The morning bells of Grandview Metropolitan City Hall chimed across Freedom Square, their clear bronze tones cutting through the crisp autumn air. Below the soaring stone portico, the heavy oak doors of the council chamber swung wide to admit a sea of civic officials, municipal magistrates, and financial auditors.
Inside the chamber, the atmosphere crackled with quiet tension. By an emergency decree passed without a single dissenting voice, the Provincial Legislative Council formalized the transfer of civil authority. Felix Bennett stepped onto the raised dais, his dark suit modest and unadorned, his posture straight as an iron pillar.
Raising his right hand before the council president, Felix swore the oath of office as interim Provincial Administrator and Banking Commissioner. There wa
