If one had to rank the moral standards of the various factions within the Legion, the civil servant bloc serving at the Marshal's side would undoubtedly rank near the top.
While the Eastern Legion was still figuring out how to squeeze the last drop of oil from contract slaves, the civil servant bloc had already studied the Southern Legion's colonial management methods and devised a "systematic" way to turn contract slaves into debt slaves.
Don't think this was some evil thing. Given the era of the wasteland, turning people from livestock into commodities absolutely counted as an "act of kindness."
The poor of the Bugra Free State could at most complain that refrigerator-door advertisements ran too long, that iris scanners were inhumanely intrusive.
Meanwhile, the slaves of the Brahma Province would probably not sympathize after hearing those complaints. Instead, they would ask in confusion what refrigerators and advertisements were, and why wasting seventy-five seconds of one's life did not cost money.
In short, although Triumph City's civil servants had not given the survivors of West Sail Port refrigerators, they had at least opened a window in their hopeless lives.
These civil servants first partnered with the nobles of Lion State, leasing the slaves in their hands for fifty denars a month.
Then, at the end of every month, they gave those slaves an additional "bonus" of fifty to one hundred and fifty denars.
How much they received depended entirely on their performance at work.
Of course, that money would not be stuffed into the slaves' pockets. It would be recorded in their accounts instead, and once they had saved enough, they could buy freedom for themselves and their families.
And once those slaves had bought their freedom, they would be considered skilled workers.
Not only did they have abundant work