Borrowing from the Past to Critique the Present

"Where are the fish?"

Maria found it strange that Frederick had come back empty-handed.

Frederick said earnestly, "I gave them all to Teacher Psyche."

When Psyche first arrived, she had stayed in this villa in the woods, but she'd found it too noisy on the first night and moved into a hunter's cabin nearby.

Susan was studying a play script. She looked up at Frederick and said with a wicked grin, "Hehehe, don't tell me you didn't catch any fish."

Lilu said seriously, "That can't be it. The market in the nearby town won't close this early. If you didn't catch any, you could still... Eek!"

Frederick put on an angry expression, scooped her up with one arm, and growled, "How dare you slander me!"

The living room was soon filled with laughter and chatter.

The mysterious organization led by Sophia, Maria's mother, and jokingly dubbed the "Mother-in-Law Alliance," had issued Frederick a political ultimatum: he had to get everyone pregnant this winter.

In these times, heirs were immensely important to a regime.

This was especially true after a Certain Knight exposed the illegitimate son of a certain Grand Duke's wife. The succession issue in the Duchy of Weissen had become all the more urgent.

Once the personal matters were settled, there was still work to do.

In the morning sunlight, Frederick sat in the garden, carefully reading the script and making revisions and additions from time to time.

The experience of two lifetimes had taught him that if they wanted to advance an ideological revolution, theater was the most important tool, bar none.

To support propaganda under the new circumstances, the Minister of Culture had selected several script outlines for Frederick to choose from.

Using the past to comment on the present worked everywhere.

Long, long ago, when the