Bab 108: Exchange Free Love with Miracles

The Governor begins speaking, and the crowd falls hushed. The previous aura of hope and exultation shifts, turning sour and tense. The air grows heavy, saturated with the collective breaths of thousands, each one charged with a palpable mix of fear and resignation.

Then, from the crowd emerged a young man. His eyes were alight with a burning determination, his voice rising to an impassioned crescendo as he shouted, "That's perfectly fine! Use me, work me to the bone. I can work day and night, just give my child and my wife something to eat. My greatest fear is not hard work; it's coming home to find empty eyes staring back at me, devoid of hope."

A ripple of murmurs washes over the crowd as another voice quickly chimes in. "I've never been afraid of labor. My real terror is waking up to a world with no work to do, no purpose to my struggles. Soon death will come to me by hunger. I feel like a wretch."