Alien Knights

Muxi Palace, see the side hall.

"Advent Day of this year will be half a month away. The Government Affairs Office has made a budget for activities, including civic parades, theater festivals, open-air markets..." Huggins glanced at Todd, who was absent-minded, and asked in a low voice, "Your Majesty, Your Majesty? Are you listening?"

Todd opened his eyes wide and said hurriedly, "Well, I'm listening, I'm listening."

Huggins turned his gaze back to the report in his hand: "The budget is divided into three parts, and the biggest expenditure is the salary of manpower. Regarding this expenditure, the Department of Government Affairs recommends that you can..."

"Haggins, have you ever been consciously intimate with a woman?"

Huggins' report came to an abrupt end. He raised his head with difficulty, looked at the serious Todd, and forced a smile, "Your Majesty, I don't quite understand what you mean."

Todd pointed to his head: "Consciousness, do you understand consciousness? It's not about having sex with women in the real world."

Huggins put down the report in his hand and thought about it carefully: "Like a dream?"

"It's kind of like, but not quite." Todd himself was a little confused: "It's more real than a dream, and I remember everything after waking up."

Huggins said affirmatively: "I have had such an experience."

Todd's eyes lit up: "Really?!"

"Well, when I was young, I consciously had sex with women every day. Sometimes it was one, sometimes it was a group."

Hearing the other party's words, Todd's eyes twitched, and he almost lost his breath: "I don't think we are talking about the same thing, you call it obscenity..."

Talking about the topics he was interested in, Huggins began to talk endlessly: "I will imagine the characters, lines, plots and costumes in my mind, and even poses..."

"Wait a minute, wait a moment!" Todd stretched out his hand to stop the other party, thought for a while, and reorganized the language and said: "Maybe I didn't make it clear. I said that there is a relationship, which means that both parties clearly know everything after waking up."

Huggins froze.

"Your Majesty, what do you mean... both sides know what happened?"

Todd nodded.

Huggins took a breath: "Your Majesty, believe me, this is definitely not a good thing. After waking up from the dream, if the two parties meet, it will definitely be extremely embarrassing."

Todd leaned back in the chair and sighed: "Yes, that's what I'm worried about."

Huggins glanced at Todd carefully: "Your Majesty, if this kind of thing really happens, I think the key lies in the relationship between the two and their attitudes toward each other."

Todd sat up straight: "Tell me."

"If the two parties themselves are lovers, then it's not a big deal."

Todd pressed: "But what if the relationship between the two is not clear?"

"Unclear?" Huggins swallowed, "Then I may ask, who took the initiative?"

Todd first coughed to cover up his embarrassment, and then replied in a low voice, "It was the woman who took the initiative."

Huggins glanced at the king, stroked the beard on his chin and said, "Then it's easy, just find an opportunity to ask in person. Generally speaking, as long as the woman takes the initiative, nine out of ten it means that the other party has a good impression."

Todd put his chin on his fist and nodded thoughtfully.

After uncovering this topic, Huggins returned to the subject. He finished reading the report at hand, folded the page waiting for approval and put it in front of the king, and picked up another report on the table.

Todd looked at the thick stack of papers in front of him with numbness, and asked Huggins, "How many documents are waiting to be processed today?"

The latter turned his body sideways, revealing the official document with a thickness of 20 centimeters on the wooden platform behind him.

Todd rubbed his temples with his hands: "There are so many more?!"

Huggins moved away again, and Todd found out in despair at this time that there were still several stacks of paperwork neatly stacked on the ground.

Seeing Todd close his eyes in pain, Huggins comforted him in a low voice: "Your Majesty, you have been away for several months, and there are a large number of government documents in the entire kingdom that need your review."

Todd glanced at him sideways: "If I remember correctly, isn't Emerson already appointed as the chief privy officer of the kingdom? He can completely review these government documents on his behalf."

Huggins smiled wryly and said to the king: "It is precisely because Lord Emerson is the Privy Councilor of the Kingdom that the official documents in front of you are only a little over a hundred. Without him, the government documents that urgently need you to deal with are enough to fill this room."

Todd sighed deeply, and opened the budget application report in front of him resignedly. He just glanced at the lengthy forms and complicated data inside, and he completely lost interest and closed the report again.

"The notice goes on. A meeting will be held in the royal garden of the palace the morning after tomorrow, and all officials above the rank of deputy minister of the kingdom's government affairs department are required to be present."

Huggins wrote down the schedule in a notepad, and then confirmed to Todd: "Okay, Your Majesty, what are the meeting topics and discussion agenda?"

"You don't need to say too much, just tell all the participants that there is only one topic for the meeting—discussing the future of the kingdom."

Two days later in the morning, the warm winter sun brought a rare heat to the earth, and the thin layer of snow on the ground reflected the dazzling light.

The servants and maids of the palace set up tables and chairs in the center of the royal garden, propped up the shed, and placed all kinds of fruits and snacks.

Standing next to the marble sculpture, Cumberland put on a rare formal dress, sipped the warm honey in the cup, and said to Emerson beside him, "Why did Your Majesty hold this meeting in the garden? Shouldn't it be held in heaven in the past?"

Emerson shrugged, took a sip of the cheese shortening brought by the servants, and put it down again with a frown.

Terrence and Ulysses stood together. The former frowned and looked at Wayne, who was alone not far away, and asked the latter, "Why is he here?"

"Your Majesty intends to integrate the heterogeneous associations in the kingdom and set up a special department of heterogeneous government affairs. Lord Rachel is the chief officer, and Wayne Dunlop is the deputy." Ulysses said.

Looking at Wayne with a dull expression who couldn't even say hello, Terrence shook his head: "He is an excellent scholar, but he is not a qualified responsible person. In His Majesty's words, his empathy is so low that it is worrying."

Ulysses approached Terrence and said in a low voice: "I heard that Wayne found a group of people who volunteered to participate in the "soul experiment" through lobbying."

"How is this possible? It's only been less than a month, and he has found volunteers?"

"He seems to have used the name of religion to make many dying people who are seriously ill believe in his words."

"Does His Majesty know about this?"

"Should know, but it doesn't seem to be doing anything."

Terrence waved his hand distractedly: "Let him go, since His Majesty didn't stop him, why should I jump out?"

In the other corner of the garden, Huggins, leaning on a cane, stared at the couple in front of him, and said solemnly: "Your Majesty is magnanimous, and has given you two a chance to perform crimes and meritorious deeds. I hope you will not make the same mistakes as before."

Mrs. Raglan nodded repeatedly and said: "Both of us understand a truth. The reason why we made such mistakes in the past is rooted in greed. From now on, we guarantee that such mistakes will not be made again!"

Mr. Raglan looked at Huggins and said sincerely: "Actually, the commission His Majesty promised us is enough for us to live comfortably for the rest of our lives. We don't need to take risks at all, alas..."

Huggins was about to say something more, when a servant's shout came from afar.

"His Majesty is here!"

Todd, who was dressed in fine linen and purple satin, walked out of the gate of the palace. Accompanied by his attendants, he walked around the venue and exchanged pleasantries with everyone.

After some greetings, Todd invited all participants to their seats. Then, he asked Huggins beside him, "Is everyone here?"

The latter bowed and replied: "Brünnhilde, the head of the Knights of the North Island, returned to the North Island to mediate the civil strife at the request of the kingdom; Lord Rachel, he went out and did not return. Except for these two, everyone else attended."

Todd nodded, sat on the front seat, and signaled the official start of the meeting.

"Perhaps you are wondering why this meeting is held here?" Todd, who was sitting in the front seat, took the pomegranate juice handed by the maid, and said to everyone, "Because what is going to be discussed today is related to the future of the kingdom, so for the sake of solemnity, I will place the venue here."

Everyone in the audience began to discuss in low voices, and everyone tried their best to speculate about the "things related to the future of the kingdom" that the king said.

There was no plan to beat around the bush at all, Todd said directly: "I plan to form the cabinet of Muxi Kingdom."

Emerson was the first to ask, "Your Majesty, what is a cabinet?"

"The cabinet is an organization formed by the heads of many government departments in the kingdom." Todd tapped the armrest lightly with his fingers, and looked around all the officials around him: "In other words, the members of the cabinet are all of you here."

Emerson continued to ask: "There is already a government office and a privy council in the kingdom. Is this cabinet different from them?"

Todd smiled and said: "That's a good question. The Government Affairs Office is the executive department of the kingdom's government affairs, and the Privy Council is the consulting department responsible for assisting the king in handling affairs. And the cabinet, in a sense, is the decision-making department of the kingdom's affairs."

Terrence's beard trembled slightly, and he heard a key word from Todd's mouth - decision-making.

Todd continued to explain: "The cabinet has a prime minister who presides over cabinet meetings and takes charge of the kingdom's government affairs. He has the power to propose to the king to appoint and dismiss cabinet members and directly appoint and dismiss senior officials. He is responsible for formulating and implementing the country's major internal and external policies."

Emerson opened his mouth in disbelief: "Take charge of the kingdom's government affairs? Appoint and remove senior officials?! Your Majesty, this is..."

Todd reached out and interrupted him: "Yes, the cabinet has obtained part of the king's power in disguise, but it also avoids the mistakes that may be caused by authoritarian centralization."

After a pause, Todd continued: "Moreover, the power of the cabinet is not unlimited. Its existence is restricted by the king's power. The king still retains the following five powers, namely: the power to appoint and dismiss the cabinet prime minister, the power to pardon anyone's crimes, the power to declare war on other countries, the power to sign and revise laws, and the power to call the kingdom's army and law enforcement agencies."

Cumberland nodded as he listened, and finally asked: "Your Majesty, how did you determine the prime minister of this cabinet?"

Todd thought about it in his mind, and found that the current situation in Muxi Kingdom is special, and there is really no way to copy the experience of his previous life, so he said flexibly: "The prime minister of the first cabinet is appointed by me, and the term is two years. After the two years, the cabinet will be voted on and the one who gets more than half of the votes will be the new prime minister. If no one has more than half of the votes, the prime minister will still be appointed by the king. Any one person can only serve as prime minister for two consecutive terms.

Everyone sounds a bit complicated at first, but if you think about it carefully, you can still understand the rules inside.

Todd cast his eyes on Emerson: "Do you remember our first meeting?"

The latter nodded with emotion.

"There is no perfect soul in the world, and naturally there is no perfect king. Every decision made by the person with the highest power has personal subjective preference and emotional color. The impeccable, wise and wise holy judge can only appear in novels and dramas. This is also the original intention and reason for me to set up a cabinet." Todd stood up from his seat and walked to the middle of the crowd: "I hope that everyone can stand together and gather your wisdom and ability to make Muxi Kingdom the most dazzling pearl in the world. .”

The encouraged officials stood up one after another, and everyone's face was full of excitement and excitement. Amid the cheers and oaths of the crowd, Todd walked up to the old man who was the Earl of Silver Ring, grabbed his hand, and said sincerely: "Now, I announce that the first Prime Minister of the Cabinet will be the Privy Councilor Emerson."