Life of Being a Crown Prince in France

The sky grew dark.

Filippo still sat on the hillside opposite the village of Nonza, a torn newspaper lay at his feet as he stared blankly at the distant village, his heart plunging into painful turmoil.

He knew that the Restoration movement faced enormous difficulties, and that setting the village alight was the only way to resolve all the problems and to continue the struggle against the French...

However, that would also allow a man guilty of rape and embezzlement to continue leading the Restoration organization—Filippo had always believed the embezzlement allegations against Paul to be false, but after the rape incident in London, he had come to believe they were true.

But if he didn't set the fire, the Restoration organization, which he had fought for since childhood, would fracture, lose control of Congress, and ultimately fail.

And currently, the only person capable of uniting the Restoration organization was Paul…

Yet he was a dirty, shameless beast, a criminal!

So should he simply let his decades of dedication to the Restoration cause evaporate?

After an unknown amount of time, a bitter smile emerged on Filippo's face as he shook his head incessantly, unable to make a decision.

Suddenly, he stood up and briskly walked toward a steep slope on his left.

Since he couldn't make a decision, he would leave it to Jesus...

Thinking this, he jumped off the nearly vertical hillside, his body tumbling rapidly downwards, bouncing off the rocks several times, leaving a trail of bright red blood.

The next day at noon, villagers at the foot of the hill discovered a man's body and hurried back to the village to inform the Priest.

Agosta and the head guard had not seen Filippo all night and had not seen Nonza village burning, so they came to this area looking for him and happened to meet the villagers rushing to check the deceased…

…

Though only half a month had passed, Paul's rape case in London had already lost its heat, and he himself had paid bail and returned home—such influential political figures were unlikely to be brought down by such "minor cases"—but the issue continued to ferment in Corsica, dominating all conversation and was well known to everyone.

Naturally, this was the result of the strong propaganda by the anti-Paul faction, with the Pro-France Faction also covertly cooperating, the front pages of daily newspapers almost entirely about Paul's case.

Bartolomeo even had thousands of copies of the "London Gazette," which reported the case information, bought and displayed for free viewing in various towns.

Under such a media onslaught, Paul's faction's electoral prospects plummeted. In the elections that followed the incident, they managed only one seat.

The anti-Paul faction became the biggest winner. Especially those who formerly accused them of slandering Paul, who now turned around and voted for them.

Some people, disgusted by Paul's notorious deeds as the leader of the Restoration Faction, inclined towards the Pro-France Faction and gave them unexpected votes.

A month later, the Corsican provincial legislative elections concluded.

Bartolomeo's anti-Paul faction seized 35% of the seats. Meanwhile, Girolamo, an insider supported by Chalmers, began his bid for the position of speaker of the house, currently with a clear advantage.

Count Butafuoco, leading the Pro-France Faction, won 33% of the seats, marking the best performance since France's rule over Corsica.

Despite a devastating defeat later on, Paul's faction still held 18% of the seats due to early electoral advantages.

The Neutral Faction suffered the worst, being labeled as sympathizers of Paul, thus securing only 14% of the seats—in political strife, ambiguity is never popular.

…

In a vineyard on the outskirts of the City of Ajaccio, Girolamo saw a corpulent nobleman appearing at the gate and whispered to Bartolomeo standing beside him, "He's here."

Bartolomeo straightened his collar and approached proactively, not allowing the other party a chance to offer a greeting, and said harshly, "Speak, what do you want? Make it quick and leave."

"You're quite cold."

The visitor was Count Butafuoco himself, who still persisted in tipping his hat, then said, "But you'd do well to change your attitude a bit. After all, we'll see each other often after our cooperation, wouldn't it be nicer to have a more harmonious atmosphere?"

"Cooperation?" Bartolomeo scoffed, "What good is cooperating with you guys?"

Count Butafuoco was not deterred, smiling slightly, "Didn't you notice?

"Combined, our factions already hold more than two-thirds of the seats in Congress.

"You know what this means." Enjoy exclusive chapters from My Virtual Library Empire

Bartolomeo frowned. He knew that two-thirds of the seats were enough to legislate, but still responded coldly, "So what?"

"We can collaborate to push through legislation and bury Paul and his followers for good."

Bartolomeo was momentarily stunned.

Although the anti-Paul faction had gained an advantage in the congressional elections, Paul still wielded considerable influence within the Restoration organization.

If they could legislatively eliminate Paul's faction, his own anti-Paul faction would inevitably become the backbone of the Restoration organization.

He might even rise to become the new leader of the Restoration organization.

His thoughts raced. If the goal could be achieved, utilizing the Pro-France Faction wasn't entirely out of the question.

Bartolomeo's expression softened a bit, gesturing towards the house, "Come inside and let's talk in detail."

Several hours later, Count Butafuoco completed his mission and took his leave.

Inside the vineyard house, Bartolomeo turned to Girolamo, "What do you think about cooperating with them?"

"It's a good opportunity," the latter replied confidently, "It's just promoting a legislative bill. After that, we won't deal with the Pro-France Faction anymore."

Bartolomeo nodded in agreement.

However, he was focused only on the immediate benefits, overlooking that the legislative voting in Congress was public.

As soon as he joined forces with the Pro-France Faction to suppress Paul's faction, from then on, in the eyes of the Corsican people, he would be seen as a collaborator with the Pro-France Faction.

And in political machinations, once one has a taste for success, it becomes hard to stop.

Moreover, with the backers of Bartolomeo's faction being double agents, it wouldn't be long before they would be completely tied to Count Butafuoco.

In truth, these novices engaging in election politics seemed simple as elementary students to Joseph, who had seen various Western political schemes in the next era…

A week later.

Under the newly appointed speaker Girolamo, the Corsican Parliament passed a new bill with a high majority.

The bill stipulated—Paul was forever stripped of his Corsican citizenship. No Corsican was to have any contact with Paul in any way, or they would be prosecuted for collusion. All of Paul's private assets were to be confiscated by the Corsican Parliament to compensate for the embezzled funds, and his writings were banned from being sold in Corsica.

While these series of laws seemed to target only Paul specifically, in reality, they uprooted the Restoration organization's Paul faction.