CH 5

It’s been a long time since the start of all this tutoring and now I’ve turned 5 years old. Children grow up really fast. After two years of having tutors, I’ll be able to understand most of their personalities. And all of my tutors had one or two quirks.

First of all, Sigmund, the one teaching me about history and politics, is a retired court noble. I don’t know exactly how different the nuances are from Earth, but in the Kingdom of Ploiss, in brief, a court noble is an aristocrat without territory.

Among those nobles without land, they serve the royal palace as bureaucrats and engage in practical work, and some others don’t even have titles. Being a bureaucrat or a political official does not necessarily mean they will be granted noble status and land. Such public servants are not given territory, but those who are given aristocratic rank become court nobles.

Well, it’s enough to say that Sigmund is still a court noble, or legally still a court noble of the Kingdom of Ploiss. What is more significant is that Sigmund is a former bureaucrat who was deeply involved in domestic affairs.

Of course, my father is one of the most powerful people in the Kingdom of Ploiss as Margrave Carruthers, so he might be able to rub elbows and be familiar with those sorts of people, but would he bring such a person as a tutor for his three-year-old daughter right from the beginning? Is this normal?

Ordinarily, students would gradually step up through elementary school, junior high school, high school, and then university. Where in the world would someone suddenly want to teach a three-year-old a master’s degree? Sigmund’s teachings are not merely educational but include extremely practicable or even completely practical content. There is a lot of knowledge that would be useless unless you become someone involved in the day-to-day domestic affairs.

And why are “history” and “domestic affairs” lumped together? Anyone could figure this out with a bit of thought.

For example, in a novel about transfer to another world or reincarnation, the main character spreads capitalism and democracy in an underdeveloped society and is acclaimed and their ideas are immediately adopted. In reality, this is not possible. People who live in the developed countries of the modern world tend to think that capitalism and democracy are the best forms of politics and economics. But they’re not.

First of all, there are reasons why the domestic affairs and economic policies of that world, that era and that country are that which thrive in that era and that country. Absolute monarchy and imperialism will not emerge in a day. Based on the accumulated effects of their state’s history and the relationships with neighboring countries, they changed their governance methods and economic policies as needed.

To put it extremely simply, no one understands or agrees with capitalism in pre-industrial times when fiat currency is not even a widespread standard. 1 You may think that it is only natural, but the majority of people here don’t think so.

If capitalism were to spread through the world, it must first be a world where fiat currencies have permeated across international borders. Do you think that fiat currency is pervasive even in the world of light novels? No, right? Mere societal penetration of fiat currency is not enough. Unless society trusts in the value of these government-backed currencies, it’s useless.

Currencies are made of precious metals precisely because credit is not possible. In short, a society that uses gold and silver coins is no different from bartering in the end. The currency itself has a corresponding value, so it’s just responding to the exchange, and it’s the same as bartering. 2

Although securities, stocks, and banknotes themselves have no intrinsic value, capitalism cannot develop unless its value is secured and guaranteed. Then it’s not as simple as saying that we should change the currency from precious metals to banknotes. This is because if we want to develop the economy, each and every citizen who will use it must be educated on the economy.

Even if you can’t calculate the money, let’s say that a customer wants to stay at an inn for one night and the innkeeper will accept the price of one silver coin. In this example, a deal will be made between the owner of the inn and the guest staying at the inn.

But what would happen if someone who couldn’t even count was told that it was 5,000 yen for one night at the inn and offered a 10,000 yen bill and then did not receive change? If the value of money is confused or vague, trust in money will be lost. Banknotes cannot be circulated unless the majority of people, including those in power and merchants as well as the general public, can do mathematics and calculate the value of currencies.

It’s not a story that the person who fails to get his change is to blame, nor is it a story that the innkeeper who forgot to give change is in the wrong. The essence of this example is the issue of how to secure and manage that credit, while the value of a currency is intrinsically guaranteed in the case of precious metal coins, paper money is nothing more than credit backed by a government.

And even in countries that are said to be the most advanced in the modern world, cheating people out of change still happens. It is natural for Japanese people with high educational standards and trust in others to receive accurate change. Even if it doesn’t add up, some would just pass it off as a mistake. But not even in just developing countries, even in developed countries such as Europe and the United States, it is common for salesclerks to mishandle change.

This is because many people are not educated enough to even be able to calculate their change. Even if I’m a little confused, if I can’t add or subtract numbers, to begin with, I wouldn’t even know if I had the right change. Even in the advanced countries of the modern world, such a thing would not be possible in a different world that did not have widespread education.

The same is true for the systems of government. There’s no way someone could suddenly claim to be the king and establish an absolute monarchy. Also, the people of modern democratic countries are convinced that absolute power is bad and they are forcing democracy on other countries, but democracy is not the best way of governing without any flaws.

Even democracy cannot function properly without a high level of education for its citizens. The populace is easily provoked and manipulated in how to act. A good example would be that even if you think you can’t be deceived, you’re easily swayed by so-called political theatre and propaganda, and you either don’t support it or change your mind because of it. 3

In addition, neither elected representatives nor the people who elect them understand how politics and administration are done. In the end, decisions are only done by professional bureaucrats, and even lawmakers can be amateurs who don’t know a thing about administration.

There are many totalitarian regimes and other forms of government in developing countries such as in the Middle East, Central and South America, and Africa because of their unique circumstances. There are many cases in which there is no way to unite a country with various ethnic groups at odds with each other unless you subjugate them and force them to come together.

It’s not because the country or its people are savage natives. This is because the country has a history and circumstances that make it unavoidable. It was only natural that in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Arab Spring, where the self-proclaimed developed nations tried to impose democracy, all failed in their attempts.

Even imperialism is thought to be the root of all evil in Japan, but it is not. This happened naturally because it was a world in which it was impossible to survive without competing with neighboring states. And some of the states that could not do so were eaten up. In order not to be eaten, you have to be the one who eats. Regardless of whether we wanted it or not, it was only because of external pressure and neighboring states that the trend of the times had come. 4

In other words, the history of a country is the accumulation of what measures were taken by that country to deal with its neighboring countries and the various circumstances it found itself in. Therefore, while taking Sigmund’s class, I learned that history is important in understanding the teachings of our predecessors and the reasons for the current situation and that history, economics, and politics are inseparably close and intertwined with each other.

The same goes for Leon, who is teaching me military strategy and tactics. He was originally one of the best military strategists in the Kingdom of Ploiss, and he was said to have made numerous military achievements, but he was not good at socializing and politics. After being manipulated in a political dispute, his reputation was destroyed in the ensuing fallout and he fled from the capital.

We also learn history through the study of war. However, what I learned from Leon is the history of war. What kind of tactics were developed and how were they countered and rendered obsolete? It’s the same as when epoch-changing weapons and tactics are born and disappear from Earth. 5

It seems that Olivia, my etiquette and manners tutor, was also a famous educator in that field. She was a well-known and accomplished teacher who taught daughters of royalty and high-ranking aristocrats. I heard she was retired due to her age but somehow, Father brought her here. Her lessons were also very strict and demanding.

I’ve lived in modern Japan without even learning proper etiquette, so Olivia keeps scolding me. Nearly two years later, she still gets angry when I’m not acting polite.

Normally, as the only daughter of the Margrave, a high-ranking aristocrat, I think I’ll be taking classes from a tutor like Olivia most of the week. Even though that should be the case, for some reason I only have etiquette classes once a week.

Basically, magic, politics, and martial arts are taught two days a week, and the rest of the days are used for etiquette.

Since I’m a daughter of a noble family, it may be natural for me to learn singing, dancing, and playing musical instruments in addition to etiquette. It’s normal for a high-ranking noble to have a chef cook for her, so it might be a little questionable whether I’ll learn to cook or not…

However, the food I’m learning isn’t the luxurious food that royalty and aristocrats eat. What I’m learning are simple and practical dishes to eat while camping. It’s a bit different from what you’d think, like which wild grasses can be eaten and which animal’s meat and parts are edible. Isn’t it normal to learn to make dishes that look more gorgeous and luxurious? This is not even a dish for ordinary people. What I’m learning is cooking for emergencies on the battlefield, where the alternative is starvation.

By the way, in every class, magic is practiced before and after class and during breaks. It feels like I’m harnessing my magical power until it runs and taking other classes while my magic is recovering.

I think my magical power has increased overwhelmingly compared to when I used magic for the first time when I was three years old. I can’t tell by hard numbers, so I can only know how much it’s increased, but I can clearly see that there’s still some left even after using the amount that would have caused my power to dry in the past.

I think magical power is the same as physical endurance and muscular strength. The more you use it, the more it develops. I feel that the more I use my magic power, the more it increases little by little, like a super-recovery. And magic exists everywhere.

In the beginning, what Christoph was doing were spells that harnessed magical power in his eyes and let him see the magical power around him. Well, if you ask me, it’s not even a proper spell. You can do it without even using spells or chants if you concentrate as if you were just gathering magic power and staring at your target. Christoph used that magic to check my remaining amount of magical power, adjust the load so that I wouldn’t faint, make me use up that magic power, and teach me academic topics during the breaks.

When I tried to imitate concentrating magical power in my eyes, I was able to see the magical power around me. As a result, I learned that magical power is contained in all kinds of animals, plants, and water, in the air, on the ground, and in water. The quickest way to increase or recover magical power is to eat and absorb things that contain magical power.

Newborn babies have little magical power. It’s just the magical power they’ve inherited from their parents. By eating and drinking things that contain magical power from birth and taking them into the body, the magical power gradually increases. However, it will not continue to grow indefinitely.

There is a limit to how much magic power can grow, just like the human body doesn’t continue to grow indefinitely by eating food. Of course, your vertical growth potential is fixed, but there seems to be no upper limit to the amount of horizontal fatness… be that as it may, there is a limit to how much your magical power can grow, and adults rarely increase their total stores. That’s why in this world it was thought that magical power could not increase.

To begin with, it’s unlikely that a 3-year-old child like me could use magic, and even if a baby or a toddler were to use magic without being aware of it, they wouldn’t be able to verify their limits or their growth potential. That’s why the common myth of inborn limits was accepted as a matter of course.

However, since I have memories and knowledge of my previous life, I verified it with clear intention and systematic procedures and as a result, I found out that the total amount of magical power can grow. However, the only growth method I know is eating and absorbing things that contain magical power via normal oral intake.

No matter how much you eat a substance that contains magical power, food contains only a small amount of magical power. Furthermore, most of that small amount of magical power is not absorbed and is discharged soon after, so the magical power that remains after being absorbed in the body is insignificant.

Well, that’s a matter of course, and if magical power grows as much as you eat magically charged items, it would have been discovered by other people by now, and the amount of mana in humans should be outrageous. Then how can I increase the amount of magical power efficiently?

The first thing that comes to mind for everyone is to make food with a large amount of magical power. Of course, this is also effective, and if you take in a lot, even if you excrete most of it, the absorption will increase as a result. And I found out that I can consciously increase the amount of absorption.

However, if you eat unconsciously and excrete unconsciously, it won’t be so much, but if you consciously move the magical power in your body to absorb the magical power, it will be many times, dozens of times more efficient than normal excretion. I was able to absorb all that magical power. Furthermore, the same can be said for breathing.

By inhaling and absorbing the magical power contained in the air together with breathing, the amount of magical power absorbed increases. Even if a normal human breathes without being conscious, it absorbs just a small amount of magical power. That’s why when you take a break, your magical power recovers. Of course, the overwhelming majority of people are recovering because they are digesting and absorbing things in their stomachs during breaks, and the amount absorbed by breathing is extremely small.

But if you can increase the amount of absorption by breathing, even if the amount of absorption by one breath is insignificant, you’ll be accumulating it day by day. You can also increase your magical power through what I call meditation.

Concentrate your consciousness by meditating as if I would imagine it on Earth, and let the magical power flow through your body as if I were one with the surrounding magical power. Then, for some reason, it feels like the magic power around me is being taken into my body and is increasing. I don’t know how it is absorbed from where. Whether it’s just my skin breathing, or whether it’s really just magical power running inside and outside of my body and mixing with it for some reason, it’s unclear.

In any case, by using magic like muscle training, the amount of magical power that can be used at once increases, and by absorbing the surrounding magic and storing it in the body, the total amount of magic also increases. That’s the result of an experiment I’ve conducted in the last two years. Thanks to that, I think my magic power has increased to a level that is impossible for a five-year-old child.

I don’t know how much the total magical power will increase. Are there limits set by individual genetics and qualities? Or will the total magical power increase indefinitely during the growing years? Regardless, I kept trying to increase my magical power to the point where I couldn’t increase it anymore.