Fangzhou Xier, starting with failing the art exam

Upon hearing the sound, Arturo slowly turned his head, his gaze falling on Serafina.

She didn't get up; instead, she hugged the cello even tighter.

“Your heart is restless and weary,” Arturo said.

"You're using busyness to fight your inner anxiety; you're afraid of losing control, right?"

Serafina felt a throbbing sensation in her temples.

What she hates most is that Arturo can also see through people's hearts, but she herself cannot use Originium Arts to see the other person's true emotions.

"I'm just doing my job to make sure everything goes according to plan."

“The Workers’ Party is not an art salon; you are not suited to be here. What we need is efficiency and discipline.”

"Efficiency and discipline..."

Arturo repeated the word softly, then smiled and said, “Discipline is the dam, emotions are the flood. You have built a high dam, but can you hear the flood roaring behind the wall, Miss Serafina?”

"I don't have time to discuss philosophy with you!" Serafina felt her patience was about to run out. "Anyway, please find another place and don't affect the progress of the project."

Arturo stared at her for a few seconds, then suddenly said, "You are indeed very jealous of me."

Serafina was stunned: "What?"

“You’re jealous that I can do whatever I want, but you can’t. You’re jealous that I can easily touch Lacey’s other side, but you can’t.”

Serafina's cheeks flushed instantly, half from anger and half from the embarrassment of being caught out.

She opened her mouth, but found that any explanation seemed weak and powerless.

She did...have that thought for a fleeting moment.

Seeing Serafina's unusual loss of composure, Arturo did not continue the pursuit, but instead jumped down from the wooden frame.

“However, your authenticity is far more interesting than his.” She walked past Serafina, cello in hand, leaving behind this abrupt remark.

Serafina stood there, her fingers gripping the blueprint tightly.

She watched Arturo's departing figure, her heart filled with mixed emotions.

She hated this crazy girl, but she had to admit that her words always hit the sore spot.

She took a deep breath, suppressed her surging emotions, and turned to continue working, only to see Arturo clumsily trying to take a piece of bread from a tall worker in a corner not far away, nearly dropping his cello in the process.

Serafina sighed, but eventually walked over.

She took a sandwich wrapped in parchment paper from her pocket, filled with thick slices of bacon and vegetables, and shoved it into Arturo's arms with a huff.

“If we eat this, the artist will starve to death, and no one will pay him a pension.”

After saying that, she walked away quickly without looking back.

Arturo looked down at the sandwich still warm from her body in his arms, then at Serafina's hurried departure.

She took a small bite of the sandwich; it seemed to taste pretty good.

……

……

Holy Lytanian Empire: Chapter Thirty-Three: Our Workers' Emperor!

A few days later, a magnificent carriage, escorted by several cavalrymen, entered Viseheim. The carriage was adorned with the coat of arms of the Letanian royal family.

The carriage stopped in front of the Workers' Party's provisional headquarters. An arrogant official in a silk suit stepped down from the carriage with the help of his attendants, covering his mouth and nose with a handkerchief in disgust.

"Excuse me, where is Mr. Lacey?"

The official asked in an aria-like voice, his eyes darting around, making no attempt to hide his disdain for the place.

"I am Her Majesty's special envoy, here to read out the imperial edict on Her Majesty's orders."

Taylor, who was in charge of receiving guests, was shirtless and sweating profusely as he directed the workers to move the timber.

Upon hearing this, he wiped his face with his rough, large hands and replied in a muffled voice, "Wait."

After saying that, he turned and walked into the headquarters, leaving the special envoy standing there bewildered in the wind.

The envoy's face turned a deep shade of liver; he had never been treated like this before.

He represents imperial power, and is the supreme queen of Letania!

A moment later, Lacey and Serafina came out together.

Lacey was still wearing simple work clothes, only they were washed cleaner, and she had a peaceful smile on her face.

He glanced at the furious envoy and the luxurious carriage behind him, and he already understood.

"I am Lacey. I apologize for keeping you waiting, Your Excellency," he said calmly.

The envoy let out a heavy snort, finally regaining some ground.

The edict was not complicated; its main point was to praise Lacey's achievements in wiping out the remnants of the Witch King and pacifying the people in Viseheim.

In the Queen's personal name, she bestowed upon Lacey the title of Baron of Letania and granted him a small town called "Grey Iron" near Viseheim as his official fief.

To be granted a noble title?

Is Mr. Lacey going to become a nobleman?

A slight commotion arose among the surrounding crowd, and some people's eyes revealed confusion and unease.

They wanted to follow Lacey, the one who led them to resist aristocratic oppression, not another new nobleman riding on their backs.

Some of the more astute individuals remarked, "This is definitely a conspiracy by those powerful figures! They want to use a title to pull Mr. Lacey away from us! They want to alienate us!"

Someone immediately chimed in, "That's right! They just want us to doubt Mr. Lacey!"

Hans, the old blacksmith who had been silent all along, the first worker in Viseheim to stand up for Lacey, finally spoke up in a gruff voice:

“We’re not stupid. We know what kind of person Mr. Lacey is.”

"He ensured we had enough to eat, work to do, and our children were able to go to school—all of this is real! Those higher-ups give us an empty title and think they can make us distrust him? Dream on!"

A stone stirred up a thousand waves.

“That’s right! Uncle Hans is right!”

“Even if Mr. Lacey becomes emperor, he will still be our workers’ emperor!” a young worker shouted, drawing good-natured laughter.

"What does this mean? It means Mr. Lacey did a great job. Even the Queen is afraid of him and can only win him over using this method!"

The envoy's face darkened when he heard these discussions.

Lacey accepted the investiture with a smile.

After the envoy left, Lacey said to Serafina and Taylor beside her, "They gave us a legitimate key, which we can use to open more doors."

"But now, we can no longer run blindly like before."

In just over a month, from the Salem trial to the capture of Viseheim, to the bloodless takeover of Finkshire, and now the granted town of Grey Iron, the Workers' Party's expansion has been astonishingly rapid, but it has also sown the seeds of countless hidden dangers.

The foundation is unstable, the ideology is impure, and the organization is loose.

That evening, Lacey convened a meeting of key members of the Workers' Party, including Serafina, Taylor, and Gertrude.

Yes, Arturo is not included.

"The pace of expansion needs to be temporarily halted," Lacey said bluntly.

He began to assign tasks.

“Miss Gertrude, I hope you can go and deal with the nobles in the surrounding area.”

“I don’t need you to be friends with them. I just need you to let them know that the Workers’ Party of Viseheim is a law-abiding neighbor. We only care about things in our own territory and won’t interfere with their making money for the time being.”

These words were meant for potential enemies, to buy time for internal integration.

Despite the precedent set by the Finkshire incident, the viscount of the fat pig had come to them willingly, and the Workers' Party's actions were in self-defense, not an act of proactive expansion.

“Serafina.” He looked at his capable assistant.

"The internal organization of the Workers' Party is now in your hands."

“Member identification, ideological education, and the selection and training of cadres at all levels must be systematized immediately. I need a detailed member file, and I need to know the strengths and weaknesses of each person in our team.”

"Furthermore, our welfare policies, such as education and healthcare, are currently far from sufficient. I hope you can come up with specific and feasible solutions."

"Taylor, the workers' pickets need to be expanded, but more importantly, their quality needs to be improved."

"Don't think of yourselves as city guards. You are the armed forces of the working class, the guardians of the new order. I need you to have not only strength, but also discipline and intelligence."

Everyone readily accepted the order, a sense of urgency and mission rising within them like never before.

After the meeting, everyone went about their business, leaving only Lacey in the empty office.

He walked to the map of Letania on the wall. Salem, Viseheim, Finkshire, and Grey Iron Town—the four places he marked with red circles—were so small on the vast map that they were almost negligible.

He knew that bestowing the title of viscount was merely a casual move by the Twin Queens.

They wanted to turn him into an obedient dog, put a collar on him, and make him bite their designated enemies.

But Lacey wanted to do more than that.

He wants to be the one making the moves.

To become the player in a game, having territory and an army is not enough.

He needed an ideology, a belief that could unite everyone's will, a belief that could ignite the entire nation of Letania.

He opened the drawer of his desk, inside which was a thick stack of manuscript paper.

In the stillness of the night, Lacey sat under the lamp, reminiscing about everything since she came into this world.

The arrogant face of power in front of the Trinity Art Academy, the muddy trenches and the wails of comrades during the Four Emperors War, the cold corpses of his parents after returning home, and the Purification Committee's upside-down trial.

Scenes flashed through my mind, finally settling on the countless pairs of expectant eyes outside the iron bars of Salem prison.

He took a deep breath, picked up his pen, and wrote a few words on the first page of the manuscript.

My Struggle.

……

The Holy Empire of Leitania: Chapter Thirty-Four: My Struggle

After receiving the investiture from Triinttelmere, you astutely discerned the Twin Queens' intentions. They wanted to use this investiture to kill two birds with one stone: to alienate you from the Workers' Party while simultaneously using the title to buy you off.

However, the Workers' Party comrades did not become estranged from you because of this; under your guidance, they viewed this investiture as proof that the power of the working class had forced the monarchy to bow down.

The party's cohesion has not weakened; on the contrary, it has reached an unprecedented high.

You've decided to slow down expansion and shift your focus to internal development.

The victories over Salem, Viseheim, and Finkshire brought you fame, but also made you realize that relying solely on emotional manipulation and cunning tactics is unsustainable.

You need a solid theoretical foundation, a guiding ideology that can unite all your followers and point them in the right direction for the future.

You entrust your daily affairs to Seraphim and Gertrude.

Serafina was responsible for the party's organizational structure, intelligence network, and propaganda; Gertrude, using her countess status, was responsible for dealing with external nobles and merchants, and for providing the Workers' Party with stable financial and material support.

One of them focuses on internal affairs, while the other handles external matters, creating a safe and supportive space for you to think and create.

You lock yourself in your room and begin writing a book that will completely transform the way people think in Letania.

[You emulate a World War I veteran from your past life who had a similar experience, and in the form of an autobiography, you recount your entire journey—from a failed art student to a veteran of the Battle of Four Emperors, and finally to a Workers' Party leader who rose up in resistance after the destruction of his family—without reservation.]

This is not simply a personal memoir; while recounting your experiences, you systematically weave together your observations and reflections on the world, as well as your vision for the future of Letania.

You named this book "My Struggle".

In the book, you analyzed the fundamental contradictions of Letanian society in the most accessible language: the corrupt aristocratic class was severely out of touch with the productive forces; they were like parasites sucking the lifeblood of the nation while hindering its development.

[You clearly stated the Workers' Party's core goal: Make Letania great again!]

[To this end, you have put forward some ideas in the fields of politics, economics, military affairs, and diplomacy.]

Politically, you vehemently criticized the current Electoral System in Letania.

[You believe that such a feudal system was only helpful in the early stages of a nation's founding in terms of defending against foreign enemies and expanding its territory. However, now that the nine electors have continuously developed their economies and military strength within their fiefdoms, their power has grown, rendering the monarch's commands ineffective.]

You believe that Letania's current power is too decentralized, leading to a weakening of central authority, and that this will only trigger internal strife similar to that of Victoria in the long run.

Therefore, you advocate centralizing power, completely abolishing the electoral system, eliminating the root causes of electoral separatism, more effectively integrating national resources, and maintaining the stability of Letania.

Economically, you advocate nationalizing key industries related to the national economy and people's livelihood, such as mines, railways, and large-scale factories, so that the state can allocate resources uniformly and prevent monopolies and speculation by nobles and big capitalists.