I Love the Terran Confederacy

The banquet proceeded as scheduled, and the self-possessed nobles began to dine, gracefully wielding their knives and forks on the expensive silk tablecloths, and wiping their lips with handkerchiefs embroidered with gold thread.

Beside Augustus, Jim Raynor wielded a knife and fork, working on a perfectly seared steak with the ferocity of a sword, as if he were fighting a non-existent enemy.

Raynor is furious.

Augustus felt that Raynor must have been greatly provoked; the peasant's son was undergoing a change of heart, and he was becoming even more disgusted with the rulers of Tarsonis than before.

Not far from them, Edmond Duke seemed oblivious to Augustus and Raynor, who had also been invited as noble officers, and instead frequently clinked glasses with several officers beside him, all of whom wore gleaming medals.

The dull banquet did not last long. Most of the nobles had little appetite, but Edmond and his friends were in high spirits and did not adhere to any etiquette, but enjoyed the food and honor "like soldiers".

Around ten o'clock at night, even the most heavy drinkers put down their glasses and left their seats. Servants then moved the tables and chairs away, music started playing from a jeweled gramophone, and the ladies and young women danced with their partners.

"Should we jump?" Raynor Augustus after thinking for a long time.

"The two of us?" Augustus.

"This isn't quite right," Raynor said, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.

But the swarming ladies quickly snatched Raynor's dance partner away. Then, to Raynor's lamentations, Augustus danced with one young lady after another.

Augustus received training in court etiquette and dance from a young age. After a few days of intensive study, he was able to dance to each piece of music with light steps and without making a mistake.

During the third dance, Augustus was forced to take Annabella Terra's hand, and her daughter seemed very eager to dance with him as well, which puzzled him greatly.

Annabella's youngest daughter Nova Terra, sat in her little chair, looking at Augustus with an indescribable gaze, her mouth slightly open, her pale green eyes wide open—which Augustus preferred to call dead fish eyes.

This child doesn't seem very bright.

Augustus had no idea that this was Nova, the future renowned Ghost operative of the Terran Empire.

"Your hands are strong, and your eyes remind me of a ferocious wolf. Oh, you are so beautiful." Annabella's thin lips were alluring; she was well-maintained, and her low-cut dress struggled to support her overly full breasts, which Augustus always worried would be too much for her.

"How many push-ups can you do? How many pounds of barbell can you lift? Have you ever run an ancient Earth sport called the marathon?"

"Are you long-lasting?"

"Didn't Mr. Terra attend the banquet?" Augustus looked around, as if reminding himself that he wasn't having an affair.

He also felt that Annabella's undisguised sexual interest in him might cause unexpected trouble.

"You mean Constantine? Oh, he's still in Palobog, he can't get away. They're building a new Hover Car factory there, and the production lines for the latest maglev bicycles and cars are ready." Annabella said casually, adding a teasing remark to Augustus: "You're so shy."

"Don't worry, although Constantine and I are married, we are still essentially living separate lives," Annabella said. "It's a political marriage, and we don't have any feelings for each other. As long as you don't go too far, Constantine will forgive you."

"Madam." This was the first time Augustus had encountered such a situation, and he admitted he had little experience with it. Augustus could chat happily with young girls who were not much older than him, but he was really not good at dealing with women who were two or three times his age.

"My daughter likes you very much too." Annabella complained as she danced with Augustus that his hands weren't in the right place, "You could move your hands down a bit from above your waist."

Augustus didn't want to complain, so he wisely chose to keep quiet and didn't foolishly ask which daughter it was.

This is so strange.

"You are a member of the Kharmonsk family. Many people believe you should be Angus Mengsk's heir, the rising star of Kharmonsk politics, and the future owner of a business empire spanning several planets." Annabella stopped teasing Augustus.

"I also have a 28-year-old brother who is much more outstanding than me." Augustus tell that the Terra Family, at least Annabella Terra —perhaps only her—did not have such a confrontational attitude towards the Mengsk Family, and regarded the Mengsk as equal nobles.

Although the Old Families of other main planets were considered by the nobles of Tarsonis to be no more than newly rich families who had risen to prominence in the last century, and when the Old Families of Tarsonis already controlled the Terran Confederacy, the ancestors of the Mengsk Family were merely captains of colonial Fleets or ordinary crew members, the Mengsk Family was still able to receive a semblance of equality in the past because they controlled the economic lifeline of a planet, especially a wealthy place like Korhal.

Augustus could see that when the riots broke out in Korhal and the senators called for the entire planet to secede from the Confederacy, the more prominent the nobles in Tarsonis, the more they kept their distance from him or harbored deep hatred for him.

This was especially evident in the Tagore Family; Augustus certain that someone from the Tagore family would come knocking on his door after the banquet.

Augustus might be able to win over the Terra Family's support, but he himself didn't have high hopes for it. After all, the power of such ancient Old Families in Tarsonis was already deeply entrenched, and in order to protect the power and interests they already enjoyed, their natural stance was to oppose revolutionaries like Angus.

But Augustus hoped that the Terra Family would remain neutral, at least on the issue of using Apocalypse-class Nuclear Missile to destroy Korhal.

"The Korhal people haven't seen your brother for eight years," Annabella told Augustus. "He disappeared after retiring from the army, and nobody can find him."

"Yes, I don't know where he is either." Augustus knew that this "Korhal man" could be roughly understood as a Confederacy agent carrying out a mission in Korhal, and "everyone" probably meant all the agents.

Annabella remained silent for a moment; her interest in Augustus seemed to stem from more than just his handsome appearance and elegant manners.

"So, do you think your father is right?" Annabella suddenly asked after a while.

"Of course it's utterly stupid. That stubborn old man's mind is on the verge of collapse." Augustus raised his voice slightly. "I joined the Marines precisely because I was so disappointed in him."

"It is the Old Families and the aristocracy that have given the Mengsk Family its current status. What reason do we have to relinquish power and hand over the right to rule Korhal to those ignorant commoners who have neither knowledge nor talent?"

"Please believe me, Augustus Mengsk, I Terran Confederacy more than myself."