#45
Yutis spoke as if I had done something remarkable, but I was just bewildered. To begin with, I saw Yutis as Yutis—what else would I see him as? This was something that most people could do, not just me.
“So, please never again think that I dislike you, Young Master.”
His words struck deep into my conscience. Since I still couldn’t completely trust him, I couldn’t nod with conviction. But staying silent would be like ignoring his words.
“I understand.”
Only then did Yutis’s face brighten slightly. It was a subtle change, but I was glad to see him somewhat regain his spirits.
I hated myself for not being able to believe his sincere words. But what could I do? In this world, untrustworthy matters were scattered everywhere. Until I saw Iria and Persis together, I couldn’t let my guard down.
I felt a bit sorry for Yutis, but it was unavoidable for the sake of achieving the proper ending.
* * *
Lately, the sword’s temper had become extremely sensitive. In the past, even the sharpest blade didn’t seem like it would cut, but recently, I had to move very carefully every time I wiped the blade with a dry towel. I couldn’t understand why the gleaming blade was so terrifying.
The sword’s sensitivity was all because of me. Every time it heard about what happened at school, the sword urged me to drop out immediately, and the other day, I got hurt after going outside against its advice. I told it I got hurt by slipping, but the sword didn’t believe me.
Since nothing was to its liking and I showed no intention of quitting school, the sword came up with its own compromise.
“Let’s return to the Duke’s residence this weekend.”
“I have an assignment due next week, so that might be difficult.”
“Assignment? What’s that?”
“The topic is ‘Should the state take responsibility for individual misfortunes or not’…”
“Why would they give such an assignment to a first-year student? I don’t understand that teacher.”
If I mentioned this was a common practice for all first-year students taking political science, it would probably provoke even more complaints. Feeling the need to change the subject, I blurted out something that had just occurred to me.
“I think it would be good to stop by and ask Kara something. There’s something I want to ask her related to the assignment.”
“What do you want to ask?”
“I want to know how they discovered ‘Clum.’ It turns out it was found in the region where Kara used to live.”
At that moment, the blade flashed brightly. Startled by the sudden reaction, I quickly removed both hands that were wiping the blade. If I had moved my hands incorrectly even slightly, I could have cut myself.
“Why are you curious about that?”
The sword’s chilling voice resonated in my head.
There was nothing wrong with doing an assignment, so I didn’t need to feel dejected. I knew this rationally, but as soon as I heard the sword’s sharp voice, my body reacted instinctively. My shoulders, once hunched, wouldn’t straighten.
“I heard that a village in that area experienced a revival when they discovered Clum during hard times. But it seems strange that villagers with no knowledge of magic found Clum. I was wondering if someone might have helped them.”
Iria was the one who deduced this fact. I was newly impressed by her for digging so deeply into a small article that could have been easily overlooked. I felt somewhat proud, even though I hadn’t done anything.
As I explained, my rounded back gradually straightened. There seemed no reason for the sword to react so sensitively about Clum. Unless, of course, the sword was related to Clum somehow.
“That’s right. The Duke helped with that.”
“What?”
“Why are you so surprised? It’s awkward to pretend you don’t know, since you’re from the territory. The village is right next to the territory. If a nearby village collapses, the territory’s economy would collapse too.”
Even so, I couldn’t believe the Duke had helped. At that time, wouldn’t he have been busy drawing the sword to defeat the demons? I tried to recall what I had learned before. I couldn’t grasp the exact timeline.
“How did you know the Duke did it?”
“…I heard it.”
“From whom?”
When I asked again, the light emanating from the sword instantly disappeared. I even tapped the blade lightly, but the sword refused to speak to me.
“Who did you hear it from?”
“Ah, I don’t know. I can’t remember. I just somehow knew it. Anyway, the Duke did it secretly from the imperial family. Don’t write that the Duke did it when submitting your assignment. That would cause another commotion.”
The sword abruptly changed the subject and then fell silent as if dead. I gently prodded it, wondering if it might light up again, but the sword didn’t awaken.
I was somewhat surprised, as I had never seen the sword ignore my words to this extent before. Did it dislike talking about Clum that much? What exactly was Clum? Come to think of it, I didn’t even know what kind of mineral Clum was.
I knew it was used to create artifacts, but I couldn’t understand exactly how it worked. If the sword wouldn’t tell me, I’d have to find out by myself again. I sighed softly and placed the silent sword back in its original spot.
“Good night.”
“Sweet dreams.”
At least it responded to my good night greeting. Thinking that this was so typical of the sword, I went to bed late that evening.
* * *
I lost track of time researching new facts these past few days. As a result, I missed a few things, one of which was the class adjustment period. I had intended to drop the demon research subject that Yaksi had arbitrarily added, but the period passed while I wasn’t paying attention.
Actually, since I was realizing the importance of that subject, I thought it might not matter if I continued taking it. So even though I knew the class adjustment period was ending, I didn’t feel the urgency to drop the class. I even thought it might be for the best.
Also, amidst the confusion of how time was flowing, I had forgotten something else. Namely, this meeting.
“I can’t believe it. I prepared all these precedents to understand our junior’s argument, but it seems our junior only cherry-picked what was useful for him?”
“What are you talking about? This is the situation you described, senior.”
“That the villagers found Clum by themselves? Don’t tell me you believe that, junior?”
“I don’t really believe it. But they found it regardless, didn’t they?”
Today was the day to bring together everything we had investigated, discuss it, and unify our arguments. Gathered in a small conference room attached to the library, we were engaged in a heated debate with our materials spread out on the desk. To be precise, it was Rikin and Iria who were raising their voices.
As soon as we entered the conference room, I had managed to arrange for Persis and Iria to sit next to each other, but they weren’t even making eye contact. How could I get them to look at each other? I should be focusing on the assignment, but I was so disappointed by the two who wouldn’t even look at each other that I couldn’t hear Iria and Rikin’s voices.
Just then, Persis, who had been scanning the materials, raised his head. As soon as our eyes met, Persis quickly lowered his gaze back to the materials. Was there something else bothering him?
I lowered the stack of papers that had been half-covering my face and focused on Iria and Rikin’s ongoing conversation.
“I don’t completely fail to understand your argument, senior, that the imperial family shouldn’t be responsible for individual suffering. You’re probably worried that the imperial family’s authority might expand and end up controlling everything about individuals.”
“Right. What a great facade. ‘Everything we do is to alleviate your suffering.’ Saying that, they might try to fill their own pockets. In taking responsibility for individual choices, they might even take away individuals’ right to choose.”
As I listened quietly, something seemed off.
“Shouldn’t they be responsible and in control?”
“What?”
“The Emperor exists for the people. The Emperor is there to bear all the pain and happiness of the people. The power and life are for that purpose. If the Emperor doesn’t need to be responsible for the suffering of the imperial citizens, is there any reason for an Emperor to exist in this world?”
Thinking about it, it was simple. This world was a class society. But now Rikin and Iria were speaking as if the people had special rights.
Rikin was saying that the people had the right to choose and the right to live their individual lives, but in this world, the people didn’t have the right to elect their own leaders.
Also, Iria was saying that the people should be institutionally cared for and their choices supported, but as long as classes existed, there were limitations. No matter how much they said there was no discrimination in occupations, it was difficult for commoners to get an education.
Even this school was like that. In this world, there were far more commoners than nobles, yet less than 30% of the students attending the school were commoners.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
