Humans are a contradictory species and as someone who used to be human, Luke had every right to say so.
If Momonga, after being transported and becoming the Undead King, leaned more toward the heteromorphic races, then Luke leaned slightly more toward the human side.
Neither of them would slaughter innocent people indiscriminately.
However, if there ever came a day where either Nazarick or humanity had to perish, Momonga would, without hesitation, choose Nazarick, while Luke would at least try his best to find a way for both sides to coexist.
If it really came down to an unavoidable situation, then sacrificing humanity would be inevitable.
After all, if even his own survival was at risk, how could Luke still think about protecting humans?
That would be impossible for him too.
That’s why he held such an ideal that might sound unbelievable, childish, and naive… but no matter what anyone thought, Luke genuinely meant it.
Of course, even if the Guardians’ issues were solved, there were still human-related problems that needed addressing.
Back in school, Luke was considered a top student.
He never really aspired to be a quiet, nerdy overachiever, but he still had a solid grasp of theoretical knowledge — knowledge that now served as the foundation for achieving his ideals.
Everyone knows Maslow’s theory — it divides human needs into five categories: physiological needs, safety needs, love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization, arranged in order from the most basic to the highest.
After self-actualization, there is also the idea of self-transcendence, but this is usually not considered a separate level in Maslow’s hierarchy, and is often merged into self-actualization.
Simply put, if someone lacks food, safety, love, and respect all at the same time, their need for food is the most powerful.
Everything else becomes secondary.
At that point, hunger dominates their consciousness, and all their energy is directed toward finding food.
In such an extreme state, the entire meaning of life becomes “eating” — nothing else matters.
Only when people are freed from the control of physiological needs can higher social needs, such as safety, emerge.
Thus, the first and most fundamental level of human needs is physiological — the things necessary to stay alive.
These include breathing, water, food, air, and so on.
The second level is safety.
Maslow believed that an organism as a whole is essentially a mechanism seeking safety.
Human sensory organs, motor organs, intelligence, and other energies are all tools for finding security.
Science and philosophy can even be seen as part of this pursuit of safety.
Safety needs include personal security, health, resources, property, moral stability, and so forth.
The third level — love and belonging — refers to everyone’s desire to have relationships and care.
Emotional needs are more refined than physiological ones, and are shaped by a person’s biological nature, experiences, education, and religious beliefs.
These needs include friendship, romantic love, and family bonds.
The fourth level — esteem — is the need to have stable social status, and for one’s ability and achievements to be acknowledged.
Esteem needs can be divided into internal and external.
Internal esteem means wanting to be capable, competent, confident, and independent.
External esteem means wanting status, prestige, and recognition.
Maslow argued that satisfying esteem needs gives people confidence, passion for society, and a sense of purpose.
These needs include self-respect, confidence, achievements, respecting others, and being respected by others.
The fifth level — self-actualization — is the highest need: to realize personal ideals, ambitions, and potential to the fullest.
Those who reach this stage accept themselves and others, solve problems effectively, act with greater awareness, and value solitude.
In other words, people must do work that suits them — only then will they feel the greatest joy.
Maslow pointed out that the path to self-actualization differs for each person.
Self-actualization is the process of becoming more and more the person you want to be.
This includes morality, creativity, awareness, problem-solving ability, sense of justice, and acceptance of reality.
Once you understand these five needs, it becomes relatively easy to create appropriate conquest and management plans.
From Carne Village’s economic and cultural level, you could tell that things were pretty much the same as in the original story.
In other words, the people of this world were still stuck mostly on the lower levels of the hierarchy — physiological needs, safety needs, and perhaps emotional needs.
You could see this from Tsuare, the wife Sebas rescued.
Commoners worked hard just to barely fill their stomachs, and even then, personal safety wasn’t guaranteed.
Nobles could harm their subjects for the smallest pretext: first taking them as concubines and abusing them, then selling them to brothels when they were bored of them, leaving them to a life worse than death.
In the end, they might be beaten nearly to death by sadistic perverts.
If not for the coincidence of Sebas happening to be there, and for her late sister’s kind gesture toward the Supreme Being, Tsuare might have died like countless other nameless victims in some dark corner — leaving nothing behind, forgotten by the world.
Clearly, even these relatively easy-to-fulfill external needs could not be met for the lower and middle classes of this world, let alone higher-level needs like esteem and self-actualization.
Therefore, if Momonga’s nation could help its citizens achieve these levels, it would be enough to stabilize his regime.
After all, a ruler who allows everyone to eat their fill would be welcomed by the masses — with the exception of the upper ruling class, of course.
To put more simply: as long as the people have food and clothing, the nation is already halfway stable. Find the original chapter at g.com.
Then, by giving them life goals, ways to realize their value, and dreams to strive for, you’d practically have the ideal nation.
And all of this could be achieved through education and guidance—
“Born with natural loyalty to Nazarick!”
“As the lucky children of a new era, we must thank Nazarick for creating such a wonderful environment for us.
Let’s repay His Majesty Momonga with harder work and greater passion for granting us such a happy life…”
“Buying Nazarick stock nets you 25,000 per person…”
“The seeds of Nazarick can be watered with love…”
“Nazarick created all races…”
“…Trust in Momonga, and gain eternal life…”
“After pledging loyalty to Nazarick, I drew Dragon Knight skin on my first pull!”
“After paying taxes to Nazarick, my destroyer could fire twice per turn!”
Anyway, after three generations of this, the overwhelming majority of people would come to see serving the great Nazarick as perfectly natural!
Of course, saying it is easy, but putting it into practice is far from simple.
But if people don’t have ideals or dreams, how are they any different from salted fish?
At least from Albedo’s current attitude, the plan seems feasible.
After all, once she started viewing the villagers as her possessions, the way she looked at them had clearly changed.
If before it was “trash I can kill anytime if I don’t like it,” now it had become “trash that needs proper training” and “it’s shameful that my slaves are so lowly — it’s a disgrace to both myself and Lord Momonga and Lord Luke.”
This was exactly what Luke wanted.
As long as the people of Nazarick began changing their mindset, the future would no longer be difficult to shape.
After all, at its core, reform is bloody.
Reform requires force and Nazarick is that force of reform.
In the future, it would definitely sweep across the land, bringing with it a storm of blood and steel.
When it comes down to it, the one with the biggest fist gets to speak first.
And if your chest is flat… nobody’s going to listen to you.