After President Emanuel's speech.
One by one, all the citizens started voting. And with the timing of the vote being intentionally done at the moment, the citizens were still caught in disbelief after what they had heard moments ago. However, despite the fact that many of the citizens would have opted to surrender even if they were given some time to think about it, some of them would have chosen this course more hesitantly had they been given a moment to think about it.
But with the votes being held while their minds were still reacting and comprehending the betrayal from their president. Very few people voted against it due to either being dissatisfied with the limited options they were given– one being surrendering and the other being continuing the war, besides these two, there was nothing in between, or due to just being fervent nationalistic and couldn't handle to swallow the humiliation of having a history that recorded of their country having unconditionally surrendered so some other country.
Half an hour after the press conference, Eden started their own, to both ANNOUNCING the results of the votes and as a response to the press conference regarding Emanuel's revelations.
…..
Alexander, who had already begun his speech after offering a few greetings to the reporters who were attending the conference and the watchers of the press conference throughout the world.
"Firstly, I would like to start by announcing the result of the votes conducted among the citizens of Esparia regarding their choice on whether they want to accept their president's decision to surrender or not. Based on the results of their votes that were finalized ten minutes ago, sixty-eight percent of the Esparian citizens have elected to follow the last decision of their now former President Emanuel, to which we hereby announce that we have accepted their request of unconditional surrender and promise not to demand anything that would undermine their dignity," his words were delivered with extreme seriousness, indicating that he was taking this very seriously.
"Although we have a team of our soldiers in there who are still protecting Emanuel, ensuring that he remains safe and in one piece before facing the punishment he deserves. Within the next seven hours, we will be sending twenty thousand soldiers to make sure the citizens remain calm throughout the de-escalation phase. This measure also serves to ensure that our demands are met"
"Rest assured, our soldiers have undergone good training, and I can swear on my position as the President of Eden that there will be no member of our forces who will try to exploit the situation the citizens of Esparia found themselves in. Them doing any such actions would be considered breaking my promise of maintaining the dignity of Esparian citizens and shaşş be punished arcodingly."
"As for our course of action while moving forward, we will not be talking about them today. We will need to have a behind-the-doors discussion with our counterparts in Esparia before we choose what part of our demands are announced to the public. Following that, we will finalize the demands after a thorough evaluation of what will be beneficial for us while sparing the already defeated adversaries from undue harm, who will need both time and help to recover and return to their normal lives before everything reaches the road of no return...."
He continued his speech for another five minutes before he finally allowed the few reporters gathered in the room to ask the questions that were on their minds.
"In your speech, you referred to President Emanuel as the former President. Does this imply that you have forcefully removed him from his position, or he has chosen to resign from it?" posed a reporter from one of the country's prominent news channels.
Alexander attentively listened to the question, nodding amidst it before slightly adjusting his glasses and started providing an answer to it, "Indeed, we have removed him from his presidential position. This decision was taken due to the worry that the citizens of Esparia would choose not to comply with our demands under the reasoning that we strong-armed their president's actions as undue coercion and their agreement without giving him any chance to reason as to why we shouldn't have done something else.
To preempt such misgivings, we removed him and left his position vacant. We have come up with an assembly of negotiators from their side whom the citizens can trust to do their best to safeguard the interests of their citizens as much as possible as they return their focus to recovering to their previous condition or maybe even becoming better than before.
As for who will take the President's place following the negotiation, that will be up to the negotiators on whether they want to hold an election immediately or choose a temporary president who will be helping the country during these tumultuous periods of their nation before they can conduct an election. But the only thing I can assure the citizens of Esparia is that the government will continue being a democratic government, which we hope to cultivate better diplomatic relations with, compared to their previous government, which led to their present circumstances."
Upon finishing answering the question, Alexander pointed for another reporter to ask their question.
"Are there any conditions that are already set in stone and must be fulfilled even if the country's citizens vehemently try to oppose it?" inquired the reporter.
"Indeed, there is one such condition that remains steadfast– demilitarization and handing over the security of their country to the very same organization we entrusted our country's security with, the organization has already proven itself by winning us the war. But this doesn't entail that their military would be disbanded with their soldiers being rendered unemployed. Instead, the process will be done in the same way it had happened to us, by assimilating Esparia's entire military power," Alexander answered, pausing briefly before he added further detail to his answer, saying, "Esparia's agreement with the organization will be similar to ours where the government is only responsible for providing the upgraded salary to their soldier and a nominal few percent of taxes, while the same organization handles everything else. This model has proved quite beneficial to us," he stated with complete seriousness and confidence, making some people question themselves if they were either not understanding something and had overlooked some catch in this or because they were skeptical about questioning themselves on what might be the catch for the pseudo-PMC who were now undertaking the substantial financial responsibilities for the military and everything else without trying to gain any benefits that they could think about.
"Could you shed some light on the investigation into the influential group that initiated the war through bribery and what they had intended to gain from the conflict between the two countries?" inquired another reporter.
"At present, we cannot say it, as we need to be one hundred percent sure that they truly are the ones and ensure that we are not just randomly pointing fingers at someone who may later be found not to be the one. So, we won't rush to assign blame without any substantial evidence backing our claims. But it will take some time. Nevertheless, you can be rest assured that we will reveal the truth once we have gathered irrefutable proof," Alexander responded.
After that, several more questions were asked before he bid the reporters farewell under the pretext of coordinating troops to Esparia to ensure the local military over there doesn't do something stupid.
