“We have long treated everyone equally…or at least, as equally as possible,” began Pinnacle Kolya. “However, extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. Voices that ask for more power towards the category of semi-divinities have grown louder over the past few months.”

“I’ll be here to preside over the debate. The stance of my Mortal Light Dynasty will never change; the Brilliant Pinnacle, Anya, has fought for equal treatment for all,” said Kolya. “And we will uphold that to our dying breaths. But that being said, these are extraordinary times. My State Council will be open to all logical arguments, and any changes aren’t irreversible, after all.”

“I’m glad you’re an open-minded ruler,” said Queen Hyperion. “I suppose someone who invited even the great gods have to be open-minded in the first place, and in more ways than one.”

“Of course.” Pinnacle Kolya reclined on his seat. “You and me, we are ideological opponents of sorts, but I recognise that you’re just carrying on tradition. There’s no need to dispute and insult each other’s culture over this; the law of the jungle applies to even the types of government.”

“Your tongue is really sharp,” the Queen replied.

“I took lessons in debating,” Kolya replied. “But enough about my nation for a moment. This debate really needs to start properly. Queen Hyperion, shall we start with your proposal first?”

Queen Hyperion nodded and took out some papers. “Very well. From now, until the war ends, we should impose a few things. First, mandatory conscription for all families; each family is to send at least one able-bodied person for enlistment as a regular soldier. The others are to undergo training as militia, so that they can be called upon as reserves or take up arms if the demons show up unexpectantly.”

She took out another piece of paper. “However, families that send out a Lord as their contribution will be exempted from the militia training. They will, instead, have their younger generations sent to Knight training camps. Resources will be channelled there to ensure their rapid rise. Upon success, they’ll be sent to lead an infantry century, or whatever the equivalent is in the other nations.”

That’s not going to go well. Aziz smiled grimly. A century of the West — the equivalent of a company — sounded rather extravagant if its leader was a Knight, but the problems with cultivators like fairly obvious. And simply basing rank off cultivation realms weren’t going to be good for the morale of professional soldiers.

And as he expected, the chamber was full of whispers once more. Most of them, however, were focused on the part about diverting resources to groom Knights.

“Question.” Someone at the centre table raised her hand. It was someone from the Southern Assembly, whose name Aziz didn’t know.

“Go on.”

“Cultivation realms are not synonymous with military ability. Simply placing them as a company commander without the correct training and years of experience will result in massive problems,” she replied.

“I agree.” War Minister Eventide, who had been watching at the side, chipped in. “You seem to pride Knights as a capable fighting force, and no one will dispute that. Your policies of grooming Knights aren’t an issue either, but if you pride their fighting ability first and foremost, you should turn them into a Knight company instead.”

Queen Hyperion arced an eyebrow. “Knight company? Interesting. Explain.”

“Simple,” Eventide replied. “With our Thunderbolt as a reference…”

The War Minister launched into an explanation, and all of a sudden, Aziz began to feel sleepy. It was a rehash of information he had long memorised, since the ORBAT of Thunderbolt was something he wrote in the first place. Within moments, he had zoned out.

Marie was no different either, producing her book to read once more. Aziz shifted closer to her, stealing a few glances from the pages she was reading, and waited for the sleep-inducing topic to pass. She was reading something about the Western Holdings; it was apparently a collection of the secretive nation.

Which naturally meant that it was a far more interesting topic than Eventide’s explanation of an elite flying force. The colonel wasn’t all that apologetic; one of the reasons why Marie hated going for meetings was because the Warmaster loved to talk about things that should be placed in a report. Throwing another glance at Eventide’s speech, Aziz continued to read Marie’s book from the side, while cursing at her absurdly fast reading speed.

Minutes turned into hours, but Aziz had long stopped caring about the debates. Before long, orange light began to stream in, and the policy debates ended. After a round of customary greetings, the bigshots in the centre left the room, and the others took the cue.

Aziz had spent most of the time reading, only paying attention to the outcomes of their hour-long deliberation that was allocated to every topic. For instance, the thing about conscription had been accepted, but the Knights that were churned out would now form their individual forces.

Another important policy were tax rates. Tax rates were now inversely pegged to the strongest cultivator of any given family, with the word ‘family’ re-defined as the latest generation of parent and child for large families with multiple generations. Families or ‘families’ without a single Squire would be heavily penalised in terms of tax rates, but how the governments of the Five Lands were going to do that was anyone’s guess.

Aziz wasn’t too sure about the reasons behind such actions, but the main gist of the debate was that with enough hard work, becoming a Squire was a given. Of course, if a Lord in your family — the older, more conventional definition — joined up with their nation’s armed forces, their family would be entirely tax-exempt. Of course, other things were in place to make sure that the family would still churn out more high-rank cultivators.

But all in all, policies for encouraging growth were now firmly set in place. Other policies that followed the first two had been either accepted directly, or modified to be less onerous.

There was one theme in common, though.

And that was a deliberate granting of boons to families who sent at least one semi-divinity into their nation’s military.

A new order would soon be fixed in this world, if Orb ever got through the demon invasion. Aziz glanced around, burning the memories of the past few hours into his brain, and shook his head.

“Marie.”

“Hmm?”

“This is history in the making, isn’t it?”

She laughed, her eyes twinkling the whole time. “We’ve been doing that for a long time, but saying it at this juncture probably means quite a lot. But if you can say this, it can only mean that we have a future to look forward to.”

The two of them got up, along with the rest of the Republic’s delegation, and left the chamber in a ponderous silence.