Revive Rome: Wait! Why not make the empress fall in love with me first?-Chapter 409 - 24 Preliminary Plan

"What’s so strange about a Venice Governor being hanged?" Aske said disdainfully, "Ever since Constantinople was captured by the Crusader Knights under the leadership of your Venice Governor, the people of Sirius have been hanging a Venice Governor every week."

"That’s metaphorical hanging!" The thief chuckled, "Just like how illegal fundraising promises high interest rates, it’s all deceptive talk. But this time, a real Governor has been hanged! The successor to Governor Enrique, who hasn’t even been in office for a year, was found hanged in the very port of Venice!"

"I heard it was the work of the Pure Blood Monastery." Aske said without changing his expression.

He knew how to deal with these young ones; when extracting information, he needed to adopt an arrogant attitude that said, "I know more" and "What you know is all false news" to provoke their competitiveness.

Sure enough, the thief rowing the boat immediately sneered in response:

"Not only that, but it was also a crazed female Demigod! All the citizens of Tuoqieluo District saw it!"

A female Demigod? Peggy could certainly inquire about that with her master... Wait, this crazed Demigod, could it be Agrippina, the flower of henbane?

Aske suddenly had a strange premonition and hurriedly asked:

"Was this Demigod a woman? Of a certain age, dressed like a noble lady?"

"Not only that." The thief said with an air of showing off, "She’s also well maintained! Ample where she should be ample, slim where she should be slim, a match for the leading lady of Red Mill!"

Aske: ......

The small boat was gradually approaching Rio Tera Island, and the thief had him crouch down to hide, steering the boat through the shadows along the waterways. They quickly passed through layers of bridge arches and entered a dark river beneath a building.

Indeed, no matter where, the Thief Guild and the city’s sewer systems are inseparable.

The sewer system of Venice is actually a network of dark rivers that runs beneath the entire city. When building the city, concrete pillars were driven into the shallow sea bed, and then Istria stone slabs, waterproofed, were laid as the foundation.

Thus, the Istria stone slabs divided Venice into two areas, above were the sunlit streets, while close to sea level below was the domain of the Thief Guild, where a shadowy marketplace was built with various boats and wooden planks.

The girls of The Azure Longsword, as well as the knights of Albrecht, were already waiting there. They had shed their Armor and changed into absorbent gray/brown cotton robes, hiding their weapons underneath, looking like devout Believers about to attend service at Saint Mark’s Church.

After paying for the same disguise and buying a set of maps of all Venice from the Thief Guild, Aske distributed the maps to everyone. Then he rented a nearby room designed for secret meetings and discussed with his companions:

"Next, we need to split up and take action."

"One team will act as envoys on behalf of His Majesty the Emperor to negotiate with the Venice City Council."

"Another team will secretly investigate the truth behind the ’hanging of the Venice Governor’ incident." freёweɓnovel_com

"Wait a minute!" Albrecht exclaimed skeptically, "His Majesty mentioned that due to the urgency, we should expedite negotiations..."

"Fine, then you take charge of the negotiations. Can you settle it within three days?" Aske asked calmly.

Albrecht: ..........

"The previous envoys couldn’t conclude the matter because the Venice City Council they negotiated with couldn’t come to a unified decision," Aske explained, "The hanged Governor was the successor appointed by Governor Enrique before he joined the eastern expedition and inherently inherited sufficient political prestige. His death has now resulted in a temporary power vacuum at the top of the Venice City Council."

"Currently, the Venice City Council is divided into two factions: the Conservative Party, which advocates for dependence on the Church Court and opposition to the Empire, mainly because the Empire once supported Genova across from Italy in the Mediterranean trade, competing with Venice for a long time; therefore, they have no good feelings toward the Empire."

"The other group is the New Party, advocating for the assimilation of productive materials plundered from the East Solomon Empire, transitioning to industrial and manufacturing development, and achieving industrial diversification. If they are to develop manufacturing, maintaining a good relationship with the Empire, which is in the early stages of industrialization, is crucial."

"With the death of the Governor, the political struggle between the Conservative Party and the New Party is bound to intensify. I can assert this definitively, Albrecht, even if you present the New Party with ten thousand reasons why the Empire and Venice should cooperate, the Conservative Party will find ten thousand reasons to oppose."

"Worse yet, there is no political leader of sufficient prestige to unify the opinions of the New Party and Conservative Party, causing negotiations to be indefinitely delayed. Therefore, the only key to breaking the deadlock is to figure out who the murderer is that ’hanged the Venice Governor’..."

"Then present that as a favor to the New Party? Let them use the public support gained from uncovering the truth to quickly overwhelm the Conservative Party, thereby promoting cooperation between Venice and the Empire?" Albrecht, coming from a noble background, immediately realized the political value this "capturing the murderer of the Venice Governor" held for the current Venice elite.

"Give it to the New Party?" Aske looked at him as if looking at an idiot, "Why would we just give it away for nothing?"

"To put it precisely, it’s through an exchange of interests, selling it to them... Of course, it depends on how much they are willing to pay since we also aim to facilitate the deal as much as possible."

Albrecht: ......

Alright, he had forgotten this person was a mercenary.

As a mercenary driven by profit, they could concede part of the interest in the transaction to ensure a quick deal, but giving it away for nothing was out of the question.

"In that case, how much time do we have?" Albrecht pondered.

"Three to four days," Aske said. "If we can’t get to the bottom of it in three to four days, then it’s likely a very thorny situation, and we’ll have to abandon this approach and opt for a riskier plan."

"Alright." Albrecht didn’t ask what the "riskier plan" was. Were the weapons hidden beneath their robes just for show?

"So, how should we divide the teams?" This honest knight asked again.

"Nora, Eleanor, Thira, Miel," Aske quickly listed off the personnel. "You’re responsible for representing the Imperial Envoys, going to negotiate with the Venice City Council. Keep in mind that advancing the negotiations isn’t your main task. Your actual mission is to quickly figure out the distribution of the two parties in the Venice City Council, identifying which are the die-hard opponents of the Empire and which are indecisive, get all that clear."

Considering Eleanor’s Imperial noble identity, Nora’s mind-reading ability, Thira’s sharp mind, and Miel’s personal protection, such a team division was indeed reasonable, so the four girls solemnly nodded in agreement.

"Medea, Sigrdrifa, Peggy, and Mia, you will follow me in investigating the case. Be careful not to cause unnecessary trouble, but if a fight is unavoidable, make it quick and clean to avoid attracting official attention, understood?"

"Understood!" The other four girls replied.

In this setup, Mia was in charge of surveillance, Peggy for kidnapping, Sigrdrifa for severe interrogation, and Medea for soul interrogation – a no-nonsense special operations quartet, quickly assembled under the leadership of the Great Demon King Aske.

"So, Albrecht, which side do you plan to follow?" Aske finally asked.

"We’ll stick with Princess Eleanor," Albrecht was quite self-aware.

After all, their main purpose was to oversee the negotiations between the envoy group and the Venice City Council. As for the investigation of the case’s truth that Aske spoke about, his knight team didn’t have the suitable talent and would only make things more chaotic if they followed blindly.

"Alright," Aske said at last, "every day at 18:00, representatives from both teams will meet here in the Thief Guild to exchange information. Do you all understand?"

"Understood!" This time, both the girls and knights responded in unison.

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