The old man laughs softly and deeply, his voice rattling the guards and their armor.
"But… they don't need us to help them do their conquest and colonization. No, what they need is for us to do our work over here. Though we may not be marked as their property anymore, we are still theirs to order around. For all those humans who leave their jobs to serve in the Federation's sacred army, our demihuman brothers and sisters will take up the slack."
Angelidis considers those implications. Currently unemployment for demihumans in Tritol is quite high. Humans who own businesses or work for the state hire other humans first and foremost. These are always the better jobs. The demihumans are given the scraps. The worst, most undignified work.
Whatever a human would not deign to do is given to them. Some (though not all) humans would even choose homelessness rather than lowering themselves to perform the kinds of jobs that are “reserved” for demihumans.
But, there is a limit to even that kind of work.
That's the reason why many in the city turn to joining a crime syndicate or engage in illegal activity. Such activity is well hidden and many demihuman men and women in Tritol make their livings in Tritol’s underbelly. However, their lives become more precarious. More of them are convicted and sent to prisons more readily.
Angelidis never wanted that for her brothers. But now, if her brothers simply wait for the enlisted to ship off, they can find work more easily? It might depend on what work they're after, but wouldn't that secure a better future for them?
"For all the human farm hands and factory workers who enlist to carry out their mission of human supremacy, our kind will replace them. We will be made to work diligently to supply the arms, food and other supplies required to sustain the Federation’s mission across the seas on the Empire’s land."
Angelidis grimaces. It could easily be jobs like that too. Work like what her father did. Backbreaking, soul crushing work. As draconids, they would likely be hired to do strenuous physical labor.
So their lives get just marginally better… at the expense of the billions of our kin on that continent.
She can't very well feel good about her brothers having a more stable future if that future is built on bloodshed.
“The lives of those soldiers will get better, the lives of humans who remain here will get better, the lives of the humans displaced from their homes in the south will also get better. And so will our own. For a time. But, the resource will run dry eventually, if we are allowed to take it at all…”
The topic of the South is also brought up. Many already know that most of the Southerners would not be relocated into the rest of the Federation’s cities, but to the land of the Empire. However, the draconid man only lightly touches the plight that the Southerners are facing.
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‘If we are allowed to take it at all’...
Shaula wonders about that statement. This man is the first person she has heard speak publicly about the fact that the war could be a failure.
"It might become too costly to keep paying us, to keep us living in reasonable living conditions. They might even reinstate our slavery so that they can properly extract as much profit as they can from that ‘gold mine’ across the oceans. Now that the Empire is defeated, they expect another ten thousand years of prosperity.”
He sighs.
“As long as the intelligent races live, their rulers will seek more and more. They would never sacrifice their standard of living so they must keep plundering and plundering. They wish to consume that continent. They might wish for us to make all of those plans a reality. After all, what have they ever built throughout history without our blood?"
Shaula considers this fact. It is very much the same back on Earth as well. Although technology has improved significantly, many of the luxuries of the first world are still produced by exploited workers in exploited countries.
When a few of those countries could not be exploited anymore, Western Britannia started to struggle and stagnate on the world stage. Shaula expects that her nation would not last even a hundred more years because of that problem at its core: extraction and exploitation cannot last forever.
That is what is so curious about the Holy Osvan Federation as well as the Supreme Semjazan Empire. Two nations that stood for ten thousand years.
So long as men die, there is always a chance to change things. But those two gods did not die after they built their countries. Now that Semjaza is dead, their nation will probably crumble into dust like so many of Earth's ancient empires.
For Shaula, this speech is contextualizing a lot of what she has already been studying. It makes her understand more deeply that although this is an alien world, so long as humans and those resembling humans exist, the same things will continue to happen.
"Isn't it funny however? As much as they would hate to admit it, they NEED us! Not as soldiers… They want our work, our ability to work for them. WE make their world continue spinning! All their luxuries, all their weaponry, all their food, all their water… it is all provided because of where we are currently in relation to where they are."
The old man smiles softly as he considers this. In the Federation, the demihumans form a solid foundation by which humanity can build a powerful nation. For humanity, the foundation must remain where it is, it cannot crumble. But, he wants that foundation to crumble. He wants that foundation to be used to build something better.
"There will be a lot of jobs to be found over the coming weeks and months for our kind. But will they pay us well? No. They will not."
Members of the audience start shouting at his words.
"They still treat us like their slaves, like their pack animals. They still believe they are owed our allegiance and order their society to keep us just precarious enough to continue serving their interests. They maintain such a high rate of poverty and unemployment for our kind to show those of us actually willing to work the dirty jobs that we could face horror if we disobey them."
His tone gets sharper, his voice louder. More members of the audience shout in affirmation.
"In this manner, little has changed since our formal bondage was abolished a century ago. As you can see, some of them want us to return to those same conditions down to the very last demihuman man, woman and child." The draconid man points his finger towards the marchers.
"Hah! Who am I kidding! All of them want us to return to being their pets!" His voice booms, shaking the crowd with both its clarity and gravitas.