The Martial Unity

The effects of one thousand Martial Squires dying was not small, and it rippled across the entirety of the Shionel Confederation.

Even as the elections arrived, Chairman Deacon spent his days placating the voters that he had already bought, doing everything he could in his power.

In order to not lose many of the most disaffected allies by his side, he needed to bleed capital, truly draining himself to keep them from denouncing supporting him.

However, he wasn't entirely successful, the number of allies on his side, both domestic and international, that had denounced was not insignificant.

Even if many of them weren't merchants who could vote, he had used their capital to buy many other voters.

For example, he used the support of many foreign and international nations to get better deals for entire sectors of merchants in the Shionel Confederation in exchange for their votes. Now, some of those deals were compromised by the national stakeholders withdrawing their support.

He desperately tried to fix all his problems by throwing more money and capital at them, while also compromising more and making even more promises to disgruntled voters.

Eventually, the three days of voting came to an end, and the votes were counted by the electoral committee of the Shionel Merchant Guild before the results were eventually announced and published.

[#1: Bradt Patrick: 428695 votes.

#2: Deacon Vernes: 427989 votes.

…]

had just barely managed to secure a

and Chairman Deacon were, the former was less than one thousand votes ahead of the

those who possessed greater access to information

won if not for the massacre of the one thousand Martial Squires associated with

wasn't the only factor. Guildmaster Bradt had exposed a trump card shortly prior to the elections. The trump card that he had been saving

that covered the entire Shionel Dungeon had impressed the entire nation. But it was the merchants who were most shocked by this announcement from the Bradt

Shionel Merchant Guild had understood what

support that Chairman Bradt had amassed. It was just as powerful as a bargaining chip as the

inadvertently become the core of both Chairman Deacon

fully completed for Guildmaster Bradt had served as a riveting turnaround that

suffered had tipped the balance, allowing Guildmaster

THUD

fists on his table

He clutched his hair as he breathed hard, and unsteadily. His eyes were bloodshot, and there were dark bags under his eyes. He felt as though he was

they been in vain, but they were also detrimental since he had truly gone out on a limb with the

the past ten years. He felt as though his heart was literally burning with the death of his son, and now the death

His secretary

didn't even

you put into investigating

That earned his attention.

the Voider had