Chapter 348
Westley Bakerfield had spent his life sharpening his teeth in politics. When he was in elementary school, by dint of his last name being earliest in the alphabet, he was made class president and was responsible for making sure all of the other kids cleaned up at the end of the day. Originally, the position was supposed to be rotated monthly, but after the first cycle, there was an unspoken understanding that Westley was the man for the job.
Even as a child, he understood how best to motivate people. From the most reluctant who never wanted to help clean up, to the perfectionist who spent too much time on one task, Westley was able to get them working with the collective for the greater good.
That was the start, but by no means the limit of his abilities. By the time he was in college, he had already led three debate teams to national victories, and in his sophomore year, he had won an election for student electorate president.
Now, at the tender age of thirty nine, he was the youngest member of the Arbitration Convention by over a decade, but even just his last two years of service to The Joined Provinces of Turistia as their high chancellor had taught him that he still had more to learn.
Westley couldn’t say he was a good man; he had made too many compromises with villains and evildoers during his life, but he always did what he thought was best for the JPT. That sometimes meant crushing the little guy underfoot, but that was simply the cost of progress.
His nation hadn’t carved its place among the giants like the Democratic Republic of Noricum or the Communists of the Greater South Plains by being nice.
That was why he was quite gleeful that the two superpowers had gone to war. The more they weakened each other, the better the JPT’s standing in the international community.
Even now, the two leaders glared at each other as they were made to wait in the great hexagonal room.
Most of the people were watching the two, and Westley was no exception. The two superpowers had been settling in for a long and bitter war before they had an inexplicable cease fire, and the Arbitration Convention flexed its moderate political influence to get every world leader at this meeting. He hadn’t been able to figure out how they had managed it but he was prepared for a AC power play if it came to that.