Jaros put his fingers into Burke Orton's messy dark brown hair, lifted his head up, and looked at the guests around him:
"Allow me to introduce you to Burke Orton, the second son of County Councilman Leonard Orton."
There were several surprised sounds from the audience, and discussions spread like a swarm of locusts. Jaros seemed to enjoy this atmosphere extremely. He took the apple from Bock's mouth and continued:
"Mr. Burke Orton, before your life ends in a hurry, would you like to know why you were made into food?"
"Because... you are a group of cannibalistic perverted lunatics."
The young man finally spoke. His speech was slurred by his dislocated jaw, and his eyes flashed with anger and underlying fear.
"Correct. You're absolutely right."
Jaros took two steps back and forth excitedly on the stage, and suddenly got very close to each other. Their noses almost hit each other:
"But how could your father not be the same? How much money did he get away with through charity? How much workers' blood was stained on the factories he invested in? How many bribes were collected from the bills he proposed?"
"Do you want to... seek justice?" Bock showed a surprised expression and said with a hint of sarcasm, "In this way?"
"No, no, no, I have no interest in doing justice for heaven. God knows how many people in this world are born like livestock and die like livestock. I don't care about their life and death at all - this is what the Holy Spirit and His Majesty the Emperor need to worry about. It's not about me."
"Then what are you..."
Jaros interrupted his question without mercy:
"Let's go back to the topic about the indigenous people. Bock, you should have heard it in the audience just now. I want to ask you, in this world, is there a universal moral law that can make people on that island We, who are indigenous and have completely different values, at the same time decide whether a person’s behavior is moral or immoral?”
Universal moral law? This question was also listened to by Catalina in the audience.
"Is there really some absolute code of right and wrong...?" she murmured.
"Mr. Shipworm has an amazing ability to think philosophically. Many guests have often had long conversations with him, including me. Just a few words have benefited me a lot." Shiwei introduced enthusiastically from the side.
Then what kind of philosophical thinking taught you to eat people, Uncle Jaros... Catalina thought with despair.
"By the Holy Spirit... I will never join in with those bloodthirsty savages - even to death."
Snapped. A loud slap hit Bok's face hard, almost knocking him to the ground.
"No, no, no, no... you're wrong! You don't even want to try to seriously think about the problem itself, Bock, you let me down so much."
Jaros gently pointed to his nose with his index finger and said with great regret:
"It seems that you and your father are from the same family. I have nothing more to say to you - take him to the kitchen."
Damn it, taking it to the kitchen means...
Katarina had already roughly thought of an excuse to leave the meeting, but now was not the time, and Zeros would definitely notice her.
I wonder if he can recognize me wearing a mask. Katarina thought to herself that she couldn't take the risk.
"Anyway, friends..." Jaros raised his wine glass high, "This is tonight's main course. I wish you all a good appetite."
Amid the applause of the guests, the adult waiter standing behind Jaros put a black iron-colored metal collar as thick and heavy as a millstone on Bock Orton's head and lifted him down.
Metal collar…
Except for the four adult waiters in the hall, the other dozen or so waiters were all underage children. They all wore similar collars around their necks, but Tommy was not among them.
Just from the crude mechanical devices above, you can tell that these collars are definitely not that simple. Moreover, Ed seemed not to have mentioned anything about these collars in his plans.
Ed is a cautious person - at least much more cautious than her. It would be difficult for him to miss such information due to negligence. There must be something hidden.
"That collar..." Katarina lowered her voice as she asked Mr. Shishio, "I don't think I've seen it before."
"Oh, it's normal that you haven't seen them, because this is an order that just arrived this afternoon. The black iron ring is a device called a 'labor amplifier'. It just so happens that the supplier is I."
"Labor Amplifier? Its specific use is..."
"Oh, that was once an experimental product of the West Coast Company, originally designed for use in overseas plantations. You should know that in agriculture we can now use steam harvesters to harvest grains on a large scale, but for fruits in plantations, Cash crops such as cotton, rubber, opium and poppy are still in the manual picking stage.”
"So this is a labor tool?"
"So be it. Manual picking requires a lot of labor, and the cost of labor determines whether we can enjoy cheap and high-quality goods. Most human resources need to pay wages, which means more costs, but there is another way that does not require Special labor force that pays wages——"
Mr. Shishio looked at her with a smile and said seductively.
"Slave?" Catalina looked in disbelief, "But Lyria had completely abolished slavery five centuries ago? All slave trading and use of slaves will be considered illegal."
"Yes, but the New World and those oceanic islands were never officially declared part of Lyria, were they?"
"..." Catalina was speechless.
"The slaves will be dissatisfied, work passively, try to escape, and even riot collectively. This is a great loss to the property of the plantation operators, so the West Bank Company tried to invent this product - it was originally simply called 'Slave collar'."
Mr. Shishio dipped his fingers into the crushed ice on the octopus plate and traced the structure of the "labor amplifier" on the table with water:
"Four sharp razors are hidden inside the collar and are controlled by a crystal sensor. Interestingly, it is closed when it is working normally, and the blades will only pop out when it is closed. Once the slave tried to escape from the plantation, The crystal sensor will lose its signal source, and then—click.”
He smiled and made a throat-slitting gesture on himself.
