"Extra! Extra! Upheaval in Wasser Fief! Lacey, leader of the Workers' Party, has taken the Elector's Tower without bloodshed!"
"Extra! Elector Otto Gladstone committed suicide out of guilt! Before dying, he personally confessed to the crime of massacring a city and passed the title of Elector to Lacey!"
"Extra! Read all about it!"
Before the morning mist had even dissipated, the streets and alleys of Trullinczentyr were jolted awake by the excited cries of newsboys.
Copies of the newspaper, their ink still wet, were snatched from the newsboys' hands by eager citizens.
Such shocking news spread like wildfire from the capital, Trullinczentyr, to all corners of Leithanien.
In the workers' district south of the city, inside a smoke-filled, cheap tavern, the atmosphere was more scorching than the strongest ale.
A burly, bearded man slammed the newspaper down on the table, making the mugs rattle.
"See this! Did you see this! Mister Lacey did it! He really brought down an Elector!"
"Damn it all, this is more miraculous than a miracle!"
"That's an Elector we're talking about, a noble lord practically on par with an emperor!"
"What damn noble lord! The paper says it clear as day, Otto was a butcher! Slaughtered so many civilians, he deserved it!"
"If you ask me, Mister Lacey did a fine thing!"
"Well said!"
"Well said!"
"Come! To Mister Lacey! To the Workers' Party!"
"Wooo—"
Someone was the first to raise their mug, and soon, every hand in the tavern followed suit.
Many of them kept a tattered copy of "My Struggle" hidden under their pillows.
In the past, that book was a comfort in despair; now, it had become a prophecy within their grasp.
…
Meanwhile, at the other end of the city, in a salon in the noble district, the atmosphere was entirely different.
The fingers of an old marquis, dressed in a silk robe, trembled as he clutched the newspaper. To him, the page bearing Lacey's profile was more glaring than a wanted poster for the Witch King.
"Madmen, a bunch of madmen!"
"What is this Lacey! Just some rotten commoner! And now he's an Elector?"
"This is the greatest joke in the history of Leithanien!" he roared.
"Father, I'm afraid this is no joke," said his younger son beside him, his face equally pale.
"The paper says three hundred thousand workers in Wasser Fief lined the streets to welcome him... 'The will of the people'—those words carry too much weight."
"Just a mob of fools, easily incited!" the old marquis snorted dismissively.
"The crucial thing is the attitude of Their Majesties, the Empresses!"
"They're just going to sit by and watch? Have they forgotten how they came to sit on the throne? Forgotten who put them there?"
The other nobles in the salon exchanged glances, a sense of shared peril in their eyes.
In Lacey's rise, they smelled the bloody scent of something called "change."
That young man and the Workers' Party he represents are like a sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of all the old nobility, ready at any moment to sever their hereditary privileges and glory.
They did not fear the Empresses, because the Empresses also needed them.
But Lacey is different. What he wants is perhaps something they cannot afford to give.
…
At the same time, in the commercial depots connecting the grand regions, merchants' abacuses clattered noisily.
"The mining industry in Wasser Fief is about to be reshuffled, I'm afraid," said a portly merchant, rubbing his shiny chin, his eyes gleaming.
"That fool Otto only knew how to raise taxes and drive the miners to their deaths!"
"This Lacey, judging by the book he wrote, seems to understand economics."
"A new order means new opportunities!"
"Opportunities? I see risks," another, more cautious merchant said, shaking his head.
"You'd dare do business with a madman who can take down an Elector?"
"Today he can liquidate Otto; tomorrow he could liquidate us 'blood-sucking capitalists'."
"That's why we have to act early," the portly merchant smiled like a fox.
"Offering him a helping hand now, when he needs it, is far better than showing up when he's already successful."
"Besides, don't you think... by following him, we might be able to earn something far more valuable than gold coins?"
…
The center of Leithanien's power, the Trullinczentyr Twin Towers.
At this moment, the atmosphere in the throne room was grim and tense.
Herlinmarte Hildegard, the Black Empress, kicked over the council table before her.
The vessels and exquisite fruit platters on it crashed to the floor, shattering to pieces, just like her mood.
"Lawless! Utterly lawless!"
Her voice seethed with thunderous rage, each word seemingly forced through gritted teeth.
Her eyes were fixed on the 'Voice of the Empress' agent kneeling on the floor.
"Who gave him the nerve? Who gave him the authority?"
"That waste of space, Otto—even if he were to die, it should have been by Imperial decree!"
"Since when was it the place of some mud-caked peasant from a border town to pass judgment on an Imperial Elector?"
Herlinmarte paced back and forth before the throne, the hem of her black dress swirling.
She stopped abruptly, turning to her sister, who had remained silent all this time.
"Lizelotte! We must dispatch troops at once!"
"Mobilize the three legions closest to Wasser Fief and crush that so-called Workers' Party and the new Elector they've propped up!"
"We must let all of Leithanien know the consequences of defying Imperial authority!"
Lizelotte Iwegnade, the White Empress, was seated gracefully on her throne, holding a cup of still-warm black tea.
She didn't even glance at the mess on the floor or her furious sister.
She blew gently on the steam rising from her tea before speaking slowly.
"Herlinmarte, your anger is meaningless. It will only delight our enemies."
"Enemies? The greatest enemy right now is that Lacey!" Herlinmarte retorted.
"Is that so?" Lizelotte set down her teacup and raised her clear eyes.
"Then on what pretext shall we send our army? To attack a man who has just quelled a rebellion in his territory, eliminated remnants of the Witch King, won the support of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people, and is the legally appointed successor to the former Elector?"
She paused, then continued in a sarcastic tone:
"The moment we dispatch troops, Lacey will transform from a regional leader into a hero resisting Imperial tyranny."
"The nobles who are currently watching him from the sidelines will flock to his side because of our foolish actions, and the masses incited by 'My Struggle' will rise in rebellion."
"At that point, we won't be facing just Wasser Fief, but the wrath of all of Leithanien."
"Perhaps what I describe will not come to pass, but, Herlinmarte, do you wish to see such a situation? It is precisely what the other Electors would be delighted to witness."
Herlinmarte was at a loss for words, her chest heaving, but she could not refute the point.
Lizelotte stood and walked slowly to Herlinmarte's side, straightening her collar, which had been slightly disheveled by her anger.
"Herlinmarte, look."
"This blade, Lacey, is sharp, but who is he cutting down?"
"It is Otto Gladstone. It is the old nobles who have long since disregarded Imperial authority."
"We have always wanted to weaken the power of the Electors but lacked a suitable pretext and the strength to do so. Now, someone has done it for us."
"But he is getting out of control!" Herlinmarte growled.
"No, he is not." Lizelotte's voice carried a strangely calming power.
"A blade is only 'out of control' when it's in someone else's hands. What if we were the ones holding it?"
She gazed at Herlinmarte and said, word by word: "The trend is now unstoppable. Therefore, we must go with the flow."
"Rather than push him into opposition, it would be better to pull him into our system, give him a legitimate status, and make him a sharp blade in our hands."
"Let him tear at the other Electors, let him gnaw on the toughest bones."
"And we need only sit on our thrones, watch them fight until both are battered and broken, and then emerge to clean up the mess."
"You mean…" The fire in Herlinmarte's eyes gradually faded, replaced by deep thought.
"Issue the order," Lizelotte said, taking a step back and bowing slightly.
"In our joint name as the Twin Empresses, issue a decree appointing Lacey as the new Elector of the Wasser Fief Grand Region."
"The official reason will be 'to pacify the people and restore order and production in Wasser Fief as quickly as possible'."
Herlinmarte was silent for a long time, the only sound in the throne room her heavy breathing.
Finally, she closed her eyes and let out a long sigh.
"…Do as you say." Her voice was filled with reluctance and weariness.
"But, Lizelotte, if he makes a single move out of line, I don't care about the consequences—I will personally snap his neck!"
"As you wish, my dear Herlinmarte," Lizelotte replied with a smile, though there was no trace of mirth in her eyes.
________________________________________
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