Chapter 1733: Night Talk in the Palace

"I feel… they might have a bit of a misunderstanding about me."

Leaning against the soft cushion covered with silk on the head of the bed, recalling the scene when he was meeting at the Taurus Palace, Leon couldn't help but frown slightly, feeling a little unhappy:

"When I do things, I should be considered quite cautious, right? Basically, I will try my best to consider everything before I act, right?"

"Mm, that's right."

After nodding slightly, Queen Veronica, who had a thin layer of sweat on her temples and slightly messy hair, arched her body upward, lazily leaning against Leon's shoulder, and answered with her eyes closed:

"My man is especially careful~ He will definitely prepare well before doing things… Speaking of which, where is that Miss Lai La who is always riding a big dog? Why didn't she come today?"

"In order to prevent her from always spoiling things, I specially asked the Director to give her a task before I came to find you. She should have gone abroad by now… Speaking of which, why are you mentioning her? I am talking to you about serious business."

"Mm-hmm~"

Probably because her physical strength was really consumed a bit too seriously, Queen Veronica, who had always been diligent and hardworking, dragging her court ladies to work overtime every night, and having top-notch ox-horse talent, was now too lazy to even open her eyes, responding like a mosquito hum:

"Then let's continue with the serious business… Where did we talk to just now?"

"Talked to whether Lord Taurus and the others have a misunderstanding about me."

Wrapping his arms around Queen Veronica's smooth and slightly cool waist, and tucking in the quilt, Leon, who felt his head was exceptionally clear at the moment, couldn't help but frown:

"I feel that although they don't doubt my brain, they seem to have developed some kind of stereotype about me. They always feel that I will use the most extreme way to solve problems, as if I can't tolerate any sand in my eyes, and as long as I see something I don't like, I must forcibly change it."

"Then are you like that?"

Leon answered with some dissatisfaction:

"I am of course not."

"Take the current kingdom as an example. Although I still can't stand many things, didn't I not move?"

"For example?"

"For example, the Lower House that still holds the major departments of road administration and agriculture, the Commercial Union that is tug-of-war with you on working hours and salary issues, and those old nobles who want money when redeeming plantations and mines… Although I find them very unpleasant, didn't I not intervene?"

"So then~ are you not going to move them?"

"Isn't there you!"

After hearing Queen Veronica's inquiry, Leon, whose brain began to diverge uncontrollably, said as a matter of course:

"I don't understand agriculture and road administration, and I understand even less about industry, commerce, and redemption. If I solve them, I can probably only use strong pressure. Even if I can solve the problem in the end, it will definitely cause long-term chaos."

"And you are different from me. You are simply a born politician. Dividing and winning over, interest exchange, intrigue, fanning the flames, stabbing in the back, turning your face and not recognizing people… You are too proficient in this kind of thing."

"It is the most stable for you to handle those bastards, although it will be a bit slower, and the impact on ordinary people is the smallest… Hey? Why are you pinching me?"

You say why?

After pinching with a little force for half a circle, Queen Veronica opened her eyes, her watery eyes filled with resentment:

"Although I understand that you are praising me, can you use better-sounding words? What is stabbing in the back? I can't even notify them in advance when I force the old nobles to dissolve the plantations in the name of reorganization, letting them join forces to resist reorganization, right?"

"Uh…"

"As for turning your face and not recognizing people, it's even harder to hear. I have a good relationship with the Commercial Union on the surface, and I have given policy support, but this doesn't mean I am their ally."

"They created a more efficient and prosperous market environment, so I naturally have to support them. But they refuse to guarantee working hours and minimum wage levels, and they also want to eat a patent to death, bribing the Lower House to pass legislation to guarantee permanent patent rights. Can my action to sanction them be called turning my face and not recognizing people?"

"This…"

"Also, we have only met after a long time. You won't be planning to chat about this with me all the time, right?"

The fingertips pointed at Leon's chest, drawing a small circle, and the slightly hot body didn't know when it stuck over again. Under the moonlight shining from the window, ripples flickered in Queen Veronica's eyes, and she whispered like an orchid:

"There is still more than an hour before dawn. Shall we…"

"Shall we chat about the gathering of the Twelve Kingdoms?"

"???"

"This… those few Directors in our Bureau, although their character is quite good, they are all quite rigid. It is really not easy to persuade them once."

Grabbing the soft palm that suddenly increased force on his waist, and pinching it lightly in his palm, Leon coughed and said:

"Veronica, this gathering of the Twelve Kingdoms, whether it is for you or me, or for the Cleanup Bureau and the Twelve Kingdoms, is a very, very rare opportunity. If I mess this up, then if I want to persuade them again, I am afraid I will have to wait for several years, so…"

"So you think I know the situation of the Twelve Kingdoms better and hope I can check it for you?"

"Mm…"

"…"

I really lost to you…

After sighing helplessly, Queen Veronica's eyes closed again, turning her head to bury her face in Leon's shoulder, and then said muffledly:

"Then say it… what goals do you hope to achieve through this gathering?"

"Connect with each other, eliminate war."

Leon, who had already had a goal, said earnestly:

"The goal I really want has not yet reached the conditions for complete achievement, and it may take several generations to have a possibility. But these two small goals are still possible to achieve."

"These two are not small goals~"

After Queen Veronica hummed, she rubbed her chin against Leon's shoulder twice, then closed her eyes and said:

"Connecting with each other is easy to say, but eliminating war is not generally difficult. Territory, resources, population, grievances, religion, customs… there are too many things that can cause contradictions and lead to war. Even if you rely on the Cleanup Bureau, it is not so easy to do~"

"Even if you can't do 100%, doing 80% is fine."

Leon, who also didn't hold this hope, said:

"Resource problems can be solved by allocation, territorial and grievance disputes can be attempted to be suppressed by the Cleanup Bureau, and population and customs can be coordinated. As for religious problems, I can go and catch the corresponding True God…"

"In short, my idea is to pull the Twelve Kingdoms together first. Before the contradictions between them are too strong to be solved, try to create a few more gatherings for communication. Even if we still can't completely eliminate conflicts in the end, after the intervention of the Cleanup Bureau, the intensity and scope of war can be relatively controllable."

"Then there is no big problem."

After pondering Leon's goal, Queen Veronica nodded slightly:

"This goal is quite 'realistic'. If it is just to ensure a significant reduction and relatively controllable, judging from the current situation, there is indeed no big problem… Is that connecting with each other also like this?"

"Right."

Leon nodded:

"I don't intend to break all the existing systems of the Twelve Kingdoms in one breath and forcibly establish material allocation for the entire present world. On the issue of connecting with each other, my expectation is actually similar to eliminating war. It is fine as long as it is better than before."

"The first gathering of the Twelve Kingdoms is still mainly about talking. Try to exchange surplus resources without causing the collapse of the existing systems of various countries, and improve the resource problems faced by various kingdoms as much as possible."

"But this kind of connecting with each other is still a kind of transaction, and as long as it is a transaction, there will always be people who take advantage and people who suffer losses."

Queen Veronica opened her eyes, her eyebrows slightly frowned, and reminded:

"Especially this kind of national-level super-large transaction, the mining difficulty, demand quantity, shortage degree, transportation difficulty of both sides… these will have very large differences, and it is impossible to balance them completely."

"For example, the transportation of grain in the Kingdom of Greenery, the mining of ore in the Kingdom of Mo Erna, the storage of meat and fur products in the Northern Kingdom, the R&D cost of medicine and medical technology in the Kingdom of Perti, the subsequent maintenance and replacement of our industrial products, etc."

"Leon, the dominant party in this kind of transaction is naturally 1,000 willing, but the disadvantaged party is afraid that they will not be so cooperative, and even quite resistant… For example, the transaction between the Kingdom of Greenery and the Kingdom of Perti and the Kingdom of Mo Erna has big problems."

"The Kingdom of Greenery Oleson is limited by its own location and the war with neighboring countries. Grain has only been sold in several nearby kingdoms. Because the grain price is too low, a large amount of land is even abandoned. It is naturally very good to use grain that is redundant to them to exchange for ore and medicine that they lack."

"And the Kingdom of Perti and the Kingdom of Mo Erna are different. Whether it is medicine production or ore mining, there are quite high costs. Although they have shortages in grain, they also master mineral resources and medicine, and can easily grab quite high premiums. Exchanging for grain is definitely a loss."

"These two relatively wealthy kingdoms themselves do not lack channels to obtain grain. The resources they truly urgently need are in the hands of the Kingdom of Sea Cliff across the ocean."

"Even if the Kingdom of Greenery can use grain to exchange, the two countries are not only separated by the ocean, but also separated by more than one kingdom. The loss of long-distance transportation is astonishing. Who bears this part of the loss is a bigger problem."

"And even if you can rely on the Cleanup Bureau to solve this problem, it will severely damage the transportation industry of the Kingdom of Thousand Sails. They who hold the shipping lanes, apart from looting, also bear the large-scale transactions between the Kingdom of Sea Cliff and the Kingdom of Perti…"

Don't recite it, Master, don't recite it!

Just listening to Veronica say a few small problems, Leon's brain, which was exceptionally clear during the sage time, became a ball of paste again. He couldn't help but look up at the ceiling and sigh in his heart.

There are so many problems at a glance. Fortunately, he didn't force it with a pat on the head. Although it could be achieved by strong pressure, that was only treating the symptoms. Only by finding the "balance" among them could it truly cure the root cause.

For this, it can only be said that although his brain is okay, he is really powerless in dealing with this kind of problem… But fortunately, he still has a cheat!

"How about this!"

After pondering the "trump card" in his hand, Leon tentatively proposed:

"For those kingdoms that suffer losses in transactions, and the side that makes concessions in solving war, I represent the Cleanup Bureau to give them some special compensation?"

"Special compensation?"

"Just like what I did in our Kingdom of Traveling Thrush and the Northern Kingdom, completing some projects that are difficult for other kingdoms to handle."

After condensing a false map illusion, Leon gestured on it:

"For example, turning minerals that are difficult to mine to the ground, moving away mountain ranges that block water vapor to alleviate drought, adjusting large rivers that often change channels, making a gap in the middle of the mountain range that hinders transportation… Why are you pinching me again?"

Don't know, maybe my hands are itchy.

Queen Veronica, who knew the activation conditions of the 【Soft Rice】 badge, hummed, then suppressed the slightly sour feeling in her heart, and reminded:

"Leon, if you are prepared to use this as a 'reward', then you can completely ask for more, especially the Kingdom of Thunder and the Kingdom of Refraction, where disasters are frequent. As long as you can really solve their disaster problems, then your previous two goals can really only be considered small goals."

"Letting various kingdoms suffer a little loss in transactions, surely no one is willing, but if it is just suffering a little loss in transactions, it can be exchanged for this kind of project that originally required the strength of the whole country to achieve, then it will be snatched."

"In addition, apart from not giving out all the 'rewards' in one breath, but only doing a part each time, so as to handle various kingdoms, I also suggest that you pull the entire Cleanup Bureau to do it together."

"Do it together? Do what?"

"Make a slightly 'selfish' change."

Queen Veronica blinked and said pointedly:

"Don't you think that the work of the Cleanup Bureau can actually be 'paid'?"

"???"

"If as the 'protector' of humanity, the Cleanup Bureau's work of dealing with anomalous events, protecting ordinary people from abnormal intrusion, and guarding the royal families of various countries is naturally free."

"But just as you said to those Directors, the biggest arrogance of your Cleanup Bureau is that you don't regard yourself as a part of humanity. And as a part of humanity, the things you do can completely be 'paid'."

"I actually considered this."

Leon nodded:

"The Cleanup Bureau established the Underworld Branch in the Dead World. Cleaners who sacrificed in the mission can be resurrected as soon as possible, extend the lifespan for their families, and even receive preferential treatment after death…"

"No, the 'paid' I said does not refer to this."

Veronica smiled lightly:

"What you said is the reward paid by the Cleanup Bureau to the cleaners, and what I mean is to let you, from the perspective of the Cleanup Bureau, require the Twelve Kingdoms to pay the Cleanup Bureau."

Twelve Kingdoms pay the Cleanup Bureau… Hiss!

Hearing Veronica's words, Leon suddenly realized.

That's it! The most difficult part of the problems he wanted to solve was that as long as changes were made, it would inevitably touch the interests of the Twelve Kingdoms.

His previous idea was to use the ability of the 【Soft Rice】 badge to make compensation, so that the Twelve Kingdoms could accept the result of suffering losses, but this method could only treat the symptoms, and could only achieve temporary balance.

Trade between countries would continue, and no one could accept suffering losses forever. After a long time, the benefits brought by his changing the terrain would be taken for granted by various countries, and there would still be new complaints, while the protection of the Cleanup Bureau would continue.

So if he followed Veronica's method, he and the Cleanup Bureau didn't need to make any changes at all. Just changing the original free protection to 'paid' on the surface was enough to make the major kingdoms make concessions all the time, and they could do more, and even…

"Well done!"

Excitedly hugging Veronica and kissing her hard, Leon couldn't help but clench his fists:

"This method of yours can definitely solve more than 90% of the problems! Plus the Cleanup Bureau originally wants to strengthen communication with the Twelve Kingdoms. In addition to providing protection, it can also solve other needs such as alleviating disasters! Simply perfect!"

"If you think it's perfect, then pay."

"Ah?"

"I didn't say that helping you solve the problem is free~"

"Uh… then what do you want…"

"Isn't this already very obvious?"

After moving her body slightly, Veronica's hot palm pressed firmly on Leon's shoulder, her cheeks slightly red, and she whispered:

"Meat compensation!"

(End of Chapter) ===== CHAPTER 1734 =====