HPDBC Chapter 794 - 436: Fear and Trust (2)
Chapter 794 - 436: Fear and Trust (2)
"This is the instinct for survival, even God cannot change it."
He walked back to the huge map, his fingers slowly tracing the vast and fragmented territories of the Old Empire.
"When survival resources are depleted, any moral preaching will appear pale and laughable."
Louis suddenly turned around, his gaze sharp as a blade: "So the first thing I did was not to build churches or courts.
Instead, it was to grow food, repair heating, open mines, and make fertilizers... first to ensure the right to survive.
To let people live like humans without having to fight over each other just to survive.
At that time, they will naturally follow human rules."
He stopped speaking and looked at Varius: "Those virtues you praise.
Are merely decorations that naturally sprout out after the overflow of productivity."
Varius did not respond immediately, instinctively raised his hand and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.
This explanation made him uncomfortable.
Not entirely wrong, but chilling, like a sharp blade without a handle.
He instinctively wanted to refute it, but couldn’t find an entry point to overturn it as a whole for the moment.
"I admit, survival is the foundation." After thinking for a moment, Varius finally spoke, his voice lowered but still persistent.
"But a well-fed herd is often harder to control, they will become greedy and want more."
After calming down, Varius looked up again, refocusing his gaze on Louis.
"Not only do you feed them, you make them maintain awe and obedience to you even without military coercion, why is that?"
He paused for a moment, unconsciously retreating to his familiar territory.
"Or is it because of your background? The son of Duke Calvin... noble lineage naturally carries a kind of intrinsic legitimacy."
Louis smiled, his smile was shallow but carried a hint of mockery.
He turned and walked to the large floor-to-ceiling window, raising his hand to point towards the dark wasteland outside.
"Lineage?" Louis looked at Varius.
"If I throw myself into the wolf pack in that Snowfield now, do you think they would spare me because of my noble lineage?"
He turned around and gave an unadorned conclusion.
"They obey me, not because of love." Louis paused, "But driven by fear to the point where they have to make a choice."
Varius’s brows remained furrowed, but it was no longer shaken by offense, it was an effort to understand.
Louis did not stop, continuing to speak, as if patiently breaking down a story that had been rehearsed repeatedly:
"Imagine what this land was like before Red Tide City existed.
There were no towns, only scattered villages, isolated from one another. When winter comes, roads are blocked, granaries run empty, Lords, fending for themselves, only able to guard their manors, with the fate of the common people left to destiny."
"Once an ordinary person enters the wilderness, they first have to beware of Magical Beasts." He paused, his tone not exaggerated, "But the truly lethal ones are often not them.
But another group of equally hungry, equally desperate people, who would rob, kill, treat strangers as threats, even as food.
But that is not evil, just an instinct when pushed to the limit. This was the true norm of the Northern Territory before the appearance of Red Tide.
In that state, life was solitary, poor, dirty, cruel, and short-lived."
Louis slowly clenched his fist, but didn’t raise it so high, his tone also softened accordingly.
"Precisely because of fear, fear of freezing to death, starving to death, being devoured by their kind, these people finally realized, continuing like this, no one would live long."
His gaze was steady and clear.
"So they made a rational choice, willing to surrender a portion of their freedom, pay taxes... to exchange for order."
Louis gently exhaled: "They chose order, and I was just the one who happened to step forward and repeatedly fulfilled my promises.
When they discovered that what they surrendered truly exchanged for safety, food, and dignity, fear gradually retreated to the background."
"In its place, belief." He paused for a moment before adding another, "And gratitude."
"They fear losing me because they feel that once I fall, this city could disintegrate, and they would be thrown back into that wasteland where knives and luck are their means to survive."
"So they cherish everything they have now, willing to follow orders, maintain order, and contribute to this city."
Louis slightly lowered his eyelids, his tone very certain: "I know their intentions, and I know this trust and gratitude was earned by repeatedly fulfilling promises, which is precisely why I cannot betray it."
Varius’s pupils slightly contracted, this was the first time he heard such an argument.
He wanted to refute, but found himself unable to find a truly solid flaw.
Louis turned around, leaning against the large glass window.
The lights of the city unfolded behind him, the streets, workshops, patrolling Knights, and still operating factories together creating a silent yet powerful scene, as if the entire Red Tide stood behind him.
"So you must understand one thing, the power in my hands is not bestowed by God, nor left by my father.
But temporarily handed to me by the twenty thousand Red Tide People and millions in the Northern Territory and Gray Rock Province who willingly choose order.
This is an entrustment, a transaction, an unseen but truly existing contract.
The reason this contract can be achieved is because they believe what I say counts.
I promised safety, so I built the city, formed the army, eradicated the wilderness, promised survival, so I repaired heating, expanded food supply, ensured winter was endured.
Promised people wouldn’t be arbitrarily trampled, so rules were implemented on everyone."
"I fulfilled my promises, so they were willing to stake their future on me."
He did not evade reality, calmly added a sentence: "Of course their choices aren’t many, but precisely because of this, this choice appears more important."
Louis turned his gaze back to Varius: "They give me compliance, taxes, and labor, and I give them safety, certainty of survival.
And a future that won’t throw them back into the abyss during the deepest snowstorm."
"This is a contract neither dares easily breach."
Varius remained silent for a moment, he no longer tried to refute, tried to understand the logic within.
"Since it is a contract, breach is inevitable." Louis’s tone turned cold, "The Second Prince treats power as personal property, only knows how to demand, but refuses to bear the responsibility of protection.
When the ruler only demands taxes, military service, and obedience, but no longer provides safety and survival guarantees...
This is no longer ruling, but unilateral breach of contract."
Louis raised his eyes, gaze cold: "So his downfall is a reckoning that will inevitably arrive."
Varius’s legs went weak, almost unable to stand.
Within the Empire’s context, this is the most vicious heresy of all doctrines.
Because it denies all the premises he was repeatedly taught...
Power does not descend from above, granted by God to the Emperor, and then by the Emperor to the vassals.
But ascends from below, converged by countless those who desire survival, and temporarily entrusted to one capable of bearing consequences.
This means imperial power is no longer a sacred gift, but an assignment that could be recalled at any time.
Means loyalty is not an obligation, but a result after meeting conditions.
In the Empire’s legal system, this equates to shaking the foundations of the throne, any priest and judge would indisputably deem it as blasphemous thinking.
Yet in Louis’s whole set of calm and coherent deducing, it appears extraordinarily reasonable and self-consistent.
Varius looked at the young man before him, as if watching someone tossing the crown into a furnace, trying to reforge the very rules of governance.
Louis restrained his momentum, he took up that red pen again, his tone returned to the previous calm.
"So I do not worry they will rebel as long as there’s meat in their bowls, this city stands firm as Iron Wall.
Compared to the illusionary devotion to the monarch or patriotism, a contract alliance based on common interests is the world’s strongest relationship."