Chapter 75 - Take My Hand

The reactions of the laborists in the room were largely divided into two types.

One group endlessly stared at the Mammon followers' documents without saying a word.

The other group was angry.

"It's a lie! We couldn't possibly do this!"

"Become a camp director and root out, brainwash, and torture reactionaries? Me? I couldn't possibly do that! Of all people, I couldn't become someone who tortures worker comrades!!"

I quietly waited for them to vent their anger.

I waited for them to get angry, deny reality, and pour out all their inner anxiety and fear.

After 30 minutes of chaotic murmuring like a storm raging, the laborists eventually sat down one by one.

Now everyone was silent.

Karl Renaro had put down the paper and was trembling with his face in his hands.

I looked at the contents written on the paper he had put down.

A future where countless people were starved to death by intentionally causing famine.

A future where he became a dictator and took the lives of countless people until the moment he died, creating a country where everyone was equally poor rather than a workers' paradise.

A future where he eliminated and eliminated numerous political opponents under the pretext of rooting out spies, obsessively fearing there might be reactionaries.

A future where he eventually couldn’t trust anyone and ruled a huge empire through letters from his room, but finally collapsed from a cerebral hemorrhage, yet couldn't receive treatment in time because his guards couldn't enter the room due to his late-stage paranoia, and died.

And the future where his corpse was placed in a glass case and worshipped by later laborists was vividly depicted in the documents.

"It must be a lie. I couldn't possibly become like this. I, I just wanted to improve the treatment of oppressed workers for the workers!! I couldn't possibly meet such an end!" Karl Renaro spat out as if wailing.

"Hasn't Mammon disappeared now? Saint? So such a future clearly won't come, right? Labor theory! Comrades!! I!! We couldn't possibly change so hideously!! Please say that's right!!"

I didn't answer those words.

I had already answered.

They just couldn't accept it.

One of the laborists muttered as if feeling empty, "It would have been better if nonsensical bullshit was written. It's so convincing it's terrifying. If it were me…  if it really went according to this plan. I might really have become like the being in these documents."

Another laborist agreed with those words.

"My past. My personality. Even my traumas and beliefs. It's a plan calculated and made considering everything. I don't know how they knew all this."

Someone suddenly started laughing.

"What have we been fighting for until now? If it will end up like this anyway, what's the use of all our hardships and efforts?"

"There's no other ending than causing more workers than anyone to suffer, starve to death, and be destroyed by our own hands!!"

Someone rebelled at those words.

"Mammon is gone now!! We must struggle for revolution again! Aren't workers suffering and being oppressed!"

"To think revolution comrades are saying such weak words!!"

"Are you saying we should just watch workers being exploited by capitalists then!!"

More rebellion erupted at those words.

"Even if Mammon is gone!! Is there any guarantee that what's written in these documents won't come true??"

"The trumpeters are just playing the role of hastening these plans. Isn't everything in this plan ultimately accomplished by our hands!! Aren't we talking about a future that will be completed by our own volition!!"

"If we didn't know the future, it would be one thing. But now that we know, we can't just stay still like this!! We must disband! We must disband the organization and stop all this right now!!"

"Then what about the suffering workers!!"

"Isn't it better if we don't exist!! If the future in those documents is realized, it would be better to groan under capitalists!!"

"Are you saying we should make countless workers suffer by our own hands!!"

After a few more meaningless shouts were exchanged, silence fell again.

Now the laborists looked like they didn't know what to do.

They couldn't stay still, but they couldn't move either.

Confusion and fear settled on their faces that had been burning with a sense of mission and passion.

And above all, emptiness began to settle.

One laborist destined to become a camp director and brainwash, torture, and kill countless workers now began to cry.

The passionate young female laborist who had declared she would fight for women's rights was blankly staring into space.

The human butcher who would become famous for torturing people by creating non-existent crimes as the head of an intelligence organization was giggling with an empty face while smoking a cigarette.

And the man who would become the central axis of all those desperate futures.

The future dictator and mass murderer.

The man who would become an idol in a glass case looks at me.

"Saint. Please help us."

There was no voice full of conviction.

No passionate attitude.

The eyes that said they would not fear death now held watery tears.

"Where should we go?" he asked with a desperate expression.

I gave the obvious answer to the revolutionary's tearful question, "Isn't it obvious?"

I smiled at them.

They looked truly frustrated, but that was rather giving me hope.

Not yet.

They were not yet camp directors torturing people, iron-fisted dictators, or crazy mass murderers who had killed more workers than any capitalist.

Those who feared and despaired at seeing their future.

Those who still had compassion for workers.

They were not those twisted and broken by madness for power.

Those who feared such a future.

Those who still had the possibility of walking the right path.

"Aren't you revolutionaries? Then you should make a revolution."

"But don't you know what results the revolution will bring?"

"I know. That's why you should make a revolution in a different way from before."

"A different kind of revolution?"

"Come under the Order of Grace. And change the empire with the influence of the Order of Grace and the capital of Karma Company on your back."

I grinned at Karl Renaro, who opened his mouth in bewilderment.

"Become revolutionaries who strike capitalists with capital and law, not bullets and bombs."

***

Of course, immediate rebellion erupted.

"Are you telling us to become dogs of the capitalists!!"

"Isn't Karma Company ultimately a capitalist too!! Working under religious people and capitalists!!"

The laborists were bursting with anger, but they all closed their mouths at my next words.

"I intend to make you one of the administrative agencies officially recognized by the imperial family with the power of Karma Company and the Order of Grace. An administrative agency directly under the imperial family, at that."

Underground terrorists became one of the administrative agencies directly under the imperial family.

At these absurd words, all the laborists seemed to lose their words and just blinked their eyes.

But I was serious.

I slowly told them my plan.

"Workers suffering because of capitalists' greed are still scattered throughout the empire. And the resentment of such workers is being used to fill the bellies of demon followers and Evil God worshippers. The match factory in the capital was being operated like that, and Mammon was in Scrap Yard. We can move the Pantheon using this justification."

Although the Pantheon was not a power institution, considering the number of believers spread throughout the empire and their activities in various fields of society, it was not an organization that could be easily ignored.

And that Pantheon was an institution I could move like my limbs. No order would be able to refuse the justification that the rights of workers must be improved to weaken the forces of evil gods and demon followers.

"Moreover, if we use Karma Company's connections and money, it's not difficult to move the Senate to create new laws. With impeccable justification and strong public support. And with the approval of the imperial family, you will probably quickly become part of one of the empire's official administrative agencies."

"What absurd..."

"With my influence, I can make it happen. After becoming a legal organization like that. You will spread throughout the empire to investigate violations of workers' rights and exploitation, and take on the role of punishing capitalists who committed exploitation."

"Are you serious?"

"Yes. I'm serious. After that, you will work to revitalize the local economy and create quality jobs for workers. Karma Company and the imperial family will help you do that."

At my words, the laborists began to murmur again.

"Work with the backing of the powerful and capitalists?"

"What kind of revolution is that!? We'd be leashed dogs!!"

"Is this really the direction we should go?"

"Isn't this telling us to give up revolution and become slaves of the existing system!!"

The murmuring grew louder as if it was hard to accept, but when Karl Renaro raised his hand, they all quieted down.

"If the Order of Grace and Karma Company exploit workers. What do we do then?"

"If they commit exploitation deserving punishment, you can punish them according to the law. Conversely. If you show signs of becoming corrupted and twisted exactly as written in Mammon's documents by leaning towards extremism. The Order of Grace and Karma Company will stop you."

"You mean an organization completed by checking each other?"

"That's right."

I held out my hand to Karl Renaro.

"Put down your lust for power. Put down your hatred, anger, and violence. Instead, recall your compassion for suffering workers. And don't just use that compassion, but help them escape their vulnerable situation."

"..."

"Don't think about eliminating capitalists, but create a world where they can create proper quality jobs. Instead of only seeing their flaws and destroying them, make it so their strengths can be properly revealed."

I looked at the man who would become a camp director.

"Don't use your interrogation skills to abuse workers and maintain a dictator's power, but use them to uncover capitalists' wrongdoings."

I looked at the man who would become the head of an intelligence agency able to create non-existent crimes.

"Use your sharp discernment to investigate workers' misfortunes and publicize them so everyone can know."

I looked at the woman who was active for the women's rights movement.

"Don't incite women to hate men. Instead, work to make men and women fully accept each other's differences and love each other. Create a world where both women and men can be treated fairly according to their talents."

I looked at all the laborists.

"Move with compassion and sympathy, not hatred and anger. This world needs you. There are still many suffering workers. What does it matter if you receive help from capitalists and those in power? Isn't it enough if workers can live well and smile? Isn't that the sight you gathered to see?"

I extended my outstretched hand even further.

"Please take my hand."

The laborists didn't answer right away.

A silence so deep it was frightening settled in the room.

And after a long time.

Karl Renaro carefully grasped my hand.

He turned his head to look at the laborist comrades standing behind him.

"This is my choice. It's also the only choice given to us. Comrades. Do you agree?"

There was no one who openly nodded.

But there was also no one who vehemently shook their head in opposition.

It was tacit agreement.

Karl Renaro smiled at that sight, then turned his gaze back to me.

"I never thought I'd say this... but what's the name of the administrative agency we'll be working for? Since it's a collection of terrorists and criminals... the Terrorism Department?"

"Isn't there a more fitting name than that?"

I answered while gripping Renaro's hand even tighter as he asked in a self-deprecating voice, "The Ministry of Employment and Labor."