Chapter 668: Chapter 417 Investiture Ceremony
Two days quickly passed, and the day of the badge presentation ceremony arrived.
This morning,
in the central Supreme Council Hall of Neustadt City, on the first floor in the central hall,
"Hey, clean the windows here again with the Cleaning Technique!"
Staff clad in Wizard Robes bustled about, preparing for the solemn badge presentation ceremony.
The entire ceremony’s process wasn’t actually lengthy. Instead, it was quite brief, typically lasting no longer than ten minutes.
Yet even so, the wizards setting up the venue dared not be careless; they strived for perfection in arranging every corner of the hall.
They began their meticulous cleaning before dawn and by the time they finished decorating, the process would take at least three to five hours.
"Long time no see, Tanison."
Upstairs in the hall, some council members who had arrived early were exchanging pleasantries.
"Long time no see, Whitely, I didn’t expect you to be the one representing Merredith City."
Normally, each Wizard City should send at least two representatives to attend every new council member’s badge presentation ceremony, and council members from the new council member’s city of origin should make up at least half of those present.
However, it was currently a time of war and accordingly, the requirements had been lowered.
Neustadt City only required ten council members to attend, while other Wizard Cities needed only one to come.
But this time, Colin, a Second Rank wizard, had been elevated to councilman, which seemed to have caught many people’s attention. Looking around, although it was still morning, the number of council members present had already well surpassed twenty.
"I had no choice; ninety percent of the council members from Merredith City were at the war front, and I happened to be in the city, so I came to have a look," Whitely sighed slightly.
"How’s the situation at the frontline now?" asked Tanison.
"It’s not too bad, nor is it good. After that night, the attack from the Divines slowed down again, probably indicating a shift to a war of attrition, dragging it out until a food crisis emerges," Whitely shook his head.
"How severely were the farmlands in Merredith City damaged?" Tanison continued to inquire.
That night, not only did the Divines launch an action to pollute the farmlands in Neustadt, but they also initiated a similar campaign against Merredith.
This information hadn’t yet reached Neustadt, but Tanison, as a council member, was already aware of it.
"Severely," Whitely shook his head and found a place to sit down with Tanison.
"At least sixty percent of the farmlands in Merredith were polluted, and many granaries in various places were also burned down."
"Fortunately, Merredith has a lot of hills and mountains, and the farmlands are spaced quite far apart from each other; otherwise, the losses would have been even greater under those circumstances."
"Those traitors are really despicable!" Tanison said indignantly.
"Nothing but cowards," Whitely expressed contempt, then suddenly became curious, asking, "I heard that this new councilman is only a Second Rank Advanced Wizard?"
"Yes," Tanison nodded. "I don’t know much about him, but I heard that Great Councilman Nois used his once-in-a-century independent nomination right for him."
"I heard he isn’t from the Tate Family?" Whitely asked curiously.
"That’s what I heard; he’s a Half-blood Wizard," Tanison answered, then hesitated and added, "The Tate Family’s reaction to this seems somewhat strange."
Whitely raised an eyebrow, "You mean the Tate Family has objections to this new councilman?"
"I don’t know, but you know that when a member of the Tate Family becomes a councilman, they usually hold some private gatherings beforehand, taking the new councilman to expand connections. But this time, there was no news at all... until the badge presentation ceremony notices appeared, and then everyone found out about it."
Tanison paused slightly, then looked over Whitely’s shoulder and whispered, "The Tate Family is here."
"Is that... Great Councilman Nickler?" Whitely followed his gaze, hesitating.
The council members of the Supreme Council are divided into three ranks—ordinary council members, Great Councilmen, and six Supreme Councilmen.
To become a Great Councilman, one must at least be a Fourth Rank, apart from needing some notable contributions.
"Yes." Tanison smiled and exchanged a look with Whitely, and they both stood up to greet him.
"Good morning, Your Excellency Nickler."
At the new council member’s badge presentation ceremony, there needed to be at least three Great Councilmen present, and it was still early. The wizards were still setting up the venue downstairs, so Nickler was the first Great Councilman to arrive.
Upon his arrival, he naturally became the focus of the crowd, and the greetings were endless.
Nickler was neither proud nor aloof, but cordially greeted the wizards.
Seeing this, Tanison was about to inquire about some information regarding the new councilman, when suddenly he heard a councilman behind him congratulate,
"Congratulations to the Tate Family for adding another council member!"
Tanison and Whitely exchanged glances, both looking slightly bemused.
As expected, looking back at Nickler, the smile had vanished from his face as he looked up at the somewhat misinformed councilman.
The councilman’s smile froze, realizing he might have misspoken,
"The new councilman does not belong to the Tate Family."
Fortunately, Nickler wasn’t really angry, but paused for two seconds before speaking lightly.
After that incident, the topic wasn’t brought up again.
But everyone knew that at least the current Nickler was not favorably disposed toward the new councilman.