章 98: Chaos
Guy and Olivier remained behind to try and work with the leadership of the Ito Conglomerate to make life better for the people of the empire while the rest of the Council of Magic returned to Wütendes Menschenreich to search the School of Wizardry's library for a spell that might be able to transport them to their proper time. The School of Wizardry's library was ten times the size of the library the Council of Magic had in their own time, so they enlisted the help of the Wütendes Menschenreich Wizards to search for any spells that had the word time in them. It was not a simple task and each of them knew that it wouldn't be a quick search without more than a little luck.
Meanwhile, at the Ito Conglomerate building the more Guy and Olivier heard about how the corporation had been running the world, the angrier they became. Guy slammed his hand down on the table and yelled, "You're telling me, that someone gave a green light to creating a war, just to increase one quarter's profit margin?"
The middle manager in charge smiled and said, "Sir, I don't think you see the beauty in this plan. You see, we would encourage a group that already was unhappy with the government to become a little more active, then we would teach them how to make money by manufacturing illegal substances, sell those substances on the streets to make money, and then when they had enough money, sell them weapons of war so that they could fight against the government thereby creating a reason for the Ito Conglomerate to sell more weapons to the government in order to fight against the groups we were selling weapons to and on top of that, we would be able to cut the population in the poor areas as the illegal substances lead to higher crime and related deaths. We also set up programs to treat the users of the illegal substances so we make money on that side as well. Not to mention the extra money we make from the Ito brand prison system."
Olivier ran his hand through his hair and said, "But what about... It's just... Have not one of you ever thought about this ethically? Morally?"
The manager looked at him and said, "We don't force anyone to choose any of this, they do it on their own. If they wanted to live a better life they could have pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps and become rich by working at the Ito Conglomerate."
Another middle manager cut in and said, "Also, we aren't entirely cruel, we set up a separate wing of the government that fights for the things that the poor people seem to like such as food, medicine, treatments for the sick. We make money on that side as well. Then to maximize our profit, we enacted heavy taxes on the money that the people are paid for their labor to pay for it, thus lowering our labor costs. In the end, we make a profit at every possible angle."
A third middle manager chuckled and said, "We even created different newspapers in every city that support the viewpoints of one side verse the other. We also make a profit selling them the news they want to hear."
Guy sighed and asked, "What are you doing with all the money you are making?"
The managers all looked at each other and then they all said, "Investing it."
*****
In the School of Wizardry's library, Diggory looked around to see if no one was watching him as he started to toss books into his inventory. He giggled excitedly as he found unrelated books of magic that he liked. Doreen walked up behind him and asked, "Find any spells that will work for us?"
He jumped and a book in his hand fell to the floor, "Oh, Mage Leon, I didn't hear you walk up." He looked incredibly guilty as he said, "It seems I may have found the spell books for invisibility and mind control rather than temporal magic."
She smirked at him and said, "Stay focused, we have to put the world back the way it should be, not look for books that will help us enjoy ourselves."
Diggory carefully put the book for mind control magic back on the shelve and moved to a different section. After Diggory walked away, Doreen pulled a book of invisibility related magic off the shelf and read a bit of it. She looked around to see if Diggory had left and then stuffed it into her own inventory and with a giggle moved to a different section herself.
*****
As Guy and Olivier started to make changes with the Aumont-Ito Empire government they started to receive reports of civil disobedience and riots in response. It seems that the people were up in arms about the changes and wanted things to remain as they had been. The two mages shook their heads in disbelief, Olivier said, "This can't be real, these people would rather live with this broken way of life than have it change?"
Guy nodded and said, "People don't like change Olivier, the last twenty years these changes were enacted slowly, and subtly, we are trying to change everything at once and it's causing panic and mayhem. We aren't agents for needed change to these people, we are an element of Chaos. I think we should leave some of these things as they are for the time being. We have to put a stop to the worst parts of it first."
"But the outcry for 'new pork' I can't even.." Olivier was at a loss for words.
Guy shook his head and said, "The people are starving and can't afford to eat, we are taking away the one food that they can afford and eat plenty of so why would it shock you that there would be riots after we removed it from the stores. Remember, they don't know what it's made from."
Olivier slammed his fist on the table and said, "And we can't tell them?"
Guys shook his head and said, "We absolutely can't, the last shreds of decency and order would crumble."
Murphy burst into the room and said, "Mage Montfort, news from the Armada, a group of the military are backing one of the General Managers. They are trying to unite the northern territories under a new flag and are currently at war with the southern territories."
Guy rubbed his temple and said, "This is worse than I thought. I suppose they are using the changes we made as political fuel?"
Murphy nodded and then said, "All of the newspapers in the North referred to you as the imposter claiming to be Guy de Montfort. And that you stopped the sale of 'new pork' and canceled the Sakka season in order to teach the population a lesson with your new found power."
Guy looked at Olivier and asked, "Did we cancel the Sakka season?"
Olivier shook his head no, "I think they did that themselves."
Guy took a deep breath and then said, "If we go and start killing people, it's just going to make this even more of a mess. I hope the others can find that spell soon, I don't think our efforts are going to lead to anything but more suffering for the people of this rotten empire."
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