Malphegor
patreon
Arcane: TTB: Ch. 47
🕑 Added 2025-02-13 21:52:53 +0000 UTC"Alright, alright, I'll answer your question."
Jayce sat across from Viktor, sighing helplessly as he continued, "After I invented the collapsible pocket wrench, patent protection meant that I was the only one making them. If others wanted to produce it, they had to pay me patent fees, which made their costs too high, so they couldn't do it."
"Even though that wrench isn't anything particularly advanced, its design is ingenious and makes workers' jobs much easier. People are willing to pay more for it." Just simple market dynamics. Nothing complicated about it.
"My workshop was doing well, making a lot of money. But I'm not some greedy businessman who only cares about profit, I made sure to pay my workers better so they could have a better life." He leaned forward, his voice carrying a hint of defensive pride.
Jayce scratched his head in frustration. He still wasn't sure what Viktor was trying to get at. The conversation felt like walking through a maze where every turn led to another question.
"Why not keep giving workers more pay? You don't want to?"
"Sometimes the clearest truths are found in the simplest questions," he mused, pouring a cup for both Jayce and Mel.
"It's still a matter of cost. No matter how you look at it, a collapsible pocket wrench is just a wrench. No one is going to pay an outrageous price for one. I don't have a choice. It's not that I don't want to give my workers more pay—"
But as he spoke, something suddenly felt off.
Why couldn't I give them more?
Am I not one of Piltover's wealthiest and most influential business owners? In my own factory, why don't I even have control over my workers' wages?
Why does it feel like costs are controlling me?
And what exactly is the force behind those costs?
Jayce had never thought about these questions before, but now Viktor was leading him toward a deeper realization. His face changed drastically as understanding began to dawn.
"Looks like you've figured it out. It's capital, unseen, yet everywhere."
"Its influence spreads to every corner of Piltover, controlling every aspect of the city. What we think are our own decisions are actually manipulated by it."
"In other words, we are all its slaves, we just didn't realize it before."
"It controls our minds, enslaves our thoughts, and turns us from independent people into nothing more than profit-chasing machines."
"Some even abandon their conscience, bury their humanity, all for the sake of profit."
Viktor took another sip of tea, his expression still calm.
But to Jayce, that cold rationality felt almost mocking. He felt uneasy again. He didn't want to see his good friend Viktor like this, so he instinctively argued back, "No, no, it's not like that. This is just how business works, everyone does it this way."
"And besides, my family doesn't only care about profit. The wages I pay my workers are already the best I can offer."
Viktor remained unbothered by Jayce's defense. He looked at him and asked meaningfully, "Just because everyone does it, does that make it right?"
"Remember when everyone opposed us? When we first started working on Hextech?"
"That was different..." Jayce protested weakly.
"Was it? Or did we just choose not to be slaves to their limitations?"
"Back then, aside from me and Cipher, who else supported you? If 'everyone doing it' made something right, then we should never have developed Hextech in the first place."
Viktor's words left Jayce speechless. He opened his mouth to argue, but no words came out. He's right. We defied everyone then. Why am I defending the status quo now?
He had no way to refute it.
"And Jayce, your kindness, and the goodwill of your family in business, changes nothing. "
"It proves nothing."
"It means nothing... in the face of Piltover and Zaun's deep-seated conflicts."
"Then what's the point of trying to be better?"
"The point is to change the system itself." Viktor poured another cup of tea for Jayce and refilled his own.
His attention then shifted to Mel.
Ever since she entered the lab, she had only spoken when answering his questions. The rest of the time, she had been deep in thought.
From Mel's initial confusion to her sudden look of realization, Viktor knew that she had already grasped his point.
"Why? Viktor, what exactly are you trying to say? I don't quite understand. Why do you keep emphasizing that we are slaves? What even is capital?"
Jayce's headache worsened. Why couldn't he just explain it clearly instead of speaking in riddles?
"Jayce, Viktor might be right. I've seen it. I've been part of it." Mel let out a long sigh. Compared to Jayce, who was engrossed in scientific research, she was not only Piltover's wealthiest individual but also a shrewd businesswoman and an excellent politician.
She understood faster than Jayce did.
Yet even as the wealthiest person in Piltover, she often had to compromise with the other bloated council members and make decisions she did not want to make.
She had always felt sympathy for Zaun's suffering, but there was nothing she could do.
Too many people had a stake in Zaun's situation. Even as the richest person in Piltover, no one would listen to her.
"Why… why are you saying this too?"
Jayce spread his hands in disbelief and turned to look at her. You were the one who convinced me to develop Hextech weapons. But now you've been persuaded by Viktor instead?
Then what am I supposed to do now?
"Because there may be individuals who defy their class, but there is no class that defies itself."
Viktor explained to Jayce.
"Councilor Medarda was born in Noxus, yet she became a Piltovan who longs for peace."
"But even if, one day, she were to become the Empress of Noxus, she still couldn't turn Noxus into Piltover. Her ideals would remain buried in her heart."
"Likewise, as a business owner, you may be willing to forgo profit in favor of paying your employees higher wages, but you cannot change the behavior of other business owners in Piltover."
"Capital exploits the greed within human nature. It has countless ways to force business owners to pursue profit at all costs."
Viktor paused. For the first time, his indifferent face showed a trace of anger.
"Jayce, your workshop is too safe. You don't hire people from Zaun, you have no idea how much they suffer."
"I know things aren't perfect down there, but—"
"Perfect?" Viktor's laugh was sharp and bitter. "Let me tell you what I saw when I had been there. A girl, maybe 10, crawling through toxic sludge in the sewers to clear blockages because her hands were small enough to reach. The caustic waste had eaten through her gloves."
"Mines, docks, shipyards, high-rise construction, sewers, chimneys, every dangerous, grueling job is done by Zaunites. The jobs your precious progress needs but no one up here wants to do."
"And do you even know what they get paid? Just a few copper krins, barely enough for a single proper meal. Yet they are forced to work sixteen hours a day for it. Children with chronically damaged lungs from chemical fumes. Mothers choosing which child gets to eat each day."
"These are isolated cases," Jayce argued, but his voice lacked conviction. "Bad employers, corrupt managers—"
"Really? Let me tell you how the Mining Consortium operates. They have a formula. Did you know that? They calculate exactly how much a Zaunite worker's death costs them. Funeral compensation, family stipend, replacing the worker, all numbered and tallied."
"You can't be serious—"
"Three hundred and fifty silver krins," Viktor continued coldly. "That's what they decided a Zaunite life is worth. And do you know what it costs to properly shore up an unstable tunnel? Eight hundred per section. So they did their mathematics. Two dead workers is cheaper than securing one tunnel. Simple profit calculation."
"And that's standard business practice. They even call it 'risk assessment.' Tell me, Jayce, how many Piltovan lives are factored into these equations?"
Jayce stood abruptly, his chair scraping against the floor. "We can fix this. Set up safety regulations, minimum wage laws—"
"Laws?" Viktor slammed his cane down. "They are human beings just like Piltovans. But while Zaunites work themselves to death, Piltover's elite enjoy easy jobs, vacations, and countless benefits, while earning ten, even dozens of times more than them. And this is all enforced by Piltover's so-called laws, strictly regulated and upheld by the city."
"Everything in the Upper City, every institution, every law, was built by the capitalists and industrialists who control it. Even the laws only serve to protect what capital wants to protect. Your patents, your profits, your property, those are worth protecting. Zaunite lives? Merely a cost of doing business."
"And yet Piltover is called the City of Progress? This isn't progress. This is stagnation dressed as advancement."
"This is nothing but capital's slave city, a tool to preserve its power while preventing true progress, stopping humanity from reaching its ultimate and glorious evolution!"
Viktor gripped his cane and slowly stood up. He extended his hand toward Jayce, his expression sincere.
"Cipher has shown me, through the Book of Revolution, that the winds of change have begun to blow in Zaun."
"Jayce, I sincerely invite you to join me, let us embrace the glorious evolution together!"
