Chapter 479: Chapter 480: Struggle is a Part of Human Nature_1
That evening, in the square of the Jinhu District.
"...we must admit, there have been more and more news stories about refugee crimes in recent newspapers, but we must put things in perspective! Just last week, some refugees, dissatisfied with the meager charity, quarreled with the benefactor and, ungratefully, gathered a group to surround and extort the person. In the same week, a refugee religious group disrupted a local lawful congregation’s assembly. Then there was the drunken refugee murder case the day before yesterday, followed by the department store looting incident yesterday. Clearly, not only refugees from Dilon were arrested at the scene, but every newspaper splashed the word ’refugee’ in their headlines!"
A young man stood on the steps of the square, standing on a wooden stool, delivering a speech. Behind him, several people pulled up promotional banners signed "Mutual Aid Society", among them two people from Dilon.
"Think about what has happened in the past two weeks. The newspapers are full of stories about refugee crimes, as if they were a bunch of bloodthirsty demons. But please, think carefully. The refugees have been here for several months, and we somehow never noticed such a terrifying group of demons in our city until the media suddenly ’discovered’ the ’truth’ in the last half-month—doesn’t that strike you as strange? And how coincidental, just last week, our mayor announced the decision to establish a centralized shelter on the outskirts of the city, to arrest all refugees, guilty or innocent, without distinction, and to lock them up like livestock. With a little thought, one can figure out the reason; of course a resolution would need public support..."
Aiden stood on the outer edge of the crowd, listening to the speech. By his side, the goddess of revenge was yawning with arms crossed, "What’s so good about this boring charitable speech? I’m hungry, and you must be too. Let’s go eat."
"You don’t like this kind of thing?" Aiden asked.
"I don’t like any charitable activities," the goddess of revenge answered.
"Why? Do you think they’re hypocritical, meaningless?" Aiden asked.
"No reason, I just dislike them. I don’t have memories from my mortal days, so authority has a rather profound influence on me," the goddess replied indifferently. "I love sparks, struggle, and hate speech. The madness and aggressiveness of people pleases me; the ideal of filling the world with love only gives me goosebumps."
"Sounds like the ’hatred’ authority really is a scourge on human civilization," Aiden replied.
The Resurgence Society organized by Mr. Blood Coat was also continuously inciting the antagonistic sentiments between the refugees and the military forces of Gistas Kingdom, presumably influenced by the ’hatred’ authority as well.
"Fool, everyone knows that struggle brings loss, but when has human civilization ever been without war? Civilized activities are the concentrated expression of human desires—the fact that mutual struggle runs through the whole of human history indicates that humanity needs all this. Combativeness is an integral part of human nature, and even irrational hatred is an essential part of the spirit," the goddess of revenge replied in a didactic tone.
"That’s true," Aiden conceded, agreeing with the other party’s statement for once.
He glanced around; most of the audience consisted of residents who had come for a stroll, drawn by the speech, but not many truly supported the Mutual Aid Society. Some people frowned with undisguised disgust in their eyes, and of course, many were obviously there just to watch the excitement.
As the number of refugees surged, the tensions between the local residents of the southern border areas of Gistas and the refugee community had been intensifying. People are, after all, profit-seeking; amongst the locals, many more supported the idea of driving the refugees out of their city than supported organizations like the Mutual Aid Society, which advocated for equality, love, and treating refugees well.
"To hell with that, spare me! Are you saying the newspapers are publishing fake news?" a middle-aged woman shouted from the crowd, "Just last week I had my purse stolen by refugees at the station. What’s wrong with driving out the hungry ghosts from Dilon? This is our city!"
As soon as she shouted, people started clapping; clearly, many among the audience had come with the intention of disrupting the mutual aid society’s platform.
"Oh? This seems to be getting interesting," said the Revenge Deity, who, until a moment ago, had claimed she was leaving.
The young man giving the speech waved his hand: "Of course, not all refugees can be good people, but are they really as evil as the media claims? Please, think about this calmly, and don’t be easily exploited!"
"Who cares about being exploited or not—I just know we’re ordinary citizens, making just enough money to support our own families, and we don’t have extra to feed the hungry ghosts from the south! Isn’t everyone’s money hard-earned? You people go around every day collecting donations for refugees; how many of them have you seen working seriously?" a middle-aged woman shouted.
"This gets to the heart of the matter... Refugees here don’t have identity, they simply can’t find proper jobs," the speaker found his argument, "We’ve always advocated for providing job opportunities for refugees, but local governments have been inactive in this respect. Put yourself in their shoes: homeless, living in hardship, and without any place to earn a living, they are a group of people driven to despair. Discriminating against them at this point will only ignite more hatred!"
"Provide jobs for refugees? How many locals do you want to get laid off?" This time, an old man spoke up in protest, "Only good at aiding foreigners, where were you when there were homeless people here? Always protesting about refugee issues and asking for donations everywhere, in the end, you gain the reputation, and we’re turned into cold-hearted animals!"
Other scattered voices of criticism also followed, making the speaker increasingly embarrassed: "Everyone, please calm down! Can we just calm down for a moment..."
"Haha, yes, this is how it should be, let the arguing start, better yet, let it come to blows!" the Revenge Deity applauded, clearly enjoying the tumult.
Aiden glanced at the illusion beside him: "You didn’t do anything, did you?"
"Do I really need to stir this up? These people’s dissatisfaction was already written all over their faces," the Revenge Deity shrugged her shoulders.
"Indeed." Aiden looked forward, the young man speaking was starting to be overwhelmed; once the criticism had been ignited, it became unstoppable, and his voice was drowned out.
It was inevitable for the mutual aid society to be ostracized. They preached love and equality, but their views lacked practicality and failed to offer a solution to the refugee problem—naturally, they couldn’t provide one. Once a large number of refugees flooded into the Kingdom, the conflicts became irreconcilable.
After all, the root of solving the refugee issue should be to stop the creation of refugees, but few here pointed the finger at the countries manipulating everything behind the scenes.
Aiden turned around, ready to leave the scene.
"Hey, wait a minute, I haven’t had my fill of this yet!" the Revenge Deity called out.
"Let’s go eat first; we still need to check out the south side of the park later," Aiden said, not looking back, "This kind of commotion is happening here every day now."
