Yage City's regulations stated that in the citizen assembly, as long as more than two-thirds of people voted "guilty," the nominated person would face either death or exile.
And now, under the presiding judge's supervision, the citizens of Yage City began their voting.
Watching the citizens rise to vote, it was impossible for Chris not to feel nervous.
Although she had a clear conscience regarding Yage City, who knew what would happen next?
Under the tension, the headache from working continuously for several days intensified again.
Just as she was uncomfortably rubbing her temples, someone sitting beside her spoke to her.
"Hello, could you help me vote?"
"Huh?"
Coming back to her senses, Chris looked to her side.
This look was worse than not looking—her heart skipped a beat!
The audience seats that should have been packed were empty in a large circle around her... only an old man sat beside her.
Her heart immediately sank!
Why was no one sitting next to her?
A strong sense of foreboding overwhelmed her.
It seemed that earlier, under the influence of fatigue and anger, she hadn't been able to see everything around her.
If no one was sitting beside her, it meant that from the beginning, people knew she was the one being judged!
This... how was this possible?
It was impossible that no one had informed her...
"Hello?"
The old man's words interrupted her thoughts again.
"I'm blind, could you help me vote?"
Chris, forcing herself to calm down, replied:
"Of course, sir."
But the old man's next words made her feel as if she'd fallen into an ice cave!
"Please help me fill in 'guilty.'"
Chris's body visibly trembled, then she immediately forced herself to calm down and asked:
"Why?"
The old man replied:
"Didn't you hear what they just said?"
Chris asked with a slightly trembling voice:
"Then... does that necessarily mean those things are true?"
The old man's answer was extremely straightforward.
"Of course, nothing can be guaranteed to be true."
Chris asked incredulously:
"Then... since she might be wrongly accused, why do you want to vote 'guilty'?"
The old man just smiled blandly.
"Well, I just can't stand that someone so young has received honorary titles like 'embodiment of justice,' 'guardian of the city-state,' 'defender of the city code,' and such."
"You..."
Chris didn't know what to say anymore.
The old man's voice sounded somewhat impatient.
"Are you going to deliver it or not? If not, I'll have someone else do it."
That was impossible, because there was no one else around.
Chris could refuse to help this old man and reduce the number of "guilty" votes by one.
But Chris wasn't that kind of person.
"Alright, please give it to me."
Taking the old man's pottery shard, Chris wrote "guilty" with somewhat trembling hands.
Before leaving, Chris said to the old man:
"Ensuring that citizens' voting rights can be exercised without obstruction is the duty of a consul."
Without turning to observe the old man's reaction, Chris walked directly toward the voting window.
The citizens who had originally been gathered around the voting booth, chattering noisily, all quieted down when they saw her coming and automatically cleared a path.
Walking through the path the crowd had made for her, Chris's expression remained full of calm and composure.
No matter what, as someone who provided security for the citizens, she couldn't show weakness in front of them.
This was a principle she had always followed as consul.
Now this had almost become muscle memory—as long as there were people around her, she wouldn't show any expression.
She handed her ballot to the vote counter.
"I, Chris, am casting a 'guilty' vote on behalf of the elderly gentleman in the audience who cannot cast his pottery shard due to eye disease. Are there any problems?"
The vote counter looked at her as if seeing a plague god and quickly stepped back:
"Ah, no problem, no problem!"
Then she turned and left the venue.
Walking until she reached a place with no people, she began running toward her residence with all her might.
Even during battle, she had never run this fast.
Today seemed grim—she had to go back and quickly arrange the work handover so as not to cause chaos in Yage City's administrative work.