Chapter 6.4 - Why Does it Have to Be Like This?
The people present all thought that today’s meeting should conclude quickly and smoothly. After all, those on the Spider Empress’ side who would voice objections were not here, nor would the centrist faction openly oppose Bevulas here. If they stood in opposition against him, then that meant that they were no longer part of the centrist faction.
The emergency meeting started up, continuing in the pre-scheduled manner. After the start of the meeting was declared, the proposed bills were read aloud. Bevulas briefly explained the proposals, and what followed was the voting. The Blood Parliament’s voting process was quite old-fashioned without any electronic voting systems, nor was there any anonymous voting. Within this parliament, the voting process was extremely primitive: one simply raised their hands or shouted out their own decision. If the members were willing, they could even use a few minutes of time to explain their vote’s reasoning.
Every single member of the Blood Parliament were great and influential figures, and great figures often felt the desire to voice their opinions. Meanwhile, this type of system was naturally suited to the members voicing their opinions, moreover an undisturbed three minutes of it. This was a reflection of the members’ right and privilege. This seemed like it would cause the meeting to drag on for a long time, but the Blood Parliament only had fifty members, and each member always reflected a power that was equivalent to his identity. There were no exceptions to this. If one’s strength wasn’t great enough, then there would be a vacancy among the members. Even though it wasn’t directly specified in writing, there was a customary accepted standard of power. For example, the current Fabregas family could be considered a member that represented this standard.
The members raised their right hands in agreement one after another. Everything seemed to be proceeding smoothly, but this didn’t seem to make Bevulas even the slightest bit happier.
Right at this moment, a ‘I am against it’ suddenly rang throughout this place!
This voice was clear and unflustered. It wasn’t all that loud or resounding, but it undoubtedly struck down on everyone’s hearts like thunder!
Almost all eyes gathered towards the source of that voice. Even though Bevulas long knew who that person was, he still widened his eyes and looked towards the opposer sitting upright in his legislative member chair. This was an extremely young face, but in his eyes, Bevulas unexpectedly saw some traces of time’s precipitation.
This opposer was precisely Arthur family’s current family leader, O’Brien Arthur who had just reached twenty years of age.
The parliament’s great hall entered a state of silence, waiting for O’Brien to elaborate on his reasoning for dissent. Since this young family leader chose to directly declare his vote, he likely had something more to say.
O’Brien’s explanation did not possess the slightest bit of the legislative members’ style that beat around the bush, instead concise to an almost outrageous degree. “Persephone is my older sister. I will stand against any proposal aimed against her.”
The Arthur family had three seats in the parliament. Apart from O’Brien, the other two positions were occupied by Scardi Arthur, as well as an older individual. Being able to sit here meant that their individual branches of the Arthur family similarly possessed power reaching the Blood Parliament’s standard. However, both Scardi and the elder revealed looks of surprise, as if they didn’t prepare themselves in the slightest for O’Brien’s decision. This time, O’Brien didn’t use his family leader’s authority to demand a unified voting position, so his current decision purely represented the direct bloodline’s strength.
Scardi and the elder gave each other a look, and then they finally raised their hands. Only, Scardi raised his right hand, while the elder raised his left.
Several minutes later, the Blood Parliament’s emergency meeting came to an end with thirty-three votes in agreement and two against, passing the proposal to have Persephone and Su’s Black Dragonrider military ranks stripped.
Legislative members emerged from the parliament lobby in a line. Without a doubt, currently, O’Brien drew even more attention than Bevulas did. However, his complete disregard for the countless pairs of eyes that landed on him, regardless of whether it was their blazing gazes or their expressions that looked at him like a corpse, he simply walked towards the parliament castle’s aircraft without consulting anyone, as if he was the only one left in this entire world.
Publicly opposing Bevulas’ proposal, in the eyes of the legislative members, was no different from declaring war against Bevulas, as well as the clearest act of standing on the Spider Empress’ side. When the meeting ended, Bevulas could leave without batting an eyelid, but many members that attached themselves to him felt a bit unreconciled. However, out of fear towards the Arthur family’s strength, none of them dared to recklessly provoke O’Brien.
However, there were always those that felt an urge to express their devotion to Bevulas. This was already unrelated to their intelligence, but rather something purely done as proof of their loyalty. A tall and skinny middle-aged man just happened to stand in front of O’Brien, intentionally sizing him up with a profound gaze, only those eyes definitely did not contain goodwill.
O’Brien didn’t bring many subordinates with him, with only the seventh level Alan attracting attention. Alan wasn’t that tall, but he was extremely robust, his entire body giving off a ripped feeling. A lazy smile rested on his face. Even though the one that stopped O’Brien was was a legislative member with completely undisguised eight levels of ability and there were four seventh level ability users that were vaguely forming an encirclement stance, Alan similarly had a carefree and completely unconcerned expression.
The middle-aged man laughed coldly and slowly said, “O’Brien, the bravery you showed in the meeting really leaves quite a deep impressing, but as for your intelligence, it really isn’t all that praiseworthy! To set yourself against Lord Bevulas, bravery alone is not enough. Unfortunately, it seems like you only have seven levels of Magic Domain ability. This isn’t quite enough to lead one of the three great influential families, the Arthur family. Of course, you are quite young, and your natural talent is enviable, so perhaps in a few years, you will develop an eighth level ability. However, that is something that can only be realized if you are still alive.”