The sun which once beamed above the snakemen village had finally made it's way to the horizon, enveloping the town with a cool air as it disappeared.
After confirming that a flock of people had made their way into their respective homes, the four mercenaries headed over to a certain area which looked somewhat like a modern apartment complex.
Aside from the fact that the building was made from marble and sandstone, there were multiple floors to the buildings and the hallways were on the outside of the doors which led into the homes.
"So the people in this village live all together in one building, but in separate rooms? Kinda like an inn, but a bit different.", Lance noted.
"According to their excellencies, these types of buildings were not uncommon in the world they came from.", Melody stated.
"Huh..."
Charlotte seemed to be thinking.
"You know, it's really crazy once you think about it. They came from a completely different world, but at the same time it was a society with only humans. I wonder what that was like? Do you think that if there were no monsters that the humans would finally be at peace with one another?"
"No matter what world you're in, there will always be good people and bad people. Some people would always cause conflict, taking from others and prioritizing themselves.", Pierre remarked. "I don't think removing the monsters would stop such a thing."
"I guess you're right.... after all, we were able to get along with some of the monsters, and yet there are certain people that we could never get along with..."
Charlotte looked down sadly as she remembered the rapists which the antiheroes took on singlehandedly, dishing out the punishment which those people deserved.
"Well... anyways! Let's try to get along with the ones in front of us!"
"Yeah.", Lance said, putting his hand on her shoulder and giving her a bright smile. "Let's do that."
And so, the four made their way up the stairs to the second floor where the housing rooms begun.
"Should we just knock and see if someone answers? Or should we be more careful?", Pierre asked.
"There's no point being even more careful here. If they attack us we'll fight. If not, then great.", Melody replied.
Pierre knocked on the door a few times before the door was quickly opened.
In the door stood a snakeman who seemed to be dressed in sleeping clothes, however he seemed completely shocked at seeing the four people standing at his door.
"Ah, hello! We were wonder-"
The door was immediately slammed on the four before Charlotte could finish her sentence.
"I guess we were too strange for him to accept.", Melody stated. "Perhaps in this village, we humans look like monsters to them?"
"Ehh...."
"What should we do about that then?", Pierre asked.
"I suppose we just keep on moving until we find someone who isn't scared of us. They shouldn't have any sort of communication system over long distance like their excellencies have, so if nobody runs off or calls the guards, we should be ok."
And so the four moved to the next door, knocking once more before it opened.
This time it was a mother with two children in her arms.
"Hello!! We were a bit lost and trying to find our way-"
The mother widened her eyes before stumbling backwards, terrified.
"H-humans..... humans.... get away from here.... get away from me!!!! I have nothing to do with you!!!! I won't help you!!! I won't house you!!!! I won't give you anything!!!! Leave!!!!!"
The four were bewildered by the woman's reaction, however seeing the fear in her eyes, they all walked away with pity as the door was slammed on them.
"What was wrong with her? She was so scared of us.", Lance asked.
"Perhaps we really are seen as monsters here?", Pierre suggested.
"Then, all we have to do is find someone who isn't afraid, right?", Charlotte stated.
"Hmm.... if only it was that easy. Well, I suppose we should continue trying either way. We just need one question answered.", Lance said.
Melody then turned around to look at the entrance stairs to this apartment.
"There is only one entrance. I am going to guard it to make sure that nobody tries to escape or call the guards. You three see if you can speak with anyone on the third floor."
"Will you be alright by yourself, Melody?", Lance asked with a serious glare.
Melody merely met his glare with a slight smirk.
"Haven't I been the one protecting you all the time? I can at least take care of myself."
With a nod, the three went up another flight of stairs to now be on the third floor.
"Alright. Let's see what we can get."
The three walked over to another home before Lance was struck with an idea.
"Hey, do you think the people on the bottom floors were scared because of how many of us there were? Maybe if only one person was asking they would be more willing to talk?"
"Oh... that's a good idea!", Charlotte replied. "Then, let's take turns. I'll go first."
Lance and Pierre then stood to the side, out of view, and Charlotte prepared to knock on one of the doors.
Knock knock knock.
The door soon opened to reveal an older snakeman who's skin seemed to be peeling and wrinkled.
The man seemed to be squinting.
"Um, hello! I was just passing through, and I had a few questions to ask."
"Just passing through? What district you from?"
The man was likely hard of sight, and could barely made out the figure of Charlotte.
"Um.... I came from the west of here!", Charlotte responded.
"Hmm..... West, eh? So district D then? How did you get lost to the point where you made it all the way over to district B here in the East?"
"Ah! So that's where we are? Thank you very much for the information! Ah, by the way, the number on your door...."
"Ah? The number? You mean the 17? Yep, I'm B17. What about it?"
"Ah, nothing! Thank you for your help!"
"Ok....."
The older man seemed somewhat suspicious, and instead of closing the door he walked forward a step and glared at Charlotte.
"That face.... you look weird. Why is your body all messed up?"
"M-messed up!? What do you mean?? I'll have you know that there's nothing wrong with me!!"
"Is that so? Maybe I'm just seeing things. Your tail just looks strange. Did you get injured or something? It looks like it was split in two or something. Ah, like one of those.... humans. You better be careful. With a face like that someone might mistake you for a human, and everyone knows what happens to outsiders here."
Charlotte gulped as she heard these words.
"Er.... I forgot.... what happens to outsiders again?"
"Well they get arrested of course. If found guilty of disturbing the peace of this town, they will likely be killed off as a sacrifice to appease the provider, who has given us our sustenance. I better be careful as well. If someone ends up seeing this and thinks I gave help to a human, then I'll be marked as a dissenter as well, and you know what happens to dissenters. They're whisked away, punished by the provider himself for rejecting his protection over this city from outsiders."
"I.... see.... then, I'll be careful...."
"Do so."
The door was closed and the two came out of hiding.
"That was..... something.....", Lance said. "It looks like that provider is really important here in this city. So he provides the people with food and protection? It's likely that the only ones who know about that farm in the center of the city are the members of the military police. As a matter of fact.... in this desert wasteland, it's likely that nobody is even aware of how food is produced. They are probably under the impression that the only one in the world who can produce food is this 'provider'. And as for the dissenters who are whisked away....."
Lance remembered back to seeing the men who were being worked to the bone in those slave camps.
"Well.... I think we know who they are."
"That's horrible....", Charlotte murmured.
"Despicable.", Pierre stated.
"We should do something about this. But we can't rush in. Just like Melody said, we will take over this city in due time."
The three nodded together before heading down the stairs, to see Melody.
And in front of her were the unconscious corpses of two snakemen.
"They tried to escape to snitch on us, so I gave them a little love tap.", Melody stated, wand in hand.
"Er.... I see.... more importantly! We've got some information!!", Charlotte exclaimed with a somewhat disturbed smile.
Melody smirked at hearing this.
"Great. Now let's get out of here before any nearby guards show up.
----
"Hmm.... so that's how it is.... so the North is A, East is B, South is C, and West is D. So we should head back to the west if we are to find this man- D29. And the numbers on the apartment complex correlate directly with the numbers of the people..."
Melody thinned her eyes as she pondered these findings out loud.
"So essentially, they're all being labeled and inspected heavily."
The woman blew her straight red hair out of her face as the four ran through the streets, making their way West.
"This is a really tough opponent to face though. They're very organized. Because they've labeled all their people so heavily, they're able to keep close tabs on almost everything that happens in this city. A true Dictatorship if I've ever seen one."
"But.... this Dictatorship is nothing like the Dictatorship!!", Charlotte shouted. "They're doing horrible things and forcing people who dissent to do slave labor and endure all sorts of other terrible punishments!! The antiheroes don't do anything like that!!"
Melody let out a sigh at the ignorance of the others, however the four kept running.
"Either way, we'll make it to sector D for now and try and give that meat to the family of that man. However.... he might have been taken away as a dissenter. As a matter of fact, if they're extremely thorough, his family too might have been taken away just by being related to him."
"You.... do you really think that's the case, Melody??", Lance asked with a shocked expression.
"I never said for sure. But it's possible. This isn't a place like the Empire. At least in the Empire people can't just be arrested for no reason."
The four made their way through the streets, traveling across the city before reaching the apartment complex which was associated with district D.
"There it is. We're looking for 29. I can see the numbers from here. It's on the fourth floor.", Melody stated.
"Got it! Let's head up!", Lance exclaimed.
The four rushed up the stairs.
One thing that came to mind as the four were walking up the stairs was the lack of people anywhere in the city at night.
Not only were there a lack of people walking around, but there were also a lack of guards near the homes of people.
The four had seen many guards patrolling the other areas of the city, especially the workplaces, however there seemed to be almost nobody guarding the homes of the people.
'It's strange.... why would they have nobody guarding the homes of the people? Do they just not care? Or perhaps it's that the exact opposite. Maybe they are instead suspicious of their own people, and as such guard the products of value?'
The four made it to the fourth floor, heading over to the apartment which had the number 29 on it.
"This is the one.", Charlotte stated, checking the door.
"Should we knock? Or should we just leave the meat here?", Pierre asked.
"Let's leave it with a message and go away. If they're scared of associating with us, then they won't accept the meat even if we offer it to them.", Lance suggested.
Pulling out a piece of paper and a pen from his trenchcoat, Lance began to write a note.
[We are aware that your husband was sick and could not work. Here is a piece of meat. Please use this to feed your family.]
-The Slaves of the antiheroes
Finishing the note, Lance drew a small picture of the flag of the Dictatorship on it.
"What do you think, Melody? This can be our first little sliver of rebellion."
Melody smiled.
"It's risky, but I like it. It will show the people that we exist and have no intention of sitting back and watching this city from afar. It's time to get our hands messy."
Lance wrapped up the meat into a package and placed it at the door with the note on top before knocking, and the four ran away down the stairs.
"It may be a little thing like this for now, but soon enough it will be something much bigger.", Lance said with a smile.
The four reached the bottom of the apartment and walked off into one of the alleyways, and the other three noticed that Melody seemed to be scheming to herself.
"I think I've figured out our next move."
"Oh, you have? Great!", Charlotte exclaimed.
"What are we going to do, Melody?", Pierre asked.
With a sinister laugh, Melody twisted her wand about in her hands, walking forward confidently.
"Tomorrow we're going to get arrested."
----
"Eh?"
"Arrested?"
"Why would we do that?"
The other three were dumbstruck, however Melody continued to walk forward.
"That old man said before, didn't he? Outsiders are sacrificed to the provider."
"He did.", Melody agreed.
"But what of it?"
Melody turned around, looking the other three in the eyes with her sharp gaze.
"What would happen if the sacrifices were to jump off the altar with a show of power? It would be nothing less than blasphemy, right? It would be direct rejection of this 'provider', and show that whoever this provider is has no power to contain even the sacrifices which are offered to him."
"Oh...."
"Interesting...."
"But will the provider actually show up to such a sacrifice?"
Melody smiled.
"Of course he will. Because if he doesn't, then we'll just have to fly off and drag him there ourselves."
The other three began thinking.
"Melody, this plan is very risky."
"Perhaps even riskier than saving the man before."
Melody nodded.
"That much is true, but I've figured something out recently. This provider is pretending to be the person who creates food, right? That is.... the people hold the belief that he is the only one in existence who can create that which sustains. Right?"
"That's true...."
"And he has military guards stationed all over the city to keep the peace and punish any who dissent. Right?"
"Yeah...."
"Well then, wouldn't that mean that he doesn't have the power to control the people on his own? He has to rely on tactics such as brainwashing to trick the people into thinking that he is providing things for them. He relies on the military to keep dissenters in line. Most importantly, he will not show his face publicly under typical circumstances. Doesn't this mean that he's scared of doing so? He's been removed from society because those people view him as the ultimate law. Anything he says goes. If he were to show himself publicly, even if the chance is low, an assassination could occur, right?"
"That's true. If he isn't a ton more powerful than the people around him, an assassination could happen."
"The people are scared of him. They don't want to disobey him or the people who serve him. We saw what happened when that man did so. He was beat by every single person in the crowd. Not a single one decided to hold back when they were ordered to beat that man.... out of fear. But what were they so scared of? What were they REALLY so scared of?"
"Mmm.... was it not the military guards?"
"Those were just a few people. There were 500 in that plaza. If they all teamed up, they could easily rebel, right?"
"Then, they were scared that the provider would come to punish them if they disobeyed?"
"That is part of it. The provider's strength has likely been over exaggerated to a ridiculous level, so the people would not dare to go against it. But there's something even simpler than that. If you went against the grain and didn't beat that man, then you would be next in line for the beating. Nobody was willing to be the first one to go against the grain, because that carried the risk of being the only one to go against the grain."
"A hive mindset....", Pierre whispered.
"Exactly. These people have been put under a hive mindset. They've been injected with the mental image of this provider, and the very idea of going against him would be the same as saying 'I guess I don't want to eat ever again!' It would be unthinkable. Because he has complete control over the food supply, there is nobody who can go against him. However, take a look at the antiheroes. They hold true power above their people. Look at the Dictatorship. Is there any person in the Dictatorship who holds some strange false belief of their leaders? No, that is not the case. Everything they believe about the antiheroes is the truth."
"So what you're saying is that if you have the power to back up your words, you won't have to rely on something like controlling the food supply?", Pierre noted.
"Exactly. Therefore, it can be deduced that he might be powerful, but he is not excessively powerful. We can beat him."
The four smiled together, confident in this new plan.
"Alright then!! I'll do it!!!", Charlotte said.
"I'll trust your logic, Melody.", Lance confirmed with a smile.
Pierre nodded and the four walked off into the alleyway, ready for the following day.
However, as they made their way along, they came across a strange sight for this village.
A small house made from what looked to be garbage and scraps. Plastic and metal made up the miniature home, making it stick out in an unnatural manner for this city.
"What is this?"
"Metal? And some material I've never seen before. I mean, we saw some of this in that central district, but...."
The four gathered around the home, curious.
"Who is living here?"
Suddenly, the door opened.
A thin female snake child with zig zagged pigtails wearing nothing more than rags peeked out of the door, looking up and down at the people outside her home.
"Humans? What are you all doing here in this village?"