While Evan and the others were busy madly climbing the technology tree, the "Lowland Republic" on the other side of the Black Sea was occupied with the most important matter since its founding: elections.
After vast sums of money had been poured into it, the capital, Antwerp City, was rebuilt and restored at an astonishing pace.
Even though it was already the bitter cold of November, every major polling station remained packed with people. Long lines stretched for nearly a hundred meters, as though every resident of the city had flooded into the streets.
Everyone's face brimmed with joy that not even the freezing wind could conceal.
Several young people who looked like newspaper reporters surrounded a middle-aged voter who had come to cast his ballot, rapidly taking notes in their notebooks:
"Sir, is there anything you would like to say about the Republic's current electoral system?"
"What I'm seeing today is something I never would have dared imagine in my forty years of life. The people who get to decide who becomes head of state are actually every one of us citizens?
And the purpose of a government is not to exploit us, but to serve its people. This is the wonderful life Mister Orange has brought us."
"Then which candidate are you planning to support for the position of the first Prime Minister today?"
"Haha, of course I'll choose Mister Constance Harun, who promised to extend loans to small workshops as well, so they can buy Steam Engines and transform their industries.
Actually, I would rather have voted for Speaker William Orange, but unfortunately, he isn't running."
After the interview ended, he did not forget to raise a clenched fist and shout at the reporters:
"We drove out Sirius's dictator. The great people of the Republic are the