When the company commander and the members of the delegation arrived at the entrance of the French Expeditionary Army Headquarters, they were immediately intercepted by the soldiers guarding the headquarters.

After a brief exchange, the guard glanced at the delegation behind the company commander and said in a flat tone, "Please wait here, I will go and report!"

Having said that, the soldier turned and entered the headquarters.

After a while, the adjutant came out with the soldier. He looked at the delegation and pointed to them, "Please follow me!"

The Russian delegation followed the adjutant into the headquarters and arrived at the door of Commander Pelissier’s office.

The adjutant gently knocked on the door, and on the other side, Pelissier’s voice came through, "Come in!"

Upon entering the office, the Russian delegation saw Marshal Pelissier sitting on a sofa near the desk.

Of course, Marshal Pelissier also saw the members of the Russian delegation.

"Marshal Pelissier!" The "leader" of the delegation bowed and greeted Pelissier in French, "I am here on the orders of Commander Gorchakov to negotiate with your army on behalf of our forces!"

"Gorchakov?" Pelissier chuckled, then stared at the "leader" in front of him and said word by word, "Your Highness Alexander, I do not believe Gorchakov can command you!"

Your Highness?!!!! He is...

The adjutant, Jerome Patterson, who was responsible for bringing the delegation to the office, showed a look of shock on his face. There could only be one person referred to as Your Highness by Marshal Pelissier, and that would be the Crown Prince of the Russian Empire.

The surrounding members of the delegation, upon hearing Pelissier reveal his identity, immediately stood in front of the "leader" and drew their guns, pointing them at Pelissier.

The "leader"... no, it should be said Crown Prince Alexander, showed a look of surprise. He didn’t understand why he was exposed in front of Pelissier, as they had never met before.

"Your Highness, are you here to assassinate me?" Pelissier said calmly to Crown Prince Alexander, "If so, I am deeply honored!"

"Put the guns down!" Crown Prince Alexander commanded in an indisputable tone, looking at the overreacting entourage in front of him.

The entourage reholstered their guns, and Pelissier extended his hand in invitation, "Your Highness, please have a seat!"

Crown Prince Alexander sat down next to Pelissier and curiously asked, "Marshal Pelissier, how did you recognize me? I do not recall us ever meeting!"

"Your Highness, I saw you from afar at a banquet held by Her Majesty Queen Victoria! At the time, I was a military officer stationed in England and was invited by Her Majesty to attend the banquet at Buckingham Palace!" Pelissier explained with a smile to Crown Prince Alexander.

Crown Prince Alexander showed a wry smile, regretting that he should have learned more about Pelissier’s background.

"Your Highness, I wonder what brings you suddenly to our Sevastopol," Pelissier inquired respectfully, showing no inclination of viewing Crown Prince Alexander as an enemy.

"Marshal, Sevastopol is the territory of our Russian Empire!" Crown Prince Alexander corrected Pelissier, "You are just temporarily occupying it!"

"Your Highness, a temporary occupation can indeed become a long-term possession! Crimea was not originally Russian territory either!" Pelissier said indifferently.

"We signed an agreement with the Ottoman Empire! This is now our territory, and your army is now invading our land!" Crown Prince Alexander retorted.

"Your Highness, whether or not it is an invasion is not determined by us, but by the residents of Sevastopol!" Pelissier gestured out the window towards Sevastopol and shrugged at Crown Prince Alexander, "It’s quite clear! The people here don’t see us as invaders, otherwise, we wouldn’t be able to stand here!"

"They understand nothing at all!" Crown Prince Alexander said with a hint of disdain in his words.

"Your Highness, while they may understand nothing, they will speak with their actions!" Pelissier said with a mocking smile, "Before we arrived, there was nothing here. They lived like serfs from the Middle Ages.

However, after we arrived in Sevastopol, we built stores for them, offered them relatively equal treatment... and we abolished the serfdom here, turning all Slavs in Sevastopol into free equals!"

"What! You abolished the serfdom!" Crown Prince Alexander exclaimed in horror, looking at Pelissier. He wanted to abolish serfdom, but not in this way.

The actions of the French Empire reminded him of decades ago, of that Empire that instilled fear in people.

"Yes!" Pellissier nodded and added to Crown Prince Alexander, "The abolition of serfdom on the Crimea Peninsula is not only a demand of France alone, Britain also supports this action!

We plan to implement it not only in Sevastopol but across the Crimea Peninsula! Once our troops enter Odessa, we will implement this policy there as well!"

"No! You can’t do this!" Crown Prince Alexander shook his head desperately and shouted at Pellissier, "You’re destroying Russia!"

"Your Highness, this is war!" Pellissier replied with a serious expression to Crown Prince Alexander, "I think you should be aware that the aim of war is to weaken the opponent as much as possible!"

"Your actions will surely face resistance from Europe!" Crown Prince Alexander responded unwillingly to Pellissier.

"Your Highness, besides Russia, which other European country still practices serfdom?" Pellissier argued, "Moreover, the Kingdom of Britain is also in favor of abolishing serfdom!"

"You... you..." Crown Prince Alexander felt like he was dealing with an opponent who didn’t play by the rules. He tried to calm himself and questioned Pellissier, "Do you really want to destroy the Russian Empire?"

"No... we don’t want to destroy the Russian Empire!" A voice came from the office door.

Marshal Pellissier hurriedly stood up from his seat, and Crown Prince Alexander also turned around and stood up.

Indeed, standing at the office door was none other than Emperor Jerome Bonaparte of the French Empire. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

He walked unhurriedly up to Crown Prince Alexander, curiously observing the future "peer" with a decent reputation.

At the same time, Crown Prince Alexander was also observing Jerome Bonaparte with the same curiosity.

After the two exchanged glances for a moment, Jerome Bonaparte extended his hand to Crown Prince Alexander, "Welcome to Sevastopol, Alexander!"

"Your Majesty!" Alexander said as he bowed to Jerome Bonaparte.

Then, Crown Prince Alexander and Jerome Bonaparte sat down on the sofa. Jerome Bonaparte glanced at the entourage behind Alexander II and said, "Alexander, don’t you think the number of people in the office exceeds its capacity?"

Seeing this, Alexander II immediately ordered his entourage to wait outside the door, and Jerome Bonaparte also ordered Jerome Patterson to wait outside.

Now, only the Emperor of France, the future Tsar of Russia, and the Imperial Marshal of France remained in the room.

"Alexander, I admire your courage, daring to venture alone into Sevastopol!" Jerome Bonaparte clasped his hands and smiled with interest, "Aren’t you afraid I’ll use you as a hostage to make your troops in Crimea surrender without a fight?"

"I trust in Your Majesty’s magnanimity as a monarch!" Crown Prince Alexander first said flatteringly and then continued, "But even if you take action against me, it would only result in my confinement! The Imperial Army will not give up resisting because I am detained!"

The reason Crown Prince Alexander remained fearless lay in his confidence in the monarchical system; he believed Jerome Bonaparte wouldn’t dare harm him.

Moreover, once the countries of Europe knew he was taken captive, they would not allow him to be harmed.

"Didn’t Gorchakov stop you?" Jerome Bonaparte asked curiously.

"I didn’t tell Commander Gorchakov, he probably thinks I’m still in Simferopol!" Alexander II replied to Jerome Bonaparte.

Jerome Bonaparte gestured a thumbs-up to Alexander II, greatly admiring his courage.

If he were Alexander II, he definitely wouldn’t venture alone into Sevastopol.

"Alexander, what is your purpose?" Jerome Bonaparte asked Alexander II.

"Your Majesty, the French Empire and the Russian Empire could have been mutual allies! But now we face each other in war in Crimea. Don’t you find this regrettable?" Alexander II asked Jerome Bonaparte earnestly.

"Alexander, this is thanks to your father!" Jerome Bonaparte sighed, seemingly lamenting the hostile relations between the Russian and French Empires, "If he hadn’t insisted on attacking the Ottoman Empire, matters wouldn’t have escalated to this point! Since Russia repeatedly refused peace, I bring you war!"

"Your Majesty, perhaps it was indeed our mistake previously!" Surprisingly, Alexander admitted to the charges Jerome Bonaparte fabricated, "But now I think the French Empire and the Russian Empire shouldn’t continue down this wrong path!"