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A slight smile crossed the Queen's face, and she bobbed her head to the side. "Oh, I don't know... They DID improve their terms quite a bit after all the publicity Hector garnered for himself in Lorent."

Garovel chortled. 'How "improved" are we talking here, exactly?'

"More money," said the Queen. "Another billion troa for each of the great houses, to be precise. Plus, another ten billion on top of that for building new schools around the country. And two additional representatives in the Intarian Congress, as well as four additional electors in their Holy Imperial Council."

'Ooh,' cooed Garovel.

Holy Imperial Council? That name confused Hector, and it must've shown on his face, because the Queen offered an explanation.

"The Holy Imperial Council is how they choose their presidents. The territories each vote, and then the Council decides the winner based on a point-value system attributed to each territory before each election. More electors on the Council would mean that our people's votes matter more."

Huh. That sounded a little complicated, but he felt like he understood. It still left him wondering something, though. "Why do they call it the Holy Imperial Council? Isn't that kinda... weird and medieval-sounding?"

Garovel took the opportunity to jump in. 'Yep. That name is actually a remnant of the Mohssian Empire. Back then, the Holy Imperial Council had tons of power. They handled whatever affairs the emperor didn't feel like taking care of himself--which was usually A LOT. Nowadays, though, its only role is to elect the president. Kind of a traditional thing. The electors don't have any power of their own. They just vote for whoever their territories tell them to.'

'There've been many attempts to change the name,' added Mehlsanz. 'A few times, it even came to a full blown referendum. And it's been close, but in the end, the Intarians have always voted to keep the name the way it is.'