The Christian Social Party, Part I

"Do you really think establishing a single research institute will improve the slums?"

"We have to do what we can, Professor."

Professor Freud asked me, his tone laced with sarcasm. Of course, I agreed with him a hundred percent. The abysmal sanitation caused by outdated or nonexistent water and sewage systems. The wretched housing conditions. The grueling, endless ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠working hours. And an education system that was an even more pressing issue than the sewage. All of these factors synergized to completely destroy public order and send life expectancy plummeting. There was no way a single research institute could solve this mountain of problems. Still, hadn't we poured a whopping 200,000 kroner into this?

The research institute is one thing, but we need a hospital and a school first. Those are the most urgent.

A hospital and a school always followed a research institute. Of course, a research institute and a hospital could follow a school, or a school and a research institute could follow a hospital. In Korea, these three always went hand in hand at countless universities. Even so, this didn't immediately solve the issue of public safety.

"Professor, what should I do? I... I was mugged, and my entire salary for this month is gone."

"Don't cry. *Sigh*, I will personally speak to His Imperial Highness the Archduke about this."

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"Sir, I'm resigning."

"What? Why on earth?"

"Anyone can see this is madness! What kind of crazy bastard would willingly commute to the 16th District?!"

The most pressing issue was public safety. For people like me, Professor Freud, or Dr. Landsteiner, it was fine. We had practically been deified in this neighborhood, so we could walk around with our heads held high. The moment anyone dared to touch us, they would have to worry about getting their throats slit by the local thugs we had treated. The other researchers also basked in our reflected glory to some extent. For soft-handed academics suddenly dropped into the slums, they were pickpocketed or mugged far less often than one would expect. But that was strictly relative. No matter how safe it was claimed to be, a slum was still a slum.

"Marx, my boy. Two researchers have resigned this month alone. We must find a solution, and quickly!"

"Sigh..."

Hiring private guards to patrol the area was not just a matter of cost. I had no idea what kind of backlash we would face from the imperial court. Training a private security force to patrol the 16th District? To any outside observer, it would look like we were preparing for a coup!

I wish the police would come in here. Is there no way?

While establishing a permanent police station was out of the question, we could borrow the police temporarily. And for that, I had no choice but to use my Archduke shield. Aligning myself with Archduke Franz Ferdinand certainly came with many practical perks.

"Your Imperial Highness. Could you perhaps visit our institute for an inspection once a month—no, even once every two months?"

"Hmm? Is that truly necessary? My house arrest was lifted recently, and I have been quite busy conversing with your father and his associates."

...Excuse me? My father might look like a shut-in, but he was surprisingly a social butterfly.

"Your Highness... that is a bit concerning. What if the imperial court catches wind of this?"

"We already took a group photo together, so what does it matter? At any rate, what is the issue?"

I explained the current situation at the institute, and the Archduke readily agreed. The justification was solid. A proper royal should visit his estates from time to time, keep an eye on expenditures, and throw his weight around. Of course, to our institute staff, it would probably feel like a division commander visiting their base. When the Archduke made an official appearance, the police—specifically, the state police, the most formidable force in the empire—would follow. If anyone got caught committing a robbery under their noses? It would be treated as high treason.

Of course, this is merely a temporary fix. The Archduke can't visit every day.

I recalled the dark, sketchy streets back in Korea. There were signs posted that read, "Report here in case of danger!" and posters warning, "Such-and-such crime carries a prison sentence of X years."

They say these are surprisingly effective.

Let's implement it immediately! We had to do something, after all. I took portraits of the Archduke, wrote the caption, "His Imperial Highness is watching you," and plastered them all along the researchers' commute routes.

There was a mountain of other problems. Since we offered penicillin for free, an uncontrollable mob of people swarmed the facility. Naturally, both the institute and the clinic turned into a chaotic open-air market. It got so bad that I had to personally go out and calm the crowds multiple times.

A first-come, first-served system is unsustainable. At this rate, people will be waiting over ten years for a penicillin prescription.

Ultimately, I decided to introduce a lottery system. However, even though the Archduke was churning out Ferdinand Bonds like they were ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠German Mefo bills, spending money recklessly was still too burdensome. In other words, I needed to think like an entrepreneur before acting like a politician. While brainstorming ways to secure a budget, I decided to establish a lottery. Even a small pittance was better than nothing.

And the final problem.

"How many students do we have at the schoolhouse today? The tuition is completely free, after all."

"Three, sir."

"..."

Though we had ambitiously opened the schoolhouse to improve literacy rates, the slum dwellers had neither the economic incentive nor the desire to learn how to read. While the hospital suffered from overcrowding, the schoolhouse suffered from a ghost-town level of desertion.

"How about making literacy a requirement to purchase lottery tickets?"

"And face a massive public backlash? Is there no better way?"

In the end, I replaced the winning numbers of the lottery with winning words. To claim the prize money, participants had to be able to write at least their own names and a simple phrase. Of course, those phrases were a bit... insidious, but brainwashing is always most effective when it seeps in gradually, like a gentle drizzle soaking through clothes.

And so, after deploying all sorts of makeshift measures, the results came in.

The reform's progress isn't bad at all. In fact, this is... far beyond my wildest expectations.

How did this happen? At first, I was deeply flustered, thinking I had only patched things up with temporary band-aids. But upon deeper reflection, the answer wasn't that complicated.

Wasn't it called the Broken Windows Theory? They say that simply repairing broken windows and cleaning up graffiti reduced serious crime by seventy-five percent.

In all their lives, the people of these streets had probably never seen a single police officer in their neighborhood. But now, even if only occasionally, the police—and state ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠police who hunted political dissidents, at that—showed their faces, even if they didn't actually do much. Public safety stabilized in an instant. Furthermore, the posters of the Archduke added an air of gravity and intimidation to the once-chaotic streets.

And it wasn't just public safety. Public hygiene and literacy rates improved dramatically! The lottery business directly translated into a passion for education, and the schoolhouse wasn't just teaching basic letters.

"Now that we have mastered the alphabet, let us read a practice sentence. Repeat after me: 'Let us wash our hands clean!'"

"Let us wash our hands clean!"

"Let us read the next sentence: 'I will study hard and change this district!'"

"I will study hard and change this district!"

Naturally, if a priest or a schoolteacher had said those things directly, it would have sounded tedious, pedantic, and intellectually arrogant, with a hundred percent chance of sparking an argument. But when injected under the guise of teaching literacy? It was quick, memorable, and the chance of facing any pushback converged to zero percent. Perfect!

Of course, fundamental issues that required massive capital—such as sewage systems, housing quality, and labor environments—still remained. But even with just this campaign, the area surrounding the institute had become remarkably clean. The soaring value of the real estate I had purchased proved it! I'm rich! Bwahahaha!

Furthermore, this was the first time since I started working in Austria that the newspapers had reacted so favorably!

"The press still goes through the hands of the imperial court, doesn't it?"

Which meant? The imperial court's reaction wasn't bad either! But why? Why did I feel this creeping sense of dread?

"Your Highness, I expected the imperial court to foam at the mouth and try to suppress us, but the reception is surprisingly positive. It feels ominous."

"Do not worry too much."

"But I don't understand the reason. To anyone looking, isn't our project essentially a social-democratic political experiment?"

"Politics is all about framing. There is nothing better than welfare, education, and the restoration of order appearing to flow directly from the Emperor's hand. After all, every Emperor's dream is to rule like a Russian Tsar."

Although Archduke Franz Ferdinand harbored a heart full of dark schemes and associated with bad influences like my father, a Habsburg was still a Habsburg, it seemed.

"Naturally, if the Social Democratic Workers' Party had pulled such a stunt, His Majesty would have lost his mind and mobilized the state police. Of course, the court will despise Sophie and me constantly appearing in public, but that is nothing new."

I thought I had finally figured out the political landscape after making the papers and being targeted by political heavyweights, but it was truly a labyrinth.

"But when you personally went to do volunteer work last time..."

"You ask even though you know the answer. Are those two things even remotely the same?"

True. There was a critical difference between the imperial family gaining popularity by funding welfare policies and Karl Lueger directly inciting the masses.

And, just as the Archduke had predicted, while we enjoyed the tacit protection of the imperial court, the nobility, the Catholic Church, and the bourgeoisie began to strike back at me with a vengeance.

The opening salvo was, of course, Karl Lueger's anti-Semitic demagoguery. Notice how he carefully omitted the Archduke's name, calling it the "Stahl Institute" instead of the "Stahl-Ferdinand Institute," likely because he didn't dare cross the imperial family.

"That son of a bitch is at it again. Just think of it as another one of his fits, Marx."

"...I have a bad feeling about this, though."

Whenever that bastard initiated a dirty play, there was always a hidden motive. Then again, he might have just been bored. Karl Lueger was the kind of man who spouted anti-Semitic rhetoric from the moment he opened his eyes to the moment he closed them, occasionally mixing in some German nationalism. It looked incredibly cheap, but honestly, from Lueger's perspective, what business was more lucrative than anti-Semitism, where all you had to do was wag your tongue?

Unfortunately, my ominous intuition was spot on.

"The issuance of lottery tickets constitutes an 'unauthorized private gambling operation.' Take corrective action immediately."

"Private gambling? We aren't even betting money! It's just a raffle!"

"The lottery business is a monopoly reserved strictly for the Imperial Government."

"Dammit! Fine, should we change the name to 'Penicillin Raffle Tickets' instead of a lottery? Will that satisfy you?"

"Since you have already used the term 'lottery,' have you not admitted to it yourself? Do not take the Ministry of Finance lightly."

A painful blow had landed. This... hurt even more than the penicillin incident. Back then, their tactics were limited to delaying patent registration and bashing us in the press. And compared to the penicillin fiasco, the media frenzy this time was relatively mild. After all, what they called the "Stahl Institute" was actually the "Stahl-Ferdinand Institute." Furthermore, while the imperial court hadn't explicitly approved it, they had given it their tacit, ambiguous consent. Insulting us openly like last time would border on lèse-majesté. Who would be brave enough for that?

But when they brandished financial regulations to seize our assets, we were left virtually defenseless. Not that the media wasn't attacking us, of course. They couldn't call the Stahl Institute a band of swindlers, since the Archduke's honor was also on the line.

In times like this, they usually brought in someone even more powerful.

And that was Christ Himself.

Morality, humanitarianism, Satan, Christ...

How could one even speak of honor when faced with such rhetoric? Even with the tacit approval of the imperial court and the Archduke's backing, this blow stung.

Why on earth were they suddenly acting like this?