Chapter 156: 92. Sender: Child of the Sea
By the time Fisher returned to his rented room in the carriage, it was already close to evening. He did not see Trandal outside the door, so he took out his key, pushed the door open, and entered the room. Sure enough, he saw Trandal, dressed in a suit with slicked-back blonde hair, sitting in the living room.
It had been a while since they last met; he had some stubble on his face, but his complexion was no longer as pale as before, showing some recovery of the young man’s vigor.
During this time, the events surrounding the New Party had dragged him out of the abyss of the Pink Pavilion for a while.
Lady Martha trembled as she came out of the kitchen. Upon seeing Fisher, she happily walked over to embrace him and said, “Thank the Mother! I heard that Saint Nali University was attacked by a cult; I was very worried about you. I originally wanted to call your office, but transferring the call was too much trouble.”
“I’m fine. Did you make dinner? I smell fried fish.”
“Haha, I knew you would love this. I prepared a portion for you and your friend; you can take it up to enjoy soon.”
Martha glanced at Trandal, who was sitting on the sofa, and he smiled back at her.
After waiting a while in the living room for two plates of fragrant fried fish to be ready, Fisher carried the two fish, while Trandal followed behind him with a bottle of Black Mamba wine as they went upstairs to his room.
“I heard about the attack on your Saint Nali University; those damned cultists are truly insane, daring to offend both Shivali and Nali at the same time. They must be tired of living,” Trandal said angrily. Fisher didn’t mention the truth behind this matter and simply took the fish into the room. When Fisher distributed the knives and forks, Trandal cheerfully brought over two goblets and even poured red wine for Fisher.
Watching the dark liquid slosh in the goblet, Fisher glanced at him and cut the fish.
“Why do you have time to visit me today?”
Trandal placed the filled goblet in front of Fisher, rubbed his hands together, and chuckled. “Isn’t it out of concern for your safety? A friend got attacked, and I can’t even check in on you? Come, let’s drink.”
“If you were just worried about my safety, you could have just made a phone call. You specifically came here and even brought wine; you must have either something to ask me or trouble that requires my help. Otherwise, you would have gone to the Pink Pavilion to spend your already limited energy long ago.”
Fisher pointed his fork at the beads of sweat forming on Trandal’s forehead. It was evident that he was having a hard time recently, as he hadn’t even had time to tidy up his stubble.
Trandal felt uncomfortable when he heard the words “Pink Pavilion,” as if he had swallowed a fly. After a long pause, he continued, “Don’t mention the Pink Pavilion. The situation has become tense recently; I don’t know who leaked the consumption records of the New Party officials at the Pink Pavilion. The Pink Pavilion shouldn’t have kept a record, they should’ve destroyed everything after a transaction.”
“That’s not impossible; they also need to balance their accounts and organize income. Perhaps someone inside just slipped up and inadvertently leaked the information?”
“Don’t say that! If that were the case, how could the Pink Pavilion possibly continue operating? Unless someone is deliberately keeping an eye on us, looking to target the New Party.”
Fisher ate the fish while tapping his fingers on the table, then asked, “So, who do you suspect leaked the information?”
“I suspect the Griffin Party! Those bastards frequent the Pink Pavilion themselves. We previously captured photos of them at the Pink Pavilion as leverage, and I didn’t expect them to bite back at us!”
But Fisher shook his head; he felt it was unlikely that the Griffin Party had obtained the evidence on their own. It didn’t seem reasonable from any angle.
Both the Griffin Party and the New Party were spending in the Pink Pavilion. If the Griffin Party could get information from a third-party source, there was no reason the New Party couldn’t.
Unless the Griffin Party had an insider in the Pink Pavilion, or someone had deliberately informed the Griffin Party about the New Party’s consumption evidence?
“So then, since you have photos of the Griffin Party at the Pink Pavilion, why not present them to the Parliament and show them to the Royal Family or the Speaker? Let both sides tear each other apart; isn’t that a common tactic in Parliament?”
Fisher took a sip of red wine and mocked, “What’s that saying? ‘Even if I’m wrong, I’ll drag another child who’s also wrong down with me.’ The children of the Saint Nali kindergarten like to play this way, and you two groups are still at it.”
Trandal, of course, knew all too well what his own situation was like, so he didn’t argue. Instead, he exclaimed, “The problem lies here. This isn’t just about the Griffin Party and the New Party; Prince Dexter from the Golden Palace acts unscrupulously, shamelessly demanding the establishment of some review committee. If we lose the support of the Golden Palace, it becomes a two-on-one situation! Although nothing major may arise in the upcoming midterm elections, what about after? The next elections, and the legislative acts afterwards could become problematic!”
Fisher, while drinking wine, remained expressionless, though his gaze shifted slightly.
The current problem was that Prince Dexter had long harbored the idea of taking the knife to the New Party. He was taking this opportunity to ally with the Griffin Party to gang up on them. If this review led by the Golden Palace found any issues, it would be like a sword hanging over the New Party’s head.
When to use it and how to use it would be at the Golden Palace’s discretion, which the New Party could not tolerate. What was originally a balanced tripartite arrangement had suddenly faced a joint attack from the other two parties, and they wanted to grab hold of their leverage for later use?
If the Golden Palace knew, then did the Griffin Party know as well? Who told you two to be in the same boat now?
Fisher suddenly understood something. He gently set down his wine glass and proceeded to cut the fish.
“I get it now. So, you want to do everything possible to avoid the potentially lethal evidence from this Golden Palace review?”
“Haha, that’s right.”
Trandal scratched his head, took a bite of the fish, but Fisher ignored him and continued with his speculation.
“It seems that this review targeting the New Party is flawless and must lead to the New Party taking a hit. However, it’s actually not so. Your New Party leader and the financial backers behind you must have discovered some problems.”
“This review is led by the Golden Palace, which means it is essentially led by the Royal Family. On the surface, it seems almost impossible to find loopholes, but in reality, you all know there is a trump card to play.”
Trandal’s sweat increased, and his face appeared increasingly guilty.
“There aren’t many officials the Royal Family can send for the review; only a few retired but still alive. Third-party individuals loyal to the Royal Family are especially suited, and those who can influence their decisions include not only Prince Dexter but also another: Her Highness Princess Elizabeth.”
Trandal realized he could no longer hide this from Fisher and raised his hands in surrender.
“Spare me, great professor. Even if we don’t have any major problems, do you think Prince Dexter won’t ask those officials to find issues? He wants a weapon to threaten the New Party!”
“Everyone in the New Party will not tolerate the Royal Family throwing a bomb that could explode at any time under their pillow. This is already our approach to minimize losses. If there are no other options, we can only choose to go all out against the Griffin Party and the Royal Family.”
Fisher looked at him and asked, “So this is the intention of your Party leader, sending you to find me and asking me to contact Her Highness Princess Elizabeth?”
Trandal poured another glass of wine, obviously agreeing.
“Who in Nali doesn’t know about your relationship with Her Highness Princess Elizabeth? You’re a free agent who doesn’t take sides; even if you meet Her Highness every day, no one would suspect you. Moreover, you still have a ‘universal request’ from Her Highness that you haven’t used, right?”
“Do you think I would help the New Party?”
Fisher stared at Trandal, causing him to shake his head. His face was quite rosy from the wine, but he clearly explained,
“This isn’t just helping the New Party; it’s also helping Her Highness Princess Elizabeth.”
“Although Her Highness isn’t involved in politics, she still has influence with many of the old officials. You know she can’t inherit the throne as king. We all need each other; she helps us this time, and in return, we will provide political protection for her freedom after Prince Dexter ascends the throne. You wouldn’t want her to marry another man, right?”
“Of course, if you could marry Her Highness Princess Elizabeth before His Majesty passes away, I’ll act as if I never came to you. But the King doesn’t have much time left; even if you decide tomorrow to marry Elizabeth, you may not even make it to the Royal Family’s prescribed wedding date.”
The Royal Family assigns importance to wedding dates; there are only four months a year when marriage is allowed—the rest of the days are off-limits.
The next available wedding date is about two months away, and should Prince Dexter ascend and turn against them, that’s possible.
As for why Elizabeth has no possibility of inheriting, it goes back to the old rules of the Nali Royal Family.
The King of Nali cannot be succeeded by a woman unless all the sons of the previous King have died. Elizabeth still has three brothers, so there’s no way she could inherit, not to mention that she has no desire to do so.
So, until today, there has never been a Queen born in Nali.
Now, the situation is just as Trandal analyzed: the New Party faces the risk of being exposed to lethal evidence during the review, and Elizabeth also faces the danger of being targeted by her brothers after the old king’s death.
But to specify, it should be the New Party that seeks Elizabeth’s help, because so far, the relationships between princes and princesses have only been speculation.
Nobody knows if Dexter actually wants to settle accounts with Elizabeth. Perhaps, at the very least, Dexter only wants to retract Elizabeth’s military powers, leaving her to decide for herself regarding her marriage with Isabel.
After all, Fisher had never heard Elizabeth speak poorly of her brother. Their relationship could only be inferred based on the King’s authority.
For Fisher, helping or not helping was optional, because Elizabeth actually lost nothing in this situation.
If her relationship with her brother is not good, then the New Party is a political guarantee for her freedom; if her relationship with her brother is good, helping the New Party wouldn’t harm her.
Thinking of this, Fisher suddenly asked Trandal, “Trandal, what is your goal in being a councilman?”
Trandal was slightly taken aback and instinctively replied, “Um, making money, drinking fine wine, smoking, sleeping with ladies, and working for the welfare of the people of Nali?”
This statement made Fisher smile. He shook his head and commented, “If it were a Griffin Party member, they would say it’s to defend the honor of the Nali Royal Family.”
“Hahahaha, you remind me of Principal Damien.”
Fisher clinked glasses with Trandal, joking.
Neither the New Party nor the Griffin Party were good people; if they had to be compared, the New Party at least did some good things for the people while doing bad things, though just “some.”
In fact, by this point in the conversation, Fisher had revealed his willingness to help, because the New Party didn’t truly need him to make a decision. The one who ultimately needed to decide whether to help was Elizabeth.
He only needed to act as a third-party free agent and relay the New Party’s wishes to Elizabeth; as for the final outcome, he would respect whatever choice Elizabeth made.
“So, your Party leader, or the whip, or whoever it may be, had to promise you some conditions to persuade me, right?”
Fisher stood up and threw the fish bones into the trash can in the room, scraping the sauce from the plate with his fork as he asked.
“Yes, yes.”
Trandal rubbed his hands and said, “How about inviting you to participate in drafting the education bill that the next Parliament will decide on? At that time, the entire education sector will know the name Fisher Benavides!”
Fisher paused his action of scraping the plate and rolled his eyes at him, walking over to push him toward the door in a gesture of sending him off.
“No need to see you out. See you next time; thank you for the wine.”
“Wait! Wait! Father, Grandfather, I’m sorry!”
Trandal struggled, holding onto the doorknob, refusing to let Fisher open the door to send him off. Then with a smirk, he said to Fisher in a coy manner,
“This is a condition set by our Party leader, you see? He knows less about you than I do, right? So I’ve prepared another condition related to your favorite subhumans!”
“You think I like subhumans?”
Fisher vehemently denied Trandal’s insinuation but still let go of the hand gripping the doorknob, indicating for him to continue.
Trandal chuckled and said, “Well, this is a secret; one that nobody else knows. Not long ago, a mysterious person sent a letter to the Golden Palace with no sender. The letter flew directly to Prince Dexter’s desk. Isn’t that magical? The Royal Family can’t even trace who delivered this letter.”
“But the general content of the letter was to celebrate someone’s 34th birthday! Prince Dexter is 34 years old this year. Can you guess what the letter was signed with?”
Fisher furrowed his brow, as if a certain thought was echoing in his mind. Trandal, seeing him deep in thought, excitedly continued,
“It was signed, ‘Sender: Child of the Sea’! That is a subhuman from the ocean, connected to Prince Dexter!”
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(End of Chapter)
