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Magical Supremacy Doctrine
When I woke up, I was in the infirmary.
I wonder how many times I’ve been here in the last few days.
It was all a dream. …I get such a fluffy kind of feeling.
It would have been better if it had all been a dream.
“Monet…”
I tried to get up quickly, but …my face got distorted by the pain in my sides.
“You’re awake.”
“Chris-sensei…”
Chris-sensei was sitting there with her legs crossed.
“Don’t get up, you’ve been hurt badly this time indeed.”
My body hurts.
Especially my sides.
The throbbing, knife-stabbed pain is still there.
But right now, there’s something I’d rather hear than that kind of pain.
“Where is Monet…?”
“I don’t know.”
Then sensei kicks off.
I’m sure it is.
If we had a location, Chris-sensei wouldn’t be here.
I tried to stand up, holding my sides.
“What are you going to do?”
“I’ll go look for her, she’s still around…”
“You can’t do it, give up.”
Chris-sensei quickly got up from her chair and led me back to the bed.
“I want to go.”
“What are you going to do now that you’re like this?”
“I’ll go find Monet.”
“Even if you could find her, what can you do about it?”
“I’ll convince her.”
“And?”
“Make her come back with me.”
“And?”
“…again …the usual routine …”
“Are you serious?”
I couldn’t say anything back to Chris-sensei.
There’s nothing I can do about it now.
“You’re naive …too naive.”
“I know. …”
“You don’t understand, if you did, you wouldn’t have said that.”
The teacher’s sharp gaze pierced me.
I thought back to the words Julian and Monet were talking about.
I think he called it a regression group, but I have no idea what he was talking about.
But I knew that Monet belonged to a group that was not good.
“…Monet said …why …”
I hate myself for not knowing anything.
“Tell me, what is a regression group?”
Chris-sensei raised her gaze gently, as if thinking about something.
“What do you think equality is?”
If you look up equality —in the dictionary, you will find that the meaning is no discrimination or that everyone is equal.
“It’s about equal rights for all…”
“Would you say the world is equal then?”
“No, …That’s not true.”
The gap between the rich and the poor.
Nobles and commoners.
One that can use magic and one that can’t.
Many other disparities are widening in this society.
This is completely different from the Japan of the present generation, where a certain amount of effort could be expected to produce a certain result.
There is an inexcusable disparity from birth.
“In the first place, there is no such thing as equality, after all, if someone benefits, someone else loses, and society is built on such a zero-sum game, so who do you think would benefit?”
The term “magical supremacy” is used as a matter of course.
How much easier life would be if one could just use magic.
I’m not ignorant enough to not know that.
“I’m a wizard.”
Even a poor man of low status can rise in just one generation if he can use magic.
“Yes, and wizards have taken advantage of their power to set their own rules, and as a result, there are those who are dissatisfied with the supremacy of magic.”
“Does that mean it’s a regression group…?”
“‘That’s what it comes down to, by the way Owen, why do you think we have a star system?”
“Is that as a sign of a …first-rate wizard?”
“‘That’s not wrong either, but…, then why favor only those who can use magic, when there are even those who can defeat the starred ones with physical enhancements?”
The reason why wizards are considered great is because they have the power to defeat demons.
If you use that argument, you should be able to give a star to someone who can fight well enough with a starred wizard with just physical enhancements.
But I won’t do it.
“It’s…”
“I want everyone to think that the star system is great, that there are people who think that way, that the star system is for wizards, that there are many other systems that favor wizards, and you are benefiting from them, as am I, of course.”
Chris-sensei goes on to say.
“Earlier you asked me why Monet was in a position where she couldn’t benefit, it’s simple, if Monet was a normal person with nothing she would have given up, but she was powerful enough to resort for violence. …and well, that’s just my guess, I don’t know the truth.”
I realized I didn’t know anything about it.
All around her were those who could use magic, and she no longer felt that she was in a particularly privileged position.
People have a tendency to think that the environment around them is everything. …it’s not something that can be put away with words.
“I’m …How can I…?”
“Think for yourself, as your teacher, I will teach you magic, but I will not tell you where you will end up.” Chris-sensei said.
I know.
I have to decide where I want to go.
I muttered to myself as I held my side, “It hurts.”
My side is aching as if Monet’s rage is flowing into it.
“An experience without pain is meaningless, and that pain is proof that you are growing.”
“If this kind of pain is called growing up, …I don’t want to grow up.”
I want a peaceful world where I can live in warmth.
I don’t have such great hopes that no one else in the world will get hurt.
I don’t want pain, I want a tomorrow where we can all be happy.
“If magic is a wish, then I want a tomorrow where my friends aren’t hurt, and I want to be a righteous wizard if that means wizards get preferential treatment, so at least I want everyone around me to be happy.”
“Yeah, …wish that were true.”
Chris-sensei looked at me as if she was looking at something dazzling.