Chapter 477 - 219: A New Civil War
Leo’s hand gripped the handle of the interrogation room’s iron door.
The cold touch of the metal sent a chill through his palm, and the steady rhythm of his heart faltered.
The deal had been struck.
Luigi Randall had agreed to be the knife, to slice open the dark secrets of the medical giants in court. He had agreed to use his own trial to support Leo’s Mutual Aid Alliance plan.
It should have been a perfect ending.
As the Mayor, Leo had gained a trump card; as an avenger, Luigi had been given a stage.
Each got what they needed.
But Leo’s feet felt as if they were nailed to the floor, unable to move.
If Luigi really went to court, really followed the plan to make his accusations and fight the entire system, only one outcome awaited him.
The death penalty.
Or life imprisonment without parole.
This young man would spend the rest of his life in a maximum-security prison, in a concrete box just a few feet on each side, until he rotted away.
Leo turned and looked at Luigi, who was still sitting in the iron chair.
Luigi was looking down at his own handcuffs.
"Luigi."
Leo spoke again.
Luigi looked up, his expression puzzled as he watched the Mayor, who had turned back.
"We have another option."
Leo walked back toward him.
"I have resources—psychiatrists."
"I can make the arrangements."
Leo spoke quickly, a sense of urgency in his voice.
"They’ll issue a perfect evaluation report for you. Severe paranoid schizophrenia, or maybe an acute and transient psychotic disorder brought on by long-term stress."
"We’ll prove that at the moment you fired the gun, you had lost the capacity to recognize or control your own actions."
"We’ll plead insanity."
Leo stared into Luigi’s eyes, trying to instill this hope for survival in him.
"Once the court accepts this defense, you won’t go to the electric chair, and you won’t go to some goddamn Federation prison."
"You’ll go to a psychiatric hospital."
"There are books, a television, clean sheets, and a garden."
"You’ll only have to stay there for a few years, maybe even ten."
"Wait for the heat to die down, for the public to forget about this."
"I have ways to get you released on medical parole. I have ways to get you back out into the light."
"You’re still young, Luigi. You’re only in your twenties."
"You have a startling talent for mathematics. You shouldn’t be buried alongside a dead man like this."
"Choose this path."
"You can live."
Leo finished speaking.
He felt he had fulfilled his responsibility.
This was the last act of kindness he, as someone not yet completely cold-blooded, could offer the idealist before him.
Even if it would weaken the trial’s political influence, even if it would cost his medical reforms their most explosive advertisement.
He had other ways to make up for it; he was willing to make this sacrifice.
But once Luigi was dead, he was truly dead.
The interrogation room was quiet.
Luigi looked at Leo.
He understood what Leo was saying.
It was a tempting offer.
Survival.
For any living being, it is the most primal instinct.
But he didn’t show the gratitude Leo expected, nor the joy of a man snatching life from the jaws of death.
On the contrary, his face darkened, overcome with the fury of someone who has been gravely insulted.
BANG!
Luigi shot to his feet.
The iron shackles on his wrists slammed heavily onto the tabletop, creating a harsh, deafening sound.
The sudden outburst startled Leo.
"No!"
Luigi roared.
"Absolutely not!"
He stared daggers at Leo.
"Mr. Mayor, in your eyes, am I just some coward who would play the fool and feign madness just to stay alive?"
"Insanity?"
Luigi let out a cold sneer.
"If I’m a madman."
"Then my bullet has no meaning."
Luigi gripped the edge of the table with both hands, leaning forward until his face was almost touching Leo’s.
"Think about it. If the court declares me insane, what will the media say? What will the PR teams for the insurance companies say?"
Luigi mimicked the tone of a news anchor, his voice sharp and high-pitched.
"Oh, look, what a tragedy. A poor mental patient lost control and killed an innocent CEO."
"This is just an isolated case, an accident."
"Our society is healthy. Our medical system has some minor flaws, but overall, it’s fine. The problem is that we didn’t properly manage this lunatic."
"And then, they’ll go on popping champagne, handing out bonuses, and denying the claims of the poor."
"Because in their eyes, what killed Arthur Vance wasn’t anger. It was a disease."
"And a disease can be isolated. It can be excluded from the logic of normal society."
Luigi’s voice trembled, a sign of his extreme agitation.
"All those people they killed will have died for nothing."
Luigi sat back down in his chair, but his head was still held high, his eyes defiant.
"I must be sane,"
he said, enunciating every word.
"I must face my trial as the sanest person in this room."
"I will stand in that courtroom and tell the judge, the jury, and the entire world."
"I am not insane."
"My mind is clear. My logic is sound."
"I made that decision after countless nights of careful deliberation, in a state of complete sanity and sobriety."
"I decided to execute that Vampire."
"Because he deserved to die."
"Because in this twisted system, killing him was the only form of justice."
Luigi pointed to his temple.
"Only if I am sane will my accusation have power."
"Only when a rational elite—someone who understands math, finance, and the rules of how this world works—chooses to pick up a gun and kill someone."
"Only then will society feel true fear."
"Only then will people start to reflect on what kind of despair could drive a normal person to do this."
"If I’m a madman, they’ll only pity me."
"But I don’t want their pity."
"I want them to be afraid."
"I want them to tremble."
"I want them to look into my eyes and know who I am, and know why I did it."
Luigi looked at Leo.
"Mr. Mayor."
"Thank you for your kindness."
"But, in order to expose this disease, to tear away this fig leaf."
"I am willing to die."
Leo stood there.
He looked at the young man.
In that moment, he felt that Luigi was standing on another plane of existence.
It was a will that transcended the instinct for survival, a resolve to completely sacrifice oneself to some higher belief.
He had turned himself into a bullet.
A bullet that had to shatter on impact to blow the fortress open.
’In the history of the United States, there has never been a shortage of such men.’
Roosevelt’s voice echoed in the depths of Leo’s mind.
An invisible force pulled Leo into a damp morning.
Fog filled the air, thick with the smell of gunpowder and blood.
「October 1859, Harper’s Ferry.」
Leo found himself standing in the shadow of a red brick building—the Federation Armory.
He saw a gaunt old man with a full white beard.
He had only twenty-one men with him.
His sons, escaped slaves, young idealists.
They were being besieged by an entire Marine detachment.
"Surrender, Brown!" the commander outside was shouting.
"Never!"
John Brown’s voice was hoarse, but every word was like thunder exploding from the depths of his soul.
"Without the shedding of blood, the sins of this nation can never be purged!"
Gunfire erupted.
Leo watched sparks fly as bullets struck the walls, watched young bodies fall amidst the gunsmoke.
He saw Brown cradling his dead son, his face filled with the resolve of a man making a sacrifice.
The scene shifted.
The gallows.
A cold wind howled as thousands of people watched.
John Brown stood beneath the hangman’s noose, a coarse rope around his neck.
He looked at the rolling hills in the distance, at this country still bound by the chains of slavery.
He had left behind a note, his final prophecy for this world.
"I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land can never be purged away but with blood."
The body dropped.
Gasps rippled through the crowd. Some people were crying, others were cursing.
’Everyone at the time said he was a madman, a terrorist, an extremist who only created bloodshed.’
Roosevelt’s voice rang in Leo’s ears like a war drum.
’Even Lincoln thought he had gone too far, that his radicalism would destroy the abolitionist cause.’
’But, as his body swayed in the wind, his soul set the entire North ablaze.’
’His death made countless people—those who were still hesitating, still compromising, still trying to solve slavery through moderate reforms—realize that it was a dead end.’
’Neither compromise, nor buyouts, nor laws could break those chains.’
’With his death, he sounded the death knell of the Civil War.’
’He was a fanatic, a man of violence.’
’But he was also a prophet.’
The vision shattered, and Leo was back in the interrogation room.
He looked at Luigi before him.
’This young man... he is the John Brown of our time.’
Roosevelt pointed at Luigi.
’He’s radical, violent, and incompatible with the spirit of rule of law in modern society.’
’But he intends to spatter blood on this nation’s conscience.’
’He wants to force those who are pretending to be asleep to face the ugly, man-eating truth.’
’He doesn’t need your pity, Leo.’
’He needs a battlefield.’
’Then give him one.’
Roosevelt’s voice suddenly grew deep.
’In 1861, to end the system that treated people as property, Lincoln split this country in two, pitting brother against brother and soaking the earth in blood.’
’That was a civil war fought to define what it means to be human.’
’And now, Leo, you are starting a new civil war.’
’A civil war between life and capital.’
’This is no longer a war between the North and the Southern States. This is a war between the patient and the ledger, a war between a breath and a bottom line.’
’The enemy you face is even more powerful than the Southern Army of the past.’
’They wear custom-tailored suits and sit in skyscrapers in Manhattan and Washington.’
’They put a price tag on life and treat death as a form of cost control.’
’This young man, Luigi, fired the first shot.’
’Now, it’s your turn to transform that gunshot into a storm that sweeps the entire nation.’
’Go, Leo.’
’Let his trial be the first trumpet blast of this new civil war.’
’Let those high-and-mighty Vampires see what kind of fury erupts when the people they treat as insignificant blades of grass decide to be silent no longer.’
Leo straightened his collar, his expression turning solemn.
"I understand."
Leo nodded.
"Since you’ve chosen this path, I will help you see it through."
"You will get the trial you want."
"It will be the trial of the century."
"I will make sure your voice is heard in every corner of the world."
"Go and fight, Luigi."
"Go tell the world why you are sane."
"And why you chose death with such peace."