"Have the people of the Free State Conglomerate all lost their minds?"
"How could the Supreme Council possibly approve a declaration of war? Those leaders of the small states, who'd rather spend their whole lives lounging around and enjoying themselves, who were so accustomed to a life of comfort—where did they get the nerve?"
"Why didn't the intelligence department receive any warning about this in advance?"
Doubts filled everyone's minds.
Fortunately, even though the incident had come without warning, the intelligence networks of the Black Stone Kingdom and Wang Dong were no pushovers.
Once they were running at full capacity, more and more follow-up intelligence came in, making everyone feel that something was increasingly amiss.
First of all, the declaration of war hadn't been passed through the Supreme Council according to procedure.
Instead, the current Speaker of the Supreme Council of the Free State Conglomerate had invoked the "Emergency Adjudication Order"—a measure that existed only in theory—and issued it directly!
Why say it existed "only in theory"?
Because ever since the Free State Conglomerate was founded, this "Emergency Adjudication Order" had never once been used.
The reason was simple.
Every member of the Supreme Council came from one of the Free State Conglomerate's small states and represented that state's views.
A resolution passed by the Supreme Council required the approval of at least a majority of its members before it could truly be put into effect.
It was easy for the Speaker to invoke the "Emergency Adjudication Order."
But getting the small states within the Free State Conglomerate to agree with its terms wasn't so easy.
Issuing an "Emergency Adjudication Order" without first discussing it in the Supreme Council was pointless without enough support behind it.
It would only badly damage the Speaker's authority!
Take this declaration of war