Chapter 2486: Draft Constitution

Two days later.

Xia Duo arrived in Seventon again, carrying three Portals with uncalibrated coordinates. Unlike the cold attitude of the people from the Seven Towers last time, this time, as soon as he appeared at the Arcane Union, Bulundesi had already come up to greet him with a smile.

"Lord Xia Duo, Master Huo En would like to invite you to a private banquet tonight to discuss the cooperation between Jilan Tower and the Tower of Time regarding the Bloodline Sequencing Project. I wonder what your thoughts are—"

Xia Duo did not give a direct response, but instead asked a question in return, "Is Councilor Bulundesi meeting me now in the capacity of Jilan Tower?"

Last time at Jilan Tower, Xia Duo and Huo En had parted on very bad terms. If Bulundesi said he was here in the capacity of Jilan Tower, Xia Duo would definitely leave him hanging for a while.

Regarding such a question, Bulundesi smiled slightly, as if he had completely ignored the differences between Xia Duo and the Seven Towers, and even said somewhat obsequiously:

"I am here to welcome Lord Xia Duo in my capacity as a Councilor of the Arcane Union, but I have also brought greetings to you from Controller Huo En of Jilan Tower."

"Hmm, I accept!"

Xia Duo's attitude softened slightly. Afterward, the two entered the Arcane Union Headquarters together. On the way to the private Xiu Xi Shi, Xia Duo asked Bulundesi:

"Is my teacher in his office?"

"Master Yinaole went to Gustav Tower this morning and has not returned yet."

"Is that so."

Xia Duo said noncommittally. Soon, the Xiu Xi Shi was before them. Bulundesi finally could not help but ask Xia Duo again, "Regarding Master Huo En's invitation—"

"I have an appointment with my teacher tonight."

"Then what about tomorrow?"

"We'll talk about tomorrow's business tomorrow!"

After saying this, Xia Duo shut Bulundesi out of the Xiu Xi Shi. Although he had not accepted Huo En's invitation, he was still somewhat concerned about the matter. Huo En inviting him to a private banquet the moment he arrived was clearly a case of "the drunkard's heart is not in the cup."

The motives Xia Duo could think of were mostly limited to two—one was to win him over, since it was a foregone conclusion that Great Arcanists would enter the Seven Cities Council, regardless of whose plan was used.

But if the Seven Towers could not retain their Executive status, then they would be a self-contained entity and would not really need to care too much about the opinions of outsiders. However, now that it was highly probable that the Executive status could be retained, it was necessary to maintain good relations with all parties for the sake of the big picture.

Those who scheme for the big picture are bound to be burdened by it; this was a realization Xia Duo had long ago, only now he seemed to be regarded by the Seven Towers as an unstable factor affecting the big picture.

Therefore, the other purpose of Huo En inviting him was exposed without a doubt—a demonstration, or rather, a warning, to show him the power of the Seven Towers in every aspect, such as moral justification, interest alliances, combat strength, and so on.

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To summarize, it was actually just one sentence: the Seven Towers had already begun to regard themselves as the actual rulers of Netheril.

If one were to follow the script of a historical court drama, in a few years, the Seven Towers might truly be able to complete their grand plan of "curbing the vassals" step by step, taking back most of the power to the center and completely integrating the whole of Netheril.

But reality is not a historical court drama. If nothing else, Xia Duo himself could not possibly give up the independent status of his Territory. Unless he were allowed to control the center and preside over the plan to curb the vassals, who would oppose themselves?

……

Inside the Xiu Xi Shi, Xia Duo had not been sitting for more than a few minutes when Zhenna came to visit in person to probe Xia Duo's attitude toward the Seven Towers' plan.

After several exchanges, Xia Duo already understood Zhenna's choice; the other party agreed with the plan proposed by the Seven Towers and was even trying to persuade him to accept it as well.

"Since I first heard about the Seven Towers' plan from my teacher two days ago, I have been thinking about it until now. Regarding that plan proposed by the Seven Towers, I still have many unresolved doubts."

"What aspects of doubt does Lord Xia Duo still have?"

"My teacher spoke quite generally during our communication. I want to know the specific plan of the Seven Towers, including the details of the amendments to the Seville Covenant and the disposal measures for Planes like Tianshui."

"So that's what it is!"

Zhenna smiled slightly, took out a finger-thick booklet from her wide Mage Robe, handed it to Xia Duo's side, and then explained:

"This is the preliminary plan drafted by the Seven Towers after consulting with Master Yinaole recently. Lord Xia Duo might as well take a look first. The Seven Towers will also consult with other Great Arcanists in the near future, but most people already know part of the plan's content to some extent, and they are very interested in the Seven Towers' plan."

Xia Duo took the booklet into his hands. The cover was wordless and not very thick, but just by the content it involved, it made Xia Duo feel a trace of heaviness. He understood in his heart that this was likely the order of Netheril for the next few decades or even hundreds of years.

And judging by the fact that Zhenna was able to obtain this booklet, she had definitely received a task from the Seven Towers beforehand. Xia Duo suddenly realized that Zhenna had just said other Great Arcanists also had some understanding of the plan's content.

Perhaps those people also had lobbyists like Zhenna.

"They really went to great lengths!" Xia Duo sighed in his heart.

Afterward, he opened the booklet. Inside was the original text of the current Seville Covenant, which had lasted for hundreds of years. However, he remembered that the original text of the Seville Covenant did not have many words and should not have required much paper.

Realizing this, Xia Duo immediately flipped toward the back. Sure enough, except for the original covenant oath on the first page which remained unchanged, there were annotated amendments starting from the first article.

And it was annotated and amended almost article by article. Xia Duo did not look at it carefully from the beginning but flipped through it quickly. Sure enough, the rest was the same—annotated amendments to the old Seville Covenant, and a large amount of new content had been added.

For example, on a page Xia Duo subsequently opened, the original text of the current covenant regarding the independent status of the Territory was just a dry sentence: "The independent status of the Territory shall not be infringed upon, and internal affairs of the Territory shall be decided by the Lord."

But the amended and supplementary content was too much; it almost expanded this principle of independence into specific legal articles, including the prerequisites for independence, the content of independence, the limitations of independence, and the rights and obligations arising from independence, and so on.

In these unusually familiar words, Xia Duo saw the shadow of the Daxia Code, or rather, this was the Netheril Constitution draft created by referencing the Daxia Code!

Compared to the current Old Covenant, the content with the most additions in the New Covenant was the description of the New Sevinton Council, which was indeed not much different from what Yinaole had previously revealed.

The only manifestation of the Seven Towers retaining their Executive status lay in the position of Speaker, whose duties were to convene or respond to requests to convene the deliberative assembly, preside over meetings, be responsible for the permanent institutions under the Sevinton Council, and so on.

The Speaker is elected from within the Seven Towers, while there is no difference in power settings between the other defeated Controllers and the Great Arcanists outside the Seven Towers.

And the deliberative principles of the Sevinton Council are also very simple; the basic process consists of just these few steps—motion, seconding, stating the topic, debate, voting, and announcing the results.

When voting, the minority obeys the majority. Because the Netheril Territories are independent, most of the topics brought to the Sevinton Council for discussion are public affairs, and a small portion are conflicts that require arbitration.

According to the provisions of the New Covenant, if two-thirds of the Great Arcanists are in favor and the remaining one-third do not object, the fast-track procedure can be initiated, and a resolution can be passed without the need for a vote by the Lords.

For cases other than the one above, a vote by the Lords is required, and the priority of the Lords' Projection results is higher than the voting of the Great Arcanists.

Xia Duo could see that the Seven Towers had truly gone to great lengths to deal with the dilution of the Seven Towers' right to speak due to the appearance of a large number of Great Arcanists after the Planes were connected. However, in Xia Duo's view, such a system design also had many merits.

After all, to a large extent, the Lords can be regarded as representatives of ordinary people. Both the New Covenant and the Old Covenant mention the duties of the Lords, but while the Old Covenant had duties, it did not have much content to restrict the Lords.

It can be said that in the era when the Old Covenant was signed, the Lords were still advanced representatives, or it can be said that the Old Covenant itself was a covenant between Lords, so naturally, it would not place too many restrictions on the power of the Lords themselves.

But the New Covenant—which in Xia Duo's view could already be called the existence of the Netheril Constitution—clearly proposed punishments for Lords who violated the covenant.

Of course, since the New Covenant was still a principled document, the covenant did not mention how to punish Lords who violated it, but subsequent relevant motions could already be initiated in the Sevinton Council based on these contents of the New Covenant.

For example, if Xia Duo saw a Lord in the Inner Land wantonly killing their subjects, he could propose a motion in the Sevinton Council to demand the deprivation of that Lord's status.

Motions proposed by Great Arcanists could enter the discussion process directly without going through the seconding process, while those proposed by other Lords required at least ten Lords or one Great Arcanist to second them before they could enter the discussion process.

……

After reading all the content of the New Covenant, Xia Duo already had a foresight of the order of Netheril in the future. He continued to flip through the booklet in his hand; the latter part mainly consisted of the Seven Towers' plan for the settlement and placement of the descendants of the Pioneers of Planes like Tianshui, as well as solutions to other problems raised by Yinaole.