I shuffle a few documents while sitting at the desk of the former Eritromi president. Harani's former desk.

*shuf*

*shup*

Eritromi isn't a poorly run nation. In fact, despite being a military dictatorship, its leader doesn't have a history of assassinations or abuses as one might expect. Taxes are moderate, and the people are treated more or less fairly.

The nation's only major crime prior until today was its research into the Dragon God. I say 'crime' because I view forced sapient experimentation as criminal. I mean, monsters aren't the only beings they work upon. I have personal experience, being an experiment myself!

Though, truth be told? I'd allow it if the people they experimented on were both informed of all reasonable risks and allowed ample opportunity to decline.

Ragh, I know.

I'm aware this isn't a normal way of viewing science and experimentation. Why are dangerous practices frowned upon even when consent is given? Well, it's quite straightforward, actually.

Manufactured consent.

If people want to do dangerous experiments, how will they encourage anyone to participate? Pay a lot? Find near-death candidates? Hrnah! That's too difficult.

They'll likely use propaganda to warp society's principles. They'll make the common person believe they want to be tortured. Applicants will line up outside the experiment hall, even if they're testing guillotines.

In my past life, the most common form of manufactured consent among the general population involved food. Those poor misinformed people... They would've had far less stressful lives if they weren't raised eating a few hundred endocrine-disrupting chemicals.

Like aspartame— the infamous 'safe' sugar replacement, which two studies found built up in the human brain like elemental lead. Or sucralose, another sugar replacement... Except this one caused genetic breakdown, of all things.

Both of these sugar substitutes were pushed over saccharine, one of the few which was actually safe. Why?

Money, of course.

Now repeat this same chemical experimentation across every single food item. High fructose corn syrup, BHT, partially hydrogenated oils, MSG. Herbicides, insecticides, chemically altered soils, fluoridated water. Plastic packaging, binding agents, unrefrigerated shipping, chlorinated meat baths.

It goes on and on and on.

None of these cause mental illness on their own. Not even the nasty sugar substitutes. At most, they could cause various physical illnesses. Some like MSG were believed to be basically harmless.

But what happens when a person consumes a dozen dubious substances at the same time?

Hundreds?

Thousands?

Nobody's sure.

What I do know is that 'metabolic load' is a well-established medical concept. Most, if not all of these chemicals would add to said metabolic load. Such load on a human's body would reduce that person's ability to heal, to fight off illness, and of course... To remain mentally stable.

Frankly, mass public experimentation is horrific. It leads to a society which harms itself, then harms itself again while seeking to undo the first harm. How do we fix the second harm? Well, why not do more harmful experiments?

Indeed.

Why not give them a bunch of pills?

Unchecked experimentation will eventually rob a society of its most valuable resource: its sanity. Would any good leader want their nation's people to give up their sanity?

No! The answer is no. Obviously not.

That's why extreme experiments are often banned. If people are motivated to change society in a way that's worse for everyone — that's exactly what they'll do.

Encouraging such behavior is undesirable. To put it mildly.

I'm okay with it because I can simply dictate what's allowed and what's not. Better yet, I'm immortal. My nation won't fall apart so long as I remain sane.

So, what's allowed is everything; all experiments. Assuming the experimentees are informed and consenting.

What's not allowed is using any part of science in an advertisement. Which may seem harsh, but there's always going to be someone interested in rocks, flora, space... Anything! If a scientist can't attract those interested people without lying. Rah. I mean, advertising, then there's something very wrong with their brand of science.

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Of course, plenty of funds will go toward scientific education from an early age. Treatments and vaccines? Rah, nonsense. Healing magic must be taught and praised, especially since I can't use healing magic. Those who can heal are surely valuable, since my people must be both smart and healthy. Rewh. But this must be pursued from a scientific perspective. Healing magic must be studied, documented, and explored far more rigorously than it is at the moment.

Oh, and offering a large sum of money IS advertisement. If they have to pay someone more than a reasonable wage to partake in their study? Chances are, they're taking advantage of people who aren't thinking clearly.

If we're allowed to do that, well, why not just create more irrational people, right? Oh. Reah, that destroys society.

I shake my dragon head.

Politics baffle dragons like myself. No, I understand wanting to control those with a similar level of strength. I simply mean the process of politics is foreign and undesirable to someone as strong as myself.

That's why I'm thinking about this now. I've taken over a nation. I... Need to make sure it's run properly. I need to, not because it's my job as a leader. My draconic pride dictates that my hoard must remain spotless.

I feel a VERY powerful need, deep within myself, to make sure my people are ruled with propriety and sensibility.

On the one hand, I'm happy that my instincts are pushing me so hard to rule my people proudly. On the other, I'm getting concerned about how powerful said need is becoming. I notice it's starting to crowd out other aspects of my psyche. That's worrisome. Hrem.

As for using the Dragon God's dead body parts?

I don't care about desecration; the act of damaging or misusing a corpse. As if that wasn't obvious from the fact that I, well. I eat corpses quite often. Live people, as well.

It's more of a principle in this case. If people want to set up anti-desecration laws on a city-by-city basis, I won't stop them. However, any dictates coming from the top— from me? They need to be broad, sweeping, and fair.

Random moral qualms like corpse desecration have nothing to do with myself. It may be distasteful to some, but it's not something a national government should decide. Even if some of my people want to be cannibals... Who am I to argue?

It literally doesn't matter unless their behavior harms others. Such as, if the corpse isn't theirs to use. Grave robbing is theft, and theft is not okay. Not at all. There's no need to police morality when the act itself is already so worthy of severe punishment. One need only assess the facts fairly to achieve justice.

I heard a great way of phrasing this in my past life:

'Your freedom stops where another's freedom begins.'

I should be free to do whatever I want. Say I blow up my own house. Okay, fine. Why the hell not?

Then my neighbor complains my destroyed house is lowering his property value.

Oh, so you OWN my property? Is that it?

Hreh!

This is the best possible way to create a political hellscape.

If I want my people to murder each other in the streets, all I need to do is make them fight over their property.

Better yet? I could ban weapons; they can only beat each other with their fists. Or like in Tengerii, I could make them use a broken court system.

Hraw, oh no. I just got a horrid idea.

Let's say I establish a system where the owner owns the house but not the land the house is built upon. Then, a corporation owns the land, and it'll charge 'upkeep fees.' Naturally, those fees always go up like clockwork. That's simply what corporations do: profit is their reason for existing. However, rather than the corporation being some nameless entity, this corporation would be run by the owners themselves. Say, via a board of elected directors.

I'd call it a houseowner's association.

Hreh.

That's the perfect way to destroy society; it turns everyone on everyone else. Even if you somehow get a good board of directors, selfish twats will nip at their heels non-stop. It'd turn the good ones grumpy and jaded. It'd give the bad ones a perfect venue for committing fraud and enriching themselves.

It's perfectly awful.

Though, this system would eventually destroy the nation's rule of law, so maybe it's a little too horrid.

Anarchists' dream, I suppose?

I know, I know. They'd say that any path to lawlessness is a path to freedom.

Who exactly is free if everyone lives in constant fear?

I never did understand that ideology.

Productive anarchy is only attainable when every participant is a purely rational actor. Creatures such as humans aren't particularly known for their rationality. Neither are dragons. Grakh.

Moreover, governments are what give rise to the concept of 'casus belli' or 'cause for war.' Without that, no dragon can claim to be rightfully conquering land and treasures— myself included! Governments are very important to us dragons.

I nod my dragon head in approval, grinning toothily at the thought.

I'm sure there's other dragons who will dislike my rules, but, that'll change if I have anything to say about it. We'll fight, I'll win, and my law shall reign supreme. Dragons must never steal! Hrah. Conquering is fine, though.

In any case, the Dragon God experiments aren't why I decided to depose former President Harani. Well, not exactly. I brought them up in our discussion to see whether he would hide said experiments or come clean.

Strike one was refusing to move his people at my request. A large demand for sure, but I have a hunch King Shridenia will be a lot more accommodating when I show him the evidence. Harani wouldn't even entertain my presence.

Strike two was refusing to talk about the Dragon God experiments. Covering up wrongdoing is complicity. Meaning, he's choosing to help The Purified Heavens continue harming his own citizens. Not good.

Strike three came after he got up and walked away. I gave him one last chance; call off his military strike. I knew what he was doing, even though I had no idea what Harani was telling his general. You don't flash coded hand signals to a military general to ask for tea and crumpets. Does he think I'm stupid? Still, I sat there, making it absolutely clear I was not afraid of his military. He had not a single inclination of how powerful I am, yet he still decided to piss me off.

He chose to disregard his peoples' safety. Three times.

In-ex-cusable.

That said, I'm not going to eat him. If he wants to cause trouble— I'll have him tried for insurrection. Same result, except he gets a lot more chances to not make dumb decisions.

I believe everyone deserves a chance.

In fact, I'm willing to completely overlook the forced experiments. While Eritromi hosts them, the operation is run by The Purified Heavens. It's also paid for via slush funds and fences, and Eritromi has little to do with that. I haven't even touched Leario... Though he's also very involved with them. I'll only eat those who are irredeemable.

I flip through a few more documents.

*shuf*

*shef*

Indeed, I believe Eritromi is putting up with what The Purified Heavens is doing so they don't get invaded like Shridenia. If you don't bend, you break, and the Emperor has done a lot of breaking. I can't fault Harani for this.

image [https://timjames.net/data/acd/images/058.png]

Only for covering it up.