Tou No Madoushi

Lynn was in the library, in a private study room, studying. Just as usual, it wasn"t long before Yuven showed her face.

Today too she talked about social standing, and in a roundabout, indirect way, she alluded to Lynn"s slave origins, and the qualitative difference between her and him. Just as Yuven was on the offense in this manner, Lynn played the part of the defender as he did his best to evade her roundabout attacks while at the same time trying to study.

"I have a question for you. What"s important in order to enjoy life to the fullest… Do you know what it is?"

"I guess I don"t"

"What is important is social standing".

"Is that so?"

"You know, I"m invited to a tea party that"s sponsoring Tesla san. That"s to say that, even while you"re sweating away in a factory, I"m spending my time with refined, elegant people".

"That sounds great, Yuven…. Really".

"Do you have someone in your life who expects great things from you?"

"No, Yuven… We both know I don"t have anyone like that".

"Mhm, such a shame. Unlike you, I have many people who are always giving me kind words of encouragement. Kellia Sensei says I have good prospects, Janull san says I have a knack for memorizing things quicker than the other students, and that there are high hopes for me".

"Yes yes, I get it already. You"re loved by everyone and you"re really popular".

Suddenly Yuven"s face darkened and she looked down.

What… Is she ok?

He must have taken her by surprise with his remark. He would never have expected to get this kind of reaction from her.

He had intended his comment to be half compliment, half sarcasm, but perhaps he had touched upon a sore subject.

He tried reading her face. He noticed she was biting the corner of her lip.

When she spoke next, her voice was low and heavy.

"Unless you get recognition, it doesn"t matter. Not one bit".

Having muttered those words with bitterness, she then fell silent. Lynn couldn"t find the appropriate words, so he too remained silent.

For a while they sat like that, neither uttering a word, and the awkward silence dragged on.

Completely exhausted, Lynn headed for the elevator that would take him back home to his tiny rat-like dorm.

Again, Yuven had followed him around the whole day.

Lately she hadn"t been satisfied with keeping a watch on him just while he was in the library and in cla.s.s, so she had begun prying away at information on what he did outside of the academy.

She would ask him how much he had studied in his dorm room.

Moreover, she would ask him specifically about what he had gone over in his preparations, and ask meticulous questions, almost as a kind of cross examination.

While he was with her, he felt like he was a suspected criminal at a court hearing.

In order to conceal part of his studying routine, he had to think carefully about what he told her.

If there was even a slight contradiction in what he said, she would double down on the questioning and accuse him of lying.

"Yuven, haven"t you already understood that I"m not cheating? Why do you have to keep such a close eye on me?"

"For fairness. Fairness is the academy"s motto. How could I ever let you steal a march on the rest of us?"

""For fairness", you say? Aren"t you yourself an incarnation of inequality and head starts?"

"What!? So what if I am? It"s only natural to change your opinion based on your position. The ones who make fun of older people when they"re young, go on to bully young kids when they themselves become old. The politicians who accept bribes? If they lose their position they criticize corruption and everyone involved. I know there are people who, seeing that kind of behaviour, say stuff like "who are you to say anything!". But I won"t allow that kind of sophism. If I find people cheating, I call them out for it and blame them. If I"m subject to unfair treatment, I"ll protest. This is the demand of the natural way of things, and this way of thinking is the just, right execution of privilege. I won"t accept any objections".

Lynn was at a complete utter loss for words.

He felt like he was on the brink of some kind of neurotic breakdown.

Even when he was in his own room, every time he opened a book he would look around restlessly, half expecting Yuven to pop up and launch into one of her rants, or try to give him advice, or a warning of some kind. When he turned a page, he would double check she wasn"t lurking somewhere in a dark corner of his room, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Even when he couldn"t hear her voice, instead of relief that too only made him feel uneasy.

When Lynn got back to the "Rat"s Nest", Theo was already home. He was reading by candle light.

"Hey," he called out in a lazy drawl, "welcome home".

Lynn narrowed his eyes and shot him a look, as if to accuse him of treachery.

"What?" he demanded.

"You"ve got it good, being able to read whenever you want, in peace".

"Well unlike you, I don"t have an angel of death [1] attached to my back" he said, laughing.

"You"re right", Lynn admitted, then let himself collapse onto his bed.

"Hey, Theo. About Yuven…"

"What is it?"

"I"m thinking she"s a little crazy in the head".

"You"re so slow!" Theo burst out, almost spitting, "have you finally realized? Haven"t I been trying to tell you that for the longest time?"

"Yeah, yeah, I know. You were right about her. She really is an impossible pest. I think I was dazzled by her good looks, so much so that I didn"t see through to her true character. She"s like a stalker".

"You"re weak when it comes to girls too, huh".

After a pause, Lynn decided to ask Theo what had been on his mind.

"Theo… Is Yuven really an aristocrat?"

"What do you mean?"

"My old home is out in the sticks. It"s really in the middle of nowhere. But the lord was a proper, respected aristocrat, and his children had cla.s.s. I feel like they must have had a better upbringing than Yuven".

"I think there are plenty of bad behaved people, even if they"re from the aristocracy".

"Mm. But, before that even, the thing with Yuven is that she doesn"t have… Composure? Or maybe it"s that she doesn"t seem content. Isn"t she a little too obsessed with social standing?"

"I know what you mean".

Theo crossed his arms as he pondered something. He seemed to be deciding whether or not to divulge some information.

"I don"t really like talking about people above me, but I guess it"s ok if it"s you Lynn. You can"t tell anyone else though, ok?"

"I won"t".

"Ok, so as much as Yuven is an aristocrat… At the same time she isn"t".

"What do you mean?" Lynn asked, confused.

"Her father is a commoner".

"Really? So that means…"

"Because her father"s a commoner, and her mother"s a low ranking aristocrat, she"s kind of a half aristocrat".

Lynn recalled the first time he met her, and the words that were exchanged between her and Theo. [2]

I see… So that"s what that was about.

"Her real name, "Yuventina", means "lady" in our mother tongue, Torarian. Her father, Snolva, named her that way wishing that one day she would become a recognized, accepted n.o.ble lady.

Snolva is what they call the nouveau riche. He came into new money as the manager of a mining operation. And that"s when he fell in love with the daughter of the house of Gallet. In the beginning house Gallet wouldn"t approve the marriage, but the son who was in line to be the successor died a premature death. Aside from Yuven, there was no one else who had a blood claim to the house. Because of how this appeared from the outside, they suffered serious financial difficulties. In the end, their only play was to entrust the future of the house to a combination of Snolva"s economic power, and his daughter Yuven"s blood pedigree.

At the moment, Yuven is more or less the official successor to house Gallet. But the situation"s unstable. There are people who won"t recognize Yuven as the legitimate heir, based on her father"s origins as a commoner. Those same people are pulling strings to make sure Yuven can"t marry any high ranking n.o.ble. But the thing is, Yuven"s father, Snolva, refuses all the marriage proposals that come from the lower ranking families, who are less esteemed than house Gallet themselves.

So even at the age she is now, she still doesn"t have a fiance. Most of the aristocrat kids have marriage partners lined up when they get to around about her age.

I think Snolva wants to be regarded as a high ranking n.o.ble. If he wants to do that, he"ll have to build ties with foreign n.o.bles, there"s no other way about it. It must have been a G.o.dsend for him that his daughter has the talent she does for magic. Because if she builds connections with high n.o.bles from other countries here in the tower, it"ll open all sorts of possibilities for her house. They could become high ranking aristocrats".

"So that"s what"s going on…"

"A long time ago, when we were younger, me and Yuven often played together. You see, our fathers would sometimes work together as business a.s.sociates. But the minute her parents" marriage was recognized, and Snolva became a n.o.ble, they became cold towards me and my family. I mean, whatever, that"s fine, but Yuven changed so much. She was always full of fire and vigor, but she was never the type of child to look down on others, or treat people differently depending on their social cla.s.s. But at some point she became hyper aware of those things. She became arrogant. She wasn"t always like that. Who knows what the h.e.l.l her father drilled into her head as she grew up".

So those are the circ.u.mstances that made her who she is now…

Just what on earth should he make of yuven and her background? What did it mean? What kind of pressure was she under, and what was expected of her?

How funny. Since I arrived here all I"ve done is get tangled up in my thoughts.

When he was in Keare, he never lay awake in the dead of night, unable to sleep from being plagued by unrelenting thoughts and overthinking. He had slept in a stable, which was far less comfortable than his current bedroom, yet each night he was able to sleep soundly.

I should give up thinking about this. No matter how much I think, I"ll never understand the state of affairs of the aristocrats.

He twisted and turned as he tried to chase out the thoughts that were going around in his head. However on that night, Lynn couldn"t get out of his head all the things he had heard. The words revolved around his mind incessantly, and until dawn they prevented him from getting a good sleep.

Next time… Chapter 27, "The Value of Connections".

[1] ‘Angel of Death" is a term I settled on based on the word ‘疫病神", or ‘akubyougami". An akubyougami is an evil G.o.d that brings about infectious diseases. No wonder Theo decided to ditch Lynn in cla.s.s when Yuven threatened to “observe” him as well!

[2] For anyone interested, here is the conversation between Yuven and Theo that Lynn remembers:

"You claim you"re an aristocrat, and that may be so, but your family is of low standing. In fact your social standing doesn"t differ much from any normal person".

"I am different. Low standing or not, I"m from the aristocrat- my family is proper, and well respected. Listen Theo, if you go around saying funny things about my blood line, you"re dead".

"I"m not much one for gossip anyway".

"Good. As long as we understand each other".