The Shadow Count

In the United Federation of Meridia, President Arthur Wainwright’s executive order to purge undocumented migrants from the national apportionment census ignites a covert war. When young senatorial aide Ethan Cole stumbles upon a trail of murdered statisticians and erased border registries, he is thrust into a labyrinth of power where politicians trade bodies for seats. As a ruthless senator orchestrates assassinations to destroy evidence, Ethan must navigate a lawless frontier town that seems to breathe with a primal life of its own—a place where the unregistered have built their own invisible society. Blending political conspiracy with Kotaro Isaka-style absurdist humor and intersecting fates, the story follows Ethan’s agonizing choice between a glittering career and an inconvenient truth, revealing that every erased name leaves a ghost that votes with gunpowder and dust.