Birth Of The Crafts-God

"I should also ask you the same. Why is it that when the situation should be stabilised within the city, there is a pack of Blue wolves lusting after the Cantiger's flesh?"

The aura of a ruler exuded from Noah's body as he stared down at the senior from his family.

The old man, being the target of the pressure, felt goosebumps on his skin with the slight creeping sensation of fear. For a moment, he was shit speechless, not because he had nothing to say, but Noah's presence was just too intimidating for him.

However, the old man was the leader of the Bergs family's representatives for a reason. He was able to gather himself back up.

"I don't understand what you mean, city lord. We've only had the interests of the city and the security of its people in mind when making our decisions."

Noah wasn't in the mood to argue with the man. With a light snort, he turned to look at everyone in the Assembly of the People.

"There will be no need for this farce of a vote."

The crowd was shocked, most especially those who were in favour of having Noah impeached. No one thought that he would interrupt the final session, or even forcefully bring a stop to the voting process. Technically, this was illegal. After all, the ultimate power granted by the Oklo Dynasty to the cabinet was the right to impeach and nominate the city lord. If the seating city lord could interfere with that, then it made no sense.

"Young master, you can't!"

Even the old man from the Bergs family changed how he addressed Noah. In his eyes, Noah's reign as the city lord was already shaky and could have come to an end today, but that was only a possibility. However, with his current actions, the old man was confident that Noah's support had drastically dropped. In fact, they might not even need to vote again and simply oust him under the claim of 'Authoritative obstruction of the Cabinet's rights'.

Watching as the cabinet devolved into chaos with shouts for him to quit his dictator behaviour, Noah didn't flinch. He simply maintained his passive gaze at the crowd.

At this point, the premier couldn't stand it anymore and called for the crowd to quiet down.

"Order. Let us hear what the city lord has to say first. Maybe he can explain himself better."

The cabinet premier was disappointed with how Noah handled the matter. He was even beginning to lean towards having Noah impeached. Despite that, he still had to act impartial and perform his role properly.

"Are you all done?" Noah asked the gathering of representatives.

Some of the representatives gnashed their teeth at his behaviour while others, especially those in favour of his impeachment, gloated at the scene.

"As I was saying, there will be no need for this voting because I will be stepping down from the position of city lord."

Silence.

Utter silence suddenly pervaded the entire hall after Noah had made his statement.

Even the old man from the Bergs family couldn't believe what he had just heard.

Today had been a rollercoaster of events with the city lord making an appearance and interrupting the voting. None of these would have been predicted, but some miracle might have happened in some corner of the city-state. Who knows, maybe someone saw this coming?

However, the one thing that no one would have foreseen even in one hundred years would be Noah voluntarily announcing his retirement. Not even the supercomputers from the big financial consultants in Baylands City would have seen this coming.

Seeing as no one had anything to say right away, Noah continued,

"But this is on certain a condition."

When Noah didn't continue with his talk, one of the representatives from the Dufour family couldn't hold back anymore.

"What condition?"

"I will step down as city lord and the deputies would take on my role for the meanwhile. The cabinet will also be granted the Special Assistant Rights. After four months, the elections will begin."

Noah's condition didn't seem to be anything strange after all, once he stepped down, the elections would naturally kick off. However, there was some underlying meaning behind his words.

It was a well-known information in the upper circle that Noah was heavily injured. Although the leaked report had claimed that he was in coma, which is contrary to what they were seeing, it still remained a fact that his injuries were previous. With such solid claims and all the other accusations raised up against him, it would be hard for Noah to hold his position. Hence, it was better to negotiate suitable terms for himself.

Once Noah stepped down, the duly process was to hold the elections within two months. This was because the role of the city lord was far too important to lead empty for so long. So Noah asking for a four months ago seemed detrimental to the operations of the city. But everyone could guess why he did so; this was to enable him to run again for the city lord position.

After four months, chances were that Noah would recover to full health. At that point, he would be a strong contender for the city lord position even though he had stepped down from it.

According to Baylands city-state law, there was no regulation against how many times an individual could run for city lord, unless they were impeached. From this, it was obvious that it was more advantageous for Noah to leave the seat on his own.

"This..."

The members of the 'anti-Noah' camp began deliberating on this proposition.

Although they were confident that they could have Noah impeached with the voting process, they were only seventy percent assured. Most of all, that was in the past.

At the moment, Noah was in the hall rather than in coma at the hospital, as was previously reported. His mere presence alone could influence the thoughts and decisions of the representatives. In the best case scenario, the voting would be rescheduled to give enough time for these representatives to inform their leaders about this development. However, once it was rescheduled, their odds of winning would drop.

As it stood, Noah's proposal was quite attractive for the anti-Noah camp. It might be a different means, but the result was still the same. Due to this, they were hesitant on what to do.

The representatives of the anti-Noah camp began to look at those from the Bergs family for advice.

The old senior Bergs contemplated for a short while before nodding.

"Your proposal is reasonable. However, four months is way too long. One month is what we can spare."

If Noah was given four months, he would recover back to full health and pose a threat to Fredor's campaign. Naturally, senior Bergs was aware of this and wouldn't let Noah have this cake much less eat it

"I already considered the duration, hence why the cabinet has been granted ruling rights." Noah frowned.

According to his earlier statement, the cabinet would be granted Special Assistant Rights during the four months wait. These rights would enable the cabinet to finally possess real governing power, and it was something many representatives lusted for.

By granting them these rights, Noah had already compromised in exchange for the four months waiting time.

Senior Bergs couldn't help but admit internally that Noah was right. Trying to bring down the time to one month was impossible if he still wanted those rights to exist. While the old man could give up those rights in order to have the time shortened drastically, the other representatives —including those in his side— wouldn't agreee.

"Two months."

Noah shook his head.

"If that were to happen, you can forget about the S.A.Rs."

The old man gritted his teeth as he fell into a conundrum.

It was most likely that Noah's four months requirement was an overestimation, while he only needed three months to recover. On the contrary, two months seemed safe. This was because even with the current advancements in medical techniques, certain severe internal injuries still required a lot of time to heal. This was especially so for injuries related to the stellar refinement paths in the body.

As such, the old man was unwilling to extend the deadline further than two months. But he was also unwilling to give up the S.A.Rs.

"Three months doesn't seem bad."

Suddenly, the representative from the Oder family said.

Senior Bergs frowned when he heard the man's words, but before he could say anything, others began to speak.

"That's right. Four months is way too long, but three months is doable."

"Yeah. Three months or no deal."

The alliances and relationships in the cabinet were complex, and all depended on profit. There was no such thing as a true ally.

The members of the anti-Noah camp simply united because it was in their advantage that Noah was forced to step down. Since Noah's proposal would achieve that already, they began to think more for themselves now.

The longer the gap between now and the next elections, the longer the representatives could exercise their Special Assistant Rights. Naturally, this was good for them, however, they still had to consider the Bergs family and the possibility of Noah making a comeback. In that case, three months was suitable for them.

In truth, it didn't matter whether Noah got re-elected or not. Since Noah was forced to step down, although I'm a different manner, they would still reap profits from their agreement with the Bergs and the Dufour families. With a three months gap, they would also be able to exercise the S.A.Rs. in their favour for a while. In summary, the other representatives had the potential to become the biggest winners, so there was no way they would lose out on it.

As the voices became a lot, senior Bergs realised that this marked the end of the anti-Noah alliance. He could no longer control the others as they aimed to gain more from the situation. He was pissed but didn't show it. Instead, the old man sighed.

"You've heard it —three months."

Noah didn't say anything, but instead turned towards the direction of the Mertens representatives.

Those in the pro-Noah camp would naturally stand by whatever decision he made. The neutrals would follow along as well. However, the Mertens and the Bergs, two of the most powerful families, had still not said anything about the situation. Even though the majority had decided, Noah wanted to know where they stood.

"What will it be?"