Mage Manual-Chapter 205 - 180: Four Pillars God Sect!
Chapter 205 -180: Four Pillars God Sect!
When Ash woke up, he saw Harvey and Igula eating sandwiches.
“Aren’t you afraid they might be poisoned?”
“Then I’ll just take yours—”
“What I meant was you should have woken me up to help you test for poison.” Ash quickly picked up the last sandwich and licked it to claim ownership, which Igula watched with a look of disgust.
“How long did we sleep just now?”
Ash opened the game interface. “It’s 2 a.m. now, and we slept for less than an hour.”
Igula muttered, “That means we have to stay here for the whole next day…”
“Why?”
“If there’s only a 6-hour journey left, there’s no need to provide us with food. We are both injured and sleep-deprived. If we stop eating for a day, there’s a risk of sudden death, so they specifically provided us with food.”
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The little bit of sandwich couldn’t satiate his hunger; it only made Ash hungrier. He tapped at the padded walls, melancholically saying, “Are we going to end up in prison again? I’m really starting to doubt whether the title of the Mage’s Handbook after my death would be, ‘Popular Prisons Review’…”
“Going to prison would already be a good outcome.” Igula said somberly, “What I’m most afraid of now is if they have a slave society, where Mages form the slave owner class, and ordinary people are all the slaves of Mages. Coupled with the technological systems of Mages, they forcefully push the slave society to the level of a near-modern developed country…”
Harvey asked, “Isn’t being a slave better than being a prisoner?”
“Not at all, the biggest problem with a slave society is that it’s governed by people, not by law. When conflicts of interest arise, the first thought of slave owners isn’t to solve the problem, but to eliminate the person causing it. They cherish violence, place extreme importance on blood relations, strongly exclude and discriminate against outsiders. Everyone’s social status is assigned from the day they’re born, with absolutely no possibility of class mobility,” Igula responded distastefully. “Even some feudal superstitions are better than a slave system.”
Harvey chuckled, “Then we really did escape from the Kingdom of Blood Moon to an even worse country. Ah, when you think about it the Kingdom of Blood Moon wasn’t that bad. If the Church had allowed ordinary people to study Necromancy, I wouldn’t have even bothered to escape. Unfortunately, I had no conditions for schooling initially and later couldn’t pass to become a Blood Saint or gain the right to study in the Necromancy Faction…”
“Maybe it isn’t a slave society.” Ash stuck out his tongue and licked the water inside his bottle. “Maybe this place is more advanced than the Kingdom of Blood Moon and doesn’t persecute refugees from other countries—”
“What kind of advanced civilization produces professional prisoner transport vehicles like this?” Igula patted the padded back. “Harvey, how would you transport someone if you needed to capture them?”
“Why are you asking me?”
“Don’t you know?”
“Although I do know…” Harvey grumbled, “I have a friend, really, just a friend. If it were me, I’d turn the person into a corpse and let them run back on their own… My friend usually uses drugs and Technique Spirit hypnosis to make the target pass out, and after tying them up, throws them directly into a small van to transport them away.”
“Would there be companies producing this type of cabin in Blood Moon?”
“Impossible, the closest thing there would be RVs, but the business of capturing people is considered economically low-valued in our society, so it’s unlikely that cabins would be specially customized for such a minor business.”
Igula looked at Ash. “So, leader of the sect, do you get it now? The existence of such cabins signifies that the main business of the people owning them is likely capturing slaves. If there’s a slave capturing team, then naturally there’s a slave system…”
“Wait a minute.” Ash raised his hand, “Couldn’t they just be human traffickers?”
“Human traffickers are also a type of slave owner—”
“They could also be traffickers of kidnapped children.”
“Kidnapped children?” Igula and Harvey both showed puzzled expressions. “Why would anyone kidnap children? Who would buy them? What for?”
It was only then that Ash remembered that family structures had also dissolved in the Kingdom of Blood Moon. With no buyers, naturally, there would be no traffickers. It took him some effort to describe this vile industry, but Igula and Harvey still couldn’t grasp it—much like describing the joys of fitness to an overweight person who never exercises.
Even though they had escaped from the Kingdom of Blood Moon, the culture of Blood Moon was still deeply engrained in their souls. They found it hard to comprehend that there are people who would go to great lengths to have offspring, even if it meant indulging in a sinful industry—because in their worldview, offspring might be closer than others, but they’re ultimately ‘others,’ not ‘themselves.’
In a way, the Kingdom of Blood Moon hadn’t deliberately erased their emotions, but rather catalyzed one of their logical thinking modes to perfection—when selfishness became their highest principle, the emotional expenditure necessary became difficult to understand.
This was also why Ash always maintained vigilance towards them, not merely because they were death row inmates, but because the education in Blood Moon set their moral standards extremely low, so low that they could even be compared to that project manager who had Ash wake up at three in the morning to rush a PPT.
Humans are indeed greatly limited beings, incapable of understanding things they have never seen. Only after witnessing enough, can one comprehend all the truths of the world…
