According to what I heard from Miss Charlotte, after the 5th lesson ended, she was called by Miss Katrina to the back of the girls’ toilet. Others had already gathered there in advance to have a confrontation.
During the meeting, she said something like, aren’t you getting too full of yourself by following us to the lessons recently? And she replied by saying, no, I wasn’t like that! But one of her followers threw a raw egg at her and dirtied her skirt.
R-Raw egg…… This is a school for refined ladies yes? A school where various aristocrats are gathered right? Considering all that, it is surprising that these kind of things happen……
What was strange was that they were targeting her, even though Charlotte-chan was a mage. Honestly, I feared and had the impression that people who were unable to use magic would be treated by the mages as though they were their servants.
Regarding that point, I posed this question to Ritz-kun and as a preface, he said he wasn’t sure, but told me what he knew.
To a mage, humans who cannot use magic were pathetic lamb-like existence who should be given protection. Therefore, publicly bullying them would be contrary to their pride but for others who were mages, that kind of concept fades away — he thinks.
There appears to be an implicit ranking among the mages, and basically, many people hold the view that magicians were above the spirit-users. Kings were also traditionally selected among the royal magicians. Even the spirit-users further categorise themselves between the superior and the inferior. Since it was popular for spirit-users to be able to nurture crops, those who were unable to do so aptly would be given a treatment similar to that of a dropout.
It would be acceptable if vegetation magic was the only one that she was bad in, but in truth, the real problem was how the attribute of the magic she was good was standing out conspicuously.
Miss Charlotte specialises in Undead Spirit Magic. It was a disconcerting magic that could control the flesh of dead people who didn’t have hair, nails peeled off or who were toothless. It was the magic that the necromancer witch, who went rampant near the end of the mythical era, specialises in.
However, it wasn’t a tremendous power that could control a corpse as freely as how the Witch of Darkness could. Therefore, just like what the first few undead mages who were born in this era did, Miss Charlotte could do the processing of sheared wool or the processing of the cocoons of silkworms.
The really strong people with amazing ability could do something like regenerate dead flesh, so they could cut of the legs of a cow and regenerate it, before repeating the whole process of cutting and regenerating…...wouldn’t that effectively increase meat supply…...this is crazy scary!
I w-wouldn’t want to that kind of meat! It’s ju-just some urban legend right?
The position of undead spirit mages who were able to do such frightening things were weak. Given that the Witch of Darkness, who was the biggest blemish in the history of mages as recorded on the textbooks, was greatly hated, it was easy for undead spirit users to be disliked since they had the same magic as the witch. I do not know how it was like for them when the Witch of Darkness was going strong but currently, spirit users who specialises in undead spirit magic seemed to be quite an unfortunate lot.
Speaking of which, Miss Katrina did say earlier that she didn’t care if I regret being on good terms with the “Mage of Darkness” later! So it was because of Charlotte-chan’s attribute huh……
From the perspective of a lady from an aristocratic family, they must think of corpse controlling magic as filthy. However, for me, I think that magicians and spirit users are both fantastic human beings with no big difference.
Miss Charlotte, who was an undead mage and who was originally a commoner, was feeling extremely down after being thrown at with eggs, but don’t worry too much about it!
I too, was a maid and had my origins from a pioneering settlement. Even after being thrown at with pepper bombs and being followed by a stalker, I am still not overly worried!
“Charlotte-sama, please do not pay too much attention to it. The dirtied parts of the clothes can be easily cleaned. No matter what they say about you, Charlotte-sama’s power is wonderful. It is not a power to be ashamed of. The silk or wool uniforms that we are wearing were most certainly the products of an undead spirit user, just like Charlotte-sama, isn’t it? It is a wonderful thing.”
I offered words of consolation to a cheerless Charlotte-sama and patted on her back. Charlotte-sama looked back at me with eyes choked full of tears.
Tears don’t suit you, kitty-chan! I remembered Prince Henry and in my heart, I quietly comforted her with those worlds as I smiled.
“Ryou-sama, thank you for your kind words. …...Though, recently, the spinning wheel and the weaving loom have become widespread and I heard that these uniforms were made by people who used those tools. In the first place, spirit users are bad at delicate work and cannot do something as simple as use magic to increase the mass like how the magicians make their cotton products or plant products, so we are not suited for further processing of wool and silk. I heard the rumour that with the popularisation of tools, that there is no longer work for undead spirit users……”
Ah, urm, that is…...thanks to the spread of the spinning wheel and the weaving loom, their position in society have become more and more weaker……? Damn it, who was it that introduced the spinning wheel or the loom to this world!
…...It was me!
So-sorry. Miss Charlotte, I didn’t hold any malice.
“Sorry. Miss Charlotte, that I intruded…...”
I included various meaning and said. Miss Charlotte gave a, “Huh?” look and lowered her head.
“No! Sorry, it was because of me, and Ryou-sama tried to encourage me too but all I did was to reply with an idle complain!”
In a flash, she lifted her face and beamed.
“As Ryou-sama mentioned, I would try to not be bothered by it. Surely there must be something else I can do…...Because you heard me out, I have become clearer.”
It felt like she was only putting up a front, but in any case, she has opened up again so I was slightly relieved.
Somehow, I feel like I can do something for Charlotte-chan. Miss Katrina hmm……
For now, I will order henchman Alan to guard Miss Charlotte until the sun sets. I would definitely get him to ensure that nothing happens during magic lesson from tomorrow onwards.
Your ability to keep a lookout on others, the Boss has recognised it, Alan!