Steampunk Era: Mad Abield

"Welcome to the Self-Reformation House, Miss Matilda, Mr. Malin, please come in." The Saint Warrior from the Church of Justice smiled and welcomed Malin as he pushed open the gate.

Entering the building, Malin felt a bit puzzled because it didn’t have the heavily guarded atmosphere he had imagined. There were Proxies in white clothing in the hall, patrolling Saint Warriors, but most of all... workers seated at tables facing each other?

"What are they doing?" Malin asked Matilda, unable to figure it out because they were facing away from him and the door.

"They’re making buttons. Twenty metal buttons fitted onto a board earns one work credit. Each person needs to make 200 boards a day," Matilda answered.

This must be purgatory.

The first thing that came to Malin’s mind was the handicraft classes from his own school days. They worked similarly, those schools and teachers righteously exploited the surplus value of the children.

What an absurd era... No, it’s not right to say that era was absurd. Since the beginning of history, regardless of wherein, or in which era, there has hardly been much time when human history was within the bounds of normalcy. Absurdity has run through human history. People of every era looking back would feel the same.

Consider this world, where the village sheriff has the right to hang a petty thief, yet there exists such warmhearted prisons.

Malin too marveled at the absurdity of the world while also glancing at Matilda’s kin who had come along as companions.

Although Malin said he didn’t want to come, he couldn’t resist Matilda’s small fangs showing when she smiled, nor the anticipation in her eyes - a child-like display of showing off something beloved that left him with no choice but to agree.

Of course, now Malin could only seek answers from one of her kind: "Miss Pharaoh, what type of criminals are they?"