Ch.149Cold Capitalism

Clink… clink…

“Move faster! Faster!”

The prison guard made unreasonable demands, ordering the condemned prisoners to climb the gallows more quickly.

Naturally, the procession moved at an excruciatingly slow pace, and as a result, it took a full hour just for the nooses to be placed around the necks of those at the front of the line.

“Kill them! Kill them!”

“Show no mercy to those who disrupt the nation’s order!”

Humans are surprisingly sentimental creatures.

Even wild beasts are something humans hesitate to kill once attached to them, but for those who have committed crimes severe enough to overcome even that barrier of sentiment, the conclusion is not worth watching.

“Therefore! These criminals who have ascended the gallows have dared to ignore and mock the laws decreed by His Majesty Tiberius, the ruler of Amurtat, and have devastated the lives of countless victims… By the unanimous decision of the high judges qualified to pronounce death sentences, they are hereby sentenced to death!”

Waaaaaah!!

Each time the prisoners’ crimes were revealed, the crowd’s cheers grew louder.

They were economic criminals who had primarily embezzled wages meant for employees, illegally reduced pay, or intentionally breached contracts.

Even in modern society where trust is vital, having such charges exposed would make one’s future life extremely difficult, let alone in this world.

In other nations where economies operated haphazardly, there might have been loopholes to survive, but unfortunately, Amurtat’s monarch was a ruler who took tremendous interest in the economy, even implementing remarkable laws like minimum wage.

In short, there was no possibility for them to survive.

“Carry out the sentence!”

At the herald’s command, the executioner in a hood roughly pulled the lever, and as the platform dropped, the criminals’ cervical vertebrae gave their final cry as they could no longer transmit spinal nerve signals to the medulla.

In other words, they died from broken necks.

“Thus, the justice of His Majesty Tiberius has been executed!”

Woaaaaaaah!!!

“Bring forth the next criminals!!!”

With the herald’s booming voice, those who would meet their final moments before a crowd that despised them were dragged out.

“No! Please spare me! Damn it..! I only withheld a few months’ wages!”

“Silence! Those few months might have caused someone’s sick mother to die, and you dare speak such nonsense? Look, good citizens! These worthless individuals are the ones to whom you bowed and begged for money! Will you show them Amurtat’s mercy? Or will you show them the justice of Tiberius von Adler?!”

“Justice! Justice! We want justice!”

Wages are the compensation for labor.

To steal or withhold them means commanding labor without compensation through deception, which is equivalent to treason against His Majesty Tiberius, the lord of all citizens.

“Place the ropes around the criminals’ necks!”

Creak… creeeeak…

“Please show mercy!!! Please!! Just this once!!!!”

The condemned prisoner with the noose around his neck struggled pitifully, but the citizens’ anger had been burning for too long, and they had no power to quell that fire.

In short, they were simply told to die.

Clank!

With the lever pulled, the platform dropped, and five economic criminals ended their cursed lives with a miserable end.

Their corpses would be skewered and left for crows to peck until no flesh remained, and only after their white bones were ground to dust by wild beasts would they be allowed burial in Amurtat’s soil.

*

“How can people all think the same way?”

I was halfway falling into misanthropy.

In any world with money and society, strangely enough, there emerged those who desperately tried to avoid paying wages.

It’s not some law of relativity—whenever companies form, they all end up like this.

What fools, though they probably think themselves quite clever.

“Has compensation been provided to all the victims?”

“Yes. The final relief measure was just signed.”

“Good. Now the atmosphere should calm down a bit.”

On an archipelago on Earth, there was a ridiculous concept called “apology and compensation.”

On the peninsula, it was considered an ultra-right statement to say they talked about apology and compensation day in and day out, but if you looked at the message without considering the messenger, nothing could more effectively defuse conflict.

As they say, you can’t spit on a smiling face—victims cannot resist the urge to forgive perpetrators who offer apology and compensation.

No matter how rough this world may be, all problems ultimately occur between people.

And what can best soothe wounds made by people is either other people or something created by people—the law.

As a transcendent being who reigns above the law, I had no reason to apologize to the victims, so the apology was covered by those who swallowed their wages having their necks turned into corpses, and the compensation was just being finalized.

At least as long as I remain the ruler of Amurtat, I will never show mercy to those shameless creatures who refuse to pay the just rewards for labor.

Especially since Amurtat was functioning as the key currency nation in the north due to the financial collapse in the northern regions from the arms race.

How could I stand by and watch my own citizens undermine the economic credibility that cannot tolerate even the slightest mistake?

“But is it alright to execute so many prisoners at once? I don’t think anything good will come from gathering so many condemned people together…”

“Well, if that’s the case, we can just kill them all. They’re destined to die anyway—what difference does it make if they die sooner?”

Establishing proper economic concepts was one of the most important tasks.

No matter how powerful an economy might be, if the values of the people running it are corrupt, one can smell the stench even in the money itself.

*

My introduction of minimum wage wasn’t particularly out of care for workers.

In a society beginning to operate through machine production, whether you pay them or not, working laborers to the bone to produce maximum goods ensures maximum efficiency.

Crops grow regardless of what farmers do, but a craftsman working harder can produce one or two more hammers.

But what meaning do all those products have if the craftsman working in a hammer factory cannot afford even one hammer with his earnings?

Conversely, what’s the point of having money if you have no time to spend it?

My enshrining of 8-hour workdays in law meant: don’t overwork one person—hire two instead.

My enshrining of 8-hour rest periods meant: use your hard-earned money to eat good food, get new clothes, and drive consumption that forms the backbone of the economy.

My enshrining of 8-hour sleep periods meant: after working hard and enjoying yourself, take time to recharge before returning to work.

And in this world, anything that didn’t function according to my intentions needed to be corrected.

“And you are cogs that don’t function according to my intentions.”

“Mmph..! Mmmmph!!!”

I looked at the group before me, bound tightly and trembling all over.

They were the spirited entrepreneurs who dared propose abolishing the minimum wage system and introducing extended working hours.

“Your Majesty. How shall we handle them?”

“Make them death row inmates. Transfer their businesses to suitable subordinates.”

“Understood.”

Fools.

In their minds, they probably brought those ridiculous proposals for ‘higher efficiency.’

But unfortunately for them, I was born and raised in a place obsessed with capitalism, where material success was trumpeted as more important than family.

They will die without even knowing what they did wrong.

“Let me tell you one last thing. If you can only make money by cutting your employees’ wages, you shouldn’t be a boss.”

“Mmph!! Mph!!”

“And you’d be better off posting job openings instead of making people work overtime. Oh, right… you can’t do that anymore, can you?”

“Mmmmmph!!! Hmmph…!”

“Kill them.”

“Yes!”

And so ended my brief conversation with the “entrepreneurs.”

I cannot tolerate socialist and communist revolutions waving red flags and cutting off the heads of kings and the bourgeoisie.

All reforms must originate from me, and all revolutions must receive my approval.

This wasn’t arrogance—at least I knew more advanced truths.

The economy is cold? Well, perhaps.

But fools who make such excuses are no different from blind men who cannot see a simple truth:

The colder capitalism becomes, the more workers’ hearts turn red.