Having met with Wolfgang and seen the dirty state of the minors Lili was not pleased. Not only had Wolfgang smelled really bad, he looked bad, but his health was absolutely horrible as was the pay that he had gotten for his day at work.
Luckily the man had won the grand prize and gotten his worth out of the 4 marks that he had spent on the Lottery. However it was obvious to her now that the lottery tickets were way too expensive for a low wage employee like Wolfgang.
So after returning to their temporary place of residence in the town of Essen, which was the small castle of Vondern, that was luckily not located all too far from the coal mines. Lili then immediately started to write a letter to the Kaiser regarding the Lottery.
For Lili it honestly seemed like a miracle that anyone had won the grand price this time around to begin with. The chances of winning the grand price after all weren't great at all. Plus she had noticed that the majority of lottery players had been the more well-off people of Germany, so for a miner like Wolfgang to win was also quite a miracle as well.
This fact of only well-off people playing the lottery was obviously not her intention. It was clear now that she had gravely miscalculated the prices of the tickets, having made them way too expensive for the lower class workers. After all she had wanted everyone to have a chance at participating, she wanted to do good things with this lottery and she most definitely didn't want to cause problems for the participants of the lottery.
If a normal worker like Wolfgang were to participate within each round of the lottery, he would most definitely get himself into financial troubles and that was not what Lili wanted.
So the prices needed to be changed, the regular tickets for the five yellow balls was to be 10 pfennigs from now on. 10 pfennigs being 10 cents basically, but in this time period it was pretty much equivalent to being 1 euro in worth in the modern world, or a bit more give or take.
With this in mind the winning price also needed to be changed. First was the price for the five yellow balls which would need to be 30 thousand marks. Of course it would then be made to go up gradually each round if no grand price winner was found.
And as for the price of the bonus tickets with the two blue balls, well that was going to be 50 pfennigs, which would be expensive, but for a good reason. That reason being the winning price that would be 500 thousand Marks to begin with, and it would also go up each round if no winner was found.
Like this the players could either choose to buy the cheap tickets for 10 pfennigs and win a small price. Or they could pay five times more and win fifteen times more, approximately. So obviously people would still go for the expensive option and possibly bankrupt themselves in the process.
But well that then was going to be their problem then, although Lili did make sure to place a maximum cap on how many tickets any one single person could buy. For now a hundred was the limit, although some might still band together and try to defy the odds by buying in bulk, but honestly the chances at victory were so bad that in her opinion it was alright if they wanted to try.
With the adjustments done and the letter sent to the Kaiser Lili now just needed to justify the Welfare part of her lottery. The Kaiser and Heinrich supposedly already had some charities in mind that helped children, but Lili had some other plans in mind now.
So the very next day Lili and Willy escorted by the German royal guards went to inspect Germanies largest coal mine in Essen. This was the Zollverein coal mine in which Wolfgang at least used to work at, before he became filthy rich.
And as they arrived at the sight of the coal mine Lili was immediately horrified by what she saw there. Just like before there were dirty and unhealthy people. But there were not just adults, but children from the ages of 9 onwards as well. She could even see some girls amongst the young boys there.
Just like the boys the girls were extremely dirty and seemed much older than what their size entailed them to be. Clearly the hard labour had made the children appear older than what they were. To Lili it was honestly quite a horrifying sight to see as many of them weren't even all that much older than she herself was.
Of course there were some regulations in place, but child labour was still a big thing. Many poor families simply didn't have the income to have all their children stay at home. Although on the brighter side some miners like Wolfgang had managed to keep their wife and children at home, but most sadly couldn't.
Well while this was to be expected of such low wage workers as coal miners, one thing Lili hadn't expected was the absolute lack of safety equipment here. All were simply dressed in dirty rags and wore nothing but simple hats or nothing at all upon their heads.
Also within the large factory next to the mine there too was no safety standards basically at all. Many machines had nothing in between the user and the machines dangerous moving parts.
Just by taking a single look at the machines Lili could already imagine countless scenarios of people getting maimed or injured by such machines. However that was of course only the lucky ones who managed to survive as many most definitely wouldn't survive from such accidents. These machines were strong and not easily stopped if they were to catch an unsuspecting victim within their clutches, and if she had to guess then maimed workers most likely didn't have great futures ahead of themselves.
From what she knew there was hardly no programmes in place to assist such unfortunate people. Many would most likely just be thrown to the street and made to try their luck elsewhere.
Of course as was to be expected there were no statistics for such things here. But with many working 10 or more hours within such a noisy and dangerous environment with little sleep, hardly any really good nutritious food in their bellies and already having who knows what health problems there was bound to be accidents.
Lili could even see some workers missing some fingers and using her vision she could even see one man having lost four of his toes. Truly this place was not a safe place to work and to drive the point home to the prince, Lili called upon the children in the mine to come tell the prince their stories.
Many were quite reluctant to do so, but with the price of a few Marks and some food they happily came and spoke their minds. To Lili this was important as she saw herself as the young Princes guardian and teacher and so she made sure he listened to the poor children.
And luckily to Lilis great relief Willy actually seemed interested in the children's poor living conditions. He even went as far as to suggest giving all the children some money and sending them home for the day.
A good idea, but Lili had something else in mind. Instead of money Lili suggested that Willy organise an outdoor feast for the thousands of workers within the mine and the factories. Like so the workers would get something warm and free to eat saving themselves some money.
Also like this the workers will come to remember the prince more favourably instead of him simply just giving them a few coins. Plus it is a good life experience for the prince on what it really takes to feed such a huge number of people.
So later that very same day as the workers tiredly climbed out of their holes within the mine, their noses were suddenly assaulted by the mouth watering scent of bacon and eggs. And as they all exited the mine and came out into the sun they were met with the sight of many rows of tables filled with large quantities of food.
Having learned from the English quite well Lili had made Willy gather plenty of eggs, bacon, peas, mashed potatoes and milk for everyone to enjoy. Also simple water and porridge was also there set up in multiple big pots.
Though as the workers looked upon the scene they seemed a bit hesitant as there next to the many tables was the boss of the factory, Mister Haniel, the Crown Prince and Lili. And all around there were royal guards standing by with their rifles and bayonets.
Though Lili and Willy had already practiced for this. And so when the crowd gathered Willy stepped forward and with the help of a megaphone held a small speech.
First Willy explained to all what was going on and of course made sure to thank Mister Haniel for his assistance in setting everything up. Then all were invited to eat with of course Willy making sure to keep everything in order by making everyone wait their turn in an orderly line. The children were to come eat first and everyone was only allowed to eat a certain amount of food. Also no hoarding of food or cutting in line was to be allowed as well, everyone was to wait their turn and everyone was to have something to eat as well.
Though Lili made Willy say this it really didn't seem necessary at all. Despite the miners most definitely being extremely tired and some already drooling in hunger all still amazingly managed to keep themselves restrained. If anything the miners seemed more than happy to let the children pass as they waited their own turn. And once their turns came they made sure to politely thank the Prince, Mister Haniel and Lili for the food.
As well as this the miners humbly held their hats in their hands as they were then offered bowls of water where they cleaned their hands before eating. Honestly Lili was extremely impressed by these people's good manners, however Willy apparently wasn't and instead he proudly said that it was only natural for the people to be like this, after all they were his people.
And soon the whole coal mine was full of the happy faces of people as they went into their own small groups to talk amongst one another and eat. Later the factory workers came out of the factories and joined the feast as well and all the while reporters stood at the sides writing down everything they saw there as some took pictures.
Seeing the lively scene Lili then made Willy climb atop a big coal pile from where he with the help of the old megaphone held a small speech to everyone present.
First Willy made sure to thank everyone for their hard work for Germany, as he then started to make promises of change. He not only promised to see the mines and factories change and get better safety standards and real protective gear, but he also promised that a huge change was coming to all of Germany. It was going to be a change unlike anything before, something that would bring great prosperity to all Germans within German held lands. All would eat well, have homes to sleep and most of all the world would look upon the greatness of Germany with awe and admiration in the future. Not only were the German people going to be the strongest and highest educated of all, but Germany would be the number one nation in the world in all aspects.
Then as the speech came to an end the crowd erupted into loud cheers. All celebrated their Crown Princes name with happy smiles upon their faces and the children looked upon him with great admiration and awe. Although none most definitely knew what exactly it was that the crown Prince meant with his speech, for not even the Crown Prince himself really knew. Lili merely had wanted the boy to say the words as she secretly had formed a grand plan within her head to do something great that none would see coming, but once it did all would think back on this day and see the Crown Prince as the one to be thanked for their prosperity.
Although Lili herself as well didn't really know how much good she was really capable of doing. For she didn't even know the exact extent of her powers yet. But nonetheless after finishing the Princes well organised feast at the coal mine and making the news because of it, Lili and Willy then decided to return to the castle of Vondern.
There as the sun began to set Maria Droste zu Vischering, who was the castles owner and a nun of noble birth at the fine age of 28 was suddenly dragged outside by Lili who apparently had something special to show her. Funnily enough Maria was supposed to be travelling to Portugal where she was supposed to become the head nun of some church, but Lili now had other plans for her.
For In Lilis opinion it was really just such a waste for a young woman like Maria to go spent her life as a nun in some church in Portugal. Sure the woman could do some good there, help the poor and such, but Lili had a greater use for her now. And honestly why did a noble woman even want to be a nun in the first place? This Lili just couldn't understand and didn't want to, no instead she was going to change this woman for good now and shake her world view.
So with Willy, Maria and some of the royal guards there on her side she led them to an open patch of ground in the castle grounds. Then with a shovel in hand she dug a little hole to the onlookers great confusion.
Then to confuse them even more she took out two red apples from her dress pockets. She cracked them open and took out one seed from each of the apples, and closed her eyes.
Focusing on the seeds Lili could sense their pure life force there. They did not hold cores like Willy or she did, but a pure force of life that was undeniably good and that was what she intended to amplify.
From her core she then began to pour her light into the seeds, as she then turned her thoughts to god and once again asked for his help. And as she did her body began to glow once more and a halo of light was formed upon her head.
Having done this once before Lili had found that whenever she thought of God he seemed to answer her call like so. Although she had yet to hear his voice and so she honestly could not say was it god who helped her here or merely just the thought of him that did.
Well whatever the case was she nonetheless used this added power to change the two seeds within her hands. And within the two seeds she then poured her will to see the German people and the land they held be made healthy and rich for the German people to live in abundance.
She did not wish to be greedy and ask the two seeds to be defenders of all of humanity. In her opinion that would be just asking way too much and instead she merely asked the trees to help the German people in whatever way they could.
Her hope was simply for the trees to help purify the polluted air and land of this town of Essen, and In time all of Germany. Also she hoped these trees would bear fruit that would heal the people of Germany and feed their hungry bellies, seeing as she couldn't feed anyone with her holy light.
With this in mind she then focused solely upon the seeds and quickly felt a change begin to happen within them. The two seeds didn't resist her power and will at all, if anything they seemed happy to serve her and do as she wished.
The seeds seemed so pure to her, they merely wished to help as they asked for nothing in return. It seemed that within them there was merely a wish to serve her and nothing more, and oh god was the light within them pure and good.
Unknown to Lili at the moment the royal guards along with Maria had already fallen upon their knees in prayer. In silence they said their prayers as they did the sing of the cross. Willy was a bit hesitant to do this, but after a moment he too relented. Although he made sure to come sit next to Lili as he then began to pray as well.
Like so a few minutes quickly went by until finally the light faded and all could see two golden seeds within Lilis hands. Seeing it Willy was the first to speak as he said.
"Wow that's amazing, how'd you do that?"
Maria on the other hand was absolutely baffled by the sight. She having devoted her entire life to God knew not what to do or to say. All she could do was watch in absolute awe and blurt out the first words that came to her head.
"Who are you?"
Opening her eyes Lili did not immediately answer the woman or Willy. She merely buried the seeds into the ground calmly and then slowly stood up. Then finally she looked at Maria and calmly said.
"Worry not about who I am, instead look upon yourself now and know that you are these seeds caretaker from now on. You, Maria Droste zu Vischering have been chosen by me to see these seeds grow and become mighty trees that will in time heal and purify this land. So be honoured as you are the one I have chosen for this holy task and in due time if you prove your loyalty to me I will tell you more. But for now you must protect these seeds and keep what happened here a secret from all others unless I say otherwise."
With that said Lili walked off, but then stopped and turned to look at the stunned Maria as she then said.
"Oh and Maria you really don't need to cover your hair or your entire body with that outfit of yours, also being celibate is not serving god in anyway, so just forget those things god's not going to reward you for any of it. Instead live your life, spread the word, help others and be a good sister to all your fellow believers. Remember God gave you the gift of giving life, don't waste it. You're already a 28 year old woman, feel free to live a little. Oh and worry not about your task in Portugal. Now you are a sister in the church of the Holy Light and not one serving a simple old man in the Vatican."
Honestly Lili wasn't sure if she should have said what she did, but she did and then walked away hoping that she did the right thing here. Well at least from the look on Marias face she at least knew that she could trust the woman. Maria's whole existence was after all one dedicated to God, and though she didn't say it, the woman was clearly thinking of her as some form of God, and so whatever she said to Maria was basically like a command from God.
Oh but God honestly had not spoken to her and so it did feel kind of wrong to do this. Was she even really making the world a better place like this or repenting for her sins at all like this?
Well all in all Lili felt that she was repenting for her wrongs in the past like this. After all she had already helped plenty of people out and so she must have been on the right path here. Plus if people saw her as something holy then it would most definitely help her gain the freedom to do whatever she wanted to do and go wherever she wanted to go in this life. Also being a Holy person really did seem to help make people listen to you more.
So fuck it, she was going to do this. She was going to make some sort of a new cult or a religion or whatever. And within her religion there would be a close nit community, it would be like a brotherhood, like family and all would hopefully be happy within her religion and the world was going to be a better place. Hopefully that is, hopefully, maybe.