Chapter 488 - 228: Alliance Meeting 3
Leo took a deep breath and went into performance mode.
"Betrayal?"
Leo shook his head, walked over to Byers, and clapped him on the shoulder.
"No, gentlemen, you’ve misunderstood."
"That wasn’t a betrayal."
Leo turned to face everyone.
"It was a joint stress test."
"A stress test?" Byers was stunned.
"That’s right."
Leo began his performance.
"You all know what the situation was back then. Our note system was developing too fast—faster than anyone expected."
"In just a few short months, we built an independent, closed-loop financial system covering seven cities, with hundreds of millions of US Dollars in circulation."
"This raised alarms in Washington."
"My sources told me the Federal Reserve was watching us, the Treasury Department was watching us, and the titans on Wall Street were watching us."
"They suspected we were creating an independent currency. They were looking for an excuse to kill this system."
Leo lowered his voice.
"If we had continued our rapid advance, expanding without a care in the world, what would have been waiting for us was a direct shutdown by the Federal Government."
"So, Evelyn and I staged a little play."
"We deliberately manufactured a crisis."
"We had to show Washington that this system wasn’t impenetrable, that it had risks, that it wasn’t invulnerable."
"We had to use that rupture to lower the hostility from federal regulators, to make them think this was just a fragile, local experiment, nothing to be afraid of."
Leo looked at their doubtful faces.
"At the same time, it was also an internal test."
"We wanted to see, in the extreme scenario of losing all external funding, just how solid is our alliance? Could our internal circulation actually hold up?"
"And as it turned out..."
Leo spread his hands, a proud expression on his face.
"We held on."
"Even in that extreme situation, even without the US Dollar, we survived on our trust in each other and on the circulation of real goods."
"If anything, that’s what convinced Evelyn that our alliance was worth a long-term investment."
"And that’s why she came back."
"She came back with more funding and even more resolute support."
Leo pointed at the screen.
"That’s why she dares to publicly support Luigi at a time like this."
"Because she knows we are one."
"That crisis wasn’t a rupture. It was the foundation of our trust."
The mayors fell silent in the face of Leo’s explanation.
They were thinking.
But anyone who’s been in politics long enough knows that sometimes the truth doesn’t matter. What matters is who controls the narrative.
Besides, this explanation gave them a way out.
They didn’t have to admit they’d been played. They could tell themselves it was all for the greater good.
More importantly, Evelyn was indeed on their side now.
With the Saint Claude Family backing them, their sense of security multiplied.
"So..." Byers hesitated. "That suspension of withdrawals... was it really just an act?"
"Of course."
Leo’s reply was decisive.
"How else would you explain her standing with me now?"
"We’re allies, Joe. Always have been, from the very beginning."
Byers nodded, seeming to accept this explanation.
The tense atmosphere in the conference room finally eased, and the mayors began to whisper amongst themselves.
However, the relief lasted for less than half a minute.
Ron Smith sat there, his brow deeply furrowed.
As the de facto representative of these mayors within the alliance, his political instincts were sharper than the others’.
Saint Claude’s endorsement solved the money problem, but that didn’t mean the road ahead would be smooth.
"Leo, I’ll tentatively accept your explanation about the funding pool."
Smith knocked on the table, silencing the surrounding chatter.
"But there are still two issues on the table. The risks associated with them haven’t been reduced by Evelyn’s entry. In fact, her high-profile involvement has made them even trickier."
Smith raised a finger, pointing toward the now-vanished news image on the screen.
"First, there’s Luigi Randall."
"You’re asking us to publicly take a side and support an assassin who has killed someone. That’s incredibly difficult, politically."
Smith glanced around at the mayors from the various cities.
"Gentlemen, our constituencies aren’t just made up of the working-class blue-collar folks. We also have a large number of middle and upper-middle-class voters—doctors, lawyers, small business owners, the people who live in big houses in the suburbs."
"These people, they despise violence. In their eyes, Luigi is a thug who destroys social order. If we publicly support him, it’s tantamount to declaring war on the values of the middle class."
"That will trigger a massive backlash."
Just then, a new face sitting in the corner stood up.
He was the representative from Cumberland County, a suburb of Harrisburg—Mayor Bennett.
His area was a typical middle-class community, with neatly manicured lawns and a Stars and Stripes hanging from every house.
"Ron’s right."
Bennett’s voice was tinged with anxiety.
"Most of my constituents are just like that. They have retirement accounts and private health insurance. They live respectable lives, and what they fear most is instability."
"If I join this so-called Mutual Aid Alliance and publicly support that radical young man, my constituents will think I’ve lost my mind. They’ll think I’m trying to turn their community into a slum like Detroit."