The Shadow Tycoon
Copyright© 2026 by CaffeinatedTales
Chapter 99: Lunch With the Mayor
In a country like the Baler Federation, people always joked in a half-playful, half-resigned tone that taxation and death were the two things no one could avoid.
In truth, aside from taxation and death, there was one more thing people could not avoid, regardless of birth, aging, sickness, or death: political position.
The Baler Federation had three major parties. This was also a requirement of the Baler Federation Charter. At any given time, there had to be three political parties inside the Baler Federation competing for the power to govern.
The Federation Progressive Party, the Federation Conservative Party, and the Federation Socialist Party. These three political factions, beneath what looked like a loose and free political environment, sometimes behaved with real aggression.
Even when someone went to prison, the court would have people fill out a questionnaire, and included in it was the prisoner’s political position. Then, according to that questionnaire, they would arrange the prison and cellblock where he would serve his sentence.
His Honor the Mayor was very satisfied with William’s answer, reaction, and thinking. Political position was his final question. If William had a political position different from his own, he would downplay William’s role in all of this, or even hold talks with certain local capitalists and have them find a way to replace William, then drive William elsewhere.
To allow a capitalist from another party to grow and develop on the Federation Progressive Party’s turf was simply impossible, unless His Honor the Mayor had decided to abandon his future political life or switch camps in order to help William rise for free.
Politicians and capitalists were forever mutually dependent. Capitalists provided politicians with enough campaign contributions, provided them with jobs, and provided more content related to urban construction.
Likewise, politicians would feed back to capitalists the things these people wanted: policy preferences, and certain development plans tailored around the capitalists.
This required both sides to trust each other and remain intimate in certain cooperation. People could not trust “outsiders.” They only trusted “their own.”
What kind of person counted as “their own”?
Clearly, those with the same political position, united for the same goal, were their own people.
Fortunately, William’s answer satisfied him very much. He did not mind bringing William into the Federation Progressive Party either. Letting the power of capital invade a party was not a scandal in the Baler Federation. Behind every well-known politician stood the support of capitalists, even syndicates.
Without the support of such people, on this magical land, even the most extraordinary politician could do nothing.
Of course, the Baler Federation’s political environment was still very loose, at least on the surface. There had never been political persecution directed at common people. A citizen could say in the morning that he was a member of the Federation Progressive Party, then change position in the afternoon and become a supporter of the Federation Conservative Party. No one would say anything about it. At most, some ordinary people would curse him for being shameless.
Such an environment was indeed very loose. There was no need for any substantive application, no need for a long review and approval process. All it took was one sentence, one acknowledgment, and the whole process was basically complete.
But once one left the rank and file of society and entered the middle and upper levels, the political environment became relatively severe. For people such as capitalists and politicians, changing position was not an easy matter. One careless move could easily cause trouble.
There were other, more complicated situations inside this, but they had nothing to do with the present.
Before attending the lunch, William had looked up some information and had some understanding of the Federation Progressive Party. What he had just said was not entirely flattery meant to cater to His Honor the Mayor.
In his eyes, the Federation Progressive Party was indeed much better than the Federation Conservative Party currently in power. The Federation Conservative Party’s political platform was to keep its head down and develop internally. This was also the reason isolationism had run rampant over these years.
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