Flowers, Swords and France

Charlotte made such a request to her own brother, of course, not just to vent her anger. Although she had a bad relationship with her brother and had frequent conflicts since childhood, she still regarded him as her own brother. When she heard that Philip was in trouble, her first reaction was to rescue him after blaming him.

However, this kind of emotional bond could not completely replace the consideration of interests after all, and Charlotte made such a request, of course, out of such consideration.

In her opinion, her marriage with Charles was not only the crystallization of the love between her and Charles, but also the result of the earnest expectations of the two old people.

The Duke and the Marquis of Treville have supported each other since they were young, and they have a deep relationship. They also realize the importance and necessity of mutual support within a family, so they agreed to let them get married when they grow up not long after Charles and Charlotte were born, so that their descendants can continue to be united.

Under the original circumstances, no matter how deep the affection between the two brothers of Treville was, the elder and the younger branches would become estranged with the passage of time after the two brothers died one after another, and finally become a family without contact, and then lose the bond of kinship. However, with the efforts of the two brothers, their grandchildren reunited through marriage, and once again made the slowly cooling and estranged kinship close again.

In Charlotte's view, she inherited not only her grandfather's legacy, but also her grandfather's will. She wanted to carry out this arrangement to the end, so that the two branches of the family would continue to be closely united and integrated - her and Charles' descendants would be the natural heirs of all the family business of this family. And for this reason, Philip's resistance to her made her even more furious. She believed that Philip was not only against her, but also against her grandfather's will.

So she must take this opportunity to restrain Philip back, let him act according to her own arrangements, and let him understand things and never disobey his grandfather's will again.

Under Charlotte's unyielding and harsh attitude, Philip finally chose to bow to his sister Charlotte. Although he was an arrogant and sarcastic man, he was not stupid. He knew how to judge the situation. He also knew that he was in desperate need of his sister and brother-in-law's help. He had no bargaining power. The most important thing for him now was to get through the difficulties. He could not afford the consequences, so he had to get out of the disaster no matter how much he paid.

He also knew that if he agreed to Charlotte's request, he would either not agree to it or he would never regret it, because everyone present today had witnessed it. If he regretted it, her husband, the minister of the empire, would never laugh it off.

He looked up and looked around blankly, feeling extremely depressed, wondering how he could end up like this.

But there was no point in sighing, and now he could only go to the end.

Unlike Philip's depressed mood, Duke Treville was very happy now. He was originally worried that his daughter and son-in-law would not help because of the old grudges in the past, but he did not expect them to agree so straightforwardly, and he was naturally overjoyed.

Although his daughter put forward several conditions, in his opinion, these conditions are harsh, but not unreasonable, at least there is nothing unacceptable.

In the final analysis, he has tacitly accepted the arrangement made by his father before his death, and accepted the result of being overpowered by his daughter, unlike Philip who was still a little indignant.

"Okay, now we have finished talking about the important things that need to be said, we should have a good rest and have a good meal, right?" Seeing that the atmosphere was a little solemn and awkward, he smiled and said to ease the atmosphere, "Charlotte, you stay here tonight to rest?"

"Is this okay...?" Charlotte was a little hesitant, "Didn't Philip's matter hurt your brains before? You should rest."

"No, no, I'm in good spirits now, and it's no problem to entertain you." The Duke immediately said that he was not in the way, and then complimented his daughter, "It's rare for you to come here, how can we not entertain you well? Now everyone listens to you, we dare not neglect you!"

Charlotte felt a little embarrassed when her father said this, but she was also a little proud.

"You...you don't have to say that. If you don't find it troublesome, I will accompany you with Charles today."

"Well, that's great!" The Duke nodded with a smile, and then waved to his son and cousin in a very graceful manner, "Okay, young people, don't worry about these things anymore, have a good meal and sleep, and set out on the journey again tomorrow?"

Charles did not object to the Duke's arrangement. He stayed with his wife for dinner and stayed there that night.

Not to disappoint his efforts, Charlotte immediately discovered his hint, and immediately thought of taking this opportunity to knock Philip. Although Charlotte's last request was somewhat beyond Charles's expectations, it also made him quite happy, and at the same time secretly amazed at Charlotte's courage to do what he said.

In addition, he had always been a little worried that the Duke would let slip the rumors he heard, but he soon discovered that his father-in-law really seemed to not care about the things he did secretly, which made him feel a little sorry for his wife.

The next morning, he sent someone to the Ministry of the Interior to inform the secretary there that he wanted to meet with Minister Morny that day.

As an imperial minister and one of the most powerful ministers, Morny is of course also a busy man. He has a very tight schedule and barely has a few minutes to spare during the day. Under normal circumstances, even if Charles wants to arrange a meeting with him , and you can’t just say meet on the same day, but in order to save time, Charles specifically told him to meet the minister today and asked him to modify his schedule for the day.

Although they didn't know what important matter Charles had requested to see the minister, they saw Charles's serious attitude and of course they didn't dare to neglect it. After receiving the request, they immediately reported it to Minister Morny, and then Charles was notified at noon that day. His Excellency Minister Morny agreed to Charles's request and had already made enough time for his visit in his schedule.

So Charles quickly took Philip to the Ministry of the Interior office building in Bovo Square. This yellow and white building looked bright and spacious, without the gloomy atmosphere unique to the legendary police agency. However, when Charles and others walked in, the atmosphere suddenly became tense. Most of the people inside were wearing uniforms, walking in a hurry, and with serious expressions.

As soon as they entered, a young man in casual clothes came over and bowed slightly to Charles.

"Nice to meet you, Your Excellency, Minister. I am responsible for leading the way for you. Please come with me."

Ciel nodded slightly as a greeting to him.

As a minister of the empire, of course all the staff inside knew Ciel, so when they discovered that Ciel had walked into the building, everyone he passed immediately moved out of the way, and then watched the minister closely with a pretended not to care expression. Your Excellency's actions indicate the purpose of his sudden visit to the minister today.

In a serious atmosphere, Charles and others passed through corridors and stairs and arrived at an office door. Then the young man who was responsible for leading the way bowed to Charles and opened the door.

After Charles and Philip entered, he immediately closed the door and stood outside.

Today's weather was originally cloudy, and the glass windows inside were covered with thick velvet curtains, making the light even dimmer and looking even more gloomy. At this time, Xia Er discovered the Home Secretary sitting behind the desk at the end of the room. He also had paper, pen and a lot of documents in his hands. It was obvious that he took time out of his busy schedule to see Xia Er. Yes.

"Please sit down, Charles." The slightly balding middle-aged man waved to Charles in a friendly manner, with an implicit smile on his face, "This is the first time I see you in a place like this. It feels quite strange.”

"I also feel very strange... I personally hope that I come here less often, otherwise some people may think that I am going to be behind bars." Charles also smiled, and then simply sat down, "Please take your subordinates The management is good and the work here is very efficient. ”

"There is no way, we have to do this. If we are negligent here, the empire will be over." The middle-aged man shrugged, and his face returned to seriousness. "I have to say that there are many professionals gathered here, very professional, and they are only loyal to the government regardless of the political system. To be honest, this also helped me a lot."

"I'm coming over today..."

"Let me guess your purpose of coming, how about it?" Charles was about to say his purpose when Morny interrupted him with a smile.

Then, he raised the bar slightly and motioned to Philip who was standing next to Charles. "If I guess correctly, this gentleman is your cousin Philip, right? And you are probably here for him."

As he spoke, he pointed at a stack of documents next to him.

Charles immediately understood. The minister had already received reports on Philip-related incidents from the local police and spies, so he immediately guessed his purpose of coming - maybe, he might have been waiting for him. I came to visit him.

Considering that Philip fled all the way and rushed back to Paris, he was able to get the report so quickly. It must be said that his intelligence network was very effective and fast.

"Your information is really well-informed..." He couldn't help but sigh.

"It's not well-informed enough, at least not as fast as I want." Morny's attitude was still calm and calm, and he could not see much emotion or anger. "Hey, I have been urging your majesty not to let go of the surveillance of other provinces. It is a pity that every village can be connected by telegraph, but His Majesty still refuses to fully meet our budget needs.”

"Sooner or later you will achieve your goal and use the telegraph network to connect the entire country. News from every village will not be able to escape your ears and eyes." Charles replied with a smile. "But you'll probably be very busy then."

Read the original text in Liu#9@书/吧!

"I hope this day will come soon!" The middle-aged man nodded slightly, "The empire needs a ubiquitous surveillance network so that we can eliminate every spark and leave the empire's enemies with nowhere to hide."

He never said what he planned to do with Philip, and his attitude was very vague, but he kept the news secret, which was already an expression of his attitude.

Charles's smile remained unchanged, and then he glanced at Phillip next to him.

Philip understood it and immediately bowed to Morny.

"Your Excellency, I am very sorry that I have caused such a disaster and caused you so much trouble... But I can assure you that this was never an intentional mistake on my part, and I am willing to do my best to remedy myself. the losses caused.”

"Young man, this is not a problem that can be solved with just a word of forgiveness or non-forgiveness." Minister Morny still looked noncommittal and just reminded Philip calmly, "As a young man, it is a good thing to be aggressive, but from what I get Judging from the report, you seem to be overly enthusiastic. You have to learn from your cousin on this point. Although he is younger than you, his personality is much more stable. If it were him, he would probably not offend you. There's such a mess."

When the minister said this, Philip suddenly felt a little ashamed, but he also knew that he had to say something for himself now.

"You taught me the right lesson, Your Excellency. I do...do have too many things that need to be corrected. I will try my best to correct myself in the future, using you and Ciel as an example. But now...now I want to ask you to give me some advice." This is a chance for me to calm down the storm and get everything back on track.”

While speaking, he also bowed his head sincerely to the minister, showing a very satisfactory attitude.

Morny didn't say a word for a while, but his eyes wandered on the faces of Charles and Philip, seeming to be thinking about something.

"Your Excellency, since I am here today, I am making a statement. Philip is my cousin and my wife's brother. I am willing to use everything I can to help him, and I also ask you to help him." Charles He immediately expressed his stance, "Besides, to tell you the truth, before I came here today, my wife gave me a death order. If I can't help Phillip, I'm afraid I won't be able to sleep with my wife in the future..."

"Pfft hahahaha..." Charles' joke finally broke the serious atmosphere, causing His Excellency Minister Morny to burst into laughter. "Char, there are advantages to being young, you can joke around! Well, since you mentioned this, I have to find a way to help you even for the sake of a harmonious future life for you."

Of course, Charles didn't do this just as a joke. In fact, he had already stated his position - as long as you are willing to help me with this matter, my wife and I will be grateful to you and owe you a favor. Let us return the favor.

And in the final analysis, this was the other party's purpose - if he didn't intend to give the Treville family a favor beforehand, why bother to suppress the matter and wait for Charles to come?

After receiving Charles' promise, Minister Morny quickly regained his composure amid laughter and looked at Philip again.

"Okay, Philip, you know, Charles and I are friends, so I am willing to help when I can. But...if your matter is an ordinary criminal case, I can help with just a few words. If you suppress it, Charles doesn't have to come forward, but you also know that the situation is unusual. "

"Yes, I know the situation is difficult." Philip understood immediately, "So, Sir, I implore you to lend a helping hand, and I will be grateful to you!"

"It doesn't matter whether I'm grateful or not. The key is that I am not omnipotent." Of course, Morny would not be infected by Philip's attitude. Instead, he remained calm, "I can help you suppress the case and let it go." The police and courts over there won’t cause trouble for you, and you can even silence the newspapers here to prevent them from talking nonsense about you... However, it’s difficult to deal with the church. They are not just my orders. Someone who can move."

After finishing speaking, he looked at Ciel again, obviously saying that he needed to handle this matter himself. "However, I remember, Charles, the archbishop seemed to be your witness?"

"I'll take care of it at the church. I'm very grateful that you can do so much." Charles replied immediately.

"Are you sure?" Morny asked with concern.

"I think I'm sure." Charles smiled, "Rome still needs us to protect them after all, and I happened to have been in charge of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and know a few things."

"Well, if you can do it..." Morny smiled, "Then I wish you good luck. I don't know why, but I have great confidence in you."

"It happens to be me too." Ciel replied with the same smile. (~^~)