Should Have Let Me Die

Chapter 193: Lower City Culture

What did I want?

"A Tour will be fine for now, but there will be some changes to the way you treat dwarves, and slavery is now banned everywhere on this world. The last thing will be machines of war you are producing for other states and empires, that stop. The production will continue, but they will not be sold to them, it will all be sold and shipped to me."

Both of them nodded, there was no place for arguments. I had just removed the biggest threat the island had. I also wasn't asking for heaven and earth to be moved, just for the way things were done and people were seen to change.

It would take a while, but it would come if everyone worked in the same direction, but I could go around forcing every person to conform to this idea. The Leaders that I change will be the force that helps change the people. This is how it would have to be, but Firesti and the Crashing Wave won't be as easy. Yet, they were talking of possible peace as we speak, so hopefully stopping war supplies won't hurt that.

"We lead on! My group of friends and I are hungry and excited to visit your city! I really would like to visit one or two of your labs if you don't mind?" I asked with excitement, now that the meat of the conversation was done, it was time for the sauce!

The two led us out into the reception area where Dwayne was sitting behind the counter like before. I looked at my group and it was pretty small for a tour group, so maybe we could collect some people that weren't doing anything. I looked over to Leana, and then back to Dwayne, moving my head in a motion to signal him to come with us.

Leana rolled her eyes, and Grayson laughed, but she invited Dwayne to come with us. The man passed out, but Breth and Buddy went around laughing and helped Dwayne backup. He was smiling, and looking at me with unfocused eyes that had the appearance of someone waking up from a knockout punch. 

We all got in the Main elevator and started to go down. Dwayne only fainted one more time, but after that, he seemed to calm down to the point that we could have a short conversation with him. The problem was that all he could talk about how excited he was to be coming out with all of us, and that was pretty sad, but that just made me want to make the day better for him. 

I looked at Buddy, and then each of the other guys, all but Cable had evolved, but each one of them could perceive my thoughts and intentions. So now, I was projecting that I wanted them to treat him just like another one of the boys. Maybe that could help him with his passing out, but only time would tell. 

We had reached the end of our elevator ride, and the doors opened into a big vaulted half dome that was a series of thick and curved wooden beams. They acted as a trellis for plants and flowers, making for a beautiful entrance, but I could hear the crowds and I could smell the street food up ahead. 

"We will get an escort and we will bypass all the lower city folks, and we will go dine at one of our renowned and famous restaurants!" Grayson announced, waving us away from the bustling crowd, but this tour thing was starting to lose its charm.

"Hey, I think we are just going to go for a walk and explore the place on our own. I want to try some of your more cultured 'Lower city' cuisine! You two can go as you want, but you should come for a meal tonight out on our terrace. You could bring a bean casserole or spinach dip, I'll leave that one up to you."

"Are you sure? You want to go down there? There are only Dwarves and other short people down there, are you sure you don't want to come?" Leana asked.

"You know, I don't think you will be as welcome in your circles if everyone values size so much. You have both already forgotten that you are counted among us short people now, but by all means, go out and mingle. Your friends would all treat you the same way, you are the leaders after all and they should respect them no matter what height they are, right?" I asked, rubbing my hand across my chin thoughtfully.

The two of them went pale as bedsheets, and then they looked at each other. I thought the two of them might pass out as they looked around and slowly backed back into the elevator. I watched the door close, and I was a bit worried for them, I might have to shrink both races to just get everyone on the same page. 

Still, they weren't weak and could stand up if they were challenged, this was just going to be a learning experience for them. I turned back to my friends and the newest one, Dwayne. I was glad he stayed with us, but I would have made a big stink if Leana would have tried to get him to go back with her. Dwarves were no longer to be considered property to anyone, but that was going to be half the battle.

The other half would be the Dwarves themselves. After god knows how many years of being treated like slaves and worthless people, it was going to be hard to get them back to normal, but I had a secret weapon. Alex would have to whip the group together, and I'm sure she is missing the slavers back home that she was re-educating.

The way she was able to reprogram the people was almost scary, and it made me glad she was on my side. I could only imagine my enemies' nightmares were like, with my wife over them, forcing them to do the same task for the nine-hundredth time. She was effective and she wasn't brainwashing them, just re-educating them, with force...hmm, I might have to look into this to see how big of a moral dilemma we might be stumbling into.

"Hyde?" Buddy asked from beside me, making me jump a bit, I had been completely zoned out with the dwarves and Alex, plus there were other things.

"Sorry, lost in thought. Let's go get some food! I want to check out the rest of the place, and see if we can find any labs or chemists!" 

I walked out of the wooden dome, the group following me and giving me looks for my snappy decisions, but I had a lot on my mind. I also wanted to have some fun, but I also needed to do this, and there was also the matter of that

I had things, lots of them, but I was trying to combine the things and the rest of it altogether. I just needed to relax and eat some food. I had good friends here to help me do just that!