Tou No Madoushi

It was a bright, early afternoon, and Lynn was spending the interval between cla.s.ses in a library study room. As usual, Yuven was up to her usual antics in meddling with Lynn"s study time.

"Lynn, I was overlooking an important fact. Even if you get excellent grades academically, there"s no real value to it".

Lynn grumbled something non committal to satisfy her, and turned another page in his textbook.

"What"s with that att.i.tude!"

"What att.i.tude?"

After he heard about her background from Theo, his feelings toward her were shifting in a more nuanced direction.

What he now felt for her was something along the lines of pity.

Up until recently he had felt something akin to yearning. She was someone who, no matter how he might struggle, would never be within his reach. She was of a different world from him.

And so when she crossed the boundary line which separated her world from his, his thoughts and feelings went into disarray. A radical rea.s.sembling, of sorts, was taking place in regard to his perception of her.

When he learned of her peculiar circ.u.mstances, he realized that the aristocrat children didn"t necessarily have it easy either, and so he felt a certain kind of sympathy and comradery well up inside of him. He was beginning to foster the composure to regard and deal with her more evenly.

"Well, whatever. Anyway, Lynn… The thing that is necessary in order to achieve success in life. Do you know what it is?"

"I"m afraid I don"t".

"It"s a connection. Connections are invaluable".

Connections…

This time, Lynn found himself interested in what she had to say.

Out of all the lectures and monologues she had bombarded him with recently, this was the most his interest was piqued. Perhaps he could actually learn something useful.

He closed his textbook and turned to face her.

"Yes? Please, continue".

She was sucked in by his apparent willingness to listen, and so she began enthusiastically.

"In life, people can"t do anything by themselves. To accomplish anything of greatness people need to work together. And that"s the same for any great wizard, as well".

Lynn made sounds of agreement. He nodded to show he was listening, and sincerely lent her his ear for wherever she was going with this. This seemed to please her. Satisfied, she continued.

"And in human society, we have hierarchical relationships. Aristocrats and slaves. Bosses and subordinates. The government and the citizens".

Lynn made noises of agreement.

"It"s a sad truth, but when it comes to mobilising and managing a large number of people, having a hierarchy is the most effective and efficient way of structuring society. Generally speaking, we place the positions of the most power and influence at the top of the hierarchy, where the people there can have the biggest effect on everyone below them. On the other hand, however, even if you"re at the bottom of the hierarchy, if you"re able to build connections to the ones at the top, you can utilize their power of influence.

So, it"s because of that, that having connections is important. To that end, how you conduct yourself at the academy is also vital. To think of school- any school- as a place of mere study is a thoughtless way of thinking. What"s important in schools, is to study alongside people the same age as you, and to mingle with them. In other words, it"s the ideal place to practice social skills and build connections, before you go out into the real world. As for the academy, it"s a place where young people the same age as us and who have an affinity for magic, from all over the world no less, gather. And on top of that, despite being from different countries, we have a language in common that all of us can use to communicate- the language of magic. That means we can build friendships with kids from overseas.

The academy isn"t just a place to pay attention in cla.s.s, listen to our teachers, and get good grades, but it"s also a place to start building our future, and we can do that by building connections with other kids who have good prospects. The a.s.sociates you gain during your students years can make a considerable difference in your success as a wizard.

Do you understand?"

"I do. So that"s why you"re being proactive in talking to the aristocrat elite, and why you"re attending all those tea parties".

"Well, yes, exactly".

Yuven straightened her poster slightly, proud of herself.

He was genuinely impressed with her pet theory. He still had the feeling she was simply being sn.o.bby, but it was clear that she was at least paying a lot of thought to her future as a wizard.

"Ok, so hearing all of that, I understand that connections are important. If I may ask, though, as someone of low social standing, what should I do if I want to build connections with the elite?"

An ill natured grin spread across her face.

"There"s something that"s indispensable when it comes to building connections, and that"s social standing. For a slave like yourself, I"m afraid you"re out of luck. What a shame".

"I was stupid to expect anything from you".

Lynn turned back to his textbook, and opened it to the page he was on just before their conversation about connections.

"What, what"s with that phrasing… Hey, face me".

I really thought for a second that I could learn something that"d help me.

Disappointed, Lynn let out a deep sigh.

"I told you to face me didn"t I? Hey!"

In one deft movement she grabbed her staff and jabbed at his chair. She didn"t strike the chair with much force, but because of the touch of magic she applied to her jabs his chair rattled and clanked, shaking violently.

"What the h.e.l.l are you- hey!"

Right away he grabbed on to the desk, and barely managed to avoid falling to the floor. The chair however toppled to the floor with a thud.

"Come, sit here", she commanded and struck the floor before her twice with her staff. He did as she said and sat before her, kneeling.

Above him, in her chair, she folded her arms and spoke loudly, her voice buzzing with anger, as if she was chastising a naughty child.

"Don"t you get annoyed, being made a fool of by me? Always, all the time, you have that stupid innocent look on your face, as if to say "this has nothing to do with me". Answer back for once! You…" Frustrated, she let her words trail off as her mind appeared to outpace her tongue.

What is this? I"m the one in the wrong?

To any outsider watching, it appeared as though Lynn had done something wrong, and was now being told off.

Why should I have to endure her lectures?

"What are you thinking? Tell me your thoughts".

Reluctantly, Lynn decided to speak his mind.

He took several seconds to gather his thoughts, then…

"Hey, Yuven…" He spoke calmly. "It seems there"s something that you"re misunderstanding here. I"m actually quite satisfied with my current situation".

Her expression became stiff. He knew he must have stepped on some other landmine, but he carried on regardless.

"Where I come from, it"s a really poor place", he began, remembering his life in his hometown.

Millun, the territory he belonged to, was by no means affluent, but it was serene and its people broad minded.

Of course, he had to break his back each and every day working as a slave, and he couldn"t say that he wasn"t lonely for having no family.

But the people could commiserate with him and his circ.u.mstances. They were kind.

The other slaves, and even the commoners, treated him like family.

However, that all changed when the war began.

Soldiers from the neighbouring country marched on Mallun. They destroyed the roads and the bridges, set fire to the buildings, and stole their produce.

Fortunately, the soldiers stopped after laying waste to the cultivated land, and so there were no deaths. However this wasn"t the blessing it first appeared to be.

While the fertile soil that could grow crops was greatly reduced, the population was the same as before. This led to a food shortage. There simply wasn"t enough food to go around.

Each day Lynn"s rations became smaller and smaller, and before long a persistent state of hunger set in. But even more painful than the hunger was the people, who had until then been so kind and loving. Watching them become colder and more untrusting was the worst thing of all.

Quarrels broke out across Mallun each day, and some people turned to theft in order to feed themselves.

People began locking up their houses with more diligence than ever before, and regarded their neighbours with mistrust. There was a collective tension that caused people to drift apart from each other.

Before the war, when kids snuck into the orchids and stole fruit, such petty crimes would be forgiven with a light spanking.

However, with the increased tensions and food shortage, even small crimes such as that were dealt with with increased severity, such as whippings, and eventually imprisonment. In the end, there were kids who were being sentenced to death for simply stealing the food they needed to survive.

"So I"m not saying that I don"t dream of a life even more comfortable than what I have now, in the tower, but compared to the life I had before, this is plentiful for me, and I can even have an education. I have hope. So I"m happy. Unlike you, I have no reason to try to become something more than myself".

"Happy? Happy, you say?"

Her body shook with anger.

"Don"t you get it? If your position is low, you"ll forever be made fun of by those higher than you".

"You"ll be made fun of even if you"re in a high position, but what do I know".

When he first came to the tower, one of the first things he noticed was that, of all the topics of conversation among the common students, the thing that roused them the most was the scandals of the aristocrat, and their internal problems.

She gave a short, incredulous laugh, but it was more like an expulsion of air than something one could call a laugh.

"Be like that then, for your whole life, aloof from the world. Before long, you too will come to know the true, terrible terror of the tower".

Having said that, she quickly stood up and left.

Lynn, left speechless, simply watched as she walked out the room. The door swung open, and then swung shut, but Lynn carried on watching her through the gla.s.s in the door, until she turned a corner and was out of view.

That night, Lynn couldn"t stop thinking about what she had said to him, and he had trouble sleeping again.

He didn"t pay much attention to what she said at first, but when he thought about it afterwards, for some reason he couldn"t shake the feeling that it was something significant. Moreover, there was something unusual about the way she had spoken those last few words.

He decided to ask Theo about it.

"Put it out of mind, Lynn. She"s just desperately trying to scare us. For the time she spends in the tower at least, she"s not so different from us. So what can she know about the tower that we don"t?"

What Theo said made sense. It was the logical interpretation.

However he still couldn"t shake a feeling of unease.

At this point, living in the tower, Lynn"s days were relatively peaceful. Caught up in everyday academy life, he had forgotten that this was a place that had no problem pitting young children up against wild animals to fight, potentially to death. Taking that into consideration, it was hard to think that things would continue so peacefully. Were things really going to be ok?

Lynn spent the majority of that night wide awake, again, his mind racing.

Next time… Chapter 28, "Elite n.o.bles at the Factory".

This is day 2 of a 5 day release marathon, where I"ll be translating and releasing a chapter every day. Read more about it .