"Your current King's election score is... 24 points."
As the voice of the Holy Oak Envoy slowly fell, the entire drawing room suddenly became so quiet that one could hear a pin drop.
An unprecedented silence slowly enveloped the room, also permeating everyone's hearts.
Glaya's heart suddenly jolted.
This number, compared to the scores of the other eight Princes, was laughably minuscule, hardly worthy of anyone's attention.
Yet, just ten days ago, this number had been −576.
In a mere ten days, it had surged by 600 points.
Of course, Glaya didn't believe that the few inconsequential things he had done could have caused such a massive change.
His gaze subconsciously turned towards Duke Tierus, the last to arrive, only to find his face still retained traces of astonishment and admiration.
As if he had anticipated the current events, but the outcome had still exceeded even the highest expectations.
What exactly... had happened?
Such a question swept through everyone's minds in an instant.
Not just Glaya, but also Morris, Aphia, and others all wore expressions of shock and joy, exchanging glances with each other.
They were stunned by the sudden good news.
Even Ivyst, who had been sitting silently in her wheelchair, slightly raised her head, allowing her soft white hair to gently fall from her shoulders down to her waist, a faint hint of surprise subtly flashing through her cold eyes.
After a prolonged silence, the Second Prince, Felit, slowly spoke up.
He wasn't aggravated that Ivyst had survived the elimination round, but simply questioning the validity of this result.
At this moment, Felit's eyebrows were tightly knit as he stood up from the sofa.
Looking at the Holy Oak Envoy, whose eyes also mixed shock and confusion, he asked, "What were the reasons given by the organization for the additional points?"
Clearly, in his view, even with his power and influence, it would not be easy to obtain such a high score in ten days.
It seemed as preposterous as a fairy tale.
On hearing the Second Prince's question, the Holy Oak Envoy was silent for a moment, then slowly read out the content on the parchment: "The reason given by the Holy Oak Organization for the additional points is..."
"Reconstruction of post-disaster order, winning the hearts of the entire city, 600 points added."
Upon hearing this reason, the word spontaneously surfaced in Felit's mind.
Setting aside how preposterous the idea of reconstructing order in this hopeless city was.
Take, for instance, the latter point.
Winning the hearts of the people?
Indeed, people can be deceived as easily as animals.
But this doesn't mean that a few simple tricks will win over their hearts.
In fact, when the level 0 Sealed Object caused chaos that day, the Second Prince Felit had tried to gather some public affection, seeking points from the Holy Oak.
In the end, however, it was all undone by a single sentence from that boy.
Moreover, the scene where "she said, there should be no filth in this world" appeared before the people like a miracle, rendering all of Felit's previous preparations moot, stolen by Ivyst.
A pity she didn't cherish such an opportunity; instead of seizing the moment to win over the public, she remained inactive for over a month after the event.
Having missed that opportunity, the impact of that moment would gradually fade in the hearts of the people, until it was forgotten.
Therefore, at this moment, Felit utterly disbelieved the result.
Yet the information came from the infallible Holy Oak Organization.
This caused him unprecedented confusion.
He turned his head towards the silent, white-haired woman in the wheelchair and then looked at those from Augusta Manor whom he had previously disregarded.
However, these people seemed just as perplexed, appearing to be completely baffled by the current situation.
If that was the case, then the issue must lie with the last person to arrive.
Felit took a deep breath and respectfully bowed, "Duke, it seems that you must be the mastermind behind all this."
"If so, might I trouble you to clarify a few things for me? I'm quite curious about the events of the past few days."
His spies in Orn City had been secretly executed for their previous misjudgment of intelligence on Lynn Bartleion.
With the new batch yet to arrive, and given Felit's character of not paying attention to things he's uninterested in, he had not kept up with the recent changes in Orn City.
Duke Tierus looked at him, "What do you think is the most scarce in Orn City at this moment? Or rather, what needs to be done first to restore order?"
Felit answered without a hint of hesitation: "Grain."
"The disaster has just passed, and more than two hundred thousand refugees in the city are homeless, facing a survival crisis."
"To restore order, we must stop the chaos, and the only way to do that is to fill the stomachs of these victims."
Duke Tierus smiled, "It seems you're quite clear on that."
Felit shook his head, "It's easy to say, but almost impossible to achieve."
"The city's meager grains are controlled by the nobles, released into the market at extremely high prices, harvesting wealth from the pockets of the populace, even if the city council opens the warehouses and distributes relief grain, but in the face of more than two hundred thousand mouths, it's ultimately a drop in the bucket."
"The control of prices is in their hands, and as soon as outliers like the Augusta Family try to lower the prices, they unite to monopolize those low-priced grains and then release them back into the market."