Chapter 648: Beasts
In this wind-sheltered valley surrounded by peaks, there are at least a hundred Pelydons living there. Most of them have orange-red wings, smaller antlers, and a fuller body, while the remaining ones are similar to the one Joan stalked, with larger antlers, a thin body, and steel blue. color wings.
Judging from the difference in appearance between the two types of Peridon, Joan speculates that the one with orange-red wings is a female, and the one with steel-blue wings is a male. "Vares Monster Illustrated Handbook" mentions that Peridon is a matriarchal clan, and females have a higher status in the clan than males, which is basically consistent with what Joan has observed.
The male Pelicon, who came back from the mountain, landed on the edge of the mountain depression, carefully observed the movement around him, and approached a lone female Pelicon lying under the rock wall with the goblin heart in his mouth.
Peridon, the female, sensed its attempt and turned her head to look at it coldly, with majesty and displeasure in her eyes.
The male Peridon hurriedly stopped, and shook his head and tail at the female beast, showing his intention to flatter.
The female beast was unmoved, and just stared at it quietly, her eyes still cold.
The male Peridon tentatively moved two steps closer to her, and before the other party got angry, he spat out the goblin heart in his mouth and motioned for her to enjoy it.
The female Peridon's expression softened a little, she got up lazily, walked up to the bloody heart, lowered her head and sniffed it, and seemed to be quite satisfied, then picked it up and chewed it.
Seeing this, the male Pelidon raised his head and howled excitedly. While the female beast was concentrating on gnawing on the heart, he tiptoed around behind her, sniffed her buttocks, made a heavy panting sound from his throat, and then skillfully climbed onto the opponent's back, doing indecent things in a hurry.
The female just buried her head in chewing on the bloody heart, and there was no emotional change on her face—neither the pleasure of mating nor the pleasure of enjoying the food was seen, as if all this was just a routine.
Joan watched the two Peridons mating, and lost interest within two minutes.
The valley where the swarms of Pelydon are gathered is too dangerous. If this group of monsters that eat people's hearts are disturbed, there will be no good fruit for him. Besides, the current research focus is on "aphasia", and it is not appropriate to be distracted by other things. Before the "invisibility" has expired, he turned around and flew away from the valley, and returned to Midgard City overnight.
What he saw and heard on the top of Mount Bailun that night made Joan unravel a mystery: No wonder he couldn’t find the second goblin after searching all over the forest for four days. It turned out that the other goblins had either been disemboweled by the Perydons, Or hide in a hidden place such as a cave for refuge.
Considering that there are hundreds of ferocious Pelicons inhabiting the top of the mountain, it is too risky to continue to conduct in vivo experiments on Bailun Mountain. Moreover, in the previous four days of experiments, Joan has accumulated sufficient data to prove that the " "Aphasia" is also effective for humanoid creatures like goblins, and this stage of the experiment is considered to be a successful conclusion.
Next, Joan had to face the most troublesome link, the last stage of the in vivo experiment, he had to use human beings as the experimental subjects.
With the experience accumulated in the previous two stages, Joan's understanding and control of "aphasia" has reached a near-perfect state, and he knows every detail of the spell configuration. Changing a certain configuration will bring What kind of changes will come, I have simulated countless times in my mind, and now there is only a living experimental subject.
During breakfast today, Joan asked Mrs. Anderson how to obtain a death row prisoner as a test subject, but the old woman was taken aback.
Seeing that she was so nervous, Joan tentatively asked if there was any taboo in her thoughts.
Mrs. Anderson nodded solemnly, telling him to get rid of the idea as soon as possible. Although the Midgard colony is not as popular as the "religious trial" in the empire, the judges of the "Holy See" will send "heretics" to the court at every turn. Burning racks, public executions, but the laws of the colony also expressly prohibited the conduct of "human experimentation"—even with prisoners who had committed capital crimes as experimental subjects.
Joan can understand the theoretical basis of the colonial authorities' legislation prohibiting human experiments on death row prisoners. This is because the death row prisoners have been tried for the crimes they committed, and the punishment they should bear has been written in black and white in the verdict. Prisoners are not slaves belonging to prisons, and they still retain the most basic human rights.
If mages are allowed to spend money to buy death row prisoners for human experimentation, it is tantamount to acquiescing to the lynching of death row prisoners, and the justice and authority of the law will disappear.
However, the legal provisions are not absolute. Mrs. Anderson changed the topic, lowered her voice, and told Joan with a snicker: "It is illegal to use death row prisoners for experiments, but... I heard that some master mages will go to the slaves of Castle Donning In the market, buy slaves as experimental products, so it will not be illegal!"
Joan frowned, and couldn't help asking: "The law prohibits 'human experiments', but according to what you say, slaves are not 'human'?"
"In Midgard, only 'free men' are protected by law. Slaves are just the private property of their masters, just like a talking domestic animal. No matter how the master treats his domestic animals, the lords in the court will control them. No!" Mrs. Anderson replied confidently.
Joan was speechless.
From a legal standpoint, what the landlady said was absolutely correct.
In most places in the New World, slavery is a legal act, and the master has the right to dispose of the slaves under his own name. Even if he kills the slaves for no reason, it will not violate any legal provisions. The public opinion circle can attack this person from the moral level Brutal, but unable to send him to prison.
Slaves were, as Mrs. Anderson put it, "talking domestic animals." Joan once spent money to buy a rooster as an experimental subject, but killed the chicken and ate it after the experiment, which would not violate the law. From the same logic, it is also legal to buy a few slaves for the experiment.
However, what is legal is not necessarily reasonable.
At least as far as Joan is concerned, because he was born in a family of farmers in the south, he was self-reliant since he was a child, and he never used slaves. After growing up, he read some books and was deeply influenced by Enlightenment thinkers. The system, if he was really asked to go to Donning Castle to buy slaves for experiments, he felt somewhat uncomfortable.
But as uncomfortable as it was, Joanne had neither the qualifications nor the courage to publicly denounce the current legal system that was the foundation of slavery. What's more, he is in awe of the law, and his rationality tells him that "you can do what is not prohibited by the law", even though it is enough to buy slaves, there is no need to entangle any moral principles.
You are not a great moral role model, just a small ordinary person, why should you pretend to be lofty.