With a bang, a plate of lunch suddenly appeared on his desk. Kayson naturally took the plate and picked up his knife and fork, taking a bite.
Chew, chew, chew, chew, chew, chew...
Then, student Hermione began her output: "Professor, do you know? All these delicacies on your plate were made by the enslaved House-elves in the Hogwarts kitchens."
Kayson: Chew, chew, chew... chew, chew, chew...
Chew, chew, chew... chew, chew, chew...
"So? So what?" Kayson said, still chewing.
"So... Professor, we are now like slave owners, oppressing and exploiting these House-elves! We eat food made by House-elves, every inch of the Castle we live in shows traces of being cleaned by House-elves, and those poor things don't even get paid."
"Hmm... so? Why do they need wages?" Kayson sighed. He decided to have a good debate with Hermione. If she had only been pestering Harry and Neville before, he could have happily joined in the fun. But now, Hermione had set her sights on him.
To be fair, he hadn't known the pain until the knife cut him. But now that it had cut him...
Though it was a bit late, it was still not too late!
He had to charge. The current Hermione was no longer the ordinary Hermione; he had to strike hard!!!
"They put in labor, so of course they need wages!" Hermione said.
"...Hermione, do you know about the changes in human productivity? I just taught a class on it to the seventh-years a while ago," Kayson retorted.
"I know, the older students told us about it." Hermione nodded.
"Initially, humans practiced slash-and-burn farming, then they learned animal husbandry, learned to use animal power, for example, making oxen plow fields, making donkeys grind grain, using a carrot and stick to make pigs carry people. They didn't get paid, did they?" Kayson responded.
"Those are animals, they're not people," Hermione replied.
"Dobby." Kayson said, and the next moment, a House-elf appeared with a bang in the middle of them.
"Hermione, look, is it a person?"
Hermione looked at Dobby and swallowed. The current situation was not very favorable for her, but fortunately, she still had some sense of shame and didn't stubbornly insist that the House-elf in front of her was human.
"But it's an intelligent life form."
Kayson awkwardly scratched his chin: "You can't only say a life form is intelligent when it can speak. In fact, there are many intelligent life forms, like cows. They even shed tears when they are slaughtered in the abattoir, but no one still raises any objections to eating beef."
Hermione's face was bitter. At only fourteen years old, her experience certainly couldn't contend with Kayson's, and he... clearly had no intention of letting Hermione off the hook.
"Moreover, Hermione, you cannot impose your ideas on House-elves. That is a kind of arrogance, a very profound arrogance. House-elves and humans have different cognitions; they don't like freedom and rights. Perhaps I can be more direct: they are all masochists; they like it that way."
"And right now, House-elves serve a social position. But if you forcibly emancipate them, the original service providers in this society disappear, so who will fill that void? Muggle-born Wizards? Or ordinary Muggles without magic?"
"Or Alchemy puppets? Unfortunately, their intelligence is insufficient, even if their intelligence becomes sufficient in the future... to be honest, Alchemy puppets cannot provide emotional value, which is why House-elves still have a market in those Pure-blood families."
"And having done all this, neither side will bless you. Wizards will lose their slaves, and some Wizards will even be forcibly placed in the position of service providers; they will inevitably hate you."
"And House-elves will lose their original social position. They will hate you for making them lose their social position, while a massive number of House-elves will become unstable social factors outside of mainstream society, and the Ministry of Magic will inevitably slaughter them."
"Furthermore, your method is also problematic. Your method has already affected normal people. Perhaps I can be more blunt: what you are now affecting—Harry, Neville, Ron, and me—we are not the slave owners of House-elves. The slave owners of House-elves are Dumbledore, the Pure-blood families, such as Sirius, such as the Slytherin family, such as Draco Malfoy. Besides that... Dobby, his family still has four House-elves."
"You haven't chosen to talk to the true slave owners of House-elves about emancipating them, but instead you seek out us, who are arguably innocent. This, in fact, can be called a kind of... please forgive my sharpness, it can be seen as a kind of cowardice, because you clearly know that we will not truly attack you."
"But those Slytherin Pure-bloods will, both physiologically and psychologically. Of course, Sirius is not included in this."
"What I want to say is, from your current actions, what you want is not truly to emancipate House-elves; what you need is merely to display your overflowing sympathy, to make others see your heartfelt admiration."
"Wow! Hermione, she's so loving, beautiful and kind-hearted. Isn't this Merlin incarnate! So much love!"
"But in fact, they won't see you that way. They will think you are a... not very emotionally intelligent... idiot? Please forgive my choice of words."
Kayson responded while eating. Frankly, he didn't even need to think to refute Hermione's point of view, after all, Hermione's so-called idea of emancipating House-elves...
Chew, chew, chew, chew, chew, chew...
And Hermione's face turned pale as she looked at the chewing Kayson, then at Harry and the others, who were deeply in agreement.
Kayson's expression immediately shifted when he saw Hermione like this. He had a strange premonition: she wouldn't cry here, would she?
Readers who have read this far, congratulations, you have been conscripted! May you wake up next time reincarnated into 40K! Of course, I'm talking about the readers. I am the author and not subject to this agreement.
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