"No… No! I-I'm just a commoner! I have to do this to feed my family! I have to provide the Baron with results, otherwise someone else would be doing this in my place? I-I have a family to feed! What would you have done if you were in my position? You would have done the same if you were a commoner like me!"
"I think we're done here."
Tom lifts his head to look at the noblewoman. Once again he comes face to face with the realization that he's in a world where men are ruled by monsters. Before him stands yet another monster who he is powerless against. He feels regret at his inability to even understand the beast, the tears continuing to flow as he sees her raise her right hand.
Her entire hand is engulfed in light. He can feel the heat coming off of her palm as she moves it towards his face.
All that he has done for his family, so that he could glorify the Baron, the one that he serves and must serve faithfully for his entire life. He gave so much for them. Yet, this noblewoman wants to lecture him on morality? After what she just did to his men?
His tears stop flowing.
"You hypocrite…" He whispers, resigned to his death.
He closes his eyes in preparation for his end. Yet, it doesn't come.
"...What did you just say? You called me a hypocrite? Is that what you said? How am I the hypocrite, you piece of shit?"
At her words, he feels true anger. In a part of his mind he wonders why he's letting a woman talk to him like this, even if she is a noblewoman. In another part however, he wants to speak his last words not begging for his life, but speaking his mind. He always had to put on a mask. He always had to do this or that for those above him. He was not born free either.
He can perhaps reach the position of commander of the Tritol guards. He will then be joined by two other commanders that he works with to divide the city of Tritol among their specific jurisdictions. Yet at the top of that hierarchy is the chief of Tritol police. He is a noble, a man part of Tritol's branch family. Tom will never know what true power feels like, for true power is the realm of the nobility, the divinely chosen.
Yet, he knows what it's like to be a human. To be a human commoner, one with a family, with allies, with friends. He decides to speak the truth. He decides not to let things go with just this. He was only led around today. He was only humiliated, and made to do the dirty work of the Baron.
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I'm not to blame! I didn't have any choice!
Even if the Baron didn't order him to perform his duty in the way he did, he knew that the Baron wanted results. Everyone above them wants results, they don't care about the means.
Yet, this noblewoman wants to lecture him?
"I had no choice at all in all this. Yet you had a choice, didn't you? You're a noble, only you have choices. We're just your slaves. My subordinates and I have always done our jobs!! Do you even know who you killed here? Huh? The old man… Res… the first one whose head you sliced off."
His tears start to flow again and his voice wavers while he speaks.
"He was so close to retiring from the force… Did you know that he and his wife were planning to move to another city? Somewhere closer to their children and their grandchildren. He could have had a better life…"
The words of sadness start pouring from Tom's mouth. He speaks about his sergeant, Hither. How he was a charitable man who gave to his community. He would always help the homeless humans, he enjoyed such work. He hated to see how downtrodden another member of his race was. He wanted to help all of them and hated how the church and the nobility had made the lives of human commoners worse by abolishing slavery.
He talks about the third sergeant, Cudgik, whose brain Shaula had turned to glass. How he was successful in taking a bite out of the Tritol underworld. He was a young hotshot who was working for the good of the city. He was one of Tom's most loyal members who helped investigate the Church of Panaphon and Savitarius that was misleading patriotic, subservient demihumans into hating the country.
"I suppose the children of God don't even need to know right and wrong, huh? You killed them without any guilt. They were only serving the community! They were serving our race!" Tom spat.
Shaula, for her part, can only stand there dumbfounded at the way this man is speaking about the lives of the men who were his subordinates. She considers the context by which he spoke of them. Each of them were racist towards demihumans. They came out here today with the intention of supporting the Baron's crusade for human supremacy over demihumans.
They all came out here with the intention to continuously humiliate the demihumans who they viewed as lesser races with fewer rights than their fellow humans. The fact that they had their own loved ones and their own sense of right and wrong that allowed them to do all this only makes her feel more enraged.
In a just world, they would not have anyone who loves them. They would not be allowed to propagate their seed. They would be homeless, starving like dogs… They would feel at least a fraction of what the demihumans they terrorize feel. The families. The children.
She remembers the little children that had been arrested earlier today for the smallest thing. They were taken away by the guards, the little orphans. A girl and her older brother.
However, the last thing he mentions through tears makes her feel truly sad, though not for him.
"You… you took away Yin… He… He was like a little brother to me. When I told my parents that I was joining the guards they didn't think I had a future. But Yin knew that I was destined for greatness. H-He grew up poor, his parents beat him a lot and I was his only friend! He didn’t deserve what you did to him!”