It was precisely because of this that the King had dared to defy Eugen. Frowning, the King couldn't help but feel regret. Sigh! If only he had known and agreed to her, he wouldn't have died. Unfortunately, there is no "if only."
The King, who had fallen to the ground, was dead—dead as could be. Eugen grabbed the King's hair and lifted his head. "Hmph! I told you to listen to me. See what happened now! You died a miserable death at my hands."
"Father! Are you in there?" Princess Fiona entered the King's room. Upon seeing Eugen holding her father's head, she immediately said angrily, "It's you, Eugen! Why did you kill my father!"
Eugen turned her head and saw Princess Fiona, then said in a deep voice, "Yo! Isn't this Princess Fiona? What a coincidence! I was just about to look for you; I didn't expect you to appear before me on your own. Now, I will immediately send you to see your father."
With a bang, Eugen shot toward Princess Fiona. Seeing that Eugen wanted to kill her, Princess Fiona immediately took out a glass orb. "Dream on if you want to kill me! Thousand-Mile Teleportation Bead—Activate!"
A red light enveloped Princess Fiona, and with a swoosh, she disappeared.
Eugen, having missed her target, looked displeased. "Tsk! Did she escape?"
The next day, the palace ministers came to Hiddell's room one after another. They told Hiddell a shocking piece of news: the King had been assassinated, and the murderer was Princess Fiona.
The ministers told Hiddell about the process of the King's assassination. According to the King's soldiers and guards, Princess Fiona, wanting to ascend to the throne immediately, pulled a black gun from under her skirt and shot the King to death.
Upon seeing this, the soldiers and guards immediately tried to capture Princess Fiona, but she escaped using the Hundred-Seeing-level ship device, the Thousand-Mile Teleportation Bead.
After listening to what the ministers said, Hiddell knew that all of this was Eugen's doing. The Deep Sea Cult's Saint Eugen truly had remarkable methods! In just one day, she not only killed the King but also framed Princess Fiona. This Eugen was truly terrifying! It seemed he had to listen to her well, otherwise, he would definitely end up with the same miserable death as his father.
The Minister of Finance, Liles, said anxiously, "Your Highness, now that the King has been shot to death and the murderer, Princess Fiona, is still at large, you hold the greatest power in the palace. Please issue an arrest warrant for Princess Fiona immediately. Once she is caught, she must be sent to the guillotine. Only then can we avenge His Majesty the King!"
"This matter is very strange. We haven't gotten to the bottom of it yet; isn't it a bit inappropriate to punish Fiona now?" Hiddell narrowed his eyes. Something was wrong. Wasn't this old man a loyal supporter of Princess Fiona? Why did he want Fiona to die so badly?
"Your Highness, with the soldiers and guards as witnesses providing evidence, this is already clear. There is no need to investigate further," said the Minister of Justice, Liya.
The Minister of Military Affairs, Ster, echoed, "Princess Fiona has already fled the palace. She must be alone right now. We must arrest her quickly and execute her immediately. Only then can we prevent her from gathering forces to form an army."
Something was wrong! Something was wrong! Why were even the Minister of Justice and the Minister of Military Affairs saying this? These two were ministers groomed by Princess Fiona and belonged to her faction. Why did they want Fiona to die so quickly?
The Minister of Finance, the Minister of Justice, and the Minister of Military Affairs exchanged glances. In their hearts, they were all wondering why they also wanted Princess Fiona to die so quickly. Could it be that their families had also been taken hostage by the Deep Sea Cult, just like their own?
If they could, they would have liked to communicate with each other, but the Deep Sea Cult's Saint Eugen had said that if they dared to leak it to anyone else, she would kill the hostages.
Sigh! There was no other way. For the sake of their families, they had to listen to Saint Eugen. Saint Eugen had said that as long as they joined the Deep Sea Cult and helped Hiddell become King, she would release their families.
For the sake of their families, they had already joined the Deep Sea Cult and become junior members. Now, they just needed to make Hiddell King to have their families return safely.
"Alright! Follow orders and issue an arrest warrant for Princess Fiona immediately. If you can capture her alive, do so. If you can't, execute her on the spot." Hiddell put on a show of putting righteousness above family.
"Your Highness is wise!" The ministers bowed one after another.
The Minister of Finance, Liles, spoke up, "Your Highness, now that the King has been shot to death, Free Iris has no King. We hope you can ascend to the throne as soon as possible, so you can lead our Free Iris toward glory!"
The Minister of Justice, Liya, added, "It is a great fortune for our Free Iris that Your Highness can become King!"
The Minister of Military Affairs, Ster, was excited. You finally got to the point. "Your Highness, there is no time like the present. Ascend to the throne today!"
As soon as the topic of ascending to the throne and becoming King came up, Hiddell perked up. Watching the Minister of Finance, the Minister of Justice, and the Minister of Military Affairs urge him to ascend to the throne one by one, he felt that these ministers really wanted him to be King. This must have been the work of Saint Eugen. He admired the Deep Sea Cult's Saint more and more. It seemed he had boarded the right ship; choosing to join the Deep Sea Cult was truly not a mistake.
"Since everyone is so eager for me to become King, I will not refuse. As long as I ascend to the throne, I will definitely make Free Iris a world power." Hiddell patted his chest and promised.
Just like that, under the urging of the ministers, Hiddell successfully became King that very day.
When Hiddell became King, Eugen demanded ninety percent of the Free Iris national treasury. Hiddell was very angry because that was all money! However, fearing that he would provoke Eugen, he did not show it.
To show the nobility of the King, Hiddell built large palaces and took in many beauties. However, since the national treasury had just contributed ninety percent of its assets to the Deep Sea Cult, he didn't have much money now. Moreover, he had to pay seventy percent of the national income to the Deep Sea Cult every year, which made him feel that building large palaces and taking in many beauties was very difficult.
In order to build large palaces and take in many beauties, Hiddell began to raise personal and commercial taxes for the citizens. This increase was threefold. In order to make the citizens pay taxes, he promulgated a new criminal law: for citizens who did not pay taxes every month, the punishment would be life imprisonment at best, and direct execution at worst.
Originally, citizens had to pay thirty percent of their monthly income to the state as personal tax. Now that it had become ninety percent, having only ten percent left to maintain their livelihood made things extremely difficult.
Water can carry a boat, but it can also overturn it.
To have to pay such heavy taxes, the citizens were naturally unwilling, so they launched a riot, but the riot was quickly quelled.
Although water can carry a boat, it can also overturn it.
But once the boat is as stable as Mount Tai, the water cannot overturn it at all.
Hiddell was no longer an ordinary King; he had the backing of the Deep Sea Cult. How could ordinary people fight against the Deep Sea Cult?
In recent years, the Deep Sea Cult had developed rapidly, and the four major Governor-Generals Mansions could no longer easily eradicate the Deep Sea Cult as they had in the past.
Facing a powerhouse of Saint Eugen's level entrenched in Free Iris, the Atlantic Governors Mansion did not dare to act rashly. Because once they acted, they would have to dispatch a Legendary Ship Girl, and once a Legendary Ship Girl was dispatched, the Atlantic Governors Mansion would have a power vacuum.
Once the Atlantic Governors Mansion had a power vacuum, the North Atlantic Governors Mansion and the South Atlantic Governors Mansion would dispatch Ship Girls to annex the Atlantic waters.
Yes! That's right, human war is endless. Even though the Deep Sea Cult's power had become so strong, humans still wouldn't stop the war, instead continuing to fight among themselves. It was truly a fate that deserved destruction.
Seeing the poverty of the citizens, the Deep Sea Cult immediately launched a plan to proselytize.
Anyone who became a member of the Deep Sea Cult would have thirty percent of their personal tax paid by the Deep Sea Cult.
Consequently, the citizens of Free Iris joined the Deep Sea Cult in a frenzy.
Although they still had to pay taxes, at least this way they could avoid thirty percent of their personal tax.
With thirty percent of their income tax-free, they could at least barely manage to make a living.
Once sixty percent of the citizens had joined the Deep Sea Cult, King Hiddell saw that the time was ripe and immediately announced that Free Iris was seceding from the Atlantic Governors Mansion to join the Deep Sea Cult.
The majority rules, and the remaining forty percent of the citizens were powerless to resist.
From then on, the Deep Sea Cult successfully brought Free Iris into its fold.
A year later, fearing that the Deep Sea Cult was becoming increasingly powerful, Pacific Governor Lilith decided to send the Five-Star Legendary Ship Girl Enterprise to support the Atlantic Governors Mansion.
With Enterprise's support, Atlantic Governor Alice immediately dispatched Atago, the captain of the Atlantic Military Police, to Free Iris to carry out a mission.
The mission was to help Fiona become the new monarch.
Once Fiona became the ruler of Free Iris, Princess Fiona, who resented the Deep Sea Cult's Saint Eugen, would surely have Free Iris secede from the Deep Sea Cult and return to the embrace of the Atlantic Governors Mansion.
After passing through customs, Illustrious and the others took a taxi to the Biyun Grand Hotel.
Atago requested three guest rooms from the Waitress at the front desk and took the three key cards for the Biyun Grand Hotel; the room numbers were 601, 602, and 603.
"How are we going to split the rooms? There are five of us!"
Illustrious started to feel a bit expectant; she wanted to share a room with Atago, though she internally insisted that she absolutely had no intention of launching a night raid on Atago; she staked her high moral integrity on it.
After some thought, Atago said, "Essex and I will stay in 601, Vicious and Saratoga in 602, and Illustrious, you will stay in 603. Does everyone have any objections?"
"I have an objection!" Illustrious, Vicious, and Saratoga raised their hands in protest simultaneously.
"What objections do you have?" Atago frowned; she felt her arrangement was perfectly fine, so why were so many people objecting now?
Atago believed there were three major benefits to this room arrangement.
First, Vicious and Saratoga did not get along well, and by making them stay together, their relationship could improve.
Second, she and Essex were long-time friends, and she trusted Essex completely.
Third, Illustrious had tried to kiss her earlier; although she didn't actually succeed, someone like that was a yuri, and it wasn't safe to put her in any room, so the best solution was to let her stay alone.
Vicious spoke up first: "I don't want to stay in the same room as this flat-chested girl; it would be terrible if I got infected and became flat-chested too."
Upon hearing Vicious call her flat-chested, Saratoga was furious. "You're the one who's flat-chested! Your whole family is flat-chested! Hmph! I don't want to stay in the same room as Vicious either. She's a lazybones; if I live with her, the room will definitely be littered with cola and potato chips, and there will be lots of cockroaches. Just thinking about it makes me terrified."
"That's perfect, then let's not live together. Rather than living with you, I'd much rather live with Illustrious." Vicious said, hugging Illustrious's arm.
"And what about you, Illustrious? Do you have any objections?" Atago asked, looking at Illustrious.
Illustrious spouted nonsense. "I'm afraid of the dark. If no one sleeps with me at night, I won't be able to sleep. So I want to sleep with you, because I feel at ease when I'm by your side."
"Who are you trying to fool? A Five-Star Legendary Ship Girl being afraid of the dark?" Atago looked unconvinced.
"Who says a Five-Star Legendary Ship Girl can't be afraid of the dark? I think you're overestimating us. Legendary Ship Girls have hearts just like humans; it's perfectly normal for me to be afraid of the dark," Illustrious insisted stubbornly.
"Then just leave the lights on all night; no need to save money for the hotel. You'll be in your room alone and won't be sleeping with anyone else, so give up on that idea!"
Atago looked at Vicious and Saratoga and said, "Since you two don't get along, Vicious will stay in the same room as me, and Essex will stay in the same room as Saratoga."
"The room assignments are settled. Everyone go to your rooms and get some rest early. Tomorrow morning, come to my room for a meeting."
After giving the key cards to Illustrious and Essex, Atago dragged Vicious off to their room.
"Let go of me! I want to stay in the same room as Illustrious."
"Enough nonsense! That's an order!"
Watching Atago and Vicious walk away, Illustrious sighed; it seemed she was being guarded against.
This was probably because she had touched Atago's hand when they first met, leaving a bad impression; if she had known, she wouldn't have touched it; now, Atago must surely see her as a yuri pervert.
Illustrious and the others followed behind Atago, and after five minutes, they arrived at their respective rooms.
Illustrious's room was 603; after opening the door and entering, it wasn't long before the Waitress delivered dinner.
After finishing dinner and taking a shower, she saw a computer, so Illustrious turned it on; there was a game icon for "Jedi Frontline" on the desktop.
She double-clicked the icon, entered her game account and password, and Illustrious logged in.
Illustrious would play this game whenever she had free time.
In this game, players needed to collect various resources on the game map and fight against other players within a constantly shrinking safe zone to be the last one surviving.
Illustrious's account nickname was "Divine Radiance," and she had a good teammate named "I am Not Vicious."
"This wouldn't be Vicious's account, would it? Hahaha, though that's impossible, because 'I am Not Vicious' said he was a man, and had an eight-pack, a man among men."
[Your friend: "I am Not Vicious" has logged on]
Yo! The kid is online.
Illustrious immediately sent him a message. "You finally logged on. Let's form a team and have some chicken dinner."
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