Absolute Choice
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Absolute Choice - Chapter 407: No one can prevent the war!
Celestial domain, round table meeting room
"As Celestial King, does This King not even have the slightest bit of authority? This King is now commanding to cancel all the battle plans of invading the Infernal domain!"
Speechless was looking with a gloomy face at seven Celestial Elders, who were sitting in front of a large, round table. It was rumored that the seven Celestial Elders were descendants with the purest bloodline, but from Speechless's point of view, they were just seven elderly dwarfs with sallow skin.
The seven dwarves remained unperturbed despite Speechless appearing like he would go mad at any moment. They seemed oblivious of the wrath of the Celestial King that was about to be triggered.
The most esteemed Grand Elder of the seven Elders was the first to speak by saying, "Your Majesty, with all due respect, I'm afraid you do not have the right to cancel the battle plans."
Speechless said with a sneer, "Why doesn't This King not have the right? Try telling This King what rights he possesses when This King is the most esteemed Celestial King of the Celestial domain?"
The Grand Elder faltered slightly before he quickly gave an indifferent smile. He said nonchalantly, "A thousand years ago, the Celestial domain has begun a round-table parliamentary system. The round-table system is not only the highest legislative branch of the Celestial domain, it is also the one with the highest authority in the Celestial domain. Even Your Majesty was elected by the round-table parliament. Therefore, all important matters in the Celestial domain are decided by the round-table! And as the Celestial King, Your Majesty has the right to participate in matters regarding the Celestial domain. Furthermore, one of your votes is counted as two."
"Of course, you, Your Majesty, have quite a good deal of preferential treatment. For example, Your Majesty has the preferential right to choose from the various resources of the Celestial domain. Your Majesty can also enjoy the best delicacies and best beauties of the Celestial domain. When the citizens of the Celestial domain see Your Majesty, they have to respectfully salute Your Majesty and are not to treat Your Majesty frivolously. If there is a diplomatic situation, Your Majesty's image will represent the Celestial domain. There are many similar rights. In summary, other than important matters of the Celestial domain that require the deliberation of parliament, the other matters are free for Your Majesty to decide."
Speechless fell into a daze when he heard this. He could not help but cringe in his heart.
Wasn't this a fucking parliamentary monarchy? Fuck that round-table parliament!
However, as compared to the parliamentary monarchies in the human world, the Celestial domain's parliament was much smaller in size. The seven Elders decided on the important matters of the country, so basically, the rights were concentrated in the Grand Elder's hands. Although he as the Celestial King had two votes, it was useless when it was two against seven.
Speechless never imagined that the Celestial King was in such an awkward situation in the Celestial domain. It appeared as though all rights were concentrated in the king, allowing him to lord over thousands of people, but he was actually just a 'puppet ruler' who had his rights removed. A round-table parliament had directly removed the ruling rights of the Celestial King. It was no wonder he had a nagging feeling that the bull-horned guard's attitude towards him was not like what a king with the right to kill should have.
As for what the Grand Elder said about enjoying delicacies and beauties, that was something even more to scoff at. The subtext of those rights was very simple—Your Majesty, just enjoy gallivanting and leave the Celestial domain to us.
In short, the Celestial King was the round-table parliament's, no, the seven Elders' political puppet!
Speechless suddenly thought of something and immediately asked in wonder, "Since This King does not have the right to single-handedly decide on important matters of the country, how was This King be able to go against all odds and pass the plan of invading the Infernal domain?"
The Grand Elder chuckled, "Your Majesty, are you joking? Or have you not woken up yet?"
Speechless' eyes flashed a cold beam as he looked at the Grand Elder. He said with a sneer, "What do you think? Answer This King. Although This King does not have absolute rights, don't forget that This King is the strongest person in the Celestial domain."
The seven Elders looked at each other when they heard him. They found it ridiculous.
Did the Celestial King plan on using force to threaten them? Did he really think that he was the strongest person in the Celestial domain?
However, it was apparent that the Grand Elder did not want to lose all decorum with the Celestial King. Hence, he signaled to the other Elders before pretending to appear respectful. He said, "Your Majesty, although the round-table parliament is the core decision maker of the Celestial domain, Your Majesty is still a supreme existence. You possess the greatest right in the Celestial domain—the Will of the King. Every Celestial King has the right to use the 'Will of the King' once during his rule. You can propose any executive order that parliament has to pass as long as the order does not lead the Celestial domain towards destruction. Just two days ago, you used the 'Will of the King'. The executive order was to launch a full-scale invasion of the Infernal domain. Although it did not match with the peaceful concept of the Celestial domain, it was not one that would lead the Celestial domain towards destruction. Therefore, parliament eventually passed your order!"
When Speechless heard this, he fell silent for a moment. Two days ago was the period when he just arrived in the seventh level. He was still touring the world to kill time. The Celestial King, who used the 'Will of the King', clearly wasn't him, but the real Celestial King. But this was something unprecedented in previous trials. What was the reason or what was the thing that changed or triggered the plot to go down such a strange path.
Speechless sighed in his heart. But clearly, he would not give up on preventing the war. He looked at the Grand Elder and said softly, "If This King remembers correctly, back when This King proposed the executive order of launching a full-out invasion of the Infernal domain, the seven of you had vehemently opposed it. Why are all of you vehemently opposing This King's present intent of cancelling the executive order of the Infernal domain invasion?"
The Grand Elder said in a deep voice, "Back when Your Majesty proposed the executive order of invading the Infernal domain, it was a conflict with the 'Isolation and Peaceful Act' that was passed through the Will of the King used by the Celestial King from a thousand years ago. As there was worry that the Celestial soldiers were unable to adapt to a sudden war after a thousand years of peace, we had unanimously raised our objections. But since you used the Will of the King, we could only choose to pass it. And at this moment, Your Majesty suddenly want us to cancel the attack. With all due respect, it's too late!"
Speechless said coldly, "Why is it too late?"
The Grand Elder said with a sigh, "It's because the first division has already begun carrying out the mission. And according to intelligence reported a minute ago, Commander Maio lives up to our expectations and successfully destroyed a segment of the array formation. The war between the Celestial domain and the Infernal domain has already begun."
Speechless said in a deep voice, "The war has yet to begin. It's only the destruction of a segment of the array formation. According to what This King knows, the Infernal domain's barrier's array formation has more than a thousand segments. Only by destroying more than half of them would the Infernal domain's barrier be considered destroyed. Things have not proceeded to an irrecoverable state. We just need to take the initiative to make peace with the Infernal domain!"
"Peace?"
The Grand Elder could not help but laugh, "Your Majesty, you are really confused. Since time immemorial, gods and demons stood on opposite sides in an eternal conflict. The Celestial domain and the Infernal domain were arch-rivals to begin with. The Celestial-Infernal war that happened a thousand years ago caused the absolute destruction of life. It made the benevolent Celestial King choose to initiate the retreat so as to end the war. We signed a peace agreement that the Celestials are never to step out of the Celestial domain. Only then was the Celestial-Infernal war ended. But now, the Celestial domain had not only disregarded the agreement by stepping out of the Celestial domain. It has also destroyed a segment of the Infernal domain's array formation. What reaction do you think the Infernal domain will have? The war has already begun. This time, even if we concede once more, the Infernal domain will definitely not easily spare us!"
"Furthermore, why should we compromise? In fact, when you used the Will of the King to pass the decree of invading the Infernal domain, you had received the the unanimous cheers of the Celestial citizens! The race of the Celestials is the greatest race in the world. So why should we be restricted to the tiny Celestial domain? This war is the collective desire of the Celestial domain. It is a longing for freedom! No one can stop the hearts of the people. Not Your Majesty, nor the round-table parliament!"
"Therefore, no one can stop this war!" IChooseDogLeading (我选择狗带) when read in Chinese sounds like I Choose Go Die. It was a meme that resulted from a former member of famous Korean boygroup, EXO, TAO (Huang Zitao). At a concert, there was a part in a rap that where he said "", but due to a mispronunciation, it sounded like he will not easily choose to be led by dogs. This phrase now means 'I'd rather die/I choose death'.