"Today is the forty-second day since you came to this Shadow World."
"Not only has the Honing Empire successfully occupied the neighboring Bliss Kingdom, but the Fuklo Kingdom and Edith Kingdom to the east and west have also been infiltrated. The Porant Empire is steadily losing ground on the front lines. In this battle, our army has suffered thirty thousand casualties and lost nearly a thousand Magic Cannons. The ports along the Northern Continent strait have also fallen into the hands of the bloodkin. It has become a foregone conclusion that the Honing Empire will launch a new offensive against our country or our neighbors."
"Worse still, Parliament's trust in you has fallen to an unprecedented low. Unless something unexpected happens, you will be impeached in tomorrow's Vote of No Confidence."
"This afternoon's speech is your last chance."
"Everything rests on this. Your fate is already bound to Loren's."
Cat Boss stood on Lanchi's desk, fiddling with his glow-tube timer as it delivered its report to him.
It was noon in the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem.
After the curtains were drawn, the room appeared somewhat dim. The glow-tube timer cast a saturated orange-red light, as if magma were illuminating the final countdown.
Lanchi sat alone behind an old-fashioned wooden desk, surrounded by piles of densely packed documents and file folders.
"It really is time for me to give my speech to the Lower House."
The glow-tube light slanted across Lanchi's face. No one knew what he was thinking. His gaze seemed to pierce toward the direction of the Parliament Building.
Two days had passed since Lanchi returned to the capital, Jerusalem, from Bojinhe County on the northern border. He had finished coordinating everything with his double and arranged the final agenda.
The wartime cabinet's support for the resistance no