The Outlaws

Chapter 2: "Bad Guys"

Hochi takes a look at the crowd around him without flinching even though he knows in the eyes of those people he is like a dangerous criminal and traitor. A resident incites everyone's hatred towards Hochi by pointing his finger at him and shouting:

“You traitor bastard, how can you be so calm  after returning to your hometown to commit crimes against the empire? Do you have any shame left? Do you think that's cool? Guys, this guy doesn't show any remorse for what he's done, so we don't need to respect him anymore. Swear him, slander him severely, until he hang his head in shame."

So the crowd around him immediately begin to respond, constantly giving Hochi disparaging, killing, and merciless insults. except Jovie's mother. She just stares at Hochi and keeps her silence for a long time. Jovie turns his mouth to her mother's ear and asks:

"Mom! Mom! What are you thinking about?"

"Ah, I'm just looking at that poor Hochi," says Sev with a sigh.

“Why do you pity for him? Isn't he the most wanted criminal of the empire?"

"I know, but when I used my heart to judge, I found him to be a pitiful person."-  Sev confided- "Even though he did things against the empire, when I saw how he was treated  by his compatriots, i was heartbroken. After all, he was once a citizen of the empire and having taught many Violeskan children as a teacher. Everyone want him to receive punishment from the law, but as a person who has been credited with educating the childrens- the "hopes" of the empire, he does not deserve to be treated like that, i think.”

Jovie do not really agree with what his mother've conveyed to him. But instead of refuting, he says:

“Do you know what he did? He founded the terrorist group called the 'Society for the Liberation of the Colonies' and blatantly declared that he would end the imperial yoke on the colonial countries and liberate the lands and the peoples in peace.”

“Really?”- Sev asks with confusion.

“Yeah, many people who served him against the empire have lost their lives or have been at death's door because of him. No matter how lofty his ideals are, no matter how true his arguments are, the truth is that his hands have been stained with blood and his feet have stood on the corpses of many people."

Jovie has always been steadfast in that stance since he was a child, or on the accurate way, when his father, Mr. Jode Thorium, left him and his mother to follow the call of his ally's struggle, when Jovie was thirteen years old, they has always had to live a life without a pillar in the house.

After the civil war between the government and the upper classes over the slave monopoly, the country fell into disrepair, the economy became stagnated, the society was in turmoil, the uprisings took place continuously, many big cities were severely destroyed, small ones became desolated, many residents had to leave their homeland to other places.

At that time, there was a clear disparity between rich and poor, which led to inequality, and the voices of the poor became worthless to landlords and local authorities. For the upper classes, human rights, class equality, etc., are nothing but bullshit because those things are not profitable for them. What was extremely valuable to them at that time - Urium metal mines. Landlords and elites tried their best to exploit wherever Urium existed, by forcing their slaves to dig up and took Urium out there, and then, what they need to do was just bringing the finished product to sell for a profit.

Either slaves or hired workers were not guaranteed in terms of working environment as well as smuggled wages to feed their wives and children at home. In addition, there are many people who were exhausted due to constant work,... 

A part of employees has raised their opinions to their superiors, demanded to receive remuneration that they deserve and suggested that their owner need to take an action to make big changes in all aspects for employees such as improving food quality, increasing wages, adjusting working hours. work, ... in the harsh working environment in the mines, but what they got in return is just indifference, even violence from the elite.

The owners believed that both slaves and hired workers must serve them unconditionally, so there was no need to respond to all requests and suggestions from those who were considered "at the bottom of society".

Discontent about the way the elite, merchants, and landlords treat the workers was growing bigger day by day among them. As a result, demonstrations broke out everywhere at the mines to reclaimed the inherent rights for workers, protested the oppression and exploitation of labor from the upper classes to the lower classes, which can put pressure on the government apparatus. Protesters held up a banner titled, "Reclaiming the rights of workers, protesting against injustice and condemning the violent actions of landlords and traders."

Of course, as one of the initiators, Mr. Jode also actively worked. But what he should have fathomed in the beginning was what he was doing made his family catch up in that vortex as well.

During the  protests, Mr. Jode was often away from home, although he still sent regular to his family through a friend. Jovie rarely saw his father at home, he always asked his mother what his father was doing and where he was without coming back here with his mother and son. Each time, his mother,  Sev, burst into tears, told him all sorts of reasons to make him think his father was very busy. Jovie, of course, didn't believe his mother, he was obviously old enough to realize that there was something erratic behind Mr. Jode's frequent absences from home.

Every afternoon, on the way home from school, he and his friends alway witnessed the scene where people in the neighborhood were crowded, standing in a crowd, holding slogans and banners, calling for equality for the working class. He moved in front of the Voidenorten palace gate - the impregnable castle and  stronghold of the emperor of the empire then Algorik II - who was famous for being mild-mannered but a bit weak in the government, especially, he got seriously ill, so everything in the court were handled by his wife and also adviser- Queen Kate.

 Jovie was alway curious if his father was standing in that chaotic, noisy crowd. He didn't have to wait too long for the answer. During a dispersal of a crowd of protesters by the Royal Army, the crowd had to disperse, scattering. Jovie was also there at the time to look for his father. While trying to found his way through the crowd jostling and running away, he ran into his father. His father was surprised to see his son, and Jovie was overjoyed and shouted:

“Dad, I finally found you. Go home, together.”

The reluctant encounter of father and son made Mr. Jode awkward. He wanted to hug his son, saying, "Let's go home!" but hesitated. When he was about to say something to Jovie, from among the people running, a stranger called his name, then approached him and said something, he asked Jode about his relationship with Jovie when saw Jovie. So instead of reuniting with Jovie, Mr. Jode said he didn't know him and got up and ran away with this guy. Jovie was so shocked. He was speechless, sat in the middle of the crowd before being escorted home by the soldiers. The day after that event, he took a few days off from school, just huddled in his room, in a very depressed mood. His mother was very worried and asked him what made him drop out of school, he lied that he was just a bit tired, when his mother tried to ask the real reason, he refused to say. One day, while sleeping in his bed, he heard loud bell downstairs, whick waked him up. Thinking it was a prank of the neighborhood children, he immediately took his leg down to scold him. But then he realized he was wrong: There were no children, instead two tall robot officers, were standing talking to his mother. He hid behind the wall to overhear their conversation.

First he heard his mother's voice:

"Did my husband kill someone?"

"Yes. We're sorry to inform you so” ,a police officer confirmed.

“Oh my god… is there somthing wrong here? My husband has an pure honest heart, even if he doesn't dare to kill an ant, how can he kill someone?"

"Do you know Mr. Jode's involvement in the recent protests?"

When heard that, both Sev and Jovie's hearts beat quickly. The reason was, they two knew that Jode was one of the initiators of the protests for justice for the working class.

“He and other people held banners to protest in every corner, until the soldiers came to quell the rebellion, he immediately attacked, opposed them and even incited the crowd to follow him . At first, they only attacked with their bare hands, later for some reasons, they all had dangerous weapons in their hands, the resistance was very barbaric and violent. Some soldiers were killed, some were injured in street scuffles. Your husband killed a soldier with this stick and ran away,” said a policeman, holding the evidence in front of Sev.

At this point, she had no more reasons to justify her husband, she leaned against the door, hung her head in shame, she asked:

"So what did the person who witnessed it say?"

Jovie was terrified, his heart pounding like it was going to jump out of his chest. He clenched his fists against the wall, eyes wide, tilted his head forward as if he wanted to hear the answer clearly. The policeman replied:

“He said: 'Jode hit a soldier's arm with a stick several times while he was suppressing another protester, caused him to let that guy go and drop his weapon. Before this soldier picked up his weapon, Jode'd punched him hard in the stomach, and when he fell to the ground, Jode hit in the his stomach several times and then fatally hit him in the head. The soldier lay dying, his head bleeding, but your husband didn't care about him, threw his staff away and then ran away.'”

This is the first-life shock that Jovie've experienced as a teenager. To this day, he cannot erase every single word that the policeman said at that time out off his mind. In 5 long years later, his father has never returned, his mother and son are still harassed by police officers, each second they live, they always live with anxiety and worry.

When Jovie turned 18, "the rebellious age" of a man, he faced another shock. That's when a policeman came to his house when his mother had just arrived home and announced: ‘His father has finally been arrested by the authorities and will be exiled to an archipelago for hard labor soon’. At that time, his mother cried a lot. Jovie knew for sure that this would come, so he tried to keep his composure and went to hug her, promised her to replace his father as the breadwinner in the house, even though at this time, he was completely broken inside.

That's the title for his change of himself. No longer an emotional person, Jovie has become a pragmatic, perfectionist, selfish person. His only concern right now is no longer his father's safety, but how to improve the life of himself and his mother.