Napoleon of Another World!

Chapter 12 - The Riot

"Our father is right, Scalia! You would just get yourself killed! Now I go down to the village and surrender myself to Oldrick. Perhaps by talking to him I can keep you out of this story."

"You are no longer a child, Daemon! So stop playing the hero who protects us all!"

"And anyway, at the point where we are, do you really think that offering yourself to them as a sacrificial victim will be enough to save us?"

"Lori's right, boy," Passe said. "We killed some militia men. Next time they come back here, it will be to slaughter us all. It doesn't matter if they need us; a slave who rebels becomes just a threat."

"So, you want to fight? Let's assume you manage to drive away the patrol that will be sent here to retaliate. Then what will you do? Next time they would send the army. And then you will have no escape. Even Bojack said it, these rebellions can only end one way."

"Then, you show us the way to follow!" I exclaimed almost without thinking.

If I just thought about it, it seemed incredible to me – I was asking a human being, however different from the others, to be our guide.

But who else but him could have done it?

"You made me read those books, Daemon. All those words about freedom, about equality. You can't expect me to forget it all – not now that I'm starting to really believe it's possible."

Daemon looked down, as if crushed by the weight that not only me (but also all the others, judging by the way they looked at him) were asking him to carry on his shoulders.

"Can this really happen?" Lori asked. "Can you help us be free?"

"Nonsense. I turned over half of Erthea as a slave on ships. And I tell you what – no matter where you go, there isn't a single place where monsters like us are truly free."

"You're right, Jack. There is no such place in this world."

"See? Even he says so."

"But you can still create it."

"What do you mean!?" Zorech asked.

"Exactly what I said. If a world in which monsters can consider themselves free does not yet exist, then you have no choice but to build a new one with your own hands."

"And where should we build it?" Jack asked.

"Right here."

"Here?! You mean Eirinn?"

"This land is drenched in your sweat and the blood your friends have shed. What better place to give life to a world in which to be free than the one that you have made prosperous with your efforts?"

"You said yourself that we are hopeless against the Empire and its army," my father said resignedly, even cynically. "How could we ever hope to conquer this province?"

"In fact, our strength alone would never be enough. Not only to gain control of Eirinn, but above all to defend it. To do that, you need allies."

It took a moment to figure out what Daemon meant by allies, and the idea alone was enough to make many of us cringe, myself included.

"Should we ally with the humans? I hope you're joking!"

"And what would you like to do? Subdue them? Exterminate them? If so, get ready to see history repeat itself. Whether you like it or not, this world is populated entirely by humans. Either you accept the idea that only from coexistence can a new world be born in which you can be free, or your freedom will be just a dream."

"And will they accept it? Humans kept us in chains! They put the stones in our bodies! To them we are nothing but animals!"

"By now I thought you understood that. Not all humans are like this. I was there too when Septimus and his men defended you from that beast you see there. And I swear to you, by all that I hold most dear, that they didn't do it because it was their duty, but because they really thought what you were being forced to suffer was wrong. You are free not to believe me, but the people of this province suffered and still suffer almost as much as you do because they are forced to live under the rule of incompetent officials. You, Scalia mentioned the sages I told you about, but they too are humans."