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Chapter 1799 Speech in front of the Palace of Glory (Long chapter, please vote!)

"Is that the Palace of Radiance?"

Standing in the long procession escorting the coffin, the young man looked up at the magnificent palace ahead.

"It should be."

Dester, who was standing in front of the young man, also looked up at the magnificent palace and the huge statues standing in front of it.

"Who is that tall statue of Christos? So many people in Dawn City like him? They actually erected such a big statue of him at the entrance of the Palace of Radiance?" the young man said in amazement.

“That’s not Christos, he’s the first mayor of Dawn City,” the man in black said slowly. “But the people of Dawn City really do like Christos.”

"That Ellenska, the first mayor of Dawn City?" Upon hearing this, Dester looked up at the huge sculpture again and asked with some surprise.

"Yes." The man in black nodded quickly, then looked up at the area in front of him, slowly walked forward, and blocked the entire group.

Some staff members wearing Radiant Palace security uniforms came over and began to guide the group to their positions.

Only then did the young man standing in the middle of the group realize that they had arrived at a wide square, where symbols that were faintly glowing were projected onto the ground.

Those appeared to be some kind of location markers, as the workers were guiding the coffins one by one to stop next to those symbols.

The surrounding crowd, which had been somewhat agitated, gradually quieted down upon seeing this.

As the slender coffin was laid out across the entire square, a solemn and dignified atmosphere spread throughout the square.

The young man looked up and saw robots rapidly assembling at the foot of the giant statue in front of the square, setting up a temporary podium.

Around the square, yellow barriers were continuously set up by staff to separate the mourners and clear a relatively large area in the middle of the square.

"Was this prepared in advance?" After stopping the group, the man in black returned to the crowd. Dester looked at the staff members and asked in a low voice.

“No,” the man in black shook his head. “I only received the orders recently, and these are all prepared on short notice.”

"Prepared on short notice?" Dester was slightly taken aback. He looked up at the neatly organized staff and the people working in coordination with them. A flash of surprise crossed his eyes. "Such high efficiency. The residents of Dawn City really respect Christos."

"How did you figure that out?" The man in black looked at Dester with some surprise. "Those staff members are the security force of the Radiant Palace. They are indeed well-trained, but how did you figure out that these residents respect Christos?"

“Look at those people,” Dester raised his hand and pointed to the people being pulled back by the cordon. “Before the cordon arrived, these citizens of Dawn City were spontaneously cooperating in retreating. Such a large group, yet they were able to maintain order without many people maintaining order.”

"Does this mean that the citizens of Dawn City are of high quality?" the man in black pondered.

“There are reasons for that,” Dester nodded slightly, then continued, “but more importantly, their leaders are either authoritarian, prestigious, or particularly cruel, using brutal punishments to force people to obey their rules, or particularly respected, making people spontaneously willing to cooperate with their actions.”

He turned to look at the man in black. "Which one do you think it is?"

“Of course, the kind that commands respect,” the man in black nodded slightly, raised his head, looked at the retreating crowd, and said with a touch of emotion, “Now I understand what you mean.”

“Christos is indeed a good leader,” Dester said again with a touch of emotion, his eyes lowered slightly, his gaze deep and unfathomable.

tick-

Just then, a drop of water landed on his cheek.

He looked up at the sky. "It's raining."

The man in black beside him also raised his head and looked up at the sky.

The gloomy sky was already covered by thick clouds, and drizzling raindrops were falling from the heavens, densely covering the ground below.

Among the crowd on the outside, some people looked up at the sky and watched the pattering raindrops.

Some people who carried umbrellas quickly opened them and held them over their heads, while others tried to cover their heads with their clothes to block the raindrops.

At this moment, the crowd became slightly agitated.

hum-

The roar of a drone cut through the dim rain at that moment, and behind the drone, a huge tarpaulin was pulled out.

click -

Construction robots, which had somehow reached the edge of the isolation zone, extended slender, retractable pillars that stretched towards the sky.

The drone in front hangs the front end of the tarpaulin on the pillar, while the back end of the tarpaulin is fixed to the building behind.

In a very short time, the square tarpaulins unfolded like giant umbrellas, blocking the raindrops from the sky and covering the crowds in different sections of the square.

“This—” Dester looked up, staring at everything in disbelief.

"What's wrong?" The man in black turned his head, glanced at Dester, and then looked at the tarpaulin. "This efficiency is indeed quite high."

“I’ve never seen anything like this in other cities,” Dester thought for a moment, glanced at the construction robot next to him, and said slowly, “These technologies are already mature, but few politicians are willing to hold up an umbrella for their voters.”

“Perhaps it’s due to cost and security considerations,” the man in black shook his head. “Dawn City didn’t have these before; they only started using them gradually.”

As the two were talking, several staff members came over and handed umbrellas to the escort team members standing there.

The man in black opened his umbrella, held it over his head, exchanged a few words with the staff, then turned to Dester and said, "We also have our own designated spot. I'll take you there."

As he spoke, he raised his hand and guided the crowd to the back.

As he followed, Dester also turned his head to look at the crowd on both sides.

The wide tarpaulin undulated slightly in the sudden wind and rain, while the drones continued to move quickly, providing a framework for the tarpaulin and constructing it into a simple canopy.

As the tarpaulin was raised, the previously noisy crowd quieted down. The sound of the tarpaulin catching the wind and bobbing up and down became the only loud noise under the gloomy sky.

Under the awning, the people standing there were looking up at the side front.

Dester also turned his head and looked in the direction that the people were looking.

A man in a silver suit slowly walked out from behind the statue and onto the newly erected podium.

People watched the figure, but there was no overly excited action. Perhaps it was because of the staff's obstruction, or perhaps it was because of a kind of restraint they had become accustomed to. They watched the figure and saw him slowly walk onto the stage.

call--

The wind howled, whipping the tarpaulin and making the only loud noise under the dim sky.

When the man in black led Dester to their designated area at the back, the man in the silver suit also walked to the front of the stage.

A temporary rain shelter had been set up on the platform, and staff members stood beside the coffins placed on the ground, guiding them under dark and solemn umbrellas.

A man in a silver suit stood in front of the podium, his expression solemn. A huge projection screen unfolded behind him, projecting his body onto the screen.

He looked down at the dark coffin, paused, and then said in a hoarse voice, "Please join me in observing three minutes of silence."

His voice was amplified by loudspeakers hidden around the square, resounding in everyone's ears.

The entire square fell silent instantly, and the slight commotion that had been there came to an abrupt end.

All eyes turned to the coffin below. No one spoke. The wide square was eerily quiet at that moment, so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

Dester didn't say anything, he just quietly looked at the man in the silver suit and the black coffin on the ground.

After what seemed like an unusually long wait, the man in the silver suit looked up at the crowd and said, "Alright, thank you all for the moment of silence."

“I believe everyone has this question in their hearts,” the man in the silver suit said, his gaze sweeping down over the faces in the rain. He paused for a moment where Dester and the others were standing, but quickly moved on to the people on the other side.

Finally, he withdrew his gaze, "I wonder why I brought these young people's bodies here, I wonder why I gathered everyone here, in fact,"

He paused slightly at this point, then added, "There are more people here tonight than I expected."

He looked down at the rows of dark coffins below. "These handsome young men and beautiful young women are lying here. Most of them are only in their twenties, and the oldest is only thirty-seven. On average, they are less than thirty years old, which is the age when they are full of dreams and the future."

"They came from all directions, not just from Dawn City, but also from Wetland, the western part of the Federation, the central part of the Federation, and the northern part of the Federation. They came from all over the Federation and gathered in Irons."

"For the past two days, I've been looking at news about the Irons march,"

He placed his hands on either side of the podium and raised his voice slightly, “Many people have described that march as a riot, chaos, a frenzied outburst, a provocation against the federal order.”

"But now, those conglomerates that were hit by the 'riots' are completely unharmed."

"And the organizers who created these 'riots' are lying here, in dark coffins."

"If you open the coffin, you won't see a complete body, but a mess of shredded flesh."

"There are more than forty coffins here. They belong to the young people who died in this incident, but they are not all of them."

He raised his head and looked down at the people below. "Not only in Irons, but also in Wetland, in Anxie, in Aisan, on the east and west coasts of the Federation, in the south and north, there are large numbers of people who have died because of this."

"Their greatest 'sin' was instigating what many media outlets call a 'riot,' even though this 'riot' was actually a permitted and approved march."

“We all know that the media has a special ability to control our eyes and ears and stuff what it wants us to know into our perception.”

"They can turn black into white, white into black, lies into truth, and truth into lies."

"I've always understood these things, and I believe everyone standing here understands them too,"

The man turned his gaze to the people, “but when I saw them portraying upright young people as murderous thugs, I still felt an overwhelming anger.”

The crowd below, who had been immersed in the moment, began to stir slightly.

The man in the silver suit standing on the podium placed his hand on the podium and continued speaking slowly, "Actually, we all know that we have remained silent for a long time."

"But we cannot remain silent forever."

"I believe everyone still has doubts in their hearts, wondering why I would hold such a grand ceremony for these children, most of whom don't even belong to the Dawn."

"Because essentially, they have the same experiences as us, they have the same stories as us."

"Outside of Dawn City, in the corners of the Federation, the same story is being repeated time and again."

"And that is why these young people from all over the world have gathered in Irons, trying to change the Federation and change the world."

“Some people in Irons may think these young people are radical, but they are actually quite moderate.”

The man in the silver suit calmly looked at the crowd below, his tone slightly raised, "When silence becomes the norm, even a soft hum is considered radical, something that needs to be covered up and suffocated in this darkness."

"Those who have their hands on our necks hope we will remain silent for as long as I have experienced the hundreds of assassination attempts since I became mayor."

"The moment someone tries to open their mouth, they will be met with the fiercest attack."

"But people always have to open their mouths; in the end, all that awaits in the long silence is death."

He raised his head and looked down at everyone below. "At this moment, the conglomerate's mercenary group has surrounded the entire city, and our silence is also shrouded in this sky."

"Death has reached our feet."

"No one can threaten us with death. For eight hundred years, Dawn City has never been afraid of war and death. Even in the era of the Great Cataclysm of ignorance, Dawn City has remained a bridgehead against alien beasts and evil gods."

He gripped the sides of the podium, his voice gradually rising in pitch.

"And now, in this long silence, the choice of the times has returned to our hands."

Requesting votes at the beginning of the month