Chapter 7: crowd control.

Restaurant at dawn.

The restaurant owner’s day starts a little earlier than others.

He looks in the mirror and shaves his darkened chin, and cleans the restaurant that has become dirty overnight.

“Hoo… I think this is good enough.”

As the sun rises, the walnut table meets the sunlight and crumbles.

The scattering light shines brightly on the restaurant owner’s face, and knowing that the day has begun, the restaurant owner immediately goes up to the second floor to wake up Kitty, who is fast asleep.

“Wake up.”
“Eung-“

No matter how much he shakes her, Kitty doesn’t wake up. He wondered if this creature was the same person as Kitty on the podium.

“5 minutes… no, just one hour….”

It seemed that she lived divided into Ki and Tty.

The restaurant owner left the Kitty, who was being lazy, alone and left the room again without saying anything. After all, she doesn’t contribute much to the restaurant.

“Welcome!”
“What’s good today?”

The restaurant owner fiddled with the oranges placed in front of him for no reason, repeatedly touching them and putting them down to check their condition.

The greengrocer lady smiled at the restaurant owner.

“Take them! I’ll put in a few if it’s for my daughter to eat.”
“Daughter?”

The restaurant owner was at a loss.

Daughter?

“Huh? Kitty, I mean! Wasn’t she your daughter?”
“No… What makes you say that?”
“The eyes are fierce… Oh my, look at my mind. The eyes are very dark, isn’t it exactly the same?”

The restaurant owner, who suddenly gained responsibility without pleasure. He knew how scary the aunt network was from his early days, but it was even scarier to experience it directly.

Come to think of it, Kitty calls the restaurant owner mister, isn’t that a misunderstanding possible?

“It’s a misunderstanding. She’s not my daughter.”
“Hmm~”

The greengrocer lady’s eyes and mouth drew a Hoseon.

I couldn’t figure out what she was thinking at all. How is the relationship between Kitty and the restaurant owner constituted in her head?

“Who cares! The professor is eating! I’ll put in a few. Take them!”
“Yes… Well, thank you.”

Since she added one or two more of the ingredients than he originally intended to buy, the weight was a bit burdensome.

“Oh right! Look at my mind. I have to go quickly! Isn’t it starting soon?”
“Now that you mention it, it’s already that time. Let’s go together.”
“You bad guys! I have to argue properly today!”

Rage Restaurant Forum.

“Does it make sense for the military, which should protect the country and the people, to conduct illegal surveillance and kidnapping?”
“On top of that, all the taxes they said they would raise this time were lies?”

Buzzing and clamoring.

The number of people gathered in the center of the restaurant was roughly around 100.

Even if this gathering crowd spat out just one word, the number would be as many as 100 words. The Legal Officer, who came out as a representative of the military, couldn’t come to his senses because the terrifying number of criticisms were flying towards only one person.

“Citizens! Please calm down!”
“Calm down? Hey you son of a b*tch! Are you telling us to calm down now?”
“Strike! It’s a strike!”

Emotions like filth are poured on only one person. Of course, there was real filth among them, but the wounds of the heart are even more painful. The Legal Officer wanted to die right now.

“They’ve been taking it bit by bit under the guise of protection for a while now! Now it’s double?!”
“We can’t trust the military!”

“”Disclose the details!!””

The worst situation has come for the Legal Officer.

Disclose the details? Is that even possible?

The crowd is always dominated by the unconscious. Impulsiveness and irritability, the ability to reason rationally is low, and emotions are always excessive.

In that sense, the crowd can be said to be like primitive people. The crowd does not negotiate for their lives once the uprising begins.

If he discloses it, they will immediately become rioters and burn this place down.

In fact, the Legal Officer did nothing wrong. He was not involved, and when the incident broke out, he had already gone home, washed his feet, and was sleeping.

It was already too late when he read the report. The taxes that had been falsely collected had already gone into each other’s pockets, and even if he tried to collect them, they had already been hidden or squandered long ago.

While alone enduring the flying filth and abusive language, the Legal Officer tightened his mind. He sensed that if he lost his mind, the situation would turn into an uncontrollable riot.

The level of abusive language was getting higher and higher. And just as it and the atmosphere reached its peak, Kitty went up to the podium.

“Hello? Did you all sleep well?”

The restaurant became quiet in an instant.

Kitty paused for a moment and continued to speak.

“I like Belk. Belk has always welcomed me warmly.”

“I remember when I first came here. The military police, who were hell-bent on robbing anything at the entrance, were nowhere to be seen, and the entrance was wide open. It was a very strange town.”

“After passing through the door, someone told me. They don’t care if I’m meat scraps or cheese powder. Go and work. It was a welcome greeting that was very frontier village-like.”

“I really liked that. As those who know know, I was an orphan. I wasn’t welcomed anywhere.”

“It was a series of gratitude. Of course, to me. Thank you for listening to my lectures well, thank you for the apple you threw at me, and thank you to the soldiers who protect this place.”

“I think like this. Belk is a city of gratitude. A city where people are grateful to each other, reciprocate, and unite.”

“But what about the world? It’s an era of division. Nobilla and Bruneu are pointing canes and guns at each other, and in the east and west, elves and dwarves are threatening us.”

“In this world, should we be divided among ourselves? I am here. The restaurant owner is here. You are here. Our military is here.”

“We are all here.”

“We must live in gratitude to each other and continue to live that way in the future. And this mind will become a weapon that is incomparably powerful compared to other cities.”

“We must unite in gratitude and pioneer with one united force! Hans who patrols! Joseph who guards the main gate! Gerry who trains!”

Kitty recited the names of the soldiers stationed in Belk one by one without making a mistake.

“Everyone is pioneering their own path in their respective positions. That’s the same for us.”

“Someone said, hate the sin, but not the sinner. That’s a very true word. We just need to replace that pig-like commander of the military police and his cronies. We don’t need anything else!”

“I am here. We are all here.”

“Thank you.”

“Tha…That’s right. Even if it’s like that, they’re protecting us….”
“Now that I hear it? We just need to replace that commander of the military police, right?”
“What’s the point of fighting among ourselves.”
“I think we were a little harsh.”
“Sob… We must be grateful to each other.”

Karmin, a professor at the academy, couldn’t come to his senses.

Was that really a woman?

Among the psychological characteristics of the crowd, there are not a few characteristics that appear in common even in independent individuals, but there are also unique characteristics that can only be found in groups.

Organized crowds follow special psychological laws that unify the spirit of the crowd.

And Kitty succeeded in cooking these difficult characteristics to her liking.

Loss of individual consciousness, the predominance of unconscious activity, suggestion and contagion that guide emotions and thoughts in the same direction.

Assuming an external enemy and uniting a divided group, analyzing the audience and forming a consensus.

It was truly unbelievable that she had grasped and succeeded in all of this in just a few minutes.

“I have a lot to do when I get back….”

I was going to go back in a few days anyway, but I changed my mind.

I will leave today and enroll her in the academy, even if I can’t say goodbye.

And I will make her mine.

…Karmin was firmly determined.

A quiet restaurant.

“I can’t believe it.”
“What again.”

The restaurant owner cleaning up the restaurant, which had become a mess.

Kitty was also lending her small hands today.

“How on earth did you do that?”
“It’s nothing special. Telling a story that people can relate to and slightly misleading their emotions? In fact, most of it is sophistry.”
“And slightly appealing to authority?”
“That’s not what I meant… No, never mind.”

The restaurant owner closed his mouth and silently continued to clean the restaurant.

Not long after, someone came to find Kitty again.

“Kitty. Ms. Kitty Oppenheimer? Are you there?”
“You came again?”

The soldier who arrested Kitty before. It was quite impressive that his attitude had become more polite than before.

“Ah…yes. I’m sorry about last time….”
“It’s okay. I know you were ordered to do it?”
“Thank you so much for understanding. The items are left outside the door.”
“Okay, okay. Do I sign here?”
“Yes. Here and… here… Have a good one!”

The military police, who had finished their business, darted out.

By the way, items?

“Items?”

The restaurant owner, who didn’t understand at all, asked Kitty.

And Kitty answered with a smile.

“Items that will make Belk prosperous!”