Later that day, in Conch City.
"Well done, Rose!"
"You've done the Conch City People proud!"
"That sounded fucking incredible!"
The crowd in the Theater Square erupted in cheers, as if Rose could actually hear them.
Amid the commotion, a busybody suddenly climbed onto the stage. Waving his arms, he shouted, "Everybody, look at me!"
The audience turned toward him, and the attention-loving young man yelled, "Listen up, everyone! Rose is one of us, from Conch City! We've got to support her! When the time comes, every last one of you vote for Rose!"
"Yeah!"
A chorus of cheers rose from below the stage.
The nobles on the second floor, however, found it all rather dull.
From the second floor of a building on the corner with the best view, one of Conch City's wealthiest merchants looked down at the commoners clambering onto the stage and jumping about. Disgust crossed his face.
"Such ill-mannered rabble..."
A trusted aide behind him hurriedly asked, "Lord Mercedes, should we drive them away?"
"Go back to the Manor and gather everyone..."
The merchant Mercedes stared at the unruly commoners and said, enunciating every word:
"Have them vote for Rose."
The aide froze, unable to make sense of it.
"Lord Mercedes, aren't we voting for Miss Kimberly...?"
"Idiot. Can't we vote for both?"
"But that child isn't one of ours..."
"Heh. Once Rose returns to Conch City, we'll just win her over."
"As expected of you, my lord!"
Merses glanced sideways at him. "Then why are you still here?"
"Yes, my lord! I'll tell them at once!"
The aide rushed back to the Manor and summoned everyone, even the cook and the stablehand. More than two hundred of them swarmed onto Commercial Street and pushed aside the commoners crowding the voting station.
"What are you