The doctor suffers from amnesia, but not complete amnesia.

"...Fine, so let's remove all that and return to the ranks of ordinary citizens. Do you even know what your utterly impractical 'Infected Persons Amendment Law' really means? You're destroying the laws that maintain national order!"

"Imagine a family consisting of infected and uninfected individuals. Now you order them to die on their own. If the infected person is forcibly taken away, will the spouse inherit the property? Then there will be court arbitration, and then a death certificate—oh, it's an eviction certificate."

"The truth will out! No matter how much you try to cover it up, even if you change it from 'expulsion' to divorce, you'll still need to add a valid and feasible divorce law and a huge agency to handle it—because this is the empire's responsibility to its people!"

Oleg poured out his anger at a rapid pace, yet his questions remained logically clear even in this situation.

"So, even if all the judges were to leave their posts now and go to the civil courts to enforce divorce arbitrations, it would still take us decades to handle hundreds of thousands or even millions of divorce cases!"

"What does this have to do with us—does a nobleman and a serf even need to divorce?"

Anatoly's smile remained.

"Our principle is to ensure that infected people disappear from the normal operation of the country. This is for the sake of our country and our people."

"Perhaps our judge has some special feelings for those infected."

Igor forced a smile, as if trying to tell a lame joke to resonate with the others.

Unfortunately, no one could laugh at this moment.

"For whom? For those infected?"

Oleg's eagle-like gaze turned towards him.

Igor's expression froze.

“Apart from the nobles, I have a special affection for all commoners—as can be seen from your shallow political remarks. Apart from naivety and arrogance, you are not even as good as the infected you mock. At least they are all normal human beings.”

"You, and your group of salon friends, simply think that they are a bunch of inferior people who don't deserve to breathe the same air as you, but the truth is that your brain development is probably not as good as their cerebellum."

The judge looked at Anatoly again.

"If we handle the coexistence of infected and non-infected people in a realistic way, the whole world will applaud us. But if we treat them as imaginary demons or some kind of non-human and take the initiative to massacre or forcibly exterminate them, we will only be regarded as crazy and inhuman by other countries!"

“I will think of my country and my people, but that must be done in accordance with the correct laws—I remind you again, Anatoly Romanov, even you must abide by the laws I have written, because they have been approved by His Majesty the Emperor!”

No one spoke. Oleg's firepower was so intense that even Qiao Yelan gave up trying to interject. As for Anatoli, it was clear that expecting his men to retaliate without him speaking was unrealistic.

"Gentlemen, Judge Oleg's concerns about the potential consequences of the expulsion policy are indeed worth considering, and I believe that he, like us, is working for the future of the Empire."

Anatoly also stood up, smiling as he looked around.

"It's almost noon. I think we can take a break and have something to eat so that we can concentrate better on the meeting later."

Yefim stood up, opened the door to the meeting room, and the servants outside immediately busied themselves, placing one delicious dish after another on the dining table in the living room.

Everyone except Alexander and Qiao Yelan stood up.

"Your Honor, may I speak with you alone?"

Oleg could not refuse Anatoly's invitation.

Watching the two leave, Qiao Yelan turned his wheelchair and looked at the Minister of State of the East Kasimir Governor's Office, who was about to pass behind him on his way to the restaurant.

“Your Excellency, would you mind discussing some of the points from the meeting just now with me? I think that, as someone in the same position, there are many things I can learn from you.”

Valentin paused for a moment, glanced subtly at the Minister of Military Affairs who was already talking to Yefim, and nodded.

Chapter Thirty-Nine: Persuasion

“Judge Oleg, I want you to understand that this is a military mission, and all departments need to cooperate, otherwise problems will keep arising—and I will not allow it to be slowed down by any administrative issues.”

“You can say that to my face.”

They were strolling in a snow-covered garden. Oleg's face was cold and indifferent; there was no doubt that the other party intended to use some underhanded methods to "convince" him.

“You know very well that for our country, the army and the nobility are the protectors. We have a detailed list of those who refuse to cooperate. I don’t want to see someone as respectable as you being humiliated, but I have to admit that there are quite a few villains in both the nobility and the army.”

"You're wise not to try to bribe me, but do you think violence can subdue me?"

Oleg countered sharply.

“You certainly won’t, after all, you are the Chief Justice of the Ministry of Justice, but your daughter is still studying law at Saint-Germain University, and given the Smirnov family’s tradition, she will certainly be a good judge—in the foreseeable future.”

The man's expression began to change.

“I just hope that the meeting will end in a consensus—I don’t want a stupid pig like Igor to act as your mouthpiece and force you to make a decision. He’s not qualified at all.”

Anatoly makes no secret of his dislike for the finance minister.

“I want to apologize to you for so casually asking you to write a new law. My understanding of law is too shallow. Therefore, I will make concessions to you. This matter would be much simpler with your help. However, considering your difficulties, I hope you will just stop objecting.”

Oleg didn't speak immediately this time; his hands were clasped together, clenching and unclenching repeatedly.

"Why do you think Alexander is here at this meeting? I told you before the meeting started that you could only report the contents of this meeting to your superiors. Did this meeting happen out of their sight?"

These words finally broke through Oleg's defenses. He turned around abruptly and looked at Alexander, who was still frowning as he read documents inside the room.

The other party was Speaker Witte's secretary-general, who also served as a scholar to the emperor. In other words, he represented both His Majesty the Emperor and His Excellency the Speaker.

"If... if you can prove that this matter has been reviewed by those two officials... then I will no longer object."

Oleg lowered his head in dejection.

"I will."

Anatoly's smile remained as friendly as ever.

-------------------------------------------------

"Your Excellency, the theme of this meeting is very clear: it targets the infected—but why are you and I included as participants? The reason given to me is that there's a meeting about the future interests of the Siberian Viceroyalty, and I wonder what your side of the matter is..."

"The Eastern Kazimierz Governorate has a serious problem with infected people. Those Kazimierz people who call themselves knights but have no chivalry whatsoever have allowed infected people to launch counterattacks and infiltrate us in droves. This has caused losses and also contributed to the spread of Oripathy."

Valentin picked up a glass of wine.

"I have submitted relevant applications to build some camps to centrally manage the infected, not only to prevent and control Oripathy, but also to effectively prevent spies from taking advantage of my territory."

"These camps will be under military management, and the infected people will be screened. Those suspected or confirmed to be spies will be sent to the mines, and the others will not be able to move freely. They will either be stationed in a certain place to cultivate land or to build roads and bridges."

He took a sip of his drink and frowned.

"I just didn't expect that Saint Eagle Fortress's plans would be so... resolute."

Qiao Yelan nodded slightly.

“I think I have a rough idea—the infected people in your area are probably jointly managed by the garrison and the frontline troops. After all, the people here don’t want the infected people from Kazimir to enter the country. But where should the infected people in the country be deported? That’s probably the reason I was called here.”

The Secretary of State nodded thoughtfully. Indeed, if expulsion were to be carried out, then the territory of Kosice, with its vast expanses of harsh, cold land, would clearly be the best choice.

“He’s in too much of a hurry—Although Anatoly is the son of Grand Duke Nicholas, he doesn’t have many notable military or political achievements, so he’s obviously very concerned about this matter.”

Valentin sighed, but Qiao Yelan already had a plan.

"Too hasty—what if they had already implemented it already?"

"Has it been implemented?"

“Your Excellency, you should know that although the Minister of Military Affairs is in the same institution as you, the epaulets on his shoulders are undoubtedly a tacit signal to Anatoly and his team—if they want to find a place to test this nationwide mass expulsion before deciding to carry it out, where do you think they should go?”

Valentin's expression immediately changed.

Where else could it be? A place with a large number of infected people, where there's no need to worry about failure causing nationwide unrest—of course, it's the East Kazimierz Governorate he governs!

"Right under my nose..."

He looked at Andrei, who had just parted ways with Yefim and was now clinking glasses with the police chief, with a gloomy expression.

"It's always the same. They always do their own thing, always only thinking about getting every bite of cake for themselves, keeping a tight rein on us, and calling it military secrets—I finally understand why only I came! Because they don't have to worry about the problems we've been concerned about!"

Qiao Yelan's tone and expression were also annoyed, as if he were sharing Valentin's feelings.

“You’re right. The military has been trying to seize administrative control of our territories. They must have conspired to change my application beyond recognition before holding their own victory celebration after they succeeded. We can’t let these warmongers ride roughshod over us like this!”

The man angrily raised his glass and drank it all in one gulp.

“You’re right, they don’t even consider the consequences of this—they’ll never understand that if all the serfs and infected people they despise are dead, do they think they can still maintain their privileges and luxurious lifestyles?”

"On this matter, we are on the same side as Oleg!"

Valentin nodded, echoing Qiao Yelan's words.

At this moment, Anatoly had already led the judge, who looked utterly dejected, back into the council chamber.

"Alright gentlemen, I hope this meeting can end before 2:30 p.m., so I hope everyone can return to the conference table. Eating is never as important as the responsibilities we bear."

Yefim walked over and pushed Qiao Yelan back to the conference table, while Valentin followed behind with a serious expression.

Chapter Forty: Delaying Time

Where were we?

"Legal issues are something we need to consider carefully."

Yefim whispered a reminder.

"Yes, legal issues require careful consideration, but in order to solve problems, we sometimes have to take the approach of acting first and informing later—I have faith in the abilities of the Imperial judges, and His Excellency Oleg will surely be able to lead them in drafting new laws."

“I will definitely redefine the rights that infected people should have, but I can guarantee that it will be completely different from what you are doing now.”

The judge's tone was cold, but lacked the anger he had shown before, which made Qiao Yelan look at Anatoly with newfound respect.

Regardless of the methods used, the other party at least managed to persuade the gentleman.