The Rise of the Black Plain

When that woman addressed her words to Minos, the conversations in the area, shouting from both sides in this argument, subsided as the level 78 Spiritual Saint made his presence known.

Minos smiled and said. "Well then, let's start the voting with the representatives from each family present here."

Elders could vote as representatives, as each local noble organization with Spiritual Saints in its ranks was entitled to a similar number of representatives as their experts. In this case, it was enough for that woman to use the credential of one of her family's representatives to vote on her own without hindering the procedure initiated by Minos.

So, at the sovereign's words, the people in the area fell silent, knowing that from now on, the matter would be decided by vote.

That woman would be the first to vote. Still, after her, the Assembly would follow the voting by the seat of each representative, starting from the first row, the first seat on Minos' right, until reaching the opposite side of the area.

And with that, soon, the people there began to stand up to vote. They had to say yes or no to Minos' questions.

Were they in favor of taking away the Assembly's privileges and passing them on to the Stuart family? Was it fair what the Assembly leaders had done? Did they approve the amendment to the Assembly bylaws proposed by Minos?

The vote began without many there having a clear idea of what the outcome would be since the Assembly was very divided on this situation.

While this was going on, all those who had come with Minos from the battlefield between Vogel and Cromwell were already on the outskirts, watching their leader's plans unfold.

At first, with the fall of the Vogel family, the most likely fate of that then kingdom would be civil war.

After all, there was not much difference between the strongest powers in this state. At that time, factions quickly had been made before Minos became their best option.

This state was in serious danger of going into civil war, and eventually, the winner would end up being dominated by the Flaming Empire easily.

Fortunately for the locals, Minos had shown himself and lessened the tensions between the local families, who wanted the position of ruler for themselves while not accepting the idea of subordinating themselves to others.

As said before, they were not so different. Hence, pride, but also greed, prevented them from accepting a ruler similar to them.

Just because of this, the idea of Minos becoming the ruler calmed the situation in Vogel and made this state continue as one.

He was someone from the outside who could not easily control them and was less likely to use his position to dominate them at the time. At the same time, since no one else could fulfill his role, he had become the local savior, with no one standing against him at the time.

Time had passed, but Vogel's situation had not changed.

That was still a state full of powers with similar strengths which would not easily accept losing their position.

And even with the experience of dividing the local power among themselves, this did not change the greed of the local leaders, who wanted to make their families the new ruler.

Minos knew that the peace in Vogel was fragile and could easily be destroyed if the right words were said to the necessary people for the worst to happen.

As someone who wanted to keep what he had won, he was taking the reins of the matter and playing the various sides in this conflict against each other before war broke out.

What would be the consequence of this? Well, Minos judged that these people would either accept civil war and its risks or choose to 'sail' quietly in his 'boat.'

The second option was clearly the best since either way, he could overpower them later, after a local weakening caused by the war!

And with that, as people voted, he was the happiest of all, smiling at those people.

'In any case, if you rebel, I can intervene without my contracts limiting me. If you try to force each other, I can interfere. If you vote with me, I will increase my powers...' He pondered, while the score in his favor was already 70 to 46.

But there was only one possibility for these powers to keep Minos at bay at the moment!

That was the possibility that they would unite in a government following the parameters of the Assembly itself without having a single leader over that territory.

The problem with that? One side did not trust the other!

When the major families took advantage of local opportunities to strengthen themselves, someone would eventually try to return to the previous autocratic model.

That would not happen in the short term since it would take time for these powers to strengthen to that extent. But someone would eventually take the space left by the Vogel family.

In this case, the fate of that area was either to be dominated by a greater force, Minos or to experience civil war and still face this threat to the north.

With this knowledge, many still uncertain people voted for Minos, choosing the less chaotic path ahead of them.

They had once stood by his side, so why risk standing against him and watching the local situation degrade?

Chaos brought opportunity, but many would disappear before it ended!

So, in the blink of an eye, more than 300 individuals had already voted in favor of Minos, giving him enough to change the rules of the Assembly and increase his own powers a little.

Seeing this situation, the Guzman family elders were silent, their faces so dark that the representatives of this family could not say anything for fear of angering them further.

'Danmed Minos!'

'He the whole time was against us!'

'He always wished to take Vogel and knew that one day he would get the strength to do so!' That woman next to the former Assembly President thought as she looked toward where Minos, Abby, and Ruth were standing, with that level 78 expert behind them.

'What can we do now? When he leaves for Dry City, those damned families will keep making it harder for us!' She looked over to the side of the Assembly where there were many of those she considered traitors to the motherland.

They had fought for millennia not to be absorbed by the Flaming Empire, only for now many of their leaders to decide to be dominated by another empire...

For these people with interest in taking local power, this was unacceptable!

'We have to think of something urgently, or before we do, we will have no choice but to kneel in front of Minos!'

The vote would last until dawn in that city when Minos would finally end this session to release the local representatives temporarily.

From this day forward, much of Vogel's management would change in favor of Dry City, with Minos emerging victorious for a second time in less than 24 hours.

But the people of Vogel would prove to be the biggest beneficiaries of all from such events!