No Money to Divorce

This may be the most-watched live broadcast in the Federation’s history.

Vahl sat in his usual seat at the round table and swept a glance at the hovering cameras above the round table. Though this wasn’t the time for it, an idea popped up in his mind. Last time, when Adrian was buying blood at an exorbitant price, you could say that nearly everyone had watched the video. But still, everything happened so suddenly that most people had only seen the recording afterwards, not the live broadcast. And then there was the other live broadcast before that ignited a heated discussion among the people…That press conference held in Lebor? Or was it the hundred-year celebration of the Supreme Institution? No matter which one it was, Vahl was convinced that the number of viewers then couldn’t be compared to right now.

The territory of the Federation was too vast. It was now the afternoon in the Capital, but it was midnight for some people and early mornings for others. However, the live broadcast for the impeachment case was announced by the Supreme Council 24 hours ago. Even the planets where it was currently 3 in the morning were brightly lit.

Some people were expectant, some were angry, some were excited, and some were fearful. But without exception, many people cared very much about this ballot that will determine the future direction of human society.

Vahl was the earliest to arrive. The cameras were not on yet, so the viewers who had logged into the broadcast early were met with a black screen, as well as notifications that the live broadcast had yet to begin.

There wasn’t any special reason for him to enter the round table meeting room early. He just wanted to sit down quietly by himself for a moment. He could not be any more familiar with this room. For 13 chairs to be present today was a sight he still couldn’t get used to. Besides Pearson, he was the oldest among the Twelve. At just thirty years old, Vahl had already managed to become one of the representative councilors. For some time, he was very well-known for being history’s youngest representative councilor, and that record was only broken twenty years later by Zhong Yan.

It wasn’t as if he was void of ambition, nor was he willing to just remain mediocre. Otherwise, he would not have been able to climb to the apex of human power at such a young age. However, he still could not let go of that love. With gritted teeth, he sacrificed his future for it. Unfortunately, he was too young to be able to compete with the Yate family’s patriarch and ended up with nothing in the end.

If he had accepted the young lady that “Butterfly” had assigned to him back then, then his life could’ve gone in a completely different direction. Vahl had the support of the Cayman family at his back. If he married a wife that stood at the same heights as him in society, then he would definitely have been able to strengthen his position as a newly elected member of the Twelve with the support of the two families. Most importantly, he would not have incurred “Butterfly’s” dislike. Perhaps he might have been able to contend with the two giants, Stalvern Yate and Bard Pearson, a few years later. After all, the two of them were old, and he himself had been still so young. A few more years of experience would definitely have been enough for him to hold the Federation in his hands.

If only he accepted “Butterfly’s” match back then. Vahl knew its benefits better than anyone, but he still decided to follow his heart. He never regretted it, and if he were to ask himself whether he would do it again, he would definitely say yes.

He thought he would have to sit there for a long time before anyone else would come, but in fact, the sounds of another person’s feet could be heard at the entrance in just a moment.

The conservatives, with Stalvern Yate at the lead, made their entrance.

But Vahl was not surprised. Compared to Pearson, Stalvern had always been a hardworking man who fulfilled his duties responsibly when he was still part of the council. Now, for him to come to the meeting room early was normal as he was someone invited to join the meeting. When Vahl first entered the Supreme Council, he once heard the young members of the council chatting in private, saying that they suspected that Stalvern was a robot. Because, he was able to achieve the surprising feat of never being late, never leaving early, and never taking a single day off for ten consecutive years in office.

Stalvern was almost forty years old when he received the order to procreate. He and his daughter did not really receive that order that early on in their lives, so the age gap between him and Adrian was slightly larger than compared with the age gap between a regular grandparent and his grandchild. Currently, his grandson had only turned twenty-seven, while he was already struggling to talk. Even though he still had a very stern and spirited face, a trace of his age could still be seen.

Contrary to Stalvern’s old age, the young man walking behind him had a very beautiful face, with eyes as wonderful as a painting. Vahl often felt that this overly young and beautiful face looked a little out of place in the round table where the average age was more than sixty. Ever since Zhong Yan replaced Stalvern as a representative member at the round table, the average year of their members had been pushed down by several years just by Zhong Yan’s help alone.

Three other representative members followed behind the old and young pair, but neither of the three acted as if they had seen Vahl and gave him no greetings. Instead, they went over to their own seats and sat down. Without any hesitation, Stalvern took the main seat that faced the entrance—quite ironic now if you think about it, but the Supreme Council was originally designed as a “round table” council, meaning that all twelve representative members were of equal standing. However, a gap gradually began to form between the positions. For example, the seat opposite to Pearson that Zhong Yan usually took represented the very last place.

But today, Zhong Yan had walked with Stalvern straight to the main seats, sitting down at Stalvern’s right. Stalvern swept a glance over to the sequence in which the other three members sat, and frowned. “Xiao Li, don’t sit there. Come here.”

The “Xiao Li” he mentioned was one of the representative members who was already 67-years-old. The councilor surnamed Li stood up, only to hear Zhong Yan say, “Hold on.”

They all looked at Zhong Yan. Even Vahl had looked over to him. Could it be, was the conservative party going to start an internal fight before the meeting even began?

“It’s fine enough if only the Twelve could see the arrangements during our regular meetings.” But Zhong Yan was not trying to stir trouble, he only mentioned to Stalvern in a humble tone, “This time, the meeting is going to be broadcast to the entire world. If we sit too…It won’t do us any good if this becomes an object of discussion among the people. No matter what differences there were in the round table, this is the time for everyone to work together to overcome our difficulties. I think it would be best to sit down in chronological order of when we entered the council instead—and it just so happens that the most senior member is Councilor Yate, while I am the very last. So, as long as we are situated at the start and at the end, nobody would say anything regardless of what order we are seated in the center.”

A tight frown formed at Stalvern’s brow. It seemed like he was going to reprimand him, but Zhong Yan intercepted him and continued, “Councilor Yate. What about this? I will sit to your right. Councilor Pearson entered the Twelve right after you, so he should sit to your left. Then…Who was next? Was it Councilor Annoni?”

Stalvern froze. He immediately understood what Zhong Yan was trying to say. This time, the voting was based on an open vote with their real names, and they were not all going to be making their votes simultaneously. This meant that each person would take turns announcing their votes. Generally, such votes would proceed in a clockwise order, which meant that voting would begin from Stalvern’s left.

“That is incorrect. Councilor Cayman should be right after Councilor Pearson.” Though Stalvern was speaking to Zhong Yan, he was looking at Vahl with a meaningful gaze. “But I don’t blame you. You entered much too late, so you don’t know of the past. Back then, Councilor Cayman had entered the round table at a very young age. It was big news back then, and he was much more spirited than you are now too. Come, Cayman. The second seat to my left is yours.”

This was even better. Pearson would be the first to vote after him, and Vahl the second. After the two people he scorned the most took their votes early on, he would be able to enjoy the rest in peace. Even though he didn’t much like Zhong Yan right now either, they were still in an alliance right now, as far as matters were concerned. By leaving Zhong Yan at his right, and also the final vote, would add on an extra layer of security.

Vahl was no longer the young man who jumped at Stalvern’s ridicule. His many decades of unsuccessful political career had already worn away his edges. At this moment, none of his emotions showed on his face, and he only walked silently over to the second seat left of Stalvern and sat down.

The other three conservative members had also figured out their positions and sat down.

After they were done mulling over the issue of their seats, the rest of the members quickly arrived. Surprisingly to them, half of the members have already taken their seats in order. Moreover, Zhong Yan’s words did make sense. So, everyone sat down in their chronological order of when they had become representative members. Even Pearson who came the very last had only scoffed at the matter and said nothing else.

Indeed, this was not the right day for a dispute. They had already reached an agreement among all the members present during yesterday’s round table meeting. They assigned five people, including Vahl and the two neutral parties, as well as one conservative member and a radical member to vote in favor of the bill. The remaining seven, including Stalvern, would vote against the bill. At the very end, the case would be rejected with five votes against eight.

The neutral members who were assigned to vote yes were originally unhappy with these decisions. This vote was nothing more than a show, and the AI would not need to actually step down. Voting in favor of the bill would not help their own political careers now either. Including Vahl, it wasn’t to say the three representative members were in a party of their own. They were called the “neutral party” because they were in no party at all. To put it bluntly, though the two representative members who were in a clique were assigned passing votes, they were destined to be the losers. But of course, resources would be given to both parties as compensation after the matter ended, but the three of them could only suffer.

And so, one of them raised an objection yesterday. He wanted Zhong Yan to change votes with him. He claimed that if Zhong Yan could both propose the impeachment bill and win the vote against AI, then he would gain nothing but benefits, and it would be too greedy for him to do so. But later, he said that there was no way for Zhong Yan to justify voting against the bill if he were the one who brought it up in the first place. The public would think he was inconsistent. So, they might as well get through with it to the end and have Zhong Yan give a passing vote. No matter what, Zhong Yan would not change his vote.

For some reason, Pearson was strangely quiet the other day. It was a rare chance for him to be able to take a jab at Zhong Yan, but he actually said nothing. With nobody speaking against him, he managed to have his way in the end.

Right now, this very unhappy neutral member was seated right to Zhong Yan’s right. Besides Zhong Yan, he was the least qualified member in the Twelve.

The thirteen councilors are now in place. As the clock hands both coincided on the old-fashioned round clock on the wall, red lights signaling their on-air status were now lit up on the cameras hovering above the round table.

The darkness of the screens of the Federations’ ever corner finally subsided. The image everyone was waiting for finally appeared.

In the vast galaxy, the hundreds of millions of people who inhabit this world now attend the final banquet.