Chapter 3

The guy who had been giving a boring speech on politics turned out to be Johan Dressler, the chairman of the Germanian Workers' Party. Despite his unimpressive appearance, the GWP was a real party and could boast of four members in the Federal Diet. Admittedly, that was a small proportion of a parliament of 480 people, but it was still a lucky break for me to meet a genuine VIP and for him to take a shine to me.

I did my best to make a good impression and in the end we were able to strike a deal: I would make speeches on behalf of the party in exchange for pocket money. If things went well, I'd have a chance to join the executive committee. As expected of an experienced politician, Dressler drove a bargain that cost him little but could win him a lot. Even so, I was happy.

I had an advantage over everybody else in this world, after all. Though I'd worked in human resources, I'd still picked up a decent amount of knowledge about sales techniques. Also, as a consumer I had been exposed to political campaigns that were the result of decades of modern refinement. Building a successful ad campaign in these primitive conditions ought to be within my ability.

For myself, securing a sinecure within a political party was the next best thing to getting a government job. Better, since it wasn't forbidden by an international treaty. Was it hypocritical for me, an advocate of the free market, to be so eager to work for the state? I suppose.

I never pretended to be a paragon of virtue. I preferred to leave that for posers like Being X. I have always considered myself to be a rational person who responded to incentives just like anybody else. It's only rational to seek a stable position in a time of uncertainty. When hyperinflation makes everybody unable to keep paying a living wage, I wanted my job to be as close as possible to the people who control the printing presses at the national mint. Even a small political party would naturally have more political pull than most businesses.

In order to do a good job and get myself hired on to a permanent position my first task was to do some market research. I had never paid much attention to domestic politics when I was in the army. Fortunately it was pretty easy to get up to speed. Berun as the capital was chock full of people eager to talk politics. The country had just recently changed from an empire to a republic as well as losing a war and losing a tremendous amount of territory. Nobody was certain what the future would hold but everybody had an opinion about what the government ought to do.

To put it simply, it was a mess. Depending on how you counted there were four or five political parties with more than ten percent of the vote. None of them could count on receiving more than twenty percent. Another three or four parties had a significant level of support but are stuck below ten percent. Then there were a bunch of parties that had representatives but numerically their share was more or less a rounding error. My new party belonged to that last group.

Finally, Germania possessed a disheartening number of supporters of true blue communists. Their numbers in the national parliament were low because they were pushing for a revolution. If they were to encourage their supporters to vote they would quickly become a first tier political party. For the moment, though, they were focused on recruiting for their revolutionary army as well as setting thugs on so-called "capitalist running dogs"--in other words, effective critics of communism.

Forming a majority in the Diet required a grand coalition of four different parties. Even then the defection of any one of the parties would mean the loss of the majority. It would have been a volatile situation in a normal country. In a country that was still reeling from a humiliating defeat and facing down communist agitators... it was a mess, all right.

Never mind that, my task was only to improve the appeal of the Germanian Workers' Party. The two pillars of the GWP could be described as dislike for the Treaty of Triano and promotion of scientific socialism.

As to the Treaty of Triano, just about every Germanian hated it. The treaty had carved up our country and imposed massive reparation payments that we could hardly afford. The problem was what to do about it. The treaty wasn't something we had freely agreed to in the first place. It was something that had been imposed on us by force, and directly violating the treaty would result in that force coming back to crush us further underfoot.

Some parties suggested complying with the treaty completely. The basic theory was to earn goodwill, or less charitably to curry favor with our conquerors. Others were in favor of various means of passive aggressive or legalistic evasion of our obligations. The Germanian Workers' Party took a relatively hard line, which I believed was responsible for the bulk of its support. Well, that and the fact that Dressler was a distinguished former soldier who got along well with other former soldiers. The demographic of unemployed former soldiers was depressingly large with the war over.

The concept of scientific socialism was Dressler's pet project. He was happy to expound at length about any and every detail related to his theory of governance. The forty-eight hour work week was mandated by science. The forty hour work week was a communist plot. Generous unemployment benefits were vital to the health of the state, but benefits that were too generous would promote indolence and sloth. In other words, the man was something of a nerd.

In a way it was inspiring to listen to somebody talk who was inspired about the subject at hand. In a more concrete sense it was such a terrible bore that I suspected simply dropping it completely would greatly improve our ability to recruit supporters. Unfortunately, Dressler obviously wouldn't accept such a radical change to what he considered to be the heart of the party. I'd just have to work around him with the wonder of modern marketing.

The thing to keep in mind was that in a parliamentary system it was no good to achieve lukewarm goodwill in the hearts of the voters. People had no need to compromise in their votes and could support the party of their dreams, achieving success proportional to their share of the votes. There was no real concept of a "wasted vote" as there was in a two party system. Therefore it was better to have 10% of the people love you and 90% of the people hate you than to have 5% of the people love you and 95% not care about you. Whether it was hate or indifference, it would be the same cost of a single lost vote.

Accordingly, as to the Treaty of Triano, our policy should be to reject it in a forthright fashion. What's that? If we reject the treaty we will be crushed by our enemies? That sounds like the talk of a coward to me. If the people of Germania stand together with God on our side, who can stand against us? Long live the Empire!

For the most part people wouldn't vote for a policy of national suicide. But in a large group of people you'll always find a few who believe anything. Even in a modern society you'll find ten or fifteen percent of people who believe in alien abductions. There ought to be at least that many who think we could win if we give war another try. The best part is that people who want to outright reject the treaty didn't currently have a political party to represent them. It's a basic market principle to profit by identifying an under served market and catering to their needs.

I suppose it's a problem that pursuing this policy would destroy the country. Imagine what would happen if we actually obtained a position of power? Fortunately, this was a problem that solved itself. By taking an open position in favor of a crazy policy we could ensure that we would never be put in a position of power. Endless employment in the Diet with no responsibility for anything the government does sounded like the perfect job to me.

As to scientific socialism, while it couldn't be removed from the platform it could be deemphasized. Instead of talking at length about the details of every program I could simply allude to the wonderful things that would happen. Workers would be treated with dignity. Everybody would earn a living wage. The unemployed would be protected by a safety net. What does that mean, exactly? I'm glad you asked and Mr. Dressler would be happy to discuss it with you at length after I'm done talking. Rest assured that whatever specific payout you are interested in will certainly be provided, though.

Dressler's theories would never be much of a selling point but I was confident that I could at least reduce the extent to which they drove people away. We would avoid any problems with failing to keep promises once we gained power through the simple expedient of never taking power because of the other, more insane, portion of our party platform.

There was one other thing that we needed: a scapegoat. The Empire had lost the war. Badly. The average citizen was quite angry about that. The kind of person who wanted to tear up the Treaty of Triano even more so. All of that anger needed an outlet. There was no easier way to bond with people than to complain about somebody you both disliked, after all. Dressler tended to blame the result of the war on various religious and ethnic minorities, though the specific theory varied day by day.

This was no good. Those ethnic and religious minorities could vote, you know. There may not be that many of them but our party didn't have so many supporters that we could afford to throw anybody away. Instead, it was much better to direct our anger at a group that couldn't vote in our elections: foreigners. Specifically, the Francois.

Honestly, their actions were a little bit despicable. They invaded our country for no real reason while our army was occupied with its response to the similarly unprovoked invasion by the Entente. Then, after they were soundly defeated they pleaded for an armistice and instead of properly proceeding to negotiate a peace they used the time provided to gather their forces and continue a bitter resistance. If you really took the time to think about it, every problem ailing Germania could be traced back to some perfidious action by the Francois Republic.

The Francois invasion was a rational, even predictable response to the counter-invasion of the Entente? The Republic had no choice but to invade in order to preserve its national strategy of putting pressure on the exterior lines of the Empire? Perhaps an academic might say that, but frankly I'd rather not be the person trying to make that argument in Berun to a bunch of unemployed veterans.

So it was that after a week of research I began making the case for an absurdly bellicose foreign policy, pie-in-the-sky government expenditures, and hatred of our neighboring country.

ooOoo​

"For our own government to become a tax collector for the Francois is a disgrace! If Monsieur Mirande wants to take the bread off of our tables, let him come take it for himself!"

I paused for a moment to let the cheers die down as I surveyed the crowd. The results of my rabble rousing were already becoming obvious after two months of effort. Where Dressler had been addressing half full and half interested beer halls, today's venue was packed and crackling with enthusiasm. I wouldn't say the place was standing room only but as I looked around I couldn't see any empty tables.

"Remember, a vote for the Germanian Workers' Party is a vote for a strong Germania! A vote for a safe Germania! As long as the people of Germania stand together we will never be defeated! Thank you for your support!"

Another round of applause. Ah, demagoguery was rewarding work. When the roar of the crowd started to quiet down my plants began to lead the group in singing an old Imperial standby about the greatness of the Germanian people. It wasn't quite as provocative as the Imperial national anthem, but it got the message across. I hopped down from the stage and mingled with the crowd as Dressler came up to follow me. It was a little cruel, but I hoped that the difference in the crowd response to his analytical approach as compared to the raw red meat that I was throwing out would help drive home my value to the party.

It didn't take long for me to work my way to the back of the room. Here it was quiet enough to hold a conversation and one could speak without interrupting Dressler's lecture. As expected, I found an old friend sitting alone in a booth. Lieutenant, or rather, Viktoriya Serebryakov. She looked to be deep in thought with her head down over her drink. It was strange to see her in civilian clothes.

I gave her a smile as I slid into the booth to sit across from her. "It's been a while, Visha. How do you like peace time?"

"Ah, it's good, it's good. Hot food and a shower every day is nice," she said, though she looked troubled. "Lately I have been feeling a little aimless."

As expected of a member of my battalion. Visha was relatively level headed but she's still a battle maniac at heart. I'd have to take her under my wing to help turn her skills to productive use in the private sector.

"You know, the party should be making me a member of the executive committee soon. I could use an adjutant."

She looked down at the table and chewed on her lip for a moment before replying. "To tear up the treaty of Triano and then win a war... can we really do that?"

It was easy to forget because of her innocent appearance, but Visha had a sharp military mind. She was an ace many times over in her own right and had fought beside me on every battlefield imaginable during the war. It was only natural that she would spot how impossible it would be for me to pull off everything I'd promised up on the stage. No matter how stir crazy she felt she was hardly going to sign up to follow a lunatic charging into an unwinnable war.

"What do you think?"

I couldn't just announce to the whole bar that I'd been lying to them all evening, so I'd have to rely on a more subtle Socratic method to tell Visha that I could see what she saw. That rather than plunging the country into war I intended to scam the voters into providing me with a cushy job and if she helped me out then I could extend that cushy lifestyle to her.

"I see," she said, the hesitation vanishing from her eyes. "In that case, I will walk beside you every step of the way!"

Judging from her enthusiasm she must have really been going stir crazy since we all were kicked out of the military. Well, that really wasn't any of my business. I was just happy to have her on board. A trusted and competent aide was worth her weight in gold. I started to brief her on her immediate duties but I was soon interrupted by a commotion near the entrance.

I had to stand up on my seat in order to see what was going on. By rising up on my tiptoes and craning my neck I could see a group of large men wearing red armbands in the process of shoving their way inside.

Communists. I hated those guys.

When I read about communists in the history books I took an immediate dislike to their idiotic rejection of the free market and their stubborn refusal to admit their mistakes as their revolutionary paradises crumbled around them. Add on top of that the atrocities piled on atrocities that were required to keep the communists in control and it would be fair to say that I despised them.

That emotion paled, though, compared to the sheer anger that I felt upon meeting communists in the flesh for the first time. I'd dressed inconspicuously and attended a rally as part of scouting out the political opposition. Seeing somebody stand up on stage and call for abolishing public property in favor of a world where the Party decides everything had really set my blood boiling. If I'd had access to a proper computation orb I'm not sure I'd have been able to just walk away from that bunch of traitors.

The communist party didn't limit itself to the persuasion of sweet reason, of course. Their habit of setting thugs on their competitors was aimed at preserving their own exclusive access to a pool of likely recruits. An ironically mercantile approach, really. In the past they had more or less ignored the Germanian Workers' Party. For them to show up today was a sign that my approach was succeeding. At the very least it meant I was creating a noticeable drain from their target market of people who were willing to tear down society and try to build up something better.

The group of commies had succeeded in pushing their way through to the middle of the beer hall while I brought my temper back under control. Now that they were standing in a cleared spot I could get a decent count. Twelve men, all ready for a fight. We only had five men on hand who were ready for violence, and in all honesty they were more in the nature of bouncers than soldiers. The crowd that had been cheering so enthusiastically had largely drawn back from the impending violence, content to treat it as part of the evening's entertainment.

Political violence was seen a lot differently here than in my original world. In modern day Japan a political party that actively endorsed a physical attack on its opponents could expect a storm of condemnation. If the supporters of two different parties got into a brawl each side would rush to the media to claim they were the innocent victims of a vicious attack. Republican Germania was a more rough and tumble place. As long as nobody died a certain level of violence was just seen as a natural part of politics. Winning the fight was more important than trying to establish moral superiority.

I was going to have to take matters into my own hands if I wanted this to turn out well. Fortunately, the communists were still milling around and taking their time sizing up Dressler and the two bouncers guarding the stage.

"Gentlemen," I called out, pitching my voice so it would carry clearly throughout the room, "I'm afraid this bar doesn't serve dogs or communists."

The group turned and stared at me for a moment before an apparent leader stepped forward, cracking his knuckles. "That's all right. We're not here to order. We're here for a debate."

"Fair enough," I said. "I suppose I should communicate in a manner you can understand."

With that I activated a magical formula to enhance my physical strength and leaped towards the group of men. I landed just outside of their reach and layered an acceleration spell on top of the physical enhancement. It wasn't much of a boost. A proper enemy mage could have shot me dead and had his gun back in the holster before I knew what had happened. Against untrained brawlers, though, it was more than enough. In my eyes my opponents looked like they were trying to swim through molasses as I darted forward untouched and smashed a kick up between their leader's legs.

Without a proper computation orb I couldn't manage anything ridiculous like punting him into the ceiling. Still, my leg was able to impart enough force to lift him a foot or two into the air. I watched in slow motion as winces spread through the rest of the communists like ripples in still water as they realized what had happened.

I took advantage of the brief pause to step back and lean over to take hold of the leg of a chair that had been abandoned earlier. A step forward brought me into range and I swept the chair across my body. It smashed with satisfying violence into the group, sending two men flying as the chair exploded into pieces. The chair leg left in my hand was quite conveniently sized to serve as a cudgel.

Everything after that took place in a sort of red blur. When I came back to myself I was standing in the middle of eleven unconscious bodies.

Hmm. I could have sworn there were twelve of them before. A second check around the area confirmed that I had only beaten eleven of them unconscious. It wasn't until I glanced back towards our booth that everything became clear.

In the middle of the fight one of the men had slipped away and headed toward Visha. Whether he was looking to take a hostage or simply to escape, I couldn't say. Either way, it left me with nothing to do but watch. She was firmly clamped in position on his back with both arms latched around his neck. It didn't take long before he fell to his knees and then the floor, thoroughly knocked out. For her part, Visha let him go and jumped clear just before he fell flat on her face. She was perfectly composed until she realized how much attention was on her, at which point she flushed and tried to hide away in our booth.

That reminded me that I should probably say something. First I headed over to the man Visha had knocked out and tossed him to land on top of the pile of his fellows, giving me a moment to think. Then I put my hands on my hips and turned to face the crowd.

"These degenerates preach collectivism because they are too weak to stand on their own two feet!" I announced. "I don't know if it's possible to beat the idiocy out of them, but I'm certainly willing to try!"

That prompted a cheer from the crowd. I waited until they turned their attention from me and started to talk amongst themselves before I relaxed. I took a seat on the bench and slid over until I was close enough to cuff Visha on her shoulder.

"Taking so long to knock out one man... you've gone soft," I said, teasing her. "It's a shame there's no more Rhine front to visit to knock the rust off."

"Yes, major," she said, her gaze fixed on the table.

One little fight and she was nostalgic enough to call me by my old rank. Honestly, it was a wonder that high command had managed to convince the army to surrender. I guess in the end Imperial discipline had been a little stronger than Imperial fighting spirit. It was enough to make me a little nervous. I needed to get Visha officially hired as my aide before she left for bloodier pastures.

The whole bar was still buzzing with conversation. Looking it over, I saw that Dressler had decided to cut his presentation short. As I watched, he finished talking to the group of bouncers and moved to start mingling with the crowd. For their part the bouncers started dragging the unconscious communists out of the way. I couldn't help but notice that they were taking them into the back room rather than tossing them out the front. Well, when you try to crash somebody's party I suppose you don't always get to leave when you want.

I put it out of my mind and turned my attention back to Visha. "Don't worry, I'll think of something. Come on, we should talk to the boss."

I tugged on her arm and half dragged her out onto the floor. The crowd politely parted around us as we made our way toward Johann Dressler. He seemed to feel us coming and turned to face us as we approached. I gently nudged Visha forward as we closed to within conversational distance.

"Mr. Dressler, this is my good friend Viktoriya Serebryakov. She hates communists nearly as much as I do and I think she'd make a wonderful addition to the party," I said. I put my best professional smile on my face before I continued. "I also think this is a good time to discuss my role in the party going forward."

Pushing for a promotion after performing meritorious service was just common sense.