Time quickly moved forward to 1869.
Although there was still no news from Spain, Carlo was already making thorough preparations for the possibility of entering Spain.
The first was the public opinion force Carlo focused on developing, which had already yielded some results.
The largest newspaper under Carlo's control, the Italian 24-Hour Sun Newspaper, had become the biggest newspaper in Northern Italy; in 1868, its average daily sales exceeded 24,000 copies.
Aside from the Sun Newspaper, Loren, under Carlo's instructions, also founded several newspapers throughout Northern and Southern Italy. Collectively, these small and medium-sized newspapers sold over 10,000 copies daily.
Carlo could be considered to have completed his initial deployment of public opinion forces. All these newspapers together had tens of thousands of loyal readers, exerting influence over at least hundreds of thousands of people.
If Carlo wished, he could ensure that hundreds of thousands or even a million Italians learned a particular piece of news in a short period of time.
Given the era, when transportation was extremely inconvenient and most people traveled by horse, ox cart, or other livestock, this was an astonishing feat.
All these various newspapers had brought Carlo nearly 250,000 Lira in income over two and a half years.
Thanks to Garibaldi's reputation, the Sun Newspaper was able to rapidly penetrate the market; otherwise, earning over 200,000 Lira would not have been so easy.
With the arrival of February 1869, Spain's parliamentary elections officially began.
As in history, Prim, being the most powerful individual in the provisional government and boasting enormous prestige among the Revolutionary Army, smoothly took control of the majority of parliamentary seats.
This news allowed Carlo to breathe a sigh of relief, for it meant Spain would head toward constitutional monarchy rather than republic, and Carlo still had a significant chance of becoming King of Spain.
The newly established Spanish Parliament immediately declared that it would not abolish the monarchy but would instead establish a national government under constitutional monarchy to manage Spain's affairs.
Since the Spanish throne remained undecided, Parliament appointed the Provisional Government's Prime Minister, Francisco Serrano Domínguez, as Regent of the Kingdom of Spain, and Secretary of State for War, Prim, as the new Prime Minister.
These two were not only the most prestigious figures in the provisional government, but also the most widely supported generals within the Revolutionary Army.
This, in fact, was the true reason Spain continued to maintain the monarchy—after all, the two decision-makers were both pro-monarchy.
Thanks to the article promoting the superiority of monarchy, the news of Spain maintaining monarchy did not stir much controversy.
As long as it was no longer a tyrant like Queen Isabella ruling Spain, opposition among Spaniards would at least not be so fierce.
For now, parliamentary affairs were settled, and for the political figures Serrano and Prime Minister Prim, the most troublesome issue became choosing an appropriate King for Spain.
Although they could select freely from European royal families, their choice must also gain public approval.
Anyone with a poor reputation could not be chosen; Spaniards would never believe that such a King could do better than Isabella. If the new monarch were nothing but another Queen Isabella, then what would have been the purpose of the revolution?
Anyone with controversial origins could not be chosen. For Spain, only a King of noble birth with support from a distinguished family could stabilize Spanish order.
If the new King's lineage were contentious, it would deal another blow to Spain's fledgling constitutional monarchy.
Adding in various other conditions, in the end there were actually only a few European princes suitable to become King of Spain.
After more than a month of screening, Serrano and Prim finally settled on a shortlist of five candidates.
The first choice was Prince Leopoldo of the German royal family. Prince Leopoldo hailed from the Hohenzollern Family, backed by the Kingdom of Prussia, which had just won the Austro-Prussian War; both his lineage and reputation met Spain's requirements.
The second choice was Fernando, who had served as Regent of Portugal. Fernando's wife and son were both Kings of Portugal; during his tenure as King of Portugal (husband to the Queen) and as Regent, his performance had been consistently above average, and his reputation was quite good.
The third choice was Prince Amadeo of the Italian Savoy Dynasty. After Italian unification, Italy still held sway along the Mediterranean coast, and the Savoy Family's prestige among European royal houses had seen a modest rise. For Spain, Amadeo was perhaps not as reliable as the first two, but he was still a qualified candidate.
The fourth choice also came from the Savoy Dynasty of Italy—Amadeo's younger brother, Carlo. Carlo's drawback was his youth—he was still a few months shy of his eighteenth birthday. But Carlo's reputation in Italy was not inferior to Amadeo's; the Sun Newspaper's promotion of Carlo had also proven quite effective.
Quite a few Italians were fond of the youngest prince, since he traveled without much pomp and would greet Italian citizens warmly.
Because of the strength of public opinion, some Spaniards had also heard about this friendly Italian prince. This was the reason Carlo made it onto the shortlist—after all, both Prim and Serrano believed Spaniards would not reject a congenial King.
The final candidate was Queen Isabella's brother-in-law, the Duke of Ponte-Ponchel of Spain. However, considering the widespread aversion toward Queen Isabella and the possibility of a public backlash against her relatives, Prim placed the Duke of Ponte-Ponchel at the bottom of the shortlist and even considered removing him entirely.
After all, the selection of a King for Spain was extremely rigorous; any flaw among the candidates would be magnified countless times, and any potential impact had to be considered by Serrano and Prim.
To Prim's disappointment, as soon as the Spanish Government sent word to Fernando, Fernando directly declined the Spanish throne.
This, theoretically, ended the possibility of a renewed union between Spain and Portugal, since Fernando's son was now King of Portugal.
If Fernando could have secured Spain's throne, the future King of Portugal would have had a chance to also inherit the Spanish crown, thus merging the two Iberian nations.
Fernando's voluntary withdrawal reduced the shortlist from five to four. After lengthy discussions between Prim and Serrano, they decided to remove the Duke of Ponte-Ponchel as well, leaving only three candidates.
Although Spain's royal selection process was still relatively confidential, there are no secrets impenetrable to the outside world.
At this moment, Prim and Serrano were unaware of the tremendous impact their royal selection would have on European affairs, and that it could even bring European powers down, trampling them beneath the feet of other countries.