaking his groggy head, Todd complained about the hard life of the king, and tried all his strength to get himself out of the warm bed.

　　 Thirty minutes later, the King's Chamber.

　　 Todd, neatly dressed, sits at the top of the long table, holding the report submitted by Emerson, and the more he reads, the more he gets more frightened: "The famine in the Holy Acropolis has become so severe?!"

Facing the king’s question, Emerson put on the crystal glasses he had just paired, and while checking the reported data, he said: “According to Gordon, the head of the mission, the famine of the Holy Acropolis has pushed the entire kingdom into On the brink of collapse, even the royal family has drastically reduced its daily rations, not to mention the nobles and civilians."

"In the past two years, as one of the conditions for participating in the war, the food and materials of the Holy Acropolis came from the church. It is precisely because of the lack of logistical worries that they have recruited and drew a large number of young adults from the farmland. And put the main energy on combat."

Emerson said this and sighed helplessly: "The cultivated land was left unattended and turned into wasteland; the treasury became empty due to the war. The people of the Holy Acropolis always thought that the result of this war would still be settled. It was the same a hundred years ago. The church coalition defeated the barbarians, and all parties involved in the war could get a lot of spoils. But no one thought that if the battle was defeated or turned into a meaningless tug of war, the kingdom should again Where to go."

　　 Todd put down the report in his hand and asked, "The Holy Acropolis is short of food. Haven't you thought of asking the Pope for help?"

Cumberland put his arms on his chest, and muttered: "They did. They did that before the war was over. Not only did they ask for help, but the mission of the Holy Acropolis also ran to the Pope. They screamed that their kingdom had paid a heavy price in this war and deserved the reward it deserved."

　　 Todd casts a puzzled look at Cumberland: "So, did the Papal State agree to reward them?"

　　 The old knight snorted from his nose: "The pope gave them a holy letter and agreed to give the referee of Silver Ring to the holy Acropolis as a reward for their participation in the battle."

　　 Todd suddenly realized that this is how the official document of the holy ministry that gave the territorial judge of Silver Ring City to the Holy Acropolis came. But thinking about it, this so-called reward made him dumbfounded.

　　 Imagine that the kingdom is already incapable of opening the pot. At this point, the allies will not give food and money. They only sent a pennant to see righteousness and courage. It is not finished, and they even lost a mess.

　　 Whoever it is, everyone will be hot.

Emerson added at this time: "It was precisely because of this episode that the relationship between the Holy Acropolis and the Papal State appeared to be a rift. In the latter part of the war, there was a situation of non-compliance of military orders between the two. In the end, the Holy Acropolis Even withdrawing from the war prematurely, this is also an indirect reason that caused the barbarian army to escape with the treasure."

　　 Todd tapped his finger on the table and continued to ask: "What is the domestic situation of the Holy Acropolis now?"

Emerson picked up the three silver water cups on the table and buckled them upside down. First they laid out the two cups side by side, and then put the third cup on top of the bottom of the first two cups to form a product word. shape.

　　 Emerson explained: "The nobles of the Holy Acropolis have their own opinions on how to solve the food crisis and are divided into three different factions."

Pointing to the two cups below, Emerson said: “One group wants to negotiate with the church. In order to obtain its assistance, if necessary, it is even willing to sell part of the kingdom’s interests. We call this group the church group for the time being; The country gets rid of the influence of the church, gains relative autonomy, and mediates with other forces to solve the food crisis. We can call this faction the independent faction."

Using the knuckle of the **** to buckle the bottom of the top cup, Emerson groaned for a while and said to Todd: "The last faction, they are neither biased towards the church nor willing to take independent risks. They only follow the saints. The order of the king of the Acropolis is the so-called king's faction."

"The current relationship between these three factions is like this. The King's faction oppresses the Church faction and the Independent faction. The latter two are evenly matched. They are seeking assistance for their respective political opinions. This time Gordon, who came to the Western Kingdom as an envoy, is from the Independent faction. The king’s faction did not oppose or support this mission, but was just watching the development of the situation."

　　 "It seems that the structure of these three factions is relatively stable, but in fact there are big problems."

"The two cups below now look the same size and balanced in strength..." Emerson gently lifted one of the cups below, and the entire character structure suddenly collapsed: "...As long as there is a force If it grows larger, it can break the balance of the current situation in the Holy Acropolis and overthrow the king's faction above it."

After listening to these analyses, Todd took a deep breath, leaned against the seat behind him, and asked Cumberland and Emerson: "So in your opinion, we should be Promise or refuse?"

　　 Emerson and Cumberland looked at each other, and there were embarrassed looks on their faces.

　　 Emerson first said: "From the perspective of diplomatic purposes and kingdom strategy, we should provide food aid to the Holy Acropolis. This move will help divide the power of the church and strengthen the relationship between neighboring countries, but..."

Cumberland touched the beard on his chin and continued the topic: "But now it is almost winter. Even if the holy Acropolis is successfully planted in the spring next year, it will not be harvested until the autumn of next year, so this kind of protracted assistance is not feasible. . And the population of Muxicheng has been increasing, and the agricultural development plan has just begun. We don’t have enough food for ourselves. If we want to provide food to the Holy Acropolis, we can only buy it at a high price from the south."

　　 Thinking of the abundant water system and rich resources in the Holy Acropolis, Todd asked, "Can't the Holy Acropolis come up with any property or resources in exchange for food?"

Cumberland shrugged: "I also asked Gordon about this matter. He said ~lightnovelpub.net~ The treasury of the Holy Acropolis is already empty, and the most valuable things in it are the ones that pierced around. Rat. Last week, members of the royal family had their birthdays and wanted to hold a shabby dinner, so they had to borrow money from the wealthy nobles. Even this time the mission to the Western Kingdom, the entire mission was only a matter of fact. Piece together to borrow twenty silver moons."

　　 Todd nodded, Cumberland believed these words that the scene of the dinner that day was the most convincing evidence.

"The coins are gone. The only thing that can be exchanged in the Holy Guard is a pile of post-war supplies." Cumberland held his fingers and counted them one by one: "The sealed weapon, discarded Armor with broken strings, crossbows with broken strings, crippled horses..."

　　 Hearing these materials that were almost rubbish, Todd couldn't hide the disappointed look on his face, and asked Cumberland, "Is all this left?"

Cumberland opened his hands and nodded: "The only things they can exchange for are these. Gordon said, as long as Twilight City is willing to help with food, there are as many as these things, and the Holy Guard can be responsible. For the transportation of all materials, not a single piece of copper will be collected."

　　 Emerson sneered when he heard this, "Don't say that these things don't charge money, even if they are post money, I don't want it."

　　 Seeing that Todd was silent and lost in thought, Emerson asked strangely: "Your Majesty, you..."

Standing up from the throne, Todd suddenly said to Cumberland: "Tell the Holy Guard mission that within the scope of its power, Twilight will provide a certain amount of food to the Holy Guard. In addition, about those old wars. For the supplies, Muxicheng will accept all the supplies and pay a reasonable amount in addition to the food aid."