Void Crowne - Book 1 - Chapter 72 (Patreon)

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Click on the following link for the 1439 word Chapter 72:

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Aidan

This guy… did he seriously just pretend to never have met me? When we fought? And he ran away?

The Zelbar Queen makes a couple clicking sounds before stating, “Don’t treat us as fools. The hive is fully aware of your meeting with the Void Crowne.”

Her words make the Orc King turn his sneer from me towards her with his lips curling upwards as he retorts, “I don’t remember ever meeting this thing before. Only his little bugs. What about you? You enjoying being number two amongst the insects of Gaia?”

A round of hisses comes from the zelbar’s booth, proving that none of them are particularly happy with his words. Meanwhile I just find it mildly irritating that they’re using me to start an argument between themselves now.

Can’t they just leave me out of this?

What’s worse is that the other City Lords in the other booths are just staying silent without saying a word. All without taking their eyes off of the zelbar and the orcs.

There are even quite a few of them on the lower rings that straight up look afraid of them.

Of course, there are some that look a little afraid of me as well, but I’m going to pretend those don’t exist.

Anyway, considering the sheer numbers amongst the voidlings, orcs, and zelbar, it’s not that surprising that there’s fear directed at the three groups. Just one of the three can easily crush most of the other forces here with sheer numbers alone.

And we’re gaining more numbers every day.

I lean against the arm rest of the chair in the booth as I watch the Orc King and the Zelbar Quen seriously argue with each other.

Although argue might be putting it nicely, as they are straight up verbally fighting at this point.

I’m just surprised the Orc King knows this many complicated words and methods to use them. Considering what I’ve seen from other orcs up till now.

Orcs don’t seem to be the sharpest tools in the shed, and their speech is a lot more limited than this Orc King. Which certainly explains part of why he is able to dominate all of the orcs as their king with no exception.

What’s so different about him? Is he just a genius amongst the orcs? Or maybe it has something to do with his bloodline, or a mutation in his species?

I’m not sure. There isn’t much to go off of, and I don’t know anything about orcs.

The Zelbar Queen repeatedly uses the Orc King’s failed attack on the humans, specifically my sending them running, as fodder to verbally attack the Orc King. Meanwhile the Orc King pokes fun at the zelbar being ‘the number two insects of Gaia’ to get back at them.

Each of which is using me to battle the other.

I find this rather annoying, but at the very least, they aren’t directly involving me.

Maybe they have some sort of conflict with each other?

That wouldn’t be too surprising. Both of them want to dominate the planet, and they’re currently stuck facing another power vying for the same goal. It would be stranger if they didn’t clash over this.

“That’s enough,” I hear Rex’s voice echo from next to me, making me glance at him to find a very pissed off voidling standing by my seat. And I’m not the only one looking this way as everyone else does so too. “Do not besmirch the Great One’s ears with this dribble.”

Well that’s mildly embarrassing to hear him say in a place with this many people. It’s probably something I’ll have to get used to, though.

I’ve already gotten used to hearing them call me those titles at my city, so what’s so different about them calling me them in public?

“Gaia is currently at war with Furtruna and is undergoing Assaults from them by the second, and you are here fighting against yourselves,” Rex continues, his ice-cold voice cutting through the chamber. “If you wish to fight, do so after the war is stabilized. Otherwise we will oblige you and wipe both of your forces off the face of the planet.”

Hmm. Is that taking it a little far?

Probably not. He likely needs to go this far to keep them in check.

Now, whether they’ll listen, that’s another matter entirely.

“As if you and your little Auction House could ever bring down my empire,” the Orc King says with a snort.

And the Zelbar Queen is even worse. She just narrows her eyes at the void ripper and bluntly states, “The zelbar will never have discussions with a false hive.”

These zelbar are just plain annoying.

Still. Despite their words, the zelbar and orcs both calm down and stop arguing. Then they exit their booths and begin trying to gather votes from the other City Lords. Seemingly dispelling the official feel of this Council Meeting by wandering around instead of just sitting at their booths.

Of course, their little attempts at campaigning fail pretty miserably.

Neither the zelbar or the orcs are popular, and that is made clear rather easily by the sight of some booths straight up closing up to block their approach before they can even get near. Which I didn’t even know was possible.

I can’t help but wonder what suddenly gave these City Lords the courage to do this, considering how quiet they were before. But maybe this is because they’re approaching the ones on the higher rings who weren’t directly afraid.

Plus these two, the Orc King and Zelbar Queen, will no doubt attack anyone near them. Regardless of how well someone in the World Council treated them.

After the two begin their campaigning, Rex makes a few clicking sounds in what I’ve come to understand is a mixture of amusement and contempt. Then he turns towards me and declares, “Great One, I wish to begin attempts to gather votes for your throne and request permission to leave your side.”

“Go ahead,” I tell him with a wave of my hand before resting my cheek against my fist and just watching from the sidelines.

“I shall prove the superiority of the void to these zelbar before all,” Rex continues, clearly having been affected by the zelbar’s words. Then he goes off with several voidlings.

Leaving a few voidlings behind to stand guard at either side of my seat. All of whom are very large and all humanoid in form.

Why do I feel like some king sitting on a throne? Especially considering that I’m on the top, central platform above everyone else.

This brief thought flashes through my mind before I shake my head. Then I just sit back and watch as the other City Lords begin to leave their booths as well to go around and discuss amongst themselves.

And I’m sure a lot of them are just trying to build connections now while they have a chance.

As for whether someone can actually get the votes required for the election during these two hours? That is highly unlikely.

In fact, I’d be shocked if someone could even get half of the votes required for it.

I could maybe see myself getting a good chunk of the votes for no other reason than the Auction House, but no one else.

No one is likely to vote for the Zelbar Queen or the Orc King when they so obviously look down on everyone else, with the exception of maybe criminals trying to take advantage of them and people living near them who are afraid.

As for the ratkin? They have a lot of numbers, but none of them are above the ground level. Which makes their numbers rather pointless.

After briefly watching the voidlings at work for a moment, I turn my gaze onto Ali, who is currently also having discussions with a few other City Lords. Including, but not limited to, Akira and that top craftsman Draxion.

A part of me wonders if I should go down and join their conversations. But another part worries about how awkward it would be to just join in. Especially when the only people I’ve directly spoken to before in their group are my sister and Akira.

I’d probably just end up standing awkwardly to the side during their conversation. Which wouldn’t look very good for the Void Crowne.

So I continue to sit on my seat at the top of the chamber, just looking down at the lower rings and all of the negotiations without moving.

I hope these two hours go by fast.