On May 13, the Golden Crab and its rebel fleet officially left the Alliance behind before its pursuers could catch up, vanishing into the vast Spiral Cross Nebula.
When the news reached Nefi, it naturally failed to attract the attention of the Alliance's rulers. To them, the rebels who had merely shifted their operations to the border were a small band of insurgents, not even as dangerous as the pirate kings of old. Even the many member republics and kingdoms gearing up for civil war couldn't shake their steady political course or their measured pace of governance.
After a snap general election, 56-year-old Mr. Feno Berenkester officially became the Alliance's Supreme Leader, the head of state representing seven trillion people, and the natural leader of half the galaxy.
In reality, though, when he first entered the race, most Alliance citizens had reacted with, "Who the hell is this guy?"
It wasn't that the illustrious Lord Feno Berenkester was unknown.
After all, he was a Berenkester. A permanent director of the Standard Shipping Association. A member of the board of directors at Libra Bank. The (honorary) chairman of the Rainbow Rose Foundation. In his youth, he had also served as an inspector for the Bureau of Supernatural Affairs, taking on numerous dangerous missions, and had earned the Alliance Star medal at the age of thirty.
After that, he often appeared in business news as an investor, chatting amiably with all kinds of entrepreneurs, young and old, sensible and foolish. He was every inch the Alliance's generous benefactor.
Of course, he also made sure to appear in all sorts of entertainment and celebrity gossip, and had even taken part in several variety shows. He fit the standard profile of an Alliance tycoon to a tee.
All in all, Feno Berenkester had a