The sunlight outside was just right, not too hot—the rare good weather that Saint Nali had seen only a few times in recent days.
On ordinary days, this kind of weather is perfect for Nali families to compete for a chance to travel out. Even the poorer workers who don’t have the time to go out and have fun would cook extra food for dinner to celebrate, given that Saint Nali is all too fond of rain.
But today, members of the New Party were clearly not in such high spirits.
The current leader of the New Party was an elderly gentleman named Madillon. Before the early days of exploration, he owned several workshops in Nali and established the Nali Workshops Organization—an alliance of manual workshops that expanded to include other industries and eventually became the predecessor to the Nali Chamber of Commerce.
Following the parliamentary reform, with the funding of the Nali Exploration Company and the recommendation of the Chamber members, he founded a whole new political party—the Exploration Party.
But back then, in the face of the powerful Griffin Party, his Exploration Party was just like any other minor opposition party—without much status.
That was until legendary pioneer Captain Blake returned to the Nali people with a ship full of treasure. Seizing the Nali people’s desire for wealth and external exploration, they introduced a bunch of policies favorable to the citizens for commerce and trade, winning a high number of votes almost instantly.
With the Nali Exploration Company’s ever-growing size, both in terms of funds and public support, they would quickly outperform other small parties, eventually defeating the tradition-oriented Griffin Party in the election a few years ago, thus completely taking control of the Nali political arena.
They had been sailing with the wind up until the incident of the Schwali visit struck them like a bolt from the blue.
"What’s going on? You assured me it was fail-proof!"
"Yes, yes... but we did check everything that the academy could check, even invited members from the Magic Association to inspect, and they confirmed that no one could have cast any magic on that building."
"Do you think the Royal Family, the Griffin Party, and the public will go to that nonsensical member of the Magic Association? Cloth! Wake up, they will only come after you and me! After the New Party!"
The slender figure of the New Party leader, Madillon, dressed immaculately in his suit, dismounted from the carriage in front of Saint Nali University’s gates, his expression unkind as he looked back at the equally helpless gentleman behind him—Cloth, the whip of the New Party.
The so-called whip was responsible for party discipline and for eliminating party scandals, a position of considerable importance within the party.
Madillon had always trusted Cloth for his capability. The reason why Cloth hadn’t taken up any high government position and remained as the party whip was that Madillon had privately decided that Cloth would be his successor. His age was catching up with him, and he planned to step down after the next election, needing someone he could trust to take his place.
But who could have predicted such an incident before the midterm election?
Madillon frowned and pulled out a handkerchief to wipe the sweat hidden within the wrinkles on his forehead, quickly leading the government officials from Nali towards the school.
He was already an old man, yet he was still toiling away for his cause every day, thinking of retiring after the next big election. But fate always seemed to keep him worried.
"No, we’re still asking about the situation inside. I heard Principal Ken say that there was a Super Ring space magic set up inside the school, and there were assassins from the Kado Cult trying to kill them, aiming to seize the Holy Object brought by the Schwali Delegation to Nali..."
Madillon’s face changed, and he glanced back at the now empty gates of Saint Nali University. The media of Saint Nali hadn’t received the news yet, but they couldn’t be kept in the dark for long.
Soon, the place would be crawling with Saint Nali reporters, buzzing like flies on the hunt.
He immediately turned and whispered to Cloth sternly,
"Listen, let’s just talk about these things amongst ourselves. We shouldn’t reveal anything about Super Ring Magic or assassins to the public! We need to downplay this incident as much as possible, particularly with the Schwali delegation—if we need to apologize, we apologize. We can’t budge on the agreement terms that were already settled!"
Madillon believed that if there were no casualties, Schwali would express their dissatisfaction but would probably not cancel their cooperation with Nali. The issue, however, was whether they would use this incident to demand changes to terms that were unfavorable to Schwali.
How to soothe their anger gracefully while protecting his interests as much as possible was what mattered most.
Madillon led a group of New Party members to the front of Saint Nali University’s conference room. As he approached, there was a crowd of many gathered. Those who emerged from inside looked like refugees fleeing a battlefield, with torn and dirty clothes, and many were injured.
The faces of the Schwali Scholars were soured, and Prince Luosang, with his torso half-exposed, directed medical personnel to carry away the injured scholars and their families.
Isabella and Milica also ran over worriedly to check on Moli, and only after seeing that Moli was unharmed did they breathe a sigh of relief.
Madillon, with the New Party officials, approached Prince Luosang and expressed their dereliction of duty for this event.
Prince Luosang glanced at the two New Party officials in front of him, smiled, and said,