Amidst the singing, Lacey was forced onto a prisoner transport and taken away from the slums.
The moment the transport departed, the suppressed emotions erupted.
"They've taken Mister Lacey! What do we do?"
"Is the Workers' Party finished?"
"I told you, nothing good comes from opposing the noble masters!"
Panic, despair, anger, suspicion...
All kinds of negative emotions spread through the crowd.
The newly established organization was on the verge of falling apart.
"Everyone, be quiet!" a thunderous roar came from Taylor the blacksmith.
He leaped onto a wooden crate, brandishing his axe, his eyes wide and fierce as he scanned the chaotic crowd.
"What are you crying for? What are you panicking about? What did Mister Lacey say before he was taken? Have you all forgotten?! He told us to trust him!"
His prestige and bravery temporarily quelled the scene, but the confusion in people's eyes did not fade.
Just then, Serafina walked to his side.
She looked at the hundreds of frightened faces around her and took a deep breath.
"I know everyone is afraid."
"I'm afraid, too."
"But, as Mister Lacey often says, fear doesn't solve anything."
"They took Mister Lacey because this is what they wanted to see—us in a panic, like a swarm of headless flies."
"Then what should we do, Miss Serafina?" a worker asked, his voice choked with tears.
"What should we do? It's simple. We continue what we were doing!"
"The literacy classes will continue, the factories will keep running, and the patrol teams will keep maintaining order!"
"We will make those high-and-mighty figures see clearly that the Leithanien Workers' Party is not one person's party—it is every single one of our party! Even without Mister Lacey, we can continue to function just fine!"
A shrill voice suddenly cried out from the crowd: "Easy for you to say! The leader's been taken, and you're still talking about the future? I see it now, this is a trap! He wanted to be a hero and sold us all out!"
The speaker was a merchant who had previously shown opportunistic tendencies.
Serafina's gaze instantly locked onto the man.
She didn't get angry. Instead, she smiled, but it was a cold smile, a stark contrast to the warm one she usually wore.
"A trap? Do you think that if Mister Lacey truly wanted to sell us out, he would have chosen to wear the shackles of a traitor instead of accepting Count Leinia's offer to become a prestigious Deputy Tax Collector?"
At these words, the man was instantly rendered speechless.
"Friends!" Serafina raised her voice. "Mister Lacey wasn't captured—he walked into the enemy's fortress willingly! He went there to open up a new battlefield for us! And we are his staunchest support back here!"
"What we need to do now is not fight amongst ourselves, but unite—more united than ever before! We do what we must, and then we wait for his signal!"
Listening from the side, Taylor the blacksmith felt his blood boil. He raised his arm and shouted, "Miss Serafina is right! We'll listen to her! The boss will be fine!"
"Yeah! Listen to Miss Serafina!"
"Unite!"
The chaotic situation was stabilized through the joint efforts of Serafina and Taylor.
...
Two days later, in the afternoon, news arrived.
Several scribes from the Tribunal, escorted by soldiers, posted a notice on the bulletin board in the city's central square.
"Public Trial Proclamation!"
"The traitor Lacey, whose crimes are heinous, has shaken the foundations of the state."
"To demonstrate the laws of Leithanien, the Salem Tribunal shall conduct a public trial of the sinner Lacey in three days' time! All citizens of the city may attend!"
The moment the notice was posted, the entire city was in an uproar.
The nobles and factory owners clapped their hands in celebration, believing it to be a wise decision by the Lord Elector.
A public trial would be enough to nail that rabble-rouser to the pillar of shame, allowing his followers to see his true colors and thereby dismantle the so-called Workers' Party.
But when this news reached the slums, the recently calmed populace was once again thrown into violent turmoil.
"A public trial? Doesn't that just mean they're going to sentence him to death in front of everyone?!"
"How vicious! They don't just want to kill him, they want to humiliate him!"
"We can't just stand by and watch! Let's charge out and storm the execution grounds!"
Indignant emotions spread rapidly, and some hot-headed youths even began sharpening their axes, preparing for a big fight.
That evening, the Workers' Party headquarters held an emergency meeting.
The warehouse was packed with the heads of various branches, their faces etched with anxiety and anger. They all spoke at once, arguing heatedly, and the entire venue descended into chaos.
"Quiet!"
Serafina slammed her hand on the table.
She stood up and surveyed the agitated faces, her gaze passing over each person one by one.
Her Originium Arts allowed her to clearly perceive the various emotions in the space—anger, fear, resolution...
She began to speak: "I know what you're all thinking."
"Storm the execution grounds? And then what? Fight a street battle against the Elector's regular army in the streets of Salem?"
"How many of us are there? How many of them? What are our weapons? What are theirs?"
"Then what can we do? Just watch Mister Lacey die?!" a young member stood up excitedly.
"He will not die," Serafina said, word by word.
Everyone froze, looking at her in confusion.
Serafina took a deep breath, her voice suddenly rising. "Don't you understand yet?"
"Why a public trial?" Serafina didn't explain directly, but instead posed a question. "They could have killed Mister Lacey in his cell. Why go through all this trouble and make it known to the entire city?"
"Because... they want to make an example of him! To humiliate us!"
"Exactly!" Serafina nodded emphatically. "They want us to see our leader tried and convicted, to make us despair and give up the fight."
"They think that by taking down the leader, Mister Lacey, the Workers' Party will crumble."
"But they are wrong. They cannot judge, nor are they qualified to judge Mister Lacey."
"Miss Serafina, what should we do then?" Taylor the blacksmith asked in his booming voice.
"Do what we must." Serafina's gaze swept over everyone. "Three days from now, on the day of the public trial, all of us will go."
"We will go there, stand, and watch."
"We will show those nobles, those lords, with our actions that the Workers' Party is not a disorderly mob!"
"We will let all of Salem see who the true masters of this city are!"
The surrounding members finally stopped clamoring and panicking. They stood up, silently looked at Serafina with respect, then turned and left to convey this decision to every corner of the slums.
In the warehouse, only Serafina and Taylor the blacksmith remained.
"Miss Serafina, do you really believe... that Mister Lacey..." Taylor asked, still worried.
Serafina walked to the window, gazed out at the dark night sky, and said softly, "What I believe in isn't whether he will die or not."
"I believe that no matter what happens, the fire he has ignited will never be extinguished."
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