Empire of Shadows

“I heard you had a little trouble over there.”

William stood facing the full-length mirror, Emily helping him adjust his clothes.

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These clothes were all made by the old tailor himself, and they fit perfectly, even though the old tailor wasn't very famous in the Federation yet.

But he was indeed capable, otherwise the nobles wouldn't wear clothes made by him.

In the mirror, William, after careful grooming, looked a few years younger, and he looked at Lance through the mirror.

Lance was also dressed very appropriately today. Today was the day for the municipal councilor election vote, and William needed to be present to campaign.

In fact, sometimes the elections and environment of federal politicians are really sloppy. Direct elections like municipal councilors are often elected by the votes of citizens in the electoral district.

Many people are not very enthusiastic about voting, especially immigrant groups, who always feel that federal politics has nothing to do with them.

But some people do care about it.

When some people who don't care, but have to vote, stand in front of many ballot boxes, and have to choose a ballot box they don't understand.

They are often at a loss. They have heard of these people's names, but they don't know who they are.

If at this time, the candidate actively campaigns, or even wiggles their butt on the spot, it is very likely to give those voters who did not intend to vote an idea and impulse to vote.

Lance looked at William in the mirror and nodded slightly, "A small problem, it has been resolved."

William didn't speak, because he heard that this small problem had caused the deaths of two people.

He didn't know if there was anything else behind this matter, he only knew that two people had died.

This may be a link that must be experienced to move towards the upper class—

You are no longer so in awe of life!

Yes, not like in the past, maybe not respecting life, because you would scold people and scold them very harshly, and you might even humiliate other people's personalities.

But you would be in awe of life, you would not actively want to deprive others of their right to live.

But when you embark on this path and start to become different, you will realize that some things are not quite the same as before.

Lance didn't say much, and William naturally wouldn't continue to go into detail, this was Lance's own business.

After Emily helped William adjust the wrinkles in his tie, the two walked towards the election stage together.

The election stage was actually just a simple platform, about one meter above the ground, with a long table in front, and a large ballot box placed on the table.

Not only was William's name on the ballot box, but also his half-length portrait, and the words "Please vote for Mr. William" were printed around it.

The municipal councilor election activities in Goldport City are arranged in various electoral districts.

The location is decided by the City Hall, they will build such an environment, and then arrange a ballot box.

People can obtain a ballot with their valid documents, then fill in the name of the candidate and put it in the ballot box.

The whole process is monitored by special personnel to ensure that there is no vote stealing or other things happening.

Although every region says they ensure the election is foolproof, the federal election has always been a farce.

Whether it is the election of municipal councilors or the president.

But today's election will not be so "funny", because William has no competitors.

His only competitor, Mr. Chobaf, is now lying peacefully in a coffin, slowly rotting and deteriorating.

So he has no other competitors. Even if someone wants to do it, for example, if the Socialist Party wants to urgently nominate a candidate, it is actually too late.

The only opponent he needs to compete with now is the previous municipal councilor, a Liberal, Mr. Ruth.

Mr. Ruth is not tall and has gray hair. He couldn't squeeze out much of a smile when he looked at William.

The Liberal Party did not give him any political resources support this year, so his publicity efforts in the election were much smaller than William's.

The Empire District is not considered a high-quality political resource area. A large group of poor Empire immigrants cannot increase any political influence for the Liberal Party.

Secondly, political resources are priced. These things are not priceless. You can give as much as you want.

If you find someone to stand for you, you owe someone a favor. Some favors Ruth himself can't repay, only the Liberal Party can.

So before paying him resources, the Liberal Party carefully considered it and felt that the deal was not worth it.

Moreover, Goldport City, including Likalei State, is a very typical Socialist Party camp, and they did not continue to tilt resources.

Councilor Ruth is not that he didn't work hard, he did his best, but his efforts were almost invisible under the influence of William and Mr. Chobaf.

It is impossible for him to really spend his own money to run for election. If someone is really stupid enough to spend his own money to run for election, then he must be running for president, not for municipal councilor!

So at this time, Councilor Ruth knew that he was doomed to lose, but he still found it difficult to show any smile to William. He just pursed his lips, walked over, shook hands with William, and then stood back behind his own box.

When the formal voting began, the staff from the State Election Commission watched a large number of citizens line up to vote for William, while only a few dozen people were lined up on Councilor Ruth's side.

They actually knew what the result of this vote was.

Councilor Ruth couldn't bear it anymore when he saw this scene. His face was ugly and he turned around and left directly. His wife could only apologize to those voters helplessly, and then chased after him.

The booing from the crowd almost made Councilor Ruth stumble, and the subsequent laughter made his face burn. He couldn't stand this place anymore and just wanted to leave!

William thanked people for voting for him while maintaining his demeanor. Emily's hand holding his arm was trembling!

Damn it, she's about to become the "Councilor's Wife"!

She got a little excited when she thought of this!

In the social circles in the community, the core of discussion among those women is always their own men.

These women have almost no jobs and are all full-time wives. All they can show off is their husbands and children.

William was previously considered a civil servant, not too bad, but not too good either.

Although Emily has tried her best to maintain her position in this social circle, her position is actually very awkward.

But now it's good, her identity will be completely different from those women, and she can also participate in the parties and social events held by Councilor William's wife.

Whether men or women, power is always the strongest aphrodisiac!

In this era, only a minority of people have the right to vote—only those who have a job and their own house have already screened out many people.

According to statistics from some institutions, by 1023 this year, only a little over ten percent of the federal population has the right to vote.

Some say it is eleven percent, and some institutions say it is over seventeen percent, but the specific number is not an easy number to count.

Even if you find a compromise to calculate, fourteen percent, this number is actually only a little more than the number of the middle class.

Although the population of the Empire District is large, there are not many voters who were born in the Federation and have legal federal status, a stable job, and their own house, and even fewer people are willing to participate in elections.

Today, almost the election will be over!

There are also some "campaign assistance" activities at the scene. For example, voters who participate in voting will randomly receive a fried chicken coupon.

They can go to a designated deli to get a fried chicken with this food coupon, but everyone can see that they only give coupons to people who vote for William.

Those who vote for Ruth?

Sorry, they are not so lucky and were not randomly selected!

This kind of obvious but legal campaigning behavior is allowed, which has also led to some people who planned to vote for Ruth changing teams.

The queuing situation continued until almost noon before the number of people coming to vote gradually decreased, and there was no more queuing.

"Looks like the people who should vote have already voted."

William was suppressing his surprised emotions, not letting himself lose his composure because he was too happy.

The couple were both holding back, Lance nodded, "Yes, it's hard to change the situation with some votes, congratulations, William."

William hugged Lance, "I have to thank you for your efforts, Lance. If it weren't for you, I would still be a civil servant in the office!"

"This moment has nothing to do with me in my life!"

The staff of the Election Commission next to them did not stop them from celebrating in advance, because they could also see that this Mr. William Lawrence had already been determined to be the municipal councilor of the Empire District.

The entire election needs to last for three days. This is to facilitate some people being out of town, giving them time to rush back to vote.

In fact, there are as many federal people who are unwilling to vote as there are federal people who actively vote. The federal government has also been encouraging people to participate more in political activities.

But the effect is not very good, some people just don't want to vote.

The reason why the government encourages more people to vote is also because of the diversity of people. If a Socialist Party supporter votes, then there will always be only one Socialist Party vote.

But if ten people come to vote, there may be two or three Liberal Party votes, one or two Federal Party votes, and then five or six Socialist Party votes.

It is possible that due to the development of the party, some Socialist Party supporters will become Liberal Party or Federal Party supporters.

By the afternoon, almost no one was coming to vote. Around 3:30 PM, the election committee staff suggested closing the ballot boxes, effectively ending the day's voting.

A little after three o'clock, James called, hoping to invite Lance and William to a small party, and they didn't refuse.

The three of them went together to find Patricia, who had taken the day off to change her clothes, and then they all attended the party hosted by James.

They didn't explicitly name the party, but everyone who attended knew it was a victory party—not to celebrate William's victory, but James's.

Of course, you could also say it was celebrating the victory of the entire faction!

The reason it wasn't called a "victory party" was purely to avoid some voters overthinking it, wondering if there were any backroom deals involved, since they were celebrating before the election results were even counted.

There are always quite a few people like that in the Federation, who only want to believe what they already think. They don't want the truth, they want something to 'sting' them.

Those who came to James's party today were all from Councilman Williams's faction, including several council members and people close to Councilman Wade.

Goldport City has eleven districts, which will produce eleven city council members, and here, there were already seven.

The remaining four were controlled by the Bay Area, including Charlie.

No, in a few days, he should be called "Councilman Charlie."

"I heard William mentioned some ideas for improving education in his election strategy."

Since it was a victory party, and since there were seven winning council members present, they naturally had to discuss the future development of the city.

James wasn't very concerned about the other council members' campaign strategies. He was more concerned, or rather, curious, about William's side.

William nodded, while Emily was interacting with the other councilmen's wives.

Women seemed to have an ability in this area that men couldn't understand. They could quickly find the right group in a completely unfamiliar environment and join in without any awkwardness.

Men might be a little worse at this; they needed a more gradual process.

William looked at Lance, who replied, "I plan to build at least two high schools, private high schools."

"The admission requirements will be relatively simple."

"Either excellent academic performance, or the ability to bring some benefits to the school, or they own a house in the Imperial District."

James keenly grasped something, "Are you planning to invest in real estate?"

Lance shook his head, which made James a little puzzled, "Then why would you have that third condition?"

"It's a requirement that they own a house in the Imperial District?"

"I thought you were planning to invest in real estate!"

That was the only reasonable explanation he could think of, as it would obviously raise housing prices in the Imperial District significantly.

High-quality educational resources are always scarce, and as long as Lance's two high schools have strong enough teachers, people will find all sorts of connections to solve all sorts of problems to get into his schools.

Including buying a house in the Imperial District.

"Real estate hasn't entered the stage of exorbitant profits yet, and besides, how many poor people do you think can afford a house now?"

This sentence made James fall into thought. Indeed, most poor people can't afford a house at this stage.

It seems like houses are very cheap, with a few dozen square meter apartment costing just over a thousand dollars, and a detached house costing two thousand.

But you have to consider that people's income is only forty dollars or so, and that's the average; the actual income is less than forty dollars.

If a family only has one person working, then they would need to save every penny for nearly three or four years to buy an apartment.

If they eat, drink, and have other expenses, saving ten dollars a month, it would take them more than ten years to afford this house.

During this time, they can't have shopping desires that exceed their plan, they can't get seriously ill, and they can't have extra expenses.

Otherwise, it can only be postponed continuously.

Investing in real estate when society is poor is definitely not a smart decision.

"Then why are you doing this…"

James was a little unable to guess Lance's thoughts.

Lance said with a smile, "It's not as complicated as you think. The people of the Imperial District are very supportive of our work, so I also plan to give them something in return."

This reason was very high-sounding, and it was also Lance's own idea.

When people are willing to take the initiative to come to the Imperial District to buy houses, it can enhance the collective sense of honor and pride of Imperial immigrants.

They will become confident, so that they can go out in the future.

He always believed that the division of administrative districts like "Imperial District" and "Sumuli District" was a kind of cage in itself.

It doesn't lock up the people who live here, but the hearts of the people who live here!

What Lance wants to do is to break this cage, and this point, James, who comes from a family of big landlords and slave owners, will never understand.

Maybe he never thought that Lance would have these ideas that have nothing to do with crime or making money.

The party ended around nine or ten o'clock. William's excited mood gradually subsided. Alcohol and fatigue prevented him from chatting with Lance any further, and he went straight home.

Lance also returned to his own place.

Before going to bed, Ervin told Lance that Ethan's "debut" would be staged at the end of the month.

Ethan has been working hard on boxing during this time, and he has a lot of talent in this area.

First, he can withstand hits, and second, his punches are heavy enough and hard enough.

With these two talents, it means that he is suitable for making a living in this field.

The coach arranged a light heavyweight match for him, so that he could feel the feeling on the ring!

This was Ethan's first official appearance on the field, and Ervin asked Lance if they had time to come and support him.

Lance didn't refuse this point. This was the path he recommended Ethan to take, and he became more and more determined in this idea.

Not everyone is suitable to go all the way to the dark on the path of the Black Gang. Look at Morris, he was lucky and got his life back, but not everyone can get their life back every time.

He agreed to Ervin that everyone would go together at that time, and they would also have some fun together. It had been a long time since they had a collective activity together.

Two days later, Alberto brought Lance a message that Bandi had invited the people from the five major families to talk, and what they were talking about was re-stabilizing.

Now, the Koda family is the only family whose strength has not been damaged. Their strength and influence are already significantly stronger than the others.

Bandi and Gauri had a very tough attitude at this small meeting, and the Keane family, represented by Figal, now seemed to have also joined the Koda family, standing on their side.

Alberto knew some of Lance's ambitions. If Bandi really calmed Goldport City down again this time, then it would become more difficult to do anything again.

In other words, Lance needs to respond as soon as possible.