Darkstone Code-Chapter 755 - 0753 Enemy? Friend!

Whether it’s the Gafura people, the Federation people, or those from other countries, especially those ordinary people at the bottom of society, they have all had at least one common doubt—how do those who know nothing about governance manage to become officials?

Take the Members of Parliament of the Bail Federal, for instance. Many of them have never engaged in work related to law, and some didn’t even major in legal studies during their university years.

They have only a superficial understanding of the law, so how can they decide whether a law should be passed or amended?

To put it simply, a group of outsiders is doing what insiders can’t even do, but why?

Many people have such doubts, just like Lynch, someone who has never proven himself on a football field, yet somehow became the chairman of a professional football club.

Most people, when this question pops into their minds, are somewhat angry, likely experiencing these issues themselves, or those around them are, or they see others in society facing these issues.

That’s why they have such doubts: why are politicians outsiders in many fields, yet able to do what only insiders can do?

Actually, the perspective from which everyone views the issue is wrong from the very beginning, because for politicians, their "profession" is politics, their career is also politics, and the power and influence derived from their profession are merely bonuses.

As long as they can maneuver against each other, know when to compromise, sacrifice a little shame, and lower their moral baseline, then they are professionals in the field of "politics"!

It’s precisely because they’re professional that they can become officials!

The Prime Minister of Gafura is also a professional politician. Don’t be fooled by his apparent lack of power; he is indeed a very professional politician. Once he makes a decision, it’s a storm.

The evening when the protests outside the Minister of Finance’s residence were dispersed, major television stations reported the news.

Some stations reported in a relatively neutral way, while others leaned towards the Prime Minister’s camp.

In the words of those hosts with distinct stances, the Minister of Finance manipulated the Empire’s police to suppress a group of victims, treating them as rioters!

Whether it was orchestrated by the Minister of Finance or not, the people believed it! 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Scandals of financial department officials accepting bribes had just emerged, and immediately the Minister of Finance also had problems. This sequence of events made sense to many, and if it wasn’t ordered by the Minister of Finance, who would risk so much to direct the police to suppress the masses?

"But that’s not enough!"

The Prime Minister, who orchestrated this, sat by the fireplace, as temperatures in late October in Gafura began to noticeably drop.

The biggest difference between an island nation and an inland country is the humidity in the air. Gafura’s air is very damp, and if people didn’t take care of themselves when they were young, it becomes troublesome once autumn arrives.

Joint pain often keeps them reliant on blankets and fireplaces.

He held tongs in his hand, adjusting some logs to make them looser, so that the fire would gradually weaken.

A little further from the fireplace gathered some nobles, who were, to some extent, supporters of the Prime Minister.

Their families had always maintained an alliance relationship from the lord era to now, maintaining very good relations.

The Noble Group will never disappear, only sometimes need to be restrained when royal power is strong, but once there are signs of royal power weakening, the Noble Group quickly resurges.

These individuals, sitting or standing, listened quietly to the Prime Minister’s opinion, "I know what kind of person the Minister of Finance is, treacherous, despicable, shameless, obscene, without shame."

"I’m ashamed to be his colleague!" he said with a light chuckle.

After enduring for so many years, he finally waited for an inexplicable opportunity. He couldn’t pass it up, so he was pleased, even making a little joke while cursing the Minister of Finance.

"This blow won’t defeat him. Our Majesty demands that he quickly boost the financial index, as long as he can accomplish this, no matter what changes occur next, Majesty won’t abandon him."

The Prime Minister hung the fire tongs on a wooden knob by the fireplace, looking up at the gentlemen in the room, "At least he will show an intention to desperately protect the Minister of Finance!"

"I know him well; I’ve known him for over forty years. I know what kind of person he is, so our first battleground is the Gafura Financial Index."

He knew His Majesty since the Emperor was a child, they were over ten years apart back then, and the current Emperor was not the favored Prince.

There were even more distinguished Princes and Princesses above him, all with enviable backgrounds.

Only the current Majesty was an accidentally born child, and to deprive him of the chance to claim the throne, some even secretly called him a "bastard."

Aiming to eliminate his line from the heirs through bloodlines, but those people ultimately failed.

His Majesty might not be the smartest, might not be the most noble in pedigree, but he’s the most ruthless at heart.

Everyone who defied him, everyone unwilling to bow to him, met their end, slain by a bastard, who eventually ascended the throne.

He’s a vicious person, with the potential to be a tyrant, and also decisive enough. As long as he considers something a bottom line, then no one can touch it.

If the Prime Minister and His Majesty don’t wish to start a full-blown battle, a fight to the death, then it’s best for them to compete within the "rules of the game".

The Emperor defined the scope of this game, which is the financial index, so the first thing they need to do is bring the financial index down.

"As long as the Minister of Finance fails to complete Majesty’s task, His Majesty will not continue to protect him, and he will be inevitably defeated."

The Prime Minister said with a faint smile, "Then we will sit at the table with His Majesty."

The gentlemen in the room weren’t thinking about the impact of the declining Gafura Financial Index on this country; power is the core of this nation.

If we say the Federation is controlled by capital, then in Gafura, power controls everything.

With different societal and governance structures, people consider different matters. If the Federation President dropped the Federation’s Industrial Index for personal rights?

Someone would immediately propose an impeachment against the President, and Congress might even intervene.

But here, nobody cares about such trivial issues. They only consider what they can gain from doing this.

Moreover, how could a group of behind-the-scenes nobles not know they could short-sell the financial index at this time, considering this money was going to evaporate anyway, so it might as well evaporate into their pockets?

"I need you to push down the index, and simultaneously we need to prepare a special gift for our Minister of Finance."

The surrounding nobles nodded one after another, perhaps maintaining reserved expressions without appearing too exaggerated, but excitement flickered in everyone’s eyes.

Once the Prime Minister succeeds in his power struggle, these nobles’ good days will come; they will take over departments loaded with real power, at least before the next world war, they will wield real authority.

Everyone pondered slightly, then someone asked, "What do you think of Lynch?"

The speaker, a man in his fifties with graying hair, sat on an exaggerated high-back chair, legs crossed, his polished boots reflecting the flickering fireplace light.

This fellow was a bit thin, with prominent cheekbones, and narrow yet slightly sinister eyes.

His question drew everyone’s attention to him, "Lynch now holds a group of lesser nobles, a few people at least, also count as a power."

"He doesn’t get along well with our Majesty, maybe we could win him and his people over."

Mentioning Lynch, everyone’s expressions changed; Lynch had broadened their understanding of this world.

Having visited Gafura three times, for a cumulative time of less than two months, he actually formed his own noble group and became its sole core; this ability is truly terrifying.

If he’d been born in the lord era, probably today’s Imperial Family wouldn’t matter at all.

"Lower nobles have no value to us.", said a seemingly gentle noble in his forties, rejecting immediately.

Non-hereditary nobles and those at or below the Count are termed lower nobles, these nobles are just temporarily lucky, soon losing their noble privileges and glory, so in the eyes of traditional high nobility, these "nobles" who will barely last three generations are no different from commoners.

The previous somewhat sinister-feeling noble chuckled, "Even less, they are still a force, and they have money and have made quite a lot recently, also shorting the primary force."

The Prime Minister listened thoughtfully, Lynch was the first to short the Gafura Financial Index, and he once suspected Lynch for all of this.

But he denied his own suspicions because everything was too coincidental, so coincidental it might indeed be just coincidence.

Lynch didn’t possess enough energy to disrupt Gafura’s decades-old noble structure on his own. He might just be one link among many coincidences, facilitating a great trend.

Just like every power transition giving a feeling of writing an epic, you feel like a small being in an epic while penning the history yourself.

"I will talk to Lynch, for now, any force is worth striving for!"