Chris, who hadn't slept for three consecutive days, immediately began preparing for the handover of governmental affairs after rushing home.
To be honest, she still held hope in her heart that she wouldn't be found guilty.
No matter what, she believed she had given everything for the city-state. During her tenure, not even once had magical beasts entered the city or had the city-state failed in war.
Moreover, the citizens' quality of life had improved considerably compared to before.
Logically, there shouldn't be that many "guilty" votes.
But as the city-state's consul, she had to prepare for the worst.
She planned to go to the Government Affairs Institute this afternoon, both to complete the handover of governmental affairs and to ask what exactly had happened.
Then, she would continue working as if nothing had occurred.
......
At this time within Yage City, in Stephen's courtyard, people were holding a secret party to celebrate victory.
Wearing luxurious robes and sporting a big belly, Stephen smugly swirled the wine glass in his hand before the guests.
"How about it? Just as I predicted, right?"
The guests below immediately echoed:
"Mr. Stephen truly has a deep grasp of human nature!"
"As long as we position military construction against the people's welfare in our words, these stupid citizens will immediately fall for our trick!"
"Not only that! The reason we could win was that we maximized the use of these idiots' inherent suspicion of leaders!"
"......"
After hearing the guests' praise, Stephen mysteriously smiled and waved his hand.
"Wrong! None of you have gotten to the truly important point!"
Seeing the guests' curious expressions, Stephen said proudly:
"The fundamental reason we could win isn't with us, but with Chris herself!"
"Listen carefully to how I succeeded!"
Stephen swirled the red wine glass in his hand and began:
"Haven't you noticed? Ever since Chris took office, she's been working and fighting like a machine almost frantically, and she hardly ever attends those activities meant to curry favor with the people."
"Combined with her miraculous achievements, especially in military matters, after taking office, the people all know her abilities are powerful enough to make us fearful."
"Terrifying abilities combined with never taking time to participate in people-friendly activities—I think everyone should know the result of these two things together."
Stephen smiled with his eyes narrowed to slits.
"The result is—citizens have no love or tolerance for her in their hearts, only infinite expectations!"
"And people's expectations of her are our best weapon against her!"
Stephen finished speaking, but the guests below remained extremely puzzled.
The soldier who had previously betrayed Chris asked:
"People's expectations of her? Wouldn't that be disadvantageous to us?"
Stephen burst into laughter.
"I knew you'd think that!"
Stephen didn't stop laughing for a long time.
"Look, if one day you saw a very bad person privately do a good deed, what would you think?"
"Wouldn't you think—actually he's not a bad person? Or he's already become a good person?"
The soldier nodded.
Stephen continued:
"Then let's reverse this hypothesis—a publicly acknowledged good person privately did a bad deed and you saw it. What would you think?"
"You'd definitely think—that so-called 'good person' is just a hypocrite, right?"
The soldier nodded again.
"So you see—a bad person who's done bad things all their life can become a Buddha just by doing one good deed at the end."
"But a good person? They become a hypocrite just by doing one bad thing."
The soldier still didn't understand.
"But... we haven't caught any evidence of Chris doing anything bad either."
Stephen burst into laughter again.
"Idiot! Do we necessarily need to find evidence in reality to prove she wants to be a military dictator?"
Stephen, who was concerned with politics, had considerable understanding of Chris.
He also knew that Chris absolutely could never want to become any kind of military dictator.
Pointing to his head before the guests, he said:
"Isn't it enough to just make people have this suspicion?"
"As long as there's this suspicion, she's no longer perfect, and people's expectations of her will naturally be disappointed."
"And when people's expectations of her are disappointed—they'll naturally develop anger toward her."
"Especially this foolish woman—she's taken on almost all affairs of this city-state by herself. People have gotten used to the various benefits she brings them."
Stephen paused and said proudly:
"In short, one sentence—people have already taken her contributions for granted."
This sentence flashed through the guests' ears like thunder.
Making all the guests suddenly understand.
"I see..."
"Truly brilliant..."
"So this is human nature..."
Another person asked somewhat worriedly:
"But boss, after we successfully seize power, how should we solve the problems she faces?"
His words made all the guests worry too.
Yes, their abilities were definitely inferior to Chris's, and they couldn't possibly put all their energy into the city-state like Chris did.
If they couldn't properly enjoy themselves with citizens' tax money after successfully seizing power, what was the point of seizing power?
Stephen smiled mysteriously.
"I've considered this long ago."
He poured himself another glass of red wine.
"Do you remember my previous trade with the Elasia Empire?"
The guests all nodded.
Stephen was not only the only merchant in Yage City who dared to do international business, but almost the only merchant in this world who dared to do international business.
Yage City produced high-quality red wine. This wine could only sell for one silver coin in Yage City, but when transported to the Elasia Empire, it could sell for one gold coin—a hundredfold increase in value!
But transporting the wine there wasn't easy.
From Yage City to Elasia, one had to cross the Northern Forest!
The magical beasts there were so powerful that armies from various countries didn't dare venture there.
But this didn't stump Stephen.
He adopted many orphans from the orphanage, then had these orphans transport red wine to the Elasia Empire.
One person could carry about thirty bottles of red wine, and Stephen would send out over a hundred orphans adopted from the orphanage to transport wine at once.
As long as a few of these hundred-plus people could return, Stephen could make a fortune.
But recently, he discovered—the death rate of those orphans sent out had changed from over ninety percent to zero!
After repeated confirmation, he finally discovered an unbelievable fact—the magical creatures in the Northern Forest had disappeared overnight!
After sending many people to investigate the depths of the Northern Forest, Stephen reached his final conclusion—magical beasts in the Northern Forest could truly never appear again!