Chapter 910: 907. The Emperor's New Year Speech
On the penultimate day of 997, all the major nobles of the Human Empire gathered at the Grand Council in the Imperial Capital to listen to the Emperor deliver his annual speech.
As a newly appointed Imperial Duke, Landen entered behind King Dusen Whiteowl of the Dragon Kingdom, ahead of the other dukes who ruled territories directly under the Empire.
This was Landen's first time inside the Auditorium where the Grand Council convened. Compared with the court of inquiry he had visited a few months earlier, this place felt more like the "Heavenly Court" from the TV dramas of his homeland than any ordinary building.
Inside the Grand Council, the God Emperor himself sat at the very heart of the chamber, his form as immense as a mountain. The Emperor, the Imperial Prime Minister, and others sat before him.
The heads of the Empire's major departments were seated to the God Emperor's left. Most of them were Legends; only the Chief of the Palace Front Department looked a size smaller than the rest.
The kings of the various kingdoms, Imperial Dukes, and landed lords of the autonomous and directly administered territories who held the title of Marquis or higher sat on the right side of the council. Behind these two rows of nobles stood representatives of the Temple Alliance, the various Magic Academies, the Dragon Race, the Elves, and the Six-Limbed Race, all of them Legends or higher. It had the air of a gathering of immortals in court.
"Your Excellencies, people of the Empire: the year 997, which is soon to draw to a close, has been the most memorable year for the Empire since 697. The entire Empire stood united and reclaimed the Gallop Plains, lost for three hundred years,