The First Magic World War

Charles didn't linger at the front lines and quickly returned to Strasbourg with His Majesty the Emperor of Brittany's documents.

At this time, Strasbourg, due to Morgan's assassination, was no longer united as before; the Axel Clan had fragmented into several factions, each backing different candidates for Emperor.

These "imperial hopefuls" either were so far down the line of succession they were beyond a hundred names or had absolutely no claim to the throne.

As a joke, even Charles's place in the line of succession was higher than some of these emperor hopefuls.

That's right, Charles Meklen, due to his impending marriage to Princess Anne, indeed had a claim to the throne.

Antonio was extremely troubled; as the youngest member of the Peak Holy Order in the Old Continent, his achievements were almost comparable to Zimmerman's. Having spent too much time in training, he cared very little for politics and had no idea how to handle the situation.

After all, he carried the pure Axel bloodline, being the legitimate grandson of Julius Axel VI through his mother, Nanny Axel Brittany. He truly didn't know how to deal with the Axel Clan.

Charles returned with His Majesty the Emperor of Brittany's written order, which relieved Antonio. He handed over all negotiation power to Charles, having quite a bit of trust in his brother-in-law.

Charles took on this responsibility without even attempting to make contact with those inside Strasbourg City. Instead, he gathered all the agile clerks at his disposal and even recruited people from places like the Mecklen Duchy and Cappadocia, along with a batch of printing presses, to work day and night.

Charles knew that this was not the time for long-winded speeches. He quietly recalled various genres of new media literature he had seen on Earth—Zhihu style, Intimidation style, Feilu style, Tomato style—striving to grab attention from the very beginning without caring for the contents that followed!

The first book was titled "One Mother's Nineteen Treasures: Wood Brandon's Pursuit of Love in Temple Graveyards."

The second book took on a rustic style, "Shocking: Wood Brandon Washes Feet for His Sister-in-law."

The third book...

The title couldn't even be typed out on the internet of Earth.

The plot of these books was absurd, the openings explosive, the logic collapsed, and the storytelling shoddy, with beginnings but no ends!

The main selling point was that just by looking at the title, one couldn't resist flipping through despite possibly cursing how awful the story was, but it was unforgettable.

Nearly all the novels incorporated plotlines around Wood Brandon's assassination of Morgan. Some were blatantly interjected, while others were allegorical. Charles priced these novels, printed tirelessly day and night, at twenty-two centimes each, but instructed his subordinates to sell as long as they were paid.

Every day, a massive amount of new novels were printed, then secretly transported into the city and sold aggressively. To distance himself from the operation, Charles even employed an old pen name: Freeman Simon Qing Martin. This name was destined to become legendary, intimidating the literary world of the New and Old Continents, and would become one of the cultural symbols of the Fars Empire.

However, what Charles hadn't expected was that while he thought twenty-two centimes was a high price for a single novel—when in reality, one centime should be enough for eight books—the actual sales were a mix of full prices and marked-up prices, with a massive amount of centime coins transported daily to Machu Picchu.

A colossal fortune had landed on Charles Meklen's head.

He was utterly at a loss!

The strategy Charles Meklen employed soon took effect, and it didn't take long for the rumors that Chancellor Wood Brandon had assassinated the former Crown Prince Morgan Axel to spread throughout Strasbourg City. As for the motive behind the assassination, dozens of reasons were fabricated in the novels, and the readers, using their imaginations, came up with dozens more. These included Wood Brandon's desire for Morgan to marry his widowed eldest daughter, Winnie, so he could become the Imperial father-in-law. But Morgan refused, others suggested a sour romance between two younger lovers and even a tale that Morgan was actually Wood Brandon's illegitimate son, unable to bear being manipulated by his biological father, ending his life with a bullet...

In short, once this public opinion storm started, no one could suppress it.

On the sixth day that Charles Meklen frenziedly fed various novels into Strasbourg City, Wood Brandon angrily announced his resignation. His position as Imperial Chancellor, even within the Brittany Dynasty, hadn't been stripped from him. The old Emperor of Brittany still held out hope for him, hoping that he would support him; in reality, Wood Brandon was still the Chancellor of Fars.

After surviving the Redmir affair, the Brittany crisis, and the recent Axel Family rebellion without falling from his high position, Wood Brandon now found himself in an embarrassing position, resigning amidst this storm of public opinion.

From the moment the old Emperor of Brittany promised a marriage alliance to the day Charles Meklen swore he would take down Strasbourg City within a month, to the anxious drafting of documents and dumping of novels, all the way to Wood Brandon stepping down...

This series of events would later be called—the Twenty-Two Centime Campaign!

Forcing a veteran political heavyweight to resign through countless shoddy novels was something that left many jaws dropped.

Even Charles Meklen, the mastermind behind this, hadn't expected his fictional offensive to achieve such shining success.

When the news reached the frontlines, even the old Emperor of Brittany couldn't help but comment sarcastically, "Sir Mecklen sure works hard for his marriage, doesn't he?"

Once Wood Brandon resigned his position as Imperial Chancellor, he vanished from his residence, leaving Strasbourg City even more chaotic without the seasoned Chancellor of the Axel Dynasty to keep order.

Several emperor hopefuls were hopping up and down, rallying support, attacking adversaries, and some clever folks even chose to hire assassins to eliminate their political enemies. During this period, the assassin business in Strasbourg City increased sevenfold, and even Asturias Axel couldn't quell the chaos.

After Wood Brandon's resignation, Charles immediately shifted his strategic direction, continuously sending people to connect with members of the Axel Family, proclaiming that as long as they were willing to realign with His Majesty the Emperor of Brittany, their past could be overlooked and their original positions guaranteed. The price was simply a document: a declaration from the Axel Family relinquishing their royal titles and pledging allegiance to the Emperor of Brittany.

The envoys Charles sent out were shockingly successful, swiftly resulting in dozens of signed documents being delivered to Machu Picchu. However, among those who delivered the documents, few were actually willing to leave Strasbourg City.

Charles didn't mind, focusing his energy more on tracking down Wood Brandon's whereabouts.

This former Imperial Chancellor was a huge menace, and Charles had no intentions of letting him live.

However, after Wood Brandon's disappearance, no one had seen him again. Charles didn't have the resources to check his dominion, so it was impossible to confirm whether he was still hiding someplace in Strasbourg City, had gone back to his own estate, or had traveled somewhere else.