The Path to Lordship Begins in the North

Isa is currently in the former capital of Anjou, talking to a chimney cleaner.

"Yes, madam, if you want these little devils to come down, you can wet the straw, then light it on fire. The straw will then sit there quietly smoking without catching fire, and it will quickly urge the little devils down."

The chimney cleaner added, "The other kinds of smoke are no good at all; they'll just knock the little devils out."

But Isa’s gaze wasn’t on the worker; it was fixed on the child climbing out of the chimney.

"Hasn't the Child Labor Law been enacted? New tools will replace child labor in the future, but why are there still so many child laborers in Anjou, whether in factories or elsewhere?"

Having guessed Isa's thoughts, the worker said, "Madam, you are kind-hearted and can't bear to see these children working, but there's nothing we can do about it. After all, we didn't actively recruit these 'apprentices'; their parents sent them over."

Just then, a parade passed by on a street not far away.

"Free up child labor! Guarantee the right of child laborers to work!"

One person shouted from the front, while the people following behind also shouted numbly, "Release child labor! Guarantee the right of child laborers to work!"

This wasn't the first time Isa had witnessed such a parade. The empire was now invincible externally, but internally there were still some unstable factors, just as Isa had observed.

Isa once visited parents who sent their children to factories instead of schools. The answers she received were mostly that their families were poor. Even though school was free and a meal was provided, other necessities like food, clothing, and daily necessities still cost money. Many families had five or six children, and these children were very important laborers and sources of income for their families, so child labor could not be eradicated.

Even the strictest government orders need people to implement them.

There was once a worker who pleaded with Isa not to send his child to school because his wife was sick and he needed a stable income to keep the family afloat.

To be honest, even Isa felt confused after the visits. The results of the surveys were different from what Isa had imagined, even quite different, and completely did not meet her expectations.

This was the first time Isa had ever doubted her own investigation. The children covered in coal dust, the children who suffocated in the flues due to improper operation by adults, and the children who had never seen sunlight in factories and mines—all of these things told Isa that sometimes the truth is not as simple as it seems.

A girl from the mine once told Isa that she spent twelve hours a day in the dark mine, where she had to operate a separate device to prevent toxic gases from accumulating underground.

Isa went down into the mine herself to check out the area where the girl was working. Even though Isa was quite petite, she still couldn't squeeze into that area.

Narrow, dark, and cramped—even an adult who could fit inside would likely develop mental problems soon, let alone an eight-year-old girl.

Eight years old is already quite old for this group of children, because if they grow any older, they won't be able to do this job. Most of the children who do this job are around five years old. Of course, children in this kind of place don't grow up very much.

The happiest time for the girl was every time she got paid, when she could go to the nearest town with her parents and eat a meal of less hard black bread with her family.

When Isa asked the little girl if she still wanted to work there, the little girl silently nodded and said, "Yes."

When the little girl said she wanted to continue working there, Isa felt a chill run down her spine and straight to her head. She thought of the serfs of the past, and the workers of today seemed to be no different from the serfs of the past.

Isa then met the little girl's parents. The girl's parents seemed very simple and honest. They had more than one child, and their other children were also working.

Their eldest child is twelve years old. Of course, they originally had a child who should be fourteen now, of legal working age, but unfortunately that child died in a mining accident when Alberto was in power, and the couple did not receive a penny of compensation.

At the time, no one cared about a family that had lost its eldest son in a mining accident.

Isa wanted to send the family's children to the newly opened public school, but the two parents knelt down and begged Isa not to send their children away, saying that they needed these children to work so that they could barely make ends meet.

Until the very end, Isha didn't know how she left that house; many of the bloody words still echoed in her ears.

Unlike before, when Isha was powerless to change everything and decided to fight to the death with everyone, now Isha has the power to change everything, but she can only punch cotton and has no idea how to exert her strength.

Especially when Isa saw the couple again, they were in a march against child labor laws.

The couple, like everyone else, marched along with the procession with blank expressions, occasionally letting out two numb cries of resistance, like soulless shells.

After communicating with Lind, Lind comforted Isa and gave her an address. Isa had the power to act first and ask for permission later, and now it was time to exercise that power.

Linde also understood that some things cannot be accomplished overnight. Improving workers' treatment, improving the factory environment, implementing relevant laws, and providing compulsory education and subsidies for poor families are all necessary to get those damned kids to obediently go to school.

The empire has been implementing these policies, and at least for now, it openly prohibits the recruitment of child laborers under the age of fourteen.

In fact, in the North, you can't even get into a factory without a basic education, because the North's production equipment is almost all state-of-the-art. To use that equipment, even if you don't have professional skills, you at least need to be literate, right? Otherwise, you won't even be able to understand the factory's basic regulations.

Sometimes, investigations need to start not only at the grassroots level but also from the general public; a broader perspective is required to connect the dots.

Just as Isa’s investigations at the grassroots level helped Linde better understand the current situation in Anjou, Linde, through the intelligence and data of his subordinates, could clearly sense that there was a force in Anjou consciously rejecting more advanced production equipment.

Combined with the fact that Isa's report mentioned factories and mines still using the cheapest and most outdated production equipment, even a fool could understand what had happened.

Of course, Linde had already guessed this, after all, he had never overestimated those guys' bottom line.