I Reincarnated as Louis XVI to Stop the Revolution and Be Happy with Antoinette

Bourbon Reforms

Request from the author: I really want to put together a story about internal politics, so I will be in serious mode (compared to mine) for about 4 chapters, including this one.

Please understand.

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(31)

"Demise and Rebirth"

☆　★　☆

July 20, 1770

Finally, the days of all-nighters are over...

It was 08:30, and I was able to sleep for seven hours for the first time in a long time. Lately, I have usually been up until around 03:00. At 15 years old, my physical fatigue seems to have already reached its peak.

I'm eating breakfast, but these days, hot milk with Antoinette is soaking into my stomach...

Three weeks have passed since I was appointed as Acting King. The situation had improved little by little, and we have managed to get over our worries about the unrest in the country. The first thing to do was to overhaul at top speed the guards, mercenaries, and the gendarmerie in charge of Versailles, in the wake of the unthinkable events in the palace. The main reforms were to organize the personnel, check the luggage of visitors, and manage security.

This should have been done by Louis XV or someone like him...

This is the result of them procrastinating on a hole in security that I've been having problems with for a while!!!

I should have been more careful myself. Or rather, I regret that I should have persisted stronger. I shouldn't have let things be more fluid than I thought they would be.

Just when I thought even Adélaïde wouldn't go so far as to assassinate me, this happened. I was too naïve in my assumptions. This was my own fault. I put not only myself but also Antoinette in danger. I even seriously considered sending Antoinette back to her hometown of Vienna for her own safety.

I discussed it with Antoinette and the Austrian ambassador for a long time, but Antoinette herself said she wanted to stay with me, so we decided to stay. At first, I and the ambassador tried to persuade her, but she insisted, saying that she wanted to be there to help me when I am in trouble. So, I and the ambassador were defeated by Antoinette's resolve.

Antoinette's mother must have been horrified. So in order to prevent a repeat of such a situation, reforms and improvements must be made. As Antoinette's life was in her hands, the French-Austrian alliance would collapse if we allowed any more blunders to occur. So I focused on maintaining domestic security, which would be the first thing to be disrupted, and worked intensively to solve the problem.

First, Adélaïde's faction was completely finished. The attempted assassination of the King and the Dauphin and the assassination of Madame du Barry, the King's favorite concubine, had a huge impact not only in France but also in neighboring countries.

Naturally, Adélaïde's supporters, nobles, and clergymen who were close to them were the first to be investigated and taken in by the gendarmerie. The number of those taken into custody was over 80, including ministers who were close to Louis XV, merchants who frequented Versailles, and even the great nobles who owned large manors in the countryside.

Of these, six women, including Victoire, who had directly heard Adélaïde give the order for the assassination, were sent to a convent. From the confessions of Victoire, the other women, and the daughter of the nobleman who tried to assassinate me, we know that Adélaïde asked her most trusted cronies to bind them with a rope.