Stepping down from the dais at the highest point of the Ewindara Autonomous Council, Lady Olina found a door directly opposite the council members' seats, beyond a dark birchwood railing. It was the speaker's private passage out of the chamber.
As Speaker of the Ewindara Autonomous Council, the council building was Lady Olina's workplace, and here, naturally, she enjoyed certain privileges.
When Lady Olina reached the door, the two council guards stationed there opened it for her. Even after she had left the chamber, the tremendous clamor inside had not diminished in the slightest.
The end of today's meeting did not mean the end of the disputes and divisions. Quite the contrary—judging from what had happened in the council chamber today, the rifts and conflicts among the great families of the Ewindara Archipelago were being dragged into the open and growing ever more intense. In the past few years, at least before the Holy Light Empire's dispatch of troops to the Sacred Ice Island Kingdom had been confirmed, the Ewindara Autonomous Council had always maintained an air of harmony. The council members had never erupted into such fierce clashes and accusations. Yet after news of the Holy Light Empire's deployment spread through Ewindara, the atmosphere within the council gradually changed. Until today, the Decisive Battle Mobilization Act had become a fuse, instantly setting the Ewindara Autonomous Council ablaze and bringing the undercurrents and chaos hidden beneath the surface of the Ewindara seas bursting forth in an instant, straight to their climax.
Only once the door had closed behind her did Lady Olina's ears finally gain a measure of peace.
Beyond the door lay a quiet passageway, carpeted with thick, soft, luxurious camel-hair rugs from the Manla Empire on the Western Continent, with flowers adorning both sides. Once the door was