The name “Moon”, being the emphasis of his new company, received mixed reactions from the public. One side considered it bland and nothing spectacular, contrasting with the other side of the demographic, who understood what Julius meant. A couple of days after the dinner party, he got a new senate established and gathered at what used to be the throne room under Empress Cai in the main palace hall. Many newly elected senators are mainly around Julius’s age, with a couple outliers being much older at around the age of his mother if she was still alive. The senate majority was represented by the first district, now called Xia. It’s the largest district in Longyue because of the reconstruction efforts that led to the expansion of its borders, overlapping the prior ones down the south and the east. Adding all occupied totaled eighty seats.
Julius sat at the same spot where Empress Cai had her desk. The desk was sent to the reserves hidden for the sake of historical protection. He raised the platform to have two rows of lengthy counters, adding up for the six seats and dividing with three seats per row. Each row was elevated high enough to require the stairs to go up. Above the second row was the rostrum, encircled around the emperor’s chair.
The first session was about to occur, with Julius climbing the stairs and heading to his chair. He sat himself down, witnessing all the premises of the hall. The seating was soaring, like sitting on the roof of a one-story house, looking down at the street and the neighbors. Julius watched the door as elected individuals entered the hall.
The Main Palace Hall’s seating capacity held approximately five hundred seats upon observation of the empty spaces. From Julius’s view, most of the seats started from the left and covered enough to be one-fifth of the building. He saw Solomon walking in from within the crowd, going up to the first row on the platform, sitting in one of the three seats. Celeste and Sally came in together; the first time Julius saw them in person for a while. He waved at the two, prompting their eyes at him, and waved back. They speedily walked up to the second row, where it was enough to reach, and grabbed Julius’s hand.
Sally, on the one hand, gripped firmly for a momentarily while noting he was still the same as ever. Celeste, on the other hand, held longer, as if she experienced a misunderstanding that she needed to recover. He saw her face nonverbally expressing through her eyes, almost in frustration.
“You’re mad at me, are you?” Julius muttered.
“I’m not,” Celeste denied.
“Your eyes are telling the truth. It's alright, I understand. There was another time distortion, making my experience only a few hours when two weeks had passed.”
“You better not leave us unannounced.”
Julius clanked his mouth. “I hope so…” he replied.
“Say yes,” she muttered while holding his grip tighter.
“…yes. Fine!” Julius said, jolting his hand with his qi to force his hand away from her. “The meeting is about to begin. Go to your seats.”
The two leave, returning to the first row, and greeting Solomon before sitting down. Daiyu sat herself down in the second row to Julius’s left.
The entire Kang Family would soon arrive at the hall, with Feng and Yang leading. Leader Kang and his wife sat in their respective seats after winning their own votes. The twin sisters went up the second row on the platform, shaking Julius’s hand before sitting at the two remaining seats next to Daiyu, greeting her as well. A few of the relatives also claimed the remaining four seats, filling up the tally of eighty.
Julius sat down in his chair as the hall's double door closed. After a quick scan of the premises, he began the session, slamming on the hardwood with the gavel. Everyone’s attention focused on him as he sat down, issuing various statements which didn’t take that long as he wanted to move on to the issues in a paced manner.
“With the formalities out of the way, there are a couple of objectives we have to find the solutions for,” he said through the echoes of the hall. No papers on his arsenal but pure vocal and mentality. “The first thing I want all of us to consider is the vacant claim on the dungeon about a few hundred shìlǐ down southwest. There had been a few undisclosed senders of these messages that I received on my desk. I could figure out what the dungeon could be. But what about you?”
“You mean the Lake of Towering Greens?”
Julius raised his finger, pointing at the senator. “That’s right. After today, I want a final decision on whether we should take our own top warriors and cultivators to fight for our claim. The other option is to back out.”
A commotion arose between each senator, leading to a strict debate between them as Julius leaned on his chair, watching them as if he was doing a report card at the end of the first term. Everyone else on the elevated platform sitting behind the counter tables on their seats too listened.
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Feng turned around, whispering. “We might take the latter option.”
Julius, with his elbow on the chair’s armrest and covering his mouth, nodded. “I’m well aware. Not enough to be concerned yet.” In fact, he was concerned. It was only a couple of minutes and there was already a dispute to trigger an opposition decision. He didn’t agitate but rocked his chair back and forth while deciphering the progressively tense debate. For now, the level of respect remained to his relief.
It dragged on for another twenty minutes when Daiyu took the initiative, telling Julius to call it an end. She passed. He thought as he had chosen her to be the Senate President before the session, sure that she could take the job after witnessing her being the closest ally and loyal to Empress Cai. Having the satisfaction overwhelming the doubts in his mind, he lifted the gravel, slamming it on the hardwood to end the arena-like debate.
“The President has called to end the debate. I’ll begin the final vote,” Julius announced, standing up from his seat. He raised his index finger. “For the ones who choose the former: we should take our forces down to the Lake of Towering Greens and naturally accept the competition of power against the notable national family groups. Then raise your index finger,” he paused, then raised his second, or middle, finger. “…or the latter where we ignore and refuse the chance to get involved with the Lake of Towering Greens, potentially changing the course of this divided dynasty…that maybe could screw us over, raise your palm.”
Daiyu stood first, bringing her index finger into the air along with the entire platform. Before the senators was a unanimous decision from the executives and Julius. Once he counted, he whispered to them to lower their fingers. My vote included then that is seven at the approval. After lowering his finger, the senate finalized their vote. “No dispute?!”
They shook their heads, showing their confidence. Julius nodded before sitting back down in his chair. A seventy-nine to seven vote. “Majority agreed to the former of initiating to take the lead down to the Lake of Towering Greens. A seventy-nine to seven, so the law has passed!”
Clap!
He got a straightforward round of applause from the seventy-three senators. While the seven didn’t clap along and sat themselves down in their seats. Daiyu and Feng glared their eyes at Julius, wondering what should proceed because of that behavior. Julius shook his head, denying any action necessary, as it was the first day. He eased the entire hall with a lowering hand gesture.
Confined to his seat, Julius continued and moved on to the discussion after the vote. “To make this certain, I will be heading down there when the day comes. More specifically, as the role of the upper ticket.”
“Are you serious?” Senator forty revoltingly asked. “Longyue is recovering with a new leader and now you are ditching us?!”
“Ditching?!” Julius grimaced, challenging the senator. “When there was a time distortion, trapping me for a few hours that translated into two weeks out here, Longyue was decimated. All vivid through my lenses. Calling it ditching is absurd when all the time before this, all the groups could have been managed more properly and with decent training, much of Longyue would have been saved. So, I suggest you sit down…You are one of the seven that voted not to move forward.” He pointed right in line to his face until the senator sat down silently. “We won’t be having a lot of sessions under my leadership unless it’s necessary to have everyone on the line. Today will be the only time for a while until the next. As you have heard the protocol, any of your post-session concerns will be addressed to my office. Now let’s continue with the next objective…”
The remainder of the senate session lasted for another half an hour, leaving an equitably received opinion within the consensus of all present. The currency underwent an official name change to more simplicity and shifting to communication. All the gold and silver coins, including other rarer minerals, are allowed to be converted into fiat currency. The Thaler-equivalent currency imprinted as the principal under the “Moon Scale Dollar”. The West Cai Dynasty had a bank, but with minimal authority, which in response to the unanimous decision, removed restrictions from many prior rulers’ verdicts on a sole vault bank. With Celeste and Solomon’s opinion, the bank will turn into a truer central bank for the empire. Julius formally signed a few more million deposits to have it operating full time.
Another better communication mandate was the renaming of the main palace. Rather than making it general, “Longyue Senate” is the official name of the legislature.
Military-focused training was the hardest topic, and Julius decided to keep brief, more of an initiative rather than policymaking. As the claim of the Lake at Towering Greens is in a couple of days, persuasion of the available cultivators and fighters is the suitable option. The more he can get, the better the chances. It’s a little infuriating to him as they have to follow the rules. To keep things predictable at first sight, he will play by the rules until the string was allowed to be cut. By then, everyone, including himself, would have to anticipate the unknown of a chaotic outcome from his developing sinister idea. Julius thought that it was best to not reveal it even when his idea became established. That would have to do. He thought after finding the idea insightful.
Julius slammed the gavel onto the hardwood, ending the session and wanting everyone to depart except the six still sitting on the platform. He had made their roles formally official on the Senate floor within the last half an hour of the session. Feng is the secretary of defense, and Yang is the Secretary of State, handling state affairs; Daiyu has two roles of her own choosing, wanting to take care of the finances outside of being the Senate President. Leaving the three left, which were the rest of the Skolritters except Victoria, who wanted to stay away from political positions from what Celeste told him.
In the first row where the three Skolritters sat, their positions were more lenient and laid-back to a certain extent. Solomon might be the busiest of the three, where he not only does blacksmithing but takes the responsibility as the Secretary of Technology & Innovation. Julius thought that the place under his role would be extraordinary and unpredictable. Lastly, Celeste and Sally, with the former being the Secretary of Education, leaving the latter as Chief of Staff.
When Julius stood from his seat and walked down, they immediately trailed behind, and all walked out of the senate. With only a couple days until leaving Longyue to head to the Lake of Towering Greens, he was nearly bombarded with comments and questions, clustering his head. That was when he ran to his residence, inviting them to a comfortable gathering in the living room.